Leon turned to see his disciple sprawled out on the floor, groaning in pain. The crimson suit of armor had vanished, and Leon hypothesized that if she had worn it a minute longer, she would not have survived.
“You did well, Alice.”
To be honest, Leon would have preferred to have helped for real, without resorting to the scroll of illusion, but he was simply too beat-up to be of any use. It pained him to leave all the fighting to Alice, but there was no other choice. The least he could do was show his appreciation, and with that, he turned his back on the pillar of flame, leaving it with only these words:
“I’m looking ahead, Rheina. I have a new life now with her. I’m sorry if you can’t accept that.”
His mind felt lighter, like a huge burden had been lifted.
The temple knights and adventurers in the city would be able to handle the remaining ghouls.
“Maybe when this is all over, I’ll take her out for dinner. I suppose I can afford to treat her after what she’s done. It’d be great if Emilia could join us…but perhaps that’s asking too much.”
When Leon thought of the future, his heart filled with warmth. He never thought he’d learn how to enjoy life again. It was Alice who taught him that. She was his light, his life, his—
“What, you think this is over?” came a sneering voice.
Leon looked down, where a silver streak of light had just pierced his torso.
“Rgh…?!”
The mask fell from his face and clattered to the ground, just before Leon himself slumped over onto the cold, hard earth.
“Master!” came his pupil’s scream. She turned, but as much as she wanted to run over to him, she could not. Terror rooted her to the spot, unable to move. Unable to do anything but watch her worst nightmare unfold.
“That was unexpected,” said the angel, in defiance of the burning pillar of flame that should have just scorched him to ash.
“I really thought I was about to snuff it there. I haven’t felt so dead since, oh…four years ago?”
He was alive. Rheinhardt was still alive. There wasn’t a single mark anywhere on him.
“Man, I really messed up. It’s not like I don’t know the limitations of my own power, it’s just…well, you know what happens, partner. I get all excited, and it’s like my brain switches off. You almost had me for a moment!”
Rheinhardt wore a triumphant smile as he stood over Leon, basking in his victory.
“But, you know, it was the damnedest thing… So there I was, about to be burned to death, when I thought, Hey, I wonder if I could use this heat energy to fuel my powers. Never once tried it before, but it’s like Master always said: ‘Don’t give up, and keep moving forward, because you never know what you’re capable of until the moment of truth.’ And you know what, partner? Turns out she was damn right!”
The angel had managed to evolve his dark powers at the very last moment. Rheinhardt Crossline. He was truly unlike any other fiend Leon had ever faced.
“Now, then,” he said, turning his violet eyes on Leon’s beloved apprentice. “Let’s start with you.”
“N…no, don’t…!”
Leon could barely even speak. The hole in his torso was so large that Leon knew…
…he was not long for this world.
He was healing it as best he could with his regenerative powers, but they wouldn’t be enough to finish the job. This wound was beyond his ability.
And so…Leon Crossheart would soon die. A permanent end to a sorry tale.
“M-Master…!”
In her face, in her eyes, in her voice, there was only love.
She needed to run. She needed to live at all costs. Leon knew that soon he would meet a miserable end, but he could think of nothing else.
“Aww, what a heartwarming relationship,” said the angel. “Excuse me while I throw up.”
No.
Stop.
Don’t hurt her.
Do what you want to me, but don’t hurt her.
“Rhei…na!”
He couldn’t move a single muscle. He was going to die. She was going to die. Alice, his disciple. His love.
“Time to give up, partner. There’s only one thing you can do, and that’s lie there and die as I break your pretty little doll.”
His mind felt weak. There wasn’t long left. Leon bore the weight of his heavy lids as every last emotion was stripped away from him. All the regrets. All the fear. All his motivation to do something, anything. And finally, his love.
Ah, so this is death.
All that remained in Leon’s heart after the Reaper stole everything away…was despair. There was nothing he could do. Nothing to escape his fate. He could only wait for the darkness to claim him.
Only wait…
“Now, ‘No!’ how should ‘Stop!’ I kill you?”
But just as Leon accepted his lot, he heard something very strange.
“Perhaps I ought ‘I can’t move.’ to test out my ‘Can’t move’ new power. Make ‘a single’ something of an ‘muscle’ art exhibition of you.”
Another voice was mixed in with the angel’s.
“Hey, part—‘I can’t give up.’ How do ‘I can’t let this be the end.’ want to die?”
Gradually, the voice became stronger, replacing the angel’s own speech.
“Not ‘I swore an oath.’ I ‘On my sister’s grave.’ care. ‘To make her dreams come true.’”
It was the voice of his old friend, crying out.
“So why can’t I do anything?!”
Some small part of Rheinhardt was still in there, a light shining in the darkness.
“Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Please! Stop!”
He was crying. Weeping for the violence his body had wrought.
“It’s no use. I can’t stop it. I’m not…strong enough.”
Leon felt his brother’s grief. His brother’s pain.
“Please, partner. Please.”
“You have to help me!”
Rheinhardt’s plea pierced the innermost confines of Leon’s mind. And where the body failed, the mind prevailed.
“Urgh…rrgh…rrraaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
Already he could feel himself melting away, but it barely registered. His friend, his brother, was crying out for help, and what kind of man could let such a call go unanswered? Reality was powerless to stop him from taking the hand Leon had forsaken all those years ago.
“Rhei…NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
He grabbed his gun. He pulled the trigger. He fired.
The recoil broke his arm, but that wasn’t enough to stop Leon. He held the gun in place through sheer force of will. He fired a second shot. A third. A fourth.
“I won’t let you have her…!”
His future. Leon’s hope shattered his despair.
“Rheina! I swear to you…!”
His past. Leon’s grief overpowered his fear.
And in that moment, Leon Crossheart finally learned what courage meant.
“…No matter how much you break me, I will never give up on salvation!”
His red-hot emotions brought with them immense power. Infinite courage running through his veins. All the despair from the past four years, all the hope from looking to the future, all those threads converged here, at this very moment.
“…Well now, what’s this?”
Leon couldn’t hear the voice of his friend anymore. But he was still there, waiting to be saved.
“Still up for a fight, are you?” the angel grinned. “Oh, I’ve never seen you look so pathetic.”
He had to free the real Rheinhardt. Leon’s friend. His brother. At all costs. Even if it was an unwinnable fight.
“I’ve changed my mind, partner. I’ll start with you instead.”
He had to save them both. His friend. His pupil.
Only then could he live the dream he once threw away. The dream called Alice.
He needed to live. Both for the new, and for the old. And for that, he needed to deliver salvation.
“Ha! Well, you’ve got enthusiasm, partner. I’ll give you that. But I’m afraid it’s not going to do you any good at all.”
Leon looked up as the angel adopted a stance to finish him off, gathering light and converting it into heat.
Leon was sure his death was imminent. He would die without ever making up for his mistakes.
…But so what?
Abandonment, fear, despair, all of it was gone.
There was only courage and determination.
He would never give up.
But as if to ridicule the mere thought, the angel sneered.
“See you on the other side, partner.”
He fired his light, the light of apocalypse.
And at that moment, it descended from the heavens, like a jet-black bolt of lightning.
It landed between Rheinhardt and Leon, taking the beam meant for the ghoul. The light scattered and vanished, dissipating into the air with no effect.
“…Hey, what the hell is this?”
From Rheinhardt’s lips came a troubled voice, as the onyx scabbard of Calit Gelius flew over to Leon. It glowed with a radiant light, completely healing Leon’s wounds before his very eyes.
“…I see. Somehow I always knew it was you.”
When he saw the sword, Leon finally realized just who had been watching over him all this time. Calit Gelius possessed a mind of its own. And now Leon knew just whose mind that was.
“Ugh,” spat the angel. “So that’s how it’s going to be? Now the sword’s betraying me?”
No. This was no betrayal.
She came to save her two disciples, just as she had done many times before. If she had betrayed anyone, it was her only remaining relative.
“Emilia’s not going to like this, you know,” said Leon. “Some big sister you are.”
The sword remained silent, but Leon felt as though he could feel his teacher’s embarrassed smile somewhere within it.
And then, he heard a voice.
Courage comes from a burning heart, Leon.
You never had anything to fuel it with before.
You were just a little kid who depended on us for everything.
But you do now, don’t you? Now you know what courage is.
Now you’re ready to be my successor.
Take it. Take hold of your life, Leon.
The sword offered its hilt. As Leon held it, he felt warmth flowing through his arm, into his mind.