Chapter 599: Purifying Chaos (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 599: Purifying Chaos (3)
‘It feels similar to when I faced Sir Ron after he fell into Demonization…’
Jin had experienced a similar sensation within Gliek’s abyss. Back then, he had felt his strength surging as chaos and spirit energy intertwined.
That power seemed to have vanished after the battle with the demonized Ron ended, but it had remained as spots of encroachment, tormenting him ever since.
His heart pounded as if it might burst.
Jin couldn’t hear the voices of his brothers surrounding him and Teto. His head buzzed as if he were submerged deep underwater, and amidst the haze, his unnaturally sharpened senses ignited an unwanted battle lust.
To think he still wanted to fight, even after nearly inflicting a fatal wound on his own brother.
The urge was as difficult to suppress as an addiction to a potent drug. Had the people before him been strangers rather than his brothers, he might not have been able to stop his blade.
Since the end of the Sword Emperor Holy War, Jin had not faced an opponent strong enough to awaken his demonic nature. His battle with Quaul hadn't even served as a proper warm-up, which was why this state hadn't manifested until now.
Good and evil, the righteous path and the heretical, light and darkness.
Conflicting desires created violent ripples within him.
Just when he thought he had barely suppressed it, the demonic energy continued to writhe like a savage serpent.
‘If I use this power, I can step into the realm of transcendence in an instant…’
To a martial artist, there could be no sweeter temptation.
If he simply made up his mind—just once—it felt as though a power as immeasurable as the great ocean would flood his entire body.
It was so seductive that it felt like a blessing had been bestowed upon him. It even seemed that the uncontrollable nature inherent to Demonization would vanish if he simply accepted the power completely.
‘Why should I refuse?’
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Jin’s Demonization surged to another level.
The voices of his brothers no longer registered, not even as muffled noise. Their figures began to blur into black silhouettes.
For a fleeting moment, he even regretted throwing his sword away.
The brothers, now perceived only as dark shapes, began to feel threatening. An urgent need flared within him—the need to protect himself from these wraith-like entities.
“Graaaagh…!”
Jin let out an inhuman scream and violently shook off a hand extended by one of his brothers. It was Belize’s.
He had clawed at her with all his might. Had she not been a Fighting King of the Pluto Tribe, her hand would have been severed or torn clean off. Belize didn’t panic and grabbed Jin once more.
Her physical strength was among the highest even of the Fighting Kings, yet she had to exert her full power just to hold onto Jin’s arm.
“Restrain Brother Jin!”
The rest of the Fighting Kings swarmed in to help. The only reason they could steadfastly subdue him while taking blows from his superhumanly strong fists and kicks was because they were the Fighting Kings of the Pluto Tribe.
“Brother, snap out of it!”
The restraint turned into a brutal struggle. They were forced to be so violent that they had to snap his limbs and crush his body to hold him down.
Jin coughed up blood and let out guttural screams, yet he showed signs of recovering instantaneously. With every recovery, his physical strength even seemed to grow.
As the violent suppression continued, several of the ordinary brothers squeezed their eyes shut, unable to watch. The sight of their brother’s body being broken by his own kin was difficult to endure.
Jin had to stop on his own. There was a limit to how much the Fighting Kings could restrain him, as they had no way of knowing how much more his body could take.
“Brother Jin!”
“Cough, ugh…!”
Soon, Jin vomited a spray of black blood, and his rampage ceased. At the final moment, just as the Demonization reached its peak, the Fighting God Blood had once again held him back.
Even so, the Fighting Kings didn't let go of Jin for a long while. They all felt as if they were holding a bomb that could go off at any moment.
“Are… are you okay?”
Lying prone on the ground, Jin looked up at the concerned faces of his brothers. Only then did they breathe sighs of relief, but Jin felt as if his heart were shattering from guilt.
“Brothers…”
“Keke, Brother Jin! Don’t you go feeling guilty or anything!” Teto shouted, speaking up first while the others were still choosing their words. “That’s poison. Your inner self? Your heart? Whatever. You’re not in the best shape right now, and if you get swallowed by guilt, you’ll only get weaker, right? Then your will to push back the encroachment of chaos will naturally weaken too. So, for the sake of efficiency, toss those emotions aside.”
“Oh, the 12th Fighting King is actually talking sense for once. Is the 2nd Fighting King’s hard work finally paying off?”
“The 12th Fighting King is right. You need to find your mental stability, Brother Jin.”
Jin met his brothers’ eyes for a few seconds before nodding.
Instead of guilt, he decided to feel only gratitude. The reason he could adopt such a mindset so easily, even after nearly killing a brother and causing such trouble, was simple.
Brothers do not keep a tally of debts and grudges.
It was because Jin, too, was a man who followed the way of the Pluto Tribe. Had the people he almost harmed been his other comrades, it would not have been so easy for him to lighten his heart.
“Phew… Thank you, brothers.”
“Here, drink some cold water.”
“Good, let’s keep it simple. Only we could handle you like this, Brother Jin. What would have happened if you were in the human world?”
“I don’t know how many times my arms and legs would have been broken.”
“Well, when you first came here, they were severed dozens of times. In a way, this is better than back then.”
Instead of letting the mood turn somber, Jin and the Pluto Tribe kept the atmosphere light. As they did, Jin felt the remnants of the Demonization rapidly subside.
This wasn't the first time the Pluto Tribe had dealt with a case like Jin’s. They knew that one’s mental state had the greatest impact on Demonization.
“Brother Jin.”
“Yes, 1st Fighting King.”
“You are currently undergoing a form of rehabilitation. You just tripped once, and you might trip many more times in the future,” Baltirok said, placing a hand on Jin’s shoulder. “Each time, what you must do is simply dust yourself off and stand back up quickly, just like now. You shouldn't worry about why you fell, or if you hurt someone in the process.”
“And our job is to keep reaching out and helping you up every time you fall.”
“How strange. Brother Teto keeps saying the right things…”
Jin nodded. It was a wonderful thing to have such warm, reliable brothers and a home to return to.
“So… take up your sword and get into your stance again.”
It had been only a few minutes since he had nearly stabbed Teto, but his brothers seemed completely unbothered by that fact.
“Right now?”
“You mustn't fear rampaging again. The Fighting God surely foresaw this situation, and yet he told us to check your skills and condition.”
“Which means the Fighting God trusts Brother Jin just as much as we do, and that probably nothing serious will happen even if you keep rampaging… right?”
“Probably?”
While it was true that he loved and trusted his brothers immensely, Jin was sometimes taken aback by this nonchalant side of the Pluto Tribe.
“Brother Tantel! Run over to the Fighting God and ask him. Tell him the situation is such-and-such, and ask if we should continue.”
At Garmund’s words, Tantel shot out of the training ground. He returned a moment later and nodded.
“He says to continue!”
“I knew it. Come to think of it, we were making a bit too much of a fuss. The Fighting God told us to do it, after all.”
“Right, right. Since the Fighting God said so, I’m sure nothing will go wrong.”
“Everyone sounds like they’re not entirely sure. Is it really okay?”
“Who was next? The one who won rock-paper-scissors earlier? Ah, it was me!”
“Brother Garmund, where are you pulling that lie from? After the 12th Fighting King, it was the 2nd Fighting King. Then it was Brother Baltirok, and the rest… Damn, what was the order again?”
“Since no one remembers, let’s just void it and decide with rock-paper-scissors again.”
“Are you still not going to let us join in, Fighting Kings?”
“Ahem, can’t you see the situation? You ordinary warrior brothers should just keep watching until Brother Jin’s chaos is purified. Instead, let the spectators move a bit closer. If Brother Jin rampages again, we all need to suppress him quickly.”
He didn't even have a chance to refuse. Jin gripped Sigmund once more and continued the sparring.
*
The sparring continued for the next four days.
During that period, except for when he was sleeping—and even then, they all slept together at the training ground to prepare for any rampages—Jin constantly traded blows with the Fighting Kings.
And he experienced over twenty rampages.
During the most severe one, he went on such a tear that he half-destroyed the training ground; during the mildest, it ended with him taking two punches to the jaw.
‘I have no energy left in my body…’
The sparring had been so intense that it felt as if even the chaos had been drained of its vigor. He had reached a state where he didn't even have the strength to rampage.
It wasn't that the Demonization had truly ended.
Just as Dante had opened the door to Gliek’s temptation, a single door remained in Jin’s heart, one he could open at any time. A door of temptation that promised comfort and strength if he only threw it open.
The Fighting Kings also showed signs of exhaustion. They hadn't just been sparring; they had to restrain Jin every time he rampaged, so it was only natural they were tired.
‘If I hadn't heard about the temptation of chaos from Dante… and if I hadn't experienced that wretched tragedy at the Sword Emperor Castle, I might have opened it by now.’
His teeth chattered. Jin reached out with a trembling hand and gripped his sword again.
“Next… Who’s next?”
The Fighting Kings cleared their throats and avoided his gaze. The same brothers who had been clamoring to fight first were now subtly trying to push the turn onto one another. The ordinary warriors, meanwhile, pestered the Fighting Kings to step up, enjoying the show from a safe distance.
Finally, just as Teto, the youngest of the Fighting Kings, was about to drag his battered body forward, a voice of salvation echoed from the other side of the training ground.
“The chaos extraction assist device is complete, brothers!”
It was the 5th Fighting King, Boras. Whatever had happened while he was making the device, the hair all over his body was charred black.
The Fighting Kings were about to welcome Boras, relieved that they could finally rest, but they immediately straightened their postures upon seeing the firm gaze of Fighting God Ban standing beside him.
And Ban tossed out a single sentence.
“Keep doing what you were doing, brothers.”