"Damn brat! I was going to save this for that outsider..." Hyakinthos gritted his teeth, rage boiling in his eyes. "But since it's come to this, I'll just use it on you instead!"
Battered and bruised, he roared in fury and reached for the weapon strapped to his waist—a blade that had yet to see the light of day.
The moment the weapon was drawn, Belle's pupils shrank. An ominous wave of danger swept through her entire body, triggering every alarm in her mind.
The weapon shimmered with a colored glow.
A magic sword.
In Orario, there was no mistaking it. A colored blade was a magic weapon—a rare and dangerous artifact capable of altering the tide of battle.
And this one? It radiated power on a whole other level.
Belle didn't hesitate. She immediately threw herself to the side, her instincts screaming at her to dodge.
Her reaction proved spot-on.
In the very next instant, Hyakinthos brought the sword down, and a torrent of scorching flames erupted. The blazing inferno tore through the tower walls like paper, sweeping outward in a devastating arc.
"Oh no!!!"
Belle's heart skipped a beat. She had a terrible realization. Eyes wide, she turned toward the opening where the flames had burst free.
Outside the tower, Daphne and the other two remained on full alert, their attention locked on Lucien. Their bodies were drenched in sweat, and though the being before them showed no signs of aggression, none of them dared to relax.
And then, without warning—
Lucien opened his eyes. The subtle motion struck like thunder in the hearts of the three. Their bodies trembled involuntarily.
Lucien slowly raised his hand. That simple gesture sent a chill down their spines.
The moment his hand lifted, the three were filled with dread. Was he about to attack them?
Before they could react—
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion erupted behind them.
Daphne instinctively spun around. Her eyes went wide as she saw a tsunami of flame rapidly approaching, rushing down the corridor like an unstoppable wall of death.
The corridor offered no cover. There was nowhere to run.
There was no time.
The flames moved too fast, engulfing everything in their path. The inferno was vast, nearly blotting out the corridor with its size and speed.
Daphne's heart sank.
She recognized that fire immediately.
This was the power of a first-class magic sword, a devastating weapon purchased at immense cost by Apollo himself—meant to be a last resort for the foreign adventurer he had planned to deploy.
And now that overwhelming firepower… was headed straight for them.
The irony was cruel. They weren't about to die at the hands of an enemy—they were about to be obliterated by their own side's misfire.
"There's no way we can survive this," Daphne thought bitterly. "If this hits us, we'll be lucky to live at all. Even if we do survive… we'll be crippled."
The same realization dawned on Cassandra and the other Level 2 adventurer from Apollo Familia standing nearby. Fear gripped all of them.
Despair began to settle in.
But just then—at the critical moment—a figure appeared before them.
A familiar silhouette stood like a wall between them and the incoming hellfire.
They didn't even need to look closely. They knew exactly who it was. They had been staring at him this entire time.
Lucien.
His voice rang out calmly, almost in disappointment.
"So Apollo really equipped Hyakinthos with something like that…"
Despite the distance, Daphne and the others heard him clearly.
And then, before their minds could even process what was happening, Lucien moved.
With a mere wave of his hand, the approaching inferno shattered like fragile glass.
The flames—capable of reducing structures to ash and vaporizing adventurers—were effortlessly dispersed.
Sparks flickered harmlessly in the air, falling to the ground like dying embers.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Daphne, Cassandra, and the other adventurer stood frozen, their minds blank with disbelief.
In that moment, everything made sense.
The suffocating pressure, the overwhelming aura, the terrifying calm Lucien displayed—it all clicked.
This wasn't someone on their level.
No… this was someone who stood atop them all.
He wasn't just strong. He was likely a Level 6 monster in human form.
Daphne's lips trembled as she stared at his back, watching the man who had just saved them from certain death.
Her voice was barely a whisper, but the words carried the weight of inevitability.
"Apollo Familia… is finished."
Inside the crumbling tower, where a massive hole had been blasted into the stone by a previous magic strike, Hyakinthos stood frozen.
His face was a mask of disbelief.
"Impossible…"
He stared at the sight before him—his lips trembling.
The magic he had unleashed moments ago was no ordinary spell. It carried the firepower of a Level 5 adventurer's most powerful blast.
And yet… it had been effortlessly dispersed. Dismissed like a candle flame before the wind.
A cold chill crawled down Hyakinthos's spine.
He wasn't a fool.
To dismiss that level of magic without even flinching, without a weapon—barehanded—was proof of one thing.
That man was no Level 5.
He was Level 6. At minimum.
Breaking magic through brute force wasn't unheard of for seasoned melee specialists, but even they relied on enchanted first-tier weapons to do it.
Leon—no, Lucifer—had done it with nothing but his bare hands.
Iv.6… there's no doubt…
Despair gripped Hyakinthos's heart.
He clutched his magic sword tightly—a blade capable of producing devastating Level 5 firepower. In most battles, this would be his trump card.
But what good was it now?
Against a monster like that, even this powerful blade meant nothing.
He knew the truth.
Even if he used it in direct combat, he might not even be able to defeat some of the stronger Level 4s.
Level 6 was a completely different world.
How could he not feel hopeless?
That same despair reflected clearly on Apollo's face as he watched from the assembly hall.
He had already started losing hope the moment Leon's thought-body appeared on the battlefield.
But now—after watching that same thought-body shatter Hyakinthos's magic strike with a single blow—he collapsed into complete, silent dread.
Leon didn't bother speaking.
Without warning, his body flickered—disappearing from where he stood and reappearing right beside Hyakinthos.
He stretched out a hand casually, as if plucking an apple from a tree, and snatched the magic sword from Hyakinthos's stunned grip.
A beat of silence.
Then Leon turned away.
"Fight properly."
With that single line, he vanished from the tower and returned to the Sky Corridor above.
The watching citizens of Orario took a moment to process what had just happened.
And then—eruption.
Cheers thundered through the streets.
Applause rang through the plazas.
The spectators—especially the many second-tier adventurers—knew full well the terrifying power behind Hyakinthos's previous attack.
And yet, it had been broken with a wave.
Just thinking about it gave them goosebumps.
The power Leon had displayed wasn't just incredible—it was unimaginable.
Everyone was speechless for a breath, and then they all shouted as one, voices rising in awe and praise.
But Leon didn't pay them any mind.
He had done his part.
***
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