He stared at the golden ashes that rested on the pedestal, his voice flat.
"Come out. I know you're in there." The silence pressed back against him.
"Don't bother pretending. I felt you the moment I was being reborn."
A lie, every word of it. He hadn't felt a thing— not a presence, not even the shape of himself. Back then, he'd barely held on to the notion that he existed at all.
"Playing hard to get are we". The he turned his gaze to Cecilia who was still knocked out cold.
"I wonder what would happen if the inheritor of the second Heaven of the generation was to suddenly die. In your presence no less".
Then Levi turned back to the ashes with a sly grin. "I wonder how your mother would react". Still no movement.
Feigning a look of annoyance, he said to the leech.
"Kill her". The leech glided from it's position— curled around his legs. The sound of the leech's tiny legs tapping against the ground was the only source of sound in the room.
'I will just kill her and then use the power of the sixteen pieces to revive her'. He couldn't Cecilia, at least not yet. She was his way of getting out of this realm.
By forcing the Golden Crow out, he would bind it with one of his pieces, alongside Cecilia.
This was the fifth stage of his plan— blackmail.
With a mental command he slowed down the movement of the leech, the leech sluggishly wrapped around Cecilia and gradually started to crush her, but the ashes still showed no movement.
Disappointedly gave the order, with a blur the leech dug it's head into the body of Cecilia, blood gushing out.
Although the feeling of killing rubbed him in a wrong way, the site if his dead body was enough to convince him that she deserved it.
'She killed you without battling an eyelid, I am just return the favour'. Levi was suddenly brought out of his inner musing when the air grew sharp and dry, his skin tightening, his eyes stinging until he was forced to blink.
With a sharp motion, Levi dispelled the leech, watching it dissolve into frosted light— just in time.
The ashes erupted.
From them surged a colossal crow, wings draped in golden fire, its body nearly one and a half meters tall. Three blazing legs slammed onto the stone as it spread its wings, radiating a heat so fierce Levi stumbled back instinctively.
The Golden Crow.
With a single beat of its wings, it shot toward Cecilia's mangled body.
"Checkmate!". Levi roared.
The spectral chessboard expanded once more, its frostlight freezing both the Golden Crow and Cecilia's spirit in place.
He exhaled, relief flooding him, and then grinned wide. Two pawns advanced, their glassy bodies sliding forward to encase both figures.
The chessboard shattered into drifting shards of black and white mist.
But the pawns did not solidify. They hovered— flickering, unstable, refusing to take form.
Levi's grin faltered. "What's happening?!"
Last time, with the leech, the piece had anchored perfectly.
[…Could it be they're resisting?]
"Resisting?". Levi repeated, eyes narrowing.
[Yes. Cecilia is the inheritor of the Second Heaven— her soul has protection. And the Golden Crow… it is part of the Phoenix itself.]
Levi's frown deepened. He closed his eyes trying to enter his soul canvas, to wrestle control.
But before he could, the muttering returned. Louder this time. Harsher. Incomprehensible. Words that scraped against his ears like broken glass.
Levi's head snapped toward the sound.
From the corner of the chamber, the ruined figure of Lyra stirred— her ruined mouth twitching, spilling those dreadful, alien syllables.
A foreboding chill spread through Levi's chest. He had almost forgotten— the Deity.
Could it be responsible?
He walled off his thoughts and dove fully into his soul canvas.
The transition jolted him— like the twitch of a body caught between sleep and waking. He floated in a starless void.
There was only the chessboard. And upon it, a battle raged.
Levi didn't dare approach. He hung back, watching. It was only a matter of time before they faltered. After all, they were up against the corrosive effect all avatar carried.
The tension in his chest loosened. He almost relaxed— until he felt it.
A grip.
Something cold clasped his hand. He jerked, staring down. Nothing was there. Unless—
Without hesitation, Levi ripped himself out of the canvas.
His eyes snapped open to his physical body.
And froze.
Lyra's corpse was holding his hand. Her other arm was already lifting, reaching for his second.
Instinct took over. Levi lashed out with a brutal kick. His foot sank into her chest, hurling her broken body across the chamber.
She slammed against the wall, bones crunching. Her head snapped up, mouth opening wide in a scream that wasn't hers.
"Tatsumaki… you are at it again."
The words vibrated in the chamber.
Levi's lips moved before his mind could stop them. "At it again?."
He froze. His stomach dropped.
In this world there was a universal law carved— Never speak back to a Deity, especially an hostile one. Not unless you were their Apostle.
And yet, he had spoken.
Before he could react, his own tongue moved again, without his will.
"Release."
Levi's eyes widened in horror.
In his soul canvas, the knight piece that was locked in a brutal combat with the golden crow disengaged from the Golden Crow.
Seizing the moment, the Crow's talons clamped around Cecilia's spirit. With a shriek, it tore through the chessboard, blasting straight through the canvas itself.
The sound of shattering glass split Levi's skull. He coughed golden-red blood, eyes rolling back as his body crumpled.
The Golden Crow emerged into the chamber, blazing, clutching Cecilia's soul. With a final beat of its wings, it engulfed the ashes, gathered them to its chest, and shot out of the room— leaving Levi broken and unconscious on the floor.