232 Place holder v6

"NO!!!" 

Jaime shouted in sorrow.

Jin collapsed on the ground after the hand pulled back and the transmigrators saw the owner. It was Leon.

But how was that possible? They had just defeated his [Earth Lord] form. So he shouldn't have been able to arrive this shortly. The cooldown between his forms varied but he had never arrived instantly after his previous incarnation was defeated.

Also, the last battle [Light and Dark Lord] was a twin boss, meaning aside from Leon Richard should also have been here but they couldn't see him.

Could it be that [Earth Lord] form wasn't defeated and he faked his death?

That was a reasonable line of thought. If the others also knew about [Earth Lord] Leon's golem ability, they would have been even more sure of their guesses.

Linri, on the other hand, was having a different idea. Ever since the fight against [Wind Lord] Leon he had been suspecting one thing. Why is it that Leon always arrived after his previous incarnation was destroyed and why was it that it was always a different element?

If it was a game you wouldn't question this since you could just chalk it up to the mechanics of the game but this world stopped being a game long ago. Every little action had its own reason. 

Even magic was the same. During the club, Linri did not know about the sovereigns, altars, elemental roots etc. These were the established rules of the world and even their powers fit into that criteria but it wasn't mentioned in the club once.

Maybe Leon's forms also followed that rule. From the start it was dubious. Leon called himself a God and he was supposedly in the middle of his ascension. The only reason he came to attack Autumnfall was that he wanted to hurt Richard. That was the reason given in the club but was it still the truth in this world?

If he was a God his attributes should have been [15x God] level but if it really was that then no one in the school would have been able to defeat him. However, Leon was weak enough that students and teachers could take him on if they worked together. That simply didn't make sense.

The only logical conclusion was that the Leons they had fought against were not the real bodies. Heck, maybe even the last boss fight would still not be his real body. So these incarnations of Leon were just clones. If they were clones what was there to keep Leon from sending multiple of them at the same time?

Unfortunately, he could not find the answer to that and it wasn't even important. The fact of the matter was Leon could send multiple and he had already done that before. During the [Wind Lord] fight Linri had decided to rest and let others handle it but another Leon had still attacked him. Thankfully Amy was bothered by that and took him out.

But what if Leon already took care of that? Or maybe he disregarded the consequence and immediately attacked once again so that we wouldn't be able to catch our breath? That was reasonable and something he might do. 

"Can you finally see why you shouldn't offend a God?" Leon laughed as he crushed Jin's heart.

"I WILL KILL YOU!!!" Kris shouted in anger and fired beams towards Leon.

Not good. Everyone was too affected by the death of Jin so they weren't able to think clearly. If they attacked recklessly they would only share the same fate as Jin. 

Linri suddenly felt a chill in his body. Yes, a supposed friend had just died but why wasn't he angry? Of course, the usual him wouldn't even bat an eye but he wasn't Max anymore. He was Linri, a hothead with anger issues. This was wrong. 

That was when Linri noticed the pain from his hand. He was so accustomed to the pain that he hadn't even noticed it at first and just disregarded it, similar to how one would disregard a smell after smelling it for so long. It was a way to keep the brain alert against dangers by reducing the information load.

Linri looked at his hand and noticed blood dripping from it. He was clenching his fist so hard that his nails were piercing his skin. It was fascinating. He was so angry that he couldn't even feel his own anger. Or maybe there was a dissonance between his body and spirit? Meh, Future Linri could think about this problem later on. Linri unclenched his fist and looked at Leon.

He was fighting against the combined efforts of the transmigrators easily without even sweating. Since he hadn't cast a spell yet and was just playing around with them Linri did not know which element he was. 

According to the script, it should have been the [Light Lord] Leon but [Dark Lord] Richard was nowhere to be seen. Maybe this was a different element? It could even be a previous element they had already beaten. If it was [Fire Lord] Leon again Linri would just jump in joy. However, that was wishful thinking and he knew it.

That was when Linri suddenly felt something grabbing his ankle.

[Azure Flame Arsenal: Sword]

Linri freed his leg and got into a fighting stance ready to attack whatever just touched him only to see that it was Jin. For some reason, he had crawled on the ground and came to him.

Jin was trying to say something but his voice was so low that Linri wasn't even able to hear it. He looked towards Leon and seeing that he wasn't paying any attention to him Linri bent down to hear what Jin was trying to say.

"...Fuck... You..." 

Linri's face instantly changed. 

WTF!!

What did he do to him that even on his dying breath Jin was cursing him? He didn't even remember talking to him. As Linri was about to get up and leave Jin held his collar tightly not letting him go.

"...Promise..."

What promise? Was he promising to him that if he survives this ordeal he was going to -

"...me..."

"...protect... Jaime"

And after saying those last words Jin drew his last breath. Linri was not aware of that. He was still waiting to hear what he was trying to say. However, no matter how much he waited he couldn't hear anything. Actually, he couldn't even hear Jin's breathing anymore.

Connecting the dots Linri's mind immediately drew a blank. Seeing your friend die and him dying in your arms were different situations altogether.

He couldn't have died right?

I mean we are transmigrators. We know the future. We know Leon's every form and every move. He wasn't even one of the hardest bosses. One of them couldn't have died from this right? But weren't they destined to survive? Their OG characters had already survived these encounters. So they should have been safe as long as they followed the same steps right? 

Linri started to hyperventilate. He remembered the fear he had forgotten after his evolution, the anxiety. They were changing the world, its history. They were already out of the OG fate's jurisdiction and they were walking on uncharted territory.

They might know things about the future but they weren't set in stone. They could always change. They could always die. Yes, death! They were going to die! Yes! Everyone here WAS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!

His mind was slowly crumbling over this realisation. How could he have been so foolish? He had always thought they were safe since the OG characters survived so they would as well. In a couple of situation, he had debated over this fact but now that the undeniable truth was in front of him he couldn't deny it anymore.

Yes, deep in his mind he knew that they weren't invincible and he had even warned the others that they could still die but he himself had never believed that. It was only a lie to keep them safe.

As Linri's mind was spiralling in chaos Leon noticed his blank look. This was the same filthy animal that dared to destroy two of his incarnations and even mocked him. This was the perfect opportunity to take him out.

Leon pointed towards Linri.

[Light Bullet]

A beam of light shot towards Linri at [5x Uber Speed]. Just this casual attack of Leon was already as strong as Rina's trump card [Railgun]. 

However, unlike Leon's expectations, Linri's brains didn't splatter all over the ground. Instead, he slumped towards the ground on top of Jin's body that was slowly getting cold.

Was it a coincidence?

Linri himself was seeing a different picture. His [A.I Chip] was flashing red and sending warning but he didn't even care.

[WARNING!] [WARNING!] [WARNING!]

[The Host has been detected to be under too much stress]

[The system has detected that The Host is going through a mental 

breakdown]

[Looking for possible solutions...]

[Found!]

[Stimulating the brain to secrete Oxytocin to counter-effect the Cortisol...]