Chapter 631: Smarion Prochi (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 631: Smarion Prochi (3)
Five hundred aura disruptors.
Over the past two and a half years, Quaul had pushed the performance of the disruptors and their related artifacts to what he believed was their absolute limit. Countless tests had led him to that conclusion.
To date, not a single one of their allies had managed to withstand five hundred of them.
In fact, they didn’t even need that many. Not even Valkas or Quicantel could properly use their aura when exposed to more than two hundred.
Yet Jin was currently completely unaffected.
On the contrary, the moment the disruptors activated, he had unleashed a staggering amount of aura to cast new shields over everyone waiting outside the battlefield.
It was the very image of Ron Hairan protecting the people from chaos during the Sword Emperor Holy War.
‘To ignore all the disruptors while granting individual shields to hundreds of people… That can’t be achieved just by having the energy of a 10-star knight. This is beyond the human realm. You’ve returned as a monster, Jin.’
Quicantel unconsciously swallowed hard.
Even for her, who remembered Murakan in his prime, the martial prowess Jin was displaying was shocking. In some ways, she felt Jin had already become a more terrifying existence than the Murakan of that era.
At this rate of growth, his combat power would soon reach Murakan’s level, and his judgment and insight had long surpassed anything a young human should possess.
Sizzle—!
Suddenly, a brilliant blue radiance flared across the battlefield.
Smarion’s energy, which had surpassed Jin’s for the entire fight, was now being devoured by a storm of aura and lightning.
[You treat me like a mere beast. Is this a hunt to you, not a fight?]
Smarion snarled, firing a blast of sword energy toward the allies.
However, the attack disintegrated in midair before it could even reach their shields, neutralized by the layers of Jin’s overwhelming power.
“You would do well to focus on me. Any attempt to threaten me by using them will only work against you.”
Smarion’s eyes widened. The composure he had shown at the start was gone, while Jin’s face remained as stoic as ever.
Jin’s words were true. Taking the allies hostage was a tactic that was only viable before Jin had arrived at Ghost Song Castle.
Jin wondered why Smarion hadn’t done so earlier. The claim that he simply wanted to fight someone like Cyron wasn’t a sufficient explanation.
‘Perhaps it was the result of Smarion resisting his demonization. That must be why my comrades didn’t die before I arrived.’
But this wasn't a situation where they could sit down for a calm conversation.
Whether his allies’ safety was a result of Smarion’s resistance or not, the fact remained that he had to be suppressed. Even if it was the former, this outcome was what the last shred of Smarion’s humanity, buried deep within the demonization, desperately desired.
[It seems I underestimated you, having been away from the world for so long.]
Slash—!
An afterimage remained where Jin had been standing. In the same instant, Smarion’s twin swords shattered once again, and he struck away Jin’s blade with a bare fist as it lunged for his chest.
A thunderous roar erupted from the collision between Bradamante and Smarion’s fist.
The allies trembled as the heavy impact reached them even through the Brotherhood Guardian, the Dragon Fire Barrier, the Authority of Time, and various other shields.
As they both began to accelerate, small wounds rapidly multiplied across Smarion’s body.
Since the disruptors had been deployed, Jin had not allowed him to land a single effective hit.
Before long, Smarion changed his tactics.
‘Every attack has grown heavier. He realizes he can’t win a prolonged fight, so he’s trying to land one decisive blow at any cost.’
The exchanges between top-tier masters were inevitably delicate and precise.
Even if the demonization had muddied most of the martial insights Smarion had gained as the Ghost Captain, his swordsmanship still retained the subtle principles unique to a transcendent.
However, Smarion was now shattering those remaining principles himself. The moment he judged that a head-on confrontation was impossible, he chose the path of mutual destruction.
[Graaaah!]
Bradamante pierced Smarion’s left shoulder.
At the same time, Smarion thrust the sword in his right hand, striking Jin’s chest. The blade tore through the Spirit Energy Armor and sank a finger’s depth into his flesh.
That blade was imbued with the decades of chaos Smarion had accumulated.
A turbid energy, incomparable to any poison in the world, instantly began to spread through Jin’s body.
Smarion naturally expected Jin to recoil in horror—to cough up blood, double over, and struggle desperately to expel the chaos ravaging his body.
But Jin didn’t care. Without the slightest hint of panic, he simply detonated the sword energy still lodged in Smarion’s shoulder.
Jin was of the Pluto Tribe. Through his training, he had moved beyond being a mere brother-in-arms to them; he had physically inherited their very characteristics.
Unless it was the First Chaos wielded by Heluram herself, or a power of equivalent stature, no "ordinary chaos" in the world could affect him anymore—no matter how vast or dense.
[This is absurd… You, what are you?]
His final gambit had failed.
Smarion retreated, panting heavily, his left arm hanging uselessly. He had concentrated all his energy into that one strike, yet Jin wasn’t even injured, let alone exhausted.
If he could have somehow dealt with Jin, he might have been able to flee and plan for the future, even with only ten percent of his strength remaining.
But in reality, the fight was already over.
Smarion could no longer think of any way to threaten Jin. Taking the allies hostage was now impossible, and there was no hope of escape.
“You looked for my father when you saw me,” Jin said, walking slowly toward Smarion.
Smarion desperately unleashed his sword energy, but Jin merely parried or deflected every strike, demonstrating the vast difference in their levels.
“During your time as the Ghost Captain, you were certainly much stronger than you are now, but you would never have been a match for my father.”
The assessment that Ghost Captain Smarion Prochi was stronger than his current demonized self was a judgment only someone of Jin’s caliber could make. No one else could think that way, because they didn’t understand the realm that became unreachable once one’s inner self was filled with demonization instead of absolute composure, no matter how much raw power one gained.
“And so, I wondered why Cyron Runcandel, my father, left you alive back then.”
— My Lord probably doesn't even know that my father once fought Sir Cyron.
— Your father and the former Ghost Captain…?
— I didn't see it myself. It happened before I was born. However, that fight supposedly lasted an entire day. In the end, victory belonged to Sir Cyron, but for some reason, he didn't take my father's head.
Although Ghost Captain Smarion was strong enough to fight the Cyron of that era for a full day, his demonization was uncontrolled. Even after his defeat, Ghost Song Castle did not pledge loyalty to Runcandel. Yet, Cyron had still visited Ghost Song Castle from time to time to check on Smarion’s well-being.
“After exchanging blades with you, I think I have a faint idea of why my father did that.”
[What are you talking about?]
“My father must have respected the fact that you were resisting the chaos.”
Resistance against chaos, and the respect for that resistance.
Looking back, there were many strange things about their fight from the very beginning. Smarion had been in a state where he could have broken the seal and emerged long before Jin arrived. He could have slaughtered the humans surrounding him at any time. Even with Tikan’s powerhouses gathered, they were no match for him.
But Smarion hadn't done so. He had claimed he was waiting for someone like Cyron.
A few times, his chaos had exploded, devastating the area and causing casualties, but there had been no decisive damage to the Tikan forces. It was only after Jin appeared that Smarion had focused all the chaos and murderous intent, which had been scattered randomly, onto a single target.
To Jin, there was no logical reason for Smarion to have acted that way.
Unless one accepted a single premise: "Smarion resisted the demonization to avoid killing people."
“I have decided to believe that you resisted the chaos until I arrived. The fact that your blade lacked its killing edge, and that the Prochi siblings and my people are still alive, must be thanks to you.”
In other words, Jin concluded that Smarion had let go of the last thread of his resistance the moment someone who could kill him appeared.
[Is it because you share Cyron’s blood? You certainly spout arrogant nonsense well.]
“So, before I end this fight, I wish to pay my respects. Not to the monster of chaos standing before me now, but to the human Smarion Prochi, who defended Ghost Song Castle alone against the chaos until yesterday.”
Whoosh—!
Suddenly, the aura and lightning covering the battlefield vanished. The turbid energy of Smarion that they had been suppressing dissipated along with them.
The battlefield, which had been chaotic with clashing powers, instantly fell silent. It was Jin’s spirit energy that began to fill the space once more.
Within it, Smarion’s chaos surged a few times like a desperate spike, but it sank helplessly into the spirit energy like a stone thrown into the sea.
[Damn it…]
Jin stopped walking and pointed Bradamante at Smarion.
There was no need to perform a Spirit Sword Supreme Technique.
As gently as closing a dead man’s eyes, Bradamante pierced Smarion’s chest.
Smarion flinched once and grabbed the blade. Jin quietly watched his fading red eyes.
His gaze was not fixed on Jin, the man who had stabbed him, but toward the darkness beyond, now tinged with spirit energy. In a life stained with madness and chaos, his only warm memories were of the times he had held Rata and Fey—even though those memories had eventually twisted into years of abuse and violence for them all.
It wasn't that Smarion was lost in sentimentality. As Jin had predicted, the moment he arrived, Smarion had lost his last remaining will as a human. The fact that his eyes were fixed on his children was merely a coincidence, or perhaps a final, lingering reflex of the man he once was.
However, in Jin’s eyes, it looked like the fateful conclusion to Smarion’s long resistance against the chaos.
“Farewell, Sir Smarion.”
Eventually, the fallen Smarion dissolved into particles, scattering into the spirit energy that filled the battlefield. Jin offered a brief, silent prayer at the spot where he had stood.