The loud bang of the explosion echoed through the entire area, as light illuminated the surroundings as if it were morning.

In an instant, the entire landscape before Leon's eyes changed; the tall mountain that stood just ahead had vanished completely.

What was left there was an empty wasteland.

Leon still couldn't believe his eyes at what he had just witnessed.

"..."

This power…

This destruction…

'Was this in the game?'

Was this the same game he once created.

If that was so, then…

He didn't remember adding this scale of power. Especially not to her.

Killing a hundred chimera in a matter of seconds was one thing, but wiping out an entire mountain?

This scale of power simply shouldn't exist.

"Did you see it?" she called over her shoulder, glancing at Leon with her crimson gaze. "Try memorizing the flow of my mana. This way, when you do master this sword technique, which I have been teaching you these past few days, you'll be able to mimic it one day."

"Mimic it?" Leon said, not realizing he was grinning.

Lumina noticed and nodded.

"What I showed you was how I took the very same technique Shin once taught me."

Shin Kataino, the honorary knight and Lumina's lover, was the one who created this technique, but his version was only at the level of eliminating enemies in seconds. Lumina had taken that technique to an entirely different level.

By altering it, she was able to create a miniature supernova explosion.

Leon saw it with his own eyes, and he also managed to grasp the way this technique worked.

The Moonblade could draw in unstable mana and directly resonate with the wielder's mana core, which normally carried the risk of severe backlash.

Using the Moonblade, Lumina forced a vast amount of mana into her body, carving out her own unique mana pathways.

The energy surged through her arteries in rapid flows, tearing them apart, yet at the same time, the unstable mana accelerated her regeneration and rebuilt what it destroyed.

And because of this paradoxical cycle behaviour, her body remained unharmed by what should have been commonly called a lethal mana overloading.

She then directed all the mana into her heart, where the mana core resided, pushing it to the brink of collapse.

A mana core was not passive. When it neared destruction or was on the brink of shattering, it released a counterforce equal to the unstable mana she was channeling, repelling it violently.

At the very moment that Mana core's balance threatened to break, Lumina reversed the flow and sent the unstable mana surging back into the Moonblade.

The collision of opposing forces, the influx of unstable mana, and the core's backlash all combined to produce a detonation.

The blast was like a miniature supernova, a force that mirrored the destructive power of an atomic explosion.

"Genius…" Leon muttered.

The creativity she poured into the technique was staggering.

To achieve such a feat, one should not only have supreme control over mana but also a deeper understanding of its principles.

Lumina had turned what should have been the Moonblade's greatest drawback, its unstable resonance with the core, into her weapon. She was not simply relying on power but manipulating the most basic law of balance.

Leon recalled a similar theory from Earth.

—When opposing forces reached a critical state, the energy released could rival the stars themselves.

A nuclear fusion.

It was the same concept that fueled the stars.

Lumina smiled.

"You think it's considered a work of genius?" she asked.

Leon nodded.

Lumina chuckled before saying, "Haha, wait till you meet Shin."

Leon's gaze remained fixed on her as she walked towards him, putting the Moonblade back in its sheath.

Lumina still held the hope that she would meet Shin again. But Leon knew she never would; she would die before she ever got to see him. It was her fate, her script, already set in place.

Leon regretted it. He regretted not telling her to just give up on him. That she would only end up killing herself if she kept pushing. He didn't want that…

"Huh?"

A sudden realization hit Leon.

'What's this?' Leon thought as it dawned on him.

He laughed briefly when he realized.

'...me of all people worrying about the character I designed?'

That was something new, and he couldn't believe he felt that way.

As a hardcore gamer and a developer, Leon—aka Haru—had never once felt pity for any of the characters he played, no matter the hardship, no matter what sadistic end they met.

They simply never really mattered to him.

Leon's gaze lifted, and he saw Lumina's face up close. She was standing just beside him, gazing at the destruction she had caused.

For some reason, he couldn't see her as just another character…

Was it really pity?

Leon didn't know. And neither did he want to know.

There was this question he wanted to ask of her.

Maintaining his usual tone, he asked.

"Why did you teach me this technique?"

Lumina never did it to Ethan in the game… so what's making him so different?

As he asked that, he saw her eyes getting warm as they landed on his. With a whisper for only her to hear, she muttered.

"...you reminded me of him…"

Leon didn't catch that.

"Hm? Sorry? I didn't quite catch that."

"Ah," Lumina turned her head around, avoiding looking at him. "It was nothing."

For some reason, she doesn't regret saying this to him. And she felt guilty for that.

As she said that, she skillfully rolled the strand of her hair. Her voice was grumpy.almost kid-like.

The hair on Leon's nape stood as he saw her.

'Coughing,' he said.

"…Well, I appreciate it. Thank you for teaching me, Miss Lumina."

Lumina, still glancing to the other side, lightly nodded.

"Mhm."

An awkward silence fell between them.

As the smoke rose above the wasteland, the silence was shattered by a voice full of panic.

"What the fuck happened here?!"

Both Leon and Lumina turned.

Alice came running toward them, huffing, her hair messy as if she had just rolled out of bed.

Their cave was in the opposite direction from the wasteland; she must have woken up from the shockwave of Lumina's strike.

She skidded to a stop, eyes wide, darting between the empty space where the mountain once stood and the two of them standing calmly at the edge of the crater with awkward silence.

Her mouth opened and closed twice before she finally managed, "...Where the hell did the mountain go?"

'Oh, she woke up.'

Leon pressed his lips together, trying not to smile.

"It… uh… stepped out to get some fresh air?"

Alice blinked at him.

"…Are you brain-damaged, or do you just like teasing me this early in the morning?"

The sun was about to rise.

He gave a small cough and said.

"Right, sorry. Miss Lumina was… demonstrating something."

She looked at the swordmaiden, standing there quietly, arms crossed.

"Demonstrating?!" Alice's voice shot up, "Demonstrating what exactly?!'

She swung her arm toward the wasteland. "Don't tell me she really did this!"

Alice marched up to Leon, jabbing a finger at his chest.

"Tell me the truth. Did you know she could do that? I had enough; you are hiding something, I just knew it."

Leon raised his hands. "Hey. I was just as surprised as you."

"Surprised?!" Alice almost shrieked.

"I thought the cave collapsed on me! I rolled out of bed thinking I was about to get buried alive! And you're standing here smiling like some idiot—"

A short laugh slipped out of Leon before he could stop himself.

Alice froze, glaring at him. "Oh, so you do think this is funny."

"Not funny," Leon said quickly, trying and failing to straighten his face. "Just… I didn't expect you to run all this way wearing those."

Alice looked down at herself.

She was in a loose white T-shirt that belonged to Lumina, long enough to reach just below her hips.

From a distance, it looked like she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Leon knew she wasn't crazy enough to actually come out commando… but Alice's reaction said otherwise.

Her cheeks flushed red as she tugged the hem of the shirt down with both hands, stretching it to cover her thighs.

"Stop looking!" she barked, dead serious.

Leon stared blankly. "…"

"Erase it from your memory, or—"

"Ugh, you're annoying, you know that?"

Leon sneered, copying her cocky attitude.

"You're the one who came running here dressed like that, and now you're accusing me like I wanted to look."

Then he tilted his head, mocking her tone. "Sorry to break it to you, but I have no interest in psycho gorillas."

Alice's eye twitched. She was about to burst, but before she could retort.

Lumina, still composed, watched their exchange and smiled faintly.

Alice inhaled sharply, forcing herself to calm down. Then she spoke in a low, serious tone.

"You do know this explosion gave away our location… right? The Archdemons, or maybe the Abyssal demons, could have seen it too."

At her words, Leon and Lumina both let out the same word.

"Oh."

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[A/N]: I updated Eula and Ethan's artwork. Go check them. Also support with Powerstones and GT.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.