Chapter 306: Temar’s Second Tomb (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 306: Temar’s Second Tomb (4)
He had become one with the shadows. His body, now pitch-black and hazy, resembled a faint silhouette—a ghost. It looked as if a hand reaching out to touch him would simply pass straight through.
Thump!
The Guardian came to a halt.
Her attention was captured by the energy of Heaven Reversal.
Under normal circumstances, even if her power were reduced from 8-star to 5-star, a typical mana backflow would have never been enough to distract her.
Heaven Reversal, however, was a Great Magic that defied a mage's fundamental understanding of mana backflow, even in the modern era. To her, a figure from a millennium ago, the phenomenon was bound to be even more alien.
[…Is that a Zipple secret technique? You use impressive magic for one so young.]
Her blazing eyebrows twitched. Clearly disturbed, the Guardian paused, her gaze fixed on Heaven Reversal.
A portion of the mana forming her Karma Fire broke away, shaping itself into a ribbon that was slowly drawn into the sphere of Heaven Reversal. Combined with the pressure from the Authority of Time, this new force seemed to pin the Guardian in place, preventing any reckless movements.
Furthermore, the struggle for dominance against Murakan continued even in that brief interval. The two forces—one striving to seize control over spirit energy, fire, and space, the other resisting—clashed fiercely from all sides.
Yet despite her apparent disadvantage, it was Jin and his companions who were being overwhelmed, not Sarah. They couldn't even bring themselves to approach the motionless Guardian.
Logically, the situation made no sense. Even accounting for the unique power of an ancient Runcandel, it was a miracle she could exert such might with only 8- or 9-star mana and aura. On paper, Jin and his allies possessed far greater raw power.
But she was a pure-blooded Runcandel from the era before the Covenant—a being whose very existence was a phenomenon in itself.
And among them, she was one who had stood closest to the pinnacle of strength.
‘Please. I hope your mind returns to you, even if only for a moment before this fight ends, Sir Sarah.’
Jin’s grip on his sword tightened.
Soon, pitch-black shadows seeped from his body, staining the floor dark. The single massive shadow branched out in multiple directions, gliding across the floor with lethal speed toward the Guardian.
In an instant, the branching shadows surrounded her.
Slash! Whoosh!
Reflexively, the Guardian fired blades of fire at them.
It was impossible to physically damage a shadow. The shadows surrounding her merely flickered for a moment before resuming their spread across the floor.
Spirit Sword 7th Technique: Shadow Assault
As its name implied, the 7th technique was designed to assault an opponent in a way only the Spirit Sword could. It was a technique that no one, no matter how great their power, could ever hope to mimic without the ability to manipulate shadows.
Jin’s blurred form shot forward.
To an untrained eye, Jin's translucent, shadowy form would have seemed like an illusion as he charged. He moved with such speed that he looked more like a dark blade of energy being fired than a physical body.
Nevertheless, the Guardian moved to swat him aside as if he were nothing. The moment Jin began to move, she had already calculated the trajectory of her swing.
As the distance closed to point-blank range, both their swords traced arcs through the air.
The Guardian’s sword was faster. Regardless of her total aura capacity or her injuries, the swordsmanship she had honed throughout her life still touched the realm of transcendence.
The swords of fire and shadow collided.
Or rather, they seemed to collide. The Guardian’s sword cut through empty air as Jin vanished completely from her sight.
Instead, she suddenly found Sigmund swinging at her from behind. The blackened blade was descending on her back.
It was Jin’s companions who were truly shocked by the sight.
‘Young Master Jin… did he just teleport?’
Teleportation. From their perspective, it was the only logical conclusion. Jin, who had been charging head-on, was now suddenly swinging his sword from behind the Guardian.
They weren't entirely wrong.
The reason Jin had vanished into thin air was because of the five shadows surrounding the Guardian. Those shadows were a type of ‘gate’—gates that Jin, having unleashed Spirit Sword 7th Technique: Shadow Assault, could traverse at will.
At the moment of impact, Jin had hidden himself within the shadow in front of the Guardian and re-emerged from the one behind her to deliver his strike.
‘Assault’—a powerful, unpredictable attack. It was a trick that could only be performed by one who could become the shadow itself.
Shink—!
Jin’s sword grazed the Guardian’s lower back. To be precise, it grazed the edge of the fire that covered her like a second skin.
She was one of the Ten Great Knights.
Even with her fire bound by the Authority of Time, locked in a power struggle with Murakan, and her mana agitated by Heaven Reversal, Jin had never expected to cut her down in a single strike.
[Yes, the Spirit Sword did have a technique like this. How unpleasant, to see the Patriarch’s sword being used.]
Jin didn't bother to explain that he was no longer a Zipple. He judged that the only way to communicate with this broken hero of the past was through his sword, not his words.
‘This is different from facing Sir Silderay, but Sir Sarah is also part of Solderet’s arrangement. As long as I fulfill the conditions for the legacy, the same thing that happened in the first tomb will happen here.’
Every trial left behind by Solderet ultimately shared the same answer.
Willpower.
The most noble value of a warrior—and perhaps of any human. Whenever he proved his, the path forward would open. It was true when he first mastered the Spirit Sword, true in the Mitra Great Desert, and true in the first tomb. There was no reason for it to be different this time.
From five different directions, Jin and the Guardian’s swords clashed. Jin moved freely between the five shadows, striking from all sides, while the Guardian had to spin frantically to parry Sigmund's attacks.
However, though she seemed to be on the defensive, her gaze remained as solid as a rock as she turned to block each strike.
As the exchange grew faster, their swordsmanship became increasingly simple. It was a battle of depth over flashiness, of substance over style.
Whose sword was deeper?
If one had to judge, it was naturally the Guardian’s. Realm, experience, proficiency, and unity—excluding the single factor of innate talent, Jin’s swordsmanship was inferior to hers in every way.
[What a waste, boy. Had you been a Runcandel, you would have become a hero who saved the world.]
The five shadows surrounding the Guardian were gradually spreading apart. It was evidence that Jin was being pushed back.
His companions could only watch, a bitter frustration growing inside them as they remained powerless to intervene.
Quicantel’s Authority of Time was also reaching its limit. She could hold back the Karma Fire for a minute at most, and even then, the binding force was not what it had been at the start.
It was much the same for Murakan. As the temporal restraint weakened, the Karma Fire grew more powerful, causing a shift in the balance of their power struggle.
Jin swung his sword in silence. Unlike his companions, whose throats were parched with anxiety, he was calmly waiting for his moment. He watched the flow of the Karma Fire’s mana as it began to rage once more.
‘The temporal binding is weakening, and the fire's power is returning… but the mana forming the Karma Fire isn't as dense as it was before.’
The flow of mana the Guardian was wielding had changed. Needless to say, the reason was Heaven Reversal.
‘If her physical condition were at its peak, she could have maintained the Karma Fire while controlling the mana backflow from Heaven Reversal.’
But not now.
None of the other companions noticed that the Karma Fire’s density had decreased. They were merely tense, wondering when another of the ancient Runcandel sword techniques would explode forth.
But it couldn't escape Jin's eyes—the eyes of a mage. To him, the Karma Fire's instability was perfectly clear.
‘In truth, the Karma Fire was already collapsing the moment Heaven Reversal began. She’s holding it together by force, but the backflow will start soon.’
Because the Guardian was fighting so perfectly, the others didn't even consider that she would soon suffer a mana backflow.
Of course, Sarah’s martial prowess wouldn't suddenly plummet just because the backflow started. She would surely refine her mana before it intensified and press her attack as if nothing had happened.
It would last for only a single moment.
The opening created by the mana backflow.
‘The moment Sir Sarah slows down to correct the backflow—if I miss that, there won't be another chance.’
Clang, screech, shink…!
The shadows from the Spirit Sword 7th Technique now formed a circle nearly twice its original size—the result of Jin being pushed back by the Guardian.
Just as the Guardian was facing multiple opponents at once, Jin was simultaneously observing the various phenomena originating from her: parrying her sword, checking the flow and density of her mana, watching the path of the Karma Fire, and calculating the exact moment she would fall into backflow.
The temporal binding would last for about twenty more seconds.
And Jin finished his calculations.
‘Five seconds from now.’
The Guardian’s backflow would begin.
One.
Two.
Three…
Urgh!
The Guardian suddenly coughed up a clump of pitch-black spirit energy. Jin’s calculation had been perfect.
For the first time since their clash began, Jin took a step forward, preparing the real trick he had hidden behind the deception of Shadow Assault.
Shink—!
A dark blade fell toward the Guardian’s heart. Among the hundreds of exchanges that had occurred, it was the first true crisis she had faced.
However, even while controlling the backflow, the Guardian displayed monstrous strength in reacting to Jin’s attack. Her flame-dyed sword swung upward, parrying Sigmund.
It looked as if Jin’s strike had failed.
And if the only sword attacking her had been Sigmund, it would have.
[Ah.]
The Guardian retreated, widening the distance from Jin.
A flickering black blade was lodged in her chest. Spirit energy poured from the wound like a torrent.
Sarah had expected Jin to make his move the moment she fell into mana backflow. Had she not, it would have been impossible for even her to parry that final strike on reaction alone.
[Haha… You got me.]
Spirit Sword 4th Technique: Scissors.
That was the real trick Jin had prepared. That was the one thing Sarah had not anticipated. The moment she parried Sigmund, the blade of Scissors had pierced her heart.
The Guardian felt her vision darkening.
She instinctively knew that her long, lonely mission was coming to an end. She also realized the mistake she had been making all this time.
However, the battle with the boy before her—the descendant they had protected from the Zipples until the very end—was not over.
[What are you doing? End it, Jin Runcandel.]
As the Guardian spoke, Jin strode toward her and thrust his sword.
“It was an honor, Sir Sarah Runcandel.”
Thuck…!
Once again, Sigmund pierced through her chest.
She collapsed onto one knee, a smile on her face.