Vol. 6 Ch. 130

Leon looked at the dejected pair of siblings.

Anyone could tell a story—but Safina was someone particularly skilled at both acting and storytelling. She’d even fooled the trial officials of The Fire Spirit Divine Stallion Clan once.

But Leon had silently activated his Hypersense just now.

Through life-sensing, he could clearly perceive Safina’s heartbeat, pulse, and other subtle physiological signs as she spoke.

When a person is truly heartbroken, even their heartbeat struggles faintly, as if it's stuck beneath a hundred-ton slab wedged between the floors of a skyscraper.

That kind of feeling… can’t be faked.

He felt he could trust them.

…but not completely.

Because his relationship with them concerned not just grudges between individuals, but the enmity—and survival—of two worlds. So keeping a shred of caution was only wise.

“What are you planning to do next?” Leon asked. “Return to the Void and resist Atos alongside the Homeland Faction?”

“No—we can’t resist him.”

Kaiser’s answer was immediate. The moment Leon even said the word “resist,” he cut in.

“I’m not bragging, but you know I handled multiple Dragon Kings alone back in your Silver Dragon territory, right?”

Leon nodded.

Kaiser’s reputation had long preceded him. Anyone recognized by his in-laws had earned it. The Void’s strongest warrior—it wasn’t just a title.

Even during the Wind Spirit Core incident, though he was eventually caught off guard by Noa’s scheme, Kaiser had still dominated Odin and the others in the battle’s first half.

“But truthfully—based on raw strength measurements—Atos is at least several tiers above me.”

Kaiser continued, “And the combat power structure in the Void is very different from what you have here in Samael.”

Leon raised a brow. “How different?”

“I’ve been on your continent for a while now. This is something I only recently came to understand.”

Kaiser began to explain.

“Samael’s power hierarchy is a classic pyramid. The strongest warriors stand at the peak—people like you and Odin—but they make up only a tiny portion of the population.

Below you, the tiers transition gradually as strength decreases. Each level has a growing number of people.

This smooth gradient is what allows your warriors to handle enemies of various strengths.”

Then, Kaiser’s tone shifted.

“But the Void’s structure is broken. There’s a huge gap between levels.

The strong are incredibly strong. The weak are utterly weak. There’s no middle class.

On top of that, the Homeland Faction has been oppressed for years, and many of their elites defected to the Descent Faction.

So… even I couldn’t lead a resistance against Atos. All it would do is provoke him.

And the final result would {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} be the Homeland Faction—including me and my sister—getting slaughtered by Atos.”

For any rebellion to succeed, either the oppressed must have strength at least approaching the oppressor’s, or a golden opportunity must arise to shift the balance.

Clearly, the Kaisers and the Homeland Faction had neither.

“We got a message from them just a few hours ago,” Kaiser said. “They’ve decided to halt all operations for now. No more defiance. They’re trying to keep their heads down and survive.”

He added, “My sister and I plan to return to the Void too. Otherwise there’ll just be more pointless bloodshed.”

From the way he spoke, it was clear:

They were done.

Done with Atos. Done with fighting.

Leon was silent for a moment, then said quietly,

“But if you do go back… Atos probably won’t trust you anymore.

Or rather—he already doesn’t trust you or Safina.”

At that, the two siblings froze and turned to Leon.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t share too much. But there’s intel about the Thunder Spirit Core—Atos and Carl knew more than you two did, but they didn’t tell you.

That proves that while you’ve been serving him all this time, in his eyes, you’re no longer part of his loyal inner circle.”

What Leon meant by “withheld intel” was this:

Atos and Carl already knew that Leon was the Thunder Spirit Core, but they never told Kaiser or Safina.

Dimo, High Priest of the Golden Thunder Clan, was colluding with Carl. They’d tried to trap Leon by creating a false narrative using the ancient tree and artificially aged inscriptions.

But thanks to clues from Elusa, Javier, and Hera’s memory fragments, Leon had potentially reconnected with the entity known as the “Harbinger” from thirty years ago—

and reclaimed the information advantage.

“If Kaiser and Safina had known about Carl’s plan,” Leon thought, “they would’ve come after me immediately. They wouldn’t be here chatting peacefully. They wouldn’t have spent the past few days wandering the Empire like headless chickens.”

That’s why Leon said Atos no longer trusted them.

If anything, their return was probably meant to monitor Leon.

“In terms of ability,”

Leon looked Kaiser in the eye. “Atos, as a ruler, values loyalty more.”

As the Void Lord, Atos already had terrifying strength. He wasn’t lacking warriors to do his bidding.

Even if Kaiser was the strongest of them all, capable of fighting several top-tier Void warriors alone—once Atos sensed a lack of loyalty, he’d be discarded without hesitation.

After hearing this, Kaiser fell silent.

He slowly turned to look at Safina.

Two pairs of deep, ghostly-blue eyes met.

Within that gaze was loneliness. Powerlessness. A kind of hopeless, loyal despair.

A quiet sigh drifted through the dim, dilapidated clock tower.

Then Safina looked at Leon and asked softly, “You still haven’t told us what you came here for tonight.”

“There’s no point in saying more,” Leon thought. “For these two, all that’s left is to take things one step at a time.”

Might as well stop dwelling on it and chat with this Samael native instead.

“It’s not about asking you to do something,” Leon said. “It’s more about asking you to… not do something.”

Safina raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to do something. It’s related to the Thunder Spirit Core, but not enough to affect the core conflict. I came tonight to ask that you don’t interfere with it.”

Leon was going to return to the Golden Thunder Clan—to clear Hera’s name and expose the traitor Dimo for who he truly was.

And in that process, there was a high likelihood he’d clash with Void forces again. But Leon didn’t want those enemies to be Kaiser and Safina.

Hearing this, Safina gave a dry, amused laugh.

“But before you walked into this clock tower, you didn’t even know we’d decided to stop serving Atos.”

Leon nodded. “So now… what’s your answer?”

“Do what you want, Leon. Kaiser and I won’t interfere.”

As she said this, the violet-eyed girl leaned gently back against the old, cold wall, turning her face to look out the window at the sea of festive lights.

The glow of fireworks danced in her eyes—gorgeous and vivid, yet it couldn’t drive away the melancholy and gloom behind them.

“Kaiser and I will find somewhere to hide,” she said softly. “Whether the Void descends or Samael survives… it no longer has anything to do with us.”