The screen split, entering combat.
"No surprise there. With a scene this big, we're bound to fight."
Ah Xian grinned nonchalantly.
She casually pressed the V key.
But she didn't expect that, right after pressing it, Leon in the party repeated the action from the earlier CG.
He summoned a token and shot it out.
Looking closely at the character bar below, Leon's energy bar was locked with chains.
Even more baffling, the word "Story" was stamped above it.
This…
This isn't right, is it?
"My maxed-out Leon got replaced?"
"Whatever, maybe the enemy count is too high and tough, so they gave us a high-level Leon."
The enemy lineup was no joke.
A blue Ice Fatso, a Devourer that delays turns, a Guardian that blocks basic attacks or skills.
On top of that, Ice Axes flanked the edges.
"Good grief, turn delays, slows, skill locks—this level's combat designer is a poet from the Beauty Pavilion!"
"Without Leon's control and delay immunity, wouldn't this be infuriating?"
The livestream audience nodded in agreement.
Only a few sensed something off but couldn't pinpoint what.
Until Leon's second action, using a never-before-seen skill with unfamiliar lines, everyone's eyes widened.
"Cleanse the Dust."
What's going on?!
Did he just… hit three enemies with a basic attack?
The attack style changed too—from dual-fist head strikes to flapping his right wing, unleashing three gusts of wind.
At this moment, someone finally noticed the strangest detail.
Leon's portrait had three glowing green dots in the bottom left.
Those weren't there before.
A few also caught the skill name flashing across the screen's top.
[Drifting Wind Dual Gates]
???
Why isn't it "Why's Your Head So Pointy?"
Ah Xian seemed to recall something, quickly pressing C to open the combat info screen and switching to Leon's page.
"Holy—!"
She couldn't hold back a full-on, authentic curse.
It was still Leon.
Still Wind element.
But his Path had shifted from Abundance to Harmony, and he was equipped with the Memory's Visage Light Cone.
Clicking the skill tab to investigate, it wouldn't even let her view it.
Another curse slipped out.
With no choice, she gleaned limited info from the details screen.
Leon's buff bar was empty.
"Was that entry animation not a buff?"
Ah Xian muttered, switching to Stelle's interface.
This time, there was something—a new buff description caught her eye.
[Swift Wind Summons Cloud Command]
Speed increased by 40 points.
"How much?!"
At level 40 without breakthrough, with weekly bosses not yet available, skills maxed at level 2.
A level 2 skill adding 40 speed?
Absurd!
For context, four-star Leon's fourth Soul only adds 8 points!
His Harmony form multiplied that several times over.
Seeing this, many players caught on.
[666!]
[No need to guess who gets the first SP—Leon's got a second form at launch. Who else gets this treatment?]
[Didn't expect it to be Leon. He's hiding some big secrets.]
[If he wasn't hiding big secrets, why wait for the public release?]
[Harmony Leon isn't four-star, right? Definitely not four-star. That speed boost is close to Asta's.]
[Add-on: It might be an E skill…]
Ah Xian closed the combat info screen, realizing Leon's E skill icon had changed, confirming the entry animation was his E skill activation.
"Fits the CG plot, giving massive speed boosts to the target."
The three green dots by his portrait meant it lasted three turns—oh, now only two dots remained.
This meant each of Leon's turns reduced the count by one.
[This is the Sky Haven Clan's true power!]
[Leon, usually so quirky, suddenly being this serious is such a contrast.]
[Can't use the ultimate?]
"It's chained up, so definitely not."
Ah Xian used a basic attack, ending Leon's turn.
But to her surprise, after the attack, the screen showed the four party members' faces.
A blue targeting circle landed on Stelle.
Checking the action bar, Leon's portrait was at the top—it was his turn again.
"What's this buff?"
After pressing space to confirm Stelle as the target, a blue glow emanated from the special mark on Leon's hand, releasing a surge of airflow.
The airflow flew behind Stelle, forming a special blue effect resembling light wings.
They weren't quite wings, more like sharp rays of light, barely qualifying as wings.
"Body Falls, Mountains and Rivers Stand."
As the skill line dropped, a new portrait of Stelle appeared next to Leon's on the action bar, indicating a cut-in turn.
Only ultimates or follow-up attacks triggered such portraits.
Leon dropped, and Stelle took the top spot.
As a beta player, Ah Xian instantly understood what this meant.
"It's a pull!"
"Action value reset to zero—means it's a 100% pull!"
"But this doesn't seem like Leon's E, nor an ultimate. A talent, maybe? What's the trigger?"
She reopened the combat panel.
Stelle's status bar now had a new buff description.
As for Leon's skill line, she didn't catch it clearly and ignored it for now.
[Afterglow Wind Ember Pull]
When attacking, ignore 9% of the target's defense, lasting until the end of this action's turn.
"Only 9%? Kinda low, but since the skill's max level is 2, maybe it'll scale higher when maxed."
Ah Xian didn't notice that after Leon pulled a teammate, his HP dropped slightly.
Almost everyone was focused on his new skill animations, missing the tiny detail.
When the enemy's turn came, two consecutive attacks hit Leon.
His energy bar filled.
The next second, a black silhouette portrait, filling most of the screen, popped up automatically.
"Time Turns, Calamity Retraces."
After the silhouette, Leon's hair tips glowed pale blue.
As he formed an hourglass-shaped seal with his hands, he spread his wings and soared into the sky, driving the seal into the ground below.
Space shattered, gray light burst from the cracks, forming a massive hourglass shadow.
Sand grains flowed upward from the ground into the hourglass, and a translucent barrier enveloped the field, centered on it.
The moment the barrier formed, a five-clawed dragon broke through space, biting the hourglass.
Its massive body coiled around the barrier, a visually stunning spectacle.
All enemies took multiple hits of identical damage.
"Candle Dragon Cycles, No Calamity Escapes."
Flight, seal formation, barrier creation, dragon emergence—the process was seamless, breathtakingly fluid.
Within the barrier, spatial cracks appeared and healed in a cycle.
Airflow rose, faintly accompanied by the sound of flowing sand.
[Holy crab! This cool?!]
[Damn, they're hiding his new portrait!]
[Glowing hair tips? Is he a god?]
[Don't cross franchises—this isn't Genshin.]