The battlefield trembled.
Burning skies. Melted earth. Twisted wind.
The fight hadn't calmed—it had escalated to something beyond mortal comprehension.
Velyour floated mid-air, wounded but undefeated. Scars across his arms. Blood trailing down his jaw. Clothes torn and burnt from the Council's combined strike. Yet his presence was still like that of a dying star refusing to collapse.
And then...
Leo felt it.
A surge inside him.
Like a second heart awakening. No, not just awakening—screaming.
His vision blurred, not from exhaustion, but from the pressure of something ancient waking in his soul.
The same pressure he felt in his dreams…
...but now it was real.
Ari gripped his arm.
"Leo? What—what's going on with you?!"
Vellum was panting beside them, bruised but alert. "That's not normal mana. That's—Leo, stop before it explodes!"
Leo couldn't respond.
His hands shook.
His chest burned.
His veins lit up like golden rivers.
Above, the Council regrouped, a circle of remaining Elders surrounding Head Elder Ithor. They were out of time.
They raised their staffs.
"Divine Compression: Astral Execution."
The sky rippled.
A sound like a thousand cannons exploded from the heavens.
And then—light.
Pure white. Pure gold. Pure judgment.
It shot down from the clouds like a meteor blessed by gods. It wasn't a beam—it was a world-ending curtain.
And at the exact same moment, Leo released his own spell.
No words.
No gesture.
Just a thought.
And the power inside him answered.
A magic circle burst under his feet—massive, ancient, marked with symbols not even the Council recognized. The ground shattered from the pressure. Vellum fell to his knees. Ari covered her face.
Then—
BOOOOOOOM.
The two spells—Leo's and the Council's—collided with Velyour.
The entire battlefield disappeared in pure white light.
So bright, the sky itself turned silent. No one could see. No one could even scream.
Just light.
Pressure.
And the horrible knowledge that someone in that light was being erased.
---
Then silence.
The light faded like mist.
And where Velyour had been—
Nothing.
No body.
No aura.
Not even dust.
He was gone.
Vanished.
Even the Council, still hovering mid-air, looked stunned.
They glanced at each other.
None of them had expected this.
None of them… had done that much.
Something had joined their attack.
Someone.
And that someone was—
Leo collapsed onto the ground, knees hitting the scorched earth, eyes wide in horror.
His hands were smoking.
The magic circle beneath him had cracked and vanished.
His heartbeat was racing, but his breath wouldn't come.
"I didn't mean… I didn't know…" he whispered.
Vellum rushed to him. "Leo! Leo, you okay?!"
Leo didn't respond.
He was staring at his own hands.
He could still feel it.
The power.
What he'd released…
It wasn't just strong.
It wasn't just ancient.
It was more powerful than the entire Council's magic combined.
It was more powerful than the entire Council's magic combined.
> But no one saw it happen.
Because in that one blinding moment, no one could see what was happening clearly.
The light devoured all.
Leo whispered to himself, trembling:
> "What… am I?"