Book 1 Chapter 50
【50】49
Whoosh-!
Chloe spread open the black grimoire with her right hand.
The arrayed magic spells were visible.
Holding a staff in her left hand, she focused and began to chant a spell.
A tremendous magical power began to surge due to the spell.
“Hmph!”
Chubarun's eyes snapped open.
Instinctively, he felt that Chloe's magic was dangerous.
“Get out of the way! Remnants of the Great Hero!”
“You seem impatient!”
Leo scoffed.
Whoosh! Crash-!
Leo gritted his teeth and endured an axe flying at his waist.
Splat-!
But soon, he couldn't hold on and was flung away.
It was an attack he would have normally dodged, but he deliberately endured it to buy time.
Leo, seeing his unnaturally bent left hand, smiled grimly and grabbed his sword with his other hand.
And once again, he blocked Chubarun.
“You scum!”
“Sorry, but this is the end.”
Simultaneously with Leo's declaration.
Whoosh-!
The flames Chloe shot out engulfed Chubarun.
'Not ice, but flames?'
“C-kyaaaaaaak!”
Chubarun, directly hit by the flames, began to writhe in agony.
“Even if it’s a nullification curse, it’s useless if the flames don't go out!”
Chloe was right.
Chubarun's body burned, then returned to normal, repeating endlessly.
Eventually, the [Nullification] curse ran out of power.
Whoosh-! Thud-!
Chubarun collapsed.
Around that time, Alia's party also defeated all of Chubarun's subordinates.
Unless it was a demon of Chubarun's caliber, Alia's party wouldn't have been in trouble.
As Chubarun fell, Chloe excitedly ran to Leo.
“Leo! We defeated Chubarun! We defeated *that* Chubarun!”
Chloe hugged Leo fiercely, overjoyed.
Then, as Chloe lifted her head, she made a 'Hot!' expression when she saw Leo's face close enough for their breaths to meet.
“Chloe, I'm sorry. My left wrist is broken…”
“Ah! S-sorry!”
Chloe, her face red, hastily backed away.
Leo clutched his broken wrist and looked towards Chubarun.
“Anyway, your unique magic is quite something.”
“Oh, uh… my unique magic…”
Chloe's voice trailed off.
It was then that Leo gave her a puzzled look at her reaction.
Whoosh-!
The flames on Chubarun began to burn fiercely.
Leo's eyes twitched.
Groooaaan-!
The red flames burning Chubarun's body gradually began to turn black.
Crack-!
“Huh?”
Chloe looked down at her staff, flustered.
There was a crack in the orb of her staff.
“Chloe! Release the magic! Hurry!”
At Leo's shout, Chloe hurriedly released the magic.
K-kwaaaaah-!
Crack! Thud-!
“Kyaa?”
But the orb soon exploded, and the magic began to burn even more intensely.
“W-why?! I can't control the magic!”
That wasn't all.
The black grimoire in her right hand began to draw Chloe's magical power on its own.
Seeing this, Leo snatched the grimoire from Chloe and threw it away.
Stagger-!
Chloe, deprived of her magical power, staggered.
Leo quickly supported Chloe and turned his head towards Chubarun.
“Kuooooooh!”
Chubarun, engulfed in black flames, roared.
“Didn't we defeat him?”
“Chloe.”
“Huh?”
“Tell me the truth.”
Leo looked at Chloe with an expressionless face.
“Your inextinguishable flames. Did you really create that unique magic yourself?”
Chloe flinched.
Conflicted, Chloe looked at the uncontrollably rampaging magic and gritted her teeth.
“No.”
Chloe closed her eyes tightly.
“Actually, it was a magic spell from that grimoire.”
'As I thought, it was Erebus's flames.'
All the situations made sense.
Why Chloe had been acting strange.
How she created inextinguishable flames.
“Listen carefully, Chloe. That magic is black magic.”
“What?”
“It’s magic you couldn’t originally use. You knew that, didn’t you? That the magic wouldn’t activate with just your power.”
“W-what exactly is that grimoire?”
“That’s a divine magical weapon.”
It was an item that became a powerful weapon if a demon used it, but an item that slowly made humans lose their reason if they handled it.
'I used black magic? And even announced it as my unique magic?'
Chloe's face turned pale.
“Ah! Ah!”
Chloe's face, covered by her arms, was filled with despair.
Seeing Chloe like that, Leo stepped forward.
“Chloe. Please cover my back.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing has changed. Ultimately, there’s only one thing we need to do.”
Leo gripped his sword tightly with his unharmed right hand.
“It’s to deal with that damn demon and conquer the Hero’s World.”
Leo smiled.
“Thanks to your magic, the nullification curse is gone. Now that guy is just rampaging in response to black magic. It's time to deal with him.”
Leo walked towards Chubarun.
“You know the final decisive blow is the mage’s job, right?”
Leaving those words, Leo walked towards Chubarun.
“W-we'll help too!”
“That's right! If we combine our strength!”
Tehad and Dina approached and said.
“You guys are exhausted. If you mess up, you’ll only get in the way.”
The fact that Leo could block Chubarun was possible because of his overwhelming combat experience.
A battle of wits that involved predicting the opponent's attacks, defenses, and counterattacks, and preparing for the next move.
That dangerous tightrope walk was not something anyone could do.
Leo smiled, seeing them grit their teeth.
“Guard the rear.”
Chloe gazed at his retreating figure as if mesmerized.
A hero meant someone who didn't give up when faced with a limit.
'Wake up, Chloe Mueller!'
Chloe's eyes, urging herself, regained their composure.
'Only that magic.'
A unique magic she had originally conceived but abandoned midway through creating.
'I'll complete it now!'
Completing an unfinished magic in a real battle was extremely reckless.
But now, she had to do it.
Chloe, who was about to pick up her staff, paused when she saw the destroyed staff.
“Here, Lady Chloe.”
Alia smiled and offered her staff.
“Please do your best.”
Receiving Alia's staff, Chloe closed her eyes.
'I wanted to catch up to Leo somehow.'
But seeing that back steadily moving forward, she realized how foolish she had been.
'To be jealous… he's just too cool.'
Like heroes from a fairy tale.
His appearance, bravely challenging his limits, was too dazzling.
'I will also overcome my limits, Chloe Mueller.'
To not be ashamed of herself in front of the back that believed in her.
She began to combine the spell formulas swirling in her mind.
Runic words began to flow from Chloe's lips.
Chloe was composing a spell formula on the spot.
Leo smiled as he listened to the spell.
'It's amazing, really.'
He strode forward without hesitation.
'Why does the pure runic language of a mage give such courage?'
Long ago, the days when he entrusted his back to Luna came to mind.
Leo calmly assessed Chubarun's full power.
'Thanks to the black magic Chloe shot, the most troublesome [Nullification] curse is gone. Plus, he's taken massive damage.'
Although it led to a rampage, Chubarun wasn't in perfect condition either.
Leo flared up his aura.
'I can buy time while the spell is completed.'
“Kwoooh!”
An axe blade enveloped in black flames struck Leo.
In response, Leo swung his sword, imbued with red flames, upwards.
K-kagaagaak-! Crash!
Leo's sword deflected Chubarun's axe blade.
Leo, stepping onto the axe embedded in the ground, readjusted his sword and charged at Chubarun.
Groooaaan-!
Black flames enveloped Leo, attempting to turn him to ash.
Leo wrapped his own flames around his entire body, pushing back the black flames.
Whoosh-!
The two flames intertwined.
However, the black flames gradually consumed Leo's flames, encroaching on his territory.
Seeing this, Leo increased his firepower.
Whoosh! Hiss-!
His flesh burned from the flames he himself emitted.
But Leo didn't care.
'Raise it more. More! More!'
Leo shouted, his red eyes flashing.
'Until I completely burn away these damn flames in front of me!'
K-kwaaaaah-!
Leo's flames completely pushed back the black flames.
“Ugh!”
Chubarun, instinctively feeling danger, grabbed the axe handle with both hands and swung it towards the sky.
Whoosh-!
Leo's body was launched into the air.
Chubarun swung his axe at Leo.
Leo concentrated his maximized firepower on the tip of his sword.
Clang-!
Sword and axe intersected.
And then…
Slash-!
Leo's sword sliced through the axe.
Whoosh!
“K-kwaah!”
Leo's sword struck the defenseless Chubarun's neck.
Thunk-!
Chubarun's head flew into the air.
Leo landed on the ground and looked at Chubarun, whose movements had stopped.
Whoosh!
The black flames did not extinguish but burned even more fiercely.
'It's going to explode!'
The moment Leo's eyes widened, preparing for the impact.
Chloe's spell chant stopped.
“Ice World.”
Crack-crack-crack-!
The surrounding area instantly froze.
Hiss-!
The black flames, burning along with Chubarun's body, vanished without a trace.
Crack-!
Cracks began to appear on Chubarun's body.
Shhh-!
And soon, he turned into dust and scattered.
[Saved the first-year students in danger.]
[Chubarun has been subjugated.]
Two notification windows appeared before his eyes.
Leo, confirming them, withdrew his aura.
“Leo!”
Chloe rushed over anxiously.
“Are you okay?”
“Thanks to you.”
Leo smiled and pointed at the black grimoire lying on the ground.
“Chloe, with such amazing magic, why did you rely on this crappy grimoire?”
“I… wanted to win against you somehow.”
Leo burst out laughing, seeing Chloe speak in a muffled voice.
“Your real unique magic is far more amazing than the magic in this kind of grimoire, you know?”
Leo looked at the frozen surroundings.
“Field magic, huh. It’s magic I can't possibly imitate.”
Field magic, which turned the surrounding area into one's own domain, was magic that couldn't be realized with the Bible.
“I'm most envious of mages who use this kind of magic.”
Chloe, who was watching Leo click his tongue, said.
“I'm going to tell the school everything about this incident.”
“Huh?”
“About cheating during the magic practical exam announcement. And that what I announced was black magic.”
Chloe bowed her head.
“I might get expelled. But it's something I have to do.”
Hearing those words, Leo chuckled.
“You won't get expelled.”
“Huh?”
“Where else would they find a hero candidate like you to expel?”
Leo raised his right hand, patted Chloe's head, and smiled.
“You'll become a hero. I guarantee it.”
Chloe's face, staring blankly at Leo's gently smiling face, turned crimson.
“Oh, uh. Th-thank you…”
She bowed her head deeply and answered, flustered.
“You're amazing!”
“You were just like a real hero!”
At that moment, Alia's party gathered around and cheered.
Leo looked at their sparkling eyes and said.
“Chat for a bit. I’ll go finish up.”
Leo walked towards the black grimoire.
Faintly, but still, it was emitting an ominous energy.
'Sen Ryu is like that… and Chloe is like that too. It seems Tartarus is up to something. I understand why Albi's world ran rampant and became a Hero Dungeon.'
Leo raised his sword and slammed it down onto the black grimoire with a thud-!
Gulp! Gulp!
Then, black blood oozed out.
The divine magical weapon was a fragment of Erebus.
It was a massive part of it.
As Leo put force into his sword, it soon turned to sand and disappeared.
Leo sheathed his sword and brought his right index finger to his temple.
“This is Leo Flobe. Can you hear me?”
-Gasp? Student Leo? Is that Student Leo! Ah! You're alive! Thank goodness! I will immediately deactivate the Hero's World.
He heard someone's flustered voice from outside.
Since he could make contact, it seemed the Hero's World had returned to normal.
“No, the conquest is almost complete.”
-Huh? Conquest, you say?
“It took a long time, but please give us some mitigating circumstances.”
Leo smiled, looking at Alia's party.
“Leo Flobe of Class 5 and Chloe Mueller of Class 1. We subjugated Chubarun and rescued Alia's party.”
“Over here!”
“There are survivors here!”
At that moment, anxious voices were heard from afar.
It was a rescue team dispatched from Lumerne.
“We're saved!”
“For a moment, I really thought we were done for!”
When Leo cut off contact with the outside, Chloe and Alia approached.
Alia bowed to the two of them.
“Thank you for saving us. Lord Leo, Lady Chloe. As the party representative, I thank you.”
“Oh, no, not at all. We received a lot of help ourselves, didn't we?”
Chloe waved her hands.
“Alia!”
At that moment, a boy wearing glasses urgently shouted from among the rescue team.
“Brother Albi?”
Alia's eyes widened, and she approached Albi.
“Professor Albi is completely young.”
“Because it was 30 years ago.”
[Stability of the first-year students in danger has been ensured.]
[Albi's World: Prologue - The Chedmathers Incident has been cleared.]
At the message that appeared before her eyes, Chloe flopped down onto the spot.
“Truly… we succeeded in clearing it together.”
“Good job.”
It was when Leo chuckled.
“Lord Leo! Please accept this! It's a token of our gratitude!”
“This is all I can give you right now, but this is a pretty good magic ring.”
“Thank you for saving us!”
“We will definitely formally repay you later!”
Alia's party members gave their accessories as a token of gratitude.
As Lumerne students, they were quite expensive items.
“I'll give you this. It's a very valuable item from our family.”
Alia gave him the staff she had lent to Chloe earlier.
“I don't need something like this.”
“No, you saved our lives, didn't you?”
Alia smiled gently.
At the same time, the world was enveloped in a bright light.
The collapse of the world.
It signified the conquest of the Hero's World.
In the disappearing world, a message appeared before Leo's eyes.
[Conquest Reward: Heirloom]