🔥 ARC17: The Words I Stopped With

The air changed.

It wasn’t hostility.

Not killing intent, either.

And yet—there was no mistaking it: the instant “decision” was born.

Leon stepped forward.

There was no hesitation in his back.

Not for battle.

Not for retreat.

Only—what someone looks like after choosing.

There wasn’t time to ask why.

There wasn’t time to form a question at all.

My body moved first.

“Wait!!”

It was almost a scream.

Less a restraint than a reflex.

Before I could even think I had to stop him, the word had already spilled out.

Leon glanced back, just slightly.

I couldn’t see his expression.

But his presence was enough.

—He’d already decided.

“Don’t come.”

Low. Short.

It wasn’t an order.

It was closer to a wish.

If you come closer, something will break.

That was what the voice was telling me.

One step—and the distance widened.

The next instant, magic surged.

Not controlled light.

Not a spell meant to protect.

Only power meant to cut the path apart.

The air tore.

The ground rang.

And inside it, Lumia stood frozen.

I should have stopped him.

I thought I had.

But the world didn’t stop.

Leon’s back vanished beyond the light.

A distance I couldn’t chase.

A distance I couldn’t pull back from.

Something sank deep in my chest.

Was the word too late.

Was the word wrong.

I still didn’t know the answer.

Only one thing was certain.

—In that moment, the place to turn back disappeared.

Leon won’t return.

And these words can’t be taken back, either.

“Wait.”

The one who said it—me—

was already, unmistakably, someone who could never stand in the same place again.

— Lumi🪄💕