"Not really, I've never seen anything like this before. It's rare for a witch to change our visual perception of the world so much." She summoned a gun and shot a snakerabbit's head. "They're only vulnerable in the head, Kyrin-kun. Be careful." She said as she walked, summoning guns and repeatedly shooting the snakes. "I can't tell anything apart, this is so hard!" She regained her balance after almost tripping on a rock.
The monster's size kept increasing as they advanced, and Koyuki started leaping insteading of aiming from the ground, and summoning machine guns instead of normal ones. "These things can be hard to kill..." She said when she got thrown at the ground by a very large snakerabbit. There were ones shaped like seahorses too, they launched a dark fire breath. At least, that's what Koyuki saw it as. That binary-colored world didn't make things too easy."

Leon followed Koyuki-Senpai, unable to really do much as her range destroyed any familiar before they got close enough. "Maybe fists aren't the best weapons..." He said to himself. He helped Koyuki-Senpai up after she got knocked down by the giant familiar. He looked up at hit, his void-like eye flashing. "That's it. I'm sick of this! We will find that witch and now!" He held out his right hand, the one with the void on it and concentrated all his power. The void burst out in a flame like substance and surrounded his entire body.

"Nightmare Strike!" He yelled as he dashed, faster than the eye can see, through all the familiars, absorbing them into his void. He did not stop until they reached a large door. He spun around and kicked the door, sending it flying backwards into the new room. He took a step forward and then stumbled as the flames suddenly died out. He knelt on the ground, clutching his soul gem and gasping for breath. The corruption had increased a bit from the intense use of his power. Sweat was pouring down his face and he could not seem to focus on anything.

Koyuki stopped, speechless. "What... what was that?!" She finally said, running towards Leon. "Kyrin-kun, are you okay?! You really overused your power over there. Do you want me to continue this alone? You don't seem to be too well." She knelt down, worried, and then looked into the room beyond the door.
The door was set on a high rocky wall, and another long path of dark ground ended in a cliff. Koyuki could see what seemed to be a girl. She was... crying? No, praying. She was praying to a torchlike red cross. It was huge. The girl had long hair, made of what seemed to be plants. Suddenly, she noticed their presence. Hands sprouted out of here, aiming at Koyuki and Leon.
"Kyrin-kun, watch out!"

Leon looked up a look of cool detachment on his face. He pushed Koyuki-Senpai out of the way and took the blast full on. The branches tore into his chest and arms, cutting them severely. He knew he was going to pay for that, but he had no choice in the matter, corruption or not he was still a hero at heart, and sacrifice is a hero's destiny. I may have overextended my powers this time. I don't think I can move anymore. I'm only going to serve as a distraction at this point. He said. You'll finish this right? I can count on you?

He began to fade out of consciousness, but before he did something triggered in his mind. Chasing a young girl with purple hair, whispering in her ear, her death assured. Why could he not fully recall what had happened, who was that girl? She seemed so familiar to him. He would have to figure it out later, he thought as he met the ground and slipped from consciousness, his transformation fading away.

Koyuki ran towards the witch. Of course. I'll avoid letting her hit you, you're in a pretty bad state already. She knew there was nothing she could do for Leon, she had no healing powers.
The witch, listening to Koyuki's arrival, melted into the ground, swiftly moving unnoticed. "That is so not fair..." Koyuki said, climbing to the big cross' pedestal. She noticed the cliff was shaped like a hand, holding the cross like a real torch.
The witch appeared once again. She launched her branchlike arms at Koyuki, but the latter merely disintegrated them with her guns. She took advantage of a moment of distraction from the witch, launching a massive bazooka against her.
And then the witch moved.
Faster than Koyuki expected, she launched a tree that grew instantly from her hairs. Koyuki's fast reflexes allowed her to keep her gem safe, but not without consequences. The witch had destroyed her whole body, that despite its quick regrowth, costed Koyuki some of her soul gem. "I can fix this later... my seeds at home will take care of it." She got up with some difficulty, deciding to finish the fight as quickly as she could.
She ran up to the witch that was recovering from her full blast. Koyuki held the biggest gun she could summon to her head, a large cannon. Why didn't I think of this before? She smirked and fired. "Game over, witch."
The barrier faded away, and Koyuki was back in the industrial area. By her feet were two cards.
They read 'Elsa Maria' and 'Sebastian's'. "Those are for Erin..." She detransformed and kept them in her pocket, as well as the grief seed she had been holding. She ran to Leon. "Kyrin-kun, can you hear me?"

Leon was floating in some sort of void, he had no body, he had only his soul. The darkness swirled around him with a small mixture of colors. Where am I? Who am I? It's comfortable here. He floated for a while, ignoring all things and allowed his perfect existence to continue. This is true bliss. This is what I've always wanted, isn't it? Get up, you cannot stay like this Leon. It sounded familiar, this voice, but he could not place it. You have too much to do, can a hero really lie on their back? I don't want to move, I want to stay like this for a while longer, let me sleep. Stop being selfish, you promised me, you promised you would help those who were in trouble! Remember, Leon! Remember our promise!

Leon opened his eyes. "Janet....I remember." He was sore, really sore. He could not feel his right arm. He blinked a few times and tried to focus on the person in front of him, but could not make out any details. His eyes would not focus, and his body would not move. "Am I dead?"

"Nope. At least, I don't think so, maybe we're both dead." Koyuki joked, pinching her cheek. "Nope, we're alive and... not so well, but alive." She held out her hand to Leon. "It's pointless to ask if you're okay, right? You took a big blow, Kyrin-kun. You need to rest."
She looked at her ring, it was almost half full of corruption. Using her strongest attack was an expensive move. "Come on, I'll get you back to your place and get Erin. She's probably either dying of worry or dying of boredom." She tilted her head. "Or both. Anyway, we need to get you some rest, you're probably badly wounded." She said, lifting him carefully with a zero-gravity stasis field.

Leon couldn't move, he wanted to nod but he was forced to speak. "Yeah. I bet she is." He floated in the stasis field, unable to move. He knew that the healing factor of his gem would recover in a few days, but this was the biggest attack he had ever taken, he was usually a lot faster, something was changing about him and not in a good way. "Did you remember to get the grief seed? Erin-Senpai really needs it." Even in this condition he was only worried about others.

Koyuki showed him the seed. "Yeah, it's here. Don't worry so much about Eri, she's very capable, you know. Even with her gem in that state, I bet she could still take out a lone familiar." She walked, the stasis field and Leon following her. They arrived at the school quickly, finding Erin sitting outside, playing with her ring.
"Oi, Eri!"

Erin looked up to Koyuki when she greeted her. "Hey, Koyu, finally... uh? What's wrong with Leon-kun?!" She got up and ran to the two magi. "Wh-what happened?!" She said, worried, as she received the grief seed and two cards from Koyuki.

Leon smiled weakly. "Nothing to worry about, just injuries that would cripple a lesser man. Worry later, purification now." He tried to sit up, but his body would not obey him it was taking every bit of his energy just to repair the wounds. "I don't think I'll be moving all that much for the next few days, will probably just sleep this off at home." His stomach rumbled loudly, causing him to blush a bit. "Er...seems that I forgot to eat lunch too," He tried to laugh, but it was a weak sound with no mirth.

Erin quickly cleansed her soul gem, tossing the grief seed to Koyuki. "Use it in Leon-kun's gem, it still has some use left." She said, taking a bento box out of her bag. "I have this that I summoned a while ago, I couldn't eat because I wasn't very hungry. Do you want it?" She asked him with a smile, yet still worried. "We should go back to your place. I've been out of home for some days, too, and I need to go back... with a really good excuse." She scratched her head, thinking about how she'd be grounded forever. Fortunately, she was a magi and could leave whenever she wanted.

"I can go with you, Eri, I'll make up an excuse so you won't get grounded." Koyuki said, catching the seed. "I should go home as well, there's a lot of planning I need to do, and research." She'd be researching soulification consequences. She wanted to keep safe, and she needed to know everything there was available, even though it probably wasn't a lot. "Well, Kyrin-kun, let me clean your gem!" Koyuki turned around and smiled at him. "Do you need me to break the stasis field?"

Leon smiled and forced himself to hold out his hand. "It's alright, I'll clean it myself, but later. I'm not so corrupted to need it immediately." He could not tell them, but he was a little bit worried that something would be off with the purification process, he wanted to do a bit of research on his soul gem and try out a few things, being alone would be the best option in that case.

He smiled again, forcing more strength into his body, not showing the others that he was actually using magic to force his body to move. It was probably not the best bet, but he couldn't have these two worrying about him, they had other matters to attend to. "I just need to be taken to my front door, I should have enough strength from there, if that's okay with you, Senpai."

Erin and Koyuki had taken Leon home, but nobody had said a word through the whole way. Erin was clearly very worried. How come things always seemed to come crumbling down when they were happy? It was unfair, just because they'd all traded their soul for a wish it didn't mean they had to always be sad. Protecting the city was hard enough already.
Erin had led Koyuki to Leon's home. "So you'll be fine here." Koyuki said breaking the field. "Okay, we're off. See you later!" Koyuki started to walk away, but Erin stood still. "Are you coming, Eri?"

Erin looked at Koyuki, blankly. She blinked a few times before reacting.
"Uh, yeah... See you later, Leon-kun. Take care of yourself." She waved him goodbye and started walking with Koyuki, and discussing with her what excuse they should use. However, she couldn't stop thinking about Leon. Maybe they should've stayed with him, but it was sort of late now.

Leon grinned a waved, he was using up quite a bit of magic now, but it was taking everything he had to act even a little bit normal. He opened the door and stepped inside, he didn't even bother taking off his shoes. He thumped down on the couch and released a lot of the magic, only enough to move his arms. "This is everything, right? This is what we fight for?" He looked at the grief seed in his hand. Worry ran through his body as he released his soul gem and allowed it to land in his right palm.

The gem was glowing darkly, it was dangerously close to full corruption, between healing him and allowing him to move. "I suppose I have no choice." He held the grief seed up to his soul gem and watched as the corruption was cleared. "It's just as I thought, this isn't just standard corruption." The grief seed had cleared up most of the corruption, but the amount he received from his near transformation stayed, the black swirl still existed inside his gem. He was a bit concerned, but he did feel better after releasing the corruption he had gotten earlier.

he looked at the empty grief seed in his other hand and knew what he had to do. Releasing a bit of his power he crushed the grief seed into dust. "I'm sorry, I'm sure you were a great magi, but I cannot let you hurt anyone else." He turned his soul gem back into a ring and laid down on the couch, releasing any use of magic he went numb again. "Nothing to do but sleep for a few days." He said as he closed his eyes.

"Wow, there is unsurprisingly low information about witches turning back to magi." Erin spun her egg chair again, looking at the small laptop she was using. She'd just come back from home. She had told her parents she'd seen a girl in trouble in the street and decided to go out through the window, but had gotten into some trouble herself afterwards, not being able to return for a couple of days. And they'd believed, Koyuki made them believe. Now they were sitting at Witches Wall looking up unexistant info, but what Erin really wanted was to sleep. "Why, Koyu? Just ask Inkyu... Hey, where's Inkyu been?" She looked around the room, it was as white as ever. They hadn't seen the Incubator in a day, and it's not like they needed to, but... Erin was worried, what if he was planning something?

Koyuki ignored Erin. She was angry at her. She just shifted her position to a more comfortable one and kept scanning through information. Sadly, Erin was right. She could find nothing. Koyuki sighed and got up. "I'm gonna make something for our dinner, Eri." She said, walking out of the room.

Leon slept heavily, but even this was not without cost. His dreams were filled with the same purple haired girl. She was acting strange and gathering up more people. Soon she would have enough for his plan. Just one more person, just one more day and it would be the greatest event of all. Leon knew what the plan was, but for some reason his mind would not formulate it correctly, it was not processing a lot these days, his world was filled with the cries of girls and the same strange atmosphere. No need to worry though, all was going according to plan, soon he would make the crying stop, he would save them, in his own way.

Erin was running. She was fleeing from something, a flying swordfish with lipstick. Erin was the swordfish's maid, but it was so demanding that Erin was fleeing from it. "Give me back my shoooe!" The swordfish screamed. Erin tried to run faster, but she tripped and
woke up startled. She was lying in the carpet of Witches Wall, curled up. She sat up. "What a weird dream... Why would a maid steal a shoe?" She yawned and got up, sitting on an egg chair and spinning around like she always did. "Today is Saturday... There's no school!" She laughed happily, enjoyed the sweet first minutes of morning when she didn't really know where she was or why.
When the sweet joyous time passed, she curled up on her chair. "I wonder how Leon-kun is doing..."

Koyuki woke up, mumbling something very close to 'stupid glittery mushroom'. She yawned and looked around, what was she doing in the kitchen? Oh, right, she'd been researching there until late. She got up and started making breakfast. Was Erin awake? Yes, even though she was thinking about shoe-thief maids and spinning on a chair. Had she been eating bits of fur from the carpet? That could be toxic. But again, Erin was a bit weird all alone.

His pawns were gathered, soon all would be well. He floated down amongst his minions, the purple haired girl had led enough of them to him. He whispered into her ear, and she smiled. Nodding, she stood up and pulled out a small package. She uncovered it to reveal an assortment of C-4. Where it had come from, was impossible to tell. She spoke, words that he could not understand and with a laugh flipped the switch.

Travis laughed in joy as the explosion destroyed an entire city block, the C-4 had packed even more of a punch than he expected. He laughed for a few moments, before he noticed something. The crying had not stopped. He howled with rage and flew over the city, more would have to die! He would stop the crying, he would!

Erin rolled in the carpet fur comfortably, thinking about what had happened the last few days. It was more overwhelming than her life had ever been. Just as she was wondering what could have started all of it, a big noise and tremor were suddenly felt, possibly all through Mitakihara. Clumsily, she got up, tripping on her feet, and reached the glass windows. She could see a big cloud of smoke from far away. An explosion had seemingly destroyed a considerable part of the city. What had caused that?
"What just happened...?!" She yelled, racing back to the kitchen.
"Koyu, did you see that?!" She pulled off Koyuki's headphones, screaming into her ears.

"Oww! Don't yell into my ears!" Koyuki shoved Erin away. "See what? All I felt was a sort of earthquake. But it was so quick I didn't pay attention to it." She noticed Erin's deeply worried face. "Did something happen--" She started, but was already being dragged to a window. "What is that?!" She glued to the window, watching the grey smoke rise from a ruined part of town.
"What the hell...?!" Koyuki looked at the destroyed city. It had been blown by a powerful explosion, this wouldn't have been a simple accident. Could it have been a witch?! she thought. If it had, it was a poweful one. Normally, witches murdered people silently, so it wouldn't be easily noticed. Why had this particular one chosen otherwise? Of course, it could've been a non-witch caused explosion, but that seemed unlikely. "Hey, Eri, do you think... Eri?" Koyuki turned around to find nobody. Erin was already rushing out the door.

"GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Leon sat up screaming, his heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour and he was pretty sure it would burst. He clutched his soul gem as massive pain wracked his body. Tears slid down his face, but not because of the pain, he could not understand why he was crying or where the pain came from. His body was healed, he realized that he could move it just fine now.

He sat up and shivered, allowing his heartbeat to slow down and his pain to recede. What happened? The dream....it felt so real this time. He looked outside and went pale. A strong grey column of smoke rose up, a huge chunk of the city was missing. It couldn't be....no. It wasn't true! He jumped up and turned on his rarely used television. News reports were already flooding in.

"This is Ava Misturagi, reporting from just outside the blast zone. We are still unsure of what caused the blast at this time, but police are looking for survivors, at the moment the death toll is over forty and the wounded is almost two hundred. We.....wait. We just received special footage of a security camera at the center of the blast, it seems the camera fed directly to an outside server and the information survived. We will play this now."

The footage showed a group of people gathered in a warehouse, chanting and laughing. A young girl with purple hair pulled out the C-4 and laughing pushed a button. After that a massive explosion rocked the camera and it was destroyed. "We have also received reports that the ring leader of this apparent cult is Ayame Sakura, a freshman from Mitakihara High School...."

Leon's mind went blank after that statement, it couldn't be true. He had not only killed a lot of people, he had even killed someone who had trusted him. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be true. IT COULD NOT BE TRUE! He wailed in agony, both physically and telepathically, he had no control over it anymore, the rage and sorrow hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew the truth now. It was not a dream, he had been responsible for those deaths, he was no hero!

Erin was breathless. She stopped and sat down. She was in the middle of road, but she didn't care. All she cared about was regaining her energy, quickly. Koyuki had stayed back researching, but Erin needed to go somewhere, first.
Her throat was hurting, and she noticed she her sight unnaturally not focused, and she couldn't see anything clearly. At least, from the right eye.
Oh, crap, bad timing to drop a contact. She knelt down and looked around, but the search was futile. She would have to get a spare from home later but for now a single contact would have to suffice.
Resting for a few more moments, she got up and kept the running pace to Leon's house, taking as many shortcuts as she could.
When she finally got there, Erin rang the bell and patiently waited, blinking awkwardly with her right eye.

Leon heard a sound deep in his brain, but ignored it, it did not matter, nothing mattered. He would sit here and suffer for his crimes, he had no right to call himself a hero. Somewhere deep inside his brain, a switch went off, his eyes unfocused and his body began to move on auto pilot. He stood up and walked to the door opening it. He did not register that anyone was there, but stood, staring out into the morning, oblivious.

Inside his head he cried out again. how could he have done that? How was he even able to move? He couldn't be a wizard, he was still himself. Some small part of his brain cried out that something wasn't right, this did not add up. His brain as a whole would not hear it, he was too busy wallowing in self-pity and doubt to listen to any internal reason.

q"Oh, Leon-kun! I--" Erin started, but froze when she realized he wasn't responding.
"Leon-kun? Can you hear me?" She said waving in front of his eyes, hoping he'd notice her standing there. Still no response. She started to walk away.
Maybe this way he will respond? She thought as she walked, not too far, still looking for her missing contact. It was very hard to see with a different perception of reality in each eye, so she'd just have to quit the hunt eventually.

You are a failure as a hero! You should just die already! Give in! If you aren't a hero you might as well be a villain! No! you can't give up! You made me a promise! I won't let you forget! Remember, Leon! Please! Do not listen, she cannot help you! You must give in, the world does not need you, the world just needs to be destroyed! Leon! No!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Leon screamed, striking out with his right fist, he destroyed a good section of his apartment. His eyes started to focus, slowly as he breathed heavily. "I.......I can't do this...." He said as he fell to his knees.

Erin was trying to get the hang of walking with a bad eye.
This must've been how Leon-kun felt because of his eye. I wish I could help him with something as simple as glasses, though. She'd just thought that gotten up from tripping when she heard a scream and a sort of crashing noise. Startled, she fell again, and finally gave up. She squeezed out her contact and kept it in a small case that was in her pocket along with black-rimmed glasses. Putting them on, she ran towards Leon's apartment, and froze. A big part of it was completely destroyed, apparently by Leon himself, who was kneeling.
"Leon-kun, are you okay? What happened?" She ran to him and knelt by his side.

Leon looked up slowly as Erin-Senpai approached. "Senpai. I.....I don't know what to do....it's all my fault." He dropped his head as tears began to run down his face, but only from his left eye. "I....I think I did it...." His world was crashing down around him and Leon did not know how to deal with it, too much had happened in the last few days. How could he possibly be a hero when he couldn't even save people from himself? It was strange though, he knew his despair was growing, but he did not feel anymore corruption from his soul gem.

It must be because he was already so corrupted that it didn't matter anymore. He was simply a wizard in a magi's clothes. He would soon fade away and nothing but pain and suffering would be left. "Senpai....if....if I start to change, will you kill me?" He did not look up at her when he asked this, he could not bare to look at the pain in her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Erin was a bit taken aback by his sudden question. "I'll never kill you, Leon! If you ever transformed I'd save you just like we saved Koyuki. I'd never forgive myself if I had to kill you. This town needs you, we need you! Without you it wouldn't be the same, I would never be able to protect Mitakihara without you. I believe that all together we can change this, but if we die Inkyu will contract more Magi, and cause more suffering... We cannot let that happen!" She nodded, determination was gleaming in her eyes. "What did you do, anyway? What's caused you this--" She stopped and froze, tossing a discreet look at the big cloud of smoke. She could just be misunderstanding, and she hoped so.
"Leon-kun... What did you do?" She asked, an almost imperceptible tone of fear shaking her voice a bit.

Leon shook his head. "I...don't....I had this dream, I've been having them for the past several nights....I saw everything that happened, before it happened. I think I caused it somehow!" He looked up at Erin-Senpai , a look of desperate terror on his face. "What do I do if I am responsible for this? I don't know if I can handle that!" He stood up, shaking. "I..." Suddenly his ring began to pulse, intently. "A witch! Very near! I think we are inside the barri...." Suddenly the world exploded as a barrier increased around them. The world was odd, the walls were pictures of a young girl with green hair, and tears streaming down her face. The sound of her crying could be heard from every direction. "Where....who....?" Leon had no words, suddenly several strange creatures that looked oddly like army men began to march into the room.

"Stay back, Leon-kun, I'll fight this one for you, it could be dangerous if you pushed yourself too far.." Erin said, her soul gem already transforming her.
Her spear landed by her side, and she picked it up, swirling it above the level of Leon's head to keep a distance from the strange familiars. "You haven't told me what you think you've done yet." She said, scaring off the army men when they approached.

Leon shook his head and stood up, pushing himself out of range of Erin-Senpai's spear. "It doesn't matter, I may be a murderer, but at the moment we have to stop this witch." He released his soul gem, allowing it to float in front of him. He reached out to grab it and....nothing, nothing happened at all. He tried to concentrate, releasing the power of the magi within him, but nothing would happen. "W-what? I can't transform? Whats going on?!" He released his soul gem again, turning it back into a ring. "Have I lost my powers?"

Erin stared at Leon, confused. "I don't think it's possible for a magi to lose their power, maybe something in this barrier is blocking it? Or maybe it's because you are so down and almost transformed a few days ago." She said, a bit annoyed. Why was he avoiding her question? Why was he a 'murderer'? He'd never have directly killed a person, his silly hero personality was too noble for that.
Erin looked back up, and noticed there was an army man ready to attack her. She thrusted her spear into him, reducing him to black smokey powder.

Leon gripped his chest, his heart was beating a hundred miles an hour again. This made no sense he shouldn't feel pain in his body, it should be his soul gem, but he felt nothing from it. Something was really really wrong. "I....I don't know, but I can still fight!" He launched himself forward and kicked a soldier in the chest, sending it crashing into the nearby wall. It did not disintegrate, but was obviously damaged. "I may not be at full power, but I won't give up! I won't!" Leon did not notice it, but a small bit of lime colored light flashed in his soul gem at his declaration.

Erin looked at Leon with a small smile.
"Leon-kun... Okay, but don't push yourself too much!" She grinned, finishing off the soldier Leon had thrown to the wall. "I don't want anything to happen to you!"
She looked around, they had thinned out the army men somewhat. They were standing in a long hallway, Erin couldn't see the end of it very clearly. "What's with this barrier...?" She asked herself. The hallway went both ways. "So, which way do we go, Leon-kun?"

Leon looked both directions, when he looked to the left his void-filled eye flashed. "The left way is an illusion, it will never end, we have to go to the right." How did he know that? He was unsure, he could just see it. He ran to the right and destroyed two more army men with well placed punches. He had to be a lot more tactical with his fighting in here, he was just a normal human. Normal. Ha, as if that term would ever apply to him again.

Suddenly pain shot up his body, a bullet from one of the army men had nicked his soul gem, causing intense pain to rush through his body. He yelled and crushed the army man's head with both of his hands. He then fell to his knees in pain, unable to move anymore. He could hear giggling as he noticed a new enemy approach, they looked like young girls, with black hair and ropes around their necks. They were crying and the intense sound of the crying was causing his ears to bleed. This wasn't good.

"Leon!" Erin screamed, destroying a familiar. She ran to her friend.
"Oh, damn! You're not alright, Leon-kun, stay there, I'll fight this one." She swung her spear, scaring off a few army men that were trying to attack them. She pushed her glasses up. This had gone far enough, she was in her serious mode now.
"Die, all of you!" She yelled, thrusting her spear into anything that moved, careful not to hit Leon. She killed all the familiars with her blind rage hits, making them into the darkish powder. When there were none left, Erin walked back to Leon.
"Are you better? Do you think you can walk?" She sat by his side, worried. "I can carry you if you can't." She tried her best to give him a smile that would cover her worry.

Leon smiled at Erin-Senpai, though he could barely hear her. His soul gem was already repairing the damage to his body. He was able to stand slowly the pain was intense, but it wasn't limited to any particular part of his body. This allowed him to move with a large amount of focus. "I'll be fine." He said, overly loud. "I couldn't let a girl carry me, it would be bad for my reputation." He started to move down the hallway, leaning against the wall for support. "We are almost there, I can taste him...."

"I can help you walk, you don't need to support on the wall." Erin ran up to him. "Be careful, there may be familiars around here... I can hear crying everywhere, it's really disturbing!" She lightly covered her ears with her hands.
Erin ran her hands through the wall, looking at the pictures. They were all of the same girl, crying. "Strange, she looks oddly familiar..." She said, watching how all of them were almost the same, only having a few differences. "How close are we, exactly?" Erin looked ahead. She couldn't see any more familiars. Were they already nearing the center of the barrier? "Leon-kun, I don't know if you should fight, you are hurt and can't transform."

Leon allowed Erin-Senpai to support him, but only a little, his pride would not allow otherwise. "I will not give up, Erin-Senpai. I have to fight, I have to be redeemed for my sins. I have to make up for each and every person who is dead because of me." He stopped for a moment, coughing, the pain was getting more intense. It was not just that though, he felt something else, something deep and dark inside his soul. "We are here." As he spoke, the floor suddenly fell away and they were standing in a disconnected area, one that seemed to be the top of sky scrapers.

In the center of this stood a giant of a man, he had an overlong cape on and a strange runic symbol emblazoned on his chest. He was laughing and constantly blowing up the buildings, which would reform a moment later. He face seemed distorted, one side was laughing and almost heroic looking, while the other was twisted and angry, this side had a void-like eye, while the other had a normal looking eye. Leon looked up at this abomination. "I know you.....Travis...." If you exist here....maybe....maybe I wasn't responsible?" Travis laughed which quickly turned into a roar of anger as he noticed them. As he did Leon suddenly collapsed to the ground, unable to move any further. "I don't think I can get any closer to him, it's already getting more powerful from my magic!" He looked up at Erin. "I'm sorry, Senpai, I think I have to leave this to you."

"Maybe you should just go..." Go where? A quick scan of the area told Erin that there was no other place to go but down, and that wasn't a very wise option. The area of the skyscraper top they were in was relatively small, too, so she'd have to hurry, apparently the wizard was feeding on Leon's energy.
Erin looked around, clearly annoyed. There were no platforms for her to support herself in, and she didn't want to unnecessarily spend her soul gem energy creating some. And then, there were her glasses. She never fought with them because she looked awful and besides they could fall off, heavily limiting her.
As a small trial to see what'd happen, she used magic to make her spear longer, and poked 'Travis' with it. She wouldn't make much damage, but she needed to know what the enemy would do before she would unleash her power, because it could come back to bite her later.

Leon could do nothing but watch as Erin-Senpai engaged the enemy. She was being cautious, and rightly so. In this situation she was handicapped with his presence. Why had he insisted on coming along? He was not only a burden but a detriment at this point. He watched as Erin-Senpai poked Travis with her extended spear. The Wizard laughed and touched the end of the spear, sending explosions flying down it towards Erin-Senpai. "Senpai, release the spear! The explosion is attached to it!" He yelled. She would have to be a lot quicker with her attacks, he seemed to be a reactionary fighter, much like Leon himself. Leon just hoped that he didn't decide to get aggressive.

Erin released the spear and made it disappear in the last second, summoning it right afterwards. She jumped and aimed at Travis, heavily stabbing him with her spear, running away and hitting at a different spot right after, as quickly as she could.
An illusion would come in handy right now, where is Koyuki when we need her? She thought, losing a second to think while she hit Travis.

Travis roared in anger, he was not used to being hurt, he would stop the crying he would! He sensed an energy source nearby. Reaching out his over-sized arms, he grabbed Leon, crushing bones and he pulled him closer. They would become one. The power would be his. As he got the power closer something stopped him, he wasn't sure what it was, but he heard a voice, something familiar, something of a life long past. STOP! You cannot do that, you will destroy yourself! Travis froze in place, unsure of what this meant, his mind could not process things the same way anymore.

Erin watched terrified as the wizard took ahold of Leon. "NO, LET GO OF HIM, YOU BEAST!" She screamed, taking advantage of Travis' distraction to stab him repeatedly and making deep cuts. When she noticed that he wasn't moving no matter what she did, she too stopped. The wizard was completely frozen. What had just happened? Leon was still in his hand, and he wasn't looking good at all. At least he didn't get his soul gem. She thought, noticing Leon's hand was out of the range of Travis. Should she try to free him? The wizard was frozen unnaturally, it could be a trap.

Travis! You cannot do this anymore! You do not need to worry about us! We are fine! The crying will stop on it's own! You need to rest! Travis was unsure of what was going on, he heard the voice, he almost understood it, but why was it talking to him, who was it? Please, release him. You must give up, it's time to rest. This was the wrong choice of words, Travis realized, maybe too late that his power was being sucked into this creature, in a rage he suddenly through it into the side of one of the sky scrapers and watched it fall into the mist. It was time to turn his attention back towards the fly that had been stinging him. He would end it's crying, he would.

Erin's heart stopped for a moment when she watched Travis throw Leon off the roof like a discarded paper. Her mind blanked out, and she immediatly leaped off the skyscraper, frantically looked for Leon as the cold air hit her face like a knife. The mist was thick, and she could barely see a thing. "Leon-kun!! Can you hear me?! LEON-KUN!!" She screamed in every direction. She had no idea how far the fall would go, and no way to support herself when she reached the ground. All she could do was try to move around while falling and cover her soul gem hoping it wouldn't break.

An arrow of lime green light flashed past Erin-Senpai's face, from the darkness. A second later the entirety of the fog was dispersed by a massive flash of energy. Suddenly Leon flew towards Erin-Senpai, transformed and an intent look on his face. He grabbed her around the waist and continued to jump. Landing back up on one of the skyscrapers. "That was foolish, Senpai. You had no way to get back up." He said, with a grin in her direction.

He jumped off the building, slamming his fist into Travis' face, knocking the giant off balance. "I won't lose to you! I am the truth! I am real! You are just a ghost and it's time for you to vanish!" He kicked out, knocking Travis to his knees.

"I... I'm sorry. I just wanted to help you...!" Erin said as she watched the ground become farther and farther. Regaining her balance as Leon set her on the ground, she picked up her spear that she'd left behind and quickly resumed her 'stab-and-move' battle technique, taking advantage of Travis' loss of balance. I'll kill you, wizard! She thought as a sort of motivation for herself. I'll destroy you and help Leon-kun, this fight will be won by us! Again, she made her spear grow, this time as much as she could, so that the individual ends were about the same size as her. Pointing it at Travis, she spoke to Leon. "Are you ready to finish this?"

Leon looked at Erin-Senpai and nodded. "The decisive strike!" He released his soul gems energy, allowing the aura to surround him. "I won't hold back against you! I cannot afford to!" He dashed forward and began to strike Travis, he did not stop when he reached sixteen strikes. "Sixteen fold master strike!" He yelled, as he continued to attack. "Thirty-two fold master strike!" Again he attacked more and more, his hands a blur. "Sixty-four fold master strike!" He leaped backwards, stopping himself in mid-air as his aura flickered around him wildly. "Strike now, Erin-Senpai!" He held out his right hand, waiting for just the right moment to release the explosion of energy.

Woah, so many hits. Erin thought as she watched Leon mercilessly punch the wizard. He was right, this fight was not one they could afford to lose. Erin began to ran, and using her spear as an impulsioner, she jumped, spinning her spear in midair. She pointed it at Travis, and let herself and the spear fall in his direction with the speed of a bullet.

Leon waited, knowing that the explosion at the wrong time could kill Erin-Senpai. He watched her fly and pass through Travis, leaving a massive slash. "Now is the time for your demise, monster!" He yelled out, using his best hero line. He clenched his fist, causing all the energy beads on the wizard to rupture, a massive explosion engulfed the entire area, with a final blast of lime green light.

After a moment the light faded away, as it did Leon's transformation failed him and he fell back down to the skyscraper, it was quite a fall about forty feet. He landed hard and did not move. The world began to crack and disperse as a grief seed floated down, next to Erin-Senpai.