As one of the leaves floating around him touched his right arm, it crumpled and turned into ash.
The ashes of the leaf blew over Leon's wet skin as the curtain was raised and splattered down.
Around Leon's arm, yellowish light glowed in his skin as his veins turned gold.
…
Meanwhile, in his dream world, he stumbled back in shock, crossing his arms over his face.
Uncrossing his arms, the ground he stood on shook and began to shatter bit by bit. When the first part of the stairs collapsed, a void of no return caught Leon's eyes.
His heart stopped for a second the moment he saw the solid ground drifting downward.
"Help!" he screamed loudly when part of the ground he stood on collapsed, causing him to shake rapidly.
Leon stretched his arms toward the two sentinels as sobs escaped his mouth. Not receiving any help, he crawled forward and clung to the door.
The moment the ground he had leaped from seconds ago also collapsed, giving Leon only a narrow path to place his foot, his face turned pale.
When he shifted his gaze to the sentinels behind him, their ground remained untouched, as if the land he was in was only chasing after his soul.
When all his hopes died as the narrow platform he stood on also shook and began dripping one after another, a voice rose from within him: "Remember who… you… are… before it opens!"
As soon as the voice faded, Leon's eyes welled up as the door he held vibrated and throbbed under his skin, almost as if it was fed up with him touching it.
Leon tightened his grip on the jagged stones erected on the surface of the door. But as the door vibrated with a second motion, his left arm slipped as the stone he held broke and fell.
His left arm staggered for a while, then slammed onto another stone, which also broke the moment he wrapped his fingers around it.
Unluckily, his right arm slipped while the stone he had held under the grip of his left arm also broke and fell into the void beneath him.
He staggered like a loose tree and fell, flapping his arms like a bird now learning to fly.
Leon's mouth forcefully opened and bloated as an unmeasured amount of air gashed and slammed his face.
When he tried to scream amidst the pressure turning his face red, his own voice gulped in his throat and choked him.
The moment he spotted a glistening spear stretched upward like an army, drawing near as he went down, the voice set his throat free.
"Ahhhh!"
….
Around his physical body, all his sweat pooled and soaked the bed, while the leaves also turned into ashes whenever they landed on his skin.
The air in the room no longer felt the same, as if conspiring with what he was experiencing in the dream.
A loud skin-blasting sound echoed in Leon's dream as the jagged spears pierced through countless parts of his dream body.
Shunk!
He hung impaled on the sharp edges, unmoving, while blood oozed out of his chest, ribs, and legs, then dripped on the ground like a waterfall.
When two crows flew past him and slapped his face with their feathers, Leon's eyes opened wide and he gasped as if it was the last air available to keep him alive.
Cough.
He coughed once, twice, then on the third, blood bubbled out of his mouth. The crows that lingered around him made cries that pierced through his eardrums like a freshly crafted sword.
Though almost all his vital parts were pierced, he could turn his neck around freely.
"WHY NOT KILL ME INSTEAD?!" he screamed in a sorrowful tone while the blood kept bubbling from his mouth.
Countless crows shot up from the dark, solid ground and hovered in a scattered stance around him.
Leon closed his eyes and smiled. But when he felt his skin get pecked by a bird's beak, he forcefully shoved himself sideways.
A bell sound echoed from all the spears he clung to as tiny round metals chained around the spears rose and slammed against them.
Then, in the distance, loud footsteps that sounded like an earthquake echoed.
Leon's expression changed when he turned his head and gazed in the direction from which the sound erupted.
Seeing a colossal being moving at an unnatural speed toward him, a bright city of gold flashed in his eyes—a view of heaven he had read about in history books.
When the being closed in and stopped, the bright city vanished, revealing eye sockets without eyes.
Leon clenched his jaw and closed his eyes when the being opened its wide mouth.
A chorus of laughter surged over Leon like fire.
Thin streams of blood dripped from Leon's ears, nose, and eyes like drizzling rain when the being closed its mouth.
No air flew across the land the spears were pierced in, yet he felt something moving the strands of his hair and shifting them sideways.
A massive force slammed into his body, which was already limp, letting the spears pierce through him deeper.
Everything went black when a spear pierced his head, cracking his skull.
And in the blackness, a voice rang in his ear: "I'm still waiting to end what you started."
Leon jolted awake from the nightmare and met another nightmare, spotting the bed he was in now looking like a mini swimming pool.
Huge amounts of water were hurled out of his throat after he gasped for air, splashing on the ground beneath his bed and around it.
The water-dropping sound echoed so loudly that he clutched his palms around his ears and squeezed his face.
Before he could notice, he scrambled onto the slippery floor. His chest heaved after he slammed both elbows hard on the ground.
Feeling the pain streaking through his elbows felt as if the spears he dreamed of were piercing his real body as well.
The hum of the medical machines echoed in his ears, bringing him back from the dream.
One breath at a time, Leon calmed himself. He managed to stand up without slipping, neared the bed, and sat on it carefully.
His body shot up immediately as the water-filled bed touched his skin. He moved toward the foamy seat at his left-hand side and sat in it.
A soft wind blew across his face the moment sleep tried to swallow him again. Quickly, he shook his head and opened his eyes wide.
As his eyes closed for the second time, the statement repeated itself around him: "I'm still waiting to end what you started."
…
Meanwhile, inside the hallway of the academy, one door remained open. And inside the room that had its door open, Tiger sat there, anger filling his face like a second skin.