"Brother... He's the one..." Cecilia muttered with a shocked look.

"Yes. Marcus, Blade of the Abyss, he is Dark Lizards Leader." Knight of the Bloody Rose said while in disbelief.

"Boss, what shall we do?" Lucian asked as he prepared for battle.

Marcus was a dangerous opponent, he was stronger than most Royal Blades, but the mates of Knight of the Bloody Rose were not about to back down. They knew this was a momentous encounter for him.

"Knight of the Bloody Rose, what is your decision?" Marcus asked while putting a cigarette to his mouth, "Are you going to attack me like a wild beast and make a bloodbath or realize you don't have enough information to do that."

"Boss, don't let him fool you!" Baldy exclaimed, "He's got us trapped, we can't wait any longer, or more reinforcements will come here!"

'Damn! Damn! Damn!' The Knight of the Bloody Rose hesitated. His gaze was directed then to Marcus, then to the barrier, then to the Dark Lizards members that were wounded but dared not attack them.

"Why has everything suddenly become so complicated and confusing..." Meria muttered in a confused voice as she took a few steps back.

Marcus did nothing. He smoked with a careless look since he was pretty sure what was going to happen next. His deep gaze showed that he already knew everything ahead of time.

Whooooosh.

The Knight of the Bloody Rose returned the blade to its sheath, sighed, and said, "All right. I'll give you a minute. There's really something wrong here, but if you can't change my mind, I'm not stopping again."

"Boss! Are you sure?" The bald man exclaimed with a shocked look.

"Calm down." Lucian waved a hand, "A minute isn't that long."historical

"Well, well, I prepared this trap for a reason after all." Marcus muttered while blowing a puff of smoke in an unhurried manner, "Knight of the Bloody Rose, I won't need a minute. I'll ask again, did you see with your own eyes how your beloved died?"

"No." The Knight of the Bloody Rose answered instantly.

"Then I will ask you one more question. Do you know the reason why we attacked your kingdom?" Marcus muttered before extinguishing his cigarette as though he had already finished.

"Huh, that's obvious. Our kingdom is one of the most prosperous on the continent, so it's no wonder, bandits like you would want to rob us." Knight of the Bloody uttered.

"That sounds logical, but you're missing one detail. We Dark Lizards are not bandits, we are mercenaries, so we do what we are paid to do, whether money, rare treasure or whatever." Marcus uttered.

"Mercenaries...?" Lucian muttered with a confused look, "Are you saying someone paid you to attack us?"

"No. Not at all. We had another assignment." Marcus shook his head, "Unfortunately, as time went on, we realized that they wanted to screw us, so what would the mercenaries do in that case? Just walk away? No, we had to get our revenge."

"None of that matters." Knight of the Bloody uttered as he pointed his sword at Marcus, "Maybe you wouldn't have attacked us if your customer didn't want to screw you over, but that doesn't change the fact that you were the one who killed HER."

"Calm down." Marcus lowered his hand, "Look, I don't want to fight you, because in that case, both you and we will have serious losses, but whoever is responsible for all this will actually get away with it."

"Boss, I hate to say it, but it sounds logical." Lucian turned to Knight of the Bloody with a serious look, "We all know that your lover's death was reported to you, then you were far away from that battle, so you can't be sure exactly what happened there."

The Knight of the Bloody hesitated, the picture of his world began to crumble as now he could not be completely sure of anything.

"I realize this is unexpected, but I wish you no harm, or I would have attacked you long ago. If you are ready to learn more, then come with me. This is not the right place to reveal dark secrets." Marcus extended his hand forward as he invited them to follow him.

"All right. Lucian, I'll trust your instincts, they've never failed you before." Knight of the Bloody said before returning his sword to its sheath.

"Oh, I'm flattered." Lucian smirked.

"Good. I'm glad you made that decision." Marcus nodded as his ring sparkled.

A small orb appeared in his hand with a dark liquid inside that looked like ink. Marcus tossed it in the air and the sphere shattered as the ink began to turn into a huge creature. It was a massive shadowy wolf with angry eyes that shone brightly like purple lanterns.

"Let's go. I hope we'll be allies instead of enemies when you get back home." Marcus walked over to the wolf, touched it, and the beast bent down so the others could climb on it.

"Boss!" The bearded man exclaimed, "What do we do next?"

"Nothing, you've already done everything and done a great job on your mission. Go back to the main base to rest." Marcus said as he climbed the wolf.

Knight of the Bloody with his mates quickly did the same.

"Wow, this is so weird... I'm having a hard time sitting on a flowing river..." Meria muttered while looking at the back of the wolf that was darkness.

"Huh, that's a small part of what we can do." Marcus smiled as he patted the wolf's head.

Whoooooooooosh.

The beast instantly moved as it turned into a dark flash that swept through the forest thicket at tremendous speed. It took them only a few minutes to traverse the miles through the mountain and several lakes to reach the main base of the Dark Lizards.

"Well, we're here." Marcus muttered.

'They ended up here...' Wain muttered inwardly, 'I wonder what Marcus will tell them? Is there really a traitor in the kingdom?'