Leave a comment

“Leon… why are you here?”

Whilst Aries was fallen on the ground, he looked up at his unexpected rescuer.

The relationship between Leon and Aries could not be called good by any means. If anything, it was not a mistake to call it the worst.

It was not as if Aries particularly hated Leon. However, Leon clearly looked down upon Aries and held him in contempt.

Leon had always called Aries a small-fry monster since a long time ago and he was not the type of person who would try and help out even when Aries was about to be killed by the enemy.

If anything, he probably would have just said, “An end befitting a small fry,” and would not even think anything else of it. Leon was the kind of man who evaluated an individual based solely on their strength and considered strength to be absolute justice.

That was why this was a seemingly impossible situation.

“I came because I smelt a very familiar smell, but it looks like you guys are having quite an extravagant party. A banquet like this is wasted on a small fry like you… I’ll devour the rest for you.”

Leon’s mouth distorted whilst his still technically humanoid face turned savage and ferocious just like that of a wild beast.

Snap, snap… with that sound, Leon’s muscles expanded, making his already bulky and log-like arms even thicker.

Veins popped out all over his body and the surrounding air distorted just from the heat that was generated from his body, forming a mirage.

“Just keep lying there and watch… I’ll show you the way I fight.”

Leon clenched his fist and disappeared from the spot.

The next moment, he dropped his fist onto a heroic spirit who was engaged with one of the other Twelve Stars, crushing that heroic spirit along with their armour and collapsing the ground below them.

With just one hit, despite being strong enough to be called a hero, the warrior’s limbs became twisted in weird angles and they suffered enough damage to where they became unable to even move.

Furthermore, Leon rushed into an area densely packed with heroic spirits and, just from his body hitting them, sent dozens of heroic spirits flying.

Of course, the heroic spirits did not just stay quiet. They all took hold of their swords and proceeded to hack at Leon.

However, in the face of this situation, the Lion King for some reason put his hands in his pockets and received it head-on in a defenceless manner.

The result of that – He was completely unharmed. The attacker’s swords shattered into pieces, yet Leon’s skin did not even suffer a single scratch.

A single kick from Leon then crushed all of the powerless warriors at once whilst he walked to the next gathering of heroic spirits with what could be called a dull and sluggish movement and his hands still in his pockets.

In response, the heroic spirits this time fired all sorts of arcane magic. High-tier arcane magic of all attributes was sent flying towards Leon and exploded on him.

If someone were to have been looking at Midgard from space at that moment, glimmers and explosions which shone from the arcane magic would have been visible, even from that far of a distance. The scale of the explosions and impacts were just that big.

However, Leon charged straight in through this storm of arcane magic and, as if nothing had happened at all, came to stand in front of the heroic spirits.

“Worthless… not even enough as an appetiser!!”

One magician, who was unfortunate enough to have been standing at the very front of the pack, had his head grabbed and was then swung around as an improvised weapon.

Violence known as “hitting a person using another person”. With each swing, the magician broke a little more, scattering his flesh and blood upon the other heroic spirits.

The pitiful magician had completely lost his humanoid shape by the time he was finally released, having become chunks of raw flesh.

No, perhaps the one who was the most unfortunate might have been the young magician boy at the very back of the pack. The reason was because he was the one who was forced to suffer from fear for the longest amount of time.

“Eeek!” – The young boy, who was surprisingly young to have been titled a hero, released a shriek and instinctively drew back.

But reality was cruel. In the very next moment, a strong arm thicker than his waist directly hit his head. After the impact, everything above his neck was gone and blood was spewing out of what remained of his body.

Whilst bathing in the blood spewing onto him, Leon directed his bloodshot eyes at his next prey.

Looking at this scene, Ruphas thought to herself, “Who exactly is our enemy here again?” However, it could not be helped that she thought this way.

“Oooohhhhhhhhhhhh!”

When Leon roared, a countless number of heroic spirits in front of him were shredded and sent flying as if they were pieces of paper.

The Lion King’s roar was not just a simple thing used for intimidation.

A simple roar… Even that was accompanied by destructive energy that passed through the enemy camp, causing the surrounding land to be gouged out and the nearby air to be dispersed.

The enemy warriors’ eardrums ruptured and their bodies warped as if they were being squished by a huge invisible pressure.

“It’s a massacre…!”

Leon disappeared once again.

Keeping track of his extraordinary speed must have been difficult even for his fellow Twelve Stars.

Many impacts and shattering noises repeatedly and continuously resounded. As if the air around them was exploding, the heroic spirits started getting blown apart in groups.

Needless to say, it did not just happen once or twice.

One after another, many places within the army of the Argonautai spontaneously exploded. Each time, heroes of the past were blown to bits and pieces.

There was not enough time to avoid the attack, yet, if they tried to defend against the attack, their guard itself would be destroyed.

And what made it possible was strength. Just raw strength.

As long as one possessed overwhelming strength, there was no need for special abilities or effects.

His fists relied on raw strength without any accompanying techniques. His wide-motion kicks could not be said to be polished by any means.

Yet, he gave the heroic spirits of the past absolutely no room to retaliate as he smashed and shredded them as if they were pieces of paper.

The strong are called strong because they are strong. It was a very simple quote that was easy to understand.

Unnecessary fillers were not needed. For Leon, unique abilities and such were something akin to street performances. To him, those kinds of abilities were something acquired by weaklings after shedding tears and wasting their efforts so that they could desperately pretend to be someone strong. It was something unnecessary and useless in Leon’s mind.

As long as he had his body, it was enough for everything. He possessed fists with such overwhelming strength that it was unnecessary for him to obtain those tricks.

Therefore, he punched. Therefore, he killed.

With just that, all of his attacks which had the motions of an ordinary auto-attack turned into – sure-kill secret techniques.

The purest form of violence. That was what led him to be recognised as the strongest even within the Tyrannical Twelve Stars.

If every single attack that he executed dealt fatal damage, then there was no need for him to use any special offensive skills.

If, just by standing, the wall known as his muscles could break enemy swords, then he had no need for any defensive skills.

The Lion King bared his fangs and ran around the battlefield, leaving mountains of corpses everywhere he went.

With the way things had developed, there was nothing the Argonautai could do.

No, perhaps there might have been some options they could take. Although they might have been far inferior to Ruphas and the Seven Heroes, they were still heroes of legend who had managed to reach level 1000.

Collectively, they possessed an enormous number of skills, arcane magic and divine magic such that depending on the way they combined their techniques, let alone barely manage the current situation, they could even turn the situation around. Depending on how they utilised their skills, it was not impossible for them to even completely shut Leon down just as the Twelve Stars had done once in the past.

However, that was a scenario only possible if they could work together. As a mere gathering of masses who acted on their own, they dragged each other down and obstructed one another. There was no way they would be able to play the optimal hand that they might have possessed.

The heroic spirits were vanquished one after another without being able to show even half of their full potential. By the time Leon next emerged from the battle, the land was fully soaked in their blood.

“Not enough, it’s still lacking something… I mean, without the main dish, you wouldn’t be full, would you…!?”

Whilst saying that, Leon looked at the Dragon King provocatively.

Hearing this, all ten of the Dragon King’s heads agreed with what Leon had said, recognised him as a worthy enemy and bared their fangs.

In the past, before Ruphas showed up, the two of them were the strongest of the magical beasts and were at the apex in terms of battle prowess. They also each maintained a quarter of the power balance on Midgard. Now, the Dragon King Ladon and the Lion King Leon met each other face to face for the first time.

And, above all else, these two were very similar to one another. Both were tyrants. Both were violent.

They oppressed and ruled over others through violence and fear. These were the overlapping points the two of them shared.

Leon’s body expanded in size and the clothes that he was wearing ripped and were blasted away.

His whole body became covered in hair as he got rid of his humanoid appearance and turned back into his original appearance of a lion.

What appeared at the end of this transformation was a monstrous lion which was big enough to rival even the Dragon King.

Finally, the two tyrants, who had each bared their true nature, were glaring and growling at each other face-to-face.

At that moment, Pollux, who did not want to get caught up in the middle of all of this, jumped off the Dragon King.

On the other hand, the city of Laegjarn was in complete and utter panic.

It was only natural. Alter all, there was suddenly a mythical battle of legendary proportions happening outside of the city. It would have been strange if they were still calm.

It was an unbelievable scene where historical heroes, who could only be encountered in books, were being sent flying one after another.

That alone would have been enough to go beyond the tolerable limit of their brain capacity, yet this time, there was a 160m tall lion and a 170m tall dragon with ten heads.

Alfie had already fallen on the ground and was mumbling as if she had gone insane and Friedrich had started digging holes in the ground after coming to the understanding that he was not able to run away outside.

Cruz was shouting, “It’s the end of the world!” in a crazed fanatic state whilst Sarjes seemed to have suddenly become enlightened and was muttering something meaningless like, “Living and dying are all of equal value… maybe it’s the will of the big universe. Yeah, yeah.”

Meanwhile, Jean was screaming, “I’m also going to fight!” and, as a result, was trying his best to try and get out.

On the other hand, Gants was calm and collected. Due to the innkeeper losing consciousness, he had made himself some coffee that resembled muddy water and was frowning after saying that it tasted disgusting.

“U, um… you’re really calm and collected.”

Sei sat on the chair and received a cup of coffee from Gants who was sitting on the other side of the table.

Next to him was Virgo who had stiffened due to the bitterness of the coffee.

Image from Light Novel Volume 6

“I mean, nothing’s going to happen if you make a fuss about it. Their battles are in a realm that we can’t comprehend. Even if we cry or scream, it’s not going to change anything. In that case, isn’t it better to just drink a cup of coffee like this?”

“B, but, aren’t there other things you could do… like, try and calm down everyone that’s panicking?”

“That’s impossible. The whole city is under a massive hysteria. Even if we say something, they’re not going to listen to it and what we say will just be muffled by the surrounding noise. Not only that, in the worst-case scenario, we’d become an outlet for the mobs’ anger. In the first place, those are the responsibilities of the nobles. It’s out of our pay grade.”

“Well, if you’re talking about the nobles, Ruphas-san just squished them.”

“…….. I forgot about that.”

Gants looked outside the window.

There, what he saw were the people of the city moving about in confusion and shouting incomprehensible things. He then wondered why people lost all order and control when they fell into a panic.

Furthermore, he honestly questioned why Cruz, who just so happened to be part of the Hero’s entourage, was one of those people.

Meanwhile, the hole Friedrich was digging hit a hot spring that was flowing underground and he got blasted back out of the hole by the water pressure. What exactly was this tiger doing?

“Ruoooooooooooooo!!”

“Jyaoooooooooooooo!!”

The two giant monsters both released a war cry and clashed directly with each other without any small tricks.

They most likely chose to first compare what they were both most confident in – their raw strength.

Due to the shockwave caused by Leon and Ladon clashing with each other, the barrier which enveloped Laegjarn creaked whilst the surrounding area was assaulted by a sonic boom.

The entire area other than Laegjarn was shaved away and turned into a barren wasteland, yet the two monsters who caused that catastrophe continued to compare their strength without even minding what had just happened.

There was no option for retreat. It was a duel of pure strength in order to determine who would come out on top.

However, presently, Ladon had the advantage. His ten heads all moved at once and bit into Leon’s body.

Against Leon’s strong skin and muscles, the even stronger fangs of Ladon pierced in, gouged it out, and shredded and chewed on it.

But as if to match that, Leon opened his mouth and bit into Ladon’s body.

Leon’s teeth bit and shattered the Dragon King’s scales, which were believed to be harder than anything else in this world, allowing him to pull apart the flesh underneath it and swallow it.

Luna, who was watching this gruesome scene, tightly held her mouth shut with her hands and tried to resist the resulting sense of queasiness.

“They’re, they’re devouring each other… even though they’re getting eaten themselves, they’re eating their opponent… they can’t be sane……!”

Both of their bodies were soaked in blood, yet their movements did not dull.

The next to move was Leon.

He opened his large mouth wide and released a roar point-blank at Ladon.

His destructive roar, which was a condensed form of mana, swallowed up the Dragon King’s body, vaporised the ground in its path and continued on forward.

It eventually went beyond the domain of the humanoids and destroyed a lone island which just happened to be in its path, creating a massive dome-shaped explosion.

However, Ladon was alive and well. Furthermore, as if to say, “Right back at you”, it opened all ten of its mouths simultaneously and exhaled a raging hellfire from all of them.

Individually, a single fireball was strong enough to instantly vaporise something like a humanoid city, yet Ladon was continuously firing such fireballs from all ten of its mouths extremely rapidly.

It was like a machine gun which fired missiles, so to speak. Pillars of flames caused by the explosion rose up one after another, whilst Ladon gave no mind to the fact that he was getting caught up in the explosion himself.

“…. !!”

Luna tightly hugged Terra in the heat of the moment and tried to become a shield which would protect him from the impending shockwave.

At this moment in time, she was well aware that she was no different from an insect in the face of these monsters’ banquet. Nevertheless, she was still one of the Seven Luminaries. She believed she was enough to at least be a shield.

She tightly hugged Terra with such a tragic determination, yet, however long she waited, the heat that she was predicting would reach her did not come to pass, thus she opened her eyes whilst feeling confused.

What she saw then was the back of Ruphas who was standing in front of her with one of her hands stuck out.

The insignificant area of space behind Ruphas, which was created due to the barrier she had put up, became the only safe haven at that time.

Flames which were like floodwater flowed behind Luna and Terra whilst she herself felt like she was inside a glass vase looking out towards a red raging stream running past the vase.

“Don’t stick your hand out carelessly. If it’s you, just by coming into contact with this shockwave, you’ll be turned into ash.”

It seemed she had been helped by Ruphas.

Realising this, Luna first felt a sense of relief, followed by a question and then confusion.

She was thankful that they were… or rather, at least Terra was saved.

However, she questioned if it was fine for Ruphas to be not worrying about her own subordinates.

Notwithstanding, she quickly understood that it was an unnecessary worry of hers.

In this torrent of extremely hot blasts of wind, the Twelve Stars were observing the battle between Leon and the Dragon King without minding the shockwave in the slightest.

However powerful the attack itself was, its shockwave was still just a shockwave in the end. It was not enough to shake them.

No, if one were to look carefully, only Libra, whose weakness was fire, had Karkinos stand in front of her as a shield.

They’re…. they’re monsters… Every, one, of, them….!

They were all standing nonchalantly in that hellish ridiculous heat which could even melt and boil boulders.

Benetnash was even sitting down on top of a boulder. However, that boulder was in the process of being magnificently melted too.

In other words, she was essentially sitting on magma, yet she was not minding it in the slightest.

In the first place, the Vampire Princess was a monster who had just dug and swam through the inside of Midgard’s mantle. Something of this degree could only make her feel like it was a little bit warm.

In the face of these battles which were in a different dimension from hers, the only thing that Luna could do was learn that her side was trying to recklessly fight a battle where they had no chance of winning.