"I gave you time to save them both. Didn’t I?" Aurelian said and neared An Lang. "This one is already dead. If I were you, I would rather chase after the girl when I’m set free."

The invisible wall collapsed and caused Leon to fall face flat on the ground. He pushed himself up quickly then dashed toward Aurelian again.

"Seriously?" Aurelian’s face went pale for a second before sidestepping, making Leon run past him and smack into the Syrs.

Leon sliced off the Syrs holding An Lang’s arms and drove him aside, but An Lang collapsed on the ground and began gushing blood unstoppably.

"Leon," he called out but the voice was too thin for Leon to hear.

At An Lang’s front, Leon stood there, holding Wu Ze’s sword with both hands, pointing the blade at the Syrs that tried to near it, while exhaling sharply.

"Don’t dare come close." He screamed and when some of the Syrs laughed and neared, Leon sliced their hands off before they could even lay a hand on him.

When Aurelian moved forward, Leon swung the sword but he caught it and hurled it out of Leon’s hands.

"I thought you were different from these maggots." He said, but looking at Leon with disgusted eyes. "I saw something in you but I was wrong."

Aurelian slammed his boot into Leon’s stomach, sending him collapsing beside An Lang.

"You have the blood of a god but don’t cherish it." He said, pointing a finger at Leon, while closing in on him.

"You have the strength that could destroy the entire human race, but choose to be weak and live the life the poor are living."

He grabbed An Lang by the shoulder and pulled him up.

"Aurelian, STOP!" Leon screamed but Aurelian only looked at Leon then smiled.

"Look how foolish humans are." Aurelian said then leaned against An Lang’s left ear, then whispered faint words in his head. "Fight him."

An Lang’s eyes remained dull for half a second, then blazed. When Aurelian loosened his grip on him, An Lang’s body began to regenerate on its own, the wound on his stomach sealed up while the rat which had been eating him from the inside exited from his mouth as a skeleton.

"You see how humans get controlled without any effort?" Aurelian said and moved a step back, laughing. "Now let’s see if you will have the gut you wanted to kill me with in killing your own friend."

Aurelian’s face changed. "Did I say friend? Your half-brother."

Leon’s eyes widened when he looked at Aurelian and shifted his gaze to An Lang, then back to Aurelian. ’My half-brother?’

The words looped in Leon’s head so loud that he didn’t even see when An Lang surged forward and began attacking him like a zombie.

An Lang’s fist caught Leon’s jaw before he could finish reading the look in his eyes and sent him sliding two steps sideways.

Leon caught himself on one knee, wiped the blood from his mouth, then looked at it.

When he looked up, An Lang was already heading toward him, carrying the eyes of an animal and not a friend.

"An Lang, stop!" Leon said and pushed himself up, trying not to fight back. But An Lang drove a knee into Leon’s ribs and grabbed him by the collar.

He whirled Leon around then swung him against the wall. The Opal surface pulsed as Leon crashed into it before hitting the ground.

Leon pushed himself up, wiped the blood off his nose and looked up. "An Lang, stop, it’s me."

He stopped for a moment, looked at the sword lying on the floor beside Leon, then back at Leon, while breathing sharply.

When he went after the sword and grabbed it, Leon raised both hands slowly while stepping back.

An Lang swung it, but Leon ducked, causing the blade to scrape the wall where his head had been. Opal dust fell from the surface and glowed on the way down, but their light trailed into Leon’s body without him even knowing.

"An Lang, listen to me." Leon said, while moving in circles. "You know me. You know my voice. Please stop!"

An Lang didn’t listen, he just dashed forward faster.

Leon caught him by the wrist and held both the arm and the sword, looked straight into his eyes, but ended up seeing nothing, not anger or hunger, but the eyes of a person whose soul was already dead.

An Lang slammed his forehead on Leon’s, which caused Leon’s vision to whiten while he unconsciously loosened his grip on him and the sword.

The heat of the liquid fire flew against Leon’s back as he staggered two steps toward it, but managed to stop in time.

He turned, looked at the fire, then back at An Lang. ’If I save him, he dies. If I leave him, he dies. Which one should I do?’

An Lang closed in before Leon could finish settling his action in his head.

"I’m sorry, An Lang." Leon said as he pivoted and shoved An Lang toward the liquid fire, but grabbed him when he nearly fell into it.

When Leon tried pulling him from the edge of the fire, An Lang swung the sword downward which caused Leon’s arms to loosen their grip on him.

The flames caught up with An Lang before the liquid fire could even touch his body.

"NO!" Leon screamed while moving slow steps forward. When he stopped, tears began dripping from his eyes when he saw An Lang smiling while the fire roasted his body.

Behind Leon, Aurelian turned and walked toward the tunnel Liu Yan had been taken to, but stopped a few steps inside, and laughed. "You have done justice to one. Left with one. You’ve proven to be the devil I saw in you."

The Syrs walked past him before he continued. "Now, it’s time to do justice to the other one, else I do it myself."

Aurelian grinned then vanished deep into the tunnel.

At the front of the liquid fire, Leon collapsed on his knees after the last bubbling sound blasted and began screaming in a wordless cry.

Inside the liquid fire, the two war discs of An Lang that had fallen into the liquid fire floated upward and drifted toward Leon’s direction.