Book 1 Chapter 949

Countless memories swirled in my mind.

Awakening.

What would happen next and my own end.

Furthermore, what would happen far in the future.

I knew everything.

Arion blinked his golden eyes.

'Ar. You've grown so much.'

How much time had passed since we defeated Erebus's fragments in the future?

It didn't seem like as much time had passed as I thought.

But Ar had grown to a surprising degree.

While Arion found Ar's growth commendable, his gaze turned to Azonia, a woman with brown hair and golden eyes.

A beastkin woman who seemed familiar yet strange.

Brown hair and golden eyes.

'Azonia, right?'

I heard she was my successor before Ar.

A great warrior, called a Great Swordsman among the heroes of the Great Opening.

Arion could tell at a glance that Azonia was a warrior worthy of her reputation.

'But she feels a little different from Ar?'

Arion wore a puzzled expression.

Looking at Ar, there was definitely a feeling of inheritance.

He had inherited and used my power, and the aura he exuded was similar to mine.

'Ar is like Berkia, perhaps?'

A teacher-student relationship.

But if Berkia was a disciple of three people – Kyle, Luna, and Arion – Ar had inherited only Arion's essence.

In that sense, he was closer to Arion than Berkia.

But Azonia was not.

'She feels like my teacher.'

Arion glimpsed the shadow of his teacher, Argon, in Azonia.

He wasn't sure yet, as he hadn't seen her fight, but the warrior's spirit and aura he felt faintly reminded him of Argon.

His transcendental senses told him so.

Arion looked down at his hands without a word.

'Erebus was summoned in Reissar at this time.'

At this point, it couldn't be stopped.

'No, even if it were us during our last journey, it's uncertain if we could have stopped it.'

Ar, who had been punished by Azonia, barely broke free and approached Arion.

"Arion-nim! Let's go find Argon-nim now!"

"Uh? Ah… Yes. We must find my teacher."

'These children are trying to save my teacher for me.'

For Arion, Argon was more than a teacher; he was a father.

However, Arion hadn't seen Argon since leaving Reissar.

Even though it was a surviving city, the distance was considerable, and the magic stones for the warp gate were not abundant.

The demons of Tartarus also made using the warp gate more difficult with curses and dark magic.

Moreover, as Arion was always fighting on the front lines during the Age of Calamity, he had no time to go to Reissar to meet Argon.

Still, Arion didn't worry about Argon.

Argon was a hero who was hailed as the greatest hero before the great heroes began to act during the Age of Calamity.

Even if communication between cities was difficult, if something happened to Argon, Gardsron would have heard about it.

Besides, the Argon Arion knew was a very strong warrior.

So he didn't worry, and he didn't know when he left Reissar.

That the day he left his hometown was the last time he would see Argon.

'Thinking about it now. Not meeting my teacher at that time was probably not a mere coincidence.'

Something he learned much later.

'Perhaps my teacher was avoiding me then.'

He didn't know the reason.

But it was strange that he couldn't meet him even after actively searching for him.

Erebus was summoned, and after barely evacuating some of Reissar's people, Reissar was destroyed.

Even then, Arion believed Argon was alive.

Because the Argon Arion remembered was a very strong hero.

He was the one he admired and aspired to be the most.

However, Argon met the same fate as Reissar.

How much did he cry then?

If only he had visited a little earlier.

He regretted and regretted his own carelessness.

But time could not be turned back.

Thus, Argon's fate remained a deep regret for Arion until the moment he closed his eyes.

And now.

An opportunity to meet his teacher had come.

It was truly ironic.

If it were himself at this time, he would not have been able to find his teacher.

But with his current self, he could.

'It's after I died that the opportunity to meet him came.'

Arion thought of his teacher.

In a way, it might be fortunate.

He couldn't change the past, but he might be able to resolve one deeply embedded regret from the past.

No.

There were words he had to say to his teacher.

There were words he wanted to convey.

But.

'Is it right to put these children in danger for my own greed?'

Should he force the living to sacrifice for the dead?

'……'

Arion closed and opened his eyes.

Before he knew it, his eyes shone with resolve.

"Let's find my teacher."

'Kyle explained to me that I regained my memories in the world of heroes because it was my world.'

Arion recalled the words of his reincarnated friend.

'And he said there was a clear target in the world of heroes, and that the world would close once it was cleared.'

Thinking that far, Arion decided on the path he had to take.

Arion, who had his lips tightly shut, looked up at the sky.

A terrible sky, incomparable to the beautiful sky he saw in the future.

Experiencing a peaceful era anew, he realized once more.

Such an era should never happen again.

'First, let's find out the clear target.'

Although it was a trial he had experienced, Arion didn't know the conditions for clearing it.

'Let's clear this world and send the children back to the future.'

***

"What? A complete Erebus?"

Kyle said with a look of shock as he walked down the alley.

Leo nodded at Kyle's question.

"Then we have to quickly bring Arion-nim from Reissar…"

"I want to save Reissar."

"What?"

"No, I will save it, Kyle."

"……"

Seeing Leo's bitter smile, Kyle involuntarily closed his mouth.

Then he scratched his head.

"Ah, seriously. Is it because my friend is a great hero who has saved the world? His scale is always immense, but sometimes he's truly unreachable. Seriously, what was I thinking in my first year to say I would support you?"

"Do you regret it?"

"Yes. So much that I want to go back to the past and grab you by the collar and shake you."

Leo smiled bitterly at Kyle, who was grumbling.

"Sorry. Is it a bit selfish?"

"Yes, it's selfish."

Kyle clicked his tongue.

"But it's okay for you to be a little selfish. No, I wish all the great heroes were a bit selfish."

The great heroes Kyle had seen so far were all not selfish.

When weighing the world and themselves on a scale.

They all ultimately chose the world.

And yet, they didn't show the slightest hint of resentment.

"Ugh. I can't even imagine that."

As Kyle bantered, Leo said,

"It's nothing. You'll be like this soon too."

"Hearing you say that makes me really scared that it might happen."

Kyle shivered as if he had goosebumps.

And then he said,

"Then there's something we need to address first. Have you drafted the basic framework of the plan?"

To that question, Leo said,

"If you listen to the conversations of people as they move between districts, Erebus will likely be summoned in Reissar in ten days."

"Hmm. Then we have to stop that summoning?"

"No. It's impossible to stop Erebus's summoning."

"What?"

"Erebus cannot basically leave Mount Erdien."

A mountain at the eastern end of the world.

And the final destination of the great heroes.

By the gods, Erebus was bound by a restriction and could not leave Mount Erdien.

However, there was something that could cleverly bypass that restriction.

It was to summon himself to the scorched land using his own creations, Tartarus.

"The fact that Erebus will be summoned in ten days means that Reissar has already become a suitable land for summoning."

"…If we can't stop the summoning, is there no other option but to defeat Erebus?"

Kyle shook his head in disbelief.

"Let's look at our forces… You and your past self. And the great heroes. And the two heroes of the Great Opening."

Kyle muttered, mentioning the representative forces of their allies.

"It's truly a dream combination."

It was a combination that transcended time and space.

Seeing them gathered like this, it felt like they could save the world twice over.

Of course, that was assuming they were in their future forms.

'The great heroes haven't reached their peak abilities yet.'

"Is there any hope?"

"If we're facing the complete form, there's no hope."

Even if Leo used his divine power to unleash the power of the final chapter, it was uncertain.

A fight with Erebus in its complete form would require a protracted battle.

In that case, the divine power Leo obtained by defeating Erebus's fragments would be consumed first.

"If you brought it up, there must be a way… Ah. Are you perhaps thinking of disrupting the summoning ritual to make it summon in an incomplete state?"

Leo nodded.

The summoning couldn't be stopped.

But it was possible to find and disrupt the summoning ritual.

'If that happens, it won't be summoned in its complete state.'

If the summoning gate were cut off mid-way, only a part of Erebus's main body would come over, while its true form would be bound to Mount Erdien.

Of course, even that would be terrifying, but.

'We can pour all our forces into it.'

This world is fake.

Therefore, even if Erebus is defeated, nothing will change.

But conversely, because it is fake, we can bet everything.

This means that Gardsron can pour all its forces into defeating Erebus.

Literally, total war.

'Besides, there are the hero candidates and the shadows.'

While in the past, only Kyle and Vihar could find and eliminate traitors,

It would be different in the future.

There were countless shadows.

And those shadows would come to this world.

'There are ten days left.'

It is by no means a lot of time to change history.

But it was not an impossible amount of time either.

"To plan the operation, there's one person we need to get cooperation from first."

"Lichinas-nim?"

"No."

Leo suddenly stopped walking.

It was a place like a warehouse on the outskirts of Gardsron.

"This is…"

Kyle's eyes widened.

"Deweno-nim's workshop?"

Bang bang bang-!

Leo knocked on the door roughly without hesitation.

"Hey, you damn perverted old man! Open the door!"

He knew he would be deep in the workshop's basement, so he knew he wouldn't come out unless he called him like this.

"You crazy bastard. Bursting into someone's workshop in the middle of the night… Huh?"

The door opened with an enraged voice.

Based on his tone and actions, it was Kyle, so he opened the door with certainty.

But when he saw an unexpected person, even the formidable Deweno was taken aback.

"It's not Kyle? Who are you?"

Leo summoned a sword from subspace.

*Clang-*!

He held the sword in reverse and plunged it into the ground.

Deweno, who had been frowning at the incomprehensible action, suddenly changed his expression.

A normal longsword in Leo's hand.

But the beauty imbued in the blade caught Deweno's eye.

'Can a weapon become a work of art?'

Deweno marveled involuntarily.

'But this looks like something I made?'

However, Deweno had never made such a sword.

At all.

'…Judging by the traces of the sword's use… it was used by Kyle.'

Just by looking at the length of the blade, it was easy to predict who the user was.

The tone and actions reminiscent of Kyle.

And the sword he made but never made, and the traces of the user seen on that sword.

Deweno asked with a stern face,

"What is your identity?"

To that question, Leo replied,

"Kyle."