Chapter 563

“What should we call the competition?”

With the detailed schedule settled, Ar folded her arms and tilted her head.

“Come to think of it, we haven’t decided on the most important thing—the name.”

Lunia agreed with Ar.

Everyone’s gaze naturally drifted toward Leo.

Everyone present knew that Leo had conceived the idea for this massive event.

Receiving all the students’ attention, Leo replied indifferently,

“Just pick something.”

Lunia looked dumbfounded.

“How can you possibly suggest picking something at random?”

Leo, however, remained apathetic.

“Leo, are you not Lumene’s Student Council President? As President, you will be leading this event. Are you saying you haven’t even thought of a name?”

Driana also seemed somewhat surprised.

“Our academy has plenty of capable students. Sunbaes and hubaes alike.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Driana looked confused, and Chelsea reached for a cookie on the refreshment table.

“It means he has plenty of people he can work to the bone.”

Crunch—!

Chelsea bit into the cookie.

“Everyone caused an uproar because they wanted to follow Leo Oppa to Dragonia. Lumene is absolute chaos right now because of the event preparations.”

• 'Leo! Take me with you!'

• 'No, take me!'

• 'How can you leave when we need you here?!'

• 'What about you?!'

Chelsea recalled how her classmates and upperclassmen alike had stormed the Student Council President’s office and shouted over one another.

She shook her head.

The students from the other academies did the same.

'We’ll be overwhelmed preparing to participate, but Lumene must truly be in complete chaos.'

This was an international event, after all.

If Lumene wanted to avoid embarrassing itself, it naturally had to prepare something suitably grand.

“Still, this is unexpected. I was certain Elena Zeron would oppose the event because she found it troublesome.”

Chelsea shook her head at Haddin’s words.

“Elena Sunbae is the one most actively tormenting the students. Of course, she’s also suffering under the heaviest workload herself.”

Elena’s fundamental principle when squeezing every last drop of labor from the students was simple.

'I’m working this hard, so what about you?'

“That is surprising. Elena, of all people?”

Haddin was in the same year as Elena.

Just as Elena had reigned as the strongest of her generation in Lumene, Haddin held that position in Seiren.

They had also clashed at Lumeiren since their first year, so Haddin knew Elena reasonably well.

'To think that monstrous woman would willingly work beneath someone else.'

Elena was known as Lumene’s Queen or Witch, but Haddin believed Tyrant suited her better.

Elena had always lived however she pleased, doing whatever she wanted.

Even if Leo had displayed overwhelming prowess, Haddin found it difficult to imagine her working beneath someone else.

“I am a little worried whenever I see Elena Sunbae lately.”

Chelsea sighed.

Elena always appeared perfectly composed, but her workload was far from normal.

“She’ll be fine. That much won’t kill her.”

Leo answered indifferently.

“You’re supposed to experience hardship while you’re young. It’ll all make you stronger once you’ve grown up.”

“Black Rabbit, you’re young too.”

“Leo, Elena Zeron is older than you.”

Ar and Doberman stared at him in disbelief.

“How does he sound exactly like those old High Smiths?”

“Wow, Driana. Look at this. I’ve got goosebumps.”

Driana and Marigold looked equally appalled.

Leo laughed at their reactions.

“Wouldn’t it be good for everyone to learn firsthand that life is no game during this competition?”

“Student Council President of Lumene, we’re all well aware of how extraordinary you are. No matter what anyone says, you’ve already reached the rank of hero—the very goal we’re striving toward. But I’ve still attended Damienne for five years, you know.”

Marigold scratched her cheek as she spoke, and Doberman laughed.

“Leo, I do not mean to dismiss your words, but we have also been through countless trials and tribulations. We already know all too painfully that life is not easy.”

Leo merely smiled at their words.

However, Lunia and Chelsea, who knew Leo’s true identity, looked horrified.

'What in the world is he planning this time?'

“By the way, Black Rabbit. If you handed over all your duties as Student Council President, what do you do with your spare time?”

Leo did not answer Ar’s question.

He merely smiled.

Clap—!

Just then, Melina clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention.

“Let us leave the idle chatter there. How about calling the competition the Festival of Heroes?”

The students exclaimed in admiration.

“I believe that is an excellent name, Dragon Lord.”

Doberman answered respectfully, and Melina smiled.

“Good. Then, until the Festival of Heroes begins, the academies will continue working out the details through close cooperation. That concludes our meeting.”

===

That night.

Leo stood in the training ground of the accommodations assigned to him in Dragonia.

Standing silently beneath a night sky flooded with starlight, Leo drew his sword.

From the moment he first learned to walk, Leo had pushed himself relentlessly.

As a child, he had done so to awaken the power of an All-Class.

Afterward, he had trained to recover the strength of his previous life.

As a result of driving himself so mercilessly, he had rapidly regained his former power.

Recovering the strength of his previous life had been Leo’s first and foremost objective.

However, after meeting Velkia, Leo had begun pushing himself even harder.

Shing—! Hummm—!

Leo’s sword resonated, and gray Aura rose from its blade.

Watching it, Leo closed his eyes.

'Focus.'

All of Leo’s senses converged upon the tip of his sword.

The night was quiet.

At some point, however, he ceased hearing anything at all.

When Leo opened his eyes, the only thing he could see within the pitch-black darkness was his sword glowing gray.

It was not an illusion.

The phenomenon occurred because he had focused every one of his senses entirely upon the sword.

Tap—!

Gripping the sword with both hands, Leo raised it vertically before his face.

Someone appeared before him.

It was a beastkin warrior holding a sword.

Arron.

Only Leo and Arron stood within that pitch-black space.

At some point, Leo’s appearance had also changed into Kyle’s.

Arron lowered his stance.

Leo kicked off the ground and charged toward him.

Rumble—!

Aura burst from Leo’s swinging sword.

Countless fragments of Aura moved too quickly for the eye to follow, surging toward Arron as if they would tear his body to pieces.

At that moment, Arron’s sword moved smoothly.

Clang-clang-clang—!

Golden Aura shattered the gray Aura into fragments.

It did not work.

Leo had expected that much.

'Of course. My opponent is Arron.'

Leo was undoubtedly the strongest pure warrior of the present age.

No, there had likely been no one who surpassed him since the Age of Calamity.

Not his disciples, Velkia and Vihar.

Not even the Genesis Heroes, Lumene and Azonia.

Purely in terms of martial technique, none could surpass Leo.

That was only natural.

Leo could skillfully wield every kind of weapon.

That also made him exceptionally adept at countless unorthodox tactics.

He had not earned the epithet Surviving Hero for nothing.

'Whether in the past or the present, experience is the measure of a warrior’s skill.'

The number of battlefields they had crossed was different.

The number of times they had staked their lives was different.

Their fundamental level of experience was simply incomparable.

From that perspective, Leo’s skill as a warrior surpassed even Arron’s.

Clang—!

At that moment, Arron’s sword knocked Leo’s blade away.

Feeling the sudden weight behind Arron’s strike, Leo opened his subspace.

Whooom—!

Gripping a massive battle axe, Leo spun his body and threw all his weight behind the weapon.

Boom—!

Arron blocked the battle axe and was sent flying before landing on the ground.

He transformed into his beast form.

'But I’m weaker than Arron.'

Leo’s technique as a warrior was superior, but Arron’s caliber as a martial artist was overwhelming.

It did not merely mean that Arron possessed greater strength.

Leo constantly switched weapons to suit the situation, maximizing his combat ability in real time.

Arron did not possess such an ability.

'To be precise, he has no need to fight like me.'

Leo used many different weapons because he could not transcend his limits with only one.

It was a kind of workaround.

Arron was different.

He had transcended his limits with a single weapon.

That was why Arron was stronger than Leo as a warrior.

Leo suddenly gripped his sword once more.

Gray Aura surged around it like flickering flames.

'The essence of the Mana Trait of Purity is power unbound by anything, right?'

That was also why Leo was an All-Class.

He could awaken countless different abilities.

Leo’s Original Magic, Bible, had also been born from that Mana Trait.

He increased the number of powers available to him.

Then he used them to strengthen himself.

That was how Leo had trained himself ever since his days as Kyle.

As a result, Leo’s abilities were as vast as the sea.

However—

'They’re broad, but shallow.'

Others might believe his abilities possessed tremendous depth.

The sheer amount he had accumulated was fundamentally different from everyone else.

But compared to his companions, it was another matter.

'Being unbound by anything also means being infinite.'

That meant Leo could also grow infinitely stronger.

The final moments of his previous life had proven it.

By inheriting the strength of his companions, Leo had surpassed Erebos, an immortal being.

However, that had ultimately been borrowed strength, not his own.

'That was why my victory was incomplete, and I closed my eyes.'

Clench—!

Leo tightened his grip.

He intended to win in this life as well.

The thought of losing had never crossed his mind.

'But there’s no guarantee it won’t end the same way as my previous life.'

There was no guarantee that he would not surpass Erebos once again through someone else’s sacrifice.

'I’ll never allow that.'

Leo charged toward Arron.

Arron rushed forward to meet him.

'That’s why I have to surpass him. This bastard!'

Arron stood at the pinnacle of martial arts as Leo understood them.

And it was not only Arron.

There was Luna and Lysinas as well.

As a mage and a summoner, Leo had to definitively surpass the companions who had reached the pinnacle of their respective fields.

Slash—!

In that instant, Leo’s sword was severed and sent spinning into the air.

Arron’s blade was already resting against Leo’s neck.

Their eyes met, and Arron’s lips moved.

'Amazing! As expected of you, Kyle!'

Leo smiled bitterly at those words.

“Amazing! As expected of you, Black Rabbit!”

An excited voice reached him.

The pitch-black darkness had vanished, and Leo found himself back beneath the starlit sky.

Ar ran over to him with sparkling eyes.

“You seem even more amazing than before! Black Rabbit! Fight me right—Mreeeow?!”

“Why are you interrupting his training, stupid cat?”

Lunia roughly yanked the excited Ar’s tail.

Ar crouched down, clutching her backside as tears welled in her eyes.

Leo chuckled at the sight and ruffled Ar’s head firmly.

“It’s fine. I was about to finish anyway.”

Ar’s expression grew languid like a contented cat.

Watching her, Lunia murmured inwardly,

'That was definitely Kyle-nim just now.'

Lunia had sensed something strange about Leo from the moment they first met.

Despite his young age, there were times when she felt an unfathomable depth within him, as though he were already an adult.

Now, she knew what it was.

It was Leo’s true self, revealed after he removed the mask of his present life.

Leo chuckled at Ar’s languid expression and lightly rubbed beneath her chin.

Purr, purr—

The sound came from Ar’s throat.

Then Ar suddenly jolted in realization.

Her face turned bright red.

“Stop treating me like a caaat!”

“You are a cat.”

“No matter how one looks at it, you were clearly a kitten just now.”

Lunia and Driana responded mercilessly.

“Ugggh!”

Ar furiously stomped the ground.

Thud! Thud!

Unfortunately for her, no one present was intimidated by that.

“Anyway! Fight me!”

“I have somewhere to go tonight, so that’s enough training for now.”

Leo chuckled and looked down at his Aura.

The gray Aura undulated around him.

'First, I need to gain enough power to kill Erebos with a sword.'

Leo’s power was undeniably Erebos’s natural enemy.

However, although Leo had been able to inflict fatal injuries upon Erebos in his previous life, he could not kill him completely.

That was because Leo possessed only one means of utterly annihilating Erebos.

'Innocent.'

The Original Magic Luna had left to Leo.

The essence of pure Magic Power.

'If Purity can be manifested through magic, then Aura should also be capable of manifesting it.'

Once that happened, Leo’s Aura would become a blade capable of killing the Primordial Evil.

However, to accomplish that, he had to transcend his limits as a martial artist.

Leo knew precisely what that limit was.

He turned his head slightly.

Although he had awakened from the mental world, Arron’s phantom somehow remained.

Arron smiled gently at him.

Leo muttered inwardly,

'I’ll surpass you soon, so stop giving me that “You can do it” look. You learned something completely unnecessary from Lysinas.'

Clicking his tongue, Leo lightly flicked his sword.

Fwoosh—!

The gray Aura scattered.

“Hmm?”

Ar suddenly looked startled.

“What is it?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Ar shook her head.

'When Black Rabbit’s Aura scattered just now, it looked pure white for a moment. Was I imagining it?'

***