"JARVIS, remove the armor."
Jill heard Leon's voice coming from inside the suit.
"Yes, sir."
It was as if a second voice had appeared inside the armor. Jill blankly wondered if she was hallucinating.
But after the second voice fell silent,
the armor's thrusters suddenly erupted with flames.
Then, plate after plate of metal scales opened in sequence, revealing the man hidden within.
The moment those thrusters began spitting fire, Jill's mind had already gone blank.
She suddenly realized
that the armor had been floating as though it had no weight at all.
It had not used any propulsion system whatsoever!
This was practically... like a ghost!
Jill felt chills run down her spine, an icy sensation surging up her back and into her mind.
But that chill was quickly replaced by shock.
—Leon's faceplate sprang open, revealing a sharply bridged nose, thick brows, and deep-set eyes.
His hair fell loose, every strand clearly defined.
He carried the lazy air of afternoon sunlight.
The first thought that appeared in Jill's mind was whether this man had somehow come to life from a Greek statue.
Only, Leon was dressed very casually.
He wore a rock-gray knitted wool sweater on top and khaki cargo shorts below, his bare calves planted in a pair of brown hiking boots.
That made him look less like a stern, sculpted statue.
He looked more like a student heading out yawning for breakfast on a summer morning.
If that had been all,
Jill would still have thought this impossibly handsome man was merely a somewhat unconventional elite fighter.
But after the armor opened,
the man named Leon actually flew straight into the air!!
Jill and Carlos both gaped in horror and blurted out, "Holy shit," looking as though they had seen God.
They watched Leon rise into