2nd Rank Has Returned

310 – The fight that Leo wants-2

Leonardo looked at Ariasviel at the same time in the world of the holy sword.

I was convinced, both sensually and instinctively, that it was Leonardo. His presence was conveyed too clearly to the skin to say that the Demon King had performed some trick.

The Leo in front of me right now was definitely real.

“…How…I must have collapsed…”

Baek Aria could not help but be shocked.

Since she had come to the Holy Sword’s morgue in the first place, she could not have expected his appearance.

“I fell down on purpose. “That way it will be easier to gather here.”

That was the direction Leo was aiming for.

Even if you have the qualifications to be a warrior, you cannot easily enter and exit the world of the Holy Sword.

So, by deliberately putting his body in critical condition, he created a state in which he could send his mental body here.

As a bonus, we succeeded in inducing Baek Aria to come here as well.

＜…Then there is nothing wrong with your body…?＞

Black Aria looked at Leo like that and expressed her concern. The iron-blooded attitude she had just shown had become completely soft-spoken.

Whether she was black or white, Aria had no choice but to worry about Leonardo. In the first place, the actions I took until now were mostly for Leo’s sake.

Leo burst into laughter at that question.

“…At least you don’t have to worry about me.”

Sereung…! Leonardo also drew his sword.

The black blade shined as sharply as the holy sword, and was forged so sharply that it reflected Aria’s flushed expression following her answer.

“I should worry about you first.”

The tip of her black sword was pointed towards Aria. It was clear what the doctor wanted to express.

＜…Leo, this is…!＞

Black Aria, who caught her glove after she threw it, could not properly respond to the challenge of a duel.

No matter how much he wanted to duel, no one would have expected him to request a duel in this situation.

“There is no need to drag it out. “Let’s stick together.”

Although both Aria’s expressions hardened at the same time, Leo did not move a single word. At the point when this situation was deliberately created, Aria’s actions were already in the palm of Leo’s hand.

“Leo, this is a fight I must finish. “You don’t have to step forward.”

Aria in white, who did not receive a duel request, tried to stop Leonardo first.

As a loved one, I couldn’t help but worry about Leonardo’s condition. His health could not have been intact in any way as his body and mind were violated by an ugly monster called the Demon King.

Moreover, this fight was a decisive battle that I had to finish myself. Even Leo couldn’t pass the responsibility on to someone else.

“So I…Kyaaa…!!”

The moment Baek Aria blocked, Leonardo quickly and briefly struck her in the abdomen. The fist, stronger than the whispers of love she had uttered before, gave a hot shock to her abdomen.

At her surprise shock, Aria Baek felt a tingle in her lower abdomen and her lower body losing strength due to the impact.

“Why… Leo…”

“I’m sorry, but I was the one who waited for this fight. “I cannot allow you two to die and kill like this.”

Although he spoke coldly, Leo let Aria, who had knocked her down, lie down a little more comfortably.

If it had not been for Aria’s efforts, she might have become the devil’s hand and foot forever and become a slayer worse than death.

But that’s why it was necessary to stop this situation now, even if it was by using coercive means.

“Where shall we begin?”

＜…Wait…! Leo…! There is no reason for you to fight with me…＞

Kaaang! Clashing his swords, Leo cut off his words with the sharp blade. Black Aria hastily attempted to defend herself, but there was no mistake.

Her swordsmanship, trained to the limit, did not even allow for emotional fluctuations or surprise attacks aimed at an opening.

“No? “I wouldn’t know it if it were someone else, but between you and me, it’s a sad thing to say.”

It didn’t just mean that I had a reason.

Leonardo had always had great intentions in dueling with Aria, but beyond that, she was not a challenge for Aria Spiel to take lightly.

Knowing Leo’s life up until now, there was inevitably a duty to Aria Spiel in her duel.

＜…This is not a problem that can be solved by fighting between you and I. But…!＞

Countering Leo’s slash with her counterattack, Black Aria took her stance.

Ariasviel understood best that this duel could not be broken. In that case, he had no choice but to at least respond accordingly.

＜…At least I’ll fight if this makes you feel better.＞

That was her best courtesy as Black Aria. It was better for Arya’s feelings to just fight with herself and get beat up until she lost her temper.

Kwaaa…!!

As soon as she heard her answer, her fierce fire exploded at Black Aria to the extent that it reminded her of a pouring heat wave or the Demon King.

Even though the total amount of mana did not change, her output itself was upgraded several times compared to before.

The phenomenon did not feel foreign.

“When you feel better…?”

Even Baek Aria fell into fear for a moment.

“I’m going to fight…?”

Leo’s face turned red and blue with anger.

His long drawn-out words mixed with the sound of teeth grinding showed an intimidation that seemed to grind Ariasviel.

“Are you still looking at me funny!?”

Kwaang!!

In an explosion that seemed to shake the earth, Leo swung his sword sharply towards Aria. The blade of his long sword became a massive greatsword and crushed Aria without her even noticing it.

＜…I’ve never seen anything so funny…!＞

Even the merciless combination was met with a straight attitude by Black Aria. Her whole body had the same strength as her holy sword, and was so perfect that even such attacks were treated as nothing.

“There’s no way I could see you like that..!!”

Regardless of that, her spirit collapsed like a sand castle at one word of Leo’s harsh words.

My heart is broken by the validity I feel in Leo’s anger and screams, and the weight of guilt grows even stronger, weighing down my spirit.

As the businesslike tone evaporated, her sincere voice rang out.

“No, you are still looking down on me.”

Leo swung his greatsword so fiercely that it could be said to be cruel. As if he had lost his cool in his anger, Leo continued to use his maximum output without sparing any mana, unlike usual.

However, without showing any sign of fatigue, he showed restrained skill and skill, driving his rival to the point where he appeared cunning.

“If I hadn’t been looked down upon, I should have gone forward with the attitude of ‘I have to fight’ rather than ‘I will fight.'”

It had to be that way.

Now she was denigrating not only this situation, but her relationship with herself, and she didn’t realize it.

“Do you still see me as second in command running behind you? “Do you still feel like I’m someone you need to protect?!”

To Leo, her attitude may have been kind, but at the same time, he felt an undertone of sympathy.

“I told the Demon King that I was strong, but when I fight him directly, he sees me as an opponent he has to watch over!!”

Pity was something that had no choice but to be done to someone who was considered weak.

If she was sincerely committed to this fight, she should not stop at the idea of responding.

“I said it wasn’t like that…!!”

Ariasviel also slashed in anger. Although it was only a short sword, the speed at which it tore through space created an optical illusion as if each and every one of them were rays of light.

“I’m not ignoring you!”

Before I felt unfair, I have now become angry.

Black Aria wanted to explain over and over again that she didn’t have that kind of feeling.

Now, more than Leo not stopping swearing at her, she was more annoyed by the fact that she couldn’t properly convey the feelings that were deep in her heart.

“Because you are a better person than me…!”

Aria’s counterargument is linked to her counterattack.

She couldn’t bear to hear that the man she now admired and respected had ignored and insulted her.

The reason she wanted to hand over her hero power to Leo now was not to shirk her responsibility for this.

“You were a much stronger person than me…! “As a warrior, I was inferior to you!”

As she watched Leo’s fight, Aria couldn’t help but think that way.

Even in any hopeless situation, he did not give up. Even though he had no obligation, he fought as a human being until the very end.

When she thought of the difference in the environments she and he were in, it was obvious to her who was the right person to be a hero.

“So you’re saying you’re going to die? “Just for that reason?”

But still, Leo was tough.

With all his words and actions undisturbed, Leo stretched out her blade and wrapped it around her skin like a whip, cutting her.

“Then you think I’ll be satisfied? “I’m going to forget everything with the power of a hero and just laugh and be happy about it!”

Not even a whip-like blade could pierce Aria’s skin, but his harsh words pierced through the gaps and unexpectedness in her heart.

“No..! I am…!”

Even if she had room to object, she had no room for Black Aria herself.

Her spirit was not broken by the devil who boasted of her cosmic terror, but she became infinitely withdrawn from the man she loved.

Just as Aria knew Leo well.

“You didn’t really fight in the first place, right? “To kill yourself.”

Leonardo also knew a woman named Ariaspil well.

Baek Aria, who was lying down, seemed slightly shocked by what Leo noticed.

This meant that Black Aria did not kill White Aria, but chose to kill her in her fight.

It was an idea that was difficult to imagine, considering her hard-line stance as Black Aria so far.

“Why are you looking like that? “Did you think I wouldn’t know?”

But Leo knew.

It is a fundamentally impossible contradiction for the future self to commit suicide by killing the past self.

Suicide by killing one’s future self, which could be one’s past self, may be possible in some cases, even if it is contradictory.

That meant only one thing.

“You were planning to erase yourself from this world. “I guess I was thinking of deleting only Ariaspil from the first round.”

The purpose of Black Ariasviel was not the extinction of Ariasviel, but was limited to the first round.

At least, if we did that, the people in the second round would have been able to live without any problems.

But even Ariaspil could not understand this complicated method.

“…Why don’t you do it yourself…?”

These words were not uttered out of resentment by Black Aria, who had driven the situation. I couldn’t logically understand why such a complicated and difficult method was being used.

“…You were in a similar state to me, right? So, ‘physically,’ I chose someone else’s hand.”

Leo, who had a ban on suicide, had no choice but to understand it more quickly.

Her body is probably completely integrated with her holy sword, and paradoxically, she cannot even inflict a wound with her own holy sword.

So, the existence of White Aria was the only breakthrough for Black Aria.

“…I didn’t mean to do that from the beginning.”

It was not her excuse.

“At first, we wanted to eliminate both.”

Rather, it was closer to her self-loathing.

There was also bound to be resentment toward her past self, who had caused trouble to Leonardo and interfered with her life.

“…But I have no right to do that. “Because my existence was closer to error from the beginning.”

But she herself was also broken.

She came to hate herself more than Baek Aria, so she changed to this choice.

At least that was the only atonement that Black Arya could think of.

“You are the reincarnation of the first hero, and you are a true hero.”

In the first place, he was not a proper hero, and Leo, who he thought he protected, was the true hero.

He could no longer escape from that sin alone.

At the end of the melee, Aria Spiel could not straighten her knees properly and could barely support her body with only the rusty holy sword.

“So…!”

Leo, who briefly looked down at her shaking body, lifted Aria’s chin with his hand.

Forcibly lifting her head, Aria’s blue gaze was fixed on Leo’s red gaze.

“Let me correct one thing first.”

And Leonardo opened his mouth.

“I am not the reincarnation of Ruben Reinhardt.”

Leo’s tone was heavier than other times, and neither the black nor white arias could react readily to the truth.

“If that were true, it would be a big deal in terms of genealogy.”

It was a concern that was completely out of place in a serious atmosphere.

But if you think about it carefully, it was also a serious problem.

At least that was the case for Leo.