Chapter 445
Chapter Title: An Unfamiliar Calamity
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445.
Leo sat on the rooftop of the hotel, gazing up at the night sky.
The stars filling the night sky seemed to shine exceptionally bright tonight.
After watching the stars in silence, Leo lowered his gaze.
He could see Chelsea sitting alone in the hotel garden, lost in thought.
Just then.
"Pant! Pant!"
Ar-on appeared beside him, breathing heavily.
"Did Ar chase you or something?"
"I-It was scary!"
Ar-on shuddered in response to Leo's question.
"How long are you going to tremble in fear every time she loses it?"
"B-But...! Just now was scarier than anything before!"
"What, did you tell Ar that you think of her as your successor?"
"Yeah."
"Then it makes sense she'd raise hell."
Leo clicked his tongue, having anticipated Ar's reaction.
As Ar-on looked at Leo with a grimace, he spotted Chelsea lost in thought in the garden.
"Ah, it's Chelsea."
Ar-on said, sitting on the roof with a pleased expression.
"Leo, I think Chelsea..."
"You mean she seems to have noticed something?"
"So you knew."
"She's been acting strange since this afternoon."
Leo said, recalling how Chelsea had suddenly started watching him cautiously.
"I suppose I have been treating you a bit too casually."
"Should I have been a little more careful?"
As Ar-on scratched his cheek, Leo replied with an indifferent expression.
"Even if you were careful, you're terrible at acting. You'd just be awkward and she'd look at you even more strangely."
Leo could treat Ar-on like the Brave Hero any time he wanted.
But if Leo did that, Ar-on would surely slip up.
*'He'd probably get flustered and embarrassed, then start rambling.'*
Ar-on scratched his head at Leo's words.
Then he looked at Chelsea and said.
"Do you think she's figured out Kyle's identity?"
"She can't be completely sure. It's impossible by common sense."
The god he met in Luna's world.
Even Pivua had found Leo's reincarnation fascinating.
Even in this age of countless miracles, reincarnation was hard to imagine.
In response to Leo, Ar-on said.
"I'd rather Chelsea find out that you're Kyle."
"Why?"
"If she learns you're Kyle, that girl will be a source of strength for you."
"A source of strength, huh."
"The Kyle of now, you're like Lisinas."
"Lisinas?"
"Yes. You're carrying the world on your shoulders."
Ar-on tore his gaze from Chelsea and looked up at the night sky.
"But even Lisinas back then didn't carry everything alone. You, Luna, Dweno... Many people, drawn to Lisinas's light, supported him."
"Why are you leaving yourself out?"
Ar-on gave a bitter smile at Leo's words and continued.
"You're trying to take responsibility for everything by yourself, aren't you? Melina knows your secret, but I think you need more people to support you right now."
Ar-on smiled brightly.
"Chelsea is a smart and kind girl. She'll definitely be a great help to you."
"I suppose so."
Leo let out a small laugh.
"But not now."
"Why? Don't you trust Chelsea?"
"No, I trust her. I got an earful from that old geezer in Dweno's world."
"From Dweno?"
"Yeah. He told me to trust the future I chose."
"That sounds like Dweno."
Ar-on nodded.
"So I decided to trust. But she's still young. It won't be too late for her to learn about me when she's ready to stand on the same stage."
At that answer, Ar-on looked at Leo in silence.
"What?"
"No, it's just that Lisinas said something similar to me once."
"Lisinas did?"
"Yes. On the night of my first battle after joining the party."
"The look on his face back then was something else."
Leo chuckled.
In his first battle, Ar-on, still a boy, had hidden behind Lisinas in fear.
He possessed great power, but at the time, Ar-on was inexperienced.
"Was Lisinas's expression strange then?"
"You don't remember?"
Leo smirked.
"Lisinas had high hopes for you back then. I was cynical even before joining, so I didn't expect anything. And Luna, who we'd just recruited, was a tomboy."
Lisinas's expectations for the boy who joined on the recommendation of the noble hero, the Guardian of the Azure Sky, were immense.
"But the look on his face when you hid behind him in fear... He was on the verge of tears."
It was the first and last time Leo had ever seen such an expression on him.
"So that's why Luna was laughing so hard."
Ar-on scratched his cheek, recalling the sound of Luna's cackling laughter.
"What did you and Lisinas talk about that night?"
"I apologized. For running away. But Lisinas told me this."
*'It's okay. You're still young. It's not too late to be brave once you're ready to take the stage.'*
Ar-on said, remembering how Lisinas had encouraged him with a gentle smile.
"Those words gave me great courage."
"Sounds like him."
"Right?"
Ar-on burst into laughter.
"Though I was never ready in the end."
"Hey, Ar-on. If you keep..."
Leo was about to speak with a frown.
-Leo. Ar-on.
Melina's voice echoed in their minds.
"What's wrong?"
-An unusual situation has developed at the training grounds.
"An unusual situation? What's happening?"
Leo asked, narrowing his eyes.
-Large numbers of demonic beasts and monsters have started to appear.
***
*Fwoosh-!*
Lis raised his sword.
Intense flames erupted from the blade, wrapping around it.
Holding the sword high, Lis plunged it into the ground.
*Whoosh-!*
A ring of fire formed around Lis, expanding into a massive circle that swept across the area.
*Kwoooaaaah!*
*Kraaaaaaaah!*
The agonized screams of demonic beasts echoed out.
After incinerating all the demonic beasts in the vicinity, Lis withdrew his sword.
*'The presence of demonic beasts is still overwhelming.'*
Despite wiping them out with a wide-area attack, the rate at which they appeared showed no sign of slowing.
*'What in the world is going on? Did a Legion Commander invade?'*
The appearance of these demonic beasts was anything but ordinary.
At first, only low-level monsters and demonic beasts appeared.
But the rank of the creatures emerging kept rising.
The atmosphere was ominous.
*'At this rate, it wouldn't be strange if demons showed up.'*
It was believable enough to say that Tartaros itself was making a large-scale move.
However, no demons had actually appeared.
*'Could a Hero Record in the area have gone berserk?'*
Just a short while ago.
There had been a large-scale Hero Dungeon outbreak.
That's why the suspicion arose.
After a moment of thought, Lis shook his head.
*'No, this area is managed by a Dragon Lord.'*
With Melina around, a Hero Dungeon would have been discovered long ago.
*'On top of that, Lord Ar-on is here too.'*
Lis tightened his grip on his sword.
*'In any case, stopping these demonic beasts is the priority right now.'*
"Lis!"
Torua's voice called out.
"Up there!"
Torua urgently pointed to the sky.
His eyes twitched at the sight of the wyvern-like magical beasts that had appeared.
Magical beasts in the form of black-scaled drakes.
It was the first time Lis had seen one in person.
But he knew what it was.
*'Fafnir.'*
The most threatening magical beast from the Age of Calamity.
A beast that had been completely subjugated and driven to extinction by the Great Heroes.
However, it had recently appeared several times in the present day, and research was underway.
And now, even Fafnirs had appeared.
"It'll be a disaster if they attack the first-years! Torua!"
"Leave it to me!"
Torua summoned a magic staff, mounted it, and flew swiftly into the sky.
*Vwoom!*
A magic circle formed around Torua's entire body.
Runic words flowed ceaselessly from her lips.
Finally, upon reaching the Fafnir squadron, Torua unleashed her spell.
"Annihilation."
*Flash-!*
***
"Annihilation?!"
"Could it be one of the graduated seniors?"
"To use an Annihilation spell of that scale... Amazing."
The Seirun students holding back the monsters watched with awe as the spell illuminated the area as if it were broad daylight.
Meanwhile.
Juen, who was hunting magical beasts with magic bullets, paused and muttered.
"Doesn't seem like an elf."
"It's not an elf."
Leah, who was casting spells next to Juen, also perked up her ears.
"It's star magic, cast by a human."
"Hmph, then there's only one mage capable of casting magic like that."
Juen grinned.
"It's my sister, Torua!"
"That's incredible."
Leah said in pure admiration.
The other Seirun students who overheard the conversation widened their eyes.
"I'd love to hear her speak about star magic sometime."
Just as Leah was expressing her admiration.
*Guooooooooh!*
A giant ogre let out a roar and charged.
Seeing this, just as Leah was about to use magic.
*Fwoosh-!*
A golden flash erupted, and in the same instant, Aina sent the ogre's head flying.
*Slice-!* The severed head shot into the sky.
A terrifyingly fast and sharp sword strike.
But the ogre, with its tenacious life force, charged toward the first-years as if to kill one more person before it died.
"As expected of an ogre. So persistent."
Just as Leah was about to unleash her magic.
*Flash-!*
This time, a silver flash flew in and bisected the headless ogre at the waist.
"Ooh, amazing."
"He's small but strong."
"As expected of the Lumerne student representative!"
As the other students admired Luke.
"Luke Elda! Who said you could steal my kill?!"
"Eek?!"
Leah's eyes blazed as she shrieked.
"Why do you lose it whenever you see Luke?"
"Because he dared to have Senior Leo as his mentor! Before me!"
"You're trying to tear him apart for a reason like that?"
Just as Juen was looking utterly dumbfounded.
*Rumble-rumble-rumble-!*
The ground shook violently.
The first-years staggered.
"This earthquake is much worse than the last one."
Juen said with a surprised look.
***
Leo narrowed his eyes as he arrived in the Flove family's territory through a warp gate opened by Melina.
Ar-on casually waved his hand at the demonic beasts that were roaring and charging at them.
*Fwoosh-!*
Golden aura shot from Ar-on's fingertips, tearing the demonic beasts to shreds.
"Ar-on, do you smell any demons?"
Ar-on shook his head at Leo's question.
"No. Only the scent of magical beasts and monsters."
"What in the world is going on?"
*'After hearing from Melina, I thought the Necro King might have made a move, but it seems that's not it.'*
It wasn't any of the other Legion Commanders, either.
There was no way the demons could escape Ar-on's sense of smell or his perception.
*Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-!*
Just then.
The ground began to shake violently.
*'An earthquake?'*
The earthquake was powerful.
*Crack-!*
The earth trembled fiercely.
So much so that the ground began to split open.
*'The Flove territory isn't a region where earthquakes of this magnitude occur.'*
The Delard Kingdom's tectonic plates are extremely stable.
The earth spirits and the fire spirits dwelling in the magma below are all docile.
For an earthquake like this to happen was strange.
*Rumble-rumble-rumble-!*
The shaking of the earth stopped.
*'Could this abnormal situation be related to the earthquake?'*
As Leo frowned.
"Huh?"
Ar-on's bewildered voice was heard.
"What is it?"
"There's a smell."
"A smell?"
"A stench I've smelled before."
Ar-on looked down at the ground with a hardened expression.
A stench that assaulted his sensitive nose.
It was like smoldering ashes.
"...It's the same smell from Fairy Land... the scent that the fragment of Erebos gave off."
"What?"
Leo's face hardened.
"But... it's not just the smell of ash, Kyle."
Ar-on's face turned pale.
"It's burning."