Everyone in the square stared at the screen, watching the figure sway beneath the force of Soul Roar.
Leo's vision had turned completely red.
Anger, resentment, humiliation...
Every emotion he had forced himself to suppress became a razor-sharp blade, churning through his mind.
He seemed to be back in that dark corner, the agony of his broken leg tangled with the dizziness of hunger, surrounded by numb and mocking stares.
[Warning! Synchronization rate continuing to fall! 58%... 55%...] [Emergency protocol activated: "Logic Scavenger"!]
Amid the storm raging through his mind, a stubborn resolve rose within Leo.
Was he going to surrender to his past?
After finally gaining power, was he only going to taste his own helplessness?
"No..."
A hoarse syllable scraped from Leo's throat.
"No!!"
He snapped his head up. His blood-red eyes locked onto the Raging Butcher's sneering face.
It was him!
That same arrogant way of toying with the weak!
Richard had been like that. This monster was no different!
Why?!
Why did you get to control our fate?!
At that moment, a completely different force surged through the Neural Interface implanted in his spine!
It was not a gentle flow of energy, but an icy stream of data made entirely of zeros and ones!
["Logic Scavenger" protocol activated.] [Clearing redundant emotional data...] [Targets: anger, fear, resentment... Clearing! Clearing! Clearing!]
Buzz!
Leo felt as though a supercomputer had seized control of his brain.
The churning sea of emotion drained away in an instant, leaving only absolute reason.
The red faded from his sight. Countless data boxes and analytical lines rebuilt the world before his eyes.
[Heart rate: 80 (stable)] [Mental fluctuation: 0.01% (absolutely stable)] [Correcting synchronization rate... 95%... 99%... 100%!] [Combat module activated: "Absolute Rationality" state.]
The Raging Butcher's sneer froze.