Nergal's body suddenly flickered, his skin glowing with golden energy, surging violently as the powers he was sucking from the people began fusing into him like fire feeding a beast. The energy cracked and sizzled across his body like lightning veins, his muscles expanding, his presence becoming heavier—more monstrous.
He rose slowly, eyes glowing a seething gold, towering with fury and raw might. He turned his gaze toward Envy and Pride, lips curling into a snarl, his face twisted in a murderous expression. Without a word, he gripped his weapon and yanked it forward, the weight causing the air to groan as he hurled it toward them.
Envy and Pride dashed forward, trying to intercept.
But—
BOOB!
The spiked ball at the end of Nergal's chain began to expand. Not just a little. It grew—monstrously, unnaturally—swelling to the size of a small boulder, no, larger... something grotesquely massive, nearly the size of a small house.
It hit them with a crushing impact.
BOOM!!!
The earth trembled. Dust and wind exploded outward. Envy and Pride didn't stand a chance. The sheer force slammed them into the ground with bone-shattering strength. Blood sprayed from their lips as the brutal spikes ripped into their bodies, leaving deep holes—missing vital organs only by twisted luck.
"ENVY!!"
Valra screamed, her voice cracking with panic as she took a step forward, desperately wanting to help. But Kai blocked her, his cold eyes focused as he relentlessly fired off basic magic spells.
Each shot glowed brighter than the last—he was growing stronger with every passing moment, feeding off the energy like a parasite in bloom.
Envy and Pride groaned, struggling as they pushed themselves off the broken ground. Blood flowed freely from the wounds now covering their bodies, dripping down their limbs, staining the earth beneath them.
Nergal grinned darkly. He slowly reeled the spiked weapon back to its original size, metal screeching, dragging over shattered stone. His eyes gleamed with cruel delight as he stared them down.
"You should feel honoured," he muttered coldly, "to die by my hand."
Without waiting, he snapped his arm forward again. But this time, it wasn't just one weapon. The air shimmered. With a horrifying surge, the golden spiked ball split—again and again—multiplying.
A whole swarm of them now hovered above, casting shadows across the battlefield like a rain of golden death.
Dozens of massive, spiked balls floated ominously in the sky before they launched downward—one by one, fast and relentless.
Pride and Envy had no time to breathe. They dodged, blocked, countered—Envy summoned his bow, his arms trembling as he tried to shoot them out of the air. But the sheer volume was overwhelming.
It wasn't just an attack. It was a massacre.
Even with their power, even with all their strength, it was impossible to keep up.
Envy's bow cracked as he deflected another spike, but more followed, crashing into him, tearing through his defenses. The golden spikes ripped into his side, carving long, bleeding gouges.
He roared in pain.
Pride fared no better. She swung her blade, parried, rolled, every movement desperate. Her armour shattered piece by piece as the spiked balls slammed into her again and again.
She was being broken—bit by bit, second by second.
All she could do now was survive.
She'd used every last ounce of her reserve energy in that one chance. But Nergal… Nergal had powered beyond anything they'd predicted.
Now she could barely hold her wooden sword straight, her breaths ragged, armor broken, legs shaking from the impact.
"Haha... See it now?"
Kai laughed manically from the side, his voice sharp and full of venom.
"No matter what you try, no matter how strong you are, in the end… you'll all die by my hands. Bitches!"
His words were soaked in hatred, eyes wide with frenzy.
Valra stood soaked, her body completely drenched—not just wet, but completely surrounded by flowing water that coiled around her like a living serpent, binding her, choking her flames. Her hands trembled as she tried to ignite fire again—but the moisture kept snuffing it out.
She gritted her teeth hard, eyes burning with frustration and helplessness. Every time she moved, more water surged around her, pulling her deeper into this trap.
Kai smirked. He hadn't expected things to shift so violently, but it didn't matter.
This chaos—this horror—was exactly what he wanted.
'In the end… you'll all suffocate,'
He thought with twisted amusement, eyes darting to the school in the distance.
'Because you looked down on me. All of you did.'
And then his eyes fell on Leo.
Leo was barely hanging on. The massive water tank he'd been holding with what little strength he had was beginning to slip. His fingers were raw, knuckles white, body trembling as the edge of the tank tipped over more and more.
BOOMM!
A deafening blast shook the upper floors of the building. Walls cracked and buckled, pieces of ceiling and shattered glass rained down, striking the students below.
"HELP ME!"
"NO!! PLEASE!!"
"I don't want to die!!"
Screams echoed in every direction. Children sobbed. Some clung to each other. Some tried to run, only to collapse from exhaustion. The floors beneath them groaned as they began to crumble.
No one could move. No one could escape.
It's their fate!
Their cheerful day had twisted into something nightmarish—a scene from hell disguised as a schoolyard.
Many had already lost the will to live. Some were injured, some burned, some drained of energy by some unseen force.
Leo's teeth clenched harder. He could feel the rope slipping through his hands. The tank's weight was winning.
"Come on... Come on!!"
He shouted, yanking the rope as hard as he could. Sweat and blood mixed on his palms, arms screaming in pain. But it was impossible.
He wasn't a hero. He wasn't strong. He was just...
Nothing more than a human.
No—worse than that.
"Big brother..."
"L-Leo.."
Leo's eyes filled with tears as he looked down. The children who had once shyly shown him their marks, who had smiled at him and asked for chocolate… were looking back.
Their faces pale, eyes dry and hollow.
Hope was fading from them.
They were dying. Not from falling debris. Not yet. But from their energy being drained—slowly, cruelly—by the same curse killing everyone else.
And they looked to him. Still believing. Still hoping.
Tears rolled down Leo's cheeks, hot against his cold skin.
His chest hurt—crushed not by weight, but by the memory of his own past.
He remembered the streets. The alleys. The hunger. He remembered being forced into a life he didn't choose, becoming a thief just to survive.
He remembered what it felt like to be left behind.
Alone.
Abandoned.
"No... Not again... Not this again…"
His voice cracked, lost in the roar of collapsing stone.
"I DON'T WANT TO LOSE!!!"
Ba-dump...
His heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Something deep within the corners of his mind stirred—distant, forgotten... yet aching with familiarity.
A memory, like a faint echo rising from the abyss, called to him. It didn't come from his past, but from this body...
"Remember this, Leo... If you ever feel limited… if you ever feel like you can't push beyond your boundary... then remember it, my son… Breathe.
Just... breathe."
As the words curled through his mind like smoke, his entire body flinched. His spine straightened violently. His jaw locked. His eyes shut close.
And then—
His irises lit up. A gleaming red light pulsed from within, a fiery glow that radiated like an ember awakening in a sea of darkness. The pupils dilated into pinpricks, and veins across his eyes and temple burned red, throbbing with strange energy—his body, reacting like something ancient was rebooting inside.
SSSSHHHHHHHH!
A sudden, sharp hissing erupted from the gap between his clenched teeth.
It wasn't just air moving—it was being ripped inward, as if his lungs had become a vortex. The wind howled, funnelling into his parted lips with terrifying suction. The air twisted and spun into his mouth like a living storm being devoured by an invisible beast.
It looked unreal.
The atmosphere itself bent—dust lifted off the ground, small stones trembled, leaves scattered into the cyclone building around him. A whirlpool of air formed around Leo's face, pulling everything toward the vacuum of his breath.
The air rushed past his tongue, grazing every inch inside his mouth. It glided along his inner cheeks, dived down his throat, funnelled through his windpipe, and then—
It hit.
The air exploded into his lungs. They stretched open so wide it looked painful, like a balloon pushed to bursting. But he didn't wince. The pressure built with force far beyond the body's limit, yet Leo stood strong.
And then the lungs compressed like pistons in a forged engine.
The air filtered rapidly, purified, spinning with unnatural pressure until it shot straight into his bloodstream—converted into energy.... Magical.
His blood accepted it hungrily, like it had been starving.
His body shivered violently.
Like an ancient machine finally woken after centuries of silence, gears deep within him began to turn.
At first, the movement was hesitant, starting the old F1 engine—
Tr... Tr... Trr...
A deep vibration began in his chest, a rhythm of awakening. His heart thudded louder. Muscles twitched. His skin trembled. A low growl almost escaped his throat. From power building inside, ready to burst.
Then—
TTTRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
A massive surge shot through him. His chest expanded, his bones rattled like something divine had been injected into every cell of his body.
The engine inside him didn't just start.
It roared!!
The pistons of his body—muscles, nerves, bones—all moved in tandem, faster and faster, vibrating like a living machine of war. His blood became like hot oil, boiling through his veins. Magic and breath merged.
Grip...
Leo's trembling hand, seconds ago slipping helplessly on the rope, snapped closed.
His fingers clenched the rope so hard the fibres creaked. Steam hissed from his palm as sweat evaporated from the sudden heat. Muscles in his forearm bulged with thick veins that glowed faintly with pulsing red light.
Thud!
The massive water tank halted mid-fall. The rope strained violently, whipping against the metal, vibrating with tension.
But Leo didn't falter.
His body was changing.
His eyes were glowing fully red now—no pupils, no whites. Just pulsing crimson, radiant and terrifying. His jaw was tight, and his teeth gritted with so much pressure they sparked faintly as magic flickered from his gums.
His muscles expanded—slowly but steadily. Once lean, his arms now thickened with visible strength. His shirt stretched over his swelling frame, and something beneath his skin pulsed.
It was no longer just human strength.
This was something else.
Sakura, Luna, and Raphael froze, stunned—eyes wide, hearts hammering.
They weren't alone. Everyone, every student—paused.
They felt it.
A pulse in the air. A moment where time dared not move.
Their hearts skipped. For one terrifying second, it was as if reality held its breath.
Step!
Leo took a slow, grounded step forward, his foot digging into the broken stone beneath him. The surface cracked under his weight—not from heaviness, but from the pressure pulsing outward from his awakened body.
He whispered, voice low, raw, growling from deep inside.
"Come..."
He bent low.
His stance tightened. He braced his body like a warrior preparing for the wrath of a god. His hands locked onto the rope. His muscles screamed, veins puffed, bones creaked. Power surged up from the earth and down from the sky—meeting at his core.
And then—
"ONNNNNNNNN!!!!!"
He roared, throwing his entire soul into the act.
CRAAACKKKKK!!
The water tank ripped upward.
The ground split beneath him from the force. His boots left deep craters in the cracked earth. The ropes tightened, vibrating like thunder.
He wasn't just lifting it.
He was swinging it.
Everyone's eyes went wide. They didn't blink. They couldn't.
Leo roared again, louder, primal, rage and desperation merged—
"ARRHHHH!"
And with the might of something divine, Leo pulled the massive tank downward, using all his body's momentum and spiritual force.
BOOOOMMMMMMM!!
The water tank slammed into the ground with an earth-shattering force. The shockwave blasted outward, knocking students back, sending a spray towards the entrance and others.