LHAHS Chapter 508
Lunia's expression hardened at the sudden appearance of the legion commander.
The Blood Queen Elzenie was one of the terrifying beings that struck fear into the world.
In a situation like this, a legion commander…!
Lunia bit her lip as the nightmare from last year resurfaced in her mind.
The Queen of Monsters Sillatna's massive invasion, and on top of that, the return of a legion commander that the Great Heroes had defeated in the distant past.
The despair she had felt back then came rushing back. Had the Great Heroes not been there, Seiren would have fallen.
Meanwhile, Luna tilted her head, her eyes filled with doubt. "A legion commander? You? You're strong for a demon, I'll give you that, but… how could you possibly be a legion commander?"
"What?" Elzenie's face stiffened for a moment.
Lunia also turned to Luna with a blank look.
"Lunia, is that really a legion commander?" Luna asked in a voice full of disbelief.
Lunia hastily replied, "Y-Yes, she's the Blood Queen Elzenie. She's definitely a legion commander."
"Hmm…" Luna crossed her arms, murmuring, "Have the standards for legion commanders dropped these days…?"
"You insolent elf!" Elzenie's eyes flared with rage.
Whoooosh!
A massive surge of dark mana erupted.
Flash! Fwoooosh!
Crimson-black flames surged toward Luna.
"Lady Luna!" Lunia called out in alarm.
Fwoosh!
At that moment, the crimson-black flames gathered in Luna's palm.
Elzenie's face froze in shock as Luna casually rolled the fireball around in her hand before smirking and tossing it back toward Elzenie.
"Here, take it back. I don't need it."
Fwoosh!
The flames were instantly reabsorbed into Elzenie's body.
"You… What are you?" Elzenie asked, eyes filled with wariness.
Luna curled her lips into a smirk. "The Nebula Pioneer, Luna."
"A deranged elf, is that it?"
"You sure know how to run your mouth," Luna smirked. "Did that wretched bitch, the Queen of Monsters, teach you to talk like that?"
Whoooosh!
Mana surged from Luna's hands.
Flash!
Elzenie's eyes widened in horror.
Kwoooom!
A pillar of light rained down from the sky.
Magic of this scale, cast in an instant…!
A shudder ran through Elzenie's entire body as for a brief moment, an image flashed through her mind.
She reminds me of Leo Plov… The reincarnation of the Surviving Hero, Kyle…!
The overwhelming power she had once witnessed from that human overlapped with the elf standing before her.
"Ahh… I see… so that's how it is." Elzenie's eyes rolled back. "Yes… You really are the Nebula Pioneer Luna…!"
Elzenie's body began to tremble violently.
Seeing this, Luna narrowed her eyes. "That's…"
"What's going on?" Lunia hurried over to Luna's side.
"It's a kind of divine descent, you could say."
"A divine descent?"
"Yeah. She's receiving a blessing from their god, Erebos. For demons, it enhances their power."
"B-But the Primeval Evil is sealed, isn't it…?"
"It's just a fragment of its will."
Luna recalled what Leo had once told her.
Erebos holds an intense grudge against Kyle. Then it must be the same for me.
"I may have died to Erebos, but I didn't go down easily."
Even as she perished, Luna had inflicted a grievous wound upon Erebos, and that wound was what had allowed Leo to ultimately triumph over the god.
Its grudge against me must be immense.
And now, that lingering hatred was manifesting through the legion commander before her.
"Well, that works out. Maybe I should settle my score from 5,000 years ago."
A chilling killing intent flowed from Luna's body.
Lunia took a deep breath at the sight.
She's definitely different from Leo or Sir Aaron.
Leo's aura was like a raging storm, as if he would tear his enemy to shreds, and Aaron's presence was razor-sharp, like a sword ready to strike.
In contrast, Luna exuded an aura that seemed ready to obliterate anything standing in her way.
Watching Luna's back, Lunia unconsciously reached out.
Grip.
"Hm? What's wrong, Lunia?" Luna looked down in confusion at Lunia, who was clutching the hem of her robe.
"Last time… Sir Aaron… used a tremendous amount of power and then vanished."
Luna's eyes widened slightly.
"And when you defeated the Queen of Monsters, you used Extinction and disappeared too… Isn't this the same situation?"
Lunia hadn't become the student council president of Seiren in her second year just because of her strength. Despite her rough personality, she was a natural leader and a highly intelligent student.
Her keen insight allowed her to understand Luna's situation with ease.
Which was why, instinctively, she knew.
If Lady Luna uses her power here… she'll disappear.
There was no way a being as great as a Great Hero could remain in the present world without a price.
Right now, Luna existed in this world not through the Hero Record but through a spirit contract with Leo.
However, that contract relied entirely on the mana sealed within Cometes. If that mana were to be depleted, Luna would no longer be able to remain in the world regardless of whether she had lingering attachments to this era or not.
Luna nodded. "Yeah, you're right."
"I… want Lady Luna to stay in this world longer." Lunia's voice trembled, and she bit her lip. "I want to learn more from you. I want to spend more time with you. I want you to enjoy the peace you helped create for a little while longer."
"……" Luna's eyes wavered. The young elf's words shook her heart. They echoed her own deepest desires.
She turned her gaze toward Elzenie, who was radiating an ominous aura. "But if I don't stop that thing now, a lot of people are going to die," she muttered.
"If that's the problem, then don't worry," Lunia said, her voice filled with determination. "Because even in this era, heroes exist."
Whoooosh! Kwoooom!
"Hraaah!" A dwarf warrior swung his greatsword, cleaving through crimson-black flames.
Shhhhhh!
"Aqua Will." A human mage conjured a spell, shielding the civilians from the burning embers.
"Wind elementals, carry these people to safety." A beastman summoner called forth countless elementals to evacuate the unconscious civilians.
Luna recognized it instantly. These were heroes. Heroes who had their name recorded in the Hero Record.
Lunia extended her hand. "Rinea!"
With a fierce blaze, a magnificent phoenix emerged.
Fwoooosh!
Lunia's hair turned pure white, wreathed in sacred flames.
Luna's lips parted slightly in surprise.
It's been about a year since I first saw this girl, hasn't it?
She recalled the time they had fought together to defeat a fragment of Erebos, and the sight of Lunia struggling against Zodiac in battle.
I knew that she has grown stronger since then, but I never imagined she would come this far.
"Don't worry." Lunia said with conviction. "Please believe in us. We may be lacking… but there are those who will carry on after you and the other Great Heroes."
Lunia stepped toward Elzenie. "Lady Luna, please watch over us from there."
Luna's eyes wavered. "Can I… really leave this to all of you?"
"Of course! Lady Luna, please watch from a safe place!" Lunia shouted, then dashed forward with a bright smile. "I am Lunia El Lunda of Seiren! That demon over there is the Blood Queen Elzenie, a legion commander!"
"How dare you invade Lumeria City during the Twilight Festival!" a human knight hero raged.
More heroes continued to gather to block Elzenie.
Meanwhile, an elf swordmaster guided Luna toward the rear. "Fellow kin, step back! This place is dangerous! This is not where you should be!"
Perhaps mistaking her for an ordinary citizen, they hurriedly evacuated her along with the others.
"Ah…"
It wasn't just the heroes, countless people were working to protect others.
As Luna stepped away from the battlefield, she muttered to herself, "Is it really okay to leave this to them?"
Her eyes wavered.
Can I… stay in this era a little longer?
She bit her lip.
Is it okay… for me to enjoy this happiness a little longer?
At the center of the massive Lumeria Lake stood Lumene Academy.
Whoooosh! Kraaack-boom!
Dark, ominous clouds loomed overhead, a foreboding thunderclap echoed across the sky.
Students who had finished their classes and were preparing to head to Lumeria City for the Twilight Festival poured outside in confusion.
"What… is happening?" Carl muttered in disbelief.
Beside him, Eiran said in a slightly trembling voice, "It's just like… the Lumeiren Games last year."
At those words, the expressions of those around them stiffened.
"It's a curse of severance."
"Gasp! Professor Mel?!" Carl exclaimed in shock.
During the summer break, while subjugating a fragment of Erebos, he and Chelsea had realized that Mel was actually the Dragon Queen Melina.
Mel smiled gently at Carl before explaining, "This aura… It seems to be the Lich King."
"T-The Lich King!" Carl cried out in alarm at the mention of the ruler of Tartaros.
Leo did say that the Lich King's authority had grown stronger, but…
At that moment, something fell from the sky.
Flash! Thud!
Three figures landed on the ground.
"W-What the…?"
"Who are they?"
The gathered students stared in bewilderment, but the aura emanating from them made everyone's faces darken.
"Undead?"
As every student released their killing intent, the three figures calmly approached someone.
"It has been a long time, Dragon Queen," the man standing in the center greeted.
Everyone turned to Mel in shock.
"What did he just say?"
"Professor Mel… what?"
Mel let out a deep sigh as she looked at the man who had exposed her identity. "It has been a while, Sir Meterrar."
"Meterrar? Wait a minute! Meterrar—as in, the former principal of Lumene?!"
"That's definitely the face I saw in the portraits…!"
Faced with the sudden reappearance of a hero from generations past, the students' eyes widened, but as the powerful pressure radiating from Meterrar filled the air, their faces slowly hardened.
Meterrar wasn't alone. The figures standing beside him were also heroes whose names had once been recorded in the Hero Record.
"Was it really that unbearable for you all? That I didn't allow you to challenge the world of Dawn?" Mel asked emotionlessly.
The undead heroes' faces twisted.
"That's right! Why did you not choose us?" Meterrar demanded.
Mel chuckled. "It's not that I didn't choose you. I was protecting you. I couldn't throw heroes who had already achieved great feats to certain death."
"To surpass one's limits—that is Lumene's motto. We simply wished to follow that path."
"Back then, I saw it as reckless bravado, but looking at you now, I understand. Your desire was nothing more than foolish arrogance blinded by honor."
At one point, Mel had considered the heroes before her as potential candidates to challenge the world of Dawn, but ultimately, they had not reached the level required for such a challenge.
Despite that, they had insisted on their desire to take on Dawn's world, and Mel had ultimately refused.
Now, it seemed that her rejection had festered into resentment, leading them to strike a deal with the Lich King.
Disgust flickered across Mel's eyes. "For people who speak of Sir Lumene's teachings, don't you find it contradictory that you chose to become the Lich King's slaves?" she asked.
"It's all because of you." Hatred burned in Meterrar's eyes. "Because of you, who refused to make the right choice!"
Roaring in fury, he charged forward.
Mel swung her palm, blasting him away with a massive surge of mana.
Kwoooom!
Meterrar crashed into a nearby building.
At the same time, countless undead began rising from the ground.
The students of Lumene quickly shifted into battle mode.
Mel narrowed her eyes as she gazed up at the sky. "So that's how you want to play this, Lich King."
Leo opened his eyes.
I'm inside the Mirror Queen's illusion.
It was the streets of Lumeria City, but Leo knew this place was an illusion.
As he flexed his fingers, a voice called from behind him.
"Kyle."
He turned around.
"Lysinas?"
Leo's brow furrowed at the familiar face. In the previous illusion, the Mirror Queen had made him face off against Lysinas.
As Leo tensed, Lysinas asked with a radiant smile, "How does it feel? Saving the world twice?"
"What?"
Leo was momentarily stunned.