Chapter 145
“God?”
Elena tilted her head.
“Do you mean Erebos?”
“Don’t you dare speak that name with your filthy mouth.”
“My mouth is clean. I brush after every meal, morning, noon, and night.”
Elena flashed a big grin, showing her teeth.
“Oh, but I suppose you lot don’t have any concept of hygiene, do you? Especially for a necromancer who digs up corpses, the smell must be especially bad.”
Elena wrinkled her nose as if she’d caught a foul odor.
Viner’s body trembled with rage at her reaction.
“Y-you wretched little brat…!”
There was something in Elena’s tone that grated on Viner’s nerves.
More precisely, it was Elena’s attitude.
As a demon, Viner was used to all kinds of curses and insults.
No matter how sharp-tongued someone was, she’d never lost her composure before.
But Elena’s eyes and her attitude—
That overwhelming sense of looking down on her, as if she truly saw her as an insect, made Viner’s blood boil.
Elena didn’t treat Viner as anything more than a bug—something she could kill at any moment.
“How dare a mere human insult me, Viner, chosen by the Necroking!”
Crack-crack-crack-crack—!
Viner unleashed her [dark magic], summoning a black magic circle.
From within, blades of bone shot forth.
“I’ll tear you apart!”
Crack-crack-crack-crack—!
The dark magic devastated the surroundings, rushing toward Elena.
Haddin narrowed his eyes at the sight.
‘A high-ranking demon. Third? No, maybe even fourth rank.’
Demons were divided into seven classes.
At fourth rank, a demon could easily wipe out the vanguard of an entire nation’s knights.
A true object of terror.
Not something to be dismissed as a “bug,” as Elena had done.
“Ha ha ha! Running your mouth like that just because you have lips! Serves you right!”
Viner sneered triumphantly at the pile of bones.
Each bone blade was sharp and hard enough to slice through flesh with just a touch.
With such a barrage, there was no way anyone could survive.
“Next is you.”
Viner’s murderous intent turned to Haddin.
“How should I kill you?”
Haddin calmly replied as Viner jeered.
“Unfortunately for you, you won’t be able to kill me.”
“Hero candidates these days don’t know their place,” Viner said, shaking her head.
“Do you know how many hero candidates I’ve killed? You’re no match for me. You’ve heard of me, right? Viner? I’m famous among your kind.”
“Bone-Eater Viner?”
Bone-Eater Viner.
A notorious demon who had killed countless hero candidates for the past hundred years.
“That’s right. I’m Bone-Eater Viner.”
Viner licked her lips.
Every hero candidate she’d met was the same.
‘At first, they all act like they’re real heroes. Just like that brat earlier, shooting their mouths off. Cocky little punks.’
But it never lasted.
The moment they heard her name.
They would be gripped by fear or try to flee.
That moment, when confidence turned to terror, was what Viner enjoyed most.
She expected Haddin to be no different.
But when she met Haddin’s gaze, she faltered.
Haddin wasn’t even looking at her.
Instead, he was gently stroking Merin’s trembling head.
“Don’t worry.”
“But… what about the angel… En…”
“Huh? Pretty relaxed, aren’t you?”
Viner looked at him in disbelief.
“You really shouldn’t be worrying about a fake like that right now.”
“And you shouldn’t be worrying about me right now, either.”
“What?”
“If I could be killed by something like that, I wouldn’t be worth targeting in the first place.”
Click—clatter—
The pile of bones began to tremble.
Viner’s expression instantly changed.
‘What? Still alive?’
Her magic wasn’t just sharp—it was heavy.
Each of those bone blades weighed more than a grown man.
Anyone caught under them wouldn’t survive.
No, even if they did, there’d be no escape.
And yet…
Boom—!
The mountain of bones exploded upward.
But it didn’t scatter.
Elena stood, completely wrapped in pink [Mana], smiling brightly.
Viner’s eyes went wide.
She’d heard the rumors.
‘A vicious woman with pink mana in Lumene.’
“Elena… Zeron.”
“Ding-dong, correct.”
With a lively smile, Elena summoned her [Mana].
Viner’s face twisted in horror.
Suspended in midair by Elena’s magic, the mountain of bones began to tremble and emit black smoke.
It was Viner’s [dark magic] being forced out.
Then Elena’s magic seeped into the bone blades.
Necromancer magic came in two main types.
Corpse manipulation.
Corpse-based magic.
Whichever it was, no surface dweller could seize control of a necromancer’s magic.
But now…
‘She seized control of my magic?’
If it had been dispelled, that would’ve made sense.
But to take control?
“I don’t need this, so I’ll return it.”
Elena smiled sweetly and pointed at Viner.
Instantly, the bone blades turned toward Viner.
“W-wait… no—!”
Crack-crack-crack-crack—!
A desperate scream echoed as the blades of bone rained down on Viner.
“A human would die from that, but I guess cockroaches are just built differently.”
Elena turned away, pouting, and walked up to Merin, gently patting her head.
“Were you worried about me? Aww, you’re so sweet.”
Then she glanced over at Haddin.
“You didn’t worry about me at all, did you?”
“Why would I waste my energy worrying about you?”
“Oh, listen to you—”
Elena pouted—then suddenly froze.
Crack—
A fissure appeared in Haddin’s body.
Not just Haddin.
The same thing was happening to Elena’s body.
Both of them wore shocked expressions.
Snap—!
Like shattering glass.
Fragments of their bodies scattered, and the false world fell away, revealing their true forms.
“What is this…?”
Haddin stared in shock.
Elena looked at Merin.
Merin, too, was turning into shards of light and disappearing.
‘It’s similar to when we cleared a [Hero’s World].’
But it was clearly different.
“Kikikikikik!”
Laughter echoed.
Elena glanced sideways at Viner.
“Worthless wretches… acting all arrogant?”
“Wasn’t it you who was acting above your station?”
“You damn brat!”
Blood vessels bulged in Viner’s eyes as she snapped back at Elena.
But then her lips curled into a twisted smile.
“Your arrogance ends here!”
Viner’s face twisted with ecstasy.
“The god… the great Calamity’s Flame is awakening!”
Whoosh—!
Suddenly, black flames erupted on Viner’s body.
“Ahh! I hear his voice…!”
Viner’s body shook violently, her eyes rolling back.
“AHAHAHA! The voice! I hear the voice! Kyahahahaha!”
As Viner burst into wild laughter, Elena waved her hand.
Crunch—!
A particle of light fell from above like a guillotine and struck Viner’s neck.
“Ahahahahahaha!”
But Viner just kept laughing maniacally.
“So… the god really is Erebos, after all,” Elena said, narrowing her eyes.
“Looks that way,” Haddin replied, tense as he summoned his [Aura].
Squirm—swell—
Viner’s body twisted and began to swell.
“So this is your true form,” Elena clicked her tongue.
“Doesn’t look like she’s in her right mind.”
“Elena. We have to clear this dungeon.”
“Yes. This isn’t just about clearing a great hero’s world.”
Elena summoned her [Mana].
“It’s clearly tied to the Calamity.”
—
Leo and Lunia sensed something was wrong just as they spoke about Erebos.
“Leo… you—!”
Lunia’s eyes widened as Leo reverted to his real appearance.
Leo, too, saw Lunia returning to her true form and frowned.
‘What’s going on?’
He looked up at the sky.
A sky filled with starlight—
But it was cracking.
Like a world being cleared.
But it wasn’t the same.
Where the cracks spread, instead of brilliant light, there was a gloomy black glow.
And Leo knew that darkness all too well.
‘Erebos’s flames.’
The inextinguishable Calamity’s flame.
The same color as the fire that once burned this world to ashes.
‘There’s a fragment of Erebos in this world.’
He finally understood everything Pibua had said.
Darkness was falling.
‘It wasn’t Tartarus they were talking about.’
Leo’s fist clenched.
‘They meant Erebos.’
The enmity from his previous life.
He could feel, without a doubt, that the source of that fear was here.
The party was in turmoil as elves stared at Leo and Lunia.
“Who are you people!”
“What have you done to the princess!”
Several elves shouted in alarm.
Sid also yelled,
“What are you plotting, coming here on this auspicious day!”
No human should be able to enter this place.
And on top of that, to the residents of this world, Leo and Lunia would appear as Akint and Princess Serjia.
The elves’ hostility rose with the sudden chaos.
Normally, this would be a failed clear.
But not now.
‘The world is breaking.’
A fragment of Kyle’s page flashed through Leo’s mind.
Just like his own, which had been shattered and left in pieces.
The proof of Luna’s existence was vanishing from this world.
What would happen if his friends’ pages were destroyed like his?
In a world where only the [Hero Record] proved the existence of heroes—
If all the pages vanished, what then?
‘Everything we achieved—’
Leo closed his eyes.
‘Our story would be forgotten.’
He didn’t mind.
He was already someone who’d been forgotten.
But what about his friends?
What about the great heroes who’d dreamed of saving the world?
Leo turned to Luna, who was staring at him, wide-eyed.
She trembled, realizing he was not Akint.
That expression overlapped with her last moments.
The Luna who always laughed so brightly—
But whose eyes always trembled with anxiety.
She’d always acted arrogant, but was more easily discouraged than anyone else.
– ‘Hey…!’
– ‘Kyle…’
– ‘Don’t do it.’
– ‘If one of us has to live… it should be you, who carries Arron and Dweno’s hopes, right?’
– ‘Don’t do it! Don’t you dare!’
He’d screamed, coughing up blood.
But that stubborn elf, as always, didn’t listen.
– ‘This is for the best. You’d do the same if you were me!’
– ‘No…! That’s not true!’
– ‘Sorry for pushing it onto you.’
If both were going to die, the one who carried the most should survive, she’d said, saving him without hesitation.
That damned friend who’d apologized at the end, about to cry.
If all the pages disappeared—
They’d be forgotten, just like him.
Leo stepped closer to Luna.
She retreated warily.
“Who are you? Where’s Professor Akint?”
“Luna.”
The world was already starting to collapse.
There was no time to clear anything.
There was only one way to protect the Founder’s page.
To preserve Luna’s story.
‘Destroy the source that’s breaking the world.’
Five thousand years ago, even combined, they couldn’t defeat it.
But now—
‘This time, we will.’
Leo touched his bracelet.
Fwoosh—!
Polium appeared in Leo’s hand.
The noble staff that chose the great Elf King shone in Leo’s grasp.
The elves gasped at the sight.
Luna’s eyes widened as well.
“It’s time to save the world again.”
“What?”
“I need your help.”
Leo handed Polium to Luna.
Flash—!
A far brighter light than when Leo held it burst forth.
As if it had finally found its true master.
Leo looked at Luna, who was frozen in astonishment.
“Help me.”
Squeeze—
Luna gripped Polium tightly.
A strange boy.
A human she should be wary of.
But why?
Why did that familiar, friendly voice make her want to cry?
Why did the bright smile he gave her look so sad?
She didn’t know.
She didn’t understand the words.
But… Luna’s instincts told her.
That plea for help—
“Okay.”
She had to answer it.
(T/N: Goosebumps!!!)