Autophagy

On the other hand, Song Lei's eyes were enhanced by his skill 'Ethereal Senses'. Besides helping him see the supernatural, they also enhanced his eyes quite a bit. The small grey ring inside his pupil emanated a slight glow in the dark, making him look like a demon of the night.

"Now..." Aston muttered silently. He looked around the room to make sure everything was under control. Seeing that there was no one other than them in the room, he walked towards the door.

Slowly opening the door, Aston thanked whoever the person who had oiled the doors so well was. It didn't make any sounds as it opened. He and Song Lei left the room and started walking down the corridor while staying near the walls.

They had a pretty good grasp of where they had to go. Now that he had been released, Aston could slightly feel where the prince was. They already somewhat knew where the prince would be during this hour of the day.

After walking for ten minutes, they reached their destination without any problems. In front of them was a double door. This lead to the library of the palace. Normally, only the people from the royal bloodline were allowed to be here. This place was also the study room of the prince, making it the place that he spent most of his time in.

Aston looked towards Song Lei. After nodding to each other, they pushed the door slightly, creating a little crack that they could look in from.

Behind the door was a normal-looking library with rows and rows of books neatly placed side to side. Even the covers of the books were made to look similar to each other, making them as if they were one solid block of knowledge.

In the further corner of the library was a study desk. In front of it sit a young man with incredibly similar physical features to that of Aston. It was obvious that he was somewhat related to Aston even just from his looks.

This person was named Edward. He was the crown heir of the United Kingdom and Aston's older half-brother. Their auras were pretty similar. Although he was nowhere near as smart as Aston, he still emanated the same scholarly aura Aston did. The way his back arched up as he lowered his head to the study desk, the way his breathing was calm and collected, they all reminded Song Lei of Aston.

'I guess siblings can be like that...' Song Lei muttered inwardly.

As they watched the prince for some time, Aston gestured Song Lei to start.

Song Lei didn't wait anymore as he raised the gun in his hand. He corrected his aim and pressed his finger.

*BANG

The bullet that was partly coated with soulite ripped through the air, dipping into Prince Edward's head like a drop of water. A small hole formed on the back of his head. He shook in his place for a second and slumped over the table.

Song Lei and Aston didn't waste any time. They banged the door open and charged into the room, toward Edward.

On the way, Aston raised his hand into the air, forming small bolts of blue energy around it, and launched them. Song Lei, on the other hand, activated 'Adrenal Rush' and swung his sword in an arc towards Edward's head.

Just as their attacks were about to connect with Edward, a wave of bright yellow energy spread throughout the room, Edward as the center.

The wave of energy pushed away Song Lei and dissipated Aston's streaks of blue lights. Somersaulting in mid-air, Song Lei gracefully landed on the ground.

[Hostile energy detected!]

As the wave of energy washed over him, Song Lei felt his soul slightly shaking. With his amount of soul power, he wouldn't be affected by this level of energy.

"I was waiting for you, my little brother..." A gentle voice resounded. The prince that had slumped over the table straightened his posture. He then got up from the table and pushed the chair away before turning around. He faced Song Lei and Aston with a gentle smile. His anger from a few days ago had already disappeared, leaving its place to a serene calmness. "We haven't met in a while, did we?"

"No, we didn't," Aston said.

"That's right...", Edward said. "Follow me," he ordered as he jumped out of the window to the garden of the palace.

"Should we do as he says?" Song Lei whispered to Aston. Seeing Aston nod, he followed along and jumped into the garden.

The garden of Buckingham Palace was wide. Within it, the light green grass alongside the batches of lush bushes was placed carefully. A gentle breeze made Song Lei's hair flutter. It was relatively cold, however, the heat of the situation was enough to make it so that Song Lei couldn't really notice.

"I didn't want the palace to get destroyed you know?" Prince Edward said with his hands behind his body. "It takes a lot of money to repair. And we currently don't have that."

Song Lei sneered at Edward's notion. They lived every single day of their lives in luxury while most of the commoners suffered in poor conditions caused by the industrial revolution.

"There's no need to talk anymore," Aston said calmly. Although he knew that the person in front of him wasn't real, he was still getting angry every second he had to see his face. "You'll have to pay for everything you did to me."

"Oh, my honorable little brother..." Edward muttered. "You really think that I tried to hurt you? Everything I did was for your own good!" He said while opening his arms widely. His body started radiating with yellow energy particles. Those particles combined together and formed up a spear of light behind his body, floating mid-air.

"So you tried to make me a slave to the kingdom for my own good?" Aston asked as a current of air started fluttering his clothes. Arcs of electricity constantly came out of his body as his eyes shone bright blue. As if Zeus himself had come down to the world, Aston's surroundings started getting zapped by his overloading energy.

The circuits running alongside his skin shone brighter than ever, constantly pumping heaps of soul energy into every part of his body.

Seeing this, Song Lei took a few steps backward. Things were going to get really heated from now on. Any of these two would be able to beat Song Lei in a one-on-one battle. Fortunately, this was mainly a battle between the two. The only thing Song Lei had to do was to support Aston.

With the soulite sword given to him by Aston in one hand and the soulite-ammo supplied gun in the other, Song Lei dashed out of the range of the villain and the anti-villain in one go.

As this battle of attrition went on, more and more energy accumulated around Aston's body. On the other hand, the number of light spears behind Edward kept increasing, eventually forming a golden wall of liquid energy behind him. His hands were folded in front of him. With a gentle smile on his face, he looked like a domineering overlord.

Aston wiped the sweat that had accumulated in his hand onto his shirt. This was the signal of the start of the fight. As soon as Edward saw that Aston was slightly distracted, he raised his hand and launched all the light spears behind him in one go.

The attack was like a tsunami of molten gold crashing down on Aston.

Of course, Aston wasn't going to sit there and take this attack. Releasing the energy that he had accumulated around his body, more than a hundred streaks of lightning struck the wave, instantly diminishing it.

With this, the battle had officially begun. Now that the status quo was broken, both sides kept releasing and throwing stuff at each other. Compared to the three-way war back in Isabel's mansion, however, both sides were mobile this time. They weren't like stationary Gatling guns, instead, they were more like two fighter jets that had engaged in a dogfight.

Fortunately, Song Lei was able to see and keep up with the fight using his enhanced senses. In a few critical moments, he made sure that Aston wasn't left alone and fired his gun, disrupting Edward's attacks and occasionally stunning him for minuscule amounts of time. It may have not looked like it was much, however, they were all perfectly calculated attacks. All of them served a greater goal, it was to make it so that Edward weakened enough before Aston did.

This was a war of attrition. With such powerful beings, neither side would be able to take the other one out in one attack. Instead, the one to lose would be the first to run out of energy. Song Lei would be the key part of the plan in giving the slight advantage Aston needed.

Of course, realizing this, Edward had no plans of letting Song Lei go. Dumping another attack on Aston's head, he turned and dashed towards Song Lei.

Song Lei smirked....