Leaun was holding his hilt in his hand, scanning the two giant tendrils. Vermon softly placed a hand on his face, feeling the cold scar over his face.
"I must say. I didn't think I had to bring out my full potential for this fight." Vermon tilted his head with an emotionless stare. The tendrils began to move around violently.
"I must be honest with you too, boy. I didn't think you had any more power left in you—a thousand blossoms, ten thousand blossoms, and now a million blossoms.
"Can you win against this?" Vermon moved a hand forward as the tendrils began to swing around and then slam down toward him.
"I just have to go all out again. SNOW WHITE!" Leaun threw the sword to the side, producing the dark blue crystal sword, grabbing it with both hands and cutting out toward the tendril.
"glacier!" He swung his sword, sending up a giant frozen wave up the tendril, freezing a perfect line up it. The tendril shook once, breaking the ice apart, before swinging sideways, hitting Leaun and sending him flying across the field.
"This is bad, this is bad!" Kotoha looked at the others.
"To think that he had so much power." Sakana tilted his head.
"Leaun doesn't look defeated." Moira nodded.
"I'm gonna put my money out and say that old man hasn't shown us all his sides." Vindur grinned.
"Just gotta rock it out!" Delilah did the devil's hand sign into the air.
"I like ya spirit!" Angelise grinned under her mask, making her cheek muscles move slightly.
"Y-you can do it, Leaun!" Kotoha called out.
"Show that flamboyant fuck what you made of!" Damien roared.
Leaun got up from the rubble, taking a deep breath.
"So, Vermon-" Leaun looked up, blood dripping down over his eye, but he was smiling.
"Do you believe you can win this?" Leaun looked at his broken sword and sighed.
"Do you believe you can win this?! You must be crazy!" Vermon laughed.
"Well, is that the most powerful you can become. A million of those?" Leaun looked at them as he grabbed the sleeve of his glove and threw it to the ground, removing both of them.
"What, you had a hard time against my ten thousand. You think you can win against 100 times more of them?!" Vermon laughed. Leaun nodded and took a deep breath.
"Eternal blizzard-" His hands began to glow as the tips of his fingers turned black, freezing entirely to death.
"Icy veins, frostbite." He grabbed his shirt and tore it off, revealing that all veins on his body were a crystal blue. A mist started to erupt from his body as his body temperature dropped too.
"Cold," He said, revealing all of the scars over his body. Then, he softly moved his hand forward, placing it in a snap formation with his middle finger and thumb.
"You are hereby on trial for treason. What do you plead?" A voice rang out. A group of men was lined up inside a courtroom—all of them in chains. Leaun was standing in the middle, looking up at the judge with cold eyes.
"You are all former members of the conquest squad. I ask again. How do you plead?" The judge asked.
"Guilty," Leaun said. The court went silent.
"We are guilty of moving with the conquest squad, that is true. However, I plead guilty for working with Watcher and not stopping it beforehand." Leaun said. All of them looked at him.
"Yet, all we did was follow commands. He is gonna die in two days anyway. So I plead guilty and want to join my commander in death." Leaun said.
A few hours later, Leaun found himself in his cell, thinking about the verdict. He was given a guilty verdict but only imprisonment for a year or two. The squad wasn't tasked with murders. They didn't work with Watcher in the coup d'etat.
"Can you hear me, Leaun?" A voice echoed from behind him—the other cell.
"Yes, commander," Leaun answered.
"I heard what you did earlier. Trying to get executed with me, haha." The man behind the mask. Leaun had never seen his commander's face.
"Leaun, I'm part of an older generation, trying to hold on to Betanian ideals, even now. Yet you have always been different from me." A soft laugh echoed.
"I want you to live for a bit longer, Leaun. I want you to understand what your purpose is in this world. The squad needs you around. You might not be the conquest squad anymore, but you will all still be at heart. Wait for a day where you can truly prove yourself. That will be the day you can die." Watcher laughed.
"So, you saying I should live for your dumb ideas?" Leaun asked.
"I say you should live. Because one day...One day you might meet someone with the perfect ideals suited for your mindset and abilities. I wasn't the one. Your potential was wasted on the conquest squad. You might be working for the Watcher, yet you are more like Caspar than you think." Watcher laughed.
"I taught you Caspar's techniques because I knew you could master them. Now it's up to you, old friend. Let the Watcher finally die and in my death be reborn. Become something better than a conquest squad member. Become someone who will protect the ideals of others."
