Necromancer.
It referred to one who summoned Spirits and wielded the power they had possessed in life.
People often mistook a Spirit for the soul itself.
However, a Spirit was not a soul in the purest sense.
'A Spirit is closer to a memory etched into Mana.'
Every living being possessed Mana.
Depending on how that Mana was trained and the nature of the vessel that held it, it branched into Aura, Magic Power, or Spirit Energy.
When life ended, Mana returned to nature.
And in time, that Mana settled within another living being.
However, the Mana of someone who had possessed immense power in life left behind a lingering scent.
'Reading the memories within that scent and manifesting them through Spirit Energy—that is what a Spirit is.'
The fundamental framework of Death Magic was similar.
It used the lingering thoughts left in a corpse to resurrect it as an Undead.
The reason it used a corpse was because the corpse, having been the physical body during life, held stronger lingering thoughts.
However, the Death King was capable of resurrecting the dead using only the soil where the body had been buried, even if the corpse itself had already vanished.
Tiar, the Iron-Blooded Sorceress, had been resurrected in exactly that way.
Leo looked at Tiar.
From the ancient memories shown by Lysinas’s Spirit Energy to the voice of Lysinas he had heard just moments ago.
'The awakening of Spirit Magic.'
He could only conclude that this was the influence of the power he had obtained by conquering the Hero Record.
And that power was now telling him to save the elf standing before him.
“Honestly. Whether it’s the past or the present.”
Leo let out a hollow laugh and walked toward Tiar.
The elf before him was a powerhouse on a level completely incomparable to the heroes of the Justice Guild.
On top of that, she had become an Undead that hated the world itself.
'It won’t be easy to destroy her body and send her back where she belongs.'
Leo drew his sword.
'And now I’m supposed to subdue her and save her soul.'
A Necromancer could sublimate the malevolent spirit dwelling within an Undead into a Spirit.
The problem was that doing so was absurdly difficult.
'She only ever leaves me the hard ones. That damn lizard.'
Even while grumbling, Leo broke into a grin.
“Well then.”
Step. Step.
“How about you tell me what happened to leave you so full of resentment?”
Craaack—!
As Leo approached, the ground around Tiar instantly turned to iron.
Leo put strength into his sword.
Slash—!
He cleaved apart the massive blade lunging toward him.
But Tiar’s attack did not end there.
Vwoom—!
Countless red magic circles spread across the air.
And from them, a red liquid came pouring down.
Leo narrowed his eyes.
'The smell of blood.'
The magic Tiar had cast was like a rain of blood.
That was why she had earned the title Iron-Blooded Sorceress.
She was a mage who mainly used blood and iron as catalysts.
Because of that, she was a mage who displayed the greatest power on a battlefield.
She did not even need to prepare separate catalysts. A battlefield was always overflowing with material she could use.
She made enemy corpses explode using the blood flowing from them and tore enemies apart with the iron in their weapons.
Quite literally, it was slaughter magic that shone brightest on the battlefield.
Fwoosh—
Flames of Aura flickered from Leo’s sword.
“Fiora.”
Fwoooosh—!
Fiora’s flames fused with the Aura flames, flaring even more fiercely.
Craaash—!
Fiery sword strikes embroidered the air.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sword strikes spread like a net and completely shattered the rain of blood.
At the same time, a massive explosion, enough to tear apart the sky itself, shook the earth.
That posed no problem for Leo.
'This magic has strayed far from the essence of Star Magic.'
Star Magic was the magic Luna had created to make flowers bloom.
It sounded trivial, but the magic Luna had created to bloom flowers belonged to the domain of the 'Creation of Life.'
It was magic that had stepped into the realm of the gods.
Remembering his friend who had stepped into the divine realm for the simple reason that she wanted to see flowers bloom, Leo lowered his stance.
Though she had been ostracized by elven society for her unnatural magic, she had also been praised among humans as a benefactor.
That was because she had saved countless humans from Tartarus.
It was also one of the reasons the elves hated the Iron-Blooded Sorceress even more.
'I heard that back then, humans and elves were at war with each other.'
While she was a hero praised by humans, the magic of iron and blood was avoided even in human magic academies.
Using that magic on anyone other than a Demon was punishable.
Because it was too cruel.
For that reason, the magic of iron and blood was permitted to be used only against Demons.
'It’s no wonder she was branded a heretic among the elves.'
From Leo’s point of view, it felt like magic that directly denied Luna’s will.
After all, Star Magic was magic imbued with Luna’s warm heart and her love for flowers.
Vwoooom— Craaackle—!
The magic Tiar unleashed formed enormous iron chains.
Red Magic Power coiled around the chains.
Fwoooosh—!
The rotating red Magic Power shredded everything the chains touched.
'You couldn’t create magic like this unless you spent your life obsessing over how to make your opponent die in greater pain.'
Leo narrowed his eyes.
The murderous intent and cruelty were so blatant that he could have believed it was Black Magic.
Whoosh—!
Using Aura Step, Leo closed in on Tiar.
Craaash—!
The surrounding area was torn apart.
Leo dodged the bundles of chains that tried to coil around him like snakes.
'It’s not just a spell that creates chains with physical force. There’s also something like a curse layered over it.'
As he analyzed the magic, Leo drew closer to Tiar.
Then he heard Tiar murmuring quietly.
“It can’t be! They couldn’t be as hideous as I am!”
A voice filled with agony reached him.
“I’m sorry, great Founder of the Nebula. Please do not forgive me.”
Her voice twisted as she apologized to Luna.
“But... I couldn’t forgive them. I hate them!”
Watching Tiar clutch her head and spill out her malice, Leo thought,
'How would Luna have judged this magic?'
She probably would have been horrified.
'She would have been shocked and asked how magic like this could even exist.'
Step.
Leo closed the distance even further.
Then the magic of iron and blood completely wrapped around Leo.
Vwoom—!
A magic circle appeared over Leo’s body in an instant.
Leo deciphered the spell formula at once.
Crack—!
The formula deployed by the Iron-Blooded Sorceress shattered, and the magic was dispelled.
But the Undead Iron-Blooded Sorceress did not panic and immediately prepared her next spell.
Before she could, Leo seized her by the throat.
Grab—!
Leo unleashed the power of the stars and suppressed the Iron-Blooded Sorceress’s Magic Power.
Boom—!
The earth shook from the collision of their overwhelming Magic Power.
Immense pain surged through him from the clash of mana.
But Leo ignored it and released his Spirit Energy.
No matter how powerful a Necromancer was, it was dangerous to make careless contact with an Undead.
One wrong move, and they could be swallowed by the lingering thoughts of the Undead.
Moreover, his opponent was a hero.
Taking in the lingering thoughts of such a being could shatter one’s mind.
“Aaaaaah!”
Tiar clutched her head and screamed in agony.
Looking at her, Leo smiled.
“I’m not saying the pain you went through doesn’t matter, but I’ve also had my fair share of being dragged around by other people’s misery.”
Thunk—!
Leo forcibly pulled Tiar toward him and pressed their foreheads together.
“Sorry, but let me see your memories.”
Flash—!
A brilliant light burst from where their foreheads touched.
At the same time, Tiar’s memories poured into him.
They were the source of her hatred.
Tiar as a young girl, wearing Seiren’s uniform.
She had lost her family, her loved ones, and her friends to Tartarus.
Burning with a desire for revenge, she created the magic of iron and blood and was driven out of elven society.
But even then, she did not stop.
She wandered across the continent hunting Tartarus.
It was humans who took her in.
In human lands, she fought Tartarus endlessly.
But the years of battle wore her down.
In her final years, she settled in the northeast to spend the rest of her life there.
The Iron-Blooded Sorceress, who had secluded herself in a small village, could have simply faded into history.
However, not long after, the village where she had settled was destroyed overnight.
The culprits were the Monster Queen’s Legion.
But the northeast of the continent was not a region where the Monster Queen’s Legion should have been active.
The ones who lured the Demons there were none other than the elves, who were hostile toward humans at the time.
To harm the humans encroaching on their territory, and to get rid of an inconvenience, they lured the Monster Queen’s Legion into the northeast.
She had lost everything to Tartarus and lived obsessed with revenge, all while being ostracized by her own people.
In the end, all she had wanted was a quiet death.
But it was her own people who cast her into tragedy to the very end.
Everything that had finally touched her heart was reduced to ashes.
In the end, Tiar’s hatred turned toward the elves.
'But it seems she couldn’t bring herself to take revenge on her own people.'
And so Tiar died holding onto hatred.
Then, 1,000 years later, she was resurrected by the Death King as an Undead that knew nothing but revenge.
Tiar’s heart screamed.
It told her to kill all the elves right now.
'And yet, this girl is hesitating.'
She was suppressing her hatred through sheer will.
She was resisting the instincts of her resurrection, which had been fueled by revenge.
That was possible because she rejected the version of herself that had ascended to the rank of hero for the sake of revenge.
She regretted for the rest of her life that, driven by revenge, she had twisted the magic Luna had left behind into this.
Clearly, the magic of iron and blood was magic that denied and blasphemed Luna’s will.
If Luna had seen this magic, she certainly would not have accepted it lightly.
'Still...'
'Magic is a way to express emotion. It is a way to reveal the heart.'
That was Luna’s philosophy.
If Luna had seen Tiar, she surely would have said this:
'You must have suffered so much. So you don’t have to apologize.'
She would have comforted Tiar with all her heart.
Even if, as a mage, her own magic had been denied and blasphemed.
Because that was proof of just how much the other person had suffered.
Rather, she would have embraced her.
'Because that’s the kind of person she is.'
She would have genuinely pitied this elf who had lived such an unhappy life.
“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!”
“It must have been painful.”
At Leo’s words, infused with Spirit Energy, Tiar’s movements stopped completely.
It was not mere comfort.
It was understanding that could only come from one who had known endless pain.
“Don’t blame yourself. Luna certainly wouldn’t have blamed you.”
Tiar’s body trembled.
“Don’t suffer anymore. You’ve suffered enough.”
Flash—!
Lysinas’s Spirit Energy strengthened every single word Leo spoke.
It drove away the Death King’s impure Dark Mana.
At that moment.
Fwoooosh—!
Black flames erupted violently from Tiar’s body.
As if it could not tolerate Tiar being saved.
As if it intended to burn that rescued soul to ashes, the flames blazed wildly.
'Just as I thought. That Death King bastard can now wield the power of the Fragment of Erebos.'
Leo smiled coldly.
'But too bad.'
Whoosh—!
Gray Spirit Energy burst from Leo’s hand.
It was none other than Leo’s own Spirit Energy.
The one natural enemy of the Calamity Flame.
Mana of Purity.
Fwoosh—!
The black flames vanished beneath Leo’s power.
Swaaaa—
The body of the Undead crumbled into dust and scattered away.
As if a shell were peeling off.
Where the Undead had vanished, a dazed Spirit now stood.
Watching that, Leo dusted off his hands and clicked his tongue.
“The Death King, that son of a bitch, is just as underhanded as ever.”
[Who... are you?]
Tiar asked in a trembling voice.
As a Spirit of a hero, she instinctively understood.
That the being before her was a hero of a rank far beyond her own.
“Me?”
Leo answered calmly as Tiar looked up at him with trembling eyes.
“The Hero of Beginning, Kyle.”
***
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