Like a bolt of lightning, the memory of himself standing around "Rust & Rent" struck his mind. This felt so real that Leon could feel the cold air entering his nose.
***
(A day ago.)
As Jax's mutilated body dropped to the ground without a sound, the hounds approached Leon. All packs at once; each of them moved at a slow pace. Leon's breathing hitched, drawing his trembling legs backwards. He could do nothing but keep his terrified gaze on them until they surrounded him.
The glowing eyes of each of the beasts told nothing more than... they were enjoying this. How Leon feared them and how hopeless he was.
"Screw this!" Leon cursed, clenching his jaw.
Tears streaked down his face. Head turned down, he fell to his knees again. How could he survive this? These were bloody packs of C-rank creatures. A Trainee rank human, like an E-ranker in Dragon City, could only expect a swift death at that moment.
Leon choked on blood as he bled more and more.
In a while, he tried controlling the flow. He cried, digging his fingers into the ground, "I just wanna die! What else but sorrow is there to regress again? The shitty past will repeat itself... showing me the terrors I avoid thinking about! Damn it!"
One of the beasts growled.
Leon could already see them closing in with a gradual approach.
He swallowed. It indeed was a miracle that the system revived him back then. If not for this, Leon won't even have the opportunity to recreate Dragon City one day.
But.... wasn't that too much of a coincidence? - Leon asked himself.
At this point, should he still believe someone didn't grant him the system to control him? Perhaps they were watching his every move and manipulating his decisions. It might as well be that they fabricated this world. A place to test and torture him, with trials like these C-rank monsters.
Raising his palms, Leon sobbed, "I look at them... but they aren't mine. My legs move, but not by my will. Every word I speak, every single breath I take... it's all as if I'm following a script written by something else.
Tell me... was there ever a moment when I was truly free? Danger upon danger... torment piling in place for me! Am I a puppet of the system, forced to dance to a fate I never chose? I scream inside, but... no one hears me! Not even myself. Because..."
Snarl, snarl, snarl!!!
The hounds sprinted towards him.
Shooting his head upwards, Leon screamed, "... the person I used to be has already gone! Goddamn it!"
He panted hard, glancing to both sides. The monsters closed in on him finally, their fangs glistening. Leon shut his eyes.
Snarl!
...
'Is this it...?'
Brim! – the panel flashed before him.
"...!"
[Paradox Stability is now available!]
Leon gasped. "WHAT?!"
[Create a paradox right away!]
Leon clenched his fist. There was no time for too many thoughts.
He screamed at the top of his lungs, "Make me an S-rank Ascendant!"
Twish!
At the last moment, a pool of yellow mist spread beneath Leon's knees, sending the hounds flying. Their bodies thudded at distinct locations across the field, creating a series of echoes.
A surreal reaction clung to Leon like a cobweb. Could this be how stoic and confident S-rank Ascendants feel in moments like this?
Leon rose to his feet. His eyes glowed yellow; energy pulsed over him. Even so, his skin shone as though coated with metal. In a flash, a dagger with a zig-zag edge materialised in his grip.
When Leon glanced around, the hounds were already back on their feet. Without notice, they screeched. Their breaths sent ice crawling over the ground and around shelters. Shelters that collapsed to the ground in the next instant.
A heavy cloud of dust clung to the air.
The panel displayed that:
[Available Skills.
Death Spiral - A spinning attack that changes its angles continuously in mid-air. Cooldown: 5 seconds.
(2) Echo Strike: A deceptive double attack where the second hit lands faster than the first. Cooldown: none.]
[Other unique abilities: can't be displayed yet.]
On one hand, this moment seemed like something encased Leon. Making it feel as though he were the spectator here. But also, it seemed as if he was in charge here.
[Time left before reset: 20 seconds.]
SWOOSH...
In a blink-and-you-miss-it dash, Leon closed in on two hounds. At his command, the dagger swept across them at a speed that even he couldn't quite follow. Warm blood splashed on his face. Before the beasts had fallen dead, Leon had flung his dagger backwards towards an approaching bastard...
Extraordinarily, Leon blurred inches from the beast, retrieving his dagger mid-air...
Slash! The dagger flashed. A clean cut. A head fell.
[Remaining time: 10 seconds.]
Yet, the beasts were still many. Too many.
At a few metres from Leon stood four beasts. Catching him off guard, they snarled. This wasn't an ordinary one, but a type that weaves with its special ability.
The air became cold in an instant. In an instant, frost latched onto him, then coated him. His limbs froze and his....
Leon appeared before the beasts, showing no signs that their sneaky move affected him. Complimenting his earlier reaction when surrounded, the beasts' eyes widened with fear. With a single dagger movement, Leon dealt deadly damage to the four of them. Stabbed abdomens, halved bodies...
[Five seconds more...]
'Activate Death Spiral!'
A bright blue mist enveloped him immediately. Then he leapt into the air, flashing around like a moving chain. Flickers of light zipped through the chilly air, also amidst the hounds. They dropped dead one after the other.
[Two seconds more...]
'Just five left.'
Rushing down to the ground, Leon's form swept across two more. Their heads danced behind him as he headed towards the remaining three.
[One second more...]
Leon closed in.
Slice! - he tore the abdomen of another one wide open.
...
[Time reached.]
Just inches from the rest, a sudden force hooked Leon to a spot. He gasped as a strange wave washed over him. In the next second, his body crashed to the ground, the yellow energy fading off him.
Leon gasped, clinging to the last thread of consciousness.
The monsters screeched, ostensibly from both relief and excitement. They strode closer to Leon, sniffing the sweat and blood off him.
But unexpectedly, two gunshots screamed in the air. In the next second, the remaining hounds' bodies thudded to the ground.
Who killed them?
***
Back in the present...
Leon sighed. He was lying on the bed, eyes clinging to the ceiling. He swallowed.
His brows furrowed in confusion. Figuring out who killed the hounds wasn't even the most important thing at this point.
'I know it's her, because she seems to be better with guns than any other weapons. Screw it... was she there the whole time? I said everything out loud, including the request for a paradox creation. Definitely, she knows something is wrong by now if she's there the whole way through.'
***
Meanwhile, along an alleyway between ruined buildings, Scarlet Hayes strode with ease. The surroundings were silent, save for her gentle shoe steps.
Her face blank, she thought, 'He's my last resort for a safe passage through the temple. Without him, that place is suicide...'
A suicide... why?