Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 103: Lose Yourself or Lose Them
Leon’s spirit form trembled violently. "Why... why didn’t I heal? Like before?" His own voice echoed in a hollow tone.
The faceless being drew closer. It had no mouth, yet it spoke. No eyes, yet Leon felt its gaze clawing at the fabric of his soul.
From the hollow space where a face should be, two words burned into the air and seared themselves into Leon.
YOU WASTED ALL
Strangely, Leon’s spirit began to unravel. He watched, detached in his horror, as the fingers of his left hand dissolved into wisps of faint light, then into nothingness.
"WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME?" His gaze remained lifted to the being and the dissolving form of his left part, which was now at his elbow.
"Acknowledge and accept the devil and creator within you as you," the voice thundered, shaking the foundation of the white pane.
’This is hell!’ Panic seized Leon more than any he’d felt in the physical world. He staggered forward, his knees collapsing on the blinding floor.
Part of his shoulder was already gone. He clasped his remaining right hand at his chest in a pathetic gesture of petition, bowing his head.
’Please,’ he thought, but no sound came.
The being’s voice boomed again, this time having a final tone of death: "You must choose: lose yourself... or lose your loved ones."
The words hung in the air. And with them, his mother’s face – weak, blind, waiting. His sister’s frail yet enough to trust. And finally, his father’s solemn.
He cracked his eyes open and forced his disintegrating back to straighten. He tilted his face upward and faced the being, half of his spirit form already gone.
Words pushed out from him, each one fading with part of the remaining form. "I... choose... to lose... myself."
For a heartbeat, an absolute silence slammed his floating head, which was already dissipating.
Then, the faceless being grinned, followed by a slash of cruel light that appeared in the void of its face.
"AS YOU WISH!"
The white world fractured with a sensation of shattering irreversibly. The being, the plain, the dissipated motes, all collapsed inward.
Gritty wind tore across the bloodied canyon floor. It blasted over Leon’s still, broken body, and stirred his matted hair.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The pool of blood around him began to bubble with soft, grotesque pops.
A lone wolf-creature, smaller and scavenger-cunning, which had survived Leon’s strikes, prowled closer, its eyes fixed on the vulnerable neck.
Its jaws parted, strings of saliva dripping, ready to sink its teeth into the still-warm, ready-served flesh.
In the deepest and most dormant part of Leon’s shattered mind, a panel flickered, then solidified with a harsh sound.
STATUS:
Name: Leon Storm
Rank: E
Level: Locked
Tier: Awakened (Tier 1 – Unstable)
Class: Awakened
Title: Creator-Type (Unverified)
Strength: 9
Agility: 12
Speed: 12
Endurance: 7
Intelligence: 15
Willpower: 18
Potential: 1
Durability: 2
Authority: 0
Existential Weight: 1.9 (Unstable)
Structural Capacity: Undefined
Life Span Integrity: Failing
Existence Anchor: Weak 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
Existence Grade: ERROR
Social Grade: Unregistered
Legal Status: Illegal (Passive Violation)
Skill Expression Grade: E
Talent Grade: Average
Growth Rate: Average
Efficiency Modifier: 1.7x
Stamina: 9 / 9
Mental Load: High
Existential Strain: Present
SYSTEM FLAGS
Creator and Devil Function Detected
Authority Access: Locked
Life Span Insufficient for Authorization
Continuum Compliance: Failed
Risk of Existential Collapse: Elevated
As the status data seared itself into the root of his being, a spiral thin hot gold light erupted from the center of Leon’s chest.
The force flung nearby pebbles and debris into the air, squeezing a fresh trickle of dark blood from his wounds. His skin turned pale as snow.
Amidst the force moving through the ground, the wolf crept closer and lowered its jaws...
Leon’s right hand shot up and moved with a rigid, autonomous precision.
THUD.
The wolf’s muzzle connected with the palm with a wet, crunching groan. Then, it recoiled, whining and shaking its head.
Two distinct streams of deep gold light and an electric white light coiled out from Leon’s wristband and his heart.
They spiraled around his broken body like serpents of energy, weaved over his torn leg, his pierced shoulders, and his shattered ribs.
At every part they passed, the flesh knitted with a visible stitch of light. Bones snapped audibly back into alignment.
When the last wound sealed, the light exploded outward in a blinding flare.
FWOOOSH!
It burned across the ground, vaporizing every creature that dared charge at him, leaving nothing but ash where they had once stood.
The last strand of the healing light dissolved into Leon’s chest with a final, dying hum. His body lowered gently until the soles of his black boots brushed the churned, bloody earth.
For a moment, he simply hung there as if the world itself was unsure where to place him.
Then, with a shuddering inhalation that sounded like stone grinding on stone, his eyes snapped open.
The irises were no longer brown; they had darkened to a near-black, pupils swallowed the light. Deep within them, white fire flickered.
The moment his feet settled on the ground, his body sagged, nearly buckling. Yet, the earth beneath him responded with a thrumming pulse that traveled up through the rock and into his bones.
Each cycle made his body shudder as a series of brutal cracks echoed from within his chest and limbs. Bones settled and knitted into new alignments with screams.
From the far distance, bestial heads turned as one from the tops of shattered ridges. Snarls, clicks, and guttural hisses ripped through the air.
The swarm stirred with a renewed fury, drawn by the vibrant life signature now pulsing from Leon.
The first creature that shot up was the spider-ant hybrid. It erupted from a crevice, its six armored legs gouging trenches in the stone as it charged.
Behind it, waves of other tentacled stalkers, wolf-beasts with dripping maws, and bat-like creatures whose throat sacs were already glowing with sonic forces.
Dust spiraled around Leon as the tide closed in.
Six of the spider-ant hybrids broke from the pack and moved with terrifying coordination.
Their forelegs, which were sharper than steel, rose in unison to skewer and dissect the still-sagging figure.
