Book 1 Chapter 424
424.
Crackle- Crack!
A black crack formed in the air.
As if it had split.
Rumble- From the gap of the split darkness, a crimson aura poured out.
A moment later.
The crimson smoke that poured from the crack contained the foul aura of death.
The green grass on the ground rotted away.
If a student had seen it, they would have been so terrified that they couldn't even scream properly.
The aura of death soon took on a human form.
Eventually, a man wearing a black robe looked out at the scenery of Lumern.
The man's identity.
It was none other than the Commander-in-Chief of Tartarus, the Death King Hell Kaiser, who had reigned as a terrifying disaster for the past 5000 years.
Every time he breathed, the air became polluted, and everything his feet touched met death.
The most dangerous force among Tartarus's legions, the commander who wielded 'Death'.
He was literally the embodiment of death.
Thump-
Someone appeared before Hell Kaiser.
A boy with snow-white hair and red eyes.
Hell Kaiser's lips curled into a smile.
The reason he had come to Lumern today.
"I've been wanting to meet you, Leo Floob."
***
Leo was not the only one who noticed the presence of the Death King invading Lumern.
"Leo-nim."
"I know."
Leo replied calmly to Melina's urgent call through magic.
"I'll go too."
"No, you don't have to. You are to prepare for any contingencies."
"But."
"He must have had a plan for coming here. He's not the type to barge in without reason."
The summit was a gathering of the heroes considered the greatest of this era.
No matter how powerful the Death King was, and no matter how he had reigned as a figure of fear for 5000 years, barging in at this moment would have been reckless.
"If he were to invade, he would have done so when the Demon Queen was alive and the Giant King was still strong."
"Then why did he come?"
"I have a guess."
Answering thus, Leo headed towards where the Death King's aura could be felt.
Thump-
The Death King stood there, unchanged from 5000 years ago.
Upon seeing Leo, Hell Kaiser's lips curled into a smile.
"I've been wanting to meet you, Leo Floob."
Stomp- stomp-
Hell Kaiser approached Leo.
"They say you are a hero candidate who will lead the next generation, someone who has thwarted my plans countless times and performed innumerable miracles, don't they?"
Goooooo!
An unusual dark magic erupted from Hell Kaiser's body.
"When I asked about you before, did you say you were the one who would destroy me?"
Hell Kaiser's crimson eyes gleamed.
"I'll ask again."
Swish-
The tip of his raised hand overflowed with the aura of death.
"What is your true identity?"
KWAANG-!
A massive explosion shook the earth.
Through the thick smoke, an aura of fire aimed for Hell Kaiser's neck.
KWAK-!
Leo's sword struck Hell Kaiser's neck.
But it didn't sever his head; it was blocked.
Gooooo-!
A powerful aura emanated from Leo's body.
Seeing that, Hell Kaiser raised his hand.
A staff made of grotesque black bones appeared in his hand.
HWAK-!
As he swung the staff, a dark aura engulfed Leo.
Leo used Aura Step to evade the Death King's attack.
CHIIIIIIK-!
'Curse of Decay.'
The moment it touched that dark aura, everything rotted away.
Leo surveyed his surroundings.
The curse had already spread throughout the area.
'Curse of Severance.'
A curse that blocks the inside from the outside.
Even if Hell Kaiser raged here, the outside would not know.
Leo looked at Hell Kaiser.
'As expected. He came to ascertain my identity.'
Leo narrowed his eyes.
What stood before him was not the Death King's true body, but a clone.
But even so, it possessed immense power.
WOOONG-!
Magic formed at Leo's fingertips, which were not holding a sword.
Magic of stars.
Flash! KWAGAGAGANG-!
Hundreds of projectiles of light shot from the magic circle, engulfing the Death King.
"You play a crude game."
Hell Kaiser's eyes quickly scanned the magic.
HWAK-!
Before the projectiles of light could touch Hell Kaiser, they vanished as if evaporated.
It was not that they were blocked by Hell Kaiser's power.
They were interpreted and dispelled.
"I am the one who dispelled Luna's magic. You should know better than anyone that the result of you clumsily fiddling with her legacy won't work on me, Leo Floob, or rather."
Goooooo-
A black space opened above Leo's head.
Along with it, bones, flesh, and blood poured down.
"The surviving hero."
TUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUK! CHULPEOK! CHULPEOK! SHWAAAAAAA!
Bone fragments, flesh, and blood rained down on Leo.
Hell Kaiser, who watched this and laughed coldly, activated his dark magic.
KWAGAGAGAGANG-!
The pile of corpses exploded, shaking the earth.
"As expected, this magic doesn't work on you."
Hell Kaiser burst into laughter.
"It's been a long time, Spirit of Radiance, is it 3000 years?"
"Death King."
Laruel ground his teeth, revealing his hatred.
A detestable enemy he had fought several times in the past against Lodia, the Dragon of Creation, 3000 years ago.
Leo, who had blocked the dark magic with Laruel's power, looked at the scattered fragments of bones and flesh.
Leo knelt and picked up a sword hilt from the ruins of bones and flesh.
It was a weapon that had lost its purpose.
It seemed to be a weapon used by one of the people in the pile of corpses that had just fallen.
Leo raised his head and looked at Hell Kaiser.
"Are these the corpses of heroes?"
"It's a gift for our reunion, surviving hero. Didn't you survive until the end, stepping over the deaths of countless heroes?"
Hell Kaiser burst into laughter.
"Didn't you leave behind the deaths of even the great heroes, who were more precious than your own lives, surviving hero?"
Hell Kaiser's laughter echoed.
"Were you crying when the brave warrior left behind words of apology and died? What were your feelings at the death of Dweino, who left behind a sacrilegious weapon?"
A killing intent flickered in Leo's eyes.
"What must Luna have been thinking, who said it was better for you to live than herself?"
GRIND-!
"When, in the end, Lysina, who left everything to you, finally died, and you survived alone to become the final hero. What were your feelings?"
Goooooo-!
The air stirred with the killing intent emanating from Leo's body.
All living beings who had barely survived, overcoming Hell Kaiser's aura, struggled to get as far away from Kyle as possible.
"Stand tall, surviving hero. No, final hero."
Hell Kaiser wore a sinister smile.
The smiling skull spread its arms wide.
"Even if all the people in the world forget your sacrilege in defeating God, I remember."
Hell Kaiser shouted towards the sky.
"In the end, you will defy even death, which others can never defy, and face God alone again. I know your foolishness!"
CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-
The sound of bones clacking against each other echoed.
"In the end, you will become the final hero again! You are the beginning of this era! And the end! But you don't have to worry. By the grace of God, until the day the world burns and disappears, I will remember! That you existed! HahahahaHAHAHAHA!"
WOOONG-!
Laruel transformed into light and wrapped around Leo's feet.
Spirit Armored, armed with a spirit.
"Are you done with your taunts, Death King?"
Leo laughed.
Hell Kaiser flinched at that chilling smile.
'It's not working.'
He had intended to provoke Leo, but it didn't work.
Despite the boiling anger, Leo remained extremely calm.
HWAK-!
Leo sprinted towards Hell Kaiser.
He closed the distance to Hell Kaiser like a streak of lightning.
WHACK-!
Leo's sword severed Hell Kaiser's neck.
Hell Kaiser's body, separated from its torso, flew through the air.
Spirit Armored is a spirit technique that arms the body with spirits and draws out the spirit's abilities.
Currently, Leo's speed was no exaggeration to call it the spirit of light itself.
"You don't need to remember."
Leo said coldly.
"This world will not be destroyed."
KWAGAGAGAG-!
Drawing a trail of light, Leo instantly minced Hell Kaiser's body.
"The time I become the final hero again will not come."
Goooooo-!
Dark magic erupted from Hell Kaiser's body.
The moment dark magic tried to engulf Leo.
HWAK-!
Leo's shadow surged.
KWAGAGAG-! KWADEUK!
The shadow became a blade and shattered Hell Kaiser's main staff.
For a moment, Hell Kaiser's eyes widened.
"This is…"
Spirit of Darkness.
But it was not a mere spirit of darkness.
Hell Kaiser knew this spirit of darkness.
"Shadow Spirit?"
5000 years ago.
Hell Kaiser was first shaken by the power of the Great Spirit of Darkness, who had been annihilated by his hand.
Seeing Elsi, who had climbed onto Leo's shoulder, Hell Kaiser's face contorted.
"How…!"
WHACK!
At that moment, Leo, who had approached Hell Kaiser, grabbed his face.
Leo activated his aura.
Leo, clad in gray aura, soared high into the sky.
KWAANG-!
For a moment, Hell Kaiser's face slammed into an invisible wall.
It was a wall created by the Curse of Severance.
KWAGAGAGAGAG-!
Leo flew into the sky, grinding Hell Kaiser's face into the wall of severance.
CHIK- CHIJEOK-!
The Curse of Severance cracked under Leo's power.
CHENG-!
Eventually, a hole formed in the Curse of Severance, and Hell Kaiser, held by Leo, soared into the sky.
"You have driven countless heroes to their deaths for thousands of years. And you have mocked their deaths and desecrated their corpses. You will now pay the price."
Leo said in a low voice.
Hell Kaiser's very existence was an insult to those who had sacrificed their lives for the world.
Knowing this, Hell Kaiser provoked Leo.
But even though Leo was enraged, he did not lose his reason.
"That guy…!"
Seeing Leo's cold eyes, Hell Kaiser's face contorted.
Leo forcibly turned Hell Kaiser's clenched face.
UDUDUDUK!
A chilling bone-cracking sound echoed.
WHACK-!
At that moment, Leo ripped Hell Kaiser's head from his body.
"Watch carefully. And remember."
Leo held the severed head of Hell Kaiser and made him look at the stadium where the 1st-year tournament was taking place.
"These children, Erebus. Tartarus…"
Leo, who had turned Hell Kaiser's head to face him, said fiercely.
"Will destroy you. Hell Kaiser."
WAAAAAAAAAA-!
At that moment, the cheers poured out as if the outcome of Luke and Aina's match had been decided.
Listening to the cheers, Leo laughed.
"We are not the ones who will burn and disappear!"
"Kyle…!"
CRUNCH-!
The head of Hell Kaiser cracked.
"It is you guys!"
PERK-!
Hell Kaiser's head exploded in Leo's grasp.
SHWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!
Hell Kaiser's clone turned to sand and disappeared.
At that moment.
HWARURURURURUR-!
Black flames ignited.
'Flames of Disaster?'
Leo's eyes twitched at the sudden Flames of Disaster.
HWAK-!
He evoked mana.
Gray mana wrapped around the inextinguishable black flames.
HWAK-!
The Flames of Disaster subsided.
At that moment.
WOOONG-!
The subsiding Flames of Disaster emitted white light and then seeped into the gray mana.
Leo's eyes widened.
'Is this divine power…?'