Silence swallowed everything.
Every eye locked onto the stranger who had appeared out of nothing, kneeling on one knee amid the wreckage.
No one knew who he was, but everyone felt it. The pressure. The weight. This was not soone they could asure.
In the next instant he vanished.
Reappering in front of Selena, with Dayton still impaled, and gently placed him into her arms. His voice was calm, almost distant.
"Take care of him. I’ll handle the rest."
A flicker of familiarity flashed through Selena’s crimson eyes. She didn’t question it. She nodded once, imdiately activating her talent and pouring healing energy into Dayton’s shattered body. The stranger watched only long enough to confirm he would live.
Then he turned.
Sakura had recovered from the killing intent, but caution now sharpened her gaze as she stared at the man walking toward her.
"Didn’t you hear ?" she snapped.
"I asked who you are."
He ignored her.
Walking closer, with unhurried steps, his presence steady and oppressive.
Sakura’s brow furrowed as the stranger spoke.
"Barely above the peak of the divine stage. Not even at Origin Stage level one."
Confusion crept in.
"Don’t co any closer," she shouted.
He didn’t stop.
A blade ford along his right arm, dark and silent. Sakura’s expression twisted into fury.
"Who do you think you are?" she scread.
"How dare you underestimate !"
She fully activated her Supre Talent, [Vital Bloom]. Her demonic form surged. Horns sharpened. Eyes burned red. Her skin turned a sickly gray as massive vines erupted from the ground, each one as large as a building.
The mbers of Unit Alpha froze in shock. Only now did they realize she hadn’t been serious before.
"If you want to die," Sakura roared, "then be my guest!"
The vines lunged like torrential waves before swallowing him whole.
A cruel smile spread across Sakura’s face. Confidence blood for a single breath—
"Extre Art."
The words froze the world.
There were no records of an Extre Art. None at all.
Yet everyone here knew the na, because only one person had ever used it.
Sakura’s eyes widened in horror.
Luke stared, unmoving. Unit Alpha stood locked in place.
"Horizon Cleave."
The vines were split apart instantly, shredded by an overwhelming aura slash that carved through them like mist.
The attack continued forward, passing Sakura’s face by less than an inch before obliterating the barrier behind her in a violent shatter.
Leon stepped through the fading light, calm as ever, blade still humming at his side.
And he kept walking.
Seeing this Sakura began to ramble, her voice cracking as the words spilled out of her.
"It can’t be. You’re supposed to be dead."
Vines exploded from the ground again, thicker and faster than before, lashing toward Leon in a desperate storm.
He cut through them all with casual precision. Each slash was clean, almost lazy, as if Sakura’s frantic assault barely registered.
From the outside it looked like she was throwing everything she had at him. From Leon’s side of things, it felt like she wasn’t even trying.
Her composure finally shattered.
"I don’t know what trick you’re using," Sakura scread, "but it’s not going to work forever!"
The entire area drowned in writhing green. Vines surged outward, so veering toward the mbers of Unit Alpha. Selena was still kneeling beside Dayton, healing him. Luke stood in front of them, braced to intercept.
Before any of the vines could reach them, Leon spoke at last, his voice calm, almost conversational.
"You must have nerves of steel."
The air flashed.
Every vine was severed in the sa instant, sliced apart before they could touch anyone. Leaves and fragnts rained down uselessly.
Leon now stood directly beneath Sakura as she hovered above the ground, her demonic eyes twitching in shock.
Then the world slamd downward.
BOOM.
An invisible force seized Sakura and smashed her into the earth. The ground cratered beneath her face as Leon’s Rank 7 telekinetic grip pinned her there without rcy.
Everyone present froze. This was a Lord. A being that even SSS-rank combatants struggled to suppress. Yet she was immobilized in a single motion by soone radiating nothing more than an S-rank aura.
Sakura tried to rise. She couldn’t move an inch.
Leon lifted his hand, and she rose with it, dragged into the air like a broken puppet. Her limbs spread apart, her body suspended as if nailed to an invisible cross.
She stared at him, eyes wide, filled with naked disbelief.
After everything she had sacrificed. After everything she had done to destroy the boy in front of her.
She had lost.
And this ti, it wasn’t even close.
’From this distance,’ she thought desperately, ’if I self-destruct, I can still take him with —’
The instant she began gathering energy, Leon’s hand pressed against her chest.
The swelling current collapsed under his control, dispersed as if it had never existed.
He felt it then. His grip on corrupt energy was weaker here than it had been in Pandora.
Still, it was enough.
Whatever foolish plan she had been clinging to died right there.
When Sakura realized even her last resort had failed, sothing shifted in her expression. Fear gave way to sothing closer to dread.
"What are you?" she asked hoarsely. This wasn’t the boy she rembered, not in the slightest.
Leon didn’t answer at first. He looked at her for a long mont, his gaze empty of hesitation.
"You’re lucky, you’re Nikki’s sister."
Sakura was taken aback by that; for a split second, relief flickered across her twisted face.
But Leon continued.
"So instead of making your death ten million tis worse, I’ll just remove one."
The relief vanished almost instantly and before she could speak, the sealed energy inside her chest was released.
Leon reinforced her body with his telekinesis, locking it in place as the power detonated within her.
Once.
Then again.
And again.
The explosions didn’t escape her body. They tore through her from the inside, over and over, while she remained alive through every second of it.
Her form bulged and snapped back repeatedly, like a grotesque balloon being crushed by invisible hands.
She scread until her voice broke, tears streaming down her face as blood poured from every opening, soaking her robes with crimson and sothing fouler still.
Leon watched without expression.
His void blade dissolved, flowing back into its tattooed form along his arm. As he turned away.
The mont his back was to her, Sakura’s head shot into the air.
Her body and skull detonated at the sa ti, bursting into a spray of gore that rained down behind him.
Leon walked on, unhurried, leaving the blood and ruined remains scattered across the ground in his wake.
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