’Could it be... that the Fox God answered his prayers?!’

Rook thought in a shock.

Then, he looked at the sword in his hand, pointed it towards the sky, and started reciting the prayer.

"No, you won’t!"

Leon sprang forward, trying to stop him, but then Raizen stepped in his way and stopped him with the spear.

The two weapons clashed.

"Grr!"

Leon gritted his teeth and started delivering immensely quick sword slashes, trying to break through the spear.

Yet.

Raizen masterfully twirled his spear in a way that he deflected and parried every single one of those sword strikes.

None of the attacks got through!

’Raizen has never been known as a defensive fighter. He has great offensive prowess, but that’s pretty much. It’s like I am fighting a completely different person.

’He isn’t Raizen!’

Leon thought with cold sweat pouring down his back, and as he looked at those orange eyes, something unfamiliar stared back at him.

He then leapt off the ground, caught himself with his angelic wings, and put the sword right in front of him.

The white ribbon on the sword flowed gracefully in the wind.

"Archangel’s White Petal Storm!"

Leon swung the sword.

From the blade of the white-hilted katana, white petals burst forth in a whirlwind of power, and they cut through anything they came in contact with.

A falling leaf happened to breeze right past. When a white petal came in contact with it, the leaf became atomized into a fine mist.

"Fox God’s Great Hunt!"

Raizen swung the spear, and the force of the blast coming from the spear clashed with the white petals.

The white petals couldn’t handle the force of the blow and were instantly destroyed. The pieces of the petals scattered in all directions, disappearing into the wind.

Yet.

The attack still continued, going for Leon!

"Argh!"

Leon smashed his beautiful sword against the blast and stopped it in its tracks, and his muscles bulged with effort as he pushed back against the force.

"Haaaaaaah!"

He let out a loud cry, and then he lifted the sword and redirected the power of the blast towards the sky.

The attack flew higher and higher... until it reached the maximum height of the tower and exploded in a brilliant display of light and energy.

"Great Roc... Great Roc... Great Roc..."

Rook finished the chant, and as he opened his eyes, he saw that nothing had changed.

It looked like he, once again, failed to make contact with the Great Roc.

’Why is the Great Roc still not answering me? Fox God answered to Raizen. Why am I being ignored?’

Rook wondered in anger.

He thought that he was missing something.

But then, in that moment...

A hand touched his head. He didn’t even dare to turn around. The hand covered his entire head, as if it were a huge hand.

A large figure stood behind him.

In that moment, gray light entered his eyes, and his eyes turned into the same shade of gray, and Rook lost control of his body.

[Great Roc has entered your body!]

[...]

Rook started growing. His legs became longer and his arms stretched out until they were twice their original length.

The clothes, strangely enough, grew alongside them, and so did his sword to adjust to his new height.

Soon.

He was easily towering over Raizen and Leon.

"..."

Raizen, possessed by the Fox God, looked silently at Rook and then turned his attention back to Leon.

’Him too... He succeeded...’

Leon gulped.

He realized that he might be in quite a bit of trouble, and it didn’t help that he was missing one limb.

Which was still bleeding, costing him health points.

’I need to drink one health potion quickly!’

Leon reached for his inventory and took out a health potion, but before he could even drink it, Raizen’s spear pierced through the glass bottle.

Shatter~! The healing liquid poured into the ground.

"Damn!"

Leon gritted his teeth.

At that moment.

A large shadow fell over him as the Great Roc—Rook—lifted his massive-looking sword like it was an extension of his own arm.

He brought it down.

If he were the previous Rook, Leon would’ve been confident enough to meet that strike head-on, but now was different.

He didn’t trust his physical strength enough to be sure that he could handle that strike!

Therefore.

Leon jumped backwards to dodge the strike, which bruised his ego quite a bit.

"Fox God’s Chasing Hunt!"

Raizen chased after him and stabbed the spear forward, its gleaming blade thrusting through the air particles.

The spear’s blade looked dangerous.

For the first time in his player career, Leon actually hesitated about his next move. Usually he would meet attacks head-on.

Now, he was simply too scared to do so!

’Damn it!’

Leon weaved out of the way while the spear just narrowly grazed past his body, missing him by mere inches.

But then.

With both hands holding the sword, the giant of a man—Rook—swung the sword like it was an axe, trying to cut a tree in half.

Leon bent his body backwards, and the giant blade went over his face, slicing a lock of his gorgeous white hair.

The sword slash still caused some damage to the landscape, and several trees behind Leon got cut in half.

"Archangel, give me power!"

Leon shouted towards the white clouds in the sky.

In that moment.

A chilling aura swept throughout the woods, and the Fox God and the Great Roc halted their attacks for a moment.

They all looked towards the sky.

Over at the white clouds, a slight silhouette of a face appeared. It was the face of an Archangel. He answered his call!

’Yes...’

Leon’s eyes shone with hope.

The eyes of the Archangel went straight for Leon, but he honestly didn’t look happy to see him. Completely opposite actually.

"You want power? You don’t deserve power, you thief. You didn’t deserve my legacy. You tricked me. I hope you die... so someone worthy of my legacy can be found!"

Archangel shouted angrily, and then, he disappeared back into the white clouds, gone as fast as he appeared.

"Ah..."

Leon was stunned, but then he clicked his tongue.

’Useless fuck. Like the rest of them. I don’t need him anyway.’

In that moment, when he was distracted, Raizen used Godspeed and ruthlessly stabbed the spear through his body.

"Ugh!"

Leon coughed out blood.

’Yes!’

’Yes!’

Raizen and Rook celebrated inside their minds, as they didn’t have control of their bodies, which included their mouths.

They thought this was it.

Leon was finally dead!

"Haah... Huff..."

Leon grabbed the spear and forcefully pulled it out of his body, and then he just laughed coldly.

"I’m not dead ye—"

He was about to say, but then Rook hacked his sword through his throat, sending the head rolling across the ground.

Blood spurted out in all directions.

Leon’s body dropped to its knees. Without a head, he was definitely dead. It was all over. The strongest player in the tower had died!

Fox God and Great Roc took a step back.

Then, their mouths opened, and orange light and gray light poured out of their mouths and escaped back to the sky.

[Fox God Possession has ended!]

[Great Roc Possession has ended!]

"...He is finally dead."

Rook laughed coldly, looked at Leron with apathy, and then kicked his body so that it would fall to the ground.

"Whew... That didn’t go exactly like planned, but in the end, only the result matters."

Raizen said with a sigh of relief.

The tower was now going to change with Leon dead. The power hierarchy needed rearranging.

"We need to go break the news to others that Leon is dead."

Raizen then said.

"...Seonwoo won’t be happy."

Rook scoffed.

"Does not matter. She can throw a tantrum all she want."

Raizen said.

They were about to leave, but then they started hearing strange sounds, like something slimy was squirming.

"What the hell is..."

Rook turned around, and what he saw made his eyes go round, and then Raizen also turned around.

His eyes showing disbelief.

The corpse of Leon was standing. On two feet.

Then, the corpse regrew the missing left arm. It was brand new, like he never lost it. And then, a new head sprouted from his neck.

Leon was back whole.

"What the fuck?"

Rook asked in disbelief.

"...This is impossible. He lost his head. That’s considered an Instant Kill. Nobody can survive that. Literally nobody."

Raizen said.

"Is that some ability of his legacy that we didn’t know about? That maybe he has a second life or some shit?"

Rook asked.

"I don’t know, but none of this makes sense... He has so many new strange abilities that he never revealed to us."

Raizen thought with cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

They were already quite exhausted from the fight—and now Leon was back at full strength and full health.

It wasn’t looking good!

"I’ll rip your two’s insides out and hang you with them even if it’s the last thing I do. You’ve made the biggest mistake in your whole life."

Leon said coldly.

Rage was burning hotter than a thousand suns inside him. He wanted nothing more than to kill these two men.

No matter what!

But at that moment, they all sensed something with Read. Something was approaching their position.

It wasn’t something, but someone.

’Someone is coming? Someone from Dead Redemption?’

Rook thought.

And at that moment, he had only one wish, and that was for that someone to be an ally and not an enemy.

’Please, let it be Hermes.’

Raizen thought with a serious look in his eyes.