Just after Leon left, Damien looked in his direction; his gesture didn't go unnoticed by Leonardo, the latter inquired.
''What? Why are you staring so intensely in that direction? Have you noticed something?"
Damien did not immediately answer Leonardo's question. After observing the exact location for five minutes, Damien sighed.
''Maybe I was overthinking. For a moment, I thought that someone was over there, spying on us.''
''What?"
Leonardo abruptly stood up; using his presence detection, he swept the location Damien pointed at; unfortunately, he found nothing. Therefore he heaved a sigh of relief and sat down.
''Maybe, it is your imagination after all.''
''I sincerely do hope it was the case. If not, we will be in deep trouble.'' Damien said while leaning into his chair.
Leonardo chuckled; he did not believe that somebody was there, at least without them noticing. Although they appeared busy talking, their senses were on alert, so if somebody dares to come close to their location, whoever this person is, they would have noticed it. Having not sensed anything, not even after scanning around them, Leonardo believes that Damien was a little bit paranoid. For Leonardo, nobody was here; his detection sense couldn't lie; he was more preoccupied with another thing.
''Well, I guess it's time to-"
Before Leonardo could finish what he wanted to say, Damien glared at him.
''I say, Leonardo, were you born retard? Or it's only when it comes to women, especially Maria, that you turn into a retard who can't think nothing but his lower body?"
''You- you"
Leonardo turned red with fury.
''You, you what? If you are not a retard? Why would you keep suggesting that we see the girls? Now of all time, I won't take a genius to connect the group and us responsible for the kidnapping if we were to show up immediately. We may be strong but, Leon's group was stronger; how come they are not here? We are here simply to put runes around the dungeon's entrance, simply to put runes all over the forest to activate the fog. If not, we won't be here. Do you think Maria, Luna, and Sakuya will thank us if we go now?"
Leonardo stayed silent. Damien sighed.
''If you think like that then, it means you are not fit for leading. I know what your goal is. You want to become the emperor; you should change the way you think. If not, even you successfully managed to accomplish your goal, you will only be a puppet as you only think with your lower body.'' Damien advised.
''Shut up.''
As expected, Leonardo didn't take Damien's advice well; he glared at him and spat.
''You talk as if you're any different. Weren't you thinking with your lower body? Weren't you doing all of this because you want to bang Luna? To enjoy her? So, scram, do not act all mighty before me. You and I are not that different.''
''It's where you are wrong. I'm doing all of this for the greater cause. All of this because it's the goddess-"
Damien abruptly stopped before spilling more than he should. His impression of Leonardo changed; if previously he thinks of him as retard, now it was different; Leonardo is an intelligent asshole; he deliberately provoked him to let things slip under the effect of anger. From now on, the way Damien looks at Leonardo changed; the latter seemed not to mind.
'It's why I hate religion fanatic. They are crazy but smart. If not, how can they con people to join them, to adopt their doctrines? Well, it's going to be troublesome from now on.'
Leonardo couldn't help but inwardly lament.
Suddenly, there was a big explosion in the distance.
Boom!
Damien and Leonardo stared at each other. However, neither of them moved; to them, the battle must have reached its conclusion. Half of their plan has been reached; the other half will fall into place soon.
•••••
Let's rewind time to few minutes.
After Leon left Damien and Leonardo's location, he sprints toward the direction he believes Gracier and the others will be.
Ignoring the thick fog blocking his view so much that he couldn't even see his feet, Leon relied on his instinct to move inside the forest, dodging monsters, killing those he could avoid until he reached the girls, there he saw something that left his mind go blank.
Thousand monster's corpses littered the ground; however, it wasn't what shocked Leon, was shocked him was another thing. On the left, Maria lay powerlessly against a broken tree; she seemed to have passed out, her clothes were drenched in blood, tattered here and there.
Further from Maria was Sakuya; she was also lying against a broken tree. Her condition was worse than that of Maria; Sakuya's right arm was bent into an unnatural angle, she must have lost consciousness due to the intense pain.
Half kneeling in the middle of a crater was Luna; she was blankly staring in a certain direction, something pierced her stomach from the front, Leon didn't know what it was, but that thing looks like a rusted sword.
Following the direction the unconscious Luna was looking at, Leon was someone slowly walking toward Gracier; the latter was shivering; her expression was blank as if she was experiencing a nightmare.
''Stop right there.''
Leon shouted before dashing toward the woman walking toward Gracier.
At that moment, the woman walking toward Gracier stopped, spun around, and looked at the incoming Leon; the latter froze on the spot; immense fear assaulted him. Unconsciously, he started shivering.
It was the first time in his life, Leon had felt such intense fear; even his father, his ancestor who had participated in that war, the war where they slew the demon kin,g didn't give Leon such fear. His brain refused to listen to his command; at the moment, he couldn't only think of one thing 'flee,' however, stubborn as he is, Leon refused to follow his brain, his instinct's command, he couldn't fail his best friend, he had promised, people had made a sacrifice for him to be here and now he would cower so close to the goal? Never, if he were to flew leaving the girls like this, he would be unworthy of Alex's friendship; he could never look at him in the eyes, never walk beside him. For Leon, this would be worse than death; therefore, he moved.
'Move!' Leon ordered.
Boom!
Golden lightning and crimson flame exploded around his body that launched his body forward toward 007; even though his body was screaming, was bleeding, Leon didn't stop.
007's black eyes (mixed with green) widened before she thrusts her fist forward, meeting Leon's body.
Boom! Bang!
Unfortunately, in this exchange, Leon lost, numerous organs inside his body ruptured. He spurt mouthful of blood before passing out, the armor he wore got pierced, something shining could be seen piercing his stomach.
Giving one last glance at the fallen Leon and the girls, 007 mumbled,
''A...''
It was one word, 007 slowly approached Gracier, the latter had recovered enough to move, she tried to move by to her utter surprise she couldn't move, she had spectated the entire fight, she knew how scary this woman was, at the same time she was puzzled by her previous action. Before Gracier could further dwell into what happened, she received a chop on the neck. She started to close her eyes slowly.
''Big brother, p- please save me.''
For the first time in a while, Gracier tried using the sibling's unique ability; whether this message reached Alex or not, at least she tried.
Carrying Gracier inside her arms, 007 put a black bracelet around her wrist; it was because of this bracelet, Ignia couldn't move nor intervened in the fight. After putting the black bracelet around Gracier's wrist, 007 took the air; she hovered above the forest for a while before disappearing.
Unknown to her, Gracier had not fallen unconscious; her golden eye scanned the forest, imprinting one last image inside her brain before she lost consciousness.