I'M SORRY

"Leonel!"

Aina's eyes opened wide, and she rushed forward. The distance between herself and Leonel was far too large. Even though it had felt like they were just within arm's reach before, the scale of the battle had been far too large. What was just a step for a God before was still far too much for the current Aina. She still had a lot of room for growth.

She could only watch as her husband hit the ground, an enormous dust cloud rising up into the skies as though a nuke had just been set off.

She rushed through the torrent of spinning, twisting dust clouds that battered against her skin like knives as though she couldn't feel them at all, rushing to Leonel's side.

By this point, the battlefield was filled with far too much trepidation to even move. The amount of fear that Leonel had burrowed into their very bone marrow was difficult for them to deal with. It was as though their feet were rooted in place and their bodies were out of their control as their souls fled.

Watching Leonel get his heart taken out of his chest didn't change any of that feeling at all. In fact, they were still under the impression that he could just stand up whenever he wanted.

It was only Aina, who was the most worried for him compared to anyone else, who immediately treated him no differently from any other human.

But it was also because of this fear and this feeling that Leonel was a monster that allowed him to escape the fate of others taking advantage of his situation… at least for now.

Aina skidded along the ground on her knees, coming to a stop by Leonel's side and hurriedly picking his neck up from the floor. Tears fell from her cheeks in a torrent, battering the ground with almost the same incessant pestering of rainfall.

She reached for the hole in his chest but didn't dare to touch it, her eyes flickering between a torrent of sadness and a fury that couldn't be suppressed. She was having a hard time suppressing her impulse to shatter and kill everything in sight.

Leonel's brothers rushed after Aina, but by this point, the Destruction World that had held out strong until now had also shattered.

Luckily, Leonel had long since wiped out all of the enemies that had come to support the Primordial Terror. And interestingly enough, those that he had spared—a number that mostly included the Fallen God Beasts—didn't immediately take action either. However, they seemed to be stopped by something that was more than just fear alone.

Leonel's eyes were dull and almost lifeless. There was just a small strand of what could be considered consciousness remaining.

Just now, his body felt like it had truly been stripped of everything. Although the Demoness had only taken his heart, his heart had long become the root of almost everything.

He had two Nodes in his heart, his Morales Lineage Factor, at least the evolved version, had once expanded his heart and took it to be a core of its being as well. He had even refined his heart using his Northern Star Lineage Factors, and it had become a core of his strength of body.

It could be said that even though the Demoness had only wanted one thing, she had effectively taken everything. And maybe from the beginning, that was the plan.

Wasn't she the one who created the Morales Lineage Factor to begin with? Wasn't she the one who gave him Scarlet Star Force Innate Nodes that acted as a continuous refinement for his Bloodline? Wasn't she the one who had perfect control of his Dream Asura bloodline from the very beginning?

Everything she did, even playing the True God Beast of Destruction in the palm of her hand, was always meant to lead up to this very moment.

Leonel had known how it would end. He hadn't even bothered to fight back because it would have been a waste of effort. Not only was she far more powerful than he could even fathom in that state, but she would also have a dozen different plans and counterplans in case he escaped her control by some means or another. Content © 2024.

She was simply the most intelligent person that he had ever met, and the only person he had ever known to have intelligence rivaling his own.

The difference was that he was born too late. She had been able to move the chessboard as she pleased by then… and even when Leonel thought that he had jumped out of her game, he had only landed on a far larger board.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to see it until it was far… far too late.

However, Leonel didn't feel angry. As he felt his life slipping away, he held onto his wife's hand. At the very least, she would be safe. He knew she would be… because now that the Demoness was gone, they should be coming soon.

This time, he would die first. But that was fine. The other path… the one where he held on out of stubbornness, even at the cost of their lives… that wasn't a life worth living.

He believed in his wife, in his brothers. He had helped them lay a foundation, and in the future, they would be able to take those final steps themselves.

He didn't know what the plans of the Demoness were, but now… he would just have to rely on them to get it done.

"I'm sorry, Aina…" he said softly. "… This time, I didn't win."

He spoke in a soft voice, using what remained of his strength to squeeze her hand.

Aina felt like she heard the sound of her heart shattering into countless pieces.

"No, no, no…" her voice was even softer than Leonel's as though she was afraid that speaking too loudly would awaken him.

It was right then that everyone seemed to realize that Leonel was truly finished this time.

Cynthia's gaze flashed with a malevolent light. "ATTACK!"