Chapter 93: Little Fool (2/2)

'Dammit.'

Leonel had already been pushing past his limits for too long already. He had been half a step into his grave before he even entered the Fort, let alone now after being madly chased for over an hour.

Just now, he had been on the highest of highs, thinking that he had escaped, only to find that he hadn't at all. He came crashing down heavier than he went soaring up. The pain in his body seemed to want to tear him apart.

”Put down the weapons, boy. You've done enough harm.”

The man who led the group seemed to be quite old, but his eyes and voice held a youthful vigor to them. There was something especially magical about his voice that made one want to bend over backwards to please him.

Seeing that Leonel was a bit dazed, the special unit slowly mad their way forward, encircling Leonel.

It wasn't that Leonel couldn't tell what what was happening. In fact, from the very beginning, the pleasing voice hadn't influenced him at all. He just wanted a bit more time to rest, just a bit longer to catch his breath.

'I'm so tired…' Leonel thought with haggard gasps.

However, the special unit continued to approach and Leonel realized that the few seconds they would take to surround him wouldn't make much of a difference to the situation of his body at all.

Leonel's grip of his rifles tightened. He willed them to flex as though pulling out the last of his strength. Once they were close enough he would move and leap over this hurdle too.

Who would have known that at that exact moment, just when Leonel was going to hit another wall, he would suddenly feel that his back was exceptionally light all of a sudden?

His eyes blinked open, but he hardly reacted when a shadow appeared between the eight whose expressions were now changing drastically.

A scythe of red-gold energy severed their necks at once, causing a rain of eight fountains of blood to shoot into the skies.

Beneath the rain, a petite woman took a black helmet off, her appearance making Leonel's heart, which had been steady even through all of this, beat wildly.

The crimson droplets seemed to radiate beneath her aura, her amber eyes shining so brightly that they appeared to be golden. Her long hair fluttered in the wind, catching the moonlight like a waterfall beneath the cool night air.

”Aina…”

At that moment, Leonel suddenly understood something.

According to the analysis machines of the Empire, Aina's ability fell under the healing type. This had always been odd to Leonel because the way Aina had described her ability to him, it didn't seem to have anything to do with healing.

But now it seemed that he was wrong. Healing might very well be the foundation of Aina's ability and was the root of her strength. But, her healing must only work on her own body.

Aina probably guessed how things would go if they returned, but instead of stopping Leonel, she allowed him to go back and see the truth of the world for himself. It was possible that she had been healed for over a day already. No, maybe she never spent very long injured in the first place.

Worried that they might be being monitored, she continued to feign her injuries to make them underestimate the pair and only made a move at the most opportune time.

Aina took out a jewelry headpiece and put it on. A small, fingernail sized gem dangled from her forehead, looking like a drop of water.

Then, she turned toward Leonel and smiled lightly.

”You've done enough, I'll handle the rest.”

”So beautiful…” Leonel mumbled like an idiot.

Aina blushed profusely, her Valkyrie-like aura vanishing like a receding tide.

Feeling embarrassed and seeing that Leonel still wanted to stare for a bit longer, she marched up the stairs, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him along. If she didn't do this, this little fool would stare for who knows how much longer. It wasn't as though they were out of the woods yet.

The moment she turned away from Leonel's bumbling appearance, her gaze turned cold.

'This little fool really made an enemy out of the Ascension Empire just for me… In that case, anyone who stops me from taking him out of here can be cleaved in two.'