Book 1 Chapter 393
393.
Licina was walking in the study.
Then, an unfamiliar voice was heard.
“The last expedition will begin soon.”
As if enchanted by the woman's voice, which he had never heard before, he headed towards where the voice was coming from.
And where he arrived, the figure of an elf woman was seen.
Pale silver hair and golden eyes.
She was more beautiful than anyone Licina had ever met.
A shadow was cast over her face.
“Can we do it?”
Her face, with her ears drooping as if worried, was full of anxiety.
The moment he thought that her appearance somehow looked familiar.
“It’s natural for you to worry.”
“Huh?”
At the voice that followed, Licina involuntarily gasped.
“But it’s something only we can accomplish.”
The owner of the voice soothed the elf woman with a gentle voice.
“I trust you, who have overcome everything that was close to impossible.”
The black-haired woman was wearing a more trustworthy smile than anyone else.
“Trust us, who have journeyed through that great expedition together.”
She spoke in a confident tone.
“We will vanquish the primordial evil and surely save the world.”
Licina opened his eyes wide.
“Me?”
***
The desperate night passed.
An ominous dawn was breaking.
Licina opened his eyes.
‘A dream?’
It was a vivid dream that remained strongly in his mind.
‘What kind of dream was it?’
Recalling the elf he saw in his dream, he got up from his seat.
‘She was a woman I’d never seen before.’
It wasn't something that happened in the past.
‘A prophetic dream?’
That thought crossed his mind, but he soon shook his head.
Among those with special mana characteristics, there are some who foresee future events.
The most representative form among them is a prophetic dream that appears in the form of a dream.
Licina also possessed special mana characteristics, but it was not the ability to see the future.
‘I see things that have already happened in the past through spirit art.’
He was born with the talent of a spirit artist, a talent possessed by only a very few among those with summoning talent.
Spirits come in various forms.
But their essence is one.
‘Fragments of memories that mana possesses.’
The stronger the soul, the stronger the lingering scent it leaves in the mana it possessed during its lifetime.
A spirit artist materializes that mana into spiritual power, manifesting the person's abilities and memories from their lifetime.
‘It’s just a strange dream.’
Licina came to that conclusion.
And he approached the expedition members who were eating breakfast.
“Hey, Licina. I heard you acted alone last night, was there a battle? Kyle said you just went scouting, but I’m concerned.”
At Allox’s question, Licina looked at Leo, who was eating jerky.
‘Did Kyle not say anything?’
He recalled the act of eliminating the traitors last night.
For Licina, he had simply done what needed to be done.
‘But Kyle still had a shocked expression.’
If Kyle was the hero to save the world.
If he was the hero who would grant his deepest wish, he was willing to sacrifice himself for him.
“I sensed something suspicious and went scouting, but found nothing.”
“Is that so?”
Allox nodded and turned his body.
He sat down for breakfast.
Rodya approached Licina and talked happily with him.
‘Why did Licina choose the path of shadows?’
Watching that scene, Leo pondered inwardly.
‘Was there a change in his feelings because of my appearance?’
Things were flowing in a different direction than the memories he knew.
‘It’s not like I know everything about Licina.’
Just as everyone has something they want to hide.
Licina would be the same.
During this time, Licina guided Kyle to hope.
But there must have been anguish and pain that he hadn't told Kyle about.
‘I wanted to ease that even a little.’
From Licina’s perspective, he had just taken one step.
But…
Leo knew the end of this journey.
Licina, who had just begun his story, and Leo, who had already completed his.
Their starting lines were not the same.
‘Just as I was captivated by the light Licina showed me. This time, has Licina been captivated?’
That’s why Licina might have made the choice he himself had made.
This is a story of the past, of bygone days.
Even if things change now, the future will not change.
After all, the hero’s world is fake.
And whether it’s leading people to hope in the light or bringing despair to traitors in the dark.
In the end, it is Licina.
But.
‘…Is it really the right thing to leave Licina like that?’
Leo looked at Licina with slightly confused eyes.
***
“They’re coming!”
“Mages and Summoners! To the front!”
KIIIOOOOOOOOOOO!
Seeing the group of top-tier magic beasts, Fafnirs, appearing before their eyes, tense voices echoed from the expedition.
Fafnir.
It was one of the most dangerous magic beasts during the Age of Disaster.
Great heroes had specifically set out to subjugate them, and by the end of the Age of Disaster, they had gone extinct, disappearing from later generations.
The most terrifying thing about Fafnirs was their strength in aerial combat.
Nothing was as terrifying as a magic beast, on par with the top-tier phantom beast species Wyvern, seizing air superiority.
While everyone wore tense expressions.
Leo stepped forward.
“Mages, prepare your magic.”
After saying that, Leo bent his knees.
Aura gathered at Leo’s feet.
Thwack-!
As he leaped, Leo soared into the sky at an incredible speed.
Seeing that, the elf mage, Peric’s eyes twitched.
“What is that technique? Is it magic?”
“No, that’s… aura!”
Allox shouted in admiration.
Aura Step.
It is a future technique created through the research of aura technology.
After Aura Step was developed, the battlefield for knights expanded beyond the ground to the sky and even over water.
It was literally a revolution in aura studies.
‘Even during the Age of Disaster 5000 years ago, there were those who could run in the sky using aura, but it wasn’t a technique that could be universally accomplished like now.’
What any second-year student in the Knight Academy of Lumerne could do, even those who could be called heroes in this era found difficult to accomplish.
Running through the sky, Leo drew his sword.
‘Of course, not being able to use Aura Step didn’t mean that the knights and warriors of this era were weak.’
Rumble-!
The ground shook.
Crackle-!
Giant centipede monsters broke through the ground and appeared.
“Great Worms! Alene and I will handle those ground worms! You all handle the flying creatures in the sky!”
Allox grinned.
A Great Worm with a tough exoskeleton was a disaster-like monster that could devastate an entire area with just one of its kind.
Not just one, but five such Great Worms appeared.
This was the heart of the Age of Disaster.
It was a place where such massive threats were ceaseless.
But no one succumbed to this level of threat.
No, rather, they didn’t even bat an eye.
Hum-!
A pure white summoning circle generated around Alene, who stepped forward.
Flash-
Simultaneously with a bright light, Pegasus, Arpia, appeared.
-Did you call, Oath-taker?
“I ask of you, Arpia.”
-Leave it to me.
Whoosh-!
The female knight on Pegasus soared into the sky.
Swish-!
A spear was summoned into her white hand.
As a Pegasus Knight, she was the vanguard, taking the front line.
Hum-!
White aura surged from Alene’s spear.
“Hoop-!”
Allox followed behind Alene.
He grabbed the massive battle-axe hanging on his back with both hands and began to spin it, "hoong hoong hoong-".
A whirlwind blew across the surrounding area.
“Here I goooooo!”
Allox, the bear beast-man, roared and kicked the ground.
Crack-!
His footprint was left on the earth, and the surroundings split apart.
Whoosh-!
Allox, who had become a bullet of invisible physical force, plunged his axe blade towards the Great Worm at the forefront.
Riiiiip-!
His axe blade ruthlessly tore apart the Great Worm’s body.
Gush-!
Green blood splattered everywhere.
Sizzle-!
The highly toxic blood of the Great Worm melted the ground.
“Kuhahahahahaha!”
Even covered in acidic blood, Allox laughed heartily and continued to butcher the Great Worm’s body.
In the case of another Great Worm, a huge wind-hole was pierced through its body by Alene’s thrust.
While the Great Worms’ attack was being fended off by the two.
In the sky, Leo was fending off the Fafnirs’ massive aerial assault.
Gush-!
Cutting off the neck of a Fafnir trying to bite him, Leo dashed through the air as if on solid ground.
Swiftly, and surely.
The Fafnir squadron was held back by Leo alone.
Watching that scene, Peric, who had been chanting a spell, clicked his tongue in amazement.
“He’s gotten stronger!”
At those words, Rodya, who was watching Leo’s battle, shook her head.
‘No, perhaps compared to Sir Kyle from this era, the current Sir Kyle would be much weaker.’
Kyle at the beginning of the Great Journey was also a possessor of overwhelming military might.
He was a strong individual whose power was difficult to compare with Leo, who was only in his mid-teens.
But despite that, the reason others thought Leo had grown stronger was simple.
‘Experience.’
The experience of ending the Age of Disaster and saving the world made the current overwhelming combat possible.
Meanwhile, Peric completed his magic.
“Saint Arrow.”
Flash-!
Countless arrows of light generated in the sky.
As Leo quickly exited the magic’s range, the arrows of light engulfed the Fafnirs.
As expected of an elf Licina had tried to recruit for the expedition, he was a mage of great skill.
Watching that, Rodya clenched her fist.
‘We can conquer it.’
This hero’s world, where they had failed countless times.
The conquest was imminent.
***
Rumble-!
The ground shook.
A colossal serpent was devouring everything on the earth.
Crunch-!
The hideous monster, crunching on the head of the giant magic beast, Gigantes, raised its head.
Grrrrr-
Six eyes on its head.
From them, a powerful murderous intent emanated.
The Glutton King, Jörmungandr, flared its nostrils.
-Strange.
With a somewhat annoyed voice, Jörmungandr slowly slithered across the floor.
He was a monster that devoured everything.
Living beings.
Impregnable city walls.
Lush green forests.
He devours even bright light and hope, scattering darkness across the world.
That is also why he is considered as special as the Lich King among Tartarus’s legion commanders.
The places where he devours everything and scatters darkness become the domain of Erebus.
In other words, Erebus appears in the places he passes through.
Rumble-!
His body moved.
His transcendent sense of smell caught an utterly chilling scent from afar.
-I smell the blood spilled by the Great Calamity.
All legion commanders drink the blood spilled by the Calamity.
It is both a baptism and an honor.
Therefore, Jörmungandr has also smelled Erebus’s blood before.
But it is different from that blood scent.
It smelled as if it belonged to someone who had torn open a god’s body and was covered in endlessly flowing blood.
-Yes, it’s like…
Never smelled it before.
But if such a hateful being existed.
It would emit this kind of smell.
Jörmungandr uttered those blasphemous words.
-Godslayer.