Griffin watched in awe... The fruits of his labor revealing themselves as Michael refused to let Leander get any further... Pushing the lesser god of time back, not only delaying... But denying Griffin's inevitable death.
Leander was now below Michael, being pressed down violently by his scythe... Engraved with the marking of the moon on the crown of its handle...
Ice began to spread from Michael's frozen feet... Spreading across the floor like a plague, freezing Leander into place...
Freezing Griffin's body... Spreading through his skin... Not violently... But supporting...
Michael was repairing Griffin's body... Freezing his wounds closed... Ice was building up around his catalyst like a shield...
Michael was saving Griffin's life... While holding down an entire god...
Griffin was in awe... Looking at his friend with wide eyes...
'Incredible...'
But it only peaked higher...
Neveah swung her greatsword from behind, somehow splitting the legs of Leander clean from his thighs...
Gabriel summoned a typhoon of water that began to drown only Leander within it.
Griffin looked up, watching as the giant clock in the sky began to shatter.
It cracked across the sky, breaking apart and slowly fading the closer Leander got to death.
He turned his gaze back towards the god...
Leander was smiling underneath all of the force holding him down.
It was somehow...
Inspiring...
"Stop!" Griffin called out, causing everyone to cease their fighting.
The water dropped to the ground into a puddle around Leander as golden blood spilled from his body.
Michael stood up tall, looking down at Leander with dangerous indifference.
"Are we still fools?" Michael growled, clearly angry at his Headmaster.
But the world began to break apart, as Leander's smile never dared to fade.
Neveah's eye began to return to heal...
In fact...
Her empty socket began to glow golden...
"Huh?" She asked, as tears began to mix with the blood below each of her eyes.
Then... A golden eye began to construct within the empty socket where her lost eye had once been.
"Headmaster?" She began to sob, reaching up and gently touching her new eye.
Gabriel looked down at his repairing legs with a solemn expression on his face.
Michael reached up, touching his frozen jaw and shutting his eyes.
"Forgive me... I am proud of all of you... But you do not have time to grieve-"
He was cut off by Michael.
"Why did you have to die!?" He screamed, clenching his fist while staring down at Leander with enraged eyes.
"I-"
"No! You could have killed Rider easily! If you are so against the law of time! Why did you go and die for it!?" He screamed, tears forming at the corners of his eyes... But freezing before they could ever drop.
Leander only closed his eyes. His smile never ceasing.
"Because I had fulfilled my duties... You are proof of that..."
Neveah tried to embrace Leander in a hug, tears of blood and sadness streaming down her face.
However, the Dominion of time had other plans.
Reality faded.
...
Kaylynn shut her eyes and covered her ears.
She had to flee.
There was no way she could witness the gruesome battle playing out within that room.
She tried to escape... Only to nearly fall into the void.
She collapsed on the ledge.
Wondering if she should jump...
When she looked up.
To see a giant golden marble hovering above the void.
She almost turned.
But that terrible state that Chase was in... His body... He was completely destroyed...
It was unbearable to watch.
And she could do nothing.
Luke was nowhere to be found.
Hans had fallen.
Equan was dead.
Gemini could only do so much when fighting alongside Chase.
Leo was the last hope at stopping the crimson troll who had easily overpowered them...
And even he...
Was on death's door.
Then the orb cracked.
One small fracture at a time.
It began to break apart.
Her eyes widened as the orb shattered into golden dust...
And four figures began to fall from its wake...
Kaylynn reached forward, straining her catalyst in order to summon a wind strong enough to carry her friends.
"I'm here!" Gideon limped beside her, growling as he tried to control the gravity of the room once more.
Kaylynn looked up at him in horror...
His body was ruined...
His armor was gone, revealing only rags covering his bloodied body.
His face was completely incinerated...
Yet his growl became a roar.
Kaylynn...
Grit her teeth, as the green runes on her body slowly began to bleed as a torrent of wind blew her allies upward.
Michael leaped off of the torrent of wind by summoning a pillar of ice that had already began to fall into the void.
He landed with a deafening blow onto the shattered ledge.
His vision narrowed as he gazed at the ensuing chaos within that room.
His face covered in ice- No, his entire body had frozen over...
Neveah landed beside him, her face strained and her eyes-
'Eyes?' Kaylynn tilted her head in dreaded confusion as Neveah looked at her with two different colored eyes...
Gabriel landed beside her... Griffin's frozen body on his shoulders.
"How bad is it?" He asked Gideon who weakly fell into Michael's arm, stopping it from falling into the void below.
"They are going to die..." Kaylynn muttered, unable to even hear the truth of her own words.
"They won't..." Michael stepped forward, slowly placing Gideon's body on the ground.
"They already have!" Kaylynn screamed in terror.
That's when Michael seen it.
From far away, a crater stood within the wall of the distant room.
Beyond all of the flashes of current battles...
That crater... Held a body within it...
A single bow laid out across the ground below it.
Michael's heart dropped.