Chapter 131: The Hero

“It’s… It’s…”

Kurt’s voice was hoarse and trembling, as if his throat were being squeezed by an invisible hand.

“Even magic of this… of this level… wasn’t enough to truly kill it?!”

The power of a god far exceeded his imagination.

Looking at Isavel in Teresa’s arms, Leanna clenched her fists and asked in a heavy voice, “Lady Isavel, can you cast that magic one more time?”

At this moment, as the Captain of the Rose Knights, she was more composed and calmer than anyone else.

Even Kurt and Brand, who had lived for countless years, could not compare to her.

Before Isavel could speak, Kurt shook his head.

“It’s useless. That magic transcends Forbidden Curses. It requires the caster to sacrifice more than half of their soul. With the remnants of Lady Isavel’s soul, there is no way she can cast it again.”

As he spoke, he watched the flames about to erupt from the Evil Dragon and murmured, “As for ordinary people, don’t even think about it. That isn’t a spell a single person can cast…”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, Leanna stood up.

“Does it only require a soul?” she asked. Her voice was unusually calm.

Kurt froze for a moment and answered instinctively, “Well, not exactly. It’s just that for a Goddess, the soul might be the only thing required.”

If one were not a Goddess, even if an ordinary person had an abundant soul, they wouldn’t understand how to mobilize the World Power, let alone turn the repulsive force of two worlds into a singularity.

He couldn’t understand what Leanna wanted to do, nor could he imagine any way to save the world at a time like this.

However, his answer was enough for Leanna.

“Rose Knights, hear my command—”

Leanna took a deep breath and looked at the surrounding Rose Knights. Her voice penetrated the entire battlefield.

“Form the array!”

As her words fell, the Rose Knights instantly formed the Judgment Array. Only this time, the center of the array was not Leanna, but Isavel.

In the next second, thirty-nine beams of light—different in color but equally pure and blazing—soared into the sky from their bodies.

They converged in the air and finally, like meteors returning to their nest, crashed into the center of the array—into Isavel’s body!

“Nngh!”

Isavel let out a suppressed groan of pain, her body trembling violently. Soon, however, her body began to emit a brilliant radiance.

She could feel thirty-nine warm and determined souls, like rushing rivers, pouring into her nearly dried-up sea of soul without any resistance.

Teresa’s heat, Iserine’s intelligence, Meilin’s tenderness… Their life paths, their memory fragments, their joys and sorrows, their everything… At this moment, they were completely open to her, becoming a part of her!

At this moment, her soul was no longer depleted!

Kurt stood rooted to the spot, staring at the complex array light and at Isavel, who had stood up once more. His mouth hung open, unable to utter a single word.

He had studied magic his entire life, yet at this moment, he could not see through what was happening.

In the Judgment Array of the Divine Court, the person at the center could not only fuse everyone’s power but also connect their souls and feel their emotions.

The only requirement was for everyone to be of one heart.

However, this requirement practically didn’t exist for Isavel.

After all, she had nurtured the Rose Knights for so many years.

Whether as Selis or Isavel, she would be happy because of their growth and worried because of their hardships.

Her heart had long been linked with theirs.

Isavel slowly straightened her body.

Under the support of the Rose Knights’ souls, the aura belonging to a Goddess was reborn.

It became deeper and more vast. She stared at the Evil Dragon, her eyes filled with cold indifference.

In the next moment, she raised her left hand.

That hand was no longer pale but wrapped in magnificent iridescent light. She spread her five fingers and made a grasping motion again.

Then, her thin lips parted slightly as she whispered:

“FINAL SINGULARITY.”

The Evil Dragon instantly sensed a fatal threat. That trace of bloody aura suddenly became violent as it tried to accelerate its condensation and flee.

However, using its location as the coordinates, the repulsive force between the Abyss and the Mortal World descended once again.

Not only that, but the repulsive force this time was even more terrifying, and the singularity born from it… was even more crazed.

It was smaller than the last one, yet more condensed.

The pure black dot at the center seemed to contain the weight of the entire world.

No matter how the Abyssal Dragon struggled, it could not break free from its shackles.

“No! No! You can’t kill me! You can’t kill me!”

“I will be reborn! I will—!”

There were no horrifying scenes. The singularity swallowed everything.

The Abyssal Dragon, which had blocked out the sky, was swallowed into it in an instant, leaving only its unwilling words floating in the space.

This time, it would be completely buried within the singularity, with no hope of rebirth.

After swallowing the Abyssal Dragon, the singularity gently dissipated into the air as if it had never been there.

Only the marks of the Abyssal Dragon’s struggle on the ground proved what had just happened.

With its dissipation, all the remaining Abyssal aura in the space disappeared completely.

An unprecedentedly fresh breeze brushed against everyone’s faces, bringing them back to their senses from the shock.

The moment the singularity vanished, the Judgment Array shattered. Everyone in the Rose Knights, including Isavel, collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

Some of the girls were like they had been drained of all their strength, falling into a deep coma on the ground.

Their expressions were peaceful, as if they were just sleeping, but their auras were extremely weak.

This was a sign of extreme exhaustion of soul power.

Fortunately, an overextended soul could be recovered later.

At this moment, Isavel looked at the girls who had fallen with her. Intense emotional fluctuations appeared in her cold eyes—pity, gratitude, worry… and a hint of reluctance.

“A miracle… This is truly a miracle…”

Kurt looked at the sky and then at Isavel and the group of girls. His eyes were filled with incomprehensible awe.

Light dust still fell quietly, covering the unconscious girls and the shoulders of Isavel, who had stood up again.

On the battlefield, there was no longer the roar of the Abyss, only the breath of a new world and the lingering warmth after the burning of souls.

On the distant horizon, the true morning sun finally broke through the last of the gloom, spilling the first ray of golden light upon this warm land.

……

Afterward, Queen Flandre of the Aos Empire, connecting with other empires and human forces, held a grand coronation ceremony for the entire Rose Knights in the Imperial Capital.

Under the golden dome, ribbons and medals reflected the candlelight.

The Queen lightly tapped her longsword on the shoulders of the knights one by one.

Each touch triggered a low hum and waves of cheers.

[Hero]

This was a title that belonged solely to them.

When the ceremony ended and the crowd gradually dispersed, Isavel found them in the shadow of a colonnade.

The setting sun passed through the stained-glass windows, dyeing her black hair a warm gold.

“Congratulations.”

Her voice was calm, but there was a hint of undetectable softness.

“The mission of the Rose Knights has ended. The knights can be disbanded here. You are all free.”

When she said these words, her heart felt as if it were being squeezed by a hand, allowing a strong sense of reluctance to surge in the depths of her soul like a tide.

However, all good things must come to an end.

Meilin froze first, then her eyes turned red.

She suddenly took two steps forward and hugged Isavel tightly, burying her face in her chest, her shoulders trembling slightly.

Isavel paused for a moment but finally raised her hand and gently patted her back.

The surroundings fell silent.

Leanna looked down at the calluses on her palms from years of sword practice, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing the worn part of the hilt’s wrap.

Teresa leaned against a stone pillar, her profile reflecting the afterglow, her lips pulled into a gentle line.

Everyone stood still, as if the order to disband was a gust of wind that blew past their ears but did not enter their hearts.

Just then, an ominous sound of flapping wings broke the silence and crossed the sky.

Everyone looked up and saw a Skeleton Demon that had quietly crawled out of the Abyss to the Mortal World while everyone was crusading against the Evil Dragon.

It flew past the Royal Palace’s spires, casting a twisted shadow.

It circled halfway and disappeared behind the thickening golden clouds.

Leanna withdrew her gaze and looked at Isavel.

The hand holding the hilt was as steady as ever, but a certain certainty of being relieved of a burden surged in her voice.

“The mission of the Rose Knights has ended, but our mission…”

As she spoke, she looked at her companions. A familiar sharp light was rekindled in the eyes of every knight.

“…doesn’t seem to have completely ended yet.”

……

Late at night, in the open space behind the Oracle Hall, the Rose Knights held their own bonfire party to celebrate the success of the dragon’s crusade.

The woodpile crackled, and sparks leaped toward the star-studded night sky, dancing on the smiling faces of the girls.

Leanna sat alone on a log, her body leaning forward slightly, elbows resting on her knees, fingertips unconsciously tracing the outlines of grass on the muddy ground.

The firelight flickered in her pupils, as if invisible thoughts were stirring in the depths.

Teresa, holding a wine glass, walked over from the boisterous crowd and sat down beside her.

She tilted her head and looked at Leanna’s quiet profile by the flickering light.

“What’s wrong, Leanna? You look a bit gloomy.”

Leanna came back to her senses slightly and turned to Teresa, her lips pulling into a very faint curve.

“Gloomy? Not really. I was just thinking about things.”

Their conversation attracted the attention of several nearby companions. Iserine and Meilin walked over, the firelight seemingly igniting the gossip in their eyes.

Teresa turned her body toward Leanna, her expression serious.

“Tell us. Some things are much more comfortable to say out loud than to keep buried in your heart.”

Hearing this, Leanna took a deep breath. She lowered her eyes and stared at the swaying reflection in her cup.

“Actually, it’s nothing. It’s just… I’ve been thinking…”

“Do you think Lady Selis and Lady Isavel… could be the same person?”

Her voice was not loud, but it clearly penetrated the sporadic laughter and the crackling of the fire in the background.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Leanna continued, her speaking speed slightly faster as if she had figured something out:

“Look, Lady Selis hasn’t appeared for a long time, and Lady Isavel isn’t actually as cruel as she shows. Sometimes, she is surprisingly gentle.”

“That kind of gentleness is practically… practically just like Lady Selis, doing it silently and never letting anyone know…”

She paused, her fingers unconsciously tightening around the warm wall of the cup.

“And the most important point is…” She raised her eyes, her gaze becoming sharp, “they have never appeared together, have they?”

After her words fell, there was only the sound of firewood burning.

Iserine blinked, as if she hadn’t reacted, and then burst out laughing, breaking the silence.

“Haha, how is that possible, Leanna? How could you have such an idea?”

She shook her head while laughing and patted Leanna’s shoulder.

Then she stood up, brushed the grass clippings off her skirt, and changed the subject with a relaxed tone.

“Say no more. I’m going to get some food. I’m hungry.”

“I’ll go with you.” Meilin immediately stood up and grabbed Iserine’s arm.

The two of them turned and walked toward the fragrant food rack on the other side of the bonfire.

Teresa yawned and followed them as well, though her back looked a bit rushed.

The more they pretended not to care, the more obvious it became.

Leanna watched their figures quickly merge into the warm light.

After a long silence, a faint, knowing smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

‘I am the Captain, so being a little late to the realization is no big deal.’

……

While everyone was still enjoying the lively atmosphere of the bonfire party, Leanna quietly took her longsword under the moonlight and arrived outside the bedchamber of the Oracle Maiden.

As the Captain of the Rose Knights, she had always regarded Isavel as a goal she had to surpass.

No matter what means she used, she had to win against her… just once.

Now, Isavel’s soul was fragmented, and her strength was greatly reduced.

This was her perfect opportunity.

As for why she chose her bedchamber as the location for the duel…

Humph. Two battles, and the probability of winning is even greater.

(The End)