"I’m sorry, Aren," Leon said, "but I think you should’ve seen this coming."
Leon let out a slow breath and rubbed his face. "I met you the first time I came here because I saw potential. A good teammate. Someone I could stand beside, or control. Someone I could use."
He laughed bitterly. "But the moment I actually met you, everything fell apart. Every single thing you did was better than what I imagined myself capable of. From the very first moment you stole my kill, I understood something."
Leon looked up, eyes sharp. "You were a threat to my existence in the Trials."
He continued, his voice growing heavier. "I thought if I stayed long enough, I’d find a way to pull you under my wing. Friendship, control, something. But you’re unresponsive to all of it. You don’t bend."
"When the millipede took you away the first time," Leon admitted, "I wished you’d died there. Stayed there. It would’ve been easier for me. But you came back."
He laughed again, hollow this time. "Like an irritating cockroach. One with absurd power. Something I can’t kill, and apparently, nothing else can either."
"You took over every round of the Trials," Leon said. "Every stage. Every challenge. You always found a way to be first. Like you were sitting on some invisible throne made just for you."
His fists clenched. "I realized that if I left this Trial with you alive, there’d be no place for people like me. There are already monsters I can’t deal with, like that shadow that keeps taking first place. And then there’s you."
"So it had to be done."
Leon exhaled slowly. "I wish I could take your revive totem. Or your attack totem. But I don’t have time. It pisses me off that I’ll get nothing from you before I leave."
He looked up one last time. "But at the very least, I’ll be one of the first to exit this stage. I’ll get rewards. Rewards I’m sure you’d have taken if you had the chance."
He smiled coldly. "Either way... I wish you the best."
As he spoke, Leon formed a blade of metal and fired it toward the crystal embedded in the third eye of the angel statue, while walking toward the door at the same time.
His plan was simple.
The moment he stepped through, the blade would rip the crystal free, the door would shut, and the rest of them would be trapped, forced to deal with the broken mechanism and the butler.
Leon didn’t look back.
But the instant his foot crossed the threshold,
Something stopped him.
His body froze.
He turned his head slightly.
The butler was standing beside him.
Hands already closing in.
Leon tried to dodge.
Too late.
The butler grabbed him by the neck and hurled him with such force it shattered the sound barrier. Leon slammed into the wall, coughing blood so violently it sprayed like rain. His body crumpled to the ground, pain beyond anything he had ever experienced, too much for him to even scream.
He lay there, eyes open, blood smeared across the wall behind him.
Aren, Kira, and Aiden stared in shock.
Leon was still alive.
But nearly every bone in his body was shattered.
They looked at the butler and understood instantly.
This was power they couldn’t even dream of contending with.
Leon’s betrayal didn’t surprise Aren.
From the very first moment Leon had sat beside him, something had felt off. Toward the end of this stage, it had only grown worse. Aren had known Leon was planning something, just not this.
"I hate traitors," the butler said calmly.
They all stiffened, instantly on guard.
He took one step forward.
"That makes me a hypocrite," he continued, "considering what I’m about to do."
Then he stopped.
His gaze locked onto Aren.
"Many people have passed through this castle," the butler said. "Awakened every ten years, repeating the same suffering over and over again. Nothing good has ever come from it."
"But you, Aren... you’re the first."
The butler’s voice softened. "The first who gave me hope. Hope that these Trials can end. Because they need to end."
"There’s something in you," he continued, "something that will change everything. Something that can fix this broken system."
He pressed a hand to his chest and let out a deep groan, as if forcing something out of himself.
Golden light burst forth.
He pulled out a glowing sphere, a condensed ball of golden energy.
"I possess two souls," the butler said. "Beings of my level can acquire more than one through certain means. This soul has saved me from countless deaths."
He looked at Aren.
"But I’m tired."
"Tired of the repetition. Tired of the pain everyone is forced to endure."
He extended his hand.
"I’m giving it to you."
The golden soul floated through the air and sank into Aren’s chest the moment it touched him.
[You have gained a Unique Soul]
The system’s voice rang out.
Before Aren could even process it, the butler spoke again.
"Use the attack totem," he said. "On me."
"What?" Aren asked, stunned.
"You have to use the attack totem on me," the butler repeated.
"If we keep fighting, there’s no way you leave, Aren. You might be strong and resourceful, but I am a being only a few steps below an angel in power, the second in command of this castle. If I truly wanted to kill you, it would be instant."
He looked at Aren steadily.
"This is the only way you survive and walk away having crossed paths with me," he continued. "Lady Elton isn’t watching right now. That’s your chance."
He raised a hand slightly. "All you have to do is make it look like I got careless. Like you used the angel’s attack totem, the one that carries the full offensive power of an angel. That level of power can severely wound me... or even kill me."
Then his gaze softened, turning calm and serious.
"There’s one more thing you need to know," he said quietly. "In this Trial, you are a special target. One that everything and everyone will celebrate once you’re dead."
He straightened, standing tall, exposing himself without resistance.
"I’ve said what I needed to say."
The butler waited.
Waiting for Aren to take out the attack totem.