As Leon began moving, he realized something and immediately stopped in his tracks.
There was just one big problem. The cloaks made a person invisible to others.
Which meant the cloak also made Aurelia invisible to Leon!
He stared at empty air until Aurelia removed her hood with an apologetic smile and held out her hand.
Leon's eyes twitched as he hesitantly moved his hand and held hers.
They then began walking away as Aurelia's figure disappeared, but Leon could still feel the warmth in his hand as it was guided forward.
They eventually got out of the alleyway and began walking through the streets. The cloaks worked their charm as everyone simply ignored them. Leon nearly bumped into two of them before they reached the basilica.
Along the way, he heard countless people speaking.
"I heard the princess ran away with some outsider."
"Pfft. Like father, like daughter. Both of them traitors."
"She ran away? Why would anyone want to leave the grace of the lord?"
"The kids these days have no sense of duty. They abandon kingdoms just for some pathetic love."
Leon could feel the grip of Aurelia's arm tighten. She was clearly hurt by all these comments, and yet she never stopped moving.
She never hesitated in her goal. She simply swallowed all the pain and moved forward.
He then remembered Aurelia's words in the cave.
"They are like my family."
'Family... If only she were real, we could have been friends.'
As much as it pained Leon, he had to constantly remind himself that she was just a projection cast by the Spell.
This entire kingdom, no matter what happened to it, wasn't his problem.
The kingdom could go to hell for all he cared — he just had to get out of the Nightmare.
A thought of Aurelia fighting the titan and dying to it arose in his mind. His chest felt heavy. It hurt.
'No... I'll somehow convince her to leave, I know I can.'
***
Some time later, Aurelia stopped in her tracks as Leon did the same. There was silence for a while before the grip on his hand tightened.
Then he was pulled right into the basilica.
'Huh? Won't there be anything that could detect us in the basilica?'
Leon was thinking of what to do, but Aurelia simply walked inside.
They entered the basilica as Leon looked around.
The basilica was the same as the churches you'd find on Earth. Leon was never religious, but he was still forced to enter some.
His face grimaced as he remembered the times he was hungry, times when he was under the cold rain.
Shaking his head, he continued observing the inside.
White-robed figures moved through the space, speaking in low voices. He also saw the same Flamekeeper he had seen back in the court.
The walls of the basilica were lined with books, so much so that the building looked more like a library. At the far end stood a large podium.
But at the very center of the big podium, instead of a statue of a god, there was a bright white flame burning on a golden torch attached to the wall.
Two guards in silver armor stood right below the torch, guarding it.
Leon immediately knew that it was fake.
As they kept going forward, Aurelia switched directions and headed toward one of the doors to the side of the basilica.
Entering it, they entered another long chamber, lit only by torches. Crossing the narrow path, Leon grew uneasy.
Stopping along the way, Aurelia seemed to press one of the stone bricks as it depressed into the wall. Leon heard some clicks as the wall opened up.
Inside, he saw a garden.
The garden existed just like any other field outside. It had flowers everywhere, grass underneath and all around it, the stone walls had simply ceased to exist.
Everywhere he looked, he saw an infinite flat field of grass — flowers populated it like stars in the night sky. Some pink, some purple, some blue. Leon could find nearly every single color there. The sky was orange, as though the sun was setting.
They walked in and kept walking for a while. The space seemed to be infinite.
'How is this even possible?'
That's when he saw it. A bright white light shining in the middle of the field. He knew instantly that this was the divine flame.
But right beside it was a large beast... no, it wasn't a beast. Its wings were vast membranes stretched between ridges of molten scale. Its body was covered with crimson scales — the ground beneath it was glassed smooth due to its size.
'A...dragon...'
He gripped Aurelia's hand tightly.
The creature lay coiled beside the Flame like a crowned sentinel. Its crimson hide shimmered as if each scale contained trapped sunlight.
Aurelia's other palm grabbed onto Leon, clasping his hand in hers.
"It's alright, it can't leave the Radiant Vault."
His breathing evened as he heard Aurelia's calm voice.
'What have I gotten myself into...'
As they kept walking forward slowly, Leon's heartbeat quickened. He swallowed hard as they approached the flame.
Aurelia stopped in her tracks as the grip on his hand felt lighter.
She whispered into his ear.
"When I give the signal, run."
Leon froze as his hand lost the warmth it had. Her hand simply slipped away as Leon stood there.
'She's crazy!'
After a while, the flame flickered. He observed intently as he noticed it moving.
The dragon opened its terrifying eyes.
Leon's breath stopped as he saw the dragon slowly unravel its wings.
That's when he felt something grab his palm and jerk it back. Leon knew this was Aurelia, although he was confused about how she found him, he began running with all his might.
But then the dragon flew and appeared right in front of them. It was so fast and silent that Leon couldn't even comprehend how the massive creature did it.
'We just have to get out...'
He then saw the Flamekeeper appear right below the dragon, with steady footsteps.
Aurelia lowered her cloak, as Leon gritted his teeth and did the same.
"Aura."
The man spoke in a steady voice.
"What are you trying to achieve?"
Aurelia narrowed her eyes as he could feel her hand grip his tighter.
"Uncle, please believe me."
She placed a hand on her chest, as a small frown grew on her face.
"I am not a traitor, I believe I can find a way to destroy the curs—"
Hesitating, she looked down as she realized she had uttered the words curse to someone who served the sun god.
The Flamekeeper simply stared at Aurelia.
He then took a step toward her.
Leon tensed. Turning toward Aurelia, he spoke in a nervous tone.
"You said you were the strongest. Why are you not fighting?"
Aurelia grimaced.
"The Seraph guarding the flames cannot be beaten, Leon."
Looking up, she frowned and continued,
"It's a supreme dragon..."
All hope left Leon's body. But then a tiny spark ignited his heart again.
'If the dragon is supreme...then the titan is fodder!'
But then he remembered when she said that the beast couldn't leave the Radiant Vault, which must have been this weird sub-space. Everything felt over.
But the Flamekeeper simply sighed as he placed a hand on Aurelia's head.
"I don't know what you think you can do... But I fear the prophecy nears us every day."
His expression turned serious as he glanced at Leon.
"I just hope you know I believe in you, but you don't have to believe in everyone else."
Aurelia nodded as she left Leon's hand and hugged the Flamekeeper.
"I will save everyone, trust me, uncle."
After that, she motioned for Leon to follow as she began leaving the Radiant Vault.
Leon looked at the Flamekeeper and the dragon with a wary expression. As he was passing the dragon, it narrowed its eyes while lowering its head. Leon froze as the dragon approached him.
Aurelia too, showed a look of fear as the dragon simply sniffed him, and seemed to lose interest again.
Widening her eyes, she looked at Leon and said,
"Leon...you"
But the Flamekeeper's voice interrupted her.
"You have five minutes to escape, Aura."
So she grabbed his hand again — putting on the cloak, they dashed back toward the entrance of the Radiant Vault.
As they were rushing out, he observed the divine flame in Aurelia's hand. It looked just like a torch, except at its tip, it had a bright white light igniting it.
They soon exited the vault, then the sanctum, and eventually reached the hall of the basilica again.
But right then, someone shouted.
"The flame is gone!"
Everyone immediately tensed as Aurelia began running toward the door.
Near the exit, a few guards were pulling it shut. He grimaced but did not slow down — he knew she had to have had some sort of plan.
True to her word, white flames shot out from beside him and completely enveloped the entire door.
The guards and the door were simply thrown out as Leon kept running.
He saw Rhea land directly in front of him as he was getting out of the church. He wasted no time and got onto Rhea.
He looked back to see that the torch was also moving toward him with great speed. Suddenly, the torch flew toward him.
He caught the torch, removed his cloak and held his hand out as Aurelia grabbed it and got onto Rhea. Rhea immediately shot up in the air, trying to fly away as fast as possible.
But before it could fly away, chains spat out of the ground and enveloped the bird. He looked down and saw one of the cloaked acolytes holding his hands out as countless chains shot out from the ground beneath him.
Leon tensed up as the grip on the divine flame tightened.
Aurelia pulled her cloak down as he saw her emerald eyes light up and turn bright orange — everything beneath him enveloped in flames with a loud sound.
The chains binding them disappeared as they shot up into the air because of the propulsion. Leon nearly fell off but was grabbed by Aurelia.
They travelled higher and higher before changing directions and moving away.
The wind rushed at Leon's face as they covered a huge distance in a short time.
Leon turned back and saw multiple people flying toward them.
'They can fly?!'
Gritting his teeth, he knew he couldn't keep relying on her, but how could he even do anything?
He widened his eyes slightly as he looked down at the divine flame in his hand.
Leon then pointed the flame toward the enemies flying toward them.
He didn't know how to activate the flame, but as soon as he thought of flames spewing out of the torch, they did.
White flames shot out of the torch and shot at the people chasing them.
Most of them flew away from the attack, but some just fell down.
Leon grinned madly as he understood the power he held in his hands.
'They won't die from this height anyway.'
He then began shooting out flames like a madman.
Eventually, no one was chasing them anymore.
Leon laughed madly, but was cut off by Aurelia covering his mouth.
He looked at her only to see a tense expression on her face as she looked in the direction of the basilica.
Aurelia then grabbed Leon and put his hood back on. She did the same.
"Leon! I'm sorry in advance."
She then dragged him off Rhea as they fell from the sky.
Leon's stomach lurched as he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"AURELIA WHAT THE FU-"
But before he could finish his sentence, a fireball screamed past where they'd been sitting a moment ago.
Rhea skillfully dodged as even more of them shot at the bird.
They kept falling as Leon's breath hitched. He was falling backward so he couldn't see how far the ground was. His chest tightened, while Aurelia's grip felt like the only fixed point in the world.
He could feel her repositioning below him, slowly changing the angle of the fall, placing herself between him and whatever was coming.
Then an explosion hit.
Not from above — from below. A controlled burst of flame that met their downward momentum and pushed back against it. The force drove up through his feet, his legs, his spine — not enough to stop them, but enough to cut the speed.
His insides felt like they'd been rearranged. For a second, they were almost hovering.
Aurelia's grip on his arm loosened as the remaining momentum pulled them apart. Leon had a single moment of weightlessness before the ground arrived.
His body crashed into the ground. He fell face-first and felt his ribs break. The divine flame fell out of his hand as he continued to roll away after the fall.
Leon finally stopped as he groaned in pain. His entire body hurt, but he somehow managed to get up.
He looked around to find himself back in a similar alleyway. Breathing heavily, he began searching for Aurelia and widened his eyes as he saw her.
Aurelia lay on the ground facing up, but her entire body was burnt. Her clothes looked undamaged, but he could barely see any skin on her.
It was all red and bloody. Leon immediately got up and walked toward her. Everything hurt, but he somehow managed to make his way to her.
"No..."
He gritted his teeth. Her entire face was burnt. It was basically unrecognizable.
But before he could do anything, bright orange flames enveloped her as the burns on her body seemed to heal.
Slowly, the flames covered her entire body as she slowly opened her eyes. She slowly got up, and by this point, she looked as good as new.
She turned towards Leon and touched his face. Bright flames erupted from her hands as Leon was also healed.
"Sorry again, but that was the only way we could get away."
Leon felt his entire body heal as he slowly nodded. The pain disappeared instantly.
"Right then... I suppose my plan worked."
She said while smiling.
Leon's fatigue disappeared at the sight of her smile.
"You are too crazy."
She nodded as she got up and walked towards the divine flame.
She gripped it and held it up.
"With this, we can save—"
But before she could finish her sentence, a huge explosion sounded, drowning out every other noise around them.
Both their heads shot up as they heard the explosion.
Aurelia grabbed Leon's arm.
"Brace yourself!"
Leon did not have time though, as another explosion occurred beneath their feet as they shot up into the air.
Leon felt his legs singe from the heat, then heal under her flames.
They shot up above the buildings and landed on top of one of them.
They were on the roof of one of the buildings. Leon balanced himself as another huge explosion sounded in the distance.
He shot his head up toward the source of the noise and saw the prison building.
The sounds of explosions continued, but nothing seemed to happen.
But Leon suddenly widened his eyes in horror as he saw something shatter.
'No...'
The end had arrived.
***
Leon kept staring ahead.
His mind was empty, not knowing what to think.
He saw the colossal golden titan shoot out from the wall and stop a few feet away from the wall.
The titan then moved its head around.
It was humanoid with two arms and legs, but its entire surface seemed smooth and made out of gold.
Its face was empty with no defining features as it had two holes for eyes, which glowed crimson red.
Leon's entire body shuddered in fear as he kept staring at the titan.
'Awakened? Or is it Fallen?'
The creature was definitely a titan, but he did not know what rank it was.
His breathing increased.
'Does it even matter? They'll all die...'
He looked at Aurelia, who was in a similar state.
Her face grimaced in fear as she kept staring at the titan.
Her arms shook as her lips quivered.
Leon lowered his head as he saw Aurelia falling to her knees. He tried to help her up, but Aurelia seemed too dazed to stand.
He looked back at the titan, which brought shivers down his spine. The titan trampled over the prison building, simply flattening it without effort.
He saw tiny specks of black approaching the titan, trying to damage it, but the titan was completely unbothered.
It just kept moving its head around and walking in random directions, as if destroying the kingdom wasn't even its original goal.
He then noticed Aurelia look at the kingdom in the other direction, and then look back at the titan.
'No...she wouldn't...'
Her voice cracked, as if she would cry soon.
"I'm going."
Leon stared at her in disbelief.
She could see the titan just like he could.
So why?
"Why? Why would you go so far for them?"
Leon asked.
Aurelia turned to him, her face looked like she could cry at any second.
"Because they are all that I have left!" She shouted.
"My father entrusted me with his kingdom, so I can't abandon them like he did."
She looked back at the titan.
"I don't want anyone else to go through what I had."
Leon shook his head.
"You'll die. That's a titan! Even if you are the strongest here, there's no way you can beat that!"
Aurelia looked at him with a dark expression.
"I know. But the divine flame can."
She picked up the torch and gripped it in her hand.
"If I can overload the flame, it should cause a big enough explosion to kill the titan."
He knew she swallowed some of the words. The words that spelt out that she was suicide bombing herself.
She turned towards him.
"Thank you Leon. For being my friend."
Leon wanted to retort — but the words died in his throat as he kept staring at her.
She would kill herself. Overloading the divine flame could potentially kill the titan, but it would also kill her.
He didn't want her dying.
This was a Nightmare — she wasn't real.
But the pain was.
He gritted his teeth, and in the spur of the moment, he spoke up.
"I have a plan, you don't need to overload the flame."
Aurelia narrowed her eyes.
"But how?"
He held her shoulders.
"Trust me. Just keep fending it off, buy me time."
With a pause, he continued.
"If it gets too dangerous, just get away."
She hesitated, looking back at the titan. She took a deep breath and stood up with a determined expression.
Aurelia then smiled and nodded.
"I'll believe in you."
With that, she called Rhea once more and took off toward the titan.
***
Leon stared at the figure of Aurelia moving away from him.
He did not have any sort of plan to kill the titan.
But he knew that if Aurelia overloaded the divine flame, she would blow up with it.
With a painful expression, he descended the roof.
He kept running around trying to find the narrow space they had crawled into the wall from.
Leon was running away.