The timer reached 00:00:05.
Five seconds.
The air thickened, pressing against Leon's skin like deep water. Mana surged hard enough that even breathing felt loud. The world around them—trees, broken roads, half-standing buildings—began to blur at the edges, as if painted on glass that was slowly cracking.
00:00:04
Elena suddenly stepped forward.
Before Leon could ask why, she wrapped her arms around him—tight, sudden, desperate. Her face pressed into his chest, fingers clutching the fabric of his coat like she was afraid he might vanish if she let go.
Leon froze.
"Elena?" he said, genuinely confused. "What—?"
00:00:03
She didn't answer right away. Her shoulders trembled.
"I don't know why," she whispered. "This is stupid, right? I just—"
Her voice broke.
"It feels like if I don't do this now… I'll regret it forever."
Leon's hands hovered awkwardly in the air. He glanced at Lucas, silently asking what is happening?
Lucas had gone completely still.
In his first life—
she had done this too.
Same timing. Same hesitation. Same words.
Before Gate Five.
Before everything went wrong.
00:00:02
Lucas's jaw tightened.
So some things still find their way back, he thought. Even without memories.
Elena pulled back just enough to look up at Leon, her eyes glossy but steady. "If we get separated… if things get worse…"
She swallowed.
"Promise me you won't disappear."
Leon laughed nervously. "I'm not planning to."
"That's not what I meant," she said softly.
00:00:01
Leon finally returned the hug, resting a hand awkwardly on her shoulder. "I promise," he said. "Okay? I'm right here."
Lucas turned away.
Because he remembered what came after this moment last time.
And how promises didn't always survive the System.
00:00:00
The world shattered.
There was no explosion. No light.
Just absence.
Sound vanished first. Then color. Then weight.
Leon felt Elena's arms loosen—not by choice, but because space itself pulled them apart. Her face blurred, stretched, and slipped away like a reflection on disturbed water.
"Elena!" Leon shouted—but the word never reached her.
Blue sigils wrapped around Leon's body.
Golden ones answered.
Lucas watched it happen as the System finally acknowledged what it had been avoiding.
[Relocation in Progress]
[Subject: Leon]
[Status: Anomalous]
[Destination: Undetermined]
[Subject: Lucas]
[Status: Vanguard-Class / Temporal Anchor]
[Destination: Assigned – Frontier Node]
[Subject: Elena]
[Status: Compatible]
[Destination: Sanctuary City – Elnor]