The lake stretched mirror-still below him.
Levi materialized above it — hybrid form ripping into place. Black scales locked over skin. Horns curled from his brow. Tail lashed once, slicing wind.
Golden armor snapped around his body, heavy, familiar.
Killing intent rolled off him in waves. Spirits scattered — flickers of light diving deep, shadows fleeing the surface.
He hovered where he'd vanished last time. Void Monarch's escape point. Elysia's blood still stained the air, faint and metallic.
Hours passed.
He traced every ripple, every dimensional echo, every scrap of her scattered remains.
Nothing.
Orionis was gone.
Levi hovered above the lake, tail lashing slow circles in the water.
Orionis should've ambushed him by now. Or come for Elysia's scattered bones — the way he'd raged at her death, he'd want to retrieve them, not leave for spirits to pick.
Unless time chained him here. Pulled him back before he could return.
A shiver rippled his scales, a far more dangerous thought coming to mind.
Or someone stronger dragged him away.
Worse — revival. Is death that cheap for them? But that feral howl when Elysia fell... if revival was possible the price must be brutal.
He shook his head, horns cutting air. Pointless. He didn't have enough information to go on.
With one last sweep, eyes piercing every ripple, every shadow and finding nothing, he vanished.
***
In a barren land, negative energy radiated all around the place preventing any spirits from coming close or any plants from growing, only a lone dead tree stood tall in the centre of the barren landscape, devoid of any leaves, its trunk hollow.
With a distortion in space Levi appeared in front of the dead tree as he inspected it, or more precisely the creature sealed inside of its hollow trunk, he even used observation for good measure but everything seemed to be fine, his seal was holding strong and Vaatu was still sealed, barely able to generate a single thought.
Levi didn't need Vaatu's energy to go back to the physical world any longer, with Void Monarch he could travel between the spirit and physical world with the same ease of going from his room to the kitchen, even easier in fact, the only reason he was here was to check up on the seal.
Looking around the tree Levi could see a rune circle with intricate sigils and runes interlocking, with the tree at the centre, further away sword marks lined up the landscape alongside the indents of what must have been countless arrows falling from the sky, he couldn't help but have a hint of nostalgia as he looked at this scene, it was the remains of his battle with Vaatu all those years ago, unchanged, as no spirit dared come close to this place.
'I guess everything is in order, I should head back now.' he thought as he prepared to activate Void Monarch before he stopped.
Looking at the sealed Vaatu, Levi put his hand on the tree as he strengthened the existing seals and spent a good amount of time adding a hundred other layers, 'Just for good measure, you can't be too sure.' he thought feeling a little awkward at violating someone who was barely conscious, he felt as if he was bullying a small defenseless kid.
As for binding with him, Levi didn't even want to entertain that thought any longer, maybe years ago when he had been here last time, but he was already strong enough without him, and adding him wouldn't make any difference, especially considering that Acnologia's energy reserves were getting absurdly high as he grew up, rendering the only advantage Vaatu provided for Levi useless.
With those things in mind Levi decided to leave things as they were, it was also an advantage to him, with this his knowledge of the legend of Korra canon will be preserved.
***
Southern water tribe.
Inside Levi's room, a distortion in space suddenly appeared in the middle of the room before everything went back to normal, nothing appeared in there, or at least nothing that could be seen with the naked human eye, Levi in his spirit form was standing in his room and looking at the place with a smile on his face, a hint of nostalgia couldn't help but assault him even though he hadn't been away that long.
His Void monarch ability was so useful that he could directly pinpoint his room and teleport to it from the spirit realm, something that would have been impossible before. He didn't need Vaatu now to go to the physical world, and he didn't need special events to be able to cross into the spirit world, he could do it whenever he wanted.
Just when he was about to switch into his physical state he noticed something, he wasn't feeling the slightest discomfort or irritation at being in his spiritual state in the physical world, he noticed that it was slowly becoming uncomfortable but it wasn't like before where he would instantly start dying.
'Does it have something to do with my Spirit body reaching Level 80?' he couldn't help but wonder, that was the most likely conclusion he could come up with.
'So does that mean when it's max level I won't have to switch forms, my spiritual and physical forms will somehow combine and I'll be able to roam both worlds freely?' he thought, but it was just a theory for now, switching to physical form Levi stretched his muscles as he spread his senses looking for Tobirama.
He didn't find him anywhere near his home which made sense, with him not here there was no reason for Tobirama to keep watch on his house. As for the reason Tobirama wasn't here in a flash after Levi 'Invaded' the southern water tribe with all the seals around it was because of his new ability, it had much more use than simply teleporting and Levi hadn't even scratched the surface of it yet, even though teleportation might be its most useful trait.
All around him, unseen by normal people were tiny pockets of space stacked around his body, covering him entirely, this was the idea he had come up with to try and avoid Tobirama's seals and it seemed it had worked as he hadn't come running towards him.
Deciding to talk to him before he headed out Levi removed one of the tiny pockets of space and immediately he felt a layer of seals fall upon his body trying to bind him in place, Levi simply put up the space he had removed once again and the feeling disappeared but it was enough to alert Tobirama as he appeared inside the room a second later, Teleporting directly inside the room!
He was surprised for only a second before he nodded his head in acknowledgment, "Master Levi you're back." there wasn't a surprised tone in his voice or anything of the sort.
"Tobirama, how have things been?" asked Levi as he took a seat on his chair, mentioning for Tobirama to do the same, his room was just as he had left it, it seemed his father was considerate enough to leave it for him that way for when he returned, a hint of warmth welled up in his chest at that thought.
"I've been keeping a close watch on the southern water tribe, I know it means a lot to you." replied Tobirama in a serious tone.
'Only my father and Master Tenzin.' thought Levi as he stopped inspecting his room but he didn't bother to correct him, "Anything I should be aware of? Any fire nation attacks?"
"There were some but none that reached the Village. I stopped them halfway in the ocean." said Tobirama before continuing as if he just noticed something, "I made sure it was far enough that the Tribe won't be implicated."
"Good, with you here I can rest easy." said Levi, and he meant it, without Tobirama he would constantly be worried about what might happen here.
"What about you master? You seem to be a little…angry." said Tobirama as he eyed Levi.
Hearing him Levi was surprised, he had tried to hide it and with his acting skill it should have been easy enough but it seemed it wasn't that easy to trick the eyes of a ninja, "Ha-ah, I've been ambushed in the spirit realm some time ago."
Hearing him Tobirama's eyes turned dangerous as a suffocating pressure started to radiate out of him, "Relax Tobirama." Said Levi trying to calm him down before anyone in the tribe noticed anything, "I've already dealt with it, there were two people, I killed one of them but I couldn't locate the other, that's why I am frustrated."
Hearing Levi Tobirama seemed to visibly relax, "Is that so, I can help you look for them if you wish."
"No, you have your hands full as it is." said Levi shaking his head, he already felt bad enough putting all the responsibilities on Tobirama, he was sure that without shadow clone he wouldn't have managed.
Hearing him Tobirama only nodded his head, "As you wish master, although If you would allow me to ask you a question." he said, seeing Levi nod he continued, "How are you avoiding the detection of my seals, it's like you're not even there."
Hearing the question Levi couldn't help but smirk a little, he knew Tobirama couldn't resist asking that, he had been waiting for it, "I thought you would be able to tell, after all you're a master in space-time ninjutsu in your world." said Levi with a teasing smile as he waited for him to see if he could figure it out.
Hearing him Tobirama seemed to finally notice something as he closed his eyes and made a couple of hand seals before opening them again, the moment he did so his eyes went wide in shock, "Ho..how is this possible." he stuttered through his words.
"It's an ability I recently created." said Levi with a straight face, "This is only one of its uses, I wanted to see if it would help me get past your seals. It seems I was successful."
Nodding as if he understood Tobirama spoke, "Indeed I never imagined anyone in this world could have an ability like that so I didn't bother to add seals to counter space-time ninjut…sorry I mean abilities and bending, it seems I was wrong, I'll make sure to add them into the framework as soon as possible" he said with a serious tone of voice, there was also a hint of anger, although it seemed to be directed at himself for neglecting this possibility rather than anywhere else.
Hearing that Levi was pleased for only a second before his eye started twitching, 'It seems I'll have to find another way to get past the seals next time I come here.' although if he wanted he could just seal the seals themselves or purify them.
"You do that, I will be heading out now." said Levi as he got up preparing to Teleport away.
"Wait, there is one other thing." said Tobirama snapping from his thoughts as he saw Levi get up, "It's about your mentor." he said before pausing as if hesitating how he should say it, "It's his health, he's not doing very good."
Hearing him Levi had to control his expression from changing, he already knew the old man wasn't in the best of health, his constant coughing and hunched back were a clear indication but he had been avoiding it until now, in the end he only heaved a sigh before he spoke, "Thanks, I will look into it." he said before disappearing from the room.
***
Appearing inside Tenzin's home Levi couldn't help but remember Tobirama suddenly appearing inside his room, 'Does he have a flying raijin seal inside my room?' he couldn't help but wonder, his eyes twitching but he decided to throw this subject to the back of his head for now.
He was currently in what could be considered the living room, he could feel another person behind the door in front of him which was Tenzin's room, putting his hand on the handle he almost jumped back when he saw floating ice shard pointing at the door, seeing who it was the bender seemed to finally relax as the ice melted into water and fell into a bucket at the corner.
"You're going to be the death of me before old age takes me." said Tenzin's annoyed voice.
***
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