Is fate something that can be changed or manipulated? This was a question that entered Vera's mind as she watched Leon battle the nephilim. She couldn't fathom how someone like Leon was able to continuously dodge and destroy the attacks thrown at him. His movements didn't appear to be based on instinct, in fact, all of his movements seemed to be deliberate. Even his opponent seemed puzzled at what it was seeing. Vera was a red arch dragon queen, the mightiest of all red dragons, and even she was caught off guard by the speed and power of the nephilim. Yet, a human was able to fight on equal footing with the creature. Everything was thrown towards Leon, sorcery, miracles, the curses of witchcraft, and elemental magic which is the simplest and strongest of all magic. Each one was dodged or sliced apart by Excalibur. The ground shook as a result of the magic that landed. Earth magic tore the ground apart, ice sprung from the ground in spikes, fire flew the air and melted everything it touched, and the wind magic caused whirlwinds that seemed to cut everything within it.
With each spell that was casted, Leon seemed to have a countermeasure prepared. The only problem that Leon had at the moment, was that he had no means to fly. Vera deduced that the nephilim only had to wait until Leon eventually tired, and without magic power to sustain him, that would happen sooner rather than later. Unknown to Vera, Leon already had a plan to deal with the wings of his opponent. All he had to do was wait. Almost as if on cue, crimson blades flew through the air towards his opponent. The blades were dodged, however, with that small distraction, another one of Leon's subordinates had taken her place. Rebecca had watched most of the battle unfold and was waiting for an ideal moment to intervene. As soon as his concentration moved away from his immediate proximity, Rebecca stood up and stretched her arms forward while closing her arms and quietly began an aria that rose in volume.
As her voice began to spread through the mountains, a beautiful golden light began to form a dome around the area in front of her. Within the dome were Leon, Vera, and the Nephilim, however, before the dome finished forming, Leon grabbed Vera and tossed her outside of the affected area. The Nephilim attempted to attack Rebecca once he realized what was beginning to form around him, but it was already too late, nothing could break through the barrier. The dome began to condense, slowly shrinking the area in which he could fly. Victoria was then seen on the opposite side of Rebecca, her crimson eyes continued to glow brightly as she directed the red mist into the ground in front of her. Leon began to charge forward, heading towards the still airborne Nephilim. A red blade then emerged from the ground inside the barrier, aimed at seemingly nothing, however, Leon then jumped up and placed his foot perfectly onto the flat surface of the blade and propelled himself further.
The nephilim was startled upon seeing such precise movement. Another blade shot out, once again being used by Leon to grow closer towards his opponent. The nephilim attempted to put more distance between them, but with the dome restricting the available space, this was an impossible task. Instead, he began to fire spell after spell at Leon. His movements were limited to the blades provided by Victoria, however, the sheer amount of blades that she had shot into the dome allowed Leon to navigate more freely. Each movement made by Leon may have seemed random to each person watching the battle, but Leon was making his moves intentionally. For if he did not, the only thing awaiting him would be death. Unknown to everyone, ten times he had already moved forward and ten times he had died. The only time he didn't was on the eleventh try. These movements were following the same pattern as that eleventh try.
Throughout the world, there are many different types of abilities and magic. Divine eyes were one such ability. There were three types of these divine eyes, two of which are bestowed upon an individual, blessed eyes and cursed eyes. The third and most rare type were called innate eyes. The first two all had abilities associated with whoever had bestowed them, however, innate eyes were unique. The powers they contained were unique and were often very powerful. The reason being that innate eyes were with the wielder from birth and were able to activate naturally when one's magic had fully grown accustomed to it, fully integrating the unique characteristics of a person's magic and forming it's abilities around it. Leon had innate divine eyes. His eyes were the most powerful known to have existed. They were called the Eyes of Revelation. These eyes when sealed, allowed him to have increased perception whenever he chose to, making things appear to move significantly slower than normal, or could completely reveal things to the user such as lies or the techniques of their opponent. When unsealed, the power for which they were named was unleashed. They were able to show Leon a series of prophecies based upon his current situation. The only problem with this ability, is that Leon had to personally live through each one until he came upon the one that he desired, restricting its use to only a few minutes into the future. Used to frequently or if he peered to far into the future, his mind would collapse or he could die from the shock of experiencing too many deaths.
Countless spells were hurled through the air, so many that they seemed to be shooting out in every direction at the same time. Only Leon knew that they were delayed and was able to move precisely in-between each one as he moved forward, until he was finally in reach of his opponents sword. The flaming sword came crashing down with a vertical slash at incredible speed. Only Excalibur could properly deflect such an attack, but Leon wasn't interested in the downward strike. He maneuvered his body so that he narrowly evaded the strike. The next attack was what Leon was waiting for, he jumped up and followed up with his own vertical attack, only it was aimed at the bottom of his feet. The flaming sword had been swung upwards after the first strike, allowing Leon to block the strike and use its momentum to push himself up into the air above the nephilim.
As he was being pushed upwards, his body was slowly contorting until his feet were pointed up towards the sky just as one of Victoria's blades was passing by. Leon pushed off of the blade and shot back down towards his opponent who had already reacted and was swinging his sword towards Leon. Leon used all of his strength to swing Excalibur and intercept the attack. The blades clashed and caused a shockwave in the air surrounding the two of them, which destroyed all of the blood blades within the dome. The nephilim smiled at the result, but noticed that Leon himself was smirking. He then noticed that his arm was still suffering from the recoil of the attack, meaning he had no way of defending himself, but Leon should also be suffering from the same recoil. However, as Leon's arms were recoiling, he used the motion to throw his sword behind him, making his body continue to move towards the nephilim. Leon used one of his hands to grab ahold of one the nephilim's shoulders to move his body behind it, using his other hand to grab ahold of one of its wings.
The nephilim let out a deafening cry as it began to tumble through the air until both Leon and himself hit the ground, causing a small crater to form. Vera saw the flaming sword a few feet from the crater melting the snow surrounding it. She also saw Excalibur, the blade sticking into the snowy ground. She had no idea what she had just witnessed, as her eyes could barely keep track of the two. She was a dragon, one of the mightiest races of beings that inhabited the planet. They were the protectors of the realm of humanity, created by the Mother Goddess, one of the three of the divine Triumvirate. Yet, the nephilim was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Even more puzzling was the man, though there were great warriors among the races that made up humanity, yet this man was someone who could claim to be among the strongest. It was clear to her, that her long vigil over the northern mountains had caused her overlook the changing times. Vera then heard what sounded like meat being beaten with a hammer, it was obvious that now was not the time to ponder such things.
The sounds became more intense until the nephilim jumped outside of the crater. Gold liquid was leaking from his mouth, nose, and a few cuts upon his face. His back was also covered in the same golden liquid, leaking from a stump that was previously the feathered angel wing. Leon followed by walking up to the other side of the crater. Vera was surprised by the sight of Leon's face having a cut upon his cheek, his chest armor was broken as were his gauntlets. It was obvious that the two must have battled within the crater. In one of Leon's hands was the wing of the nephilim. He dropped the wing and walked over towards the flaming sword upon the ground. The nephilim lifted his hand as if to stop Leon and, finally, spoke the first words since coming into contact with Leon and Vera.
"What are you and why do you stand in my way?" The deep voice of the nephilim was truly that of a giant. It's words were slow and clear, despite the speed of its movements.
"Oh? So, you can speak the human language? The only sound I heard from you was that disgusting scream earlier, so I wasn't so sure. Since I'm about to kill you, I see no harm in answering you. I'm a human and as for why I stand in your way, it's because I can't allow you to go any farther. You will only cause destruction and those that you command will attempt to invade us. If what lies in that realm is more of what we fought earlier, then the resulting war will result in many innocents losing their lives. You see, I have encountered one of your kind before. My decision that day still haunts me and I will not allow that to happen again, especially because I know that your kind doesn't understand morality." The nephilim was quiet for a moment, however, it was clear that it was only thinking of what to say back to Leon.
"You speak as if you know what the future will bring. The people of the northern realm wish to cross over, they wish to expand into more prosperous lands. Surely, you would understand their plight human. Some things cannot be accomplished without sacrifices. If you wish to further impede such progress, then I will have to defeat you and all that have gathered here, including the winged serpent."
"Sacrifices, progress, expansion, these are the words that invaders use to justify themselves. As for the future, well, that is something I have the fortune of telling. One of your kind once convinced me that he was a force for good, despite the future telling me otherwise. Within a month, the three kingdoms that surrounded my home were at war and many innocent civilians were killed because of it. The one at the root of it was your kind. I found out when I plunged my sword through his heart, that your kind understands good and evil in a very different way than we do. If I allow you to continue, then our realm will be plunged into chaos. To prevent that, I will stand against you." Leon began to lean down to pick up the flaming sword on the ground.
"Killing a human with no mana will be of no consequence. If the ability you speak of is real, then I figure that you have already seen how this will play out for you human. Because the moment you touch that sword, you will be swallowed by it's flame because of your lack of mana." Leon paused for a moment and smirked. Indeed, it is true that he knew the outcome of what was about to take place. He knew what would happen if he touched the flaming sword and he knew what the nephilim would do the moment he attempted to. Leon thought to himself that maybe the nephilim before him could be reasoned with and that he could be different from the one he fought before. That he could find a way to achieve an outcome without casualties. However, he wasn't nearly naive enough to take that chance. He grabbed the handle of the blade and a flame began to erupt around him.
The nephilim turned and began to make his way to Excalibur and, by extension, towards Vera. However, that was cut short by the sounds of flame growing close to him. He reflexively dashed to the side, the flaming blade striking the ground and emitting a large gust of flame that charred the ground. When he turned, he was shocked by the sight in front of him, as was Vera. Leon stood firm, the sword of flames within his right hand. The fire swirled around the area surrounding him. Indeed, even to a half breed demon like the nephilim, the visage of Leon was something that he could not help but feel afraid of. A human with mana would struggle to use such a weapon, so a human without it should have been swallowed up by the flames, yet Leon was still alive and wielding the sword without hesitation. Vera looked towards Leon's companions to see their reactions, however, Rebecca and Victoria's faces remained unchanged. The answer that Vera wished to hear, came from Leon himself.
"You have made the same mistake as many others who believed they were mightier than I. You believed I didn't possess magic energy." Leon smiled at the nephilim, "It's true that I can't use spells or anything like that and to most beings, my magical aura is nonexistent. The reason being, my magical aura doesn't flow outwards, it flows inside. Throughout my entire body, the veins, muscles, and organs are enhanced with magic naturally with no need for spells or the like. To prevent my body from tearing itself apart, I've had seals placed to limit my power. In truth, the magic I have, is far greater than even you." Leon raised the sword of flames above his head, his eyes, for the first time, began to glow brightly. The nephilim quickly dashed towards Excalibur and grabbed it by the handle, but no matter how hard he pulled, the sword would not move. Leon dashed forward, attacking with a quick swing, however, it was dodged. It didn't matter, for Leon knew the outcome long before he attacked. With one quick motion, Leon grabbed Excalibur and threw the sword towards the fleeing enemy, however, he was unable to dodge the attack. The blade pierced his leg and quickly transformed into a spear, pinning him in place.
Leon slowly made his way towards his foe. The nephilim violently thrashed about, trying every which way to free himself, however, nothing worked. The weapon was immovable and some force was preventing him from tearing his leg away. Even if he used his own hands to tear his leg off, the resulting injury would kill him. He violently casted spell after spell, each time the spell seemed to miss its mark, despite Leon only walking. As he reached the nephilim, he began to hear what sounded like words coming from his foe, however, it all sounded like gibberish to him. His mind was focused only on one thing, killing the enemy in front of him. Cries of the creature were muffled in his ears as he lifted the flame sword in the air, bringing it down on the creatures last wing. Severing it completely and proceeding to kneel down and pick it up. He examined the wing before tossing it away.
"Finally got rid of those troublesome things. Before you die, I want you to know, the realm you serve will fail to invade our land. I'll make sure of that." Leon dropped the sword of flame and pulled back his hand. With one quick motion, Leon plunged his hand through his body, before pulling it back out. Vera watched as the body fell to the ground. She was amazed at the man who stood before her, but she was also terrified at his strength. The barrier put up by Rebecca dissipated after Leon picked up Excalibur. The two began making their way towards Leon, however, Vera noticed that Leon was in pain. He managed to hide it well, but he wasn't able to fool a dragon. As she planned to go and talk to Leon, a large army emerged from the roads that Leon and his knights used, led by a young woman. A loud rumbling was heard coming from the route to the northern realm. Vera knew that without Leon and his warriors, many people would die if an army emerged from the northern realm. Though she was a dragon, Vera's memories were mixed up and she was unable to recall what occurred directly after that. One of the last things she remembered from the battle, was destroying the route to the northern realm.
Back in the present time, Vera was finishing her story, but Belle noticed that a pegasus and a number off gryphons were beginning to draw close to their location. It was clear to her that someone must have been able to spot them from far off. Belle wasn't someone who particularly enjoyed fighting, though, she did enjoy stories. She secretly hoped that the ones approaching would take their time, otherwise, the story would become interrupted. Which was something that she would not allow.
Within the throne room, Alicia had awakened and could feel something familiar approaching Camelot. Unknown to Alicia, Nina and Leanna both had the same feeling. Though Leanna was still unsure of herself, she changed her destination and decided to head towards the gates of the city rather than the throne room. Within the church, Nina was about to see Ulrich, however, the feeling forced her to turn around with Eve in tow. The three family members moved to address the strange feeling that was approaching, but there was still a fourth that could feel the presence growing closer. Though unconscious, and still heavily injured, the hand of Ulrich tightened.