Chapter 102: Prison Broken
The mysterious man said nothing.
He just raised his hand.
Snap.
He snapped his fingers.
The frozen scene jerked back to life. Time flowed once more.
Leo watched in silence as the memory unfolded before him. Lia reached a trembling hand toward Leo’s face. She still wore that smile.
Leo held her tightly, his face drained of color.
"Li... Lia..."
His voice broke.
"Wha... what have you... done?"
Lia’s lips parted.
"Big Brother..."
Her voice came as a weak whisper.
"Ahhh... I’ve been so tired all these years."
A faint smile touched her bloodstained face.
"Now... I can finally rest, it seems."
Leo shook his head, panic taking over.
"No..."
"No, no... Hold on."
His hands pressed hard against the wound.
"I’ll get help."
"Nothing is going to happen to you."
"Don’t say things like that."
But Lia offered a weak shake of her head.
"Big Brother..."
"I can’t do this anymore."
Tears gathered in her eyes.
"I don’t want to train so hard every day anymore..."
"I don’t want to kill anyone anymore."
Her voice shook.
"I’m so tired."
She looked at Leo with an innocent, almost childlike smile.
"Won’t you let me rest now?"
Leo’s lips trembled.
"Lia..."
"I’ve been so lucky..."
Her eyes softened.
"I got to meet you in this life."
A bitter smile crossed her face. Then she gave a weak chuckle.
"It seems I won’t be able to fulfill my promise to you now."
"The Nether Realm ghosts are probably already on their way to claim my soul."
She lifted her heavy hand and placed it over Leo’s shaking fingers.
"Promise me..."
Her voice grew even weaker.
"...that you’ll take better care of yourself."
She paused.
"And Sister Selena too."
Leo shook his head, fighting the reality of it all.
"Don’t talk."
"Please, Lia..."
"Save your strength."
But Lia just smiled.
Then—
Cough!
A mouthful of blood spilled over her lips.
Leo’s expression turned frantic.
"Don’t!"
"Don’t talk anymore!"
Lia looked at him one last time. Her expression carried a strange peace.
"It seems..."
"...I don’t have much time left."
She swallowed with great effort.
"So I’ll tell you something..."
"Something I’ve wanted to tell you for so long."
Leo stared at her. A tremor racked his frame.
"Lia..."
Her lips parted.
"I..."
Her voice faded to a breath.
"I love u—"
Her sentence remained unfinished. Her hand slipped from Leo’s grasp. The life left her body.
"Lia?"
Leo froze.
"Lia?"
No response.
"Lia!"
He shook her shoulders.
"Lia! Wake up!"
Nothing.
"LIA!"
His voice echoed through the trees. But the girl in his arms would never answer again.
The Leo watching the scene stood rooted to the spot. His heart felt as though an invisible hand had reached inside his chest and twisted with crushing force.
"No..."
His breathing turned ragged.
"No..."
He stumbled backward.
"Stop..."
His hands went to his head.
"Please..."
His voice cracked.
"This isn’t real."
"This isn’t real!"
The mysterious man stood unfazed beside him.
"It’s very real."
Leo turned to face him, tears burning in his eyes.
"What?"
The man looked toward the scene.
"We are not somewhere else."
"We are inside your mind."
Leo’s pupils shrank.
The mysterious man snapped his fingers once more.
Snap.
The forest vanished. The world shifted.
Leo’s blood ran cold. Another lifeless body weighed down his arms.
Selena.
She rested against his chest. Her eyes remained closed. Her face was pale.
There was no smile. No warmth. Nothing.
Leo turned to stone.
"No..."
His lips trembled.
"Not her..."
The mysterious man’s tone carried no shift in emotion.
"Two women sacrificed their lives for you."
"Two people gave you the opportunity to continue living."
He locked eyes with Leo.
"And what did you do with that opportunity?"
Leo gasped for air.
"What..."
His voice broke.
"What was I supposed to do?"
He clenched his fists.
"Tell me!"
"What was I supposed to do?!"
The mysterious man offered no reaction.
The mysterious man said nothing.
Instead, he raised a hand.
A golden card materialized between his fingers.
Leo’s eyes followed it curiously.
The man flicked the card forward.
The card dissolved into countless particles of light before rapidly gathering together in midair.
A translucent screen appeared before them.
An image soon formed upon it.
Leo’s eyes widened.
It was the area outside his truck.
His truck was parked exactly where he had left it.
A short distance away, Nina and little Lily sat together on the mat spread across the ground. Both of them were staring intently toward the truck.
Nina’s expression was unusually hesitant.
She seemed to be debating whether she should knock on the truck door...
Or simply barge inside.
Not far away, Danny stood guard with a machete in his hand.
His expression was unusually serious, his eyes constantly scanning the surrounding area.
Nearby, Linda had her hands clasped together.
Her lips moved silently as she offered what appeared to be a prayer.
Leo stared at the scene without saying a word.
The mysterious man finally spoke.
"This is your present."
Leo’s gaze remained fixed on the screen.
"This is what you’ve gained in this life."
His voice remained calm.
"People who worry about you."
"People who wait for you."
"People who care whether you return safely."
The mysterious man glanced at Leo.
"And yet..."
"You continue to chain yourself to the past."
Leo lowered his head.
His fingers slowly curled into fists.
The man continued.
"You keep asking yourself what you could have done differently."
"What you should have done."
"How much stronger you should have been."
"But look at what is standing in front of you now."
Leo looked back at the screen.
Nina.
Lily.
Danny.
Linda.
They weren’t people from his old life.
They weren’t replacements for Lia or Selena.
They were simply...
People who had entered his life.
People who had begun to care about him.
A strange feeling spread through Leo’s chest.
He lowered his gaze again.
"What am I supposed to do?"
His voice was quiet.
The mysterious man looked at him.
"Did you grieve them?"
Leo went stiff.
The man’s voice remained calm, but every word struck deep.
"Have you ever truly grieved them?"
Silence.
"You didn’t shed a single tear."
"Not when Lia died."
"Not when Selena died."
"You simply buried everything."
"The pain."
"The memories."
"The guilt."
"And convinced yourself that becoming stronger would somehow make up for their deaths."
Leo’s lips parted.
"The tears in your eyes right now..."
The man paused.
"...may be the first you’ve shed for them."
Leo slowly raised a trembling hand to his face..
"I..."
His voice cracked.
"I can’t..."
His shoulders shook.
"I can’t just forget them."
"I never told you to forget them."
The man’s answer came without a second breath.
"Letting go is not the same as forgetting."
Leo lifted his head. The mysterious man looked straight into his eyes.
"Grieve."
"Remember them."
"Remember the time you spent together."
"Remember their smiles."
"Remember the happiness they gave you."
"But stop carrying their deaths as punishment."
Leo’s lips trembled.
"You think that’s possible?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"By accepting that they are gone."
Leo stared at him. The words sounded simple. Yet they carried a crushing weight.
The mysterious man kept speaking.
"Live for yourself."
"Live the life they can no longer live."
"Laugh when you want to laugh."
"Love when you want to love."
"And when happiness comes..."
"Don’t feel guilty for accepting it."
"Live freely."
"Live more fully than anyone else."
"That is how you honor the lives they gave up for you."
Those words hit Leo harder than a physical blow. For years, he had refused to accept their passing. A piece of his soul remained chained to those tragic moments. Every nightmare dragged him back to the same bloodstained dirt. Every battle reminded him of the people he had failed to protect. Every time he gained power, a quiet thought lingered in his mind: if only he had possessed this strength back then, things would have been different.
But they weren’t. The past stayed the same.
The mysterious man spoke in a low tone.
"You have already been given another life."
"Yet you continue living as though you are still trying to correct the mistakes of the previous one."
Leo’s eyes widened. The truth stung.
The man stepped closer.
"If you continue like this..."
"...you will eventually lose yourself."
Leo stopped breathing for a second.
William.
The face of his old friend flashed across his mind. William had also failed to accept the deaths of Elena and Lily. Grief had consumed the man. Guilt warped into hatred. Hatred twisted into madness.
In the end, William became a monster.
Leo stared down at his shaking palms. He understood it now. He had been marching toward the very same cliff. Maybe he walked a different path because his mind proved a bit stronger. But the drop at the end of the road waited all the same.
Leo turned back toward his younger self. The scene of Lia’s passing still played out before him.
He closed his eyes.
For the first time, he didn’t see the blood. He didn’t see the fatal blade. He didn’t see death.
Instead, he saw two young women laughing.
Lia.
Selena.
They wore bright smiles. They were playing, bickering over some small, meaningless thing. They were alive.
Leo’s throat tightened.
"I’m sorry..."
His voice trembled.
"I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you."
A tear rolled down his cheek. Then another. His shoulders started to shake.
"I’m sorry..."
His voice broke in half.
"I should have..."
He couldn’t finish the thought. The dam inside his chest shattered.
Leo sank to his knees. He buried his face in his hands.
And he cried.
He didn’t cry quietly. He didn’t cry like a hardened assassin or a warrior trained to swallow his feelings.
He cried like a child.
Years of unspent grief poured out of him. Every tear carried a piece of the agony he had refused to face. Every sob carried the names he had locked away in the darkest corner of his heart.
Lia.
Selena.
The people he failed. The people he lost.
For the first time in years, Leo let himself grieve. Not as a man desperate for power. Not as a survivor punishing himself for drawing breath.
Just as a brother mourning his sister. A man mourning his love. A human being weeping for the people who had given his world color.
The mysterious man watched in silence.
Then—
Crack.
A tiny fracture split the air of the memory.
Leo didn’t notice.
Another crack formed. Then another.
Crack... crack... crack...
Thin lines, like a spider’s web, spread across the entire mental space. The forest. The memories. The blood.
Everything.
The scene began breaking apart like a giant sheet of glass. The fractures stretched outward in a heartbeat.
Until—
BOOM!
The entire world shattered. Fragments of the memory drifted through the dark before melting into countless motes of light.
The prison that had trapped Leo’s heart for years finally collapsed.
Leo stayed on his knees, tears still falling.
But something had shifted. The crushing weight inside his chest had lifted.
The mysterious man watched from a short distance. The black raven, Gill, had returned and settled onto his shoulder. Its crimson eyes studied Leo in silence.
The man stroked the bird’s dark feathers. A soft smile touched his lips.
"Looks like..."
"...he finally overcame the most difficult hurdle."