Lero was the youngest member of the Golden Light Squad. It wasn’t to say that his path had been difficult or traumatic like Adam’s, but the fact that he was here showed thatpared to the other K1-Phantoms, he was a pretty decent guy.


    Yeah, he was still a long way from Adam’s level or someone like Osana. It wasn’t just his ability or experience, but the fact that he wasn’t mature enough.


    However, his activity and desire to help everyone was a bright part of his soul that always showed itself, especially in the most important moments.


    Whooooooooooooooooooosh.


    gue Reaper stopped far behind E, causing her projectiles to fly straight in her direction. Sure, there was an opportunity for dodging here, but only if E was as fast as gue Reaper.


    Naturally, E’s speed wasn’t even approximately the same as gue Reaper’s.


    So while she was realizing what had happened and what kind of trap gue Reaper had prepared for her, the white projectiles were already closing in on her, only a second left before they hit her and tore E’s fragile body apart.


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    E blinked as someone’s silhouette appeared in front of her, but it wasn’t as tall as Adam’s, though it was definitely a man with short hair.


    It was Lero, who withplete determination in his eyes stretched forward his arm creating a tight protective barrier.


    ’No!’ E internally eximed, but the words didn’t leave her lips.


    In the explosion that followed white mes engulfed everything around them.


    At this time, Lero stood confidently on his feet, not intending to budge even a step. He clenched his teeth tightly, frowned heavily, and his face contorted in pain, but he couldn’t retreat, because then all that explosive power would consume E.


    Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.


    Cracks covered his entire barrier, but Lero quickly repaired them, expending massive amounts of his energy, which was quickly depleted.


    After all, though E was slow and weak in closebat, her abilities had devastating power. gue Reaper wouldn’t dodge her shots if they couldn’t kill him.


    "ARGH!!!!"


    Lero screamed, trying to squeeze thest bits of energy out of himself, but his body had already reached its limit.


    The veins in his arm burst apart, releasing streams of blood flooding all around him.


    Realizing what was about to happen, Leropletely forgot about pain or exhaustion. He turned sharply, about to cover E with his body from the st wave that would break through his weakened barrier in a moment.


    Thest thing E saw was Lero’s concerned eyes before the wave of fire engulfed him.


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    The pink petals on his shoulders were burned away like dry paper, disappearing without a trace and unable to stop the fire even for a moment.


    The shockwave threw them off in different directions, E crashing into the nearest pir with a thud as Lero flew off towards the main gate.


    Lero’s body rolled across the cold stone floor before finallying to a stop in the middle of the Fume Cathedral.


    A few white lights illuminated his emaciated face while moonlight fell on him through the holes left by E’s past attack.


    E had suffered only minor damage. A few scratches and bruises, nothing serious especiallypared to what would have happened to her if she hadn’t been protected by Lero.


    But... Lero wasn’t as lucky as she was.


    His right arm, through which the energy for the shield passed, was badly damaged, the skin was torn and the veins couldn’t withstand the pressure and burst.


    The left side of his body was burned, everything from his clothes to his skin being reced by a rough, crimson texture that gave off steam.


    Step. Step. Step.


    Suddenly, out of the darkness beside Lero, stepped gue Reaper. His quiet footsteps echoed while his tall silhouette approached Lero.


    "What...? Wait, no! Someone stop him." E eximed, quickly moving away from the wall in an attempt to reach her sniper rifle.


    E wasn’t the only one acting, the others were also trying to help Lero and get to him as fast as possible, but they were near the Fume Throne while gue Reaper and Lero were at the main gate.


    The distance between them was quiterge, so they needed time before they could help their mate.


    Lero and gue Reaper exchanged nces, at the same time gue Reaper’s hands came into motion.


    p. p. p.


    "Agh...? What’s going on?" Adam muttered before abruptly stopping, as did everyone else.


    Katrin stared wide-eyed at gue Reaper, who instead of attacking started pping.


    Osana frowned heavily, burning gue Reaper with her gaze. She, because of her nature, was sure that gue Reaper did it on purpose to distract them with his strange actions.


    But... Lero understood what gue Reaper was doing.


    It was a round of apuse from the Top-1 Purple Threat monster for the courage and bravery that Lero had shown.


    gue Reaper was a monster, but he was intelligent and conscious enough to understand suchplex, ephemeral feelings, moreover, he could give his own assessment of others’ actions.


    Then, gue Reaper pressed his palm to his chest and bowed low, expressing his sincere respect for the injured young man in front of him.


    "Don’t you dare stand in front of him!" E eximed furiously before firing several high-speed shots.


    gue Reaper’s eyes shifted to the side as he tilted his head a little lower, letting all the shots fly right over his head.


    "Why are you standing there?! It doesn’t matter if it’s a cunning n or anything else! We have to help Lero!" E eximed, her desperate voice spreading throughout Fume Cathedral.


    Adam, Katrin, and Osana nodded, realizing that in a situation like this, there was no room for doubt. They could stop gue Reaper.


    Step.


    Adam stepped forward, turning into a lightning sh. Katrin swung her staff, forcing the roots into motion, Osana reached forward,manding hundreds of blue petals to flow toward gue Reaper.


    In unison with them, gue Reaper raised his foot, as if about to take a step and move aside to prepare and face their attacks.


    ’Wait... There’s something wrong. You don’t need to raise your leg that high to take a simple step or leap...’ Adam internally muttered, quickly running forward, electric shocks passing through his entire body.


    gue Reaper and Lero nced over once more. Then, something reached Lero’s mind as the gue Reaper’s eyes reflected his frightened and desperate expression.


    Then, gue Reaper’s leg came into motion once more, copsing down with tremendous speed and force sting Lero’s head.


    The loud rattle of a broken skull and the cracking of the ground sounded in everyone’s head, echoing in their hearts, which filled with the sharp pain of realizing what just happened.


    E’s eyes went wide in horror, watching the dark trickles of blood spilling over the ground, asionally disappearing into the deep cracks, filling those hollows with themselves.


    Whooooooooooooosh.


    gue Reaper swung his hand, cutting a piece off of his coat with his palm.


    The cloth slowly fell over Lero’s head, covering his disfigured face from this world to which he no longer belonged. His journey was over, right after he had saved the life of someone else.


    Bam.


    E fell to her knees, with her face as pale as a sheet of paper. She was trembling violently, unwilling to ept this reality.


    It didn’t matter how dire a situation they had found themselves in before. Golden Light Squad, since its inception, had always only consisted of four members.


    They had often found themselves in difficult situations, even critical ones, and had been severely injured, every single one of them. However... they had always returned to the Citadel, their home together.


    And... Today was the end of this good fortune they thought was a given.


    Whether they won or not, whether they had the support and those who could heal wounds, none of it mattered anymore, because Lero was dead.


    Golden Light Squad would never be the same again, and neither would each of them, for with Lero’s death, some part inside their hearts died too, forever.


    Was this the cunning n of the gue Reaper?


    No.


    His apuse, bow, and respect in his gaze were sincere, without any ulterior motive. However, after that, the fight returned to its usual pace.


    It should not be forgotten that first and foremost, gue Reaper was a monster. If he fought, he had only one goal - to kill his enemy.


    Yeah, Lero was injured, sacrificing his health to save E was an honorable act, but that didn’t mean he stopped being gue Reaper’s enemy.


    gue Reaper was not the noblest knight who would leave Lero his life, for his bravery. No, the respect he showed towards Lero was already too great for a mere monster.


    Any other monster in gue Reaper’s ce would have simply torn Lero apart as soon as the opportunity presented itself.


    gue Reaper waved his hand, giving orders to his servants.


    Several Fume Armors stepped forward, gently lifted Lero off the ground so the ck cloth wouldn’t fall from his face, and ced him on the floor next to the Fume Judge.


    Now, until the end of their battle, Lero would be under the care of the Fume Judge. From the monsters’ side, it was a true act of mercy.


    ’Adam...’ Silvana muttered, trying to understand with her words what Adam was feeling right now.


    However, she wasn’t going tofort him, she knew this wasn’t what he wanted.


    ’Tear him apart. Bring him violent and fiery vengeance without waiting for your anger to subside.’


    "Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to do." Adam whispered as silver threads covered his left arm transforming into a ghastly paw with sharp ws.