<h4>Chapter 373: The Deal Pt.9</h4>


    As he got closer to the house that his brother tended to spend his time at, Donny wasn''t sure if he had made a good decision ining here. The tier he was on was destroyed pretty thoroughly and he hadn''t seen a single person yet which made him think the Demon Worshipers that had been on this tier had killed everyone.


    He wasn''t worried that they were still here and he would be ambushed but he really didn''t want to find his brother dead in the house they grew up in. He just hoped he had been able to put the shield that he had spent most of their fortune on to good use and was able to defend himself long enough that he was still alive.


    Arriving at the gate to the home Donny just kicked it open with a bit of help from his Metal magic because he knew there was no way the password he had from when he was younger still worked. When no guards arrived within the next few seconds he knew it was a bad sign because there should have been at least three here at all times.


    It was possible they weren''t here because his brother had let them go from ack of money to pay them but he was sure he would know soon enough if that was the case so he didn''t continue thinking about it and walked towards the side door he knew would be the best way into the home.


    He didn''t have to go that far though because as he passed the front door he saw that while it was closed currently it had been broken down at some point and he knew it was damaged enough that he could probably just walk inside the house by moving the door out of the way.


    Going up to the front door Donny briefly thought about calling out to his brother before trying to take the door down so he wouldn''t think he was an enemy trying toe in to take his life or possessions but then realized he kind of was and surprising his brother might make this easier for both of them.


    Once the door was out of his way Donny walked in and listened to try and hear if anyone was moving or speaking in the house. He heard nothing but that didn''t matter since it could mean his brother was aware someone hade inside and was currently hiding somewhere inside in wait for whoever had decided to invade his home.


    Taking a few seconds to weave his shield formation, Donny wondered what would happen if the imitation shed with the real thing. In most cases his imitation formation should shatter in the sh since his brother''s shield was a mana vessel that had been crafted by the God of Metal himself but there was a reason he had been given the shield by their father.


    Donny was confident that he as a fourth circle mage could at least match his brother''s attacks with the shield. He also had a lot more experience in fighting because of the fact he had actually left home to train his abilities inbat while his brother had sat here plotting using the money his father had amassed during his life.


    Taking his first step forward Donny couldn''t help but think now would be a good time to try and use the looking stone for the first time but he knew a huge advantage could be a hindrance if you didn''t know how to use it. For example, while his sight was blocked by whatever the stone showed him when he looked through it for the first time his brother could pop out from somewhere andnd a lethal blow.


    Of course his brother wouldn''t kill him if he knew it was him but there was a good chance his brother would only notice once he had been sliced in half by the shield who he was. Because of this fear of being killed Donny had to resort to slowly walking around the home looking one room at a time for his brother.


    After about half the home had been cleared by him he stumbled onto a mess that was probably the remains of a blood stain after it had been cleaned by an amateur who was unaware of the special things you needed to do to get such stains out of a surface.


    It made him think it hadn''t been his brother though because if his brother had been here he would have just used earth magic to get rid of the topyer of the stone floor before recing it with an untarnished surface that was an exact replica of the one that had always been there.


    The fact they had tried to clean it at all pointed to it having been someone who cared about the property so he had to think it had been maid or something but that shed with the fact they hadn''t done a good job. That was unless they had been someone cheap his brother had hired from ack of money.


    He just wished he could tell how long ago this all had happened because there was no more he could get from this unless he knew if it was recent or not. He wouldn''t be that surprised if this stain had been here for years at this point because their home had always been a target of thieves for obvious reasons and this wasn''t the first time he had seen blood staining these floors.


    Going back to clearing rooms Donny eventually found a young woman hiding in a closet in one of the unused bedrooms. "Please don''t kill me. I really have nothing to do with the family that owns it other than getting paid to clean."


    "Why are you hiding here, there''s a safe room in the basement." His question was weird enough that it made the young maid look up and see his face. Like he expected, the level of fear she had been feeling faded to almost zero when she saw who he was. "You''re the master''s brother, correct?"


    Donny nodded and quickly moved on. "Where''s my brother?" He had already figured out that his brother was most likely hiding in the safe room and the maid had known he wouldn''t open the door for her or had been t out rejected entry when they had been going towards it and had been told to go hide somewhere by his brother.


    "He''s not here right now." Donny was pretty sure this was a lie she was telling out of fear that if she said any of what he suspected was the truth she would be fired but there was no way to know and he had no intentions of forcing an answer when he could just go look in the safe room.


    "Alright feel free to go back to work. I won''t be here much longer." He didn''t want the maid to follow him around because she might get caught up in their fight if she was there so he made it seem he was going to leave after hearing his brother wasn''t here. Once he was sure she hadn''t tried toe after him he headed down to the basement and knowing there was no way to surprise his brother while he was inside the safe house he just yelled as loud as he could.


    "It''s me Donny, open the door or I''ll smash it down." It would be a shame if the safe room was destroyed since the front door and gate had already been smashed so he felt this had a good chance of working and after a few seconds this was proven correct as the door started to move.


    Expecting a fight Donny moved his formation in front of him so he could try to block the first attack that came at him but it never came because his brother walked out empty handed. Donny wasn''t sure if this was a trick so he kept his guard up as he asked the most obvious question. "Where''s the shield?"


    "I traded it away to the Demon Worshipers for my life just a few days ago." The fact his brother''s face didn''t even seem pained as he said this really infuriated Donny but he kept his cool because he still couldn''t trust that his brother was telling the truth. "So you wouldn''t mind if I had a look around the safe room would you?"


    If his brother had the shield he would have taken it into the safe room with him so it should be inside if he had tried to hide it so he could pretend he no longer had it once he realized it was his brother here to take it back. "Sure, go right ahead. I''ll be going back to work now and don''t bother saying bye when you leave. I''m busy."


    Donny just ignored his brother''s attempt at making him mad and walked into the open door of the safe room. Before he could even try to have a look behind the first of many shelves that were inside the door slid closed behind him. Donny thought nothing of this because the controller to open the door was on this side but then he actually had a look at the controller and realized it had been destroyed.


    It was obvious his brother had nned to use this as a trap to give him time to make a break for it with the shield but that wasn''t going to work on him. Taking his formation Donny sent it at the door nning to slice it in half but quickly realized he had miss calcted when the formation just bounced off.


    This meant the barrier that was protecting the door was a lot stronger than he had expected but he still had another way to open the door, it would just take longer. Going to where the opening mechanism had been Donny got to work recing it with a small formation that would force the door open.