Chapter 393
Lysinas walked through the library.
Then she heard a voice she didn’t recognize.
“The final expedition is about to begin.”
Drawn in as if bewitched by the unfamiliar voice, she followed it.
And when she arrived, she saw an elven woman.
Pale silver hair. Golden eyes.
She was more beautiful than anyone Lysinas had ever met.
Yet a shadow lay over her face.
“Can we really do this?”
Her ears drooped with worry, her expression brimming with anxiety.
The moment Lysinas thought the sight felt strangely familiar—
“It’s natural for you to be worried.”
“Huh?”
At the voice that followed, Lysinas let out an involuntary gasp.
“But we’re the only ones who can do this.”
The owner of the voice gently soothed the elven woman.
“I believe in you, who has overcome all things that were once thought impossible.”
A black-haired woman wore a smile more trustworthy than anyone’s.
“I believe in us, who have walked this long road together.”
Her voice was steady with conviction.
“We will vanquish the primordial evil and surely save the world.”
Lysinas’s eyes widened.
“Me?”
—
The desperate night passed.
An ominous dawn broke.
Lysinas opened her eyes.
‘A dream?’
It was so vivid it clung to her mind.
‘What was that dream?’
She sat up, recalling the elf from the dream.
‘A woman I’ve never seen before.’
It wasn’t a memory from the past.
‘A prophetic dream?’
The thought crossed her mind, but she soon shook her head.
Among those with special Mana characteristics, there were those who could glimpse future events.
The most representative form was a prophetic dream.
Lysinas also possessed a special Mana characteristic, but it wasn’t the power to see the future.
‘I see things that already happened through Spirit Magic.’
She had been born with the talent of a Spiritmancer, a gift possessed by only a tiny fraction of those with summoning aptitude.
Spirits came in many forms.
But their essence was one.
‘Fragments of memory held by Mana.’
The stronger the soul, the stronger the resonance it left behind in the Mana it possessed in life.
A Spiritmancer uses Spirit Energy to manifest that Mana, recreating a person’s abilities and memories from when they were alive.
‘It was just a strange dream.’
That was the conclusion Lysinas settled on.
She left her bed and joined the expedition members, who were eating breakfast.
“Hey, Lysinas. I heard you acted alone last night. Was there a battle? Kyle said you just went out for reconnaissance, but I was worried.”
At Allox’s question, Lysinas glanced at Leo, who was chewing beef jerky.
‘Did Kyle not say anything?’
She remembered executing the traitors last night.
To Lysinas, she’d only done what had to be done.
‘And yet Kyle looked… shocked.’
If Kyle was the hero who would save the world—
if he was the hero who would grant her deepest wish—
then she was willing to sacrifice herself for him.
“I sensed something suspicious, so I went to scout. But I didn’t find anything.”
“Is that so?”
Allox nodded and turned away, going back to his breakfast.
Rodia came over and chatted with Lysinas, bright and cheerful.
‘Why did Lysinas choose the path of shadows?’
Watching them, Leo sank into thought.
‘Did my appearance change something in her heart?’
Things were flowing differently from the memories he knew.
‘It’s not like I know everything about Lysinas.’
Just as everyone has things they want to hide, Lysinas did too.
In this era, Lysinas had guided Kyle toward hope.
But there must have been anguish and pain she never showed Kyle.
‘I wanted to ease even a little of that.’
To Lysinas, she had only taken her first step.
But—
Leo knew how this story ended.
Lysinas had only just begun her tale.
Leo had already lived through its conclusion.
Their starting lines were not the same.
‘Just as I was captivated by the light Lysinas showed me… is Lysinas the one captivated this time?’
Maybe that was why Lysinas had made the choice he once made.
This was a story of the past, of bygone days.
Even if things changed now, the future would not.
After all, the Hero Record was fake.
And whether she led people to hope in the light or delivered despair to traitors in the dark—
in the end, it was still Lysinas.
But.
‘…Is it really right to leave Lysinas like this?’
Leo looked at her, his eyes clouded with faint confusion.
—
“They’re coming!”
“Mages and summoners! To the back!”
Kieeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Tense voices rang out through the expedition as a swarm of Fafnirs—top-tier demonic beasts—appeared.
Fafnir.
One of the most dangerous demonic beasts of the Era of Calamity.
The great heroes had subjugated them relentlessly, and by the end of the Era of Calamity, they had gone extinct, leaving no trace for later generations.
The most terrifying thing about a Fafnir was its dominance in aerial combat.
There was nothing more horrifying than a demonic beast on par with a Wyvern—a top-tier Summoned Beast—seizing control of the skies.
While everyone tensed—
Leo stepped forward.
“Mages, prepare your spells.”
After leaving those words, Leo bent his knees.
Aura gathered at his feet.
Kwak-!
He launched himself upward, shooting into the sky at an incredible speed.
Perik, the elven mage who saw it, twitched.
“What is that technique? Is it magic?”
“No, that’s… Aura!”
Allox shouted, awestruck.
Aura Step.
A future technique born from the study of Aura skills.
Once Aura Step was developed, the battlefield for knights expanded from the ground to the sky—and even over water.
It was an innovation in Aura studies.
‘Even five thousand years ago, in the Era of Calamity, there were those who could run through the sky with Aura. But it wasn’t something people could do as commonly as they can now.’
In Lumene, it was a technique any second-year in the Knight Department could manage.
But in this era, even those worthy of being called heroes couldn’t do it easily.
Leo ran through the sky and drew his sword.
‘Of course, just because they can’t use Aura Step doesn’t mean the knights and warriors of this era are weak.’
Kugugugugugung-!
The earth trembled.
Kwagagagang-!
Giant centipede monsters burst from the ground.
“Great Worms! Arlene and I will handle these ground crawlers! You guys deal with the flying bugs!”
Allox grinned.
The Great Worm, with its hardened shell, was a disastrous monster that could level the surrounding area on its own.
And not one—five of them had appeared.
This was the heart of the Era of Calamity.
A place where threats like these never stopped coming.
But no one buckled.
No—no one even blinked.
Woong-!
A pure white summoning circle formed around Arlene as she stepped forward.
Flash-
With a burst of light, the pegasus Arpia appeared.
—Have you called, my Oathbound?
“I’m counting on you, Arpia.”
—Leave it to me.
Hwaak-!
The female knight astride the pegasus shot into the sky.
Hwoong-!
A spear formed in her white hand.
As a Pegasus Knight, she was the vanguard at the very front.
Woong-!
White Aura surged along Arlene’s spear.
“Hup-!”
Allox charged after her.
He gripped the giant battle-ax from his back with both hands and began to spin it.
Hwoong, hwoong, hwoong-
A gust tore through the area.
“Here I goooooooooo!”
Allox, a bear beastman, roared and kicked off the ground.
Jjeok-!
His footprint stamped into the earth, and cracks spiderwebbed outward.
Hwaak-!
Like a bullet of invisible physical force, Allox slammed the ax blade into the lead Great Worm.
Kwagagagagak-!
The ax cleaved brutally through its body.
Puhwak-!
Green blood sprayed everywhere.
Chiiik-!
The Great Worm’s highly toxic blood melted the ground.
“Khahahahahaha!”
Even as acidic blood splashed over him, Allox only laughed harder, continuing to butcher the Great Worm apart.
As for the other Great Worms, Arlene’s thrusts punched massive wind-holes through their bodies.
While the two of them held the Great Worms at bay—
in the sky, Leo was fending off the Fafnirs’ onslaught alone.
Puhwak-!
He sliced the neck of a Fafnir that lunged to bite him, then dashed through the air as if it were solid ground.
Fast, clean, decisive.
The swarm was held back by Leo alone.
Watching, Perik—still chanting—clicked his tongue.
“He’s gotten stronger!”
Rodia, watching Leo fight, shook her head.
‘No. Compared to the Kyle of this era, the current Kyle is probably much weaker.’
The Kyle who had begun this great journey had possessed overwhelming martial power—power that couldn’t be compared to Leo, who was still only in his mid-teens.
But the reason others thought Leo had grown stronger was simple.
‘Experience.’
The experience of ending the Era of Calamity and saving the world made his current, overwhelming combat possible.
At that moment, Perik completed his spell.
“Saint Arrow.”
Flash-!
Countless arrows of light formed in the sky.
As Leo slipped out of the spell’s range, the light arrows rained down on the Fafnirs.
As expected of the elf Lysinas had tried to recruit, Perik was a mage of incredible skill.
Watching, Rodia clenched her fists.
‘We can do it.’
This Hero Record—one she had failed to conquer countless times—
its completion was close.
—
Kugugugugung-!
The earth trembled.
A giant serpent was devouring everything on the ground.
Kwadeuk-!
After crunching down on the head of a giant demonic beast—a Gigantes—the hideous monster lifted its head.
Krrrrrrrrrr-
Six eyes sat atop its skull.
A powerful killing intent poured from them.
The Gluttony King, Jormungandr, flared his nostrils.
—Strange.
With an irritated voice, Jormungandr slithered onward.
A monster that devoured everything.
Living creatures.
Sturdy castle walls.
Lush forests.
He even devoured bright light and hope, scattering darkness across the world.
That was why he was regarded on par with the Death King among Tartarus’s legion commanders.
Wherever he passed, devouring all and spreading darkness, became Erebos’s domain.
In other words, wherever he passed, Erebos would reveal himself.
Kugugugugung-!
His massive body moved.
His transcendent sense of smell had caught a scent from afar—indescribably eerie.
—I smell the blood shed by the great calamity.
All legion commanders drank the blood shed by the calamity.
It was both baptism and honor.
That was why Jormungandr had smelled Erebos’s blood before.
But this was different.
It wasn’t that scent.
It smelled like someone drenched in the endless blood that flowed after cleaving a god’s body apart.
—Yes, it’s like…
He had never smelled it before.
But if such a hateful being existed—
it would reek like this.
Jormungandr uttered the blasphemous word.
—Godslayer.