Chapter 138: Back ‘inside’ Aegis

To make it worse, he didn’t hesitate the moment he laid his hands on the power, using it to kill his father.

Thokas exhaled slowly, forcing his thoughts back under control, though the unease refused to fully settle.

The sword wasn’t even the only troubling detail.

He thought back to the confrontation itself, to the brief, strained moments before Leon had vanished entirely.

The barrier Leon used hadn’t seen exactly ordinary also, and even now, he could still remember the face of the woman with snake instead of hairs drawn on its surface.

"What talent do you actually have now," Thokas murmured quietly.

The question circled uncomfortably, refusing to settle into any easy answer.

Talents, once awakened, simply didn’t change. That was one of the fundamental, immovable rules governing the entire system, as consistent and reliable as gravity itself.

A D-rank talent remained D-rank permanently, its wielder’s growth limited accordingly, regardless of effort, training, or ambition.

Except, apparently, in one exceedingly rare, closely guarded circumstance.

Thokas’s expression darkened further as the thought fully crystallized in his mind.

"Talent reawakening," he said quietly, testing the words aloud in the empty room.

It wasn’t a concept widely known, deliberately kept hidden from the general public, restricted entirely to a small, select circle at the very top of the Player Association.

Thokas himself had only learned of its existence through his own position among the ten heads, and even then, only because circumstances had once demanded it.

The process, when it occurred, allowed a player’s original talent to be entirely overwritten, replaced by something new, sometimes wildly different from whatever they’d originally awakened with.

It was, without exception, the rarest phenomenon known to exist within the entire system, occurring in roughly one person out of every billion, an incident so statistically improbable that most people within the Association’s own inner circle had never personally witnessed a single confirmed case in their entire lifetimes.

Thokas had witnessed exactly one.

"The last person to go through reawakening," he murmured, his voice quieter now, heavier, "was White also."

The connection settled over him like a physical weight, cold and unwelcome.

A legendary-grade weapon, unseen in the world since White’s own disappearance.

A dramatic, seemingly impossible shift in raw combat capability, the exact kind of transformation reawakening alone could reasonably explain.

Both details, individually rare enough to warrant serious concern, now sitting together, tangled inseparably around a single, discarded D-rank talent who’d somehow ended up killing an S-rank player without apparent difficulty.

Thokas turned away from the window finally, moving back toward the chair, though he didn’t sit.

Instead, he stood there for a long moment, arms folded, staring at nothing in particular while his mind continued working through the implications.

If Leon Allistar really had undergone talent reawakening, if he really did carry something legendary-grade at his side, then whatever the Association currently understood about the threat he posed was almost certainly a significant underestimation.

***

Meanwhile...

Leon walked for another block after leaving Iris, the tension in his shoulders no less anything settled, before finally spotting a proper hotel tucked along a quieter side street.

Its lit sign was considerably more polished than the modest lodging house he might have otherwise settled for.

He stepped inside, paid for a room with a handful of silver coins he still had left, and made his way up to the third floor without much further thought.

The room itself was simple but comfortable, a wide bed, a small writing desk near the window, the city’s glittering lights visible faintly through the glass.

He closed the door behind him and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, exhaling slowly, letting some of the day’s accumulated weight settle across his shoulders now that he was finally alone.

’You’re still awake,’ Medusa’s voice said, drifting into his thoughts without preamble.

’Hard to sleep after today,’ Leon thought back.

’Understandable,’ she said. ’Though I suspect that’s not actually why you’re still thinking so loudly.’

Leon huffed out a quiet breath, leaning back against the headboard.

’You mentioned a requirement,’ he thought. ’Back in the library. For unlocking Aegis’s full power.’

’I did,’ Medusa said, something amused threading through her tone now.

’You said you’d tell me next time we met,’ Leon pressed. ’So tell me.’

’That’s not quite how I remember phrasing it,’ Medusa said. ’I said I’d tell you when we meet, not describe it from a distance like this.’

Leon frowned slightly. ’We’re talking right now.’

’This is talking,’ Medusa said. ’And there’s a difference between talking and meeting.’

’And how exactly am I supposed to just meet you whenever I want?’ Leon asked, a note of frustration slipping into the thought despite himself.

’I don’t exactly have a door leading to that field sitting in my back pocket.’

’Don’t you?’ Medusa asked, amusement clear now. ’Look at the ring, Leon.’

Leon glanced down at his hand, the plain silver band of Aegis sitting quietly against his finger, unremarkable in appearance despite everything it had already done for him.

He’d worn it everyday since it first awakened, barely giving it a second thought beyond its function as a shield.

He studied it more carefully now, turning his hand slightly, letting the dim light from the window catch its surface.

’Reach toward it,’ Medusa said, her voice softer now, almost coaxing. With your mind... since you’ve been here before, some part of you already knows how to find me.’

Leon hesitated, unsure exactly what she meant, though something about the instruction felt oddly intuitive despite its vagueness.

He closed his eyes, focusing his attention inward, searching for whatever quiet, invisible thread connected him to the ring resting on his finger.

He found it almost immediately, a faint, warm pulse humming somewhere beneath his own awareness, steady and inviting, like a familiar voice calling from just beyond an open doorway.

He leaned into it.

The world shifted instantly.

Leon’s eyes opened to bright, open sky, endless and soft, the same gentle field of grass and wildflowers stretching out around him in every direction, exactly as he remembered it from before.