Chapter 492
Chapter Title: Reunion
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Shlick- Shlick- Shlick-!
Leo irritably gripped Eljenie's head, sawing at her neck.
Screaming from the pain in her neck, Eljenie's eyes met Leo's for an instant.
An impassive face, devoid of all emotion.
Paired with dull, crimson eyes.
Seeing him, Eljenie felt goosebumps crawl all over her skin.
"Kieeeeeeeeeeek! Gack!"
The scream pouring from Eljenie's mouth was cut short.
What silenced her was none other than the sword Leo had been using to saw at her neck.
"You're noisy. Stop barking."
"Gack! Gurg! Gurg!"
Shunk-!
Leo annoyedly put more force into the sword he'd shoved into Eljenie's mouth.
The blade pierced through her mouth, burst out the back of her neck, and dug deeper into her flesh.
Gushing blood and choking, Eljenie's blood-red eyes flashed dangerously.
Flash-! Krakoooom-!
A red flash erupted from the blood Eljenie had spewed, causing a massive explosion.
A colossal explosion that shook the very earth.
From within the soaring, dark red flames and smoke, Eljenie staggered out, clutching her neck.
"Hahaha! You foolish whelp! Do you have any idea who I am?!"
Eljenie sneered as she gazed at the burning, blood-colored flames.
"I am the Queen of Blood! My very blood is a powerful weapon! A power that even heroes fear! Serves you right! Ahahaha!"
She panted, her eyes bloodshot, and relentlessly mocked Leo.
Eljenie was talking more than necessary.
It was a desperate struggle to escape her fear.
As a demon, she had always lived as a being of terror.
Powerful enough to become a Legion Commander, Eljenie had been a mighty demon from birth.
She had fought on countless battlefields and battled many heroes in the process.
Eljenie had rarely ever been in the position of the weak.
Among her enemies, there had been some too powerful for her to handle.
But she could say with certainty that none could kill her as if swatting a bug, like he had just tried to do.
The aura Leo exuded wasn't simply that of an overwhelmingly strong opponent or a hunter.
'He was like a butcher.'
Just as Eljenie found herself unable to escape the fear of Leo that had been branded into her in that brief moment.
Fwoosh-!
"......!"
The blood-red flames flickered and began to gather in one spot.
Whoosh-!
Despite being engulfed in the powerful explosion and flames, there wasn't a single scorch mark on Leo's body.
Fwoosh-!
Leo, who had been looking down at the flame of Eljenie's blood burning on his palm, raised his head.
"The more I look at this, the more irritating it gets."
"What did you say?"
"Are you from the Demon Queen's legion?"
"How did you know...?!"
Eljenie flinched at Leo's words.
The Legion Commanders of Tartaros were beings who led the demons.
In the process, they sometimes created their own underlings.
And the traits of the demons they created reflected the characteristics of their Legion Commander.
The killing intent in Leo's eyes grew even colder.
This was the place where Luna had closed her eyes long ago.
He could not tolerate a demon setting foot in such a place.
Especially a demon from 5,000 years ago.
Even more so if it was a demon related to the Demon Queen, who shared a deep, ill-fated history with Luna.
Fwoosh-!
The blood flame burning in Leo's hand began to blaze crimson.
"Purgatory."
Leo completed the incantation.
The flames of Purgatory, created with Star Magic.
It was the highest-tier spell in the fire lineage of Star Magic that Luna had perfected.
Of course, if one included the Flame Emperor spell that Lunia had mastered, the strongest fire magic of the Star Magic system would be Flame Emperor, but sadly, it was a spell Luna had not completed in her lifetime.
Therefore, based on the standard of completed magic, Purgatory was the strongest in the fire lineage of Star Magic.
And Purgatory was a kind of lesser version of Flame Emperor, created during the experimental process to perfect it.
However....
'Flame Emperor was a spell Luna researched to kill Erebos.'
Leo gazed at the Purgatory flames blazing in his hand.
Though it fell short of Flame Emperor, for demons—not a divine being like Erebos—it was a spell of terrifying firepower.
Moreover.
'It's the natural enemy of demons who wield flames.'
Purgatory was the flame of purification.
It was a spell that exerted a fatal power against flame-wielding demons.
Whoosh-!
Purgatory was enchanted onto Leo's sword.
"Leo... Young Master?"
Chen Xia called out to him cautiously.
He was different from the Leo she knew.
"Are you angry?"
Leo turned to the worried Chen Xia and spoke with a slightly bitter smile.
"Will you two wait here?"
Leo looked back at his sword.
"This isn't a side of me I particularly want to show you."
It was then.
Unable to bear the sight of Leo any longer, Eljenie fled.
She knew instinctively.
The boy before her was a monster.
The moment Leo tried to pursue Eljenie, a gate opened and monsters poured out.
As Leo scowled at the sight.
"Go, Lord Leo."
Eiran said, drawing her sword.
"Will you be okay?"
"You can't forgive this, can you? A demon setting foot in the place where Lady Luna rests."
Eiran spoke with eyes sharper than usual.
"I can't forgive it either. I will cut down these hideous monsters."
At Eiran's words, Chen Xia raised her hand.
"I don't know the full situation... but from the moment I decided to follow you, Young Master Leo, I never once thought of holding you back."
Chen Xia smiled brightly.
"If Miss Eiran and I join forces, we can definitely handle monsters like these. Don't worry, and please take care of that Legion Commander."
"Are you sure?"
"Compared to you, Young Master Leo, we are still lacking. But please don't think of us as people who always need protecting. You told Duran this during combat class, right? That you'd be waiting at the top."
Chen Xia beamed.
"I want to stand on the same stage as you, Young Master Leo. I'll do my best to catch up. So please, trust us."
"Me too, Lord Leo!"
Leo stared intently at the two of them, speaking with such determination.
Then, he let out a dry laugh.
"Kids grow up so fast."
Watching the two girls grow faster than he'd expected, Leo moved forward.
"Alright then. I'm counting on you."
Using Aura Step, Leo pursued Eljenie at incredible speed.
"Let's go, Miss Xia!"
Eiran, armed with the shield made by Erquint and Dweno, charged forward enthusiastically before faltering.
"Miss Xia?"
Eiran was taken aback, seeing Chen Xia's slightly disgruntled expression.
"If he knows we're growing up fast, I wish he'd see me as a woman, at least a little."
***
Leo tore through the forest at tremendous speed, chasing Eljenie.
The time Leo had been held up by the legion Eljenie summoned wasn't long.
However, even that short amount of time was more than enough for a powerful demon of a Legion Commander's rank to escape.
'If it were an ordinary opponent, that is.'
Leo narrowed his eyes.
His awakened extrasensory perception keenly scanned the surroundings.
During the height of the Age of Calamity.
The Great Heroes, who had subjugated countless demons, had at some point become objects of terror to them.
Among them, the one the demons feared the most was none other than Kyle, the Surviving Hero.
The reason was simple.
'Because I was the one who killed demons most cruelly.'
He was the one who had executed traitors, showing a brutal hand in the process.
There was no reason to show mercy to the demons, the fundamental enemy who had driven the world to ruin.
And through his long life as a mercenary, Leo knew well.
That there was no better way to make a battle easier than to instill fear.
Demons and monsters were living creatures, too.
As such, they possessed fear.
Any demon who had faced Leo even once and survived felt immense terror.
Clack-!
Leo readjusted his grip on his sword.
In that instant, he threw the sword as if it were a javelin.
Thwack-!
"Kuheok!"
The sword, flying at incredible speed, embedded itself in Eljenie's back.
"H-how...?!"
"You'd be better off giving up on running."
Thump-!
Leo gripped the sword.
"Because the only demon who ever successfully escaped after I decided to kill them on the battlefield was Silatuna."
"Grk! What nonsense...!"
Shriiik-!
"Kyaaaaaaak!"
As Leo swung the sword upward, Eljenie's body was brutally torn apart.
Thwack-! Crack! Shrrrk-!
Leo's sword strikes sliced through Eljenie's body at incredible speed.
"Stop... just stop! You lowly creatureeeeeee!"
Flailing in immense pain, blood sprayed from Eljenie's body like buckshot.
Krakakakakaboom-!
Anything the fragments of blood touched erupted in massive explosions.
But Leo remained completely unharmed by Eljenie's attack.
Crunch-!
"Kihek!"
Instead, he was faster, crushing Eljenie's head under his foot.
Crack- Crack-!
The caved-in head regenerated at an incredible speed.
Leo kicked her away.
Eljenie, who had tumbled wretchedly across the ground, struggled back to her feet.
"How...?!"
"It's not like I've only killed one or two demons."
Leo smiled coldly.
"I've caught so many of you freaks with all sorts of bizarre powers that I'm sick of it. Most of you just rely on your innate strength."
After answering, Leo's sword flashed.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaak!"
Slash! Shlick-! Thud!
Leo's sword thoroughly butchered Eljenie.
Thoroughly tortured by Leo to the brink of death, Eljenie trembled as her body regenerated.
"You bastard! Why! Why are you doing this to me?!"
Looking at the seething, irrational Eljenie, Leo spoke.
"Do you demons have a reason for trying to destroy the world?"
Eljenie was speechless.
"It's the same thing. Me cruelly killing you, a demon."
Leo said with a cold sneer.
"You... just what are you?!"
"Leo Flove. Didn't you hear about me from the Necromancer King?"
"Leo Flove?"
Eljenie's face turned deathly pale.
She had heard about him from the Necromancer King.
That if she ever encountered him, survival would be difficult, so she should avoid confrontation if possible.
Until then, Eljenie and the other Legion Commanders couldn't understand.
They had doubted why they should fear a mere human, a young boy at that, even if he was a hero.
But now, facing him, she understood the Necromancer King's meaning.
"Anyway, you're weak for a Legion Commander. He must have a lot on his plate."
Leo instantly noticed that the Legion Commander before him was one of the weaker ones.
Even Kigoros, the Cursed King, the Legion Commander who had been revived before, wasn't this weak.
Kigoros at that time wasn't at his full power, but he was still strong enough to be worthy of the title of Legion Commander.
"Did you take Silatuna's place after she disappeared? No wonder you're pathetic."
At Leo's scorn, Eljenie's shoulders trembled.
"How dare... a mere human look down on me?"
"Not something someone unworthy of being a Legion Commander should say."
Leo raised his empty hand.
With a surge of powerful magic, Cometes was summoned.
Ruuuuuumble-!
Powerful Star Magic surged.
"Give up."
Leo sneered.
"It'll be easier if you do."
A flame of Purgatory, incomparably more powerful than before, blazed to life.
Ruuuuuumble-!
Eljenie's face grew paler and paler.
At that moment.
Vmmm-!
"...?"
Cometes reacted.
Flash-!
'What is this?'
Suddenly, Lisinas's spiritual power surged in Leo's hand.
Cometes was reacting to Lisinas's spiritual power.
Vmmm-! Vmmm-!
'Luna's magic dwelling in Cometes is resonating?'
The moment Leo was startled by the power escaping his control.
Crumble-!
Cometes turned into particles of light.
"What?"
Leo hastily reached out for Cometes.
But he couldn't grasp Cometes, which had become particles of light.
Seeing this, Leo was horrified.
'The retrieval function in Cometes?'
In life, Luna had a strong attachment to the staves she used.
Just like a knight collecting armaments.
Luna also had a hobby of collecting powerful magic staves.
Her attachment to her possessions was so strong that she had even engraved a retrieval magic formula on her staves.
It was a function that, quite literally, only the owner could use.
Not just Leo, but even Seirun would be unable to use that magic.
'There is only one person who can use it.'
Just as Leo wore a bewildered expression.
Fwoooooosh-!
"Wh-what is this?"
Eljenie's body began to burn.
Eljenie's bewildered face was suddenly painted with ecstasy.
"Aah... power...! Such power!"
The blood-red flames soon turned into black flames.
Eljenie trembled with a sense of omnipotence she had never felt before.
"Aah! I can hear it! I can hear it!"
Clutching her head, her eyes rolling back, Eljenie shouted in a trembling voice.
"The voice of a god... the voice of a great god! The god desires it!"
Having lost her sanity, Eljenie's eyes gleamed crazily as she lunged at Leo.
"Kyle, the Surviving Hero! Your death!"
At the sudden change in atmosphere, Leo narrowed his eyes and raised his sword.
Shlick-!
Eljenie's head flew through the air.
Leo had seen something similar to this before.
'The shade of Erebos.'
It resembled the shade of Erebos he had met at the place of his death.
The fact that Eljenie, who had been calling him Leo Flove, suddenly called him Kyle also seemed to be its influence.
Quickly grasping the situation, Leo readjusted his grip and was about to bring his sword down on Eljenie's torso.
Whoosh-!
Eljenie's body was engulfed in black flames and vanished.
Thunk-!
Leo, having struck nothing but the ground, exhaled.
'She got away.'
He couldn't even feel a trace of her presence.
She had completely disappeared.
Shing- Thack-!
Sheathing his sword and returning it to his subspace, Leo looked down at the back of the hand that had held Cometes.
A contract sigil had appeared there.
It wasn't for a spirit, nor for a phantom beast.
It was a type of contract sigil Leo had never obtained before.
'A Heroic Spirit Contract.'
The sigil of a Heroic Spirit Contract he had never made.
And feeling the faint Star Magic emanating from it, Leo felt his heart tremble.
Thud- Thud-
The entire forest had grown quiet.
The presence of the monsters he had felt just moments ago had vanished as if washed away.
Tearing his gaze from his hand, Leo surveyed the silent forest.
Then, he started walking in the direction Cometes had flown.
Thud- Thud- Thud-
The sound of his footsteps on fallen leaves and blooming flowers echoed quietly.
Rustle- Rustle-
Soon, the sound of his steps changed to that of treading on vibrant grass.
At that moment, Leo stopped walking.
'Magic?'
Leo's eyes widened as he saw the illusion magic spread out before him.
He didn't know who had cast it, but it was an illusion so powerful that even Leo had trouble seeing through it.
Leo reached out his hand.
The space shimmered, and a new area appeared.
Swoooosh-!
What appeared before his eyes were two gravestones.
His gaze fell upon a familiar one.
From 5,000 years ago.
The gravestone that he and Lisinas had made.
And next to it....
'My gravestone.'
It was the grave where Berkia and Vihar had buried his remains.
In front of Kyle's grave lay a familiar black dagger.
'Vihar's dagger?'
It was the dagger he had asked Dweno to make and had given to Vihar as a gift.
The moment Leo tried to approach the grave.
Vmmm-!
The Heroic Spirit Contract sigil on the back of his hand reacted.
Leo's gaze shifted to Luna's grave.
There, Cometes hovered, having become particles of light.
Within those particles of light, he could feel someone's distinct presence.
The moment he saw it, Leo felt a stir in his heart.
'What in the world is happening?'
The question arose in his mind.
But one thing was certain.
With a trembling hand, Leo reached out toward Cometes.
The moment he extended his hand to someone unseen.
Someone took Leo's hand.
And....
Whoosh-!
Flower petals swirled around them.
The particles of light gathered into one, slowly taking form.
But it was not the shape of a staff.
The cluster of light transformed into a human figure.
And soon, the light faded, revealing a beautiful elf, holding Leo's hand as she floated in the air.
Thinking it couldn't be, Leo gasped at the sight.
The body of the elf, Luna, who had been floating in the air, slowly descended and landed on the ground with a soft 'rustle'.
Leo, who stood frozen, still holding her hand, cautiously opened his mouth.
"Lu... na?"
At Leo's call, Luna's closed eyes fluttered.
Soon, golden eyes that shone like stars revealed themselves to the world.
Swoooosh- A gust of wind scattered her pale silver hair.
Her beautiful eyes, hazy as if just waking from a dream, soon found their focus.
Luna, who had been staring blankly up at Leo, smiled and answered his call.
"Yes, Kyle."