When Leo finally opened his eyes again, he was t by two things: The worried gazes of his friends and a series of system notifications.
[Bond of the Zodiac has reached Capacity. Secondary Abilities shall now be unlocked.]
[Zodiac Affinity Abilities has been unlocked. Zodiac Users may now combine their abilities to create powerful combination skills.]
[Player: Leo has access to 12 different elents, unlocking the combination formula based on currently unlocked forms.]
[Current forms Unlocked: Beast, Poison.]
[Combination Form(s) available: Beast x Poison= Hydra]
Luna squeezed him tighter when she saw his eyes flutter open. He let out a groan as his ribs creaked inside of her embrace.
"What happened?" Leo groaned, trying not to wince while patting his sister on the back in an attempt to comfort her and show her that he was fine.
Leo's vision blurred as he tried to take a step on his own, he was dizzy fron the blood loss. Luna's hands trembled as she looked at him, eyes shimring with tears that refused to fall.
"Don't move," she whispered. "You scared the hell out of us."
"I'm fine," he murmured, his throat dry. "Just tell what happened."
No one spoke at first. The silence hung thick, filled only by the faint hum of the lights above. Then Adam stepped forward, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to find the words.
You started bleeding," he said slowly. "First your nose, then your eyes. You floated off the ground like sothing was lifting you. We couldn't reach you at all. There was a wall of air around you, invisible but solid. Every ti one of us tried to get closer, it threw us back."
Luna clenched her fists tightly. "It wasn't just that. It felt alive, like it wanted to keep you away from us. Every ti I hit it, it pushed harder."
Vivian exhaled shakily. "I tried to heal you, but it barely reached you. The energy around you wasn't normal. It felt like you weren't even here anymore."
Leo frowned and started to stretch his body despite Luna's protests. His head pounded, but he needed to understand
"What do you an by that?"
"It was like you weren't in the sa dinsion as us. Like a reflection in a still pond. We could see you but not touch."
Lily replied with a frown.
Crystal nodded her head and remarked "Yeah. The barrier that ford around you wasn't anything we had ever seen before. It wasn't made of mana and while it didn't actively hurt us, we were repelled helplessly."
Rachel folded her arms, her usual playful confidence replaced by a rare seriousness. "Yeah. The mont you floated up, your blood started moving on its own. It didn't fall. It just hung there, like gravity didn't apply. Then it started spinning."
Leo blanched as that "Wait, I was floating?!"
Jamie chid in "Yeah, you were acting like you were possessed. Straight outta the Exorcist playbook.....Are we sure we aren't in a cult or sothing. Cause this all feels very cultish. Just saying"
Everyone chose to ignore his ramblings but Greg couldn't help but glare at him in slight annoyance.
Penny shivered as she rembered the sight. "I tried to control it. I poured my mana into the air to stop the bleeding, but it didn't listen. It fought . It was like sothing else had claid it. My magic bounced off completely."
Leo's frown deepened as he was well aware that Penny had excellent control over blood manipulation but she wasn't able to even touch a drop of his? Sothing about that wasn't right.
"Anything else?" Leo asked, scanning their faces. His tone was calm, but his eyes flicked toward the faint stains of dried blood on the floor.
Morgan glanced at everyone else before he took a step forward and began to speak. " I don't know why or how but I was able to record what you said."
With a wave of his hands, a ball of translucent mist began to form in Morgans hand. A few seconds later, the appearance of the Zodiac Map appeared with Leo at the center of it.
The glowing eyes were a major concern but the voices that followed next were ones that Leo recognized much to his horror.
They belonged to the versions of himself that he had called Saint and Dark Leo.
"Do you know anything about that?" Adam asked cautiously. "Both of the voices?"
Leo nodded his head slowly as he admitted to what he knew. "That ti I lost control, I heard those voices fighting for control. I was....I can't say."
Leo's eyes widened with worry as he tried to explain that while they had been on the verge of fighting back then, he had been chained up and unable to move. Yet when he tried to bring up that detail to the others, his voice died and nothing ca out.
Rachel was the one to frown this ti as she asked a question of her own. " Does this have to do with the Paths that we were shown? The ones associated with the Light and Darkness?". With the exception of Jamie, Morgan, Ethan and Vivian, everyone else frowned.
They had seen the paths and they had made their decision back then. If Leo's condition had sothing to do with this, the concern shouldn't be about Leo alone.
Leo winced as a sharp pain stabbed through his skull, cutting through the conversation. He clutched his head, stumbling slightly as Luna reached out in alarm. Before anyone could move closer, the sa pain rippled through the others—Rachel, Greg, Penny, Aria, Adam, Luna, Lily, and Crystal all groaning as they grabbed their temples.
Morgan, Ethan, Jamie, and Vivian exchanged confused looks as they watched the rest of the group double over. None of them seed affected, yet the air around the others began to shimr faintly, warping like heat waves.
"Leo?" Luna's voice was strained. "What's… happening?"
He couldn't answer. The pain intensified, splitting into two distinct pulses behind his eyes. His vision fractured, and suddenly the world vanished.
In his right eye, a mountain stretched before him, its jagged peaks bathed in a blinding white glow. At its highest ridge stood an enormous gate carved from silver and gold, shining like the heart of the sun. The air humd with divine resonance, both peaceful and oppressive.
In his left eye, darkness devoured the light. A vast cave stretched endlessly into the abyss, its walls slick with black stone and dripping with shadows that moved as if alive. The sound of heavy breathing and distant whispers filled the void.
Leo could feel both visions pulling him in opposite directions, his heart caught in between.
"The Gate to Heaven," a soft voice whispered into his right ear. Saint Leo's tone was calm, gentle, almost mournful.
Then, a low growl rumbled in his left ear. "The Path to Hell," Dark Leo hissed, the words scraping against his mind like claws against stone.
The conflicting voices overlapped, their resonance shaking through his entire being. Leo staggered backward, clutching his head tighter. The others cried out as the sa visions tore through their minds.
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