"Ugh... Damn it..."

Leon grabbed his head, suddenly feeling very lightheaded.

He was feeling nausea, a feeling of dizziness, and even sleepiness, as if he had been staying up for thirty hours.

Raizen lifted his spear, the blade inching closer to Leon’s face, and he backed away till his back touched the wall behind him.

He was trapped.

There was a reason why they took him here with limited space. They were scared of Leon’s evasive capabilities.

If they had done this outside, there was a good chance that Leon could just escape, even when poisoned.

But in here...

There was simply no room!

"You think the others will be fine with you killing me? They’re not going to let you get away with this."

Leon said coldly.

"...You have no idea, do you? Every one of us has thought about killing you. We just made the first move."

Rook said coldly.

"This is competition, after all. You’re the greatest threat. It was only a matter of time before you had to die."

Raizen said.

"Hahaha... years of friendship... down the drain."

Leon chuckled coldly.

A very sad laugh, as if he was really feeling betrayed.

Then, the laugh stopped.

Leon dashed forward, his eyes filled with a mixture of anger and sadness. He tried lunging past the two.

"You’re not going anywhere!"

Raizen blocked his path and swung the long spear at him, but Leon bent his body in a way that allowed him to go under the spear.

He slid on the ground, going past Raizen, and made a run for it, but then he sensed something moving in the shadows behind him.

"Great Roc’s Impalement!"

Rook, with the sword, attacked from behind, the sword inching closer to his exposed back.

Leon touched the wall with his foot, then used it to flip over the sword’s blade and landed gracefully back on the ground.

"ARGH!"

Leon screamed, and he pushed his body to the absolute limit, and as he activated Godspeed, he felt his muscles scream in protest.

But he didn’t care.

He pushed forward, moving through the dark tunnel with speed that would leave ordinary players mute.

He was indeed fast!

It didn’t matter that he was poisoned. It didn’t matter that he didn’t have a weapon with him. He was still Leon D. Hart!

"We can’t let him escape!"

Rook screamed, and he immediately chased after Leon with Raizen, using Godspeed to the absolute limit.

They were slowly catching up to Leon, but sadly, the tunnel wasn’t long enough, and soon Leon reached the end of it.

"Skydance!"

Leon kicked on the air, propelling himself out of the hole and towards the dark sky, but immediately after, the two young men followed him right behind.

"Fox God’s Killing Blade!"

Raizen thrust his spear towards him, but Leon slightly shifted his body to the side while in the air, but the blade still grazed his chest.

"Argh!"

Leon gritted his teeth.

Because his inventory had blocked access, he couldn’t pull out his weapon from there. If only he had a weapon, he could fight back.

’No, I don’t need a weapon... I AM STRONGEST!’

Leon’s eyes turned cold, and at that moment, his silver hair turned white, and so did his clothes—pure white like snow on the coldest winter day.

Out of his proud back, a pair of white-feathered wings sprouted out. They weren’t like Rook’s vulture wings. These wings were pure and holy.

"He is doing his Legacy Transformation!"

Rook shouted.

’Leon’s legacy is one of the strongest legacies in the entire tower. A legacy of an Archangel. It’s a tier above mine and Rook’s.’

Raizen thought with a serious look in his eyes.

"Yes..."

Leon reached out his hand towards the sky, and out of nowhere, white clouds started to gather overhead.

In that moment, white light surrounded Leon’s hand, and he formed that hand into a powerful-looking fist.

With a sharp gaze, he looked down at Raizen and Rook—hatred burning deep in Leon’s eyes—powerful hate.

"Both of you... will die!"

Leon screamed and jumped towards Raizen, and at that moment, his fist pushed through the air with immense strength.

"Archangel’s Smash!"

Raizen twirled his spear around and blocked the fist with the shaft of the weapon, causing a loud clash that echoed through the forest.

The block was successful.

"Ah?!"

Leon’s eyes shook as he noticed just how little impact the attack really had, and he felt very weak suddenly.

It was the poison!

’This poison... is draining all my energy and strength!’

"We planned this very thoroughly because we respect your strength, Leon. You cannot fight back in your current state."

Raizen said coldly, and suddenly, he thrust his spear forward, going for Leon’s face, and at the last possible minute, he moved his head out of the way.

But the spear’s sharp blade grazed his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

Swoosh~!

Then, Rook flew with the help of the vulture wings, met them in the sky, and slashed across Leon’s back.

"Ugh!"

Leon grimaced as he felt the sting of the blade.

’That can’t be... Raizen used Maxima in that attack to destroy my Read, so I wouldn’t be able to sense Rook coming from behind me...’

It annoyed him to no end that Raizen was one of the smartest fighters that he had ever known, and he had to admit that he was smarter than him.

"Noo!"

Leon, with the help of the angel wings, started flying away, moving through the air like a white-flaming comet.

He couldn’t fight back.

He had to escape!

"Where do you think you are going?"

But then, Rook caught up to him with ease and punched him out of the sky, sending him crashing into the ground.

BOOM!

The ground shook as Leon smashed through the ground, and all the wildlife scurried away in fear.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Leon screamed, and his Cry For Help echoed throughout the forest, hoping that there was someone who heard him.

’There’s nobody... I can’t rely on anyone... Fuck it, I don’t care about the consequences anymore. I don’t want to die and lose everything.’

Leon’s eyes turned cold.

...

Raizen grabbed Rook’s talons, and he flew them over to the location where Leon was, and they landed near the crater.

"This is going better than I expected."

Rook said.

"...Leon is not a foolish man. We knew that, but he is an overconfident one and trusts his friends too much."

Raizen said.

Everyone in the tower had talked about how there would come a day when Dead Redemption members tried to kill Leon.

Leon had also heard all about those things.

So, he knew that there would come a possibility that something like that would happen, and yet, he followed them all the way here.

All alone.

It was maybe because of overconfidence that came with his strength. Or maybe because he trusted these two too much.

’They wouldn’t do that,’ he most likely thought.

"He used Cry For Help. We’re still too far away from them to hear, right?"

Rook asked.

"Yeah. We added the possibility of him escaping the tunnel to our calculations. His Cry For Help has about five miles of range.

"The tunnel is about seven miles away from the lodge. Leon traversed about a mile just now, so as long as we don’t allow him to travel another mile, we’ll be just fine."

Raizen said.

"Good."

Rook nodded.

In that moment, from the dust cloud in front of them, a white-winged young man walked out, looking quite beaten.

A slightly swollen right cheek. Dirty white clothes. A thin cut on his cheekbone. Bleeding sword wound on his back.

It was none other than Leon D. Hart.

It was a rare sight to see him this injured, as most enemies wouldn’t even have been able to scratch him, let alone injure him.

"Let’s finish this."

Rook grabbed the sword with both hands, looking at the blade with his vulture eyes, and then surrounded the blade with his Maxima.

Maxima was like an invisible fire.

It looked like the blade was burning, but it wasn’t. The strongest Maxima users could create an illusion of transparent fire.

Raizen pulled his spear back—going into a thrusting stance—he remembered his early training days with Rock.

Day after day, he trained under the hot sun, perfecting his skills.

Thousands... Tens of thousands... Hundreds of thousands of times he kept striking a tree with his spear.

Until his spear felt like an extension of his arm.

"Hahaha..."

At that moment, out of nowhere, Leon started laughing so much that his shoulders began to shake uncontrollably.

Rook and Raizen frowned.

With a crazy smirk, Leon reached out his hand to empty air next to him and pulled something out of thin air.

It was a sword with a beautiful-looking white hilt and a white ribbon streaming down the blade—a truly beautiful blade.

"That’s impossible!"

Rook shouted.

"His access to inventory is blocked, so how can this be?"

Raizen was shocked as well.

"How long are the poison’s effects?!"

"It should last till he drinks the antidote. It definitely shouldn’t end in five minutes!"

"Maybe you got scammed with some shitty product!"

Rook screamed angrily.

’It can’t be... Sadie is very trustworthy. There is a reason why every top player uses her services: because she is the best there is.

’This poison is perfect. I tested it myself a few days ago to make sure there was nothing wrong with it.

’What the hell is going on? This makes no sense!’