A span of white light flashed into Leon’s eyes when his eyelids fluttered. Irregular shapes flew around him like birds, while a water-dripping sound echoed from every direction.

Footfalls and laughter caught his ears when he tried pushing himself up.

"Haha, what are you still doing on the ground, Leon?" An Lang’s joyous voice echoed, followed by a tap on the shoulder.

"Who is there?" Leon’s own voice echoed back like a drum when he whirled his gaze around. "An Lang, is that you?"

A stone-falling sound echoed when a second tap landed on Leon’s right shoulder. "Who else could it be, lover boy? Hahaha."

The moment Leon lowered his gaze, a transparent land caught his eyes. Beneath it were countless Devilish Goats, Syrs, and silver-skinned Serakels, screaming and thrashing themselves on the transparent ground as if they wanted to set themselves free.

"Leon, Leon, Leon." An Lang’s voice echoed multiple times, each one having its own tone and emotions. "Get up!"

Before Leon could register it clearly, the transparent land he stood on crumpled and collapsed inward.

"NO!" Sharp air flew out of him as he jerked up and saw himself lying at the center of a Starfire Opal cave wall.

His heart beat faster in his chest when he shifted his gaze from the wall to his palms. He first saw them moving like smoke, but when he shook his head, they became static.

Blood-vein lines streaked across his eyeballs when he shifted his gaze to the smoking kinetic-drift shield lying upside down at his side.

"Gia." Leon’s brow furrowed when no blue wave appeared on his silver-black war suit or the drift shield. "Gia, how did I get here?"

For a good thirty seconds, only smoke flew out of the drift shield, but Gia did not turn.

Leon slapped his palms against his forehead when a striking pain rattled through his skull, almost as if his head wanted to black out.

His vision doubled and began turning everything he gazed at into countless shapes, sizes, and colors.

"What is wrong with me?" Leon screamed, then slammed his right fist on the ground. Rootlike cracks stretched from where he sat to the Opal walls, while dust dribbled on him like rain.

"Gia, where are you? I NEED YOUR HELP!" Hypersonic air escaped his mouth and blasted the wall in front of him, making the cave walls tremble as if about to collapse on him.

Countless faces and wordless screams that were not his echoed in his head so loud they made Leon’s heart triple its speed.

"Son, don’t give up yet."

"Brother, help me!"

"Stay focused! Before twenty-five!"

"Don’t be too generous, son. People aren’t what they seem. Remember."

"We need you, Leon!"

"Do you know why I will never rest until you are dead?"

"Because you humiliated me in front of everyone. Everyone, including my useless uncle, Hayes."

"Leon, thank you!"

"Ahhh!" Leon’s gaze snapped to the ceiling of the cave when all the registered voices faded behind Liu Yan’s.

The translucent panel shimmered to life before Leon when his body floated upward while the Opal glow formed a circle around him.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

Host memory pile complete.

Host self-growth increased.

Host body enhancement in progress.

God-vein activated.

As soon as the panel faded behind Leon’s eyes, sharp air flew around him with the remains of dead energy.

A bone-crackling sound echoed when his feet touched the ground, while a faint mixture of blue and gold light streamed across his body.

The veins in his palms glowed when he shifted his gaze to them, but they blasted and sent waves flying when he squeezed his arms.

"Gia, are you doing this, or have I undergone another transformation?" A faint smile tore across Leon’s lips but vanished when no response came.

The drift shield lay there in its metal state without any blue wave striking through it like it should.

"Wait, did I?" Leon’s reflection scattered when he crouched down and picked it up.

Smoke blasted from the center core of the shield when he brought it closer to his face. He hacked, a dry, rattling cough escaping his chest as a plume of grey smoke vented from the shield’s core.

He wondered if Gia was still there.

Dust bounced from the ground when Leon collapsed on his knees, holding the shield like the corpse of a loved one. "Thank you, Gia."

He brushed his fingers across the fractured surface of the shield while pushing himself back to his feet.

A metal-clicking sound echoed when Leon tugged the shield to his back.

The red-gold cloth danced on the ground when Leon shifted his gaze to it. "Mom, Lily."

Their faces reeled into his head when he closed his eyes and cupped his face in his palms. "I will come home soon and spend the rest of my days with you."

The tip of the red-gold cloth wattled when Leon picked it up and shook it. Sparkling dust flared out of the cloth when he swung it once before wrapping it around his neck.

A water-dripping sound echoed when he placed his palms on the surface of the Opal wall. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Every pulse of his blood multiplied when the glows of the stone began threading through him like a snake.

The wounds on his face began to close up whenever a blue glow appeared and vanished, but the tattered sections of the war suit did not close up like his body was.

A new wave of heat exploded from his eyes when a second heartbeat that did not match his human one began to drum under his chest.

"Am I having two hearts?" His face paled when he placed his left palm on the right side of his chest and felt the second heartbeat beating at three times the rate his left one was.

"Leon, we are counting on you!" All three voices of his lost teammates echoed loudly in Leon’s head, making him move a step away from the Opal wall.

Outside the cave, loud footsteps echoed as countless Syrs rushed forward.

They stopped at the front of the sea of Devilish Goats and splatted themselves into three groups. Two went toward the Devilish Goat King’s cave, while the other ten went at different angles, holding their burning metal axes.

Inside the Devilish Goat King’s cave, Leon sat in a lotus posture, harnessing the Opal stone’s glow with his eyes closed.

The footsteps caught his ears when the two nine-foot Syrs entered, but he did not react. He simply sat there, slipping into a meditative trance until they reached his side and raised their burning axes for his head.