The pain was unbearable.
Leon felt his body tear apart in slow motion, caught in the eruption of Eleanor’s suicidal explosion. It wasn’t just the physical agony, the searing of flesh, or the shattering of bone, it was the sha, the failure, and the regret that cut deeper.
In the eye of that dying storm, ti stretched. Long enough for thoughts he hadn’t wanted to face.
’I hesitated.’
He hadn’t admitted it before, not even to himself. But when Eleanor erged from the Basilisk, wild-eyed and trembling, he’d flinched. Sowhere inside him, he’d seen her not as an enemy, but as a broken comrade. A girl who had fought beside them. He didn’t know what pushed her to this, what she had suffered to fall so far. Maybe he never would.
But in that mont, he’d held back.
He’d tried to spare her.
And now Elizabeth was going to die.
’So protector I turned out to be,’ he thought bitterly, as the light swallowed them both. ’What kind of boyfriend am I if I can’t even protect my woman?’
The guilt was suffocating.
’Her dad’s gonna kill . Scratch that... he’ll co to the underworld just to scold . Who knows what he is capable of.’
That final thought made him laugh, sowhere deep in the spiraling void. A dry, tired sound in the dark. He only wished for one thing now.
’If I had one more chance...’
And then,
Everything snapped.
The explosion collapsed in on itself like it had never happened. The light vanished. Ti didn’t just stop, it spun backward, as the world unraveled.
And when Leon opened his eyes again, he was mid-air, his blade glowing as it delivered Cross Impact on the Basilisk. The beast reeled, Elizabeth still standing behind him, untouched by what never ca.
He gasped for breath, alive again.
But he didn’t bask in it.
There was no ti.
He didn’t know how ti spun back, but it didn’t matter now since ti was of the essence.
Eleanor’s form burst from the Basilisk, just like before, hurtling into the cave wall, body twitching, power boiling beneath her skin. But this ti, Leon didn’t hesitate.
His voice was cold and low.
"Extre Art."
A flare of white-blue aura burst from him, cracking the ground beneath his boots.
"Flicker Fang."
And in a blur of motion, he vanished, lightning incarnate, and reappeared inches from Eleanor’s crumpled form. His blade glead, already swinging toward her neck, a heartbeat away from ending it.
But then,
"It’s amazing you rembered what happened in the lost ti."
Leon’s eyes widened.
His blade should’ve connected.
Instead, he was standing still, back at Elizabeth’s side.
"What—?"
Even Elizabeth was frozen, her mouth half open in shock.
And then they saw him.
A man stood before them. He was simple, composed, and entirely normal. He wore a golden robe with no markings, no flair, yet it radiated a quiet majesty that crushed the air from the lungs. His presence gave off no pressure. No aura.
And yet Leon felt like he was drowning.
His instincts howled. But they couldn’t move him. Couldn’t make him draw his blade. Because his soul knew, this man was not soone he could fight.
Floating beside him was Eleanor, suspended in air as if ti itself obeyed the stranger’s will. The energy in her body was gone, no it was sealed.
Then the man spoke, tone soft but sharp as a blade hidden in silk.
"So tell , Leon Kael... how were you able to rember what happened in the lost ti?"
And in that mont, everything shifted again.
The ga had changed.
And soone far above the board had just taken notice.
****
The air felt heavier than before, like the very world around them had held its breath.
The man stood calmly, golden robe fluttering in a wind that didn’t exist. He examined Leon as though he were a painting that finally started to move, his gaze unnerving, piercing straight through flesh, bone, soul. A middle-aged face, ordinary in structure, yet everything about him scread unnatural. The way the world bent subtly around him. The way the sound died. The way even Elizabeth’s breathing grew quieter, like she instinctively feared being heard in his presence.
But it was his silence that disturbed Leon most.
Then finally, the man spoke, his voice calm and curious.
"...You rember what happened while ti was reversing?"
Leon didn’t answer imdiately. His heart thudded in his ears. He could still feel the heat of Eleanor’s explosion. Still recall the guilt, the regret, the sha of letting her detonate, letting Elizabeth die.
And now, here he was, back again, standing in the past. No, not just standing, reliving. And sohow, he was the only one who rembered.
The man stared harder. "Fascinating," he thought to himself. "This wasn’t a full temporal regression. I can’t reverse the entire world, only a local region, a single tiline, and a specific space. Even so, it should be powerful enough that an SSS-rank wouldn’t easily notice it. And yet, an E-rank could recall the erased ti."
He shook his head slowly, then muttered, "I rely ca to observe. But now... there’s no need for more testing. He’s the one I’ve been searching for all along."
Leon could feel it, he was being watched, no, dissected. That strange gaze peeled back his thoughts, his emotions, like a scalpel opening a mind. It wasn’t magical pressure, no aura being flared. Just pure, silent power, so absolute that it didn’t need to be flaunted.
And Leon?
He was calculating.
’How do I get away from a man who can rewind ti itself?’
He glanced at Elizabeth. Her expression was blank, confused, untouched by the dread gripping him. She didn’t rember. Of course not. It made sense now, only he rembered.
’So... the regression didn’t affect her mind. Just mine.’
A thought blood, quiet and dangerous.
’Maybe I can use that.’
The man stepped closer, finally speaking again. "No more stalling. Tell , boy. How did you rember what was lost?"
Leon swallowed his panic, buried the pounding in his chest. If he acted like prey, he’d be devoured.
So he raised his chin slightly, shrugged, and said in the most arrogant voice he could manage:
"It’s because I’m special."
The silence that followed was suffocating. Even Elizabeth gave him a look like we’re going to die now, aren’t we?
Leon held his breath, bracing for whatever ca next.
Then, without warning,
"Pff... ha...HAHAHA!"
The man began to laugh. Not mockingly. Genuinely. Like he’d just been told the greatest joke of his life.
"You’re a funny kid," he said, still chuckling. "Special, huh? I’ll rember that one."
But then, sothing shifted. His eyes darted sideways. A faint pulse of awareness stirred the air.
"...Tch. Company," he muttered.
He turned away, robe fluttering. "We’ll talk again. Soon. I need to go get so milk."
Leon blinked.
"Wait, what?" Even Elizabeth’s face twisted.
"Did he just say... milk?"
But there was no answer. The man vanished, no flash, no sound, no ripple in space. Just... gone.
Leon stood there in stunned silence.
"Milk?" he muttered to himself. "That’s seriously what he said?"
Just then, hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor. Leon spun around, muscles tensing, only to pause.
Relief flickered in his eyes.
Soone familiar was finally here.
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