Chapter 558: King of the Black Sea, Gliek (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 558: King of the Black Sea, Gliek (2)
The moment Gliek awakened, the war outside ground to a halt. Kelliark and Ron had no choice but to focus on blocking the tide of chaos that was sweeping across the battlefield.
The Runcandels, who had been observing the situation from the sidelines, could no longer remain hidden.
Upon awakening, Gliek’s power washed over even the position where the Runcandels were concealed, and fleeing was not an option.
Jin was inside that chaos. Although Rosa had hoped for Zipple and Hairan to destroy each other, Jin’s death was something she had to prevent at all costs.
Above all else.
Everyone on the battlefield instinctively sensed it the moment Gliek woke.
If they did not deal with the King of the Black Sea here and now, the world would face its end—or a disaster of equivalent scale.
Furthermore, Rosa and Kelliark finally understood why Kinzelo had abstained from this crucial battle.
‘Kinzelo… Those bastards knew this was the King of the Black Sea.’
‘…I see it now. I understand why Ron Hairan suffered such severe internal injuries. The King of the Black Sea’s energy is reacting to the power the Leader of Kinzelo left in Ron’s wounds!’
Rosa and Kelliark gritted their teeth, their thoughts aligning.
Both were correct. Kinzelo had known the true nature of the White Stone, which was why they had called it a bomb. Ron’s injuries had worsened because the power of Kinzelo’s Leader and Gliek’s energy resonated with each other.
Whoosh!
Amidst the roiling chaos on the ground, pillars of azure fire surged upward. The moment Rosa and Kelliark saw those flames, they both breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Those flames were proof that Jin was still alive.
Rosa had to save Jin. Publicly, he had replaced Joshua as the frontrunner for the next patriarch; if they lost him, any information about Hister and Temar would once again be out of reach.
Kelliark also had to save Jin. If Jin merely died, Kelliark might have found some other way to recover Solderet’s authority. But if he were consumed by the King of the Black Sea, it would be an entirely different story.
The Demon God Stone would never be completed.
A gale of chaos raged.
The Demon God Stone hanging in the sky trembled, its face contorting. Kieee, kiiii… Low, terror-soaked whispers were swallowed by the pandemonium.
What the Demon God Stone feared was not Ron, but Gliek himself—the fragment of the Origin Stone that the countless gods sealed within it had once created… only to shatter because they could not handle its power.
Chiiiiing!
Rosa’s sword, Frenzy, turned pure white and let out a sharp resonance. Aura spread from it like a mist, shielding the Runcandel knights behind her.
Unlike Talaris, Rosa was in a state where she could fight without restriction. Thanks to the enlightenment she’d gained after Jin’s patriarch declaration, she could now wield a sword on par with the current Ron.
Her glowing blade cleaved through the encroaching chaos. The Runcandel knights followed, forming a sword formation as they stepped into the violent wind.
In the sky, Kelliark and the Zipple fleet pierced through the chaos, gradually descending toward the ground.
No one on the battlefield could have possibly expected it—they were all moving to save Jin.
*
If Tess had not been summoned, Jin would have already lost several of his comrades.
Blue flames formed a defensive wall, patching the gaps where the Profound Technique White had shattered.
The power Tess currently displayed far surpassed what he’d shown the day he annihilated the Dark Magic Association with a single roar, but his opponent was Gliek.
Defense was all he could manage. Even Tess didn’t know how long he could maintain this state through the unstable catalyst of chaos.
“Huff, huff…!”
Catching her ragged breath, Talaris stared ahead. She had reached her limit maintaining the Profound Technique White. Trusting in Jin, Tess, and the Black Knights, she withdrew her sword.
Simultaneously, the ice flowers all snapped apart, and Stam and the Black Knights stepped forward to take her place.
‘The dark energy touching my blade is as heavy as a mountain. But the Palace Master isn’t someone who would exhaust herself to this degree. Why is she so fatigued?’
Talaris spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at the backs of the Black Knights.
“I need time to stabilize my energy. Hold out until then, Stam. Carving out an escape route will be difficult anyway, so don't even think about just grabbing Jin and running.”
“Understood, Palace Master.”
Talaris sat cross-legged. A dozen white portals opened around her, and an energy far exceeding what she had used until now began to flow out and envelop her.
‘As expected, she still had hidden reserves.’
However, the situation remained grim. Stam and the Black Knights could feel it too—the chaotic energy was specifically targeting Jin.
Why on earth is that thing targeting me?
Jin had no time to ponder the question. He had already learned from Yona that chaos beyond a certain threshold was hostile toward him.
Jin stepped up beside Stam.
“12th Flagbearer.”
“I’ll fight alongside you. We have to hold out until an escape route is opened from the outside. Otherwise, your mission, Sir Stam, will be compromised.”
Bradamante, wreathed in azure fire and spirit energy, joined the swords of the Black Knights to cleave away the chaos.
Murakan and Misha squeezed out their remaining strength to deploy black spears and barriers, while their comrades who had even a sliver of power left struck down any chaos that slipped through.
No one said a word. Only the thunderous roars and vibrations from the clash of swords and chaos echoed within Tess’s flames.
Gradually, the gale of chaos began to thin. The knights sensed, however, that this wasn't because the King of the Black Sea’s power was weakening. It was because he was finally organizing his strength as he fully awakened.
This vast power that had instantly dyed the battlefield in chaos was merely the prelude.
The real battle was starting now.
[Ah, aaaa…]
Everyone on the battlefield heard the voice clearly. An indescribably eerie sensation pierced the chests of the knights and mages.
And then, the gale of chaos stopped. The chaotic energies that had been swirling madly across the battlefield froze in place as if in a painting.
Only then were the people able to behold the true form of the King of the Black Sea, Gliek.
A dark and massive phantom.
His two crushed feet did not touch the ground but were firmly fixed in the air. Hundreds of arms sprouted from his torso, all pointing in every direction, each clutching a spear or a sword.
Each of those arms was as thick and long as the spires of the ruined Sword Emperor Castle, and his weapons blotted out the entire sky.
Even the face of the Demon God Stone looked small in comparison, and the fleet floating before him seemed like a swarm of tiny gnats.
A colossal mass of abyss, which one could hardly believe had emerged from that tiny stone, was looking down upon the humans.
However, his pupils, black as a bottomless precipice, flickered unstably.
If one looked closely, past the overwhelming majesty, one could see a sense of distortion in every part of Gliek.
For some reason, he had not awakened perfectly. The human world was a land where Gliek should not exist, and he had been sealed for far too long.
But that fact provided no comfort to those on the battlefield. Most didn't even realize that Gliek had been released in an incomplete state.
‘That… is the King of the Black Sea?’
The Five Kings of the Black Sea.
The first time Jin had heard of them was when Myuron Zipple met his end.
—I am one who was once the lover of the Witch Heluram, one who shared drinks alongside the kings of the western Black Sea on Mount Tigris…
It was from the incantation Myuron had recited during the Colon incident, when he attempted to possess the Beast Demon King Orgal using dark magic.
Since that day, Jin hadn't heard a single thing about the Kings of the Black Sea. Even when Talaris explained chaos to him directly, she had not mentioned them.
But the moment Jin faced Gliek, he knew instinctively.
That hideous entity was the reason his father was so obsessed with the Black Sea.
“I expected it to be a portion of the chaos and records left by Heluram, but to think it’s Gliek!”
Misha, like Kelliark, had assumed the White Stone contained Heluram’s chaos and records, not the King of the Black Sea.
Unlike Misha, whose face had turned pale, Murakan seemed to be hearing the name Gliek for the first time. But whether he knew the name or not was irrelevant.
The only problem facing them now was survival.
[Waking… from a long sleep… my brothers… are so… far away.]
Kwooooo—!
Before Gliek could finish speaking, an explosion ripped through the sky. The Zipple fleet, excluding the Kozec, had malfunctioned and fired their cannons.
The cannons of the flying ships were manifested through the mana of mages.
However, Kelliark had not given the order to fire, nor had the elite Zipple mages on board lost their minds to terror.
The chaotic energy filling the air was causing interference in the magic devices and artifacts.
The dragons wearing the artifacts Murakan had described as shackles fainted or plummeted from the sky. Every second, mages fell into mana backflow as they struggled to control the ships.
Even the fired shells vanished, blocked by the chaos in the air before they could even reach Gliek.
Kelliark tried to control them using the Demon God Stone, but it wasn't easy. The terrified Demon God Stone could no longer grant Kelliark power as readily as before.
[Only the foul… stench… of my enemies… remains…]
Slowly, Gliek lowered his head.
Soon, his two eyes were fixed on where Jin stood. The moment their gazes met, Jin knew what would happen next.
Those countless swords and spears would strike him down. Before the thought could even finish, Jin raised his sword. Stam, the Black Knights, and his comrades also took their stances.
Black blades, sharper and heavier than the chaos they had struggled so hard to block, came falling down.
It was hard to accept, even while experiencing it firsthand, that those massive swords and spears fell with a speed that was nearly impossible to react to.
They somehow dodged and blocked five consecutive attacks that fell in an instant, though it was impossible to say how. If Rosa and the Black Knights hadn't fired sword energy from afar and Kelliark hadn't provided magical support, it would have ended right there.
But they were still too far away. There was a limit to how much they could cover him, and Gliek’s swords pressed down on Jin with increasing intensity.
Just as he was about to miss the next attack—
Jin saw one of Gliek’s swords, which had reached right in front of him, suddenly turn to ash.
Ron Hairan had lunged forward and struck down Gliek’s blade.