Hard Carried by My Sword

Chapter 252

As Icarus Wing flickering behind Leon’s back like a halo went out, the darkness that had been pushed back for several steps settled down again. Leon descended slowly from the night sky and set Elahan down from his arms.

Having been frozen stiff for nearly an hour, Elahan leaped away with a face red as fire. Her silver hair streamed behind her like a trail of stardust.

Seeing this, Irexana greeted them with a pleased smile. “Welcome, Saintess. And Hero, and...”

He trailed off. He’d clearly sensed three people approaching, but only two were visible. Confused, Irexana tilted his head.

Then, the moment Leon’s feet touched the ground, a tanned-skinned beauty burst out from the shadow of his red cloak. It was Karen, who had accompanied them the whole way by applying her Pitch-Black Dance.

“Whoa! We’re already here? My sense of time gets weird inside, so it felt like only a few minutes,” she exclaimed.

No matter how excellent the Icarus Wing’s flight capability was, carrying two people at once ruined the form. Even small differences could drastically raise or lower air resistance, so Leon had given Elahan the spot, while Karen yielded her place because Elahan had no idea what to do with herself. Bringing another person into her shadow was still out of reach.

“It’s been a while, Your Eminence,” Leon greeted Irexana. In truth, it hadn’t been that long, but everything that happened in between had been so enormous that it felt like ages.

Irexana returned the greeting with equal sincerity. “Yes, Hero. Even from afar, I heard the news of your victory, and I couldn’t help but be moved by your accomplishments. To fell the Death King and strike down Morse—truly, worthy of the Goddess’s champion.”

“You flatter me. It wasn’t something I did alone.”

Leon scratched his cheek, embarrassed but honest. It was true. If even one of the Masters present at the time had been missing, the White Peak Palace infiltration would likely have fallen apart.

Gilbert, Cedric, Valter—regardless of affiliation or rank, every one of them fought with everything they had. Even Valter, who had loathed Lyon and Gilbert, had roared with joy in that moment.

“Hoohoo. That alone is enough.” Irexana smiled even more warmly. “A Hero is not someone who stands above others, but someone who stands in front of them. Someone whose back gives courage to those who follow. You do not need to shoulder everything alone.”

“Thank you, Your Eminence.”

“Please, come inside. I actually have much to tell you. I didn’t expect you to visit in person.”

“Oh? What a coincidence. I came for the same reason.”

The two looked at each other blankly for a moment before chuckling and entering the building. Elahan and Karen followed behind.

Thanks to swift preparation, the table was already set by the time all four arrived. Sitting around the table in the guest chamber, they sipped warm tea and nibbled at small pastries, letting their weariness melt away. After laughing and chatting about trivial things for tens of minutes, the late hour no longer mattered.

Perhaps everyone present judged it was time for the main topic. When Irexana set down his teacup, Leon and the others shifted their attention, their expressions turning serious.

“Hero. Before I speak of my business, I would first like to listen to the reason you sought me.”

Without hesitation, Leon went straight to the point. “Of course. I’ve come to meet the being inside Ground Zero.”

“Hoh!” Irexana couldn’t hide his surprise.

That reaction was all Leon needed. It instantly became obvious that Irexana knew something.

Letting out a faint laugh at himself, Irexana asked, “How do you know about Ground Zero? That knowledge is treated as top-secret even within Jugend’s royal family and is passed down only between Grand Meisters.”

“Someone told me.”

“By someone, who might you mean...?”

Leon didn’t answer with words. Instead, he simply tapped the hilt of his sword. Irexana understood everything instantly, awe filling his gaze.

“Ah. Of course! The goddess herself has sent you! For her to deliver a revelation urgent enough to bring you here at night... how foolish of me. I was worrying over how to explain it, like an idiot.”

Leon caught something strange in those words.

“Explain? Explain what, Your Eminence?”

“Ah, the matter of Ground Zero. Since it’s top-secret to Jugend, I wasn’t sure how much I should or shouldn’t say.”

Only then did Leon understand why Irexana had hesitated. One might think it strange that a cardinal would conceal anything from the Hero, but it was simple. As he himself said, Irexana was the Third Cardinal of the Holy Church, but also the Grand Meister of Jugend. The boundary between his duty to devote himself to the Hero, and his duty to guard Jugend’s secrets as Grand Meister had become muddled.

“Hero, how much have you heard?”

“That there’s a being in Ground Zero who has lived for several centuries... and that they still have ties to Holy King Rodrick.”

With no hesitation left, Irexana rose from his seat. Even in the dead of night, there was no place off limits to the Grand Meister.

“A good omen. Very good indeed. I will guide you to Ground Zero. I’ll explain the rest as we make our way to the entrance.”

***

Even the name of Ground Zero itself was classified as top-secret within Jugend. Aside from successive kings, not even the royal family knew its exact location or how to reach it.

Only the Grand Meisters, generation after generation, maintained what little contact existed with “the one.” For that reason, Irexana was arguably the person in the entire kingdom who knew the most about Ground Zero.

“This way,” Irexana guided Leon’s party.

Even within Area 1’s restricted zone, they turned down passage after passage, each more hidden than the last, until a corridor appeared. It was a path that could not be detected from the outside at all.

“Is it... underground?” Leon asked, puzzled.

Irexana explained, “Yes. One of the reasons Ground Zero has remained unknown until now is because it’s hidden deep beneath Area 1.”

Even dwarves, as fanatical as they were about minerals, never dug up what was essentially their capital. They already had a separate Great Vein; they were never short on ore. And Ground Zero lay tens of kilometers below—far too deep for Jugend’s technology to dig through layers of earth filled with special metals.

Leon’s party quietly followed Irexana, descending the seemingly endless stairs. It was hard to believe this structure had been artificially made.

“Your Eminence, these stairs must be...”

“It’s likely what you’re imagining, Hero. They’re far older than Jugend itself. The dwarves certainly didn’t build them.” Irexana continued, “She spends most of his time in deep sleep, but every now and then she sends requests to the surface. She once asked for several tons of special metal. And she was heavily involved in the creation and development of Jugend Steel.”

“Huh.”

“I wasn’t summoned often myself, but my predecessor went down every several years to assist her. I was never told exactly what kind of work that entailed.”

Chatting idly, the group reached the bottom of the staircase in less than half an hour. And then, they all saw it at once. An entrance larger even than the great gates of Calelum, its entire surface blocked by a barrier. The moment they laid eyes on it, the sheer force contained within made Leon’s party widen their eyes.

El-Cid’s voice echoed in Leon’s head.

—Hoh? Not half bad. In this era, only Kasim could break through this one. Even with half her innate ability gone, this is quite strong.

Only Brother Kasim? So this ‘she’ you’re talking about is on the level of a Grandmaster?

—Her actual combat capability is somewhat lower. Still a few steps above an Aura Master. If those two fought, Kasim would beat her down in about an hour.

Leon couldn’t help but marvel. He had seen Kasim’s technique in the Titan Mountains—a strike powerful enough to tear the sky. And yet this barrier stood on equal footing with it, strong enough to contend with a Grandmaster for an entire hour.

He found himself wondering if they had contacted this “ally” earlier, wouldn’t everything have been far easier?

El-Cid answered the unasked question.

—I did consider it, but it would have been difficult.

Why?

You’ll understand when you meet her yourself. Now, draw me.

This smells... suspicious...

El-Cid clearly avoided explaining, but Leon drew the Holy Sword anyway. He already knew without being told that they needed the Holy Sword to pass the barrier. As if expecting it, Irexana stepped aside.

The moment the sword approached, the bluish light covering the barrier rippled, parting to form a doorway wide enough for several people to walk through. Leon’s party quickly stepped inside, and the dreary underground scenery transformed, replaced by a brilliance bright enough to make their eyes prickle. It wasn’t quite enough to hinder the vision of an Aura Master, but it was close.

“Woooow...!”

Karen was the first to let out a breath of awe, and the sight made it understandable for someone so sensitive to wealth.

The spectacle was rather simple. A vast chamber stretching to the horizon, with a ceiling hundreds of meters high, every inch filled with the radiance of precious metals and treasures.

Embedded densely across the ceiling and walls were glowing stones, all luminous night-pearls. Just one of them would sell for dozens of gold coins; higher-quality ones could go for over a hundred.

“It’s unbelievably extravagant. To stash so many treasures this deep underground... does this person simply enjoy luxury to an absurd level?”

“Who knows.”

Leon glanced around, responding to Elahan. Even without exaggeration, this wealth could probably buy an entire kingdom—or several. If released into the market, gold and jewel prices would crash beyond repair. And yet this unimaginable trove was being collected and stored here, untouched, simply to be gazed upon.

Wait, no way...

A sharp realization flashed through his mind. El-Cid had said he could collect on a centuries-old debt. This was a being Jugend kept hidden as top-secret, a being protected by an absolute barrier that opened only for the Holy Sword.

A kind fond of hoarding treasures in its lair...

And suddenly everything clicked. Then, a voice came from the deep. All four of them dropped their centers of gravity at the same time, breath forced out of their lungs beneath the crushing weight.

“What’s this?”

“Ugh...!?”

“Kh!”

“What is this...!”

It wasn’t physical. It was a pressure that pressed on the soul itself, a presence on a completely different level.

Even if it was smaller in scale than the Death King, its density might be several steps higher. Having fought higher beings several times, Leon recognized it instantly.

“Hah... intruders? You’re bold, I’ll give you that.”

The presence closed in fast. The pressure swelled from the darkness ahead, and before they realized it, they had already drawn their weapons. Every instinct honed as fighters screamed for self-defence.

And then, the voice spoke again.

“Huh? Irexana kid? Did I leave the barrier open?”

The figure to which the voice belonged shot across the horizon and halted abruptly right in front of Leon’s group.

Fast!

Leon’s eyes moved reflexively, taking her in. With Rodrick’s Vision, he could analyze an opponent in less than a tenth of a second to analyze an opponent. Golden pupils stirred as the Stigma of the Observer activated.

She’s dangerous.

Her form was human, but the vitality pouring off her and the oppressive energy blanketing the area belonged only to a higher race. At a glance, she was a towering beauty. Even standing before Irexana, who was over two meters tall, she was barely a hand shorter.

Her loose clothing revealed limbs white as canvas yet clearly sculpted with muscle. Her proportions and features were so impossibly ideal that they resembled a statue carved under the theme of “war goddess.” The sort of beauty that would make clueless men gape with drool running down their chins.

However, Leon was not bewitched by that beauty. Even if I fight at full power... within a hundred exchanges, I die.

He sensed the power hidden beneath it, a transcendental kind’s potential, and stepped back, readying his stance.

Impressed by his reaction, the figure smiled and said, “Not bad. For a human, you’re quite good. I see why Irexana would bring someone like you to me.”

“A-Albion, that’s...”

Irexana tried to speak, but was quickly shut down.

“Enough. I don’t need your explanation, kid. If they want to interact with me, they should know they need to prove their worth. I won’t break tradition just because of your personal connections.”

The unidentified woman, called Albion by Irexana, turned toward Leon’s group. Just locking eyes with her sent shivers down their spines.

We must not fight her, Leon agreed with his screaming instinct.

“Well then, choose. Children who have come seeking me. Will you take my trial? If not, I will at least allow you to turn back.”

The pressure intensified, crushing down on them. In that space where even breathing lagged by several beats, Leon managed to lift the Holy Sword.

“Before we take your trial, there’s something I’d like to say,” he said.

“I told you to prove yourself first.”

“It is not my message. It is from someone who asked me to deliver it.”

Albion blinked, puzzled, then crossed her arms and nodded for him to continue. And then, the Holy Sword El-Cid vibrated to create a voice for itself. It was the smug, spiteful, and laughing voice that Leon was so familiar with.

“Long time no see, Yellow! Time to pay your damn debt!”

Albion’s eyes flew open. Her slit pupils—a reptilian vertical cut—contracted sharply. But her judgment remained swift.

“This irritating voice... I haven’t forgotten it for even a single day in three hundred years...!”

A murderous smile spread across her face. A beast’s smile was not like a human’s—it showed fangs, signalling that an attack was imminent.

She stepped closer, glaring at the sword, and shouted, “You... Rodrick! You rotten bastard!”

The Dragon Roar exploded point-blank, unleashing a shockwave like a storm. Leon was blown backward, recovering his footing with difficulty as he swallowed hard.

So much for being a benefactor. There was only rage in her roar. Realizing the true identity of the woman standing before them, Leon ground his teeth and shouted internally, Hey! What the hell did you do to make her this pissed!

—Who knows? I don’t remember bullying her or anything.

Think harder! Thanks to you, I’m about to fight a dragon!

From that roar alone, Leon was certain that Albion was a dragon in human form.