Chapter 543
Chapter Title: The Second Disciple
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543.
Leo glared at Ulein as if to kill him.
He could feel a magical power that transcended imagination.
Endless magical power.
For a moment, he saw a shadow of Luna in that display.
But Leo quickly shook his head.
‘Comparing him to Luna would be an insult to her.’
Luna’s magical power was achieved entirely through her own strength.
But the Ulein before him was different.
‘This is magical power that clearly exceeds his own vessel.’
He could clearly see the magic overflowing, unable to be contained by the vessel.
And that the source of that power was underground.
It wasn't difficult to realize what that power was.
Clear and transparent magical power.
‘Life force.’
It wasn't his own life force.
Leo's gaze shifted downward.
‘There are countless people in this underground space.’
And it was clear he was siphoning their life force to use as the source of his own magical power.
Leo focused magical power into his eyes.
Then, he could see the magical formula inscribed on Ulein's body.
“So it’s an innate magic.”
Surprise filled Ulein's eyes.
“A mana trait that allows you to use the mana of others.”
“Impressive.”
Ulein marveled at Leo, who had seen through not only his magic but also his mana trait, and then asked.
“What do you think of my magic, which has grasped infinite possibility?”
“You have the nerve to speak of possibility while you steal the power of others.”
“Possibility comes in many forms. Is it not our duty to reach our predecessors by using the best means at our disposal?”
Ulein spread his arms wide.
“Surely, even the inferior ones will rejoice in the fact that they are becoming the cornerstone of our journey toward the great predecessors.”
That kind of act was what Luna despised most in the world.
There is no meaning in a possibility gained by trampling on the potential of others.
But no matter how much one argued, they would never accept that unless Luna herself appeared before them.
“Conversation seems pointless.”
“How unfortunate.”
A sharp energy emanated from Leo's body.
Having entered the domain of hypersense, Leo quickly assessed the surrounding area.
Everything around him felt distinct and clear.
Leo honed his hypersense even further.
Stepping into the domain of hypersense created by Ar-on was an incredibly difficult feat.
But the true complexity of hypersense began the moment one stepped into that domain.
Ar-on had obtained mythical martial prowess through breathing and hypersense.
However, breathing and hypersense were abilities of a different nature.
If breathing was an ability that amplified power, hypersense was, quite literally, a concept of information.
The enemy's appearance.
The scent the enemy gave off.
The sound of the enemy's movements.
Hypersense was what allowed one to know all of that faster and in greater detail than others.
Information is a tremendous power.
But it is useless if one cannot utilize it.
Even Leo had gone through countless trials and errors before he could properly utilize the information gained through hypersense.
*Shk-!*
Leo extended his sword forward.
His senses were already sharp.
But he sharpened the information even further.
With that, everything around him began to move slowly.
A domain one could reach when hypersense was polished to its absolute limit.
And this was the final domain that Kyle had reached.
‘If you go one step beyond the slowing domain, things start to look like they've stopped.’
‘Is the future next?’
‘Something like that. Kyle will be able to do it soon, too.’
Recalling Ar-on's words, Leo gave a bitter smile internally.
‘I couldn't do it, you damn bastard. If I could, I wouldn't have gone through all that trouble.’
Leo lowered his stance.
In the domain of hypersense, stamina is consumed rapidly.
It wouldn't have been a significant burden for his body in his past life, but for his current self, it was.
‘Because this current body hasn't reached its prime yet.’
No matter how much he trained his body and surpassed its limits, it was still the body of a boy.
In his past life, he had obtained strength incomparable to what he had at this age.
Even so, he still fell short of the power from his past life.
‘I'm still a long way off.’
Leo tensed his entire body.
‘Just reaching the level of my past life isn't enough.’
*Gwoooo-!*
Gray mana surged from Leo's body.
‘I have to go further than I did in my past life.’
*Grip-!*
Until now, Leo had thought.
That as Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning.
He, who had to live in that era, had finished everything he needed to do.
‘I thought that by simply saving the world, I had finished everything I had to do and could do.’
Leo bit his lip hard.
He realized that was wrong when he saw Verchia.
‘If I had been like the others, if I had thought about what I wanted to do after saving the world, things wouldn't have turned out like this.’
He was always prepared to die without regrets.
To sacrifice this one body for the future his friends would live in.
He thought it was enough to save the world for future generations to live in.
But in other words, that also meant he wasn't prepared to live.
‘Was I overwhelmed just by subjugating Erebos?’
Of course, he was.
Because the future promised to the world seemed to be nothing but despair.
Even if Leo had dreamed of what came next, like his friends.
Even if he had held his own ideals and convictions, there was no possibility he would have survived the final battle.
Leo himself knew best that wishing for that possibility was greed.
‘But at the very least… Verchia and Vihar wouldn't have lived such lives.’
Leo had wanted to stand on the same battlefield with his disciples.
It wasn't some romantic notion of wanting to fight alongside his disciples.
It was a wish born from a desperate need for comrades to fight with.
But if he had wished for that, he should have at least taught them how to live a peaceful life after everything was over.
Kyle's life, too, was far from peaceful.
But he could have at least taught them what kind of life to live when peace finally came after everything was finished.
Because his two disciples were clumsy at finding happiness in peace.
Luna and Ar-on wouldn't have been able to teach them that.
The two of them dreamed of coming back and living a happy life together, so they likely never thought they needed to teach it.
Only he could have taught them.
‘But I turned away from it.’
I just thought my disciples would figure it out on their own.
‘I have to change that, even if it's now. And this time, I can't solve it by dying.’
So he had to surpass it.
His past self.
Moving forward one or two steps wouldn't be enough.
Until now, he would have been satisfied with that.
‘Surpass your limits.’
The words his successor, whom he had never met, left for future generations.
The words he himself had emphasized to the hero candidates who would carry on the generation.
But…
‘Since being reborn, have I ever once challenged my limits?’
From the perspective of others, Leo might have always seemed to be surpassing his limits and achieving the impossible.
But speaking coldly, that wasn't surpassing his limits.
‘Those are things I did countless times in my past life. That's just repetition, not surpassing a limit.’
Therefore.
‘Let's set a clear goal.’
Leo's eyes looked to a distant place.
‘With aura, to Ar-on.’
It was a clear challenge.
‘With magic, to Luna.’
A level he had thought absolutely unreachable.
‘With summoning, to Lisinas.’
But…
‘The path exists, doesn't it?’
The path his friends had pioneered.
He just had to run along that path.
To the level he had considered ideal.
To the place he thought he could never go.
His hypersense grew even sharper.
‘I will surpass my limits!’
Leo's body shot forward at an incredible speed.
Ulein, Leo's target, wore a look of disbelief.
‘How can someone his age possess such power?’
It was a power that transcended common sense.
*KABOOM-! C-c-c-crack-!*
When Leo's sword struck Ulein's barrier, cracks spread across its entire surface.
Seeing this, Ulein quickly deployed a spell.
An incredibly fast incantation.
But the amount of magical power wasted in the process was immense.
Leo, who was about to pursue Ulein, suddenly changed direction.
Ulein, who was preparing for Leo's attack, looked momentarily bewildered.
And when he saw where Leo was headed, his expression turned to one of shock.
*CLANG-! KRA-KA-KA-KOW-!*
Leo's sword and Verchia's sword clashed, scattering sharp sword energy in all directions.
Leo felt the impact reverberate through every bone in his body.
*Woong-!*
A magic circle formed in Verchia's palm.
Seeing it, Leo immediately ducked.
*KRA-KRA-KRA-KOW-!*
An immense flash of light raged from the spell activated at point-blank range.
Everything in sight was swept away by the flash that shot out in a straight line.
Leo broke out in a cold sweat at the incredible power of the spell.
“Luna would have been pleased to see this, you damn disciple!”
*BOOM-!*
Leo drove into Verchia's chest, ramming her with his shoulder.
He maximized the destructive force gained from the shift in his body weight with Aura.
An ordinary hero would have had every bone in their body shattered by this attack.
*Chwaaak-!*
But Verchia was only pushed back, her feet dragging across the ground.
Leo, on the other hand, clicked his tongue at the crushing pain in his shoulder.
‘Armor of Animus.’
Verchia's innate magic.
The moment Leo prepared to counter Verchia's attack.
*Flash-!*
Once again, the light of the end descended upon Leo.
Leo used spatial movement magic to escape the attack's range.
*Kugugugugung-!*
A powerful wave of magical energy billowed where the End had been activated.
“Are you trying to stop Lady Verchia from harming others while you fight me?”
Ulein marveled.
“Leo Flove, if not for your ideology, you would be a truly noble hero.”
Ulein clapped his hands and wore a look of pity.
“But that is why it is so unfortunate. The fact that I must return your existence to the starlight.”
Looking at Ulein, Leo let out a smirk.
Seeing him, Ulein looked puzzled.
“What’s so funny?”
“How could I not find it funny when a third-rate mage who thinks the power he stole from others is his own spouts such nonsense as if he’s something special?”
“Did you just call me a third-rate mage?”
He had been hailed as a natural-born genius.
So this was the first time in his life he had ever been called a third-rate mage.
“If crudely gathered magical power activated purely by its output doesn't define a third-rate mage, then what does?”
“With my innate magic, [World of Stars], I can activate any spell. Just like your [Bible].”
Ulein spread his arms.
“Are you saying that I, who created such a magic, am third-rate?”
“To be precise, you're less than third-rate. You're a half-wit who can't do anything once you leave this land.”
Ulein's face twisted slightly at Leo's words, which precisely pinpointed the flaw in his magic.
“If it weren't for Verchia, dealing with a half-wit like you wouldn't be difficult at all.”
“Such a colorful excuse. If you're so confident, why not just leave Lady Verchia be?”
“Watching a disciple make a mistake and doing nothing makes one unworthy of being a master. Besides, she did ask me for a favor.”
“Master? I don't know what you're talking about. Well, in any case, Lady Verchia will no longer be able to move…”
*Flash-! KRA-GA-GA-GA-GANG-!*
Magic erupted from within the ruins where the End had been activated.
Horrified, Ulein hastily dodged the spell.
The barrier he had maintained was shattered to pieces.
“How could my magic…!”
“Dispelling the formula before it hits. It's a basic of magical combat, isn't it?”
“How is that possible for an undead? Besides, she can't even use star magic!”
Ulein's face contorted.
Looking at Ulein, Leo said.
“That's why you're a half-wit who's not even third-rate.”
Leo curled the corner of his lip.
“A half-wit who boasts about his own potential while doubting the potential of others.”
His face twisted at the ridicule.
Rage boiled within him at Leo's scorn.
It was because he saw something familiar in Leo's eyes.
The look of someone gazing down on something insignificant.
It was the same look the Pureblood Society gave the elves who couldn't use star magic.
He genuinely wasn't treating him as a mage.
Anger surged at the gaze that seemed to deny his very essence.
But Leo didn't even spare Ulein a glance.
He only had eyes for his disciple.
‘It's entirely possible, even without her reason.’
Verchia had endlessly trained herself to be able to use sophisticated swordsmanship and magic instinctively.
She shouldered the world with her power alone.
‘And not being able to use star magic has nothing to do with being able to dismantle it.’
Leo looked at Verchia.
‘Because in this world, after Luna and me, Verchia would have been the one who knew the most about star magic.’
Even though Verchia ultimately failed to use star magic, she had worked harder than anyone to use her master's magic.
Just because she couldn't use star magic didn't mean she couldn't understand it.
‘If Seirun is Luna's successor as a star mage, then Verchia is Luna's successor as a pure mage.’
So, it was only natural, in a way, for such a Verchia to easily dismantle Ulein's magic even after losing her reason.
Leo's claim that he could easily deal with Ulein was no empty boast.
‘To others, he might be a tough opponent armed with overwhelming magical power, but to me, he's just a big, useless oaf.’
Leo looked at Verchia.
‘First, I have to subdue Verchia.’
Leo tightened his grip.
Ulein was next.
The moment Leo raised his magical power.
Verchia closed the distance to Leo at an incredible speed.
The current Verchia made no distinction between friend and foe.
She was simply an undead that annihilated everything in her path.
Just as Leo gritted his teeth and prepared to respond.
A shadow shot up in front of Leo.
With it, Chen Xia appeared and swung her dagger toward Verchia's sword.
*BOOM-! KRU-GA-GA-GA-GA-GANG-!*
The sword and dagger collided, sending a massive shockwave echoing out.
Leo's eyes widened as he stared at the back of Chen Xia, who had blocked Verchia.
“You…”
The familiar back reminded him of someone else.
But it was by no means a stranger.
“Vihar?”
At Leo's call, Chen Xia glanced back.
And looking at Leo, she gave a faint smile.
“Master…”
The moment she saw that.
Verchia, who was clashing swords with Vihar, unknowingly took a step back.
“Ah…”