Leon plunged his spear into the man's chest, blood spattering across his face– a red paintbrush and its canvas. He watched as a gray haze formed on the man's eyes before launching his body off his spear and onto the next assailant. The corpse slammed into his comrade, who reflexively shut his eyes. It would be his last. Leon twirled the shaft of his spear and struck the assailant, deforming his soft squishy skull, before turning to the next. And what would happen after that? Only more waited for him.
He sighed, tightening the grip on the shaft and taking his stance. Electricity crackled, surging throughout the spear as Leon charged into the horde of assailants, closing in on them in a vicious onslaught. He spun, his body transforming into a torpedo of death. He tore through the horde with ease and unrelenting brutality. Whether it was bashing their skulls in, piercing them, or frying them with lightning, Leon made sure to annihilate anybody who stood ahead of him. He fought because he had to– no. It was because he wanted to.
Unlike Grey, Leon was not a Visionary. He had not found any way to achieve vis. In his mind he fell far behind Grey, who awakened it on the spur of the moment, but no matter what Leon tried he could not awaken his own. So he kept mowing them down, little by little, one by one. Leon would kill all of these bastards. Maybe then he would finally discover what he was missing.
'If Grey were still around he'd be disappointed.'
When the deed was done, all that remained were the corpses of many and a blonde boy atop the pile. He rested, his head down, blood stained his hair in the form of a crown. Leon stared at his hands, contemplating his actions.
'No… not good enough, it's about a four out of ten.'
"Yo, Leon. Evaluating your performance again?"
He looked up to see a beautiful woman with elegant lavender hair. She gazed at him with familiar hazel eyes, wearing a satisfied expression. She approached silently and appeared whenever she wanted to. Kael was a mysterious figure in Leon's eyes, all he knew about her was that Mono trusted her and that they were acquainted. He let out an exasperated sigh.
"Do you even have to ask? Of course I was."
"Have you had any luck increasing your rank?"
"About that, I forgot to tell you I reached rank six a few days ago."
"I see… you're making progress at a faster rate than I thought. So, now it's mnemonic leech and?"
"An ossiwire frame. I've got living metal or something protecting my bones."
The ossiwire frame. Originally the Spire offered him four other options. Leon recalled the moment he ranked, the Spire spoke clearly offering him five enhancements.
[Ossiwire Frame - Threading of live alloy covers your skeletal frame, enhancing dermal durability and shock absorption. Additionally enhances the healing process.
Phase Tendon - Replace muscle strands with vis threads. Upon activation, phase through existence once per day.
Esoteric A.I - An A.I is embedded into your brain, it automatically translates all languages and corrects your grammar.
Spire Lock - A glyph etched onto your hand allows you to lock any of the Spire's doors, once locked even you can't open it.]
At first, Leon was inclined to choose phase tendon, however, he thought it over and realized that just because a part of his body would transform into a thread of vis, he wouldn't necessarily make him be able to use it. For his current fighting style, the ossiwire frame fit perfectly, allowing his skeletal frame to become more durable and absorb shock. Though he would never forget the Spire's final comment to him.
["Mutation stabilizes. Now you're interesting."]
The more he thought about it, the more he could think of ways the other enhancements could've helped him. But before he could go deep into that process, a voice behind him pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Leon, how many was it today?"
He turned around to see a tall man with black hair, his gray dull gray eyes betraying the happy look on his face. If Leon didn't know him any better, he would've thought he was a bad actor, though in reality, Mono was great at achieving his goals by acting and lying. Nonetheless, here he was wearing a genuine smile, asking about how many people Leon had killed on this not-so-fine morning.
'He really doesn't have much of a conscience does he?'
"Hey, Mono. Let's see…"
Leon looked down at the mountain of corpses piled below him and counted them by fives. It took him about thirty seconds to finish counting them all.
"...Alright. It's around one hundred and sixty."
Mono's smile dimmed a bit. His brows furrowed in worry for Leon, as he was only a child of seventeen years. Mono remembered what happened the last time he stopped worrying about a child of the same age. His younger brother, Grey, was incarcerated and died in imprisonment due to starvation. The officials said he had refused to eat and as such, met an untimely fate at such a young age. He had to at least see if what he was doing was worth it.
"Was there quality in them?"
"Barely enough. But there was enough quantity to make around a fourth of the progress towards the next rank."
Mono studied Leon. In truth, he was disappointed with himself. In just a year he had let a diligent adolescent turn into a depressive husk, obsessed with the concept of power. However, is it wrong to wish for strength? Is it wrong to crave power? Just as a slave wishes to break free from the confines of his slaver, the weak wish to break free from the confines of their own powerlessness.
"Leon, we've overstayed our time in the Spire. This time around it was a six-week trip, it's enough to make anyone go insane."
Leon nodded.
'Even I won't try to deny my mental stability.'
The desolate, stygian plane where men lay, their final moments immortalized in Leon's mind, had let rays of sunshine pour through. As if emphasizing the boy's presence light concentrated on Leon. At that moment, Leon could not think much more about how beautiful living was.
'This whole time I've only been taking. Now I want to give.'
A silent breeze followed the warmth of the sunlight. Three individuals stood in the sand. In perfect harmony, and understanding of each other it could only be called–
"—Trinity."