Leon looked at the jagged hole Leo had ripped in the fabric of space and snapped, "This is the royal palace! Father would definitely be mad if he saw this."
Leo sighed, stretching his hand toward the cosmic tear. He began muttering a silent spell, slowly drawing his hands together; as he did, the torn space began to knit itself back shut. The moment his palms met, the space was perfectly sealed, as if the rift had never existed.
How did I get myself into this? Suhi thought, paralyzed by the display. There is no way these kids are human. Beside him, Nolan was still spiraling in disbelief. He actually defeated Suhi? How is that even possible?
Leon stretched his hand toward the two broken mages, his face laced with boredom. "Let's finish this."
Both men panicked. They had seen enough to know that these children weren't afraid to kill.
"Hold on," Leo interrupted. "I have a better idea."
"What's that?" Leon asked.
Leo stretched his hands toward the prisoners and muttered, "Ancient Seal: Drak-Kas."
Purple energy erupted around both men, trapping them in a shimmering orb covered in enchanted seals. The orb began to shrink rapidly, compressing until it was the size of a tennis ball, with both men miniaturized and trapped inside.
"I learned a new sealing spell and decided to test it," Leo said, picking up the small orb and turning it over in his hand. "Besides, it's better to keep them alive; they might be useful for future experiments."
"Leon! Leo! What are you doing there?!" the King's voice thundered from across the courtyard.
Both princes spun around instantly, hiding their hands behind their backs. Leo quickly tucked the orb into his pocket.
"Oh, Father! We were just wondering how this disaster happened," Leon replied, pointing helpfully at the destruction Leo had caused earlier.
Because Leo had teleported everyone to the far end of the castle grounds before the battle reached its peak, no one had witnessed the fight.
"Didn't you see your tutor here?" the King asked, looking over the scorched field.
"Nope!" they both responded in unison.
"We might have missed him," Leo added with an innocent blink.
The King turned to his guards and mages, his face grim. He commanded them to prepare for a potential return of the attackers, ordering his Chief Guards and Chief Mages to recruit even more warriors to ensure the kingdom was secured. He had no idea the two "last princes" had already handled the threat and tucked it into a pocket.
In a remote, shrouded location, the remaining four members of the Ravens sat in a state of absolute disbelief. Their organization, once a shadow that loomed over kingdoms, had been decimated.
Three of their strongest heads had vanished without a trace, and they could not comprehend how such high-level mages could be snuffed out so silently. Their grand mission—to kidnap a member of the royal bloodline to serve as a host for a Demon Lord or as a sacrificial catalyst to allow a demon to cross into this realm in its true form—had failed spectacularly.
The four figures gathered around a stone table, the air thick with desperation and plotting. One member revealed a crucial piece of intelligence: the only princess of the realm, the eldest sibling from Leon's side of the family, was preparing to travel to a neighboring kingdom.
"In three days, the princess begins her journey," the first member stated, unfurling a weathered map across the table. He pointed a gloved finger at a narrow pass. "She will follow this route. We will intercept her here."
He looked toward the third and fourth members. "She is the perfect sacrifice, and without the King's full army surrounding her, she will be easy to attain."
The plan was finalized with grim nods. When the day of the journey arrived, the princess set out with a standard escort of royal guards and two palace mages.
However, they were woefully unprepared for the sheer malice of the Ravens. The third and fourth members ambushed the caravan; with a display of overwhelming dark magic, the fourth member alone systematically defeated the entire escort. Only one mage managed to survive the initial onslaught.
Using the very last of his mana, he cast a desperate teleportation spell, collapsing into the palace courtyard, bloodied and broken.
"The princess... she has been kidnapped," he gasped before losing consciousness.
The palace descended into a silent panic. The King, desperate to avoid public scandal and further instability, kept the news strictly private. He dispatched waves of elite scouts and mages to scour the travel route, but every search returned empty-handed. Not even the youngest princes were informed of the tragedy.
However, after three days, Leon sensed the shifting atmosphere. He noticed the heavy silence of the guards and, more importantly, the red-rimmed eyes of his mother, Queen Rika. She would smile whenever he was near, but the moment she thought he wasn't looking, the facade crumbled.
Leon approached Leo, who was currently immersed in an ancient tome. Leo sensed the turbulence in his brother's spirit and closed his book. "Is there something you want, Leon?"
"Something is wrong in this palace, and they are hiding it from us," Leon said, his voice low and firm. "I've seen my mother crying for three days straight. I need to know why."
Leo sighed, leaning back. "If they are keeping it from us, perhaps it's for a reason. Shouldn't we stay out of it?"
"I can't stay out of it if it makes her suffer like this," Leon replied. "I need to know."
Leo looked at his brother for a long moment before standing up. "I know a spell that allows you to read minds, but I don't approve of using it on family. Prying into the soul is a heavy burden, Leon. You will be responsible for whatever damage or grief you find."
"Show me," Leon demanded. "I will bear the consequences."
Leo placed a single finger on Leon's forehead. "Open Third Eye: The Eyes of the Soul."
Leon felt a strange, ethereal sensation, as if a new window had opened in the center of his skull. He looked at Leo and frowned. "Why can't I see your thoughts?"
"I developed the mind-reading spell, Leon; it would be foolish if I hadn't also developed the counter-measure," Leo replied with a small, knowing smile.
Leon wasted no more time. He hurried to the Queen's chambers and knocked gently. Queen Rika opened the door, quickly dabbing at her eyes and forcing a warm expression. "Hey, dear. What keeps you up so late?"
"I just wanted to see how you were doing and say goodnight, Mother," Leon said.
"I'm fine, truly. Goodnight, sleep well. You have nothing to worry about," she replied softly before closing the door.
In those few seconds, Leon's "Third Eye" had pierced her mind. He saw the image of his sister, the cold terror of the kidnapping, and the King's mounting despair. He realized the princess—his sister—was gone.
Returning to his room, Leon locked the door. Though they had spent less time together as they grew older, he remembered her with fierce clarity. She was the one who had stayed by his cradle, who had taught him his first words, and who had celebrated his first steps. She had been his first teacher and his first protector.
He knew that standard tracking spells had already failed the King's mages. To find her now required something far more potent—and far more dangerous. He reached deep into the forbidden knowledge of his previous life as a Hero, tapping into an art that demanded a price.
Leon took a deep breath, his eyes glowing with an unholy light as he began the incantation:
"Open eyes, the Devil's sight; search and find in the darkest night. Show me that which I seek and the end agreed... Summoning Forbidden Art: The Devil's Eyes!"
The Devil's Eyes was whispered about in the most forbidden archives of magic as the ultimate tracking art. While it granted the user the absolute ability to locate anyone, anywhere in the world, the toll was catastrophic: the caster's very life force was consumed as fuel. Depending on the depth of the caster's mana pool, he might survive for mere minutes after the vision faded.
Leon, possessing the memories of a hero, understood the weight of this sacrifice perfectly, yet he did not hesitate. He was willing to trade his life to ensure his sister's survival.
Through the ethereal gaze of the forbidden art, Leon saw her. Princess Anna was bound to a jagged stone altar in a desolate, forgotten valley, surrounded by the four remaining members of the Ravens. They were moments away from initiating the ritual to summon the Demon Lord's true form. In a flash of blinding light, Leon teleported to the site. His aura was no longer the calm, scholarly blue of a prince; it was laced with a rage so potent it felt like a physical poison seeping into the air.
With a single, violent snap of his fingers, Leon unleashed a localized gravity field. The four Ravens were instantly slammed into the earth, the ground beneath them shattering as they were crushed by a force ten thousand times their own weight. With another snap, the sacrificial altar disintegrated into dust. A protective magical orb manifested around Anna, gently lifting her and drawing her toward Leon's side.
However, the crushing gravity suddenly flickered and vanished.
The leader of the remaining Ravens, a man known as Robert Marcelo, pushed himself up with a cold, jagged laugh. He wiped blood from his chin, his eyes glowing with dark mana. "Do you truly believe a mere gravity spell could stop the elite of the Ravens?"
"I knew it wouldn't," Leon replied, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "I only needed to get my sister out of harm's way. Now... I will tear you apart."
Leon muttered softly, "Open Space Distortion: Bel-Ra-Phal!"
A massive, shimmering dome erupted, identical to the one Leo had used, isolating the valley from the rest of reality. To protect Anna from the trauma of the coming slaughter, Leon shifted her protective shield into a thick, obsidian orb, cutting off her sight and sound.
The four Ravens raised their hands to counter-attack, their fingers twitching as they began their most lethal incantations. But before a single syllable could escape their lips, Leon uttered one word: "Silence."
Reality groaned and obeyed. In a horrific display of reality warping, the mouths of the four mages simply disappeared, replaced by smooth, unbroken skin. They stood in mute terror as Leon stretched his hands forward, pulling them together like a singular gravitational singularity. Their bodies collided with sickening thuds. Leon tightened his grip, closing his fists as the sound of snapping bones filled the silent dome.
Suddenly, Leon gasped. A searing, white-hot agony bloomed in his chest. His heart rhythm faltered, and he collapsed to the ground, his mana failing. The Ravens fell apart in a heap of broken limbs, the dark orb shielding Anna shattered, and the space distortion began to flicker and crack.
Princess Anna rushed to her younger brother, cradling his head as he clutched at his chest. His breathing was shallow and ragged; the price of the Devil's Eyes had come due. His time was up.
"I'm... sorry," Leon whispered, his eyes losing their light as his soul began to drift from his physical vessel.
"No... no, no! Please, Leon, wake up!" Anna's scream of anguish echoed across the desolate valley.
Back in the quiet sanctity of the palace library, Leo suddenly jerked his head up from his studies. He clutched his own chest, a look of pure horror crossing his face. "Leon!"
Unknown to his brother, Leo had secretly placed a Soul's Path spell on Leon the moment he had asked for the mind-reading incantation. It was a failsafe—a tracking spell that allowed Leo to feel his brother's life force. The moment Leon's heart stopped, Leo felt the cold void of his passing.
In the valley, Robert Marcelo struggled to stand. His bones were shattered, but his dark mana was still active. He desperately tried to find a reality-warping scroll to undo Leon's silence spell, but the sky above him began to tremble once more. The space distortion didn't just break; it was forcibly overwritten.
A portal of swirling violet energy tore open near Anna. Walking out of the rift was a version of Leo that the world had never seen—a being of cold, focused, and absolute wrath. He looked at the wailing princess and then his eyes fell upon Leon's lifeless body.
"No!" Leo choked out, a single tear tracking down his cheek.
Robert tried to crawl toward a box of magical artifacts, but Leo cast a terrifying glance in his direction. The remaining Ravens were instantly paralyzed, their nervous systems locked by a sheer act of Leo's will. They couldn't even blink. Leo walked toward Leon, his hands trembling as he stood over his brother.
"I can't lose him again," Leo muttered, his voice cracking with the weight of two lifetimes.
He took two steps back, teleporting Anna several yards away. With a soft command of "Sleep," he sent her into a deep, merciful slumber. He then turned back to the body. Throughout the history of this world, resurrection was a myth—a flat impossibility. He searched his vast archives of modern science, ancient magic, and hero lore, but found nothing that could bridge the gap between life and death.
"If I can't find a resurrection spell," Leo growled, his mana flaring until the ground beneath him vitrified into glass, "then I will create one."
Suddenly, three intricate circles appeared on each of Leo's cheeks, connected by glowing lines to his mouth. Simultaneously, magic circles manifested on the palms of his hands. Every circle transformed into a spectral, moving mouth as he began the most complex casting ever attempted in the history of magic.
One mouth spoke the silent language of the void; one hissed ancient curses; one chanted summoning rites; another whispered binding seals. A fourth mouth spoke of cellular healing; a fifth spoke the lost language of spirits; a sixth uttered demonic chants; a seventh recited forbidden arts. Leo's own mouth formed the core of the spell with pure, raw mana.
As the symphony of voices reached a crescendo, all nine mouths spoke in a terrifying, unified unison:
"Nine-Way Spell: Resurrection!".