Absurd! Ridiculous! Blasphemous!
Zephyro had intended to sneer, but when he saw the utterly unfeigned, wildly triumphant grin on Phainon's face—a grin mixing the thrill of revenge with the smug delight of everything's going according to plan—the near-instinctive danger sense belonging to a Great Extinguisher suddenly sounded the alarm in his heart!
Something was wrong! Something was definitely wrong!
He immediately wanted to step forward and force Phainon to reveal what he was plotting.
However,
Within less than a thousandth of a second of that thought arising, before his body had even begun to move, a figure appeared behind Phainon without warning, as though he had always been there and had only now been permitted to be observed.
It was a silver-haired young man.
He gently extended a hand and placed it upon Phainon's battered shoulder, instantly healing his combat exhaustion and injuries.
Then, the silver-haired young man slowly raised his head. His eyes, flowing with a golden sheen and bearing concentric rings deep within their pupils, fixed precisely upon Zephyro and the floating drop of Destruction golden blood in his hand with a calm, gentle smile.
"Who... are... you?" Zephyro's hoarse voice rang out, carrying the faintest trace of hesitation that even he himself had not noticed.
Almost instinctively, he tried to raise the long blade in his hand and point it at this suddenly appearing, extraordinarily dangerous unknown being.
However,
His fingers, his arm, his body—none of them could carry out that simple command!
That was unreasonable.
As a Great Extinguisher, Zephyro had dared to fight even IX, the Aeon of [Nihility]. How could he possibly make such a basic mistake as being unable to lift his blade?
He began searching for the reason, only to discover something even more unreasonable.
Because he found that the culprit preventing