Leon's apparition was out of the man with golden eyes expectation. From all their arrangements, nobody should have been able to appear on this floor, nobody except for Sera, Leonardo's group that got deliberately sent ahead.
''How the hell do you come here-"
Before the man with golden eyes could finish his words, Leon cut him off and said.
''That is not the real question. The real question should be, how can you bypass everything I set up and appear here? Well, too bad I'm not going to answer that.''
''You-"
The man with golden eyes almost exploded, if not for the fact that he couldn't bear the consequences of killing Leon as he knew the latter might have a way to find out who's the one killed his soon, and hell would descend upon him.
Too focused on Leon, the man had momentarily forgotten about Sera, which was a pretty bad move.
[Night's Empress of Thousand Deaths!]
Using the opportunity created by Leon's apparition, Sera activated her ultimate ability, a combination of her domain and spirit possession. The brown hair under her cap got elongated, becoming long black hair; her eyes were like the night itself.
''Oh! No-''
Finally aware of the grave mistake he had just committed, the man with golden eyes hesitate no more, with a single command Alice and the abomination tried to block the entrance to the next floor, unfortunately, before they could everything turned dark, the dungeon's light vanished, the fake sun in the sky vanished.
Alice had trouble moving forward; the same goes for the three-headed monster; it was like something got wrapped around their feet, making it impossible for them to advance even the single step.
''Courting death.''
The man with golden eyes bellowed before forming a gigantic golden spear flame of twelve meters sent toward where the man believes Sera should be.
Unfortunately, before the golden spear could pierce that location, numerous black hands sprung from the ground and caught the spear before crushing it. The man became momentarily dazed; a dark silhouette had flashed next to him, a dagger coming straight from a tricky angle to claim his life.
The man with golden eyes was not your average character; even though horrified by this Sera, he could still block the blow; he blocked with a golden bow.
At that moment, the forgotten Leon moved; lightning and fire got wrapped around his feet to increase his speed. His destination was obvious, use the chance that everybody was focused on the fight to go down, to rescue Gracier.
Sera had explained a little bit of what happened to him after combining both domain and spirit possession. After using that power to trap Alice and the three-headed monster, Sera used her shadow's skill to appear in Leon's shadow and gave him a brief explanation, what he needed to do.
''Hang on, girls. I'm almost there.''
Leon kept praying as he dashed to the entrance of the next floor; when he was almost there, the man and Alice happened to see him.
''Alice, this an absolute order, don't let him pass.'' the man with golden eyes bellowed; he tried to go there; however, how could Sera allow him? The two became engaged in a heated battle.
Even though, still unable to move, Alice opens her mouth, and from within, a white sword shot at Leon; the speed of this sword was too fast; simultaneously, one of the three-headed monsters able elongated, going straight toward Leon.
Being attacked from two sides, even for Leon, it would be difficult to dodge, not to get injured. Fortunately, Sera was prepared; from Leon's shadow, another Sera appeared; it was her clone.
''What?"
Three persons exclaimed, using her body, the shadow clone took the blows while at the same time pushing Leon into the door, the strength behind the push was extremely strong, even Leon with his big body was sent flying down the stairs, and before he vanished from the floor, Leon saw the real spurting blood. Leon inferred that even though the shadow clone that saved him was not Sera, the damage the latter took seemed to be transferred to Sera.
Having seen the sacrifice made by Sera, Leon vowed to save Gracier at all cost while at the same time advising Alex never to mistreat this woman, whatever their relationship might be.
Back on the Sera's floor, the man with golden eyes became furious when he saw that Leon managed to slip away under their noses, even with all their countermeasures.
''Damn it!" He roared; a golden flame appeared around him; he knew no matter how emotional he became, he must never use a power that might give away his identity, a clue that could lead to finding them after this operation.
The battle became chaotic; even though overwhelmed, Sera still fought, all of this to give Leon the chance to perform a miracle; sometimes, a well-planned plan can fall apart because of an unexpected variable, Leon was this variable.
•••••
On the other side, Leon appeared on the next floor; he appeared inside a forest with a thick fog; not too far was the sound of a blade clashing against a blade. Without hesitation, he dashed toward that location.
After running for ten minutes, Leon was close to where the sound was coming from; however, he sensed an unusual chill just as he was about to arrive there. His sixth sense was warning him; trusting this sense, Leon slowed down and silently walked forward, using the trees as cover; Leon hide his presence and observed what was happening on the other side, then he saw them.
Damien, Leonardo, sitting not too far from his hiding location, the rest of their group was the ones fighting against the monsters.
Looking in a particular direction, Leonardo smiled and said.
''By now, that bastard's sister should have been caught. Hehehe! I wonder how is he going to react learning this?"
''Well, he will be furious. Fortunately, nobody except them and we are on this floor, if not we will be in deep trouble if someone knew that we are involved, that we don't give any help.''
Damien was the one to say this. The two were unaware that at the moment, someone was hidden and heard everything they say.
Leon's fury almost reached the top, ready to explode; however, he knew that now wasn't the time to blow up; he had a more urgent thing to accomplish.
Quietly as he could, Leon spun around, and after putting some distance between him and Damien's group, he dashed toward the location Leonardo previously stared at.