After Levi voiced his decision to help the two teams, everyone respected it... whether it was what they wanted or not, it didn’t matter. The captain’s orders were final.
However, Levi still shared his reasoning.
"Whether it’s the right thing to do or not, I know that neither team is going down without putting up a fight... we all know what that means," Levi said.
Hearing this, everyone showed a deep furrow, realizing that they had missed such a critical revelation. Besides doing it for the sake of helping each other out, if they decided to ignore the two teams and use them as a distraction, it wasn’t going to end on a good note for them either.
After all, they wouldn’t hesitate to go all out to save themselves if it meant avoiding returning to Earth empty-handed... when they do this, Arthur and the rest couldn’t imagine what would happen to the fractured dimensional membrane.
Their own exploration might be canceled if the instability reached a certain level... a level that threatened the planet’s collapse into the Shadow dimension.
The only good side of such a situation was the shift of blame... instead of falling on Levi’s team, the other two teams would be the ones getting burnt.
"In other words... It’s a lose-lose situation." Nurah frowned, realizing that the other two teams also had the choice of whether to be nice or assholes.
If they were nice, they would leave the site under their care even if it meant leaving it empty-handed... if they were assholes, they would ruin everything for everyone in retaliation for not helping them out.
As The Titan mentioned... it was hard to be kind, and stay as one, when almost everyone was in it for themselves.
"I have the fastest mount, so I will deal with the Leviathan... I will try to buy you time as you guys focus on saving them from the swarm."
Before Arthur and the others could protest at him taking the most difficult task again, Levi continued with the explanation of his plan, ignoring their dissatisfied expressions.
After he was done, he uttered calmly, "I will meet up with you inside the Pyramid... don’t forget to lock it behind you."
Then, he left Arthur to ride on Jasmine’s nightmount and took off on his own towards the gigantic flying shadowy phoenix that was wreaking havoc in the city... as they watched his disappearing figure, Arthur and the girls glanced at each other with stern expressions.
"Let’s go save these idiots," Nurah uttered irritably, not pleased with having Levi distract a Leviathan Class Beast for their sake.
Although she knew that the Leviathan was out of energy, just like the rest of the Corrupted, which had weakened its overall strength immensely, it was still a Leviathan.
’If I am doing this, I am going to make the best of it.’
As Levi flew rapidly in the direction of the gigantic, shadowy phoenix, many thoughts were coursing through his mind on how he was going to handle it.
In the eyes of Arthur and the others, he was just going to buy them time by distracting it... But in reality, Levi never had such a plan in the first place.
He knew it was almost impossible to find a Leviathan in such a state in the real world... no access to abilities and alive solely through the corruption.
It might not seem like much, but he understood that a Corrupted Leviathan was nowhere as dangerous as the real deal... that’s because the corruption turned them into Tier 1/Tier 2 nightcrawlers when it came to intelligence.
In other words, the Leviathan Phoenix had absolutely no idea that its spiritual prowess was so powerful, it could literally cripple them purely through its spiritual aura!
Instead, it was chasing after the two teams, akin to a giant, stupid bird that had no idea what was going on in its mind besides eating their sunlight.
As for its dominion? It couldn’t use it too since it consumed an insane amount of solar energy to bring it to life... so much that early-stage Solarbound Daywalkers were advised to either use it right away or avoid it since its energy consumption might devour their entire tank and life force too.
’If I can take it away from the city, I might be able to devour its soul through False Sun.’ Levi steeled his expression, ’A Leviathan’s soul is worth hundreds of Tier 4 nightcrawlers if not more.’
As mentioned before, Levi understood that he was guided by his rationality, not his emotions... this meant, even if he wanted to be kind, he would always seek out a way to benefit from the situation regardless of whether his motives were pure or not.
The moment he saw the Leviathan Phoenix, the first thought that came to him was whether he could take it down for its soul or not... he buried that thought so fast because it made him despise himself or what he had become.
Hence, the reason he was always getting defensive when a situation called for being a good person... whether he knew it or not, Levi was trying to hide what the Nightcrawlers had done to him in the past decade.
They had changed him... reshaped how he thought, how he felt, how he chose. Somewhere along the line, he had stopped doing things because they were right like his mother used to teach him, and started doing them because they made sense.
Every decision was weighed, every emotion filtered through logic. Kindness became a strategy, not a feeling.
He hated that.
He wanted to believe he was still capable of being kind for no reason... that he could help someone without needing to gain anything from it. That he wasn’t like them. But deep down, he knew that part of him had already been molded by their ways.
The Nightcrawlers taught him that trust was a luxury, empathy was a weakness, and mercy was a liability... they didn’t believe in good or bad... only in what benefited them, what kept them alive.
And so, when Levi tried to be kind, he wasn’t just trying to be good... he was trying to fight himself. To resist the reflex to calculate, to benefit, to turn everything into a transaction.
He wanted to believe he was different, that he was still a human, and that his mother’s teachings on morality weren’t erased.
But every time he hesitated before helping someone, every time he caught himself asking "what do I gain from this?", he felt the truth crawl back under his skin... he was still one of them.
Kindness, for him, wasn’t natural... it was rebellion!
A war he fought every single day against the part of himself that the Nightcrawlers had molded across a decade of torment and interaction.
Just like how most children grow to resemble their parents, whether they admit it or not, the teachings of Levi’s parents had been corroded by the sea of Nightcrawlers he met in his childhood... as he continued getting stronger and earning more freedom in his decisions, it started to become clear to him.
He resembled a Nightcrawler in his thinking more than he would ever want to admit.
That’s why he said that as long as he didn’t give up, as long as he believed himself to do good, he was okay... because it meant that he might not win the war today or tomorrow, but at least, he was trying.
But for now... he had a different war to fight.
In no time, Levi arrived near the Leviathan Phoenix and stole its attention with a single move... he activated a Luminos Snack, making him appear as illuminating as the sun under the blanket of the night.
Kreeee!!!!
Almost immediately, the Leviathan Phoenix screeched into the sky and flapped its wings in his direction... its expression screaming of agitated hunger.
"Vyra!"
Hearing his order, Vyra narrowed her eyes and swiftly flew in the opposite direction from the city. The Leviathan Phoenix gave chase, but its speed was slower as it needed to pick up the pace slowly due to its massive size, unlike Vyra.
However, Levi knew that the moment the Phoenix’s speed picked up, catching them was nothing but a matter of time... after all, acceleration and being fast were two different things.
"I can’t believe it..."
"They came?!"
"Wait... they are actually helping us."
Mira and the rest of Tyrese’s team were left stunned as they watched Levi take the Leviathan Phoenix away from the capital.
When they first noticed them, their happiness clouded their judgment... but, when they spun it around in their minds, they realized that only fools would put themselves at such risk when they could benefit from it.
They thought like this because most of them believed they would have done it too.
Meanwhile, Evangeline and her team were also slightly surprised, but not for the same reason... unlike Tyrese’s team, they assumed that Levi and his friends would disappoint them just like most Daywalkers would.
"They do have integrity after all..." Evangeline murmured with a flicker of interest as she watched Levi’s fading silhouette.
But she was swiftly brought back to reality after finding herself and her teammates surrounded by the Corrupted from every possible direction.
The number of the Corrupted was increasing rapidly, making it nearly impossible to see any sort of opening unless they went all out to escape the entrapment.
Just as she was about to voice the order to pierce through the entrapment, Arthur’s thunderous voice resounded from the sky!
"Heavens Breaker Arts: The Last Bulwark!"
Everyone glanced above them, witnessing Arthur falling from the sky while his shield was pointed at the center of their formation.
BOOOM!!
They instinctively covered their faces after a storm of sand and rubble assaulted them... when they took a peek behind their covers, they were startled to see a Vermillion fortress built around them, completely sealed shut!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Corrupted army kept banging their talons and heads on the fortress, but to no avail... Evangeline and her teammates could see behind the flashes of illumination that the Corrupted had completely buried the fortress under their insane numbers, creating a small shadowy black mountain.
"Stay here."
Arthur ordered coldly while putting his shield behind his back, walking in the direction of the fortress’s closed gate.
The moment he arrived, an ink portal manifested, and he stepped inside. Then, the portal closed shut behind him, leaving Evangeline’s team to stare at each other in stunned silence.
He came, he protected, and left... fulfilling his duties.