The deafening clash of metal still echoed through the barren air of the Dragon Valley. The violent gusts of wind resulting from the collision between Zald's Greatsword, Grattor, and Leon Vardenburg's massive blade swept up the dead earth's dust, forming small vortexes around their feet.
Leon held his breath, exerting every last ounce of strength from his numb arm muscles to withstand the pure physical pressure that nearly shattered his footing. His sharp eyes stared straight into the predatory smile of the brown-haired man before him. The heart of the Knight of Knights pounded fiercely, refusing to believe the reality that the legend who should have crumbled to dust years ago now stood alive and visibly at full strength.
However, instead of applying further pressure to break Leon's defense, Zald suddenly withdrew his giant sword.
With a casual movement that sharply contrasted the murderous aura he had emitted a second prior, Zald rested Grattor on his right shoulder. The large man snorted softly, looking Leon up and down with an appraising gaze.
"Boring," Zald said in a heavy tone, breaking the suffocating tension. "Your stance is shaky, your breathing is heavy, and your blade feels dull. You are not in peak condition. Just fought desperately against something troublesome, eh?"
Leon didn't answer, his body still on high alert.
"Even so..." Zald smirked slightly, acknowledging the knight's strength. "From that clash just now, I could feel it. You've reached Level 7 in this era. Not bad. The kids of the new generation aren't entirely disappointing, it seems."
Leon slowly lowered his sword, though his vigilance didn't drop in the slightest. "Zald... How could you—"
Before Leon could finish his sentence, the sound of elegant footsteps approached from behind Zald.
"You still have that bad habit of randomly testing people's strength, Zald. Especially against someone who is clearly injured. Truly inelegant."
The woman's voice—cold, flat, and filled with absolute authority—made Leon Vardenburg freeze once again. His body reacted faster than his brain; his survival instincts screamed, warning of a danger far quieter but a thousand times deadlier than Zald.
The second cloaked figure standing behind Bell slowly raised her slender hand and pulled back the hood covering her head.
Silver hair, shining like strands of moonlight, tumbled down to frame a beautiful face as cold as a glacier. A pair of gray-green heterochromatic eyes harboring absolute silence stared at Leon with a flat gaze. There was no aura of illness, no signs of the weakness that claimed her life in the past. She stood tall, radiating a Level 8 pressure that silenced the sound of the wind in the valley.
"Even... Alfia too...?" Leon whispered in disbelief. His jaw tightened. If Zald was the sword of despair, then the woman before him was the embodiment of the apocalypse itself. The Silence.
However, the surprises for Orario's strongest knight were not over. The two other cloaked figures standing behind Alfia also removed their hoods.
Leon's breath caught for the third time.
Two Elf girls stood there. One was a White Elf with blonde hair and a face radiating peace, while the other was a silver-haired Dark Elf with exotic dark skin and a sharp red gaze ready to protect.
Leon narrowed his eyes, forcefully digging up memories from the darkest era that had ever enveloped Orario seven years ago. He recognized the faces of the two Elf girls.
The Dis Sisters.
The two of them were the former Captain and Vice-Captain of the Alecto Familia, the main faction of the dark alliance, Evilus. In the past, Leon hadn't directly interfered in the battles at the center of Orario when The Great Feud broke out, because his patron god ordered him to hold back the onslaught of Evilus reinforcements from outside the city borders. However, he knew the details and the main figures who nearly leveled Orario from the Guild's reports very well.
What the hell is this... Leon thought, his brain spinning hard to process the impossibilities lined up before him. Why are the Evilus executives still alive? Why are these people from the past appearing all at once?
Unlike the citizens of Orario and ordinary adventurers who cursed Alfia and Zald as cruel terrorists from Evilus, Leon—similar to Ottar—harbored no personal grudge for the destruction they brought seven years ago. As a peak adventurer, Leon fully understood the dark essence behind their betrayal. Alfia and Zald chose the path of darkness, willingly casting aside their good names and their pride as legends, purely to become the 'Wall of Despair' (Evil) that the new generation had to overcome. They sacrificed themselves to spur the growth of new heroes so the world would be ready to face the One-Eyed Black Dragon. Leon held immense respect for that tragic resolve.
However, what truly baffled Leon right now was the aura of the two Elf girls, Dina and Vena.
According to historical records and eyewitnesses during The Great Feud, the Dis Sisters were described as assassin Elves who were incredibly sadistic, cruel, and had lost their sanity because their goddess had brainwashed them. But the two Elf girls standing before him now radiated a very pure aura. Their gazes were clear, calm, and filled with an elegant sanity, not at all reflecting the bloodthirsty monsters of the past.
"Who are you people really?" Leon finally asked, his voice filled with caution. "What kind of past is standing before me right now?"
Before Zald or Alfia could answer, the figure of the androgynous-faced youth in green bard clothes stepped forward, passing them all. He smiled brightly, twirling a small lyre in his hand with playful movements.
"Let me introduce myself, my name is Venti! Just a bard god who happens to be passing by with the wind," Venti said in a cheerful tone, completely unaffected by the heavy atmosphere among those legends. "No need to think too much about how they can be alive, Sir Knight. Just consider the five of us as a pickup party tasked with escorting your little hero back home to Orario."
Leon stared at Venti. He realized that this mysterious young god was the one holding the reins over these monsters from the past. However, the knight decided to give up trying to figure out this confusing reality. There was something far more pressing than questioning the logic of how they were alive and their arrival.
Leon turned his face away from Venti, looking straight at Bell Cranel, who had been tightly grasped by Nina Tulle, crying tears of joy.
The Knight of Knights' eyes dimmed, projecting a grim urgency. "Bell. I don't know where you went, or where you brought these people from. But now is not the time to breathe a sigh of relief. There is incredibly dire news from Orario."
Bell gently released Nina's embrace, looking at Leon with a tense expression. "Dire news? What happened, Leon-sensei?"
"The Loki Familia's expedition was a total failure," Leon said, his voice as heavy as a stone dropped into a calm lake.
Bell's eyes widened immensely. His heart pounded fiercely.
"The sixtieth floor in the Dungeon collapsed due to an absolute anomaly," Leon continued, delivering the emergency information he had just received from his god, Baldr. "The support team was forced to retreat to the surface with severe injuries. Meanwhile... Finn, Riveria, Gareth, other core executives, and Ais Wallenstein... they are all trapped on the lower floors. Their path is cut off, and Orario has no remaining combat force capable of penetrating the depths of the labyrinth to rescue them. They are waiting for death."
Bell's face instantly went pale. Ais's name—the girl who had always been his compass since he came to Orario, the girl who saved him from the Minotaur, and someone incredibly precious to him—was now on the brink of death at the bottom of hell.
Bell's hands trembled. The fear of losing someone important crept back into his heart. However, that despair only lasted for a second. A full month of hellish training with Alfia had forged Bell's mentality to be far stronger than before.
The white-haired youth spun around quickly, looking straight at the silver-haired woman standing silently behind Venti.
"Aunt!" Bell called out in a loud voice, his eyes radiating a burning resolve, no longer hesitating or afraid. "Please allow me! I must return to the city and go down into the Dungeon. I have to save Ais-san and her friends!"
Leon Vardenburg, who had just worn a serious and dramatic face, suddenly choked on his own spit. The knight turned his head jerkily toward Bell, then toward Alfia, then back to Bell.
"Aunt...?" Leon repeated unconsciously, his eyes widening and his jaw nearly hitting the ground.
Leon's brain, which had just decided to stop thinking about impossibilities, exploded once again. Bell Cranel, the rookie hero holding the record for the fastest level up in history... was the blood nephew of Alfia, one of the deadliest mages in human history?! No wonder the youth's talent was so absurd! Leon felt he would go crazy if he stayed near this group any longer.
Alfia observed her nephew's face intently. In those ruby-red eyes, she saw no hesitation. She saw the strong will of a hero, and the exact same gaze possessed by her beloved sister, Meteria.
The corners of Alfia's lips curved into a very rare, faint smile. She crossed her arms under her chest and nodded slowly.
"Go, you Foolish Boy," Alfia said in a firm tone, yet with a hint of gentleness slipped within. "Prove to me that the hellish training I gave you this month didn't end in vain. Don't you dare come back until you've saved that girl."
Bell smiled widely, bowing his head deeply. "Thank you, Aunt!"
Venti clapped his hands once, drawing everyone's attention. "Well, since the decision is unanimous, we don't have time for a leisurely stroll to enjoy the scenery. Where must we go, Sir Knight?"
Leon tried hard to restore his momentarily shattered dignity. He cleared his throat softly. "We cannot return straight to Orario on foot, that takes too much time. We must head to the nearest port on the outer border of this continent. The main ship of the School District, Hringhorni, is docked there. That ship will take us to Melen Port in just a matter of days. From there, we can breach straight into Orario."
"Border port? Great, let's hurry then!" Venti exclaimed enthusiastically.
The God of Wind then glanced toward Zald. Without warning, Venti jumped lightly and casually sat on the large man's broad shoulders.
"Mush, my steed! You're the fastest runner!" Venti ordered, pointing south.
A vein of annoyance popped on Zald's temple, while Alfia looked away to suppress her laughter. "You truly have no shame, Venti," Zald grumbled. However, despite complaining, the large man still shot forward at bullet speed, carrying the God on his shoulders so their formation could move at maximum velocity.
Leon, Nina, Bell, Alfia, Dina, and Vena immediately dashed to follow behind, leaving the dead air of the Dragon Valley.
The journey across the barren continental border to the southern coastline took almost a full day, even though they ran at high speeds.
As dawn began to break and the sun showed its golden rays on the eastern horizon, the time-piercing group finally arrived at a high cliff facing directly towards the vast ocean.
Venti, still perched casually on Zald's shoulder, widened his eyes upon seeing the view in the bay below the cliff. In the era Venti came from (15 years in the past), the School District's ship had not yet reached its stage of absolute perfection. But in this future, what was docked at the port was not just a naval fleet, but a masterpiece of architecture that surpassed human reason.
Docked there was Hringhorni—the largest ship ever created in the world.
"Whoa..." Venti let out a long whistle, his eyes sparkling with awe. "That's not a ship, that's literally a floating city!"
Venti's description was no exaggeration. Hringhorni possessed an incredibly massive size with a diameter reaching seven hundred meters, enough to accommodate around ten thousand crew, staff, and students of the School District. Its circular, tiered silhouette looked like a metal island emerging from the bottom of the ocean.
The hull's structure was very unique, consisting of three giant metal disks stacked sturdily on top of each other. The top layer was the Control Layer, filled with observation towers and the command center. Below it was the Life Layer, which functioned as a residential city for the students, complete with dormitories, markets, and entertainment facilities. While the bottommost disk was the Academic Layer, where classrooms, combat training facilities, and the library were located.
However, what caught Venti and Zald's attention the most was the side of the ship.
Attached to both sides of the metal disks were a pair of giant crystal-blue wings radiating extremely potent magical energy. Those wings were not forged by dwarves, but were the remaining body parts of a legendary creature. Those were the Leviathan's Blue Fins—the absolute drop item from the ocean ruler monster, the Leviathan.
Long ago, before it was repurposed into a maritime educational institution, the initial structure of this giant ship was a military naval fortress built through the collaboration of the Zeus and Hera Familias to conquer the Leviathan monster. Seeing the relic from the golden era of his Familia return, Zald snorted proudly with a faint smirk.
"That ship can move so fast because they installed five hundred special buoyancy generators—similar to the elevator technology in the Tower of Babel—powered by magic stones at the base of its hull," Leon explained, observing the foreign god's awestruck face. "The School District students are already prepared. We can board immediately."
Wasting no time, Leon led the group down the cliff and into the exclusive dock. As soon as they set foot on the deck of the Control Layer, the ship's captain immediately gave the order to weigh anchor.
The roar of hundreds of magic generators echoed throughout the ship's hull. Hringhorni cleaved through the ocean waves at incredible speed, propelling its way back toward the continent's central coastline.
They spent one full day aboard the giant ship. During the journey, Bell utilized the time to absorb all the lessons from Alfia so he would be in peak condition when he arrived at the labyrinth later. Meanwhile, the presence of Alfia, Zald, Dina, and Vena on board was well concealed within a special cabin provided by Leon, avoiding mass panic from the School District students.
By noon the next day, the silhouette of the Labyrinth City of Orario was finally visible in the distance. The Tower of Babel piercing the clouds stood arrogantly, calling the heroes to re-enter its cycle.
The ship's steam whistle blew long, piercing the salty air.
Hringhorni finally dropped its anchor in the waters of Melen Port, the main gateway to Orario. Playtime was over. Now, it was time for these people from a Past Timeline to step into the city, ready to shake the common sense of Orario once again.
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