"REN!!" Hiroshi and Kami screamed, their voices echoing through the broken laboratory.
Leon blinked, vision blurred, mind numb. Wha... what happened? I should be dead...
The mana blast should've hit. His broken body should've been reduced to nothing.
But he was still alive.
Painfully, Leon opened his one good eye. His skull throbbed, jaw dislocated, blood clouded his vision. Glass shards pierced his limbs, his clothes tattered—but not fully destroyed thanks to their high-grade material.
Then he saw it.
A body—charred, bleeding, torn open from below the chest. Blood covered the floor beneath it like a pool of sacrifice. Burn marks spread across the motionless figure.
That figure was...
Ren.
"Le... Leon b..." Ren coughed up blood, eyes dull but smiling weakly.
"Br...other...are...you...fine...?"
Leon's mind shattered in that instant.
R-Ren...? Why...? WHY?!
He tried to stand, tried to crawl toward him, but his limbs wouldn't move.
I can't... I can't move...!
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