CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO — THE CROWNED HUNGER
The scent reached him before the scream did.
Blood.
Sharp. Fresh.
Leylin stopped near the ruined corridor, his head turning slowly toward the eastern side of the forest as something unfamiliar stirred behind his thoughts.
"…Blood?"
The word sounded uncertain leaving his mouth, as though he were still learning it.
Then the ruin shook.
Jason screamed as dark veins erupted beneath his skin, glowing like molten metal forced through flesh. Cracks spread across his arms and chest while his body expanded violently, muscle tearing apart before reforming beneath layers of blackened magma. Fire spilled from beneath his feet and flooded across the stone floor in burning streams while the surrounding air warped from the heat.
The Belial bloodline awakened completely.
Jason threw his head back as power surged through him in endless waves. Every heartbeat grew heavier. The weakness from earlier vanished beneath overwhelming strength until even the ruined chamber around him began collapsing from the pressure leaking out of his body.
For the first time in his life..he felt unstoppable.
Leylin turned toward him slowly.
There was no fear in his expression.Only curiosity.
"…You changed."
Jason lunged.
The ruined ground shattered beneath his feet as his molten fist crossed the distance between them with enough force to pulverize armored vehicles.
Leylin raised his hand absentmindedly.
The fist stopped inches away from his face.
The air between them compressed unnaturally as invisible pressure locked the massive arm in place. Heat rolled violently through the corridor, yet Leylin's clothes did not even move.
Jason's eyes widened.
Leylin stepped closer, studying the suspended fist carefully.
"…Why did you stop?"
Jason roared and forced more power into his arm. Molten veins ignited brighter beneath the armor coating his skin as the surrounding ruin trembled violently from the strain.
The fist did not move.
Leylin reached forward and grabbed his wrist.
A soft cracking sound echoed immediately.
The magma armor coating Jason's arm fractured apart like brittle stone.
Leylin frowned slightly.
"…You're weaker than I thought."
Then he lifted him.
The transformed titan left the ground instantly.
Jason's massive body hung helplessly above the shattered floor while panic slowly replaced the rage inside his eyes. He clawed at Leylin's arm desperately, but the hand holding him felt immovable, like something rooted deeper than strength itself.
Leylin watched quietly.
"…Your heartbeat changed again."
Jason opened his mouth to speak, but blood spilled out instead.
The heat around his body was fading.
Leylin noticed that too.
"…Are you dying?"
Something inside Jason finally broke.
With a final roar, he gathered every remaining fragment of strength and drove his free fist toward Leylin's face.
The blow never landed.
The air folded inward violently.
An invisible force crashed into Jason's chest and hurled the massive body across the ruin. Stone exploded outward as he tore through three collapsed pillars before slamming into the far wall hard enough to split it apart.
Leylin looked down at his own hand.
"…I didn't touch you."
He flexed his fingers slowly, watching the faint distortion around them disappear.
"…Was that me?"
Jason tried to stand.
His transformed body trembled violently now, magma falling from cracked armor in burning fragments while blood poured from the fissures spreading across his chest.
Leylin walked toward him calmly.
Jason tried to move backward.
Leylin crouched in front of him and placed a hand against his throat.
Jason froze instantly.
The shadows around Leylin's feet had begun moving on their own.
Slowly. Hungrily.
Leylin looked directly into Jason's eyes, searching them quietly before his expression shifted slightly.
"…You're not enough."
Jason's breathing stopped.
Because he understood then that nothing he had done mattered from the very beginning.
Leylin's fingers tightened gently.
"…I'm sorry."
Darkness spread from his palm.Cold. Absolute.
The shadows swallowed Jason piece by piece as though the world itself were erasing him. The magma faded first. Then the flesh beneath it. Then the sound.
Until nothing remained.
Leylin stared at the empty space silently.
"…disappointing"
A faint crease formed between his brows.
"…I still had questions."
The ruined chamber groaned around him.
Far beyond the broken walls, the forest stretched endlessly into darkness, filled with distant lives and distant heartbeats.
Leylin slowly lifted his gaze toward it.
Something inside him moved again.
Hungry."…There must be something stronger."
The shadows gathered beneath his feet instinctively.
Leylin bent slightly, testing the unfamiliar strength coiling through his body.
Then he moved.
The ruin exploded behind him as his figure vanished into the night.