Chapter 399
[Conquest Reward: Essence of Divine Lightning, Lysinas’ Mana Essence.]
A message appeared before his eyes, then vanished.
Watching it, Leo pushed himself up.
He was back in the Hero Record archive.
In other words, he had conquered Lysinas’s world and returned.
Leo looked around.
Rodia stood there, still dazed.
Then her expression shifted, and she spoke.
“As a conquest reward… I inherited Lady Lysinas’s Original Magic.”
[Punishment].
If [End] was Luna’s strongest magic, then [Punishment] was Lysinas’.
Leo looked down at his hands.
The Essence of Divine Lightning.
The power of the White King, the Pegasus King.
And on top of that, Lysinas’s Mana Essence.
‘Does this mean all the lost powers of the Summoned Beast Kings have been revived in this world?’
It was an incredibly encouraging development.
In the long run, this conquest reward would lead to a major increase in the heroes’ overall strength.
“Did you get to speak with Lady Lysinas?”
At Rodia’s question, Leo gave a bitter smile.
“…We said everything we needed to say.”
“I see.”
Rodia didn’t press for details.
She knew that in this situation, the one with the heaviest heart was Kyle.
Just then—
‘Fwoosh-!’
A small black flame flared to life.
Seeing it, Rodia let out a deep sigh.
“It seems… that damned Erebos has found this opening.”
Any of the Heroes of Genesis’s Hero Records could become a fissure for Erebos to escape through.
Right now, Rodia’s world was only a tiny crack—no more than a small fragment.
But even that was enough for him to claw at.
Watching it, Leo said,
“We need to close this Hero Record before it’s completely corrupted.”
“Yes. I think that would be best.”
Rodia nodded.
Seeing her faint smile, Leo reached out and ruffled her hair, pressing down a little.
“Sir Kyle?”
“You were brilliant, Rodia.”
Leo smiled at her startled reaction.
“Just as expected of Lysinas’ successor.”
Rodia’s eyes widened.
Then, with a proud ‘ahem!’, she puffed out her chest.
“Of course!”
She thumped her chest.
“We’ll hold back that damn fireball until you get back, Sir Kyle! We even powered up thanks to you!”
Watching the dependable Rodia, Leo nodded, withdrew his hand, and stepped back.
“I’m counting on you, then.”
“Leave it to us!”
[Dragon of Genesis, would you like to close Rodia’s Hero World?]
A message appeared before his eyes.
‘Close it.’
The moment he chose to—
A brilliant flash swallowed the world, and it began to fade away.
As it did, Rodia bowed in the formal manner of the Dragon Clan.
“May only blessings fill the path before you, Sir Kyle.”
“I told you, that’s not how you do it.”
At Leo’s words, Rodia burst out laughing with a ‘phht!’
—
In her Beast Transformation, Ar’s eyes blazed as she drove a kick into the Hero Hunter before her.
‘Booooom-! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crumble-!’
Sent flying, the Hero Hunter smashed through several walls before finally crashing to a stop.
But he rose soon after, unfazed.
The reason Ar—who had been at the forefront holding back the monster invasion—had come to the streets of Dovella was simple.
Hero Hunters using Beast Transformation had begun attacking the rear.
To eliminate the enemy within, Ar and the other year representatives of Azonia had been dispatched.
And now, they were at a stalemate.
“Kukuk-! Not bad!”
The Beastman who had been kicked away dusted himself off as he walked back.
Arron’s sword, Brave, hung in his hand.
“Just as expected of the girl with a reputation for being the Hero’s successor!”
He sneered at Ar.
“You. They say you’re called the Hero’s successor because you can use Beast Transformation freely.”
“Don’t you dare speak of Sir Arron with that filthy mouth.”
A grim killing intent radiated from Ar.
For a moment, the Hero Hunter flinched.
“Just a snot-nosed brat who’s only a second-year.”
But then his face twisted in anger—furious that he’d been intimidated by a young girl.
And he spat,
“What’s so great about Hero Arron that you worship him? A coward like that!”
“…”
“You don’t know, do you? The Arron you all worship as a Hero is actually a coward!”
He cackled mockingly.
When the Hero Hunter received this sword, Tartarus had told him the truth about Arron.
“You should’ve seen him—trembling in fear every time he had to stand on the battlefield! It was pathetic!”
Normally, a Beastman would get agitated hearing stories like that about Arron.
The Hero Hunter knew it, which was why he was throwing out such cheap provocations.
But Ar only blinked her blue eyes.
“Yeah, so?”
“What did you say?”
“So what.”
Ar’s calm reply made the Hero Hunter’s face twist.
“Sir Arron is definitely a coward. But…”
Ar recalled Arron.
‘Your name is Ar? That’s similar to my name. What? You were named after me?’
She remembered his gentle voice as he taught her.
‘Ar, you’re truly amazing. You could become an even greater warrior than me!’
‘It’s impossible to become a greater warrior than you, Sir Arron!’
‘Hiiiiiiieek!’
She remembered him cheering her on, patting her head.
Of course, he’d also been terrified when she lost control in her excitement.
And she remembered it most clearly—
The sight of his back as he ran forward without hesitation when everyone else was trembling.
Arron was certainly a coward.
But…
“That’s what makes him so amazing.”
He was someone who overcame that fear and showed the greatest courage in the world.
“The fact that the Hero saved the world doesn’t change.”
Ar sneered at her opponent.
“For a parasite leeching off Sir Arron’s power, you sure talk a lot.”
“You bitch!”
“I’m a cat, you know?”
Ar scoffed, fur bristling.
She remembered Arron teaching her the “Hero’s Breath”.
She remembered him cheering her on, saying she would one day become a warrior who surpassed him.
‘I don’t know if I can ever surpass you, Sir Arron.’
Ar’s ears twitched.
‘But I want to be like you.’
She took a deep breath.
And—
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawrrrr!”
She unleashed a massive howl.
The Hero Hunter, who had been about to charge at her in a frenzy, clutched his ears and collapsed to his knees.
A distinct golden Aura flickered around Ar.
“What, this brutish bitch…!”
Overwhelmed—terrified—he tried to shake it off.
At that moment, Beastman roars echoed from all around.
On the night of a full moon, Beastmen often howled as they transformed.
But—
It wasn’t night.
And it wasn’t a full moon.
The Hero Hunter’s face went pale with shock.
“What… is all this?!”
—
‘Fwoosh-!’
Having exited Rodia’s world, Leo stared at the Hero Record fragment in his hand.
A faint ember rose from it.
Proof that Erebos was corrupting the Hero Record.
Leo clenched the fragment and summoned his Mana.
‘Fwoosh-!’
Aura flames erupted from his hand and incinerated the Hero Record.
‘Whoosh-!’
As the fragment turned to ash and vanished, Leo muttered,
“I’m counting on you.”
Cheering on the juniors struggling against Erebos in their own worlds, Leo looked around.
‘Groooooooooooooowwwwwwl-!’
A massive roar echoed.
Killing intent pressed in from every direction.
‘Monsters and magical beasts?’
Countless hostile presences—auras he hadn’t felt before entering Rodia’s world—now crawled across the Forest of Monsters.
Leo leaped into the sky.
From a height where he could see the entire forest, his brow furrowed.
Something was wrong.
A festival of monsters and magical beasts.
Leo narrowed his eyes.
Monsters and magical beasts that had appeared out of nowhere.
‘And they’re all from different eras.’
Even within the same species, monsters bore distinct traits depending on their era.
After studying monsters across countless Hero Records, it wasn’t difficult for him to spot the differences.
‘For something like this to happen… Aleham must’ve been hiding more than one or two Hero Dungeons. Did all of them go berserk?’
Leo’s expression tightened.
‘Was it triggered because I opened Rodia’s world?’
He couldn’t know.
What mattered was dealing with what was happening now.
Leo used Aura Step and dashed toward Dovella.
On Dovella’s walls, he found students from Lumene and Azonia holding back the monsters.
As Leo descended—
‘Groooooooooooooowwwwwwl-!’
A Gigantes raised a giant iron club, looming over the wall.
“Block it!”
“We don’t have enough people!”
“I’m out of Mana!”
Screams erupted from the Lumene students defending the wall.
‘Fwoosh-!’
“No!”
“Aaargh! Get back!”
Just as the Gigantes was about to smash down—
‘Claaaang-! Thud-!’
A heavy metallic impact rang out.
The shockwave blasted dust in every direction.
The Lumene students’ eyes went wide as they stared at the person who had stopped the Gigantes’s iron club with one hand.
“Class Rep? It’s the Class Rep!”
Eliana, standing atop the wall, broke into a bright smile.
“Leo’s here!”
“It’s the Student Council President!”
Cheers erupted from all over.
“Where have you been for the past few hours!”
Eliana shouted urgently.
Leo replied,
“I had something urgent to take care of.”
As he spoke, Leo tightened his grip.
‘Bulge-!’
Veins stood out along his arm.
‘Whooosh-!’
Groooowl?
‘Thud!’
With a single shove, the Gigantes staggered and toppled backward.
It crushed the monsters around it as it fell.
The surrounding students could only stare, mouths hanging open.
“E-Even if he’s the Student Council President…”
“Isn’t that a little too monstrous?”
While the Lumene students stood in shock—
“How cool!”
“Amazing!”
The Azonia students shouted in excitement.
Eliana, who had witnessed Leo’s almost-bizarre feats since their first year, reacted with a bit more composure.
“You seem to be straying further and further from the category of human, Class Rep.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Leo smirked, then frowned.
“By the way, where are the others?”
The second-year powerhouses were nowhere to be seen.
At his question, Eliana’s expression darkened.
“The Azonia year representatives went to stop the Hero Hunters.”
“Hero Hunters?”
“Yeah. Hero Hunters who can use Beast Transformation attacked.”
Leo’s face hardened.
“Our year representatives…”
‘Gwoooooooooooooooh-!’
Just then, black Magic Power surged from the middle of Dovella’s streets.
The mass of black power sliced through everything around it like a blade.
‘That’s…’
As Leo stared, stunned, Eliana grit her teeth.
“They went to stop that monster that suddenly appeared and started spamming Dragon Speech magic.”
Leo’s expression turned cold.
“I’m leaving the wall to you.”
He tightened his grip on his sword.
“I’ll take care of things in the back.”
Just as he was about to move—
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawrrrr!”
A howl split the air.
In that instant, Leo froze.
“Arron?”
His eyes widened as he turned toward the source.
Courage surged in his chest.
A roar so similar to his friend’s.
Then—
‘Fwoosh-!’
A golden light enveloped the Azonia students.
“What is this?”
Eliana stared in shock.
Leo did too.
“Beast Transformation?”
It wasn’t a full-moon night, yet the Azonia students began to transform.
Leo looked again toward where the howl had come from.
“Don’t tell me… Ar?”
(T/N: Damn! So Ar, can share her transformation now? That’s so OP!)