"What have you done to me!?" John shouted with a tone of panic and disbelief. "I-I don''t know... I just healed your arms... I didn''t mean..." Rene tried to exin herself but couldn''t get the words out.


    "You healed his arms?" Ss had a look of realization appear on his face "So you stopped him from bleeding to death, huh? Well that exins it! Everytime this has happened so far the person just exploded, but you seem to have gotten lucky, John."


    "Lucky? Lucky!? Look at me! I look like a fucking monster!" John jumped to his feet and gestured to himself.


    John''s appearance had changed to such a degree that it would be impossible to recognize his old self.


    His skin had be red in colour, and his height had increased, making him about 1.9 meters tall. His hair had turned white and was still quite short. His eyes had changed colours, with his scleras changing from white to ck and his Pupils changing to purple. A third eye had appeared on his forehead and was sitting just above his eyebrows.


    Instead of a regr shaped eye this one was vertical rather horizontal. Two small horns appeared on the front of his head, protruding out of the edge of his hairline and curving upwards.


    His fingernails had grown longer and sharper, as well as changed to a dark ck colour. His muscles had improved and wererger and more toned than before.


    "What am I...?" John was looking down at his body and a great pain could be seen in his eyes as red tears rolled down his face.


    "You''re one of us. That''s all that matters!" Ss shouted with enthusiasm. He then turned and attacked Cain with his red shards.


    Cain was too shocked by John''s appearance and didn''t realize Ss had made an attack against him. The shards mmed into his unprepared body and sent him across the room.


    The pain made him snap out of his daze but it was toote. His body had taken too much damage, with over a dozen shards lodged into his body in different ces he was barely able to move at all.


    "You really shouldn''t look away from your opponent duringbat, especially when you''re weaker than they are." Ss smiled and stretched out his hand towards Cain.


    The red Energy enveloped his hand but he didn''t create shards to attack with. Instead, all the blood around Cain was being lifted up and sucked into Ss'' hand.


    " Thanks for the refill. I had used almost a quarter of what I had saved up in our fight now, it''s only right that you''re the one to replenish what was used." Ss smiled with satisfaction as he watched Cain struggling to stay conscious.


    Although she was also shocked by John''s appearance, when Cain had been injured she had also snapped out of her daze.


    After seeing Ss absorb the blood that Cain had spilled, she ran towards him to start healing his injuries.


    "Did you really think I''d just let you heal him?" Ss lifted his hand and the red Energy started to envelop it. Several shards were created and floating above his head, aiming directly for Rene.


    Then something strange happened. Something flew passed Ss, right in front of him, and in the next moment his hand hit the floor.


    At first he was confused, staring at the end of his arm where his hand used to be, but then the pain kicked in.


    "AAARGH! My hand!" Ss held onto his wrist had screamed out in pain. Blood was spraying all over and Ss did his best to stop it by clenching his hand around his wrist just above the cut.


    His attempts to stop the blood didn''t work until he had an idea. Using his own blood he formed a crystal over the severed wrist and the blood stopped flowing.


    Looking around to see who was responsible for his injury, he saw a boy with long ck hair standing behind him and to the side.


    Turning to face him, Ss smiled through the pain "Leofalor... If you''re here then the beasts must have expired, unless you somehow managed to kill them all, which I doubt."


    Leo looked at the injured Cain that was now being healed by Rene, as well as the red creature that was on its knees near the altar crying.


    " I don''t know what''s going on here, but you''re a cultist and you''ve hurt my friends. I''m not going to let you get away." Leo said with confidence.


    "Get away? You think I''m going to run away!? Hahaha! Why would I do that when I could just defeat you!" Ss used his other hand to create several shards floating above his head and fired them all at Leo.


    ***


    After the creatures chasing him had died, Leo had taken off running towards the mountain. He managed his Energy consumption so that he wouldn''t use too much before arriving to ensure he would be able to fight when needed.


    It took about twenty minutes for Leo to arrive at the mountain and just like Cain and Rene, he had to run along its edge in order to find what he was looking for.


    After finally encountering the small Fortress at the base of the mountain, Leo stopped and knew he was in the right ce.


    [Pulse]


    Sending out a Pulse, Leo managed to realize quickly that there weren''t any people in the fortress at all.


    ''There''s nobody there... How strange. Even if there wasn''t anybody defending this ce now, what happened to Cain and Rene?''


    Leo continued towards the fortress and used Leap to jump over its walls. That''s when he saw the tunnel leading into the mountain.


    ''So they''re inside. Pulse wasn''t able to sense them... Does that mean it''s not able to go through the mountain?'' Leo asked.


    ''I think the mountain is just too thick. The Energy you use when you send out a pulse would probably just roll over the mountain instead of going into it.'' Dreifus replied.


    ''I see.'' Leo walked into the tunnel and activated his Aura. He eventually came across the door and the dead cultist guards.


    ''They must havee through here. These guys have had their heads crushed, which is exactly what Cain would have done. Looks like I''m definitely in the right ce.''


    After confirming that he was in the right ce, Leo moved through the tunnel and the hallways faster. He didn''t need to try any of the doors because he could feel that nobody was inside those rooms due to Aura.


    Eventually he reached therge metal doors that had been pushed over and he could see into the Altar room.


    Cain had a dozen shards sticking out of his body and Rene had just started running towards Cain when Ss lifted his hand and red Energy began gathering around it.


    [Wind de]


    Acting quickly, Leo lifted his own hand and used the Wind de skill while aiming for Ss'' wrist. ''It''s the only part that''s weak enough for the Wind de to cut through. Any other part of his arm and it won''t go all the way through.'' Leo thought as he fired the Wind de and watched Ss'' hand fall to the ground.


    ***


    [Dash]


    With several shards flying towards him, Leo activated dash and dodged to the side while running. Ss continued to fire shards as Leo ran and soon realized that even his smaller and faster shards weren''t able to hit Leo.


    Ss stopped attacking and focused one creating more shards. As each second passed, another three or four shards would appear floating above his head.


    Leo saw this as an opportunity and started his attack on Ss.


    [Wind de]


    The Wind de flew towards Ss and because he was focused on creating more crystals he was slow to react. The Wind de was initially aiming for his neck but at thest second he managed to move to the side and avoid decapitation.


    The Wind de still managed to cut into the side of his neck, causing blood to pour out of it.


    "Tch! Your attacks are too slow!" Ss created a few more crystals and now had around 50 of them floating above his head. "I''d like to see how you''re nning to win this fight now!" Ssughed hysterically.


    "Those shards would have been incredibly difficult to deal with if you ever had the chance to use them. It''s too bad you won''t get that chance." Leo said.


    "What are you ta..." Ss began saying but was interrupted by a sudden surge of pain. Cain had crept up behind Ss while Leo was distracting him and swung his hammer at full force into his knee.


    Ss felt immense pain as his leg bent inwards and he felt his bones and ligaments snapping. His body began to fall to the side due to losing the use of his leg.


    [Dash]


    [Leap]


    Leo took a few steps forward to build speed and then jumped towards Ss'' falling body. Leo reached him before his body was even halfway through its fall and grabbed onto his head.


    Leo mmed Ss'' head into the ground immense force, causing him to fall unconscious.


    Leo lifted his hand and prepared another strike to the head when Cain shouted out to him "Wait! Don''t kill him!"


    Leo stopped at look at Cain "We should finish him before he wakes up." Leo lifted his hand but Cain stopped him again "He''s the only one who might know what happened to John!"


    Leo lowered his hand and let go of Ss "John? Is he here?" Leo asked excitedly.


    Cain nodded and pointed towards the red person at the altar "That''s John..."