(Snow’s View)

Dairen glared at Levian, annoyed that he was here. “This guy made everything go to hell and end up in this situation.”

“Well, it was your own choice to help save Snow. If you pretended to don’t know each other, everything would have been fine.” Levian shrugged his shoulder, not caring if he was intruding in on Dairen’s space.

“You took her away.” Dairen stepped forward. He was toe to toe in front of Levian, staring at him with a snarling glare. “You took her away when she lost her memory and twisted it to your own benefit. You have no right to be near her.”

“Oh really, what right do you have?”

“I’m her friend.”

“And?”

“I have every right to be there for her.” Dairen raised up his hand, pushing his finger into Levian’s shoulder.

Levian snorted at Dairen’s statement. He then snatched Dairen’s finger off, twisting it, causing Dairen’s arm to bend backward.

Dairen twirled under his own arm to get out of a possible arm lock if he stayed in such a position. He then did a sharp spinning back kick that Levian didn’t see coming, kicking Levian in the chest.

Levian was thrown against the wall. His body smacked hard, his head hit once as he fell onto the ground. With a grunt, he pushed himself up.

“That was a weak kick.” Levian raised up, wiping his arm against his bleeding lips. “I thought you would be stronger, but apparently, I was wrong.”

With a push of his ground, he smashed into Dairen. A rough tumble between Dairen and Levian was underway, becoming chaotic. Everything they touched was being thrown into chaos as furniture was being overthrown from left to right.

Their fight was endless as Levian and Dairen was punching and kicking each other to get the upper hand. It was a complete mess.

Dairen was flipped over Levian’s shoulder. With a loud, ugly thud, Dairen let out a gasp of breath. Levian wrestled, trying to put Dairen into a headlock, but Dairen wasn’t allowing it. He wiggled hard, pulling himself out and shifting around to get a better position.

It didn’t take long for a reversal to happen. This time, it was Levian who was struggling not to get his arm snapped in half.

“You damn snake!” Dairen huffed and puffed, putting everything he got into his arm lock. “You shouldn’t have come here!”

“Shut it, you twat!” Levian used magic to strengthen his arm, lifting Dairen a foot off the ground. He then smashed Dairen down onto the ground like a sledgehammer, causing Dairen to curse out a few painful words.

Snow gazed at the two in disbelief. She was stupefied by what they were fighting over.

Mike stood silently, watching the two making a ruckus. He didn’t move and waited for them to blow out their steam. Even when Snow gave Mike the gaze to break them up, he just shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal and let it play out.

Snow opened and closed her mouth. At first unsure what to say as they continued to trash the apartment. Now both Dairen and Levian were sending out magical energy that reminded her of a tennis ball. Each one deadly enough that it left a hole in the wall. Dairen’s magical ball hissed and left a ratchet smell of old egg, which Snow wondered if it had a bit of acidic property as well. The way the wall melted would have made anyone uncomfortable.

Compared to Levian’s, which blew up into impact. It wasn’t a large denotation, but it was enough to take out parts of furniture and the wall as it made contact.

Snow could already see the other side of Darren's bedroom through the holes that they were creating.

“Enough!” Snow yelled, her magic shooting out, spacing out the two with a rough push.

If Snow didn’t know any better, she thought they were fighting against strong's monsters at how disheveled and bruised up they looked.

Levian sat back down on the sofa. He tidied up as if nothing was wrong and slicked back his hair. His snake-like eyes thinned, giving him a more oppressive gaze. A thin, thin scratch was present running down his right eyes, a bunch of small scratches on his body and face; during the bloody face, neck, and for a moment, Snow thought she saw bite marks on his arms and neck.

Snow glanced over toward Dairen in disbelief and back at Levian a few more times, wondering if Dairen really did this. It looked like a bad catfight.

Compared to Dairen, who had a bruised right eye, a cut lip on the right was bleeding. He licked it a few times, glaring at Levian. He stormed over and sat on the opposite end of Levian.

“Are you guys children?” Snow frowned, crossing her hand in front of her. Her foot tapping.

Mike burst out laughing, throwing his head back. He slicked his hair back.

Everyone gazed at Mike, wondering if he hit his head. Snow didn’t know what was so funny that he would be laughing so hard. Eventually, Mike settled down. He took a seat next to Dairen, leaning back comfortably onto the sofa.

Snow walked over and took the single sofa. Her hand clasped on her head, massaging it for a few moments. A rough scuttle of feet and a few intense bursts of energy shot out between Darien and Levian.

Mentally, she groaned. Why were guys like this? Snow snapped toward their direction, glaring both of them down.

Dairen coughed once, looking away, unable to look at Snow’s intense gaze. While Levian locked eyes with her, smiling at her as if nothing was wrong.

Silence descended upon every single one of them.

Snow sighed the tenth time. She could see that both Levian and Dairen were glaring at each other from the opposite end. She didn’t understand men.

“Okay, now that we are doing this childish behavior. Can we get down to business?” Snow didn’t want to wait forever. They were on a strict timeline; who knew when the Church would come bursting through Dairen’s home.

“For sure, Snow.” Levian demeanor changed in such a way it would have thrown everyone off. If she didn’t know any better, she thought that he was a mental case. It was just his usual self.

Snow looked over toward Dairen. The air around him became heavy. “Dairen.”

“Yes?” Dairen uncomfortably shifted on the sofa.

“We learned that there is a hit on your head.”

“What?! Who?!” Dairen asked in shock. “Why?”

“Easy, because of what your job is and your whole existence.” Levian lazily said. He was looking at his finger.

“My job? Necromancy? It hasn’t hurt anyone.”

“That’s not what the church thinks.”

“The church….” Dairen ground his teeth. His hand gripped into a fist. A snarl was forming on the corner of his lip. “They haven’t been leaving me alone for the past three months. I had enough with their pestering. I’ll turn them into my puppets if I have to.”

Snow was taken aback by what Dairen had said. She didn’t think that Dairen would resort to such a method.

“Either way, we need to clear your curse,” said Snow. It has been so long since Dairen was the only one free from the curse since the last dungeon. There weren’t many times where she could stay for long periods of time to dispel the curse. It was difficult because of work and the spys that were following her.

Dairen nodded. He got up, walking over toward her. He came over and sat down on the wooden coffee table that the sofa was surrounding. A light excitement glimmered in his eyes at the thought of finally being free of the wretched curse that bogged him down.

Snow took a moment to scan Dairen’s aura. Her eyes glistened, glowing gold. His natural aura was pulsating hotly like fire, burning away anything that tried to come too close. But in between the mixture of his energy, greenish-black strings of curse was tightly entwined with his own magic.

She was impressed at how well Dairen was holding the curse off. It was actually starting to merge with his own aura, becoming a part of him. Any longer, she expected the curse to completely become a part of him, which would allow him to break free.

Wondering if he even needed her help, she thought about what she should do.

“Is everything alright?” Dairen asked. To see her so serious made him antsy.

“Well, yes. It seems the curse would be broken with or without my help. I have never seen anything like this before.”

Dairen was stunned. “What do you mean? This is a high-level curse, no?”

“Well, yes, but for some reason, the curse energy is being converted as your own.” Snow tilted her head, trying to wrap her mind around it. “Almost as if it's a second source of energy. By dispelling it now, all that will be left is the leftover energy from the curse.”

“Will it harm me?”

“No.” Snow shook her head. “But later down the line, you won’t feel it.”

“Is that even possible?” Mike blurted out. He was now leaning forward. His eyes were round as a dinner plate at the information that he had learned.

“I don’t know how the darkness element works, but because curses fall under dark magic, it could be the reason why Dairen is doing well.” Snow said with interest. This thought dropped in her mind. Her gut feeling was telling her that this could be why his curse wasn’t working as effectively as one should.

“Still…” Snow drummed her fingers. “I think we should get rid of it. We won’t know when the curse would disappear, and the Church is on the move. Dairen not at his full power could hinder our movement.”

“True.” Mike nodded with agreement.

“It would be better if he stayed cursed.” Levian jabbed.

“Your words are getting old.” Dairen rolled his eyes. “Your opinion doesn’t matter.”

Levian shrugged his shoulder, not really caring what Dairen had said.

“Anyways,” Snow cleared her throat. “I’m going to go with it and unbind the curse. We’re going to need all the firepower that we can get.”