Chapter 393
Chapter Title: The Godslayer's Scent
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393.
Lisinas was walking through the study.
Just then, he heard an unfamiliar voice.
“The final expedition is about to begin.”
As if mesmerized by the woman's voice he'd never heard before, he headed toward the sound.
And where he arrived, he saw the figure of an elven woman.
Pale silver hair and golden eyes.
She was more beautiful than anyone Lisinas had ever met.
A shadow was cast over her face.
“Can we really do this?”
Her ears drooped with worry, her face filled with anxiety.
The moment he thought her expression seemed vaguely familiar.
“It's only natural for you to be worried.”
“Huh?”
At the voice that followed, Lisinas let out an involuntary gasp.
“But we're the only ones who can do this.”
The owner of the voice gently soothed the elven woman.
“I believe in you, who has overcome all the things that were once thought impossible.”
The black-haired woman wore a more trustworthy smile than anyone.
“I believe in us, who have walked this great journey together.”
She said in a tone filled with conviction.
“We will vanquish the primordial evil and save the world, without fail.”
Lisinas's eyes widened.
“Me?”
***
The desperate night passed.
An ominous dawn was breaking.
Lisinas opened his eyes.
‘A dream?’
It was a vivid dream that remained seared into his mind.
‘What kind of dream was that?’
He rose from his bed, recalling the elf from his dream.
‘I've never seen that woman before.’
It wasn't something from the past.
‘A prophetic dream?’
The thought crossed his mind, but he quickly shook his head.
Among those with special mana characteristics, some can foresee future events.
The most common form of this is the prophetic dream.
Lisinas also possessed a special mana characteristic, but it wasn't the ability to see the future.
‘I see things that have already happened in the past through spirit channeling.’
Among those talented in summoning, he was born with the gift of a spirit channeler, a talent only a very few possessed.
Spirits take many forms.
But their essence is one.
‘Fragments of memories held within mana.’
The more powerful the soul, the stronger the lingering scent it leaves on the mana it possessed in life.
A spirit channeler materializes that mana into spiritual power, manifesting the person's abilities and memories from when they were alive.
‘It was just a strange dream.’
Lisinas came to that conclusion.
And he approached the members of the expedition who were eating breakfast.
“Hey, Lisinas. I heard you went off on your own last night. Was there a fight? Kyle said you were just out on patrol, but I was worried.”
At Allox's question, Lisinas glanced at Leo, who was eating jerky.
‘Did Kyle not say anything?’
He recalled executing the traitors last night.
As far as Lisinas was concerned, he had only done what was necessary.
‘And yet, Kyle looked somewhat shocked.’
If Kyle was the hero who would save the world.
If he was the hero who would fulfill his long-cherished wish, Lisinas was willing to sacrifice himself for him.
“I sensed a suspicious presence, so I went to scout, but I didn't find anything.”
“Is that so?”
Allox nodded and turned away.
He took a seat for breakfast.
Rodia approached Lisinas and started a cheerful conversation.
‘Why did Lisinas choose the path of shadows?’
Watching them, Leo was lost in thought.
‘Did my presence cause some change in his state of mind?’
Things were flowing in a different direction from the memories he knew.
‘It's not like I know everything about Lisinas.’
Just as everyone has things they want to hide.
Lisinas must be the same.
In this era, Lisinas had led Kyle toward hope.
But he must have had his own anguish and pain that he never spoke of to Kyle.
‘I wanted to ease that burden, even if just a little.’
From Lisinas's perspective, he had just taken the first step.
But...
Leo knew the end of this journey.
Lisinas, who had just begun the story, and Leo, who had already completed it.
Their starting lines were not the same.
‘Just as I was captivated by the light that Lisinas showed me. Is Lisinas the one captivated this time?’
Perhaps that was why Lisinas was now making the choice that he himself had once made.
This was a story of the past, of bygone days.
Even if things changed now, the future would not.
After all, the World of Heroes was fake.
And whether it was leading people to hope in the light, or delivering despair to traitors in the darkness.
In the end, it was still Lisinas.
However.
‘...Is it really right to leave this version of Lisinas as he is?’
Leo watched Lisinas with slightly confused eyes.
***
“They're coming!”
“Mages and summoners! To the front!”
Keeeeeyaaaaaaaah!
Tense voices echoed among the expedition members as a swarm of top-tier demonic beasts, Paphnirs, appeared before them.
Paphnir.
One of the most dangerous demonic beasts during the Age of Calamity.
The Great Heroes had made a concerted effort to exterminate them, and by the end of the Age of Calamity, they were extinct, leaving no trace for future generations.
The most terrifying thing about the Paphnirs was their strength in aerial combat.
Nothing was more dreadful than having demonic beasts, on par with the top-tier phantom beast Wyvern, seize control of the skies.
While everyone wore tense expressions.
Leo stepped forward.
“Mages, prepare your spells.”
With those words, Leo bent his knees.
Aura gathered at Leo's feet.
Fwhoosh-!
He leaped, soaring into the sky at incredible speed.
Seeing this, the elven mage, Peric, felt his eye twitch.
“What is that technique? Is it magic?”
“No, that's... Aura!”
Allox exclaimed in admiration.
Aura Step.
A technique from the future, created through the study of Aura skills.
After Aura Step was developed, the battlefields of knights expanded beyond the ground to the sky and even the surface of water.
It was, quite literally, a revolution in Aura studies.
‘Even 5,000 years ago, during the Age of Calamity, there were those who could run through the sky using Aura, but it wasn't a common technique like it is now.’
It was something any second-year student in Lumerne's Knight Department could do, yet in this era, even those worthy of being called heroes couldn't perform it easily.
Running through the sky, Leo drew his sword.
‘Of course, just because they couldn't use Aura Step didn't mean the knights and warriors of this era were weak.’
Rumble-rumble-rumble-!
The earth trembled.
Craaack-!
Giant centipede monsters burst through the ground.
“Great Worms! Alene and I will handle these ground crawlers! You all take care of the flying pests in the sky!”
Allox grinned.
The Great Worm, with its tough exoskeleton, was a disastrous monster capable of devastating the surrounding area all on its own.
And not just one, but five of these Great Worms had appeared.
This was the heart of the Age of Calamity.
A place where such colossal threats were incessant.
But no one here would yield to a threat of this magnitude.
No, in fact, they didn't even bat an eye.
Whoom-!
As Alene took a step forward, a pure white summoning circle formed around her.
Flash-
With a brilliant light, the pegasus, Arpia, appeared.
-You called, my contractor.
“I'm counting on you, Arpia.”
-Leave it to me.
Fwoosh-!
The female knight, mounted on the pegasus, soared into the sky.
Hwoong-!
A spear was summoned into her white hands.
As a Pegasus Knight, she was the vanguard, taking the front line.
Whoom-!
White Aura erupted from Alene's spear.
“Hup-!”
Allox followed behind Alene.
He grabbed the giant battle-axe slung on his back with both hands and began to spin it.
A gust of wind swirled around the area.
“Here I goooooo!”
Allox, a bear beastman, roared as he kicked off the ground.
Craaack-!
His footprint was left on the earth, and the ground around it cracked.
Fwoosh-!
Becoming a cannonball of invisible physical force, Allox slammed his axe blade into the leading Great Worm.
Krrrrr-unch-!
His axe blade mercilessly split the Great Worm's body.
Splaash-!
Green blood splattered in all directions.
Sizzzzle-!
The highly toxic blood of the Great Worm melted the ground.
“Kuhahahahaha!”
Despite being covered in acidic blood, Allox laughed heartily as he continued to butcher the Great Worm's body.
As for the other Great Worms, Alene's thrusts pierced huge holes through their bodies.
While the two of them held off the Great Worms' attack.
In the sky, Leo was fending off the Paphnirs' massive assault.
Shlick-!
Slicing off the head of a Paphnir that tried to bite him, Leo dashed through the air as if it were solid ground.
Quickly, and decisively.
The entire Paphnir squadron was tied up by Leo alone.
Watching this, Peric, who was chanting a spell, clicked his tongue in amazement.
“He's gotten stronger!”
At those words, Rodia, who was watching Leo fight, shook her head.
‘No, if you compare him to the Lord Kyle of this era, the current Lord Kyle is probably much weaker.’
The Kyle from this time, at the beginning of the great journey, was also a possessor of overwhelming martial power.
He was a powerhouse on a level difficult to compare with Leo, who was still only in his mid-teens.
But despite that, the reason others thought Leo had gotten stronger was simple.
‘Experience.’
The experience of ending the Age of Calamity and saving the world was what made his current overwhelming combat prowess possible.
Meanwhile, Peric completed his spell.
“Saint Arrow.”
Flash-!
Countless arrows of light materialized in the sky.
As Leo quickly moved out of the spell's range, the arrows of light rained down on the Paphnirs.
As befitting the elf Lisinas had tried to recruit for the expedition, he was a mage of incredible skill.
Watching the scene, Rodia clenched her fists.
‘We can beat it.’
This World of Heroes, where she had failed countless times.
The final conquest was just around the corner.
***
Rumble-rumble-rumble-!
The earth trembled.
A giant serpent was devouring everything on the land.
Crunch-!
The hideous monster, which had been chewing on the head of a giant demonic beast, a Gigantes, raised its head.
Grrrrrrrrr-
The six eyes on its head.
A powerful killing intent emanated from them.
The King of Gluttony, Jormungandr, flared its nostrils.
-Strange.
With a somewhat irritated voice, Jormungandr slithered across the ground.
It was a monster that devoured everything.
Living creatures.
Sturdy castle walls.
Lush forests.
It even devoured bright light and hope, scattering darkness across the world.
This was why it was regarded as highly as the King of Command among the legion commanders of Tartaros.
The places where it devoured everything and scattered darkness became the domain of Erebos.
In other words, where it passed, Erebos would appear.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-!
Its body moved.
Its transcendent sense of smell had caught a horrifyingly ghastly scent from afar.
-I smell the blood shed by the Great Calamity.
All legion commanders drink the blood shed by the Calamity.
It is a baptism and an honor.
Therefore, Jormungandr had also smelled the blood of Erebos before.
But this scent was different from that.
It was the scent of one who seemed to have been drenched in the endless blood flowing from a god's sundered body.
-Yes, as if...
It had never smelled it before.
But if such a hateful being existed.
It would exude this kind of scent.
Jormungandr uttered the blasphemous word.
-Godslayer.