Void Reaper: The Essence Apocalypse

Chapter 51 51: I have a present for you

Valeria stood a few steps away from him, watching in silence, her brows faintly drawn together. Something about the scene simply didn't sit right with her, something grated at a level she couldn't ignore. A man who had just slain a First Order entity was lying on the floor like wreckage, his face twisted with pain and anger, acting as if he'd lost, not survived a fight no rational being should have lived through.

For a moment, she just tried to understand.

She watched his clenched jaw, his trembling shoulders, the frustration in his eyes, something deeper beneath it, almost desperate. At last, she spoke calmly, without irony or mockery, in a tone she rarely used.

"Why are you acting like this?" she asked bluntly. "You won. Given your strength… you're not weak. Very few could have killed that oversized boar."

Leon jerked, lifting his head as much as his body allowed, and glared at her with irritation that sparked in his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was loud, rough, overflowing with pent-up frustration.

"Then why?!" he snapped. "Why am I lying here like trash, drowning in pain?! Why do I have to depend on others, wait for someone to pick me up, to help me?!" His breath hitched. "Isn't that because I'm weak?!"

The words hung in the air, heavy, unpleasant.

Valeria didn't answer right away.

One look was enough. One moment to connect the dots. Her brows lifted slightly in understanding as everything fell into place. It wasn't a lack of strength that crushed him, not pain, not wounds, not even the closeness of death.

It was that people had seen him.

They'd seen him weak. Seen him supported. Seen him in a state where he was simply… weak.

She realized that, for some reason, he was terrified of showing weakness in front of others, and that relying on anyone else hurt him far more deeply than physical pain. It struck at the very core of who he was and how he saw himself.

She wanted to ask more.

She wanted to know why.

But she didn't get the chance.

Leon suddenly went rigid. His breathing turned shallow, the tension draining from his body like a cut string. His head slumped, and he went completely still as exhaustion finally claimed him and stole his consciousness.

Valeria looked down at him, at his face, still faintly bloodied, still drawn tight with pain even in unconsciousness. She frowned slightly, then let out a quiet, nearly soundless sigh.

"Haa…" she murmured to herself. "In the end… every human, no matter how strong they seem… carries their own demons."

Her gaze shifted to the bag of medicine tossed carelessly a few steps away, then back to Leon's bloodstained face, to the small wounds, cracked skin, the marks of pain that didn't vanish even while he slept. For a brief moment, she simply stood there, tapping a finger against the edge of the counter, as if counting something in her head.

Healing.

The word alone made her brows knit. She knew all too well that healing his wounds with her power would be a direct intervention in this world, something she couldn't do without consequences, no matter how much she might want to ease his suffering.

She sighed softly.

"I can't do that…" she muttered, more to herself than to him.

She moved to the bag, crouched beside it, and began rummaging through it slowly and methodically, looking for anything that didn't require her power, something so mundane and human that even Essence Record couldn't object.

"Haa…" she sighed again when she finally found something. "Wiping away the blood… without healing… that's all I can allow myself."

She took out wet wipes and a piece of gauze, returned to Leon, and knelt beside him. As she gently wiped the blood from his face and neck, she did it in complete silence, carefully, slowly, without haste.

There was no sweetness on her face now. No teasing. No irony.

It was blank.

Impossible to read, no emotion, no commentary, as the gauze moved over his skin.

***

Leon was exhausted after the life-and-death battle with the Crimson Horned Boar in a way that went far beyond ordinary fatigue. It wasn't just a body pushed past its limits, it was a mind burned out by constant tension, fear, and focus, like someone who hadn't slept in three days and had run purely on adrenaline the entire time. So when he finally lost consciousness, his body simply shut down, no half-measures.

He slept for over fifteen hours.

No dreams. No stirring and no brief awakenings.

He woke the next morning, when daylight was already steady and ordinary, and the shelter lay in that particular kind of morning silence, the kind that followed a night of fear, where everyone was still alive, but no one was truly at ease.

Leon rose almost unconsciously, as if he'd done it a hundred times before, only realizing a moment later that he wasn't alone.

"Good morning," Valeria's voice said.

She was sitting on one of the tables, hands resting lightly on the edge, watching him with a gentle smile, as if she knew exactly when he'd wake up and what he'd do first.

"Morning…" he replied automatically, already on his feet.

And only then did it hit him.

He was standing.

No paralyzing pain. No feeling like his feet were about to shatter. No wave of agony turning every movement into a battle.

Seeing how easily he stood, Valeria smiled faintly, calm, almost satisfied.

"So," she asked casually, "how's your body?"

Leon's eyes widened instantly. One sharp thought flashed through his mind, that the pain would come crashing back any second, delayed by sleep, that this was just an illusion.

But instead, he felt only a mild tingling and a slight tightness in his skin.

Nothing more.

Stunned, he looked down.

The old, burned skin on his legs and feet was already peeling away in thin sheets, revealing new tissue beneath, lighter, smooth, still delicate, but unmistakably healthy. As if his body had simply… undone part of the damage on its own.

"What…" he murmured, dazed. "What is even happening…?"

Valeria watched him for a second, two, then finally couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing, openly and sincerely. The cold distance she usually kept vanished completely.

"I told you," she said, still amused. "Your stats are monstrous for your level. Your Vitality is several times higher than an average human's."

She slid off the table and stepped closer, continuing more calmly, like she was explaining something obvious.

"In the old world, injuries like that would've meant three or four months of treatment, if full recovery was even possible. For you? It's ten times faster."

Over a hundred points of Vitality did its work. Cell reproduction, structural repair, new tissue formation, all of it was happening at a pace that, in the old world, would've been somewhere between a medical miracle and a biological nightmare.

Leon stood there for a moment, staring at his legs, still trying to reconcile what he saw with what he remembered from the day before.

"At this rate…" he said slowly, "…I'll only need a few days to be back at full strength."

For the first time since the fight, he felt something he hadn't yesterday, a mix of relief and excitement. It felt like he hadn't been broken, only pushed to the next stage.

That was when Valeria stepped closer.

Much closer.

He had to lift his head to meet her crimson eyes. A familiar, sweet smile curved her lips.

"Since we're talking about your condition," she said calmly, "I have a present for you."

Leon gave her his usual suspicious look, eyes slightly narrowed, like he was trying to decide whether he was being messed with or if this was somehow genuine.

"A present…?" he asked cautiously, without enthusiasm.

Instead of answering, Valeria's smile grew even sweeter, the kind that immediately suggested this was neither simple nor innocent. She tilted her head slightly, clearly enjoying herself.

"One you'll really like," she drawled. "It's very nice. And… hmm… extremely useful for someone at your level."

That was enough to spark Leon's curiosity faster than his reason could stop it. After everything that had happened, the word "useful" carried very real weight.

He frowned lightly and asked directly.

"So what is it?"

Valeria raised a finger and pressed it to her lips, silencing him with the gesture. Then she turned slightly to the side, as if thinking deeply, her tone shifting to something more contemplative.

"You know…" she said slowly. "I'm not even sure you deserve it."

Leon's face darkened almost instantly, the corners of his mouth pulling into a sour grimace. A very specific thought crossed his mind, since when the hell did you have to earn a gift, especially after everything he'd just been through?

Valeria glanced at him, noticed the expression, and smiled even wider, clearly entertained by his reaction. Her eyes gleamed, like she'd just had a brilliant idea.

She turned back to face him and said calmly, with an innocent expression completely at odds with her words:

"You know what…" She paused briefly. "If you pat me on the head and call me a good girl… I'll give you the present."