Chapter 1679 - 1679: Epilogue 29 - The End of the Beginning (5)

After my conversation with my father, the hologram finally disappeared right in front of my eyes.

Now that everything had finally come to light, and I knew that the worlds were eventually going to be forced into killing each other simply for the entertainment of beings who stood above them, how was I supposed to do anything about it? The more I thought about the situation, the more it felt like there was no real escape from what was coming, no matter how much I wanted to believe that there was some way around it.

I needed to tell Leon about this.

I needed to tell him everything I had learned about the Great Ones, because if there was anyone who could understand what I was trying to explain, I was certain that it would be him.

I went to find him at the training ground. He was without a shirt and doing pull-ups, as though the possibility of multiple worlds eventually being thrown into some massive war wasn't exactly something worth interrupting his workout over.

"Zoey?"

"Yes," I replied as I approached him. "Can you spare me some of your time? I have something important that I need to talk to you about."

"I already heard it," he said.

I stopped for a moment, staring at him with confusion.

"You don't have to explain anything."

"Sorry?"

He had heard it?

He heard what exactly?

I hadn't understood what he meant at first, mostly because I was still trying to figure out how I was supposed to explain everything without making the whole thing sound completely insane.

"I heard your conversation with your father," Leon explained.

"O-Oh?"

So he had heard us.

"W-Wait, when did you hear that?"

"I wasn't exactly eavesdropping, of course," he said, although the look on his face made that explanation sound considerably less convincing. "Well, I kind of was, I suppose. I could hear you all the way from here. I wasn't actually trying to listen, but your conversation happened to be pretty interesting."

"You found it... interesting?"

"Well, there's nothing really stopping me from thinking that it was an interesting conversation, don't you agree?" he asked. "A war between worlds sounds like something I've heard about before. I feel like I've watched a movie about something like that at some point."

I went quiet for a moment.

I had absolutely no idea what movie he was talking about, but apparently, he was already far more familiar with the concept than I had initially assumed.

"You already knew about this, didn't you?" I asked him.

"One of the Great Ones told me."

His answer came almost immediately, without any hesitation or uncertainty.

"In fact, I was aware of it even before I heard your conversation."

"I see..." I said quietly. "So then, what are you planning to do about it?"

"For the same reason your father is fighting," he replied. "I'll fight for my world, and my world alone."

His expression became noticeably more serious as he continued speaking.

"The people I have here are important to me, and I'm not going to sit around and let some other world destroy everything I've worked to protect. I'll make sure that the other worlds don't get the chance to destroy mine, regardless of how difficult that might become."

He sounded incredibly determined when he said it.

My father had told me something similar, but for some reason, Leon's words felt completely different from his.

My father's determination seemed to come from his desire to become the superior one, from wanting to make sure that he would stand above everyone else when everything was finally over. Even though I understood that he was also trying to protect our world, there was still something about his reasoning that felt fundamentally different from Leon's.

Leon wasn't talking about becoming the strongest.

He wasn't talking about ruling over everyone else.

He simply wanted to protect the people who mattered to him.

For some reason, that way of thinking resonated with me much more deeply than I expected it to.

"I see..." I said after thinking about his answer for a moment. "Then I hope you'll be able to do it."

I was about to leave him alone and let him return to his training, but before I could take another step, I heard him call my name again.

"Zoey."

I stopped and turned around to look at him.

"Thank you... for siding with me."

He smiled when he said it, and that simple expression was somehow enough to make my heart beat considerably faster than it should have.

I immediately looked down, allowing my hair to fall forward and cover the upper half of my face so he wouldn't be able to see my expression properly.

My cheeks were probably giving me away anyway, but I preferred pretending otherwise.

Before I could overthink what I was doing, I suddenly ran back toward him.

I stood on my tiptoes so that I could reach his face, placed both of my hands gently against his cheeks, and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss.

My heart was pounding so hard that I was almost certain he could hear it from where he was standing.

I didn't give myself enough time to become embarrassed about what I had just done, because if I stopped to think about it, I knew I would probably want the ground to swallow me whole.

I simply turned around and walked away from him as quickly as I could, pretending that nothing embarrassing had just happened despite the fact that my face was probably bright red.

***

Leon's POV

After Zoey told me everything, I already knew most of it because I had heard her conversation with her father before she came looking for me.

I hadn't expected their world to have a Great One of its own, but considering that it had already been confirmed that all of the worlds were created by the Great Ones, I supposed it was only natural that theirs would have one as well.

What surprised me more was the fact that the Great One had actually told Zoey about the situation.

The General as well.

Apparently, they were both aware of the coming clash between the worlds, which meant that the information had already reached far more people.

"Lilith..." I muttered under my breath.

I wanted to talk to her.

"If I go to sleep, appear before me."

There were so many questions I wanted to ask Lilith that I didn't even know where I would begin if she actually decided to show herself.

I had a feeling that she wouldn't simply appear because I asked her to, though.

Honestly, I felt a little stupid even asking her to appear.

It sounded ridiculous when I thought about it for more than a few seconds, but I couldn't think of another way to contact her.

As much as possible, I didn't want to have anything to do with her.

Still, if she could give me answers about the Great Ones, and what was actually happening to the worlds, then I couldn't completely ignore the possibility of speaking with her.

While I was thinking about that, another voice suddenly came from behind me.

"Long time no see, Leon."

I immediately turned around and saw Estelle standing there.

"What are you doing here?"

I hadn't sensed her presence at all.

She had somehow appeared without making the slightest sound, despite the fact that this area was located deep inside the facility, far enough from the ordinary areas that getting here without being noticed shouldn't have been easy.

"Nothing," she replied casually. "Can't I come and say hello to my brother, who has Mother inside him?"

"I don't think you came all the way here just to say hello."

Although I wasn't currently holding either Ayuru or Samui, I was already prepared to summon them the moment Estelle tried anything suspicious.

I remained cautious.

She hadn't shown herself for months after breaking up with Duncan, and now she had suddenly appeared out of nowhere without giving me the slightest explanation for where she had been or what she had been doing during all that time.

"You don't have to be so guarded," she said. "I only came here because I want to fulfill your destiny."

"Destiny?"

I narrowed my eyes while watching her carefully.

Before I could ask what she meant by that, she suddenly started removing her clothes.

"Let's have sex and fulfill Mother's destiny by reviving her," she said. "You want to save this world, don't you? The only way for that to happen is to allow Mother to revive through your body."