Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Leon watched that whole exchange showing a calm expression. He imagined that he would feel enraged after hearing all that. However, after confirming his theories directly from Ilyana's mouth, he felt… strangely calm. Although the fourth Leon's reaction was justified given the things he had to see and experiment with, Leon could understand him but not react in the same way.

"I guess a lot of things makes sense now…" Leon muttered. "I learned magic fast and developed my skills faster than the others because I experienced the same training more than a few times… thus, the knowledge of how to learn certain spells and skills came naturally to me."

Leon's behavior wasn't just altered based on his magic instincts. The other 'lives' that he had made him endure the solitude in that island, the fear when he was, in other words, and all the anger when he was inside the galactic snake. Without knowing it, his past experiences helped him reach the point where he was now… thanks to all that, Leon could understand what Ilyana was trying to do. She lived as much as him, she was fully aware that they would never reach their perfect end, but she was trying with all her might to reach the best possible end.

For the first time, Leon felt something inside his heart while watching Ilyana. It was respect… respect for someone who was willing to experience a living hell time and time again just to have a quick glance of a good end. Leon knew that he didn't have the nerve to reset the time of all things… he didn't want to experience all the hardships of the past again and again. That was why he could only admire her now… the current Leon… lost all the wish to use time magic to nullify all the events that happened. Why? Because it was meaningless… Leon was prideful, and someone like that wouldn't try to do everything again, knowing that it was impossible to reach the perfect end.

"So, my parents died once because of Tyrselle's dragons, huh," The fourth Leon said. "This doesn't surprise me all that much. I knew from the very beginning that dragons were way too powerful than any other monsters… still, that doesn't change the fact that I will doom the entire human race by betraying her. She fooled me without lying. It is accurate to say that she betrayed me first but won't help me in any way. Can you guarantee to me that by joining, I will be able to protect everyone?"

"No…" Ilyana lowered her head. "I just recovered my memories, but my powers haven't returned yet. To fully recover my powers, I will have to relive those memories more than a few times… Right now, I don't have the power to oppose her."

"Then, we don't have anything more to discuss," the fourth Leon said. "I won't risk the lives of the humans who survived until now for an unknown future."

"But Leon!" Ilyana protested.

"Sorry, but it won't happen…" Leon turned around and then begun to walk away from Ilyana. "I can't abandon everything I fought for until now to pursue my own happiness… My conscience won't allow it. If I do something like that, I will become like those I hate the most… the monsters who see no value in other people's lives."

Ilyana clenched her teeth and then showed a pained expression, but soon she gave up. She had imagined that something like that might happen because just like Leon had seen his previous versions growing stronger than the previous one, Ilyana and even Tyrselle were getting stronger as well. The experience was accumulating in all of them, so it was only obvious that Tyrselle would find a way to counter Ilyana's actions and powers.

Leon quickly accepted that he did that in the past… it was easy to judge someone while looking at things from a distance, so he didn't that. Besides, what was the point of judging his own actions? Doing that was only useful when he could learn from his mistakes, but given that Leon would perhaps lose those memories, then it was a wasting of time.

Ilyana disappeared and never contacted Leon again. Tyrselle probably saw their whole conversation, but even though she talked with Leon thousands of times after that, she never talked about it. After that, things proceeded quite favorably for the humans, but everyone noticed that Leon had changed, no one could understand why, but it didn't matter since he continued to work hard to make the human race survive.

Two hundred years later, the fourth Leon finally learned Foresight. Without wasting any time, he began to train it, and when he saw the things that would happen in the next few days. Tyrselle finally appeared before Leon and then teleported him and the whole human race to the planet where Ilyana was. The fight started, but Ilyana didn't try to protect herself… she couldn't bring herself to fight Leon and those who he wanted to protect. In the end, Leon dealt the finishing blow, and Ilyana died without offering any resistance and with a smile on her face. Leon bit his lips in anger when he did that… he could feel that the spirits were nearby, but they only observed him. It was just a possible future, but just the possibility of him killing the mother of his kids in cold blood enraged him. More than that… it made Leon felt as if he was worse than any of the monsters he killed until now. The harvesters, the angels, Netro, the shadowy figure… he was worse than them, and that was sickening, to say the least.

The fourth Leon felt no different than him, the things Ilyana showed him were like a hazy memory, but he still could imagine what he had felt in that timeline. Then, he canceled Foresight and readied himself.