YOU... CAN'T...

There was no suspense.

Leonel's spear shattered against the barrier, but this time, the force of the reverberating impact was so great that the rest of his arm went with it, fragmented apart like it was metal rather than flesh and blood.

The impact didn't stop, traveling up Leonel's arm and taking out a large part of his chest.

He collapsed backward, breathing haggard breaths. His body didn't even look human anymore. It was cracked and fragmented, almost like he had become a mummified corpse.

And yet, when Leonel hit the ground, he tried to stand again with what little energy he had left.

Mordred and Monet couldn't help but feel their heart shake.

They had known Leonel for a long time, but they had never been aware of what kind of will power he had. In fact, they never knew it was possible for someone to even have this sort of will power at all. It didn't seem human in the slightest…

What they didn't know was that this same Leonel was a person who had once shed tears over a mere awakening of his own Lineage Factor. Since then, he had been through too much, seen too much.

And it was precisely why he needed to get up.

'Get up…'

Leonel coughed, but no blood came out. Still, he rose to his feet, carrying forward.

He tried to wave a hand, trying to form another spear, but the world wasn't listening to him anymore. Not only that… but he didn't even have his arms anymore.

He looked to his shoulder and felt his heart aching. Not because of his missing arm, but because of something entirely different.

The little World Spirit had grown pale and passed out long ago. Maybe that strike had been nothing but himself to begin with.

He gently picked the World Spirit up and sent her to Anastasia.

"Leonel, you…" Mordred tried to call out to Leonel, but she could tell that he wasn't listening at all.

He couldn't form spears anymore, so he pressed a hand against the barrier. Since nothing else was working, he was going to have to make a battle of soul against soul, the most dangerous kind, and the kind that would come with a backlash he certainly wouldn't be able to handle, but there was no other way.

So long as there was a chance…

Suddenly, Leonel vanished.

Both Mordred and Monet were taken aback, looking at where Leonel had just been. They hadn't sensed a single thing. Considering their power, how was that even possible?

…

Leonel stumbled forward and had nothing to catch him. He crashed into the ground, only to force himself to roll over. He didn't even have the strength to gather more Weapon Forces to heal himself, so this was all he could do for now.

Grunting, he managed to sit up once again. When he looked forward, he found his grandfather and grandmother on the grass of a peaceful garden. Or rather, Gervaise was holding Roesia up as she breathed her last.

Leonel's gaze went bloodshot.

"Grandma!"

His roar was out of place in this peaceful garden, especially considering his half-dead state.

Gervaise's gaze flickered as he looked at Leonel, then down at the woman in his arms.

Roesia stirred slightly, having heard a voice just now that she didn't expect. As for Gervaise, his own heart couldn't help but skip a beat when he saw this.

"Why aren't you saying anything?!" Leonel roared, looking at Gervaise as though he wanted to tear him apart. "Are you that incompetent that you can't understand she wants someone to talk to?! Or do you want to watch my grandmother die?!"

"Talk… to?"

Gervaise sounded confused. It was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing.

"I swear to God, Gervaise Fawkes. There's going to come a day where I pull you off that fucking throne, you incompetent piece of shit. Move!"

Leonel stomped forward and tried to shoulder check his grandfather out of the way, but even if he was in his optimal state, that wouldn't have worked… least of all now. However, Leonel didn't care, using what remained of his stamina to form small Edicts that lifted her out of Gervaise's arms.

"Grandma! Listen to me! I just got rid of a few useless grandchildren for you, it'll all be fine! Let's not get into the semantics! You're not allowed to die on me yet because you haven't made amends!"

The words Leonel was saying almost made Gervaise want to slap him to death. How was this helping at all? He was just picking at all of his grandmother's insecurities one after another.

"Get it together, woman! You know this old man is useless without you. He had no heart and no soul, all he knows how to do is use that thing swinging between his legs to create more meat shields for him to throw at the world!"

Gervaise's lip twitched. What the hell?

"Have you ever seen this useless prick on the battlefield? His greatest achievement is making me use up 217 strikes to finally get in here, and all that did was almost cause his wife to die! Can you believe this bastard?!"

The more foul words Leonel spoke, the calmer Gervaise seemed to become. He was slowly understanding something…

However, he also didn't believe that Leonel was telling even a single lie. At the very least, Leonel didn't believe that he was lying. If anything, he felt that he wasn't going hard enough. Content © 2024.

His words only began to escalate until even Gervaise's thick face was having a hard time remaining completely indifferent.

"Don't go, grandma! This shameless old man definitely wants to build a harem! The moment you're gone, this palace is going to be flooded with beauties! Each one of them inferior to you! Using up your beauty products! Frequenting places you loved to frequent! Trying to cozy up to the Emperor so that their child has an inside track to the crown!"

Gervaise coughed.

At that moment, Roesia's eyes finally fluttered. She coughed as well, but hers was far more out of weakness.

"Little… Lion… you can't… say… such things… about… about your… grandfather…"