Lukas’s hand snapped up.

His fingers closed around the blade before it reached his throat, the edge biting into his palm.

Blood ran between his fingers and dripped to the corridor floor. He held the knife in place, his grip not loosening, and looked at the cloaked figure over the top of the blade.

Melody and Akira moved simultaneously, attacking from both sides.

The figure vanished.

They hit empty air and spun, already scanning.

The figure reappeared directly behind Lukas, the knife coming up to pierce his back.

[Hex Shield] materialized at the last second and the blade deflected off it. The figure vanished again before either of his wives could reach them.

The corridor went quiet, with everybody on high alert. A few seconds passed, but the attacker didn’t appear again.

Lukas looked at his bleeding hand, then at the space where the figure had been, and chuckled.

"They’ve only attacked me," he said. "Not either of you."

Melody and Akira turned to him.

"They’re here for the Fate Key," he continued. "Which means they know who I am and what I’m carrying."

He looked at them both. "Go through the corridor. Get to the identification office and bring officials back."

"I’m not leaving you," Melody said immediately.

"Neither am I," Akira said.

"I need you to." His voice was calm, and there was a small smile on his face. "This person knows my identity. If they escape, they’ll come back with more preparation or leak the news to other people. It’s clear they’ve had their eyes on me on the train."

"I need to finish this before the officials arrive, and I need room to use my skills without worrying about either of you." He held their gazes. "Two of you leaving gives me that room."

There was a few seconds of silence then Melody exhaled.

They moved through the corridor without looking back, and the door at the far end opened and closed behind them.

Lukas turned back to the empty corridor.

The cloaked figure appeared several meters ahead, standing still this time instead of attacking him.

"You just sent away your protection," they said. "That was generous of you."

Lukas clenched his bleeding hand into a fist, staring at the cloaked man.

"You came all this way for a rusted key," he said. "Let’s see which of us made the worst decision today."

The figure dashed towards him, and Lukas’ eyes narrowed in response.

The figure showed no sign of disappearing, so Lukas stepped forward to fight, his hands coming up to block, and the figure vanished before contact.

They reappeared at his side, already swinging their knife.

Lukas had expected the attack, so he dropped into a crouch, letting the attack pass over him.

Then he drove his elbow upwards with his full strength behind it. The attack slammed into the figure’s jaw, the force sending their head snapping back.

Their hood was thrown off their face, but Lukas didn’t care, already raising his other hand to finish it.

Then he froze as he caught sight of the face in front of him.

"What the..."

His eyes widened in shock as the face looked back at him with cold, furious eyes.

Rollo.

This was the same face and bearing. This was the same man whose crushed body Lukas had last seen lying beside a golden headband on a shattered arena floor.

Rollo teleported sideways before Lukas’ could recover from his shock, swinging his knife.

The blade slashed into Lukas’ ribs, but Lukas recovered fast enough for him to twist away before the knife could go deeper.

He threw a punch in the same motion, catching Rollo across the face and sending him skidding back down the corridor.

Rollo bounced once and found his footing, glaring.

"How?" Lukas asked, his voice wavering. "You died. I watched you die!"

"The Rollo that died was an [Item]." His voice was dark as he spoke. "It was a construct. A very convincing one."

He straightened, his eyes dropping briefly to Lukas’s spatial ring. "What I want is the Fate Key."

Lukas was quiet for a moment. So this was the person the quest had been talking about. But if Rollo was after the Date Key, that meant he’d been one of the masked people that had participated in the conductor’s games.

With a sigh, he controlled his emotions, then reached into his spatial ring and retrieved the [Kairos Fillet], its Adept aura radiating softly in the enclosed corridor.

Rollo’s eyes locked onto it immediately, widening.

He teleported, and in that instant, Lukas switched.

The headband went back into the spatial ring as he raised his arm up, his sword taking its place.

And as Rollo materialized from the teleport with his hand reaching forward, Lukas thrust the blade sideways.

The sword pierced through Rollo’s chest, blood spraying into the air.

Rollo looked down at the sword in his chest. Then he looked up at Lukas, blood dripping from his mouth.

"You tricked me," he said, his voice strained.

"You knew what the headband could do," Lukas said, his expression cold. "So what better way to bait you into attacking recklessly?"

Rollo’s grip on his knife loosened. His legs gave way slowly, and he slid from the blade and settled against the corridor wall.

Then his head slumped forward.

Ding!

[You have killed an S-rank Human.]

Lukas straightened, cleaned his sword against Rollo’s cloak, and looked at the body.

He frowned. The real question was how many more people knew about the existence of the Fate Key in his hands.

Footsteps reached him from the far end of the corridor.

Melody and Akira came through the door first, moving fast, the officials filing in behind them.

His wives reached him before anyone else did, hands checking his side where he’d been slashed.

"Are you alright?" Melody asked. "How bad is it?"

Before he could answer, Akira asked her own questions. "What happened? I told you to let us stay with you."

"I’m fine," he chuckled. "The wound is shallow."

The officials fanned out around the corridor, and two of them crouched beside Rollo’s body. After a few seconds, one straightened and turned to Lukas.

"He’s dead." The officer nodded. "We’ll need you to come with us for the investigation."

Lukas nodded.

"Of course," he said.