Chapter 627

As the destructive magic of the celestial spell, End, detonated, Silatuna’s form began to crumble.

Writhing in agony, Silatuna reacted instantly, hoisting her arm aloft.

The grotesque limb reshaped itself into a colossal blade.

Splat—!

Without a shred of hesitation, Silatuna hacked away her own massive physical form.

The severed portions of her body were rapidly dissolved by the lingering power of End.

Watching this unfold, Leo narrowed his gaze.

‘I figured as much.’

End was a magic of pure annihilation, designed to continuously grind down anything unfortunate enough to make direct contact with it.

It was this terrifying property that had cemented it as Luna’s signature spell.

Under normal circumstances, a direct hit from End meant absolute erasure.

Yet, even a spell of such ultimate destruction possessed a fatal flaw.

Its true destructive capacity relied heavily on the amount of mana supplied by the caster.

Had End been unleashed at its absolute peak by a mana master on the level of Luna herself, the target would have been vaporized before they could even process the threat.

But Leo did not possess Luna’s vast reserves of mana.

Consequently, he lacked the sheer power required to completely wipe Silatuna from existence.

Silatuna was, after all, a Legion Commander.

She was an ancient horror who had lived through the Age of Calamity, casting a shadow of dread over the world for millennia.

During that chaotic era, legendary champions had fought relentlessly to bring down every single one of the Legion Commanders.

They engaged in an endless cycle of brutal warfare against these monstrous entities.

Silatuna was one of the few who had ultimately endured those desperate crusades.

Though caught off guard by a completely unfamiliar spell, Silatuna’s ancient instincts allowed her to instantly deduce the correct countermeasure.

‘What kind of monstrous magic is this!’

A freezing wave of malice radiated from Silatuna’s eyes.

She had never encountered this spell before in her long life.

Furthermore, its raw lethality was profoundly disturbing.

‘An elf capable of wielding such power actually exists?’

An unsettling dread crept down her spine.

‘Could it be that girl, Luna?’

Silatuna was familiar with the name.

Luna Rubinance.

An anomaly who had emerged in a world rapidly spiraling toward its demise.

‘The Surviving Hero, the Fool, and the God’s Blacksmith—they are all irregularities of an entirely different magnitude.’

Without their interference, this realm would have been reduced to cinders by Erebus’s catastrophic flames a long time ago.

‘Is this the final barrier meant to obstruct the will of the Almighty?’

Silatuna cast her icy, piercing glare toward the trajectory from which the spell had been launched.

And there she spotted her.

A stunning elf was soaring directly toward her location.

Silatuna felt a jarring sense of mismatch as she locked eyes with her approaching foe. The elf’s pale silver eyes shimmered, carrying a profound, deadly intent completely uncharacteristic of her race.

It was blatantly obvious that this woman was the architect of the previous magic attack.

And now, that solitary sorceress was charging straight into close quarters.

In any other situation, Silatuna would have laughed at such a suicidal maneuver.

Yet, an inexplicable, burning fury ignited deep within her chest.

[You arrogant bitch! Are you eager to throw your life away!]

A mere spellcaster like Luna stood absolutely no chance in a physical brawl against her.

Regardless of the circumstances, the Monster Queen remained a supreme Legion Commander of Tartarus.

She was a harbinger of absolute despair, a premier general under Erebus who had held the entire world hostage to terror.

Luna’s current behavior was nothing short of blatant mockery.

In fact, a unmistakable sneer was carved onto the elf’s face.

As though her triumph was already an absolute certainty.

She was looking down on her as if she were a mere bug.

[Fine then! If you are so desperate for death, I will rip you limb from limb!]

Rooaaar—!

An oppressive surge of dark magic erupted from Silatuna’s form.

In the blink of an eye, a complex hex manifested.

The Curse of Severance—a barrier designed to completely isolate a specific pocket of space from external interference.

With this active, no outside ally could possibly come to Luna’s aid.

Furthermore.

Fleeing from Silatuna was now entirely out of the question.

Luna was effectively locked in a claustrophobic, one-on-one deathmatch with a Legion Commander.

[I will make you suffer for your arrogance!]

Craaaash—!

The terrain fractured and groaned under the weight of Silatuna’s overwhelming bloodlust and battle fervor.

Despite her immense bulk, Silatuna lunged forward with blinding velocity.

Swish—!

As she swung her arm, a devastating force coalesced.

It was a sweeping strike covering an area that no traditional mage could ever hope to evade.

Regrettably for her, the person standing before Silatuna was neither Luna nor a mage.

Leo completely unleashed the stored energy within his body.

Boom—!

A brilliant golden aura burst forth from Leo’s fingertips.

[Aura?! She is a magic swordsman!]

But the revelation did not stop there.

Crackle—!

Blinding white lightning began to dance across Leo’s hand.

It was the raw manifestation of lightning, infused with the divine authority of the Pegasus King, Albus.

Silatuna’s expression warped into sheer disbelief as she sensed the sudden torrent of spiritual energy radiating from Leo.

[Spiritual power as well?!]

Leo, having seamlessly blended Arion’s aura with his own summoning arts, bridged the remaining gap between them in a flash.

“A massive target just makes things easier.”

With a mocking grin, Leo drove his fist directly into Silatuna’s face.

Flash! Crash—!

A blinding white explosion of lightning detonated upon impact.

The purified lightning energy of the Pegasus King acted as a lethal poison to a being like Silatuna.

Sssss—!

With the upper half of her torso and head completely obliterated by the blast, Silatuna’s massive frame tottered unsteadily before collapsing backward.

Thud—!

The earth violently shook as her weight crashed down.

Leo crossed his arms, staring down coldly at the fallen Silatuna.

Right at that moment.

Crunch— Snap!

The sickening crunch of warping bone and reforming tissue echoed through the clearing.

Silatuna’s massive, fallen form began to contract and compress rapidly.

Moments later, having assumed a more compact, human-like appearance, Silatuna glared up at Leo.

She spat her words out with venomous spite.

“I was under the impression that the Surviving Hero was a human?”

The unhinged madness she had displayed moments prior had completely vanished.

Though still gripped by an intense rage, she had forced herself back into a state of calculating calm.

She was actively trying to dissect the true identity of the mysterious elf standing before her.

An All-Class individual.

As a high-ranking servant of Erebus, Silatuna understood the catastrophic implications of such an existence better than anyone else.

“What’s wrong? Are you terrified? Afraid that Erebus might have to deal with another natural counter?”

Hearing Leo’s calm retort, Silatuna’s face grew incredibly rigid.

‘How could she possibly be aware of that?’

Silatuna ground her teeth, staring at an adversary who seemed to possess intimate knowledge of her master’s vulnerabilities.

‘No matter what, she cannot leave this place alive.’

As Silatuna locked eyes with Leo, she felt a suffocating, lethal intent pouring from the elf’s gaze.

Instead of backing down, Silatuna’s lips curled into a vicious smirk at the display of hostility.

“You seem quite eager to slaughter me. Just know that I have slaughtered and devoured an infinite number of your people. Elves possess a delightfully sweet flavor, you see.”

She deliberately hurled an insult designed to push the buttons of an elf, a race notorious for their fierce tribal loyalty.

“Naturally. When a disgusting insect is skittering across your floor, any normal person would feel the urge to crush it.”

“You arrogant, long-eared bitch… did you wash your mouth out with sewage!”

“More or less, yeah.”

Leo remained entirely unfazed by the provocation.

Seeing her insults slide off him so easily only caused Silatuna’s rage to simmer more violently.

“Keep acting proud. It won’t change the absolute reality that your entire race is doomed to be wiped out.”

“Is that so? Let me give you a glimpse into the future instead.”

A subtle smirk touched Leo’s lips.

“This world isn’t going to fall. In exactly two decades, Erebus will be systematically brought down by us.”

“Delusional nonsense.”

“Does it sound that way to you? It’s the absolute truth. The recent demise of the Glutton King was merely our opening move.”

“…”

Silatuna’s expression froze instantly.

‘How does she know about that?’

Silatuna was well aware of the secret report stating that the Glutton King, Jörmungandr, had been slain.

But the elven collective should have had no way of knowing.

There were only two individuals who had walked away from that battlefield alive.

The Fool and the Surviving Hero.

Furthermore, reports indicated that those two were currently en route to this very forest.

Silatuna had orchestrated this preemptive slaughter precisely to wipe out the elves before those two anomalies could arrive.

‘The Fool and the Surviving Hero shouldn’t have had any method to transmit that information, right?’

The sheer presence of the Legion Commanders distorted the surroundings, rendering long-range communication magic entirely useless due to the interference of their curses.

“This world will endure, Monster Queen.”

“For someone about to become a corpse, you certainly love the sound of your own voice.”

Rumble—

Jet-black mana began to violently roll off Silatuna’s form once more.

“Stop hiding behind empty words and look at what’s in front of you. Snuffing out a pathetic elf like you requires less than a second of my time. One decisive strike is all it takes. And yet you talk of salvation?”

Leo gave a slow nod in response.

“True. A single direct hit would undoubtedly mean instant death.”

Leo’s gaze sharpened into slits.

“Assuming you can actually land it, that is.”

Screeech—!

Silatuna’s arm elongated abruptly, thrusting directly toward Leo’s position.

Leo effortlessly slipped past the incoming strike.

“Don’t you dare run!”

Silatuna sneered, immediately transitioning into her next sequence.

Dozens of secondary limbs began to rapidly sprout from her extended arm.

Leo merely smiled as a literal wall of grasping flesh deployed around him like a massive, suffocating web.

‘I can read it perfectly.’

He knew her exact offensive habits.

If one were to compare the raw, unbridled power of the present Silatuna to the version of her that existed five thousand years in the future, this current iteration was vastly more powerful.

The future Silatuna had been stripped of her unique Authority.

And Leo’s current baseline strength was slightly below that of the future Silatuna.

In any standard scenario, this would be an entirely hopeless engagement.

However…

‘Super-senses.’

Leo’s perception expanded to an absolute peak.

The outcome of a battle was never dictated solely by raw output.

Even though the present Silatuna possessed vastly superior physical metrics compared to her future self, the Silatuna from five millennia later was an infinitely more dangerous combatant.

The legendary heroes weren’t the only ones who had been forced to adapt and grow during the twenty years of unceasing, brutal warfare between salvation and ruin.

Silatuna had also been forced to continuously refine her abilities just to stay alive through that meat grinder.

She had learned to constantly cycle through unpredictable attack angles and perpetually alter the flow of her dark magic.

All to avoid being outmaneuvered by the champions of humanity.

To cut those champions down. And to ultimately bring about the end of days.

Growth and experience weren’t exclusive traits of the heroes.

The Legion Commanders evolved in the exact same manner.

‘That adaptation is what made them truly terrifying.’

The sheer fact that they managed to survive.

Compared to the three apex Legion Commanders who reigned five thousand years later, the Silatuna standing before him—while still carrying the title of Monster Queen—was nothing more than a powerful, overly confident novice.

‘She completely lacks the malice and tactical cunning of her future self.’

She was just a brute reliant entirely on swinging her massive reserves of power around.

‘There is nothing simpler to dismantle than an arrogant child who overestimates their own strength.’

Because of that simplicity, Silatuna’s trajectories were completely transparent to Leo.

For someone like Leo, who had spent a lifetime calculating every conceivable method to execute Silatuna, this younger version presented no real danger.

The localized barrier she had deployed fell into the same category.

‘The future Silatuna would never foolishly isolate herself using the Curse of Severance.’

In Leo’s assessment, the single most dangerous asset Silatuna possessed right now was the massive horde under her command.

A literal tide of monsters that could easily disrupt the flow of battle.

Yet, Silatuna had chosen to leave her entire army outside of this isolated pocket dimension.

The historical Silatuna was driven entirely by the desire to tear her enemies apart with her own two hands.

A single slip-up would mean his demise.

However, the sheer volume of combat experience Leo had accumulated left absolutely zero margin for errors.

‘An army severed from Silatuna’s direct command is only half a threat.’

By anchoring Silatuna within this space, the elven forces outside would be fully capable of holding the line.

Granted, merely holding the line wouldn’t secure a definitive victory.

As time dragged on, despair would inevitably set in.

But Leo was fully aware.

He knew exactly who was currently marching toward the Elven Forest.

‘The tragic past will not repeat itself.’

Leo’s lips curved upward.

‘You expected me to cower before the might of the Monster Queen?’

Visualizing Zora, the one responsible for sending him back to this era, Leo let out a quiet chuckle.

‘To me, a fight of this level doesn’t even qualify as a proper test.’

For Leo, this engagement was nothing more than a routine rehearsal of a battle he had already mastered.

‘Just hold on. You’re next on the list.’

Leo’s blade lashed out, leaving a trail of ash-gray energy in its wake.

Slash—!

Silatuna’s severed head went spinning into the air.

Her airborne face was contorted in absolute bewilderment.

‘Why! Why am I completely unable to touch her!’

It felt as though the elf was playing with her like a cat with a mouse.

It was as if this creature possessed a deeper understanding of her own abilities than she did.

The foe was predicting every single movement ahead of time.

‘This makes no sense! I am… a Legion Commander! I am the supreme Monster Queen, Lady Silatuna!’

A violent eruption of dark energy burst from Silatuna’s form.

It was a curse, the absolute pinnacle of demonic spellcraft.

Shatter—!

The intricate magic circle governing the hex was instantly shattered into pieces.

Silatuna’s face drained of color.

“How could you possibly…”

“The structural flaw was completely visible.”

Leo replied in an icy tone, cleanly cleaving Silatuna’s floating head right down the center.

‘My army! I need to recall my army!’

She couldn’t comprehend how, but this opponent was reading her like an open book.

Realizing that dragging this monster into an isolated space via the Curse of Severance had been a catastrophic miscalculation, a panicked Silatuna desperately attempted to dissolve the barrier.

But Leo anticipated the retreat instantly.

Leo’s blade struck down, obliterating the deactivation array before the spell could even manifest.

Leo’s voice echoed with chilling finality.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Rumble—!

Staring into the depths of Leo’s suffocating, murderous gaze, Silatuna was completely consumed by primitive terror.

“Spare me…!”

Thwack—!

Silatuna’s desperate plea was abruptly cut short by a cold blade.

Staring down at the ruined remains of Silatuna, Leo delivered his final verdict.

“Your journey ends right here.”