Book 1 Chapter 1011
1011.
Swish-!
Leo wiped the blood flowing down his right cheek with his thumb and looked at the blood on his fingertips.
Belyan, watching Leo, said.
“Come to think of it, I haven't told you my name.”
He looked straight at Leo with his golden eyes, bowed politely, and revealed his name.
“My name is Belyan.”
Even as he revealed his name, Leo silently gazed at the blood on his fingertips.
After a moment, with a flick of his tongue, Leo licked the blood from his thumb, then turned his gaze to Belyan and said.
“I’m not particularly curious?”
Swish-!
Before he could finish speaking, a silver flash streaked through the air.
Clang clang clang-!
Belyan deflected all of Leo’s sword strikes pouring in from all directions.
“Ho?”
Leo exclaimed in admiration at the sight.
Swordplay was not working.
The basics of swordsmanship were about numbers.
Flashy techniques and skills were merely means to lead that battle of numbers to one’s advantage.
The fundamental of swordsmanship was to overwhelm the opponent’s numbers and inflict damage.
Even if one reached a transcendent level, the end result was ultimately the same.
Whoosh-!
Leo swung his sword upward, but Belyan didn’t bat an eye.
As if he had already grasped the distance.
Tap-!
Leo switched his grip on the sword he had swung upward, holding it in reverse grip.
Swish!
Then, he drew his sword from top to bottom as if to stab down.
But before it could strike his crown.
Leo’s sword was suddenly aiming for Belyan’s neck.
A feint.
The sword strike aimed at his crown was imbued with killing intent, while the one aimed at his neck felt like nothing.
A sword strike that felt like thick killing intent, and one that didn’t.
It was a deadly combination attack that would confuse the senses of a well-trained warrior.
A life-or-death choice where failing to respond to either would result in losing one’s life.
However, Belyan’s choice was to instead stab Leo’s neck with his sword.
In a split second, imperceptible to ordinary people, Belyan’s sword moved.
Others would have thought it was a surrender.
Ching-!
But Belyan’s choice was the correct one.
Leo’s previous attack was a feint.
If one had reacted by defending or evading, their heart would have been pierced.
But Belyan was not fooled by Leo’s feint and chose to counterattack.
Leo, who had defended against Belyan’s sword, watched with interest.
Belyan said in response to Leo’s reaction.
“I wonder how long that leisure will last. Didn’t I tell you? That I wouldn’t kill you.”
“Kill me if you can.”
“Then history will be distorted. I don’t want that.”
“You don’t have the ability to kill me, do you?”
Leo scoffed at Belyan.
“I wonder if you’ll keep thinking that way.”
Woong!
Golden aura emanated from Belyan’s sword.
The sword, engulfed in brilliant golden light, aimed for Leo’s heart.
Clang-!
Leo deflected Belyan’s sword.
‘A dragon using aura.’
Dragons are considered the strongest race.
With their overwhelming mana-generating organ, the Dragon Heart, their ‘output’ is fundamentally on a different level compared to other races.
Thanks to that overwhelming power, they shone with majesty as the proxies of the gods in the Age of Gods.
And they were also a race with the privilege of choosing which special ability to learn.
This was a difference from other races whose innate abilities were predetermined from birth.
Of course, once an ability was chosen, it could not be changed.
Normally, dragons do not choose aura when they reach the age to choose their abilities.
They usually choose either magic or summoning.
Even if they have talent for dual-classing, choosing aura is extremely rare.
This was largely influenced by the great hero of dragons, Lysinas the Wise King, who used magic and summoning.
However, a bigger reason was the overwhelming physical abilities that dragons possess.
Aura is a power that maximizes physical abilities.
And a dragon’s body is powerful enough not to need the help of aura.
In other words, choosing aura meant adding the power of aura to that formidable physique.
‘But still, wouldn’t the efficiency be worse compared to magic and summoning?’
By their nature, dragons are the most suited for magic and summoning.
Occasionally, dragons with natural talent for martial arts would appear and learn aura.
However, the dragon before him was not a dragon with such talent.
He could tell just by the movement of the sword.
Belyan did not have a high understanding of swordsmanship.
He could unleash power comparable to natural disasters with a single sword strike, but he could not control his own strength.
However, Leo’s thoughts were fleeting.
Leo quickly jerked his head back.
ROOOAR! THWACK!
“……?”
Leo looked at the sword that grazed his face with puzzled eyes.
He had barely dodged the attack.
And what was behind Leo was a building that had been cut down.
CRASH-!
The building collapsed with a loud noise.
Leo narrowed his brows.
“This is a greeting.”
Belyan curled the corners of his lips.
The attacks were unpredictable.
‘No, they are predictable, but they transcend that prediction.’
He strikes from unexpected directions, catching me off guard.
‘When attacking, my moves are clearly read, and when defending, I can’t read his moves.’
He was reading my thoughts perfectly.
Even Leo, who had crossed countless battlefields, had never encountered this kind of enemy.
Even Arion had never perfectly read Leo’s moves or caught him off guard.
‘This magic is also strange.’
The current location is a space manifested by illusion magic.
Leo’s consciousness was trapped by this magic.
And Leo had seen through the nature of this illusion magic from the beginning.
‘Nightmare.’
A dragon language magic created by Lysinas.
Of course, it wasn’t pure Nightmare, but a modified form.
‘Given that dragons often have dual-classing, it’s not strange for them to use magic. But….’
Leo’s eyes narrowed.
‘Why can’t I break free from the magic?’
Illusion magic can be easily escaped from the moment one recognizes it as magic.
It takes no time to dispel it once the magic incantation is deciphered.
However, Leo could not dispel Belyan’s magic.
Even Luna and Lysinas couldn’t keep Leo bound for so long with illusion magic.
‘It’s not like I can’t decipher the magic incantation.’
It’s complex, but deciphering it is not difficult.
The problem is that the keywords required for dispelling are constantly changing.
The dragon before him undoubtedly possessed the skill befitting the title of Lord.
However, it wasn’t enough skill to push Leo this far.
‘Is he seeing through my thoughts? Or rather….’
Leo tightened his grip on his sword.
‘It feels as if he has experienced this fight before?’
Suddenly, a powerful déjà vu flashed in Leo’s mind.
At that moment.
SCRAPE-!
Belyan’s golden sword qi filled the air.
All the sword qi flew in directions that Leo had not predicted.
CLANG-!
Leo swung his sword and narrowly blocked the sword qi.
But he failed to block it perfectly.
Belyan’s sword qi, though small, left clear sword marks on Leo’s body.
Drip- drip-
Blood flowed from the wounds on various parts of his body and dripped onto the floor.
“Leo Flob, King of the Beginning. Look at these ruins.”
“……”
“Until a few decades ago, this was a place where excellent talents who would lead the future of the elf race studied.”
“There will be no place for elves to study in the future?”
“A new academy has been established in the center of the world, Lumaria City.”
“Then isn’t that enough?”
“Certainly not. The new elf academy is no longer a Hero Academy. No, all Hero Academies in this world have disappeared.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
Leo tilted his head.
“It means an era where heroes are no longer needed.”
“Foolish words. Heroes are needed in every era.”
“Ah. I misspoke.”
Leo chuckled.
“I meant heroes like the Great Heroes are no longer needed.”
Lysinas, the Wise King.
Luna, the Progenitor of the Nebula.
Arion, the Brave.
Dwenou, the Blacksmith of the Gods.
And Kyle, the Hero of the Beginning.
The Age of Heroes, which lasted for 5000 years.
And all the heroes born in that long period, whether they liked it or not, followed in the footsteps of the Great Heroes.
They achieved feats greater than the gods and were nobler and more honorable than any others.
Leo himself didn’t necessarily think so, but regardless of his own thoughts, Kyle’s path as the Hero of the Beginning was undeniably noble and honorable.
And in an era where the threats of Erebus and Tartarus remained, heroes like the Great Heroes were needed.
Therefore, the Age of Heroes endlessly demanded that heroes follow in the footsteps of the Great Heroes.
Although traitors existed, and heroes driven mad by insanity, harboring twisted ambitions and malice, were endlessly born, even those individuals used the Great Heroes as a benchmark.
The will of the Great Heroes was never forgotten in the minds of everyone who lived in the Age of Heroes.
This was possible thanks to the Hero Records.
At first, Leo felt relieved when he learned that fact.
Separately from becoming a forgotten hero himself, his friends were remembered and respected.
He had hoped they would be remembered forever.
But now his thoughts had changed.
‘In a sense, our will continuing to the next generation is a curse.’
How much sacrifice had they made for that nobility?
How much pain had they endured to stand up?
Because the names of the Great Heroes were so prominent, the heroes of later generations were always crushed by those names.
The heroes of the Great Opening, who came closest to the Great Heroes, ultimately sacrificed themselves for the world.
‘If the threat of Erebus disappears, then heroes like us will no longer be needed.’
No Great Hero would wish for a world where sacrifice for the world is taken for granted.
‘We sacrificed ourselves inevitably… but not a single one of us was without resentment.’
Not a single Great Hero willingly accepted their death.
Why us?
They all thought that as they closed their eyes.
They sincerely hoped that no heroes like them would ever be born again.
‘Hero Academies are ultimately academies for nurturing future Great Heroes. Therefore, after Erebus is defeated, they have no reason to exist.’
That is why they disappeared in later generations.
‘If that’s the case, then it makes sense that Seirun has become a ruin.’
“In an era where Erebus is defeated, Hero Academies and Great Heroes are merely relics of a bygone era.”
Belyan’s face contorted at Leo’s words.
“How can a man who opened a new era following the Hero of the Beginning, Kyle, have such thoughts?”
He looked at Leo with an enraged face.
“Why? Is that not allowed?”
“It is not allowed! It is absolutely unacceptable! Do you know what happened to the world because you did not pass on the will and teachings of the Great Heroes to future generations? The world has regressed.”
Belyan shouted as if he were possessed by rage.
Leo then picked his ear with his finger and asked again.
“What the hell are you talking about?”