Book 1 Chapter 815
815.
From the perspective of those living on Earth, Erebus, the flame of catastrophe, was an incomprehensible being.
It was not because Erebus was the primordial evil, nor because it was a divine being.
It was the very purpose of Erebus's existence.
Earth's residents, living finite lives, live to survive.
Life is fierce because everyone has an end.
Unlike those earthly residents, Erebus possesses infinite time.
And it lives to end that infinite time.
Holding the wish for the world's destruction.
Leah bit her lip tightly.
"For Erebus, the instinct for destruction is like the instinct for survival for us."
The instinct for survival is something life forms naturally possess.
The most primal and powerful desire.
"But that's not a desire."
Life forms possess desires.
In various sizes, in all sorts of forms.
Even the great heroes who were reborn as beings with transcendental power each have their own desires.
"What we aim for is also a desire."
Anxiety flickered in the eyes of the King of Wisdom.
The cause of that anxiety was the fear of the unknown.
Erebus, the primordial evil, the flame of destruction, was a being without desire.
It couldn't be helped.
Its wish was solely the destruction of the world.
Just as the attachment to life of living beings cannot become a desire.
For Erebus, the destruction of the world cannot be a desire.
Nor could a being that desires only the destruction of the world possibly harbor desire.
But just a moment ago.
Erebus revealed its desire.
A fierce desire to burn not only this world it currently exists in, but all the infinitely unfolding parallel worlds.
And desire can also take the form of a 'dream.'
Leah knows well how powerful a force it is to have a dream.
The driving force that allowed them to overcome the impossible and save the world was also a 'dream.'
"That monster harbored something like that?"
It sent shivers down her spine.
Erebus had now obtained power beyond its limits.
"We have to stop it!"
"Arion!"
Leah's voice was so urgent that she even forgot to call out to Karra.
At Leah's cry, Karra, with golden eyes flashing, kicked off the ground.
*Thwack!*
Like a streak of lightning, Karra closed the distance to Erebus.
With eyes flashing, Karra plunged its sword into Erebus's back.
*Thwack!*
Erebus's body was momentarily pinned to the ground.
*Fwoosh!*
"Krgk?!"
But black, fiery wings sprang from Erebus's back, flinging Karra away.
Seeing that, Rune shouted.
"It looks like Spirit Armored, but who summons it so unglamorously?!"
"I summon it like this!"
At Rune's shout, Leo summoned Fiora.
*Crackle!*
Along with that, pure white lightning swirled around Leo's body.
A contractor from a distant past.
Leo, embodying the power of the Pegasus King, accelerated to his maximum speed.
*Whoosh!*
In an instant, pursuing Erebus, Leo reached out his hand.
*Tap!*
Leo, snatching Karra's hand that had been thrown back, shouted.
"Karra! Accelerate with this!"
"Then Kyle, you might get hurt…"
"It doesn't matter, just jump!"
Becoming a prop, Leo added his current acceleration to Karra's leg strength.
Of course, he had to endure the repulsion from the aura that Karra emitted, but Leo didn't care.
They had overcome their limits by breaking their bodies like this.
What was a big deal now?!
Karra gritted its teeth and concentrated its aura at its toes.
Leo tensed every muscle in his body against the explosive aura of the brave warrior.
*BOOM!*
Leo was flung backward by the repulsion, and Karra was shot forward ferociously.
"Haaaaaaah!"
*WHOOSH!*
Rune's magic, Leah's draconic magic, and spirits imbued Karra's sword tip and body.
*Crack! Crack!*
Karra's body was destroyed by the terrifying power, and immense pain engulfed it.
Karra felt its vision turn red.
*ROAR!*
The aura emanating from Karra's body, blessed by Leah, imbued Valhar's weapon.
*CRACKLE!*
Upon receiving Rune's magic and then Karra's enhanced aura, the sword couldn't withstand it and cracked.
With all the power of a great hero imbued, even a weapon made by a divine blacksmith couldn't endure it.
No, it was because Valhar had made it that this power could be endured to some extent.
"…I'm sorry."
Karra bit its lip tightly and apologized.
*HUMMM! HUMMM!*
The sword resonated as if to say, "Don't worry about it."
It answered that this was its duty.
It was the will of its creator.
"I'm going…! Deurang!"
The name Valhar had personally given.
Deurang, the sword that the divine blacksmith acknowledged as his masterpiece, unleashed its final sword energy.
In Karra's eyes, it saw the mirror Leo had crossed to far away.
*KEEEEEEE!*
For a moment, pure white light imbued Karra's sword.
Leo's unique magic, Innocent.
"With Kyle's power added, it won't last long."
Before the sword's lifespan ends!
*FLASH!*
The sword strike emanating from Karra's sword split space.
*SLASH!*
Erebus's entire body was torn to shreds.
A single strike that poured out all its power for a moment.
But even with that attack, Erebus did not stop.
"Leah!"
Leo, supported by Valhar, shouted urgently.
His body, having absorbed Karra's aura entirely, was already in tatters.
Spitting blood, Leo said.
"Shoot!"
With that, Leah shot the mirror of judgment towards the mirror.
The moment the arrow of light touched the ice mirror.
*ROAR!*
*THWACK!*
"We will meet again."
Facing the ice mirror, Erebus grinned and was hit by the arrow of light.
*CRACKLE!*
The ice mirror cracked.
"Wait for the end, great heroes."
Erebus was sucked into the ice mirror.
*CLANG!*
Simultaneously, the ice mirror shattered and burst into flames.
Erebus had burned the entrance.
*CRASH!*
"Damn it!"
Leah slammed her fist on the ground and cursed.
"We were perfectly fooled."
Valhar muttered with a despondent voice.
He had never imagined that Erebus would cross parallel worlds.
"What happens now?"
Rune asked with an anxious face.
To that question, Leah, supporting her head with one hand, said with a trembling voice.
"Leo. In your world line… is there anyone who can stop Erebus?"
"Although I have summoned Lisinas through an 영령 contract…"
After a brief pause, Leo said in a serious voice.
"It will be difficult for him to handle it alone."
Leah let out a deep sigh.
"Erebus probably won't stop at just burning the other side and returning here."
"Then?"
Karra asked with a terrified expression, and it was Leo who answered.
"It will try to devour all the fragments on the other side."
At that, Karra gasped.
"Then…"
"Yes. If that happens, it will gain power beyond its complete form."
The atmosphere rapidly grew grim.
Valhar approached the place where Erebus had disappeared and surveyed the surroundings.
Rune looked up at the sky.
He saw countless Tartarus legions.
Leah, with her arms crossed, said.
"Rune."
"I know without you saying anything."
*Thwack!*
Rune slammed his staff onto the ground.
*ZIIING!*
Then, an enormous magic circle formed.
It was an instantaneously created warp gate.
"I've linked the coordinates to the warp gates of each Hero Academy."
At Rune's words, Leah nodded.
It was a desperate situation.
The flow of time in this world and the other world was becoming similar.
"But it's true that the flow of time there is slower than here."
As proof, Leo's watch, which tells the time of the other world, was still flowing slowly.
"Although it's a desperate situation…"
When wasn't it desperate?
Determination flickered in Leah's eyes.
"I will somehow defeat Erebus."
Even if it means going to the other world.
Seeing Leah steeling her resolve, Leo clenched his fist.
"It's not over yet."
There is hope.
The path for Erebus to cross parallel worlds was destroyed.
But Chloe crossed the wall of parallel worlds using magic.
"The problem is time."
She needed time to return.
"Leo, come here."
"Why? Did you find something?"
"Look at this."
Valhar showed Leo a small, broken piece of ice from the ground.
"It's a small piece that remained, not burned."
At Valhar's words, Leo touched the fragment.
*Swoosh*
Leo's fingertip sank in.
But soon his finger got caught.
"…It's narrow."
"As expected, it's impossible to pass through the remaining fragments?"
"Is there a way to use this… Huh?"
Leo was lost in thought when something in his pocket reacted.
Leo reached into his inner pocket and pulled out the object.
"Hero Record…"
It was a piece of his own Hero Record, belonging to no one else.
The entrance was the piece of Hero Record Leo had carried when he came to this side.
What he gained in return was this.
"…Can't I make an entrance with this?"
As far as he thought, Leo's eyes widened.
Then, clutching the fragment, Leo muttered.
"It's worth a try."
***
Nickx, who was watching Styx's advance from afar, smiled faintly.
"In the end, it seems his soul chose to remain in that world."
Now it begins.
The beginning of fulfilling his wish to freeze this world and turn it into an eternally stopped world.
*RUMBLE!*
Just then, the ground began to shake.
"What is this?"
It was not a natural phenomenon.
Nickx, who had been frowning, slowly began to stiffen.
"No way?"
Nickx's face turned pale.
Meanwhile.
Lisinas's face, who was commanding the spirits on the city walls, hardened.
"Lisinas-nim?"
Chen Xia, who was assisting him, looked bewildered at the frozen Lisinas.
Lisinas bit his lip.
"…It's coming."
"What? What is?"
*KABOOOOOM!*
A giant pillar of black fire shot up into the sky.
Everyone's face hardened.
The sky began to turn dark red.
"Is that… no way?"
Chen Xia's face turned pale.
"Erebus…"
It was at this moment that Lisinas's face hardened.
*Tap*
Someone landed behind him.
"It's been a while, foolish one. Or rather. I saw you just now, so it hasn't been a while, has it?"
"…"
Lisinas's face hardened at the voice from behind.
Turning around, he saw Erebus in Kyle's form.
"How dare you take that form…"
A deep killing intent flickered in Lisinas's eyes.
Erebus smiled, seeing such Lisinas.
"Unfortunately, I don't have time to deal with spirits."
Erebus's gaze drifted somewhere beyond the city walls.
"My priority now is to reclaim my fragments."
"Do you think I'll let you go so easily?"
The moment Lisinas raised his magic.
Erebus's sword strike enveloped Lisinas.
Startled, Lisinas hastily pushed Chen Xia away and blocked the sword strike.
*KABOOOOOM!*
The city wall crumbled, and Lisinas was slammed into the ground.
"Lie down, foolish one."
Erebus sneered.
"Watch the world fall into ruin from there."
Leaving those words, Erebus departed the city walls.
"That's not the Erebus of this world."
Lisinas struggled to get up.
"Lisinas-nim!"
Chen Xia rushed over and helped Lisinas up.
"You shouldn't overexert yourself! You might cease to exist!"
"I'm already overexerting myself. This is the time to overexert! We have to stop that bastard!"
The wisdom possessed by the King of Wisdom accurately conveyed the current situation.
It was dangerous.
If Erebus is not stopped now, the situation will spiral out of control.
"What should I do! What should I do!"
Lisinas's face contorted as he pondered.
*Flutter*
Something fell from the sky.
"Ah?"
Chen Xia exclaimed and reached out her hand.
"Hero Record?"
*Rustle*
It fell into Chen Xia's palm.
"What's that?"
Lisinas, with a confused expression, reached out his hand to the Hero Record.
And he froze.
"Lisinas-nim?"
Chen Xia called out to Lisinas, who was staring straight ahead with a bewildered expression.
"Indeed… He's quite clever."
Lisinas smiled and got up under his own power.
"Step back, Chen Xia."
"Yes."
As Chen Xia stepped back, Lisinas looked at the message that appeared before his eyes.
[Open Kyle's world?]
"Open."
[Hero Record Open. Kyle's World. Chapter: Epilogue - The Hero of Beginning]
The Hero Record opened before his eyes.
Kyle's world, under control, not a Hero Dungeon due to rampage.
Lisinas reached into that world.
Lisinas was also a master of the Hero Record.
This meant he had authority equal to Leo's.
And currently, Lisinas was Leo's 영령.
And Leo's body was here.
Which means…
"Divine Power."
He used divine power through proxy authority.
*Tap!*
Someone's hand was grabbed.
Lisinas, with all his might, pulled the one in Kyle's world into the present world.
*WHOOSH!*
Light materialized.
Along with it appeared Kyle, who was suffering from terrible wounds that would be strange even if he died.
As he received the dying Kyle, his hand tightened unconsciously.
Lisinas's fingertips trembled slightly.
"…Epilogue. Right… It's Kyle right after the final battle with Erebus."
"Kyle."
At Lisinas's call, Kyle, who had been limp as if dead, opened his eyes.
Staggering, Kyle barely managed to stand and stared blankly at Lisinas.
"Did I… come to the underworld?"
"No. You are indeed dying… but it's not the underworld."
Shaking his head, Lisinas used recovery magic, and the dying Kyle's body healed.
"Kyle, I'm going to explain…"
"Ugh?!"
Before the story could even finish, Kyle hugged Lisinas.
Seeing Kyle, who was just hugging him tightly and trembling, Lisinas wordlessly patted his back.
"You did well… You did well. Kyle. Thank you. For fulfilling our wish."
He praised him like stroking a child.
When Kyle finally calmed down, Lisinas reached out his hand.
As he placed his palm on Kyle's forehead, a bright light emanated.
"So that's how it is."
Kyle, having received the memories through Lisinas's magic, nodded.
And he looked in the direction where Erebus had disappeared.
"Lisinas-nim! Are you alright… Hup?!"
"Th-The Hero of Beginning?"
The heroes who had descended below the city walls looked on in shock.
Kyle glanced at them and slowly walked in the direction Erebus had gone.
As everyone held their breath, focusing on Kyle, he said.
"Don't worry anymore."
*ROOOAR!*
Gray mana flowed from Kyle's body.
"Because I'm here."