The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns

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Chapter 495

Perhaps it was because she knew only the fact that Leon was safe, and nothing else—because there was truly nothing she could do—but Luna seemed to grow thinner with each passing day.

The sorrow she carried was so painfully palpable that the worries of those around her could only deepen.

Today as well, as Luna silently looked down upon the world from the edge of the cliff of R’lyeh, she could not even wipe away the single tear that fell from her eyes with a plop.

“When are you coming…….”

Of course, it was not as though she had done nothing.

She had mobilized every possible method to find a way to make contact with the subspace into which Leon had vanished, and she had drawn upon every bit of knowledge available to her.

But.

The Martial God’s unique authority was not a domain even Luna could do anything about.

-Just wait. There is nothing you can do.

At Lucifer’s voice sounding in her ear, she wiped away her tears.

Aside from Leon, Luna was the only one who could converse directly with Lucifer, and she felt bitter at the fact that even Lucifer could not interfere with Leon’s space.

-I cannot touch that realm either. If there were at least a brief connection, I could probably maintain it to some extent.

“Feels like you’ve been helping often lately.”

-I lost the wager.

At Lucifer’s words, Luna voiced her question.

“Wager?”

-A wager I made long ago…… with the Chief God. The result led to my defeat. If not for Leon Cascadia, I would have won in the end.

It seemed that even if she dug any deeper, no answer would come back.

It was then.

She saw Grivy, who had been shut inside the secret base, rushing over with Elpiria on her back.

“Mother!! Mother!”

“Grivy?”

“The…… the pretty big sister! The pretty big sister!”

As if flustered, she tugged at Luna’s arm.

Luna knew who Grivy meant by “pretty big sister.”

The goddess Eve.

Had some change occurred in her condition?

Following Grivy down to her secret base, Luna’s eyes widened.

It was because Eve, who had been completely silent within the crystal, had changed.

A faint power was flowing from her body, and in the arms of Eve, who was curled up, something like a small bead was rippling and rotating like a dimensional rift.

Because it was not within the range of what common sense could understand, confusion and astonishment colored Luna’s expression, but Lucifer was different.

-Subspace! Raphael, divinity.

Reflexively, Luna gathered her gaze and pushed it into the faintly rippling rift.

At the same time, an unidentified power poured out from Lucifer’s side as well, forcibly fixing the rift of subspace that was trying to close.

Luna even broke into a cold sweat as she rummaged through the irregular space with her own power.

And.

Though it was very small.

She made contact with one signal.

“Leon? Leon!!”

It was unmistakably Leon’s unique power.

With the divinity she had extended, she desperately grabbed hold of Leon’s trace and clung to it so as not to lose it.

And, despite her desperate efforts, she could feel her strength gradually falling short.

-Do not let go. The moment you lose it, it will be difficult to grasp again.

Just as she was at a loss over what to do.

Elpiria, who had been carried on Grivy’s back in a swaddling cloth, laughed brightly.

“Ah. Abu! Aba!”

As if she was delighted about something, she excitedly shook her whole body, and from her fingertip, a small light sent out a single wave.

Paaaang!!!

At the same time, Luna’s power transformed into a tremendous wave as though it had passed through an amplifier, and it firmly seized the trace of Leon she had been holding onto by a hair’s breadth.

“Luna?”

Leon’s voice came through.

It was not an illusion.

Thanks to Elpiria’s power, they had connected to Leon.

Luna had no intention of missing this chance.

* * *

A voice that seemed to be calling me.

It was the same as the voice I had heard when I discovered the goddess Eve.

As if bewitched, I swam through the torrent and headed toward that place.

And then, I made contact with a flow of energy whose origin I could not know.

To my surprise, it belonged to Luna.

As soon as Luna heard my voice, she tried to grab onto me in a frantic, desperate manner.

On this side as well, the moment her voice rang out, I held on to that sensation as much as I could.

As if it had been waiting, my trait manifested, catching her trace even more clearly.

I had no intention of letting go either.

Because it was the only way I could get to the dimension of Lazarus, and specifically to the very world where I had been.

“Leon! You safe?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. I just got a little lost. But how did you find me?”

There should have been no means on that side to connect to this place right now.

“Eve. Eve’s power started moving on its own.”

Eve.

I see.

Eve was still there.

She had been corrupted by an Outer God and had fallen into eternal sleep.

But a part of her still remained inside the crystal.

However, if Eve, who was not even a complete god, had produced that result…….

No, it would be better not to mention it.

To Luna, the existences known as Adam and Eve were no different from the imprints of her past.

I did not want to confuse her by saying that Eve would soon disappear.

“For now, I’ll try to move toward your side as much as I can. You can keep the connection maintained, right?”

“I’ll try as much as possible.”

That was enough.

After slowly loosening my body within the torrent, I poured out all of my energy.

As I began pushing away every current that obstructed my movement, it too tried to bind me through the reaction.

Of course,

at the same time, a new power began awakening inside my body.

Paang!!

There was no ground, no air, and here, even the concepts of up, down, left, and right were arbitrarily twisted.

Right now, I was moving forward, but I could not even know whether that was truly moving forward.

In that sense, the connection with Luna was like a thread leading to an exit I had found in the middle of a hopeless maze.

Like how, no matter the method, if one advanced while retrieving the thread, one would reach the destination.

It felt as if I would be swept away and carried off by the tremendous torrent of power in real time, but the power of the Martial God did not permit even that.

As the continuous torrent began placing a burden on my body, the ability to resist it started manifesting on its own.

There was no way to know how much time had passed.

I simply continued advancing, chasing only the connection with Luna that was gradually weakening.

And.

The result of that tenacity soon appeared.

Unlike the countless rifts I had passed by until now, a rift through which Luna’s connection extended from outside caught in my perception.

“Leon? You coming properly?”

Exhaustion was unmistakable in her voice.

On top of that, it was full of anxiety.

Considering the strength of Luna I knew, it would not have been strange if it had already been cut off, but judging by the fact that other powers seemed to be mixing in little by little, it appeared that more helpers had appeared.

Luna kept talking to me because she was afraid that contact with me might be severed again.

“I found the exit. I’ll get out in one go. You just need to hold out a little longer.”

“Michael and Lispa arrived a little while ago. We can hold out enough for a short while.”

As though I were spinning once around in a zero-gravity space, I saw that the rift which had clearly been in front of me had somehow moved up above.

I could see the tremendous torrent surging in real time as though trying to close that rift.

It was not a major problem.

I had made it this far just fine.

There was no way I would be held back now.

Just as I was about to throw myself beyond the rift.

A rope made of energy that came flying from somewhere wrapped around my ankle and blocked me from getting out.

Gugugugugugu!!!

And then, as if it had been waiting, a tremendous torrent of power surged like a tidal wave and tried to push me far away.

Now, all of a sudden?

Frowning, I cut off the unidentified power wrapped around my ankle as it was, then advanced toward the rift again.

The more I did so, the stronger the resistance that blocked my path became.

It was a door forcibly opened by Eve’s power.

The reaction caused by that was all directed toward this side.

If it had been before I manifested the power of the Martial God, I would have been swept up without being able to do a thing and dragged inside.

[Translator - Night]

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Even so, I had not expected a power suddenly possessing such strong will to pull me in to this degree.

[High-Rank Unique Authority – Forcibly opening the Power of Harmony.]

[Please trust me and continue forward as you are.]

Letters appeared, broken to the point that the word tattered suited them.

It was in a sorry state, but it seemed the Librarian had succeeded in linking with the Hall of the Martial God.

It had talked as though it would die any moment.

Still, I felt relief at the fact that it had not been destroyed.

[I cannot die now, when I must assist you.]

I appreciated the words, but judging from the state of the crumbled letters, it felt like it had survived only through sheer luck.

At the same time, the power flowing out from within me and the torrent of power surging from all directions whirled as though entangling with one another, then poured that flow in a direction other than me.

The manifestation of Harmony was a power I was seeing for the first time.

It seemed the Librarian had forcibly awakened a power that had not yet woken.

On top of that, the torrent of power kept trying to close the door.

But a power that might have been Eve’s or Lucifer’s held out desperately.

The problem was that the rift was too small.

Since it could not be opened from inside, it seemed I would only be able to get out if it was torn wide open from the outside.

“Luna. Can you hear me?”

At my voice, Luna’s answer came through.

“I’m hearing you.”

“If you widen the rift greatly from outside, I’ll try to break through the path. Is that possible?”

At those words, Luna was silent for a moment.

Then, she answered.

“Possible.”

At the same time, a cluster of light gathered in the small gap.

Sefirot?

The power the goddess Eve had used before.

[The power of Sefirot. Tiferet has been detected.]

I did not know how she had done it, but Luna forcibly called forth the power of Sefirot and tore that rift open.

The meaning contained within Tiferet, the power of Sefirot, was the severing and binding of all things.

The power she swung cut off the force trying to forcibly close it, and in an instant, the compressed rift spread wide open.

I did not miss that chance and released the power I had condensed into a single point.

The torrent of power possessing the nature of trying to close the rift again was counteracted by the new trait the Librarian had manifested in my stead, and its flow was scattered in all directions.

The price was the consumption of an enormous amount of mana.

But there was no time to conserve strength.

After that, without hesitation, I threw myself forward and burrowed into that rift.

Along with an unpleasant motion sickness, an inexplicable impact wrapped around my entire body.

Thanks to the resistances I had gained in my fight against Yog, I succeeded in enduring it without much problem.

Kwajik…… Kwajijijik!!!

With the sound of something breaking, pure white light surged beyond the space that had held no light at all, only darkness.

Paaaaang!!!!

And.

Before that rift could close again, my body, which had charged forward at tremendous speed, crossed that boundary as it was.

The first thing I saw was a tremendous circulation of power.

And.

At the center of it, I saw Luna, with four pairs of wings spread, panting for breath while holding a sword of light.

Perhaps because she had used her power in such desperation, she looked incredibly exhausted.

“Leon!!”

The moment she saw me, she threw away the sword in her hand and rushed toward me.

Then she came into my arms as though burrowing into my embrace.

“Took me a bit long, didn’t it? Sorry.”

As I gave a bitter smile and patted her back, sobs flowed from her, her face buried against my chest.

Familiar air.

Familiar currents.

Feeling them, I was only then able to fully realize it.

That it was truly over now.

That I had finally returned home.

She was not the only one delighted by my return.

Seeing Elpiria’s face as she flailed her arms and legs excitedly while being carried on Grivy’s back and called out to me, that sense of relief grew stronger.

Aside from them, I saw Lispa, and I also saw Michael, still wearing his helmet.

As I looked around like that, my gaze landed on the crystal that Grivy had clumsily covered with a blanket in a patchwork, awkward manner.

I did not know whether she had helped me of her own will.

However, the fact that her call reached me was certain.

After that, the crystal crumbled, and Eve’s body inside became grains of light and scattered away without lingering attachment, as though all her work was finished.

I did not stop it.

No, I could not stop it.

Because I could not disturb her when she was finally sleeping in peace.

‘Rest in peace.’

Silently muttering that inwardly, I simply watched the last trace of Eve disappear from this world.

She was an existence with whom I had never once had a proper conversation.

Though the roots of my soul were said to be Eve and Adam, whether I actually accepted those two gods as my parents was a separate matter.

Even so, it was undeniable that her power had remained and illuminated the path before me.

This was already the second time I had received help from her, who possessed no will.

Why had she saved me again and again, even after dying and leaving only traces behind?

Perhaps that was maternal love for a child she had never met.

Just like how Adam, the god of death, had brought me back when I was losing my reason as he became the Martial God.

Because I could feel that heart so painfully, I could not take my eyes off her until she disappeared completely.

Gratitude.

Apology.

And a longing whose reason I could not know.

Amid such emotions, only after Eve had completely vanished did I slowly turn my head and bring Melissa and Arsha into my sight.

“Hey, squid. I told you, didn’t I? That I’d come back.”

“You son of a btch……. You fcking bastard……. Hngh. I really thought you were dead!”

Well, since I had said I would come back soon and then taken quite a while, her insides must have been fairly torn up.

At that worried, warm heart of hers, I smiled softly.

Then, after approaching Melissa and Arsha, I tightly held Melissa’s hand.

She did not shake off my hand either and simply sobbed.

Watching that, I took out the precious gift I had stored inside my subspace and held it out to her.

Ting!!!

The sound of a metal pin being pulled rang out, and Melissa’s pupils simultaneously expanded.

“F-Flashbang?!”

Since she had suffered plenty from them until now, Melissa tried to run away, but with her arm already caught in my hand, her struggling was meaningless.

Paaaaang!!!!

The light and roar that should originally have burst out in all directions instead erupted solely concentrated toward Melissa…….

“Aaaaaaagh!! My eyes! My eyes!!”

The flash artifact I had improved succeeded in bringing her down to the floor, even piercing through the protection of a Sword Master.

“Leon Cascadia. Will you deliver news of your return?”

Michael, who had been silently watching the situation, asked me.

“Well, it’s not like it’s something to spread rumors about, so why would I announce even that?”

“The news that the Martial God and humanity’s guardian has returned will at least create great waves. It seems you do not know what sort of standing you currently hold on the continent.”

“Don’t tell me. Did they make me look like some martyr because I died?”

It was the first time that receiving no answer felt this chilling.

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