Leonard died without ever escaping the frozen time.
He was still clutching his chest, a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, his face frozen with the terror he'd felt at Leonardo's fury.
He didn't even realize what was happening as the phantom image rolled over his body, erasing him from both the observable and unobservable worlds at once.
The hallway fell silent again.
Sunlight streamed in from outside, illuminating the empty floor, the open window, and Sebastian's pale face.
He wanted to say something, but he saw that Cheris's gaze remained fixed.
In the end, he said nothing.
Cheris withdrew her hand. Her slender index finger, painted with glossy black nail polish, still gleamed faintly in the sunlight.
Even though that finger had just crushed a Third-Level Wizard, even though the aftershocks of the phantom image still lingered in the hallway, her gaze never left Murphy.
From the moment she appeared, she hadn't looked at anyone else.
"Are you really okay?"
