Through those slightly trembling lips, Gwen confirmed one thing—
Alicia... was panicking...
After a long while, their lips parted. One hand supported those soft petals while the other wrapped around her voluptuous waist. Looking into her beautiful eyes shimmering with tears, Gwen said gently:
"Aili, I'm sorry..."
Though she had not asked, the moment Gwen confirmed that emotion in Alicia's heart, he understood the source of her fear—
His previous gamble had succeeded, and he had smoothly broken through, advancing his strength further. But without the girls' assistance to help him break through in one go, he would have suffered at least grievous injuries.
After all, Cosmo was a power that excavated one's potential from within and deeply developed the human body.
Burning Cosmo meant burning one's life, soul, and will.
Even though Gwen, who was at the middle stage of the fourth Gene Lock and whose light had evolved to Wingless Noah's level, theoretically had an almost infinite lifespan, he could not withstand unrestricted Cosmo burning—
It was not simply a matter of trading lifespan for power. In the terms of fantasy worlds, this was called damaging one's foundation.
A powerful foundation might grant nearly infinite life, making it harmless to burn away a little. But if too much of it was lost, that theoretically infinite lifespan could be reduced to a finite one, or even... depleted entirely.
As for why the five Bronze Saints only became stronger the more they burned and never burned themselves to death?
Gwen guessed it had something to do with Athena's aid—
Anyone who truly underestimated the goddess of war and wisdom had already been blasted away by the Demon King Seiya.
Of course, since he had never visited the Saint world, all of that was merely Gwen's own speculation.
During the earlier