Pain was supposed to be duller the second time. Predictable. Something you could handle.
But as Leo tumbled through the broken mist, limbs moving through the void like they weren't his, every nerve lit up like fire swallowing a wire.
But then nothing broke. No blood flowed. The screaming pain remained, but his body stayed whole.
The echo of impact hummed in his ribs, trailing heat across his skin like memory rather than consequence. In that suspended heartbeat, while the mist blurred past and the world tipped sideways, Leo's mouth curved upward.
Understanding.
So it's like my perk, huh? He thought. Every blow they threw carried weight and consequences. Every scream of muscle, every hitch in breath, burned real as fire. But scars? Those never existed.
"It's okay to go all out," Leo whispered to himself.
Amanda moved with purpose. Her blades rippled in both hands, their edges vibrating like they were listening for a command not yet spoken. Her breathing remained even, unhurried, until the world blinked and Leo vanished.
Where empty air had been, Leo now stood face to face with her, so close his breath warmed her cheek.
His hands snapped forward, locking around hers. Fingers closed over wrists like steel traps.
Gentle traps.
Amanda's expression held steady, but her breath caught in her throat.
"Your eyes," Leo said, voice low.
"I've never seen them shine like this before."
Amanda blinked, caught between movement and stillness.
Leo leaned closer.
"Maybe it's time you did what you actually wanted."
She tensed, shoulders flickering with the motion, her next breath drawn too sharp and quick. When she tried to move, her body refused to obey.
The air around her had turned solid as stone.
Leo's smile was faint and peaceful. Distant. Then he disappeared again.
Amanda stumbled forward, her body moving without command, caught off-balance. Two staggering steps, blades dipping as she fought to regain control. Sharp breath escaped her lips as she steadied herself and spun around just in time to see Leo reappear.
He materialized mid-air, already in motion, his fist cutting through space like a comet aimed straight at Cris.
Cris barely raised his hand in time. Mist gathered fast and thick around him, a barrier conjured by pure instinct. The defensive shell of compressed essence formed circularly and densely, but Leo's fist didn't slow. It punched through the mist like it was nothing more than morning fog.
The shield crumbled on contact. Scattering. The force behind the blow sent Cris flying backwards, his body twisting through the air, arms flailing helplessly. A snarl started on his lips before velocity ripped it away. His figure carved a streak through the mist like a wrecking ball through fog.
Cris landed hard. Mist coiled upward around him then, slowly rained down like a time-slowed event.
Leo touched down shortly after, crouched low with one palm pressed against the clouded floor.
Heavy silence settled over them all. Ranna stood quietly. Amanda remained frozen. And Cris groaned somewhere in the haze, while Leo stood.
Ranna's eyes locked on Leo.
Still.
Unblinking.
A bead of sweat slipped down her cheek. Awe. She didn't wipe it away.
"That's not how a non-adventurer moves," she muttered under her breath.
The mist trembled around her in response, as if echoing the realization.
Her fingers curled slightly at her sides. The air near her wrists shimmered. Her aura, already sharp, flared wider. Deepening.
"Amanda." Her voice cracked.
Amanda looked up.
Ranna didn't blink.
"He's right," she said simply, eyes still locked on Leo.
"Maybe it really is the best time for you to try the thing we talked about before."
Amanda didn't answer with words.
She just closed her eyes.
Breathed out slowly, steadily.
And when she opened them again, the world shattered beneath her.
Violently.
Magic circles bloomed.
Soft at first, then pulsing with impossible depth.
Three beneath her. Three beneath Ranna. Three beneath Cris, who froze mid-rise, startled into stillness as the symbols spun beneath his boots like orbiting planets.
Etchings flowed across the circles in threads of white-blue and violet gold.
Amanda's hair fluttered upward. Her irises shimmered. No longer just crimson, but streaked with that same impossible violet as the circles below.
Ranna grinned.
"You absolute little liar," she said, breathless with delight. Her coat snapped behind her as she began to run.
"You didn't tell me you had Eidolon-class skill this whole time?"
Amanda burst forward beside her, steps soundless, but impact undeniable. Each stride bent the mist away like it knew better than to resist.
"You're the one who said adventurers shouldn't share everything they know," Amanda replied, the corners of her mouth tilting up.
Ranna laughed, wild and sharp and joyful in a way that made the whole moment tilt sideways into something bigger than training. Bigger than war.
"Damn right I said that!"
The two of them met eyes mid-sprint.
Just a nod.
That was all it took.
Then Ranna blurred. Truly blurred. Her speed broke the rules of form, her outline warping like heat-haze around a star. Amanda followed an instant behind, blades drawn, her expression caught between focus and fire.
Leo didn't run.
He stood calm, centered, waiting.
Waiting not for the attack.
But for the understanding that would come with it.
Because whatever they were about to bring, he was ready to remember.
Then in just a fraction of time, everything was swallowed.
White.
Total.
Unyielding.
Sound vanished in the same breath. Replaced by a blank white noise that wasn't loud or muted, but everything. A wall of static that didn't come through ears. It climbed inside them, hijacked every sense until their own bodies no longer belonged to them.
Amanda staggered, blades flickering in and out of existence like they weren't sure they were real.
Cris fell to one knee, hands clutching his ears. Disoriented. Dismantled. Even his magic, once coiled around his arms like loyal hounds, had scattered. Gone silent.
Ranna didn't fall. She didn't flinch.
But her lips parted.
And that was the proof anyone needed.