Chapter 477
Chapter Title: Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning
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477.
Spiritmancer.
It meant one who summoned heroic spirits to wield the power they possessed in life.
People often mistake heroic spirits for the souls themselves.
But a heroic spirit was not a soul in the purest sense.
*A heroic spirit is like a memory dwelling within mana.*
Every living being harbors mana.
By training that mana, and depending on the nature of the vessel that contains it, it divides into Aura, magic, and spiritual power.
When a life ends, its mana returns to nature.
And that mana then dwells in another life.
But the mana of one who possessed great power in life retains a trace of that person.
*And reading the memory of that trace, then manifesting it with spiritual power—that is a heroic spirit.*
The fundamental principle of necromancy was the same.
Using the lingering thoughts in a corpse to resurrect it as one of the dead.
A corpse was used because, as the physical vessel during life, it held more potent lingering thoughts.
However, the Necro King could revive the dead using only the soil from where the body was buried, even if the corpse itself was gone.
Tiar, the Iron-Blooded Sorceress, had been revived in that same way.
Leo looked at Tiar.
The ancient memories shown by Lisinas's spiritual power, and the voice he had just heard.
*The awakening of Spiritmancy.*
He could only attribute it to the influence of Lisinas's power, gained from conquering the World of Heroes.
And that power was now telling him to save the elf before him.
“Honestly. Same as always.”
Leo let out a hollow laugh and approached Tiar.
The elf before him was a powerhouse, incomparable to the heroes of the Justice Guild.
Moreover, she had become one of the dead who hated the world itself.
*It’s not easy to just destroy the body and send it back to where it belongs.*
Leo drew his sword.
*Asking me to subdue her and save her soul.*
A Spiritmancer can sublimate the lingering spirit within an undead into a heroic spirit.
The problem was that it was extremely difficult.
*SHe really only asks for the difficult things. That damn lizard.*
Despite his grumbling, Leo burst into laughter.
“Well, then.”
*Step— Step—*
“Let's hear what kind of story made you so full of resentment, shall we?”
*CRUUUUNCH—!*
As Leo approached, the ground around Tiar instantly turned to iron.
Leo put strength into his sword.
*SLICE—!*
He bisected the giant blade descending upon him.
But Tiar’s attack didn’t end there.
*WHOOSH—!*
Countless red magic circles materialized in the air.
With them, a red liquid poured down.
Leo’s eyes narrowed.
*The smell of blood.*
The magic Tiar created was like a rain of blood.
This was why she was known as the Iron-Blooded Sorceress.
She primarily used magic that required blood and iron as catalysts.
For that reason, she was the most powerful sorceress on the battlefield.
Even without preparing catalysts, the battlefield was always overflowing with materials she could use.
She used the blood from enemy corpses to make them explode and the iron from their weapons to tear them apart.
It was, quite literally, a magic of mass slaughter that shone brightest on the battlefield.
*FWOOSH—*
Flames of Aura flickered on Leo’s sword.
“Piora.”
*WHOOOOOSH—!*
Piora’s fire fused with the Aura’s flames, erupting in an even more intense blaze.
*BOOOOOOM—!*
Fiery sword strikes swept through the air.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
The net-like slashes completely pulverized the rain of blood.
With it, a colossal explosion that seemed to tear the very sky asunder shook the earth.
By Leo’s standards, that wasn’t the problem.
*This magic deviates from the essence of Star Magic.*
Star Magic was created by Luna for the purpose of making flowers bloom.
It might not sound like much, but the magic Luna created to make flowers bloom was in the realm of the ‘Creation of Life.’
In other words, it was magic that had entered the domain of the gods.
Remembering his friend who had stepped into the domain of gods for the trivial reason of wanting to see some flowers, Leo lowered his stance.
Though ostracized in elven society for her unconventional magic, she was also hailed as a hero and benefactor among humans.
Because she had saved many of them from Tartaros.
This was also one of the reasons the elves shunned the Iron-Blooded Sorceress even more.
*He’d heard that it was a time of racial war between humans and elves.*
Although a hero praised by humans, the magic of iron and blood was shunned even in human magic societies.
Using this magic on anyone other than demons was punishable.
It was simply too cruel.
Therefore, the magic of iron and blood was only permitted for use against demons.
*It’s certainly at a level where being called a heretic among elves wouldn’t be strange.*
From Leo’s perspective, it felt like magic that directly contradicted Luna’s will.
After all, Star Magic was imbued with the warm heart of Luna, who loved flowers.
*RUMBLE— CLANK—!*
The magic Tiar conjured created giant iron chains.
Red magical power imbued the chains.
*CRUUUSH—!*
The red magical power rotated, tearing apart everything the chains touched.
*You couldn’t create magic like this unless you spent your time pondering how to kill your opponent more painfully.*
Leo narrowed his eyes.
It exuded so much killing intent and cruelty that you’d believe it was black magic.
*WHOOSH—!*
Using Aura Step, Leo closed in on Tiar.
*CRACK—!*
The entire surrounding area was destroyed.
Leo dodged the bundle of chains trying to coil around him like a snake.
*It’s not just magic that creates chains to exert physical force. It’s also overlaid with something like a curse.*
Analyzing the magic, Leo moved closer to Tiar.
Then, he heard Tiar’s soft murmuring.
“It can’t be! They can’t be as vile as I am!”
An anguished voice rang out.
“I apologize, great progenitor of the nebula. Do not forgive me.”
She was apologizing to Luna, forcing the words out.
“But. I couldn’t forgive them, I hate them!”
Watching Tiar clutch her head and reveal her malice, Leo thought.
*If it were Luna, how would she have judged this magic?*
She probably would have been horrified.
*She would have been shocked, wondering how such magic could exist.*
*Tap—*
Leo closed the distance with Tiar even more.
Then, the iron-blood magic completely enveloped him.
*WHOOM—!*
Instantly, a magic circle appeared on Leo’s body.
Leo analyzed the magic formula in a flash.
*SHATTER—!*
The formula deployed by the Iron-Blooded Sorceress was destroyed, and the magic was dispelled.
But the undead Iron-Blooded Sorceress, without panicking, prepared her next spell.
Before she could, Leo grabbed the Iron-Blooded Sorceress by the neck.
*GRAB—!*
Leo roused his Star Magic and suppressed the Iron-Blooded Sorceress’s magic.
*RUUUUMBLE—!*
The collision of immense magical powers shook the very foundations of the earth.
Immense pain assailed him from the magical clash.
However, Leo paid it no mind and roused his spiritual power.
No matter how powerful a Spiritmancer is, recklessly making contact with an undead is dangerous.
One wrong move and you could be directly exposed to the lingering thoughts of the undead.
Besides, his opponent was a hero.
Directly accepting the lingering thoughts emitted by such a being could destroy one’s mind.
“Aaaaaah!”
Tiar clutched her head and let out a pain-filled scream.
Looking at Tiar, Leo smiled.
“I’m not ignoring the suffering you’ve been through, but I’ve had it a bit too hard to be swayed by someone else’s suffering.”
*THUD—!*
Leo forcefully pulled Tiar and pressed his forehead against hers.
“Sorry, but I’m going to take a look at your memories.”
*FLASH—!*
A bright light burst forth from between their touching foreheads.
At the same time, Tiar’s memories were transmitted to him.
It was the source of her hatred.
Tiar as a young girl, wearing the Seirun Academy uniform.
She lost her family, loved ones, and friends all to Tartaros.
Burning with vengeance, she created the iron-blood magic and was banished from elven society.
But even then, she didn’t stop.
She wandered the continent, hunting Tartaros.
The ones who took her in were the humans.
She fought endlessly against Tartaros in human territory.
But the continuous battles exhausted her.
In her later years, she stayed in this northeastern region to spend the rest of her life.
The Iron-Blooded Sorceress, who had retired to a small village, could have simply vanished into the annals of history.
But not long after, the village she had settled in was destroyed overnight.
The culprits were the Monster Queen’s legion.
But the continent’s northeast was not the Monster Queen’s legion’s area of activity.
The ones who drew the demons in were none other than the elves, who were hostile to humans at the time.
To inflict damage on the humans encroaching on their territory.
And also to solve a nuisance, they lured the Monster Queen’s legion to the northeast.
She lost everything to Tartaros and lived crazed with revenge, even while being ostracized by her own kind.
In the end, she just wanted to rest in peace.
But what pushed her into tragedy until the very end were her own people.
Everything that had last touched her heart turned to ash.
The target of Tiar’s hatred, in the end, was the elves.
*But it seems she couldn’t bring herself to take revenge on her own kind.*
And so, Tiar died harboring that hatred.
And 1,000 years later, she was resurrected by the Necro King’s hand as one of the dead who thought only of revenge.
Tiar’s heart was screaming.
To kill all the elves right now.
*And yet, she’s hesitating.*
She was suppressing her hatred with her own will.
She was resisting her own instincts, resurrected by vengeance.
That was possible because she was denying herself, who had risen to the rank of hero for the sake of revenge.
She regretted for her whole life having twisted the magic inherited from Luna into this due to her thirst for revenge.
The iron-blood magic was clearly a perversion that denied and blasphemed Luna’s will.
If Luna were to see this magic, she would never look upon it favorably.
*Still…*
*‘Magic is like an expression of emotion, a way to express one’s heart.’*
That was Luna’s philosophy.
If Luna had seen Tiar, she would have surely said this.
*‘You must have had a hard time. So it’s okay not to apologize.’*
She would have sincerely comforted Tiar.
Even if her own magic was denied and blasphemed as a sorceress.
Because that was proof of how much the other person had suffered.
She would have embraced her instead.
*Because that’s the kind of person she was.*
She would have felt genuinely sorry for this elf who lived such an unhappy life.
“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!”
“You must have suffered.”
At Leo’s words, imbued with spiritual power, Tiar’s movements stopped dead.
It was not simple consolation.
It was an understanding that only one who had experienced endless suffering could offer.
“Don’t blame yourself. Luna would surely not have blamed you.”
Tiar’s body trembled.
“Don’t suffer. You’ve already suffered enough.”
*WHOOSH—!*
Lisinas’s spiritual power added strength to every word Leo spoke.
It pushed back the Necro King’s profane black magic.
At that moment.
*FWOOOSH—!*
Black flames erupted fiercely from Tiar’s body.
As if it could not tolerate Tiar’s salvation.
It blazed fiercely, as if to burn the saved soul to ashes.
*So the Necro King has become able to use the power of Erebos’s fragment.*
Leo smiled coldly.
*Too bad for you.*
*WHOOSH—!*
Gray spiritual power burst from Leo’s hand.
It was none other than Leo’s own spiritual power.
The only natural enemy of the Calamity Flames.
Pure mana.
*FLASH—!*
The black flames vanished by Leo’s power.
*Swoosh—*
The body of the dead turned to dust and trickled away.
As if a shell were being shed.
In the place where the dead had vanished, there was now a single, dazed heroic spirit.
Seeing this, Leo dusted off his hands and clicked his tongue.
“The Necro King. That son of a bitch’s actions are as vile as ever.”
[Who… are you?]
Tiar asked in a trembling voice.
As a heroic spirit, she instinctively realized.
That the being before her was a hero of a much higher class, incomparable to herself.
“Me?”
Leo answered calmly to Tiar, who was looking up at him with trembling eyes.
“Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning.”