Chapter 720: Each Their Own Fight (10)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 720: Each Their Own Fight (10)
As Jin mounted Mort, the white portal snapped shut. Across the snowy plains of the other world, the black energy of chaos bloomed like mold.
"If I kill my brother... his authority returns to the Evil God?"
"Yes. To be precise, it’s a curse that triggers only if he is killed by a sibling."
"Then there would be no reason for the Prophet to summon Dipus now. Was it because she didn't know the situation of the battle here?"
"I can't be sure, but it's almost certain that something has gone wrong with her plan. She didn't lose her composure even while being double-teamed by our allies, but then she suddenly flew into a rage and tried to summon the 4th Flagbearer. I came here just in time to warn you."
While the two spoke, Mort opened a new dimensional gate leading directly into Likarton Castle.
[Bo-o-hok, bo-o!]
Soon after crossing through the portal, the group heard Ilina’s furious voice echoing through the air.
"Are you insane?! To suddenly sever the connection with the Patriarch! Don't you realize this puts him in danger—!"
Ilina cut herself off, clamping a hand over her mouth. She had just spotted the white portal opening nearby.
Brother Dipus suddenly cut his connection with the Patriarch, so I summoned him in a hurry, thinking he might have betrayed the Evil God. What a disaster...!
When she summoned Dipus, she never expected Valeria to track the spatial movement. Consequently, she was horrified to see Jin’s party appear inside the castle, well within earshot of her outburst.
Brother Dipus cut the connection, so the Evil God is in danger?
Jin had gained an unexpected piece of information the moment he arrived at Likarton Castle.
Catching Ilina’s panicked gaze, Jin didn't hesitate. He immediately fired a blast of sword energy straight at her chest.
Even as her chest was pierced, Ilina desperately deployed a shield.
"You’ve gone and ruined everything again," Jin said coldly. "Instead of summoning him, couldn't you have thought to stop us from reaching the wilderness?"
Had she done that, Jin would have eventually cut Dipus down, triggering the curse.
Jin’s sword energy ruthlessly tore through Ilina’s shield.
Ilina tried to flee, lifting Dipus with her soul energy, but she could never outrun Jin.
"Aaaagh!"
Stab!
Bradamante pierced Ilina’s back just as she turned to run. When Jin detonated the aura gathered on the blade, Ilina’s body exploded into pieces.
However, her physical body was merely a shell; her true essence was soul energy.
The scattered fragments of flesh soon dissolved into black smoke, rapidly spreading throughout the castle.
To be precise, it wasn't just Ilina’s body. Likarton Castle itself was composed of the Prophet’s chaos.
The Prophet had been accumulating soul energy here since long before the Runcandel clan was tainted by chaos. Now, the entire region of Likarton was essentially the Prophet herself.
[Damn it... I didn't think it would come to this. Fine, I admit my mistake. But perhaps this is for the best.]
"Aaaagh!"
"Save me, please save me...!"
As the entire castle dissolved into smoke, the prisoners who had been trapped throughout the inner castle were exposed.
Unlike the prisoners on the plains, they were not encased in the fruits of the Colossal Divine Tree. The fruits that had held them captive had already been reabsorbed by the Prophet.
Similarly, the Colossal Divine Trees on the plains dissolved into soul energy, swarming toward where Jin’s party stood.
[I was getting tired of catering to those insects who act all high and mighty while relying on Mother’s power anyway.]
A black storm.
There was no better description for the massive convergence of soul energy that had replaced Likarton Castle—the Prophet’s true form.
Dipus vanished somewhere within that swirling tempest of soul energy.
After quickly assessing the situation, Jin reached a conclusion.
"Valeria, take Lady Siris and escape immediately. Regroup with our allies," Jin ordered. "I’ll handle the Prophet alone."
"If you're going to fight alone again, why did you even bring your comrades and the temporary alliance?" Siris asked.
"I’m not telling the two of you or the others to just back out. I mean that I will take charge of the combat. The rest of you need to focus entirely on rescuing the prisoners."
Siris narrowed her eyes in concern. She couldn't gauge the Prophet's strength now that she had revealed her true form. She had never faced an enemy like this. The Prophet didn't even look like a living creature; she looked like a natural disaster, a walking catastrophe.
But on the other hand, Siris also felt that no catastrophe in the world could physically kill Jin.
"Fine. We’ll pull back and focus on rescuing the prisoners and protecting the alliance. There might be comrades who have lost their way in this sudden surge of soul energy."
Since Valeria and Siris possessed record magic and teleportation, they were perfectly suited to relay the battlefield situation in real-time.
Once the two departed, Jin looked up at the sky. It was entirely blotted out by the Prophet’s swirling soul energy.
"Is the transformation over?" Jin asked. "You truly are the one who’s been pulling the Runcandel clan's strings from the shadows. Your true form is quite impressive. People who don't know any better might mistake you for the Witch Heluram."
Swoosh!
The black smoke moved like a viper, coiling around Jin. He didn't even bother to dodge. He simply gauged its strength for a moment before violently releasing his aura, scattering the soul energy to the wind.
[If I were Mother, you wouldn't even be able to meet my eyes. Nor would the 4th Flagbearer, or that damn bitch of an Evil God.]
Now that he had a feel for her power, Jin could sense the Prophet constantly extending tendrils of chaos into the surroundings. It was a blatant attempt to slaughter the members of the temporary alliance and the defenseless prisoners.
Naturally, Jin had no intention of letting that happen.
"Is that so? Well, let me make one thing clear: this fight is strictly one-on-one, Prophet. Stop tormenting innocent people. It seems your plan to summon the Evil God has already gone down the drain anyway."
[And what if I refuse?]
"Then I’ll personally force your hand."
The moment Jin answered with a grim expression, the Prophet suddenly felt her senses—which had previously encompassed the entirety of Likarton—grow terrifyingly dull.
It was an omen.
Spirit Sword Supreme Technique 1st Form
First Night
As soon as Jin unleashed First Night, the entire land of Likarton began to vibrate. It wasn't from the sheer destructive power of the strike, but because the Prophet’s true form was twisting in primal anxiety.
Jin recalled his final battle with Ling Ling in Laprarosa.
Back then, he had completely overwhelmed Ling Ling within his subspace using this very sword technique.
There was no reason the Prophet would be any different.
A monster that does nothing but scavenge human despair like a parasite couldn't possibly have the willpower to endure this.
Jin slowly scanned the Prophet’s essence.
Since she was nothing more than a formless black storm, he couldn't pinpoint her weakness. It was like trying to find a vital organ in a cloud of fog.
But conversely, that meant the entire black storm was a target.
Besides, she wasn't an opponent that pressured him enough to desperately search for a weak point.
Slash! Riiip!
Sword energy imbued with spirit energy began to tear ruthlessly through the Prophet’s essence. Dark blue arcs of power hacked away at the very storm that composed her body.
"How about it? Do you feel like focusing on me now?"
[You...!]
Though she was rapidly being eroded by the spirit energy of First Night, the Prophet managed to maneuver her bloated essence surprisingly well.
However, just as Jin had intended, she could no longer lay a single hand on the alliance or the prisoners. She was forced to concentrate all her power solely on Jin. Thanks to that, the allies were smoothly carrying out the rescue operation.
Outwardly, Jin spoke as if he hadn't lost his composure.
But in truth, he was teetering on the edge. He felt like he might go mad from the sheer, abyssal hatred boiling within him.
How was he supposed to accept that his proud family had been corrupted by such a pathetic, parasitic being? That his corrupted family was now trying to destroy the world?
Dipus, who had been twisted into a monster. The countless innocent people who had been ruthlessly slaughtered here today.
All of it drew an endless, scorching fury from Jin.
Before he even realized it, a roar tore from his throat. He couldn't even hear his own voice as it violently shook the entire battlefield.
A brilliant blue fire ignited along the blade of Bradamante.
Eternal Fire.
As the inextinguishable flames began to mix into the black storm, the Prophet shrieked incessantly.
[Kaaaaakh! Kuaaaakh!]
"Shut up," Jin snarled. "Compared to the atrocities you've committed, this isn't even a fraction of the price."
Because Jin had completely pinned the Prophet down with his Spirit Sword Supreme Technique, the alliance had already managed to rescue nearly seventy percent of the prisoners.
The Prophet had originally planned to use those prisoners as sacrifices to fight Jin, but the problem was that she had been consumed by First Night far too quickly.
Even if she had managed to use the prisoners, the absolute best she could have hoped for was a narrow escape.
The Prophet was now forced to admit that bitter reality.
"I realized it the moment my blade cut you—you are Likarton itself," Jin said coldly. "Today, this land will be completely erased from the world."
Like a demon of vengeance, Jin plunged his sword into various parts of the Prophet’s trembling essence.
He grabbed and crushed the fragments of chaos that scattered wildly through the air, trampling and tearing apart the larger chunks that fell to the ground.
Whenever he saw a piece trying to regenerate because the Eternal Fire hadn't fully caught on, he set it ablaze with even greater ferocity.
If an apex predator were somehow able to tear apart a fog, it would look exactly like this.
Even his allies trembled at the sight of Jin’s ghastly, relentless onslaught.
Revenge.
Jin wasn't just fighting; he was exacting a brutal, one-sided revenge.
Occasionally, the Prophet attempted a meaningless counterattack, but she never once posed a threat to Jin.
There was only one reason she hadn't been completely extinguished yet.
Jin had no intention of finishing her off until the prisoner rescue was fully complete.
And there was only one thing the Prophet was still pinning her desperate hopes on.
If the Evil God descends even now, the 12th Flagbearer will have no choice but to retreat... I have to make him... kill Dipus somehow.
However, Jin saw right through her pathetic scheme and let out a cold sneer.
"It seems the curse is still in effect. You don't have anything that could be called a face, but for some reason, I feel like I can see your expression. That curse must be the only hope you have left."
Even while slaughtering the Prophet like a madman, Jin had been constantly tracking Dipus’s location.
Dipus’s dying energy was so faint that even Jin had difficulty sensing it. He was literally hanging on by a thread.
The moment Jin had unleashed First Night, the shockwave had blown Dipus all the way toward the outer castle, slamming him brutally into the ground.
The prisoner rescue in that sector had been finished long ago. Because the terrain there had severely collapsed, the alliance hadn't bothered to include it in their ongoing search grid.
Coincidentally, it was also the exact spot where Mary had been thrown after taking the brunt of Zipple’s bombardment during her fight in the inner castle.
In other words, the person closest to Dipus right now was Mary.
"Haah... hah..."
She staggered to her feet, having just regained consciousness.
Through the ringing in her ears, she heard an all-too-familiar groan coming from somewhere beneath the blackened mounds of earth.
Soon, the ruined figure of a man entered Mary’s sight. Every bone in his body appeared broken and twisted.
Mary couldn't see him clearly; her vision was heavily blurred from her injuries. Even if a stranger were lying there, they would look just as indistinct to her right now.
And yet, Mary was absolutely certain. Even that blurred, broken form felt achingly familiar.
"Brother Dipus..."
Dipus didn't answer. He could only draw ragged, shallow breaths.
Mary called his name a few more times before her legs gave out, collapsing into a heap beside him.
"I was always... the one getting into trouble," she whispered. "This isn't right. It really isn't."
For a long time, Mary hung her head. She laughed, she sobbed, and she gently cradled his broken body. She rubbed her cheek against his and softly stroked his blood-matted hair.
Then, she stopped moving. Slowly, she pulled a dagger from her belt. Her beloved sword, Viper, had already been shattered during the battle in the inner castle.
The dagger pointed at Dipus’s throat trembled violently in her grip.
"Let’s stop now... Brother."
After hesitating several times, Mary finally steeled her resolve and brought the dagger down.
She felt it clearly—the sickening sensation of steel piercing her brother’s skin and bone.
But Mary soon realized that the dagger had pierced his palm, not his throat. Dipus had weakly raised his hand to stop her blade.
Feeling his own blood and his sister’s warm tears falling onto his face, he forced himself to speak.
"Mary... if you kill me... the curse will be complete..."
"...What?"
"I’m going to die anyway... so just wait... wait a little longer for the Youngest."
Pop! Pop!
High above the battlefield, signal flares burst into the sky, announcing that the prisoner rescue was finally complete.