Leon walked toward his parents, every step heavy with a thought he could not shake.
’If I had been a minute late, they would all be dead.’
The mont he had left the trial world, he had appeared at what should have been a functioning base. Instead, it had been hollowed out.
Empty corridors. No life. That alone had set his instincts screaming. Demons soon sward the teleportation pad, drawn by the disturbance, and he cut them down without pause.
Then he activated Racheal’s talent, spreading its perception outward.
Seeing the current state of the world nearly froze him in place.
Until his senses noticed Unit Alpha and the fact that it was being erased.
Before he could fully process it, his attention snapped to the epicenter. Sakura. Vines. Blood. Trial takers dying by the second. And worse than that, far worse, his father impaled straight through the chest.
Leon did not hesitate.
He activated Eden’s talent, even if only for a fragnt of a mont. Ti stretched, thick and sluggish, just long enough.
He crossed the distance in a flash of light, arrived like judgnt itself, and ended Sakura in the most grueso way possible.
Now, with the danger gone, the weight of what almost happened finally pressed in.
Selena knelt on the ruined ground, her hands glowing as she healed Dayton. Leon watched her closely, his gaze lingering, steadying. Around them, the remaining mbers of Unit Alpha stared at him in stunned silence.
Luke’s eyes were sharp, searching, as if looking for soone.
He stopped in front of his parents just as Selena finished sealing the wound. The gaping hole in Dayton’s chest closed at last. Dayton convulsed, coughing violently as dark blood poured from his mouth, blood that had been trapped in his lungs. When the coughing finally subsided, his eyes fluttered open.
He blinked.
"I’m... alive?" he muttered, disbelief thick in his voice.
His head still rested in Selena’s lap as his eyes darted around, searching for the demon who had nearly killed him. Sakura was gone. No vines. No pressure. No suffocating malice.
Only a man standing nearby.
A man in black robes.
Purple eyes that had softened into a deep, calm blue. White hair that caught the light like silk. An aura so restrained it felt unreal.
Dayton stared at him, still dazed, and spoke without thinking.
"...Am I in heaven?"
Leon nearly laughed at the question.
"No, Dad," he said, voice steady despite everything. "You’re not in heaven."
Relief crossed Dayton’s face first. Then confusion followed close behind.
"Dad...?" he echoed.
The word hit him late, like an aftershock. This stranger had called him that without hesitation.
Dayton frowned, searching the man’s face. The fog that clung to his sense of recognition, due to Leon’s nature, dissolving piece by piece.
The weight of void influence receded, and with it ca clarity.
The similarities surfaced all at once. The eyes. The posture. That familiar presence that pressed against the world even when standing still.
Dayton’s breath caught.
"Leon...?" he said slowly. "Is it you, my boy?"
He pushed himself upright, ignoring the lingering ache in his chest, dismissing the faint warmth there as nothing worth dwelling on.
His legs moved before his mind could catch up. This was impossible. His son had died. He had mourned him. Buried him in his heart. Just monts ago, he had been told Leon lived but his location was unknown.
And now Leon stood right in front of him.
Dayton stopped a step away, hands trembling.
"Are you really Leon?"
Leon smiled, the expression easy, familiar, painfully alive.
"Who else could be this handso?"
Dayton froze. Then the world finally gave way.
He pulled Leon into a crushing embrace, arms locking tight as if afraid his son might vanish if he loosened his grip.
His voice broke despite every lifeti of discipline.
"It really is you, son. It really is you."
Leon rested a hand on his father’s back, steady and warm, letting him have the mont.
After a few breaths, Dayton pulled away, clearing his eyes with the back of his hand. A Silver Marshal crying was not sothing the world needed to see today.
He straightened, dignity reasserting itself by force of habit.
"You should greet your mother too," Dayton said quietly.
He stepped aside.
Selena was still on the ground, seated exactly where she had been while healing him. She hadn’t moved. Hadn’t blinked. Her crimson eyes were locked onto Leon with an intensity that made the air feel thin.
Leon t her gaze and felt sothing tighten in his chest.
He stopped in front of her, the battlefield falling away until it was just the two of them.
"Long ti no see, Mom."
****
Selena didn’t know how to react.
Her son, the child she had buried in her heart, stood in front of her breathing, whole, real. She had mourned him. She had scread his na into empty rooms and learned how to keep standing despite the hollow it left behind.
Even when the Governor had told her Leon was alive, deep down her mind had refused to accept it. And now he was here.
She simply stared as Leon walked toward her. Her body wouldn’t move. Her thoughts wouldn’t line up.
Then his hand closed around hers, warm and solid, and he pulled her to her feet before wrapping his arms around her.
That broke her.
Selena clutched him back as if he might vanish again, fingers digging into his shoulders. Unlike Dayton, she didn’t bother hiding her tears. They ca hard and fast, her breath shuddering as she cried against him.
"Leon... don’t ever scare like that again," she said, her voice cracking. "I thought I lost you. We thought you died."
Leon held her tighter. His chin rested lightly against her hair as if anchoring himself to the mont.
"I’m sorry, Mom," he said softly. "From now on, I promise you won’t have to worry about anymore."
Selena went quiet.
She wanted to believe him. Stars, she wanted to. But sowhere deep inside, a quiet voice whispered that this was not the kind of son fate allowed to live peacefully.
She didn’t say that out loud.
For now, she just held him and let herself believe, even if only for a mont.
***
-Authors Note-
19-Day Challenge: If we stay in the Top 50 of the Golden Ticket rankings until the 19th of this month, I will do a mass release on that day.
To make the conditions easier: If the book receives one thousand or more power stones before the 19th, the mass release is guaranteed. I believe we can pull this off, let’s go!
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