Chapter 543

Book 1 Chapter 543

543.

Leo’s eyes burned with murderous intent as he glared at Ulleyn.

He could perceive an unimaginable surge of mystical energy.

An unyielding fountain of raw magic.

For just a fleeting second, that silhouette seemed to reflect a trace of Luna.

Yet, Leo promptly dismissed the notion with a shake of his head.

‘To even place him in the same breath as Luna is an insult to her.’

Luna’s mystical capability was entirely the product of her own dedication.

The creature standing before him now, however, was a completely different story.

‘This energy is far too immense to be contained naturally within his own soul.’

He could perceive the excessive magic spilling over, utterly unmanageable for its host.

Furthermore, the true origin of that immense power lay deep beneath the earth.

The nature of that energy became instantly apparent to him.

It was a pristine, transparent aura.

‘Vitality.’

It did not belong to the man wielding it.

Leo shifted his gaze downward.

‘The depths of this underground are teeming with countless souls.’

It was sickeningly clear that he was stripping the life force from those helpless individuals, utilizing it as the fuel for his own spells.

Focusing his internal energy into his eyes, Leo scrutinized the foe.

There, etched directly onto Ulleyn’s physical form, was a distinct mystical array.

“It is an innate spellcraft.”

A flicker of astonishment crossed Ulleyn’s features.

“Do you possess an affinity that permits you to read the internal energies of others?”

“Impressive.”

Ulleyn offered a look of begrudging respect toward Leo, who had deciphered not just the spell but the very nature of his affinity, before posing a question.

“How do you view my sorcery, now that it has unlocked boundless horizons?”

“You speak of horizons while actively stealing the vitality of the defenseless.”

“Progress wears many faces. Is it not our collective obligation to maximize our potential in order to equal those who came before us?”

Ulleyn gestured grandly, throwing his arms wide.

“Even the lesser beings should feel honored. To serve as the foundational stones for a path toward our grand predecessors is a noble fate.”

This exact mindset was what Luna despised above all else.

There was zero value in an achievement earned by crushing the potential of everyone else.

Yet, even a century of debate wouldn’t convince a man like this; only Luna herself could make him understand.

“Words are entirely wasted on you.”

“A pity.”

A chilling, razor-sharp pressure began to radiate from Leo’s form.

Having submerged himself into the realm of heightened awareness, the young warrior rapidly mapped out the entirety of his environment.

Every detail in his vicinity became hyper-distinct.

Leo pushed his heightened awareness even deeper.

Breaching the boundaries of the sensory realm that Arion had pioneered was an immense feat in itself.

However, the true test of navigating that sensory realm only began once a person actually crossed the threshold.

Arion had forged a legendary combat prowess by merging specific breathing methods with heightened awareness.

Yet, breathing techniques and heightened awareness were fundamentally different concepts.

While breathing served to multiply one’s raw physical output, heightened awareness was entirely centered on data collection.

The adversary’s visual stance.

The adversary’s scent.

The subtle vibrations of the adversary’s positioning.

Heightened awareness granted a combatant the ability to process all these details faster and more comprehensively than any normal warrior.

Data, in its purest form, was a devastating asset.

But it amounted to nothing if the user lacked the capability to act upon it.

Even Leo had endured a grueling process of trial and error before he could properly execute strategies based on the data provided by his heightened awareness.

Whish-!

Leo leveled his blade straight ahead.

His perception was already incredibly acute.

He focused the incoming data to an even finer point.

As he did, the world around him appeared to decelerate significantly.

This was the pinnacle state achievable when heightened awareness was pushed to its absolute boundary.

It was the very threshold that Kyle had finally managed to cross.

‘If you push past the point where the world slows down, reality begins to look entirely frozen.’

‘Does that mean the subsequent stage involves predicting what lies ahead?’

‘Precisely. Kyle will grasp it before long.’

Evoking the memory of Arion’s past commentary, a wry grin touched Leo’s lips.

‘I failed to manage it, you absolute fool. If I had, I wouldn’t have suffered through all of this.’

Leo dropped into a low, offensive stance.

Operating within this sensory realm drained his physical stamina at a frightening pace.

Had he been relying on the peak physique of his previous incarnation, it would have been manageable, but his current physical form struggled under the pressure.

‘My present flesh has simply not matured to its peak.’

Regardless of how intensely he pushed his physical limits and forced his growth, he was still bound by the limitations of youth.

In his prior existence, he had commanded a level of physical dominance that vastly outmatched his current youthful state.

Even now, he had not fully reclaimed the sheer might of his past.

‘There is still a massive gap to bridge.’

Leo locked every muscle in his frame, channeling his intent.

‘Merely matching the capability of my past life will not suffice.’

Rumble-!

An ash-colored energy erupted violently from Leo’s skin.

‘I must surpass the warrior I used to be.’

Tightening his grip, Leo reflected on his past motivations.

He had genuinely believed, until recently, that as Kyle, the Hero of Beginnings, his purpose had been fulfilled.

He believed that enduring that harsh era and safeguarding the world was the full extent of his responsibility.

‘I assumed that protecting existence was my sole duty and achievement.’

Leo bit his lip until it nearly bled.

Witnessing Berkhia’s current state shattered that illusion completely.

‘Had I actually contemplated what kind of future I desired after peace was won, just as the others did, this tragedy would never have unfolded.’

He had always been prepared to perish without a single regret.

Giving up his own existence so that his companions could inherit a peaceful tomorrow.

He felt content knowing he had preserved a world where succeeding generations could thrive.

Yet, looking at it from another angle, it meant he had never truly prepared himself to actually exist in that peace.

‘Was defeating Erebus simply the absolute limit of what could be asked?’

In truth, it seemed so.

Because the future that awaited the world appeared to hold nothing but sorrow.

Even if Leo had allowed himself to envision a life beyond the conflict, just like his companions had, his survival in that ultimate clash had been an statistical impossibility anyway.

Leo recognized better than anyone that wishing for survival back then was nothing short of foolish arrogance.

‘Yet, if nothing else… Berkhia and Vihart should never have been subjected to such a miserable existence.’

Leo had secretly wished to stand alongside his students on a proper field of battle.

That wasn’t born from some idealistic fantasy of combatting foes together with his pupils.

It was a quiet craving born from a desperate need for genuine allies to share his burden.

But if he harbored that desire, he owed it to them to at least impart the knowledge of how to exist quietly once the fighting ceased.

Kyle’s own existence had been utterly devoid of tranquility.

Even so, he possessed the insight to guide them toward the kind of life that awaited when harmony finally returned after the chaos.

His two pupils were tragically inept at finding joy in a world without conflict.

Luna and Arion were likely incapable of teaching them such things either.

They were consumed by their own dreams of returning home and forging a joyous life together, meaning the thought of instructing others on it never crossed their minds.

He was the only one who could have guided them.

‘Yet I chose to look away.’

He had blindly assumed his pupils would find their own way forward.

‘I must rectify that failure now, regardless of the delay. And this time, the answer cannot be found in my own demise.’

To achieve this, he had to conquer his greatest obstacle.

His own historical peak.

Advancing merely a step or two beyond his current state would fall short.

In the past, he would have settled for such minor progress.

‘Break through the boundaries.’

Those were the words left behind by his heir—a individual he had never encountered in person—meant for the eyes of future generations.

It was the core principle he had driven into the minds of every heroic prospect meant to inherit the legacy.

Yet…

‘Since my awakening in this new life, have I genuinely tested my absolute boundaries even once?’

To an outside observer, Leo appeared to be a figure who constantly shattered limitations and pulled off the impossible.

But evaluating himself strictly, that wasn’t a true transcendence of limits.

‘Those were simply feats I performed countless times in my prior incarnation. That is merely retracing old paths, not breaking new ground.’

Because of that.

‘It is time to establish a definitive milestone.’

Leo focused his vision toward the horizon.

‘With my weapon arts, I shall aim for Arion.’

That stood as a monumental objective.

‘With my spellcraft, I shall aim for Luna.’

A tier of mastery he had long considered entirely out of reach.

‘With my pacts, I shall aim for Lysinas.’

And yet…

‘The tracks have already been laid, haven’t they?’

The very trails his closest allies had painstakingly carved out.

His only task was to sprint along those exact paths.

Toward the ultimate standard he held in his mind.

Toward the heights he once deemed entirely inaccessible.

His heightened awareness sharpened to a razor’s edge.

‘Exceed the absolute limit!’

Leo’s form exploded forward with astonishing velocity.

Ulleyn, suddenly finding himself the target of this terrifying momentum, stared in utter disbelief.

‘How can a mere youth wield a force of this magnitude?’

This power defied all established laws of nature.

Crash-! Skrrrrt-!

Leo’s blade slammed into Ulleyn’s protective sphere, spiderwebbing the entire defensive construct with deep fissures.

Reacting instantly to the sight, Ulleyn began weaving a counter-spell.

His casting speed was incredibly swift.

However, the sheer volume of magical energy squandered in the process was massive.

Leo, who seemed poised to press his advantage against Ulleyn, abruptly pivoted on his heel.

Ulleyn, bracing for a direct assault, looked momentarily bewildered by the sudden shift.

Then, tracking Leo’s new trajectory, his expression morphed into profound shock.

Clang-! Boom-!

Leo’s weapon collided violently with Berkhia’s blade, unleashed shockwaves of razor-sharp kinetic energy in every direction.

The sheer force of the impact reverberated painfully through Leo’s skeleton.

Whoosh-!

A glowing array manifested directly from Berkhia’s open palm.

Anticipating the threat, Leo dropped his torso low to the ground.

Craaash-!

A blinding torrent of illumination erupted from the point-blank spellcraft.

The linear trajectory of the radiant blast obliterated everything in its path.

A cold sweat broke out across Leo’s skin as he registered the terrifying destructive potential of that magic.

“Luna would have beamed with pride seeing you now, you troublesome student!”

Boom-!

Slipping past her guard into Berkhia’s immediate space, Leo drove his shoulder hard into her chest.

He channeled the full kinetic force of his momentum, amplified heavily by his internal energy.

Against any standard combatant, an impact of this caliber would have reduced their skeletal structure to splinters.

Shhhf-!

Yet Berkhia merely skidded backward, her boots carving deep grooves into the terrain.

Leo, conversely, hissed through his teeth as a dull, throbbing ache flared in his shoulder.

‘Anima’s Armor.’

Berkhia’s signature spellcraft.

Just as Leo began resetting his posture to counter Berkhia’s next movement.

Flash-!

Once more, the destructive Light of Termination descended upon Leo’s position.

Leo instantly invoked a localized teleportation spell to vanish from the danger zone.

Rumble-!

A titanic concussion of displaced magical energy rocked the area where the Light of Termination had struck.

“Are you genuinely attempting to shield Lord Berkhia from causing destruction while simultaneously engaging me?”

Ulleyn called out.

“Leo Flobe, your core philosophies aside, you truly possess the spirit of a grand champion.”

Ulleyn offered a slow clap, his expression turning mockingly sorrowful.

“Which only makes it a tragedy. The reality that I must be the one to return a soul like yours back to the cosmos.”

Leo let out a sharp chuckle, locking eyes with Ulleyn.

Ulleyn blinked, visibly unsettled by the reaction.

“What do you find amusing?”

“Isn’t it inherently comical? A mediocre sorcerer who mistakes stolen power for his own talent, standing there lecturing as if he amounts to anything important.”

“Did you truly just label me a mediocre sorcerer?”

He had been heralded as an unprecedented prodigy since birth.

Consequently, this marked the absolute first instance in his existence where anyone had dared call his talents mediocre.

“What else do you call someone who clumsily gathers random energy reserves and forces them active through sheer, unrefined volume?”

“Utilizing my signature spellcraft, [Star’s World], I am capable of replicating any magical phenomenon. It functions precisely like your [Bible].”

Ulleyn gestured broadly to the space around them.

“Are you claiming that the architect of such an achievement is mediocre?”

“To be precise, you fall short of even mediocrity. You are a defective caster who becomes utterly powerless the moment you step off this specific soil.”

Ulleyn’s features twitched violently as Leo’s commentary accurately struck the fatal vulnerability of his technique.

“If Berkhia weren’t occupying my attention, dismantling a fraud like you would require very little effort.”

“Losers always find clever ways to rationalize their position. If your confidence is so absolute, why not simply ignore Lord Berkhia entirely?”

“Watching a student commit a grave error without intervening strips a person of the right to be called their teacher. Furthermore, she specifically requested my intervention.”

“Teacher? Your words make no sense. Regardless, Lord Berkhia is entirely beyond your reach now—”

Flash-! Craaash-!

A sudden burst of sorcery erupted violently from the debris where the Light of Termination had just settled.

Ulleyn gasped in sheer panic, throwing himself aside to evade the unexpected blast.

The defensive ward he had hastily raised shattered into dust.

“How could my own spellcraft—!”

“Deconstructing the matrix before the impact lands. That is elementary protocol in a duel between casters, is it not?”

“How can a mindless corpse execute such high-level manipulation? On top of that, she lacks the ability to channel stellar sorcery entirely!”

Ulleyn’s expression twisted in sheer frustration.

Observing the man’s unraveling composure, Leo spoke calmly.

“That is precisely why you are a fraud, sitting far below mediocrity.”

Leo allowed a sharp, mocking smile to pull at his lips.

“A fool who sings endless praises of his own hidden potential, yet completely dismisses the potential inherent in others.”

Ulleyn’s face deformed with pure malice at the blatant disrespect.

The sheer mockery in Leo’s expression stoked a raging fire within him.

That reaction stemmed from a hauntingly familiar look he caught in Leo’s gaze.

It was an expression reserved for looking down upon a completely inconsequential insect.

It mirrored perfectly the exact condescension the high-born directed at the elves who lacked the capacity for stellar magic.

Leo genuinely did not view him as a peer in the magical arts.

A profound fury surged through him at a gaze that completely invalidated his entire identity.

Yet, Leo didn’t bother wasting another look on Ulleyn.

His focus remained entirely anchored on his student.

‘Even stripped of her consciousness, a feat like this is entirely within her capability.’

Berkhia had spent a lifetime drilling her physical reflexes to perfectly execute flawless martial forms and magical equations automatically.

She had carried the weight of existence entirely on her own shoulders.

‘And an inability to manifest stellar sorcery has zero bearing on one’s capacity to unravel it.’

Leo observed Berkhia closely.

‘In this era, Berkhia undoubtedly possessed a deeper comprehension of stellar magic than anyone alive, save for Luna and myself.’

Though Berkhia ultimately found herself unable to wield stellar magic personally, she had poured more effort than anyone into mastering her instructor’s techniques.

It was an impossibility for her to remain ignorant of its mechanics simply because she couldn’t manifest it herself.

‘If Sayrun stands as Luna’s heir in the realm of stellar casting, then Berkhia is Luna’s true successor in the realm of orthodox sorcery.’

Viewed through that lens, it was entirely logical for a combatant of Berkhia’s caliber to effortlessly neutralize Ulleyn’s spells, even while trapped in a mindless state.

Leo’s declaration that he could easily handle Ulleyn was a statement of absolute fact, not empty bravado.

‘To an ordinary warrior, he might present a terrifying threat backed by an absurd reservoir of energy, but to me, he is merely a bloated, clumsy amateur.’

Leo locked his gaze back onto Berkhia.

‘My primary objective must be to incapacitate Berkhia.’

Leo tightened his grip on his weapon.

Ulleyn could be dealt with afterward.

The moment Leo began drawing upon his internal reserves.

Berkhia bridged the distance between them with terrifying speed.

The entity that Berkhia had become drew no boundaries between ally and adversary.

She existed purely as an undead mechanism designed to eradicate every living presence within her perimeter.

Just as Leo braced himself, gritting his teeth to meet the oncoming assault.

A dark silhouette intercepted the path directly ahead of him.

In a flash, Chen Xia materialized, driving her blade upward to deflect Berkhia’s descending strike.

Boom-! Craaash-!

The collision of their weapons generated a deafening concussive wave that tore through the air.

Leo’s eyes widened in profound shock as he stared at the back of the woman shielding him from Berkhia.

“You are…”

That unmistakable stance instantly brought a specific individual to the forefront of his mind.

It was a presence he could never mistake for anyone else.

“Vihart?”

Hearing Leo voice the name, Chen Xia cast a subtle glance over her shoulder.

A gentle, bittersweet smile graced her features as she looked upon Leo.

“Master…”

The very instant that word left her lips.

Berkhia, who remained locked in a fierce struggle against Vihart’s blade, instinctively leaped backward to create distance.

“Ah…”