Chapter 134: I Can’t Let You Leave in One Piece

Leon and Salmora.

Father and son.

The relationship between creator and creation but their relationship now was nothing like it had been in the past.

Having been abandoned, Leon treated Salmora with obvious hostility that anyone could see.

“You’ve certainly… grown.”

Salmora smiled even as a sword was held to his throat.

At a glance, it might have seemed like he was proud of his grown son’s appearance, but that was not it at all.

Behind that false facade lay his true feelings.

It was greed.

He was radiating greed and desire toward Leon, who could serve as a vessel for the perfect species.

“I will ask you once more — “

“No matter how you ask, my answer will remain the same. I cannot be with you.”

Leon asserted his will before Salmora could even finish his sentence.

It was an expression of his determination to no longer be entangled with him.

And.

“I will follow my Master, so do not even keep me in your sights.”

He had made his choice to follow me.

It was the moment he finally brought his unspoken inner feelings to the outside.

“Hehe… hehehe.” Salmora gave his signature laugh at Leon’s resolve and said, “Yes. I understand. I have no right. After all, I considered you a failure and threw you away.”

Salmora readily admitted to the fact that he had abandoned Leon.

“I simply didn’t think a failure like you could become such a complete form.”

He even showed his true intentions.

Leon’s face crumpled at the word “failure.”

No matter how much he had trained his composure, it would be impossible for anyone to remain unfazed while being called a failure to their face — unless they were my past self, who had separated his personality.

“I will be honest. I want you, Leon. Because I couldn’t complete you, I crave you even more. With you, I would be able to create the perfect species and reach the unknown.”

As he spoke, he slightly tilted his head back.

“Don’t move!”

That was not a simple threat.

-Squelch

The sharp blade dug into Salmora’s neck.

However.

“You don’t think you can threaten me with a mere sword like this, do you?”

Salmora was bold.

-Slide

Ignoring the blade digging into his neck, he stared directly at Leon.

“Don’t you desire it too? Originally, your existence was a kind of test subject to create the perfect species. A test subject that should have been a failure. But now, you can become a complete form. You can prove the value of your existence.”

To begin with, the reason for Leon’s birth was not for the Rank of creation.

He was one of the candidates for the vessel, a test subject for the perfect species.

However, he had been abandoned by Salmora, who judged that Leon could not reach the perfect Rank of creation.

In a way, his existential value was for the sake of the perfect species.

Perhaps Salmora had hidden that existential value deep within Leon’s psyche.

But.

“Nonsense!”

Leon did not waver at Salmora’s subtle words.

“I decide my own existential value. Even if it were my Master’s words, I wouldn’t listen to something I wouldn’t even consider — let alone hearing it from your mouth.”

Perhaps — no, almost certainly — if it had been the past, he might have been shaken by that temptation.

No, 100%.

He would have been floundering while caught in the snare Salmora had prepared.

However, there was something the bastard hadn’t considered.

It was that, unlike his past incomplete self, Leon had reached completion.

No matter what the bastard arranged.

No matter what method he used, he could not make Leon submit.

Because.

‘First, I started with mental training.’

As I said before, I knew Salmora well.

No matter how much of a failure something was, no matter how much it was a disposable pawn, there was no way he hadn’t created a means to control it.

That was why I had checked Leon’s mental state beforehand to block such tricks.

Not only had he escaped Salmora’s snare through his own completion, but through my mental training, he was now in a completely independent state.

Unaware of this, the bastard was trying to use a snare from the past — one that had already been destroyed and was now formless.

“It’s… your doing.”

Turning his neck even as the sword was half-embedded in it, he stared at me.

“Of course.”

I responded with a shrug.

“Anyway, it seems we’ve reached a conclusion.”

“Step” Salmora walked forward, completely indifferent to Leon’s threat.

Naturally.

-Sizzle!

The cut on his neck healed cleanly.

“I thought you and I were on the same wavelength, but it seems you’re just a brick wall.”

Until just a moment ago, we could have been called friends.

But now, he was radiating clear hostility and murderous intent toward me.

-Vroooooom!

However, that wasn’t for right now.

“It’s a shame, but from now on, our paths will diverge completely.”

“When were we ever on the same side?”

“Heh. That’s true.”

It was a series of conversations.

However, there was something I didn’t like.

“But…”

-Shlick

I lifted my sword.

“…Your words and attitude make it sound like you can leave this place whenever you want.”

Salmora’s actions were clearly rooted in the confidence that he could escape this place.

“Since I have you right in front of me — something I rarely get to see — I have no intention of letting you leave alive.”

The bastard was thorough.

He didn’t reveal himself easily.

Most of the versions of him that had appeared until now were nothing more than clones.

But now, I was certain that the being before me was the real one.

Since I had the chance to see his main body, which was a rare sight, I had no intention of missing this opportunity.

“Hehe. Well. I wonder if it’ll go as you wish?”

With those words.

-Snap!

He snapped his fingers.

However.

-Puff

Only black smoke leaked out; nothing changed.

“This is…?”

“You crawled into the tiger’s den on your own accord; did you really think I’d let that opportunity slip away?”

Our conversation.

Of course, I had gained much information through it.

It was true that it had been a beneficial conversation.

But I hadn’t just been standing still during that talk.

Without him noticing, I had gradually expanded my will and completely sealed off this space.

Of course, if there had been such preliminary work, there was no way Salmora wouldn’t have noticed.

That was why I had placed one restriction on it.

The core of all these barriers and domains was limited to Leon.

That was also a part I had worked on in advance by entering Leon’s inner self for his mental training in the past.

As a result of this secret work, the bastard was trapped in a sealed space.

There was only one rule here.

[Seal all movement and escape skills.]

The sealing of movement and escape skills.

To leave this place, one had to walk out, not use Authority.

Of course, I wasn’t about to just watch him do that.

“Hehe… As expected, you are cautious. To think you would entrust the core of the barrier to someone who wasn’t even here.”

The barrier I had arranged activated the moment Leon arrived.

No matter how much Salmora knew, he could not have known about such a conditional activation.

“But you’re making a big mistake.”

Yet, he did not panic.

“Why do you think you — no, the both of you — can defeat me?”

The moment he judged he could not escape, Salmora’s energy — an unimaginable Karma — began to pour out in streaks.

It was as if a massive boulder had settled over the grounds.

“Thump!”

“You’ve… certainly absorbed a lot.”

That didn’t belong entirely to Salmora.

It was the Karma of those he had absorbed while traveling through time.

All of it was combined into a shape like a giant mass.

It felt as if I could hear the wailing of the beings absorbed by him within that momentum.

“Isn’t it an honor? To be able to live for eternity as a part of the greatest being.”

“You’re wrong.”

I pointed out the flaw in his words.

“It’s not eternity. You’re going to die here, so the word eternity doesn’t suit you.”

I had already made up my mind.

Salmora.

I would give my all to take down the bastard who rarely showed himself from his burrow.

Because I knew this was an opportunity that would never come again.

“How arrogant. Even if I acknowledged you as a friend, it is an immutable fact that you are far below me. I shall teach you that right now.”

With that he began to transform.

The body that had been a middle-aged gentleman, a clean-cut human, transformed into something hideous.

An incomplete mass where various races such as humans, the Demon Clan, Dragons, and Gods were mixed together.

That was his true form, which he had been suppressing until now.

A being that had absorbed numerous races and merged all their knowledge, bodies, and Magical Power into a single legion.

That massive body surged like a mountain range, and within it, a Dragon’s breath, a Demon Clan’s curse, and even the will of the Celestial Clan were all mixed together.

“Back away.” I ordered Leon.

A joint attack?

No.

Leon’s level was not yet high enough to face him.

To be precise, it would be more accurate to say he would be in the way of what I was about to do.

Perhaps he realized that.

-Whoosh!

Leon left Salmora’s side and distanced himself.

“Foolish! If you cannot even manage a coordinated attack, then your defeat is already certain!”

Did he think it was only possible because Leon had joined in?

Then he was sorely mistaken.

“You are still in an incomplete state. In that state, you cannot defeat the current me —”

“You’re wrong about that too.”

He had been giving nothing but wrong answers for a while now.

“The sword is not a technique.”

I had only realized it recently.

The realm I reached while absorbing the separated personalities.

A supreme domain that could be reached even without restoring my past power, the power of my prime.

-Slide

I lifted my sword.

There was no aura or pressure.

But at that moment, Salmora’s giant body began to shake on its own.

“Tremble”

“The sword is will, and it is the heart.”

A wave in the shape of a circle spread out from beneath my feet.

The Heart Sword was manifested.

Neither sword energy nor pressure, but only the heart that wished to live.

The heart that wished to protect.

The heart that wished to overcome echoed through the space.

“Uwoooooo!” Salmora roared.

The earth shook because of it, and thousands of arms and mouths poured out simultaneously.

A storm-like attack.

The moment the weight of eternity poured down in an instant.

“Step” I took one step forward.

-Snap!

Time was cut off.

An intangible blade tip that pulled even the unconscious.

The Heart Sword does not cut.

It simply convinced Salmora’s center.

His form stopped.

Within it, the cries of the races that had perished, the memories of greed and destruction.

The suppressed shouts of life were washed away by the flow of the sword.

The Heart Sword is not a sword meant to cut the enemy.

It is about understanding the opponent and making them accept the end deep within their heart.

“Crumble”

Thus, Salmora’s body quietly collapsed.

No, it was as if heat had been applied to a solid jelly, making it melt.

“Sizzle”

“H-How could this…?”

In the midst of his disappearance, he sent out a shocked will.

I had become stronger even without a physical body, aura, Magical Power, or divinity.

“Because I forged the sword of the heart through 1,000 years of training.”

Along with that, something was revealed.

Something shaped like a small jelly.

That was his true form, a Slime, having lost the absorbed power.

Looking at it.

-Thrust!

I did not hesitate to stab Anus into it.

“Aaaaaaaagh!”

Along with a wail that sounded like it came from hell, the form vanished.

Only one thing remained.

A single sword that contained the heart of 1,000 years.

The Heart Sword.

It had granted Salmora a true end.