While Sakuya was lost inside an illusion, Third slowly approached her and readied his weapon; it was a great sword; he aimed the tip at Sakuya's back like a spear. He slowly approached her; meanwhile, Lilith and Leonardo could be seen clashing while moving around.
Clangs! Clangs! Clangs!
Every time their sword clashed, it would create shriek sounds and send sparks flying into the air.
''Aren't you worried about your friend, princess?" Leonardo decided to tease Lilith; however, the latter didn't respond, this annoyed him, and he continued.
''From what I have heard nobody succeed in coming out after getting trapped in Third Hell's Nightmare, you should think about how to-"
''You talk too much.'' Lilith stopped Leonardo and said.
Leonardo became furious, black lightning appeared around his sword, and he slashed at Lilit; the sword's speed increased to an astonishing level.
Clangs!
Although Lilith managed to stop the sword, she was pushed back, and she received a light cut on her shoulder; the arm holding the sword became numb. Her eyes turned cold; she sent a quick glance in Sakuya's direction to check her situation; she was still frozen and showed no sign of waking up as Third had almost gotten closer to her; using an unknown method, Lilith became relieved as she understood that Sakuya would not lose. Hence, she decided to focus on her fight.
Lilith's movement didn't escape Leonardo's eyes; he chuckled; he was curious about what happened for the demon's princess to change so much and began to care for others. However, from her eyes, he knew he would never get the answer. He decided to pay her back that humiliation he suffered that day in that dungeon.
Sii! Sii!
Black lightning descended from the sky and surrounded Leonardo and formed some sort of armor around his body; his speed increased drastically. He disappeared to reappear behind Lilith, who showed no sign of moving. His sword moved at such speed that it was impossible to follow; however, just as the sword was about to arrive before Lilith's neck, it was stopped by a black scythe.
Leonardo was not surprised as he thought something like this might happen; therefore, he unleashed his real attack.
[Lightning Nova]
Leonardo's sword exploded in a lightning boom like a small supernova. The explosion engulfed Lilith and sent her flying. Leonardo didn't follow; he coldly stared at the flying Lilith and was about to open his mouth to activate his strongest technique gained after joining The Chaos's Eye (Purgatory); when Lilith who should be injured, spun around and smiled at him, instantly he knew he had screwed up.
''Shi-"
Lilith's following words stopped even his curse.
[Eternal Nightmare]
It was Leonardo's turn to be frozen like Sakuya; he appeared in a world he knew well, a world where the only people everybody talked about was Alexander.
''Ugh!"
Leonardo crouched down and held his head as a throbbing headache assaulted him; the scene changed to another one; in this one, Leonardo was inside a cell, and Alex arrogantly looked down on him; he cut off his arm and whispered, something into his ears.
''Ughgggggh!" The headache increased, and Leonardo started bashing his head against the ground. The scene changed again, into a distant future where Alex was the Sovereign and Leonardo just a lowly slave.
''Noooooo! Ugh!" Leonardo bellowed and rolled on the ground, trying to stop the nightmare. Unfortunately, it didn't end, and soon outside, his real body started coughing blood.
Lilith safely landed before disappearing again; she thought she would give Sakuya some assistance before coming back to finish Leonardo as she knew he couldn't escape Eternal Nightmare so easily. However, just before she could reach her, the situation on the other side changed.
Sakuya, who hadn't moved for a moment, finally moved, she spun around faster than lightning, she was smiling, Third was shocked still he put strength into his arm and thrust his sword forward at such speed that normally it should have been impossible for Sakuya to react and yet she reacted, she moved one arm, only her right arm was caught the great sword tip between her finger. It was a godly move any Japanese swordsman would like to use, but it was a pretty impossible feat to realize, yet Sakuya easily accomplished this.
''What?" Third was so shocked that he blurted out, he knew how fast his sword was, to be able to easily catch it with only two fingers was something he doubted even Incursio or Zero could do, he shocked to the core, even more by Sakuya's following words.
''Thank you for letting me see my real father once again.''
She summoned her katana with her free hand and swung.
[Yami Maho Jigen Giri]
Third's eyes widened, goosebumps rose all over his body, he knew he would die or worse be gravely injured if this sword reached him, therefore, he tried to cancel his Gift and jump back, however, somehow he couldn't move, this surprised him.
Lilith who was watching the fight knew why Third couldn't escape; from Sakuya's fingers which held the sword, small dark tentacles like a hand came out and wrapped around the sword; it must have been because of them that Third found it impossible to withdraw.
The world surrounding Third turned white, and a black light descended; this black light cut the white world in two and arrived before Third and,
Boom!
At the last moment an explosion occurred, Sakuya pursued her lips together, she was disappointed that even in the end, he still managed to get away. However, one of his arms was left behind and a large puddle of blood.
''Nex-"
Sakuya couldn't finish her words before falling headfirst on the ground, she was exhausted, mentally, and her mana was depleted.
Lilith sighed before appearing behind Leonardo, who by now was bleeding from his seven orifices.
''If it weren't for the fact that you still have some use, I would have killed you.''
Lilith muttered as she recalled one of the memories she saw before leaving the Eternal Nightmare's world, a memory about the meeting between Leonardo and Alex.
Just as Lilith was about to cancel the Eternal Nightmare, an inhuman howl escaped from Leonardo's mouth.
''Growl!!!!"
Black light engulfed Leonardo's body and,
BOOM
An extremely eerie presence surged from his body outward like an explosive tempest and smashed Lilith's chest. Cracks appeared on the armor she wore, and she was sent flying dozen of meters back.
''Growl! I- Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I won't lose.!''
Leonardo, who was transforming into something Lilith couldn't quite describe bellowed, Lilith became scared by the eerie presence coming from Leonardo's body; suddenly, a shadow flashed next to him and gave him a chop in the head before taking him and disappeared, the only thing that was left after they departed was ground covered blood.
Lilith sighed and sat down to recuperate.