' Do it... Do it now...'
Leon looked at the skull in front of him, completely taken by surprise.
' Damn it, I didn't think we would arrive here so quickly. Isn't it supposed to be the end of this tale? Why was it so easy to arrive here? I thought I would have the time to speak with them outside of the game. If it was only this then just sending an army would have been enough.'
He cursed the duchess in his mind, he wanted to create a dramatic first episode for the show but he reached the climax too quickly.
" Who are you?!"
Serah brandished her broken shield while yelling, she was ready to smash the skull with it. Maria tried to hide but it was useless, the skull was fixated on her.
' Aim for the rogue and I will take care of the annoying paladin.'
The same voice resonated in his mind. It spoke as if it was the skull which basically confirmed Leon's guess. If those artifacts really possessed those powers they would have tried to corrupt someone else a long time ago. He had a hunch that it was something inside the labyrinth that spoke to him.
" Who I am doesn't matter because you will all die here. Thanks to your sacrifices I will finally be able to return to this mortal plane to finish what I started thousands of years ago."
Leon scratched his head in irritation. He grabbed the sword hilt that was glowing black and red.
" I guess I just have to do this now."
He started to chant two tier 1 spells at the same time.
' Seek and find what may harm me, come and tell me of the surrounding dangers, reveal the truth to me oh precious mana.'
A blue wave spread from Leon however it was invisible to everyone else.
"Grace me with your speed, surround my body
with your soft embrace and guide my steps toward my enemies."
The second spell was the only tier 1 spell he hadn't tried yet. Wind Rush coated his body with a thin layer of wind which made him feel weightless. A dark and red blade made out of an unknown energy was formed on top of the broken sword handle, giving it an evil look.
Leon looked around him to find all of the red lights, there were a couple of zombies behind the other labyrinth walls but in this room, there was only a single thing that was glowing red, the dragon heart.
He didn't even look at it as he started to rush toward Maria. Just as he was about to reach her he activated one last spell.
' Oh beautiful light, please grace my sight with your presence.'
He didn't try to do anything fancy with it, he simply created the brightest light he could with it while closing his eyes. The results were similar to a flashbang as he rushed past his two teammates.
The weird skull creature had fully trusted that Leon thirsted for power and so it had shared its power with him but now that power was aimed directly at its own connection to the world. Due to the bright light, it couldn't even protect itself against the assault.
The blade made of evil energy pierced through the black heart, causing a disgusting black liquid to splash everywhere.
He casted Lightning spark at the tip of his blade while trying to change its element to light.
' I have no idea if that counts as a basic element for Magical warp but it's worth a try.'
His magic was indeed turning into the light element but it wasn't because of his skill. The broken sword handle started to shine brightly as he casted the spell through it, all of the black liquid around it was quickly purified while its blade changed from an evil black and red to a pure gold and white color.
" Youuu! You dare mock me? You would give up all of this power, just like this? We could have ruled this world together!"
Leon shrugged his shoulders as he removed the new blade of light from the heart.
" If you were that powerful you wouldn't need my help. Couldn't you have prepared something else instead of directly appearing like this? The delivery was a little lame."
He focused his frustration on the heart as he started hacking and slashing at it. He had made the life of his teammates harder in the hope that this evil creature would have something interesting for him to do but in the end all he got for that was a surprise attack.
" You will pay for your insolence, mortal!"
The skull summoned another portal from which countless black tentacles came out. Serah had managed to regain her sight just in time to block the attack with one of her paladin skills. Maria had also disappeared a long time ago, just now reappearing to deliver a sneak attack on the heart.
Perhaps it was because of Leon's betrayal but the fight ended a little too easily.
" You have not heard the last of me! Your kingdom is already under my control, there is nothing you can do to stop the inevitable march of doom."
With one last threat, the monster disappeared while the dragon's heart stopped beating. The heart melted into the ground while the dark liquids that were inside were absorbed by Leon's blade.
The altars all cracked together, slowly breaking down into smaller pieces which revealed an underground passage and a slab of rock with instructions written on it.
" Can you explain what that thing meant by you giving up powers, Leon?"
Serah turned around to give him a hard stare. Leon could only answer with an awkward laugh.
" I was trying to create some drama for the TV show but that thing forced me to show my hand too early. I thought there would be something else to do in this labyrinth."
Maria laughed at his explanation while shaking her finger.
" You got it wrong Leon, you shouldn't try to force yourself to act. Just play the game in a way that you enjoy and we will make it work. The thing with a show is that once a character act in a certain way the viewers will always expect the same thing from them.
If you betray us now they would always expect you to backstab us and I don't think any of us would enjoy that."
She almost seemed like a mother scolding a little kid with her speech. Leon had been a little too eager to prove himself after signing the contract and he had made a pretty big mistake. This only made him feel even more awkward.
" Sorry for all of this. "
He felt like he was apologizing a bit too much today. He didn't have any problem admitting that he made a mistake but the fact that he had made two mistakes like this in a single day was pretty bad.
" I got lucky that the fight was pretty easy but that doesn't change what I did. I will try and make it up to you two, if you got an idea you can just tell me, if not I will try and come up with something."
He was looking at the ground in shame so he was completely taken by surprise when Serah put him into a headlock.
" Why are you getting all gloomy? It's not like you had any bad intentions, to begin with. Plus you should save all that depressing stuff for after the dungeon. There is still a passage we need to explore."
She forcefully turned Leon's head toward the staircase that just appeared. This was her own way of breaking the ice, it was a little rough but it worked well enough.