Hiding from the direction the sound came from, Leon leaped over debris until he reached a ledge.
He peered over it. A startled cry caught him at once.
Leon turned toward it and saw Zoe cornered against a rock by two wolf-like monsters that had obsidian fur and eyes that glowed like molten slag.
Between her and the monsters, a pink barrier flickered. With every strike of their claws, the light splintered more at the edges like glass under strain.
Every instinct screamed at Leon to run. But the terror in Zoe's eyes was real. Raw. Desperate.
Nothing like Vera's performative fear.
'What should I do?'
He saw Zoe's expression tighten into that final look people wore when they knew they were about to be unmade.
Then his father's face flashed in his mind—the painter who had kept helping others, even when the world gave him little back.
Leon moved before the thought fully faded, scanning the ruins as he ran for anything he could use as a weapon.
He found nothing.
Then the memory of the golden sword flashed through him so sharply that he stared at his empty hands.
'How do I make it appear?' He had no idea.
Pain clawed through him as he watched the monsters press harder, and for one ugly moment, it felt as though he were the one being cornered.
Gritting his teeth, Leon did the only thing he could think of.
He reached for the same well of fury he had touched before—Tiger and his thugs, the ability thief, these monsters—and tried to force it out through his hands.
No light came—only a static buzz humming beneath his skin, shrill and trapped.
Leon shouted in frustration and abandoned the attempt. Then he charged.
He slammed into the lead monster's flank with all the force he had, knocking it stumbling sideways. Both creatures recoiled with snarls of surprise.
For a heartbeat, Leon thought it had worked. Then the wolf lunged. Its claws bit into the ground like blades.
Leon barely got his arm up in time. The impact tore through him. Pain rattled through his bones and ripped across his skin.
Blood sprayed from him and splashed onto the crimson earth. The second monster circled with a low growl, its body tense and ready.
Leon stumbled forward anyway. The pain was so deep that his legs shook with every step. Then the circling monster surged.
Zoe's barrier flared in one desperate burst, throwing off sparks.
And in that moment, the lead monster turned and rushed toward the now-unshielded Zoe.
It hooked a claw under her arm and lifted her. Its jagged teeth angled toward her throat.
"Help!" Her voice came out thin and breaking, but it snapped through Leon like a blade.
He lunged again, forgetting his own wounds.
Light burst behind his eyes as he drove his shoulder into the monster and forced it to loosen its grip. His collarbone cracked on impact.
Before he could recover, the smaller wolf-monster slammed him into the ground. Pain hit hard and absolutely.
Leon struggled beneath it, but the monster's claws only drove deeper into his shoulder, moving through flesh as easily as they had moved through earth.
He threw a clenched fist at it and fought to wrench himself free.
For one foolish second, he thought the monster was pulling back. Then its teeth sank into his neck.
His flesh tore.
'Know who you are!' The thought was not his. It was his father's voice. It cut through him with such force that everything else vanished.
Even sound died. His vision blurred into red. Then darker.
As Leon lay there bleeding, the world narrowing into a tunnel, a cold clarity washed through him. This was it. The frail vessel Feng had spoken of.
And in that breaking moment, something inside him gave way. Not rage. Not will—a lock opening.
Leon stopped fighting the pain. Stopped fighting the fear. Stopped fighting the idea of dying. And in the hollow space that opened inside him, the gold rushed in.
He did not feel his skin tearing. He felt it reweaving.
Golden light moved through him, sealing his wounds from within, stitching flesh and bone with molten threads.
The pain transformed into a fierce, humming warmth. Then the monsters' growls came rushing back into his ears, sharp and clear.
When his vision steadied, he saw Zoe on her knees, defenseless, while the monsters slowly turned back toward her.
The sight jolted through him clean and hard. Something in his body shifted. His bones tightened into place.
Leon rose. His fists were already clenched. "Hey!" His voice cracked across the ruins.
The monsters turned.
"Come and get me!" Leon crouched, snatched up a stone, and hurled it. It struck the ground beside the lead monster.
Both creatures charged.
The golden light now glowed steadily beneath Leon's skin. But this time, he didn't wait for it to take absolute control. He made a choice.
'No more reacting,' he shook his head and whispered softly in his mind. 'No more hoping for something or someone to save me. I save me.'
He swallowed hard, curled his fingers into fists, and looked at the charging monsters in the eyes. The fear was there, but beneath it, his decision stirred.
When he closed his eyes and cracked it open, the golden light also steadied. And for the first time, the power he wielded felt less like a curse and more like a tool.
The world seemed to slow when he moved. The smaller wolf leaped first. Leon met it with a clean deflection, no longer flailing, no longer desperate.
Then the bigger one struck. Its claw smashed across his face, dragging over his right eye.
The impact boomed through his skull, but his head did not snap back.
The force spread across him and died there. Leon touched the side of his face. The skin was whole. Unbroken.
Blood spilled from his mouth. He wiped it away and smiled. Not from joy. From understanding.
He was not just healing. He was becoming harder to break.
This time, Leon attacked. He dashed forward and drove a fist into the smaller monster's temple.
Black ichor burst from the point of impact. He hit it again. And again.
Before the third blow could fully land, the bigger wolf slammed into him and sent him skidding back.
Leon steadied himself as dust spiraled around him. Then he saw Zoe rise. This Zoe was different.
Not the quiet girl from the academy. Not the terrified one he had just tried to save. The fear was gone. In its place was a terrifying, placid calm.
When her eyes flicked to his, they held no gratitude—only recognition.
And something in that look seemed to say she had seen straight through him.
As Zoe moved, the air around her tightened with force.
While Leon charged the smaller monster again, Zoe became a blur. She met the bigger one head-on.
One strike. That was all. The monster dropped lifeless. Zoe did not pause.
She turned toward the one Leon had been buffeting and surged forward. She leaped, then brought down a single crushing blow.
Just as the monster's growl died, its body spun through the air and smashed into the rock face with a final sickening crunch.
Everything went quiet. But Leon's ragged breathing broke it, followed by the fading hum of power in his veins and the sweat dripping from his body to the ground.
He looked from the dead monsters to Zoe. Then blinked.
She stood amid the settling dust, her gaze calm now, analytical, almost assessing him the way Feng had.
The helpless student Leon thought he knew was gone. In her place stood someone formidable.
Zoe's eyes dropped to his arms, where the golden light had faded into a soft ember-glow.
Then she gave him a single, slow nod. It was not thanks. It was an acknowledgment. And it carried only one meaning.
I see what you are.
Leon's skin went pale as the golden glow slowly faded from his arms, causing chills to run down his spine. He stayed on the bloodied ground, knees pulled to his chest, watching the dust settle around Zoe's boots.
Zoe also didn't speak either, simply leaning against the rock, her chest heaving, her eyes fixed on the horizon where the sickly sky met the cracked earth.
The purple clouds above them pulsed like a slow, tired heartbeat.
Leon thought of his father. The man sitting on the roof of their building in Dusthollow, pointing at the stars, naming constellations Leon had long forgotten.
"When things get hard," his father had said, "look up. The sky is the only place that doesn't care about your problems, but will remind you that pain is not the only thing that exists."
The sky in the Shattered Land had no stars, no moon—just that strange, pulsing glow when Leon looked. And for sixty seconds, he didn't feel like a survivor or a wielder of a secret weapon. He just felt like a boy, breathing.