Chapter 728: Prelude Starting from Within (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 728: Prelude Starting from Within (3)
There were two exclusive, closed-door training grounds reserved for the Palace Master.
One was the ‘Secret Palace within the Secret Palace,’ accessible only through the power of Ten Thousand Ice and Mort. The other was located on the highest floor of the Secret Palace.
The space Siris intended to open was the latter.
Access to the former was restricted because Siris could not yet properly wield Ten Thousand Ice. More importantly, Elona Zipple was currently sealed within it.
Opening the Secret Palace within the Secret Palace haphazardly risked provoking Misha or Elona, which could lead to complications. Above all, if something went wrong with Jin, it would be impossible for those outside to respond quickly.
Siris placed Jin atop Mort. As she held his wrist to help him up, the pulse she felt was incredibly faint.
The mental attacks Jin is enduring must be on a completely different level from what I or the others are facing…
As Siris suspected, the mental interference experienced by everyone except Jin was several stages lower in intensity.
She felt a profound sense of respect for Jin, who had not only endured such pressure with composure but was now heading off to fight entirely on his own.
Mort crawled out and began to slowly scale the walls of the Secret Palace.
Siris had considered teleporting, but she feared that even the subtle tremors felt when traversing the Caldran Snowy Plains would be too much for Jin in his current state.
Jin was weaker than he had ever been.
Meanwhile, Valeria, Quaul, and his other companions, along with the members of the Secret Palace, had already ascended to the top floor to wait for him.
Eventually, Mort reached the summit.
“Whew…”
Jin dismounted from Mort’s back and took a deep breath. The air was cold enough to make his lungs ache, but he barely registered the sensation.
His physical senses in the real world had grown extremely dull. His vision was blurred, his hearing was muffled, and his limbs felt utterly devoid of strength.
Watching Jin walk while leaning on Gilly for support, his comrades couldn't help but worry. Was it really alright to send a man in this condition into a closed-door training ground alone?
Jin looked at his companions, their figures appearing as hazy blurs in his sight.
“Young Master…”
Gilly’s voice was thick with unshed tears and trembled. It was agonizing for her to see Jin so exhausted, pushed to his absolute limit.
“It seems everyone was waiting.”
Jin wanted to say those words in his usual confident voice—to tell them not to worry and to wait for him.
But right now, he wanted to share his more honest feelings.
“If five days pass and I do not emerge from the training ground… then I have lost. And that will mean my death.”
At those words, Gilly finally lost her battle with her tears.
Valeria bit her lower lip and patted Gilly’s back.
For a long while, no one could say a word.
“To be honest, I’m not sure if I can win. However, I won’t leave a will. I don’t want to have a sad parting as if this were truly the end. Because after this fight, the real conclusion still remains.”
Jin signaled Siris with his eyes, asking her to open the door to the training ground.
Siris took out Ten Thousand Ice and inserted it into the door like a key. Immediately, a wave of pure white energy flowed out from within.
As the door opened, a vast, freezing land of pure white was revealed.
“So, I cannot let it end here…”
Jin took a slow, heavy step forward. He used Bradamante like a cane, pressing it into the ground for support.
The small pack containing his minimal rations looked impossibly heavy.
His connection to reality was fading by the second. He had only taken a few steps, yet his companions behind him already felt as though they were an eternity away.
“Jin! Come back safe! I’m holding out against the mental attacks too, so you can definitely win! When you get back, I’ll share my dried eel with you!”
Surprisingly, the first person to shout—and with remarkably clear pronunciation—was none other than Dark Flame.
Among the small beastmen of the Secret Palace, Dark Flame was the only one currently experiencing the mental attacks.
“Wh-wh-what?! Why is that guy suddenly talking so well?!” Top shouted, jumping in surprise.
Even the solemn companions were startled by Dark Flame’s sudden, clear, and rapid speech.
“I’ll give you dried eel! Dried eel…!”
“Hey, Dark Flame! Are you okay? Wait, could you always talk properly? No… that can’t be it. And you’re definitely not okay.”
“I’ll give you dried eel!”
Top grabbed Dark Flame’s shoulders and realized that the beastman had his eyes squeezed shut in the agony of the mental attack.
In the midst of his fading consciousness, he had screamed out for Jin’s sake, and the words had just so happened to come out with perfect clarity.
Dark Flame was undeniably the weakest person in the Secret Palace. Yet even he was giving it his all.
His cry about sharing his dried eel repeated like a broken record. The companions couldn't see it, and even Jin himself wasn't fully aware, but a faint smile touched his lips at the sound.
As soon as Jin stepped completely inside the training ground, Siris closed the door with a heavy expression.
Now, there was only one thing his comrades could do for him.
They could only pray for his victory, just like countless ordinary people throughout the world.
*
The interior of the training ground was pure white, but to Jin’s eyes, it looked like a midnight sea without a single speck of light.
He couldn't tell if he was standing, sitting, or lying down.
However, reality was not what mattered to Jin right now. The inner battlefield, which had been raging fiercely without a moment’s rest, was far more important.
Therefore, he had to sink deeper into his inner self—until his physical senses were completely erased and forgotten.
That was why he had chosen this training ground. He needed a space where he could focus entirely on the inner battlefield without even the slightest external stimulus.
Jin was carefully submerging himself, descending toward his Inner World.
It was like walking along the narrow boundary between life and death.
A single misstep, and oblivion and death would consume him.
‘Do you think that is the right way?’
‘Do you believe that method is correct?’
‘Do you truly think you can reach me that way?’
‘Can you really save all those people from me?’
As he descended toward his Inner World, Rosa’s voice drifted to him occasionally.
Every time that dark voice stirred his ego, he shuddered with anxiety.
Regret flickered within him. He felt a sudden urge to turn back and leave.
The closer he got to his Inner World, the more his terror grew.
A massive fear, unlike anything he had ever felt in either his past or present life, was crushing his sense of self.
‘This is the first time I have seen you tremble in fear.’
‘It is only the first time you have seen it. It has happened often.’
‘Is that so?’
‘I’m sure there were times when you felt the same, back when you were still human.’
‘I have never succumbed to fear. So show me—show me that you can do the same as I.’
At first, Jin had intended to fight alone to do exactly that.
But as he sank deeper into his Inner World, he quickly came to a realization.
In this desolate and lonely world, to overcome this fear, one would eventually have to become a monster just like Rosa.
Unless one became a monster on the level of an Evil God, one could not help but be overwhelmed by the terror of the Inner World’s solitude.
A single white line entered Jin’s vision.
Intuitively, Jin knew that this was a sort of door leading to the deepest part of his Inner World.
Rosa’s ego would be waiting for him beyond it.
That white line was also a crossroads of choice.
The outcome would change depending on the mindset with which he pulled it.
If he pulled it with the intent to become a monster, he would become one. If he wished to remain human, it would simply open.
‘But if I remain human…’
‘You cannot defeat me.’
Rosa was now reading Jin’s thoughts, much like Ling Ling had in the past. It was because his ego was now in contact with his Inner World.
‘Now you can read my thoughts as well, my son. This inner battle is a gift I prepared for you. Before we reach our final conclusion, I, your mother, wanted to make you a more perfect being. A being capable of fighting me on equal terms.’
Open the door with the intent to become a monster. That is your only hope of defeating me.
That was what Rosa was saying.
Jin grasped the white line. Looking back for a moment, he saw the path he had descended through the Inner World shattering and fluttering away like dust.
Just as he was about to pull it with the thought that he might truly have to become a monster, Jin flinched and stopped.
Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound in his ear.
It wasn't Rosa’s gloomy voice, but the whispered prayers and hopes of the people outside tickling his ear.
Jin couldn't hear the specific words. It just felt like a cool breeze blowing into his ear, but it was enough to make him think once more.
‘I almost threw away the one thing that makes me superior to you, just so I could become like you and face you.’
Humans protect themselves from danger because they feel fear.
One must be afraid to run away, and one must be afraid to respond properly.
To fight back while trembling in fear—that was the human way.
‘Even if I were to defeat you by becoming a monster… it would only mean another Evil God has appeared in the world.’
Because his ego had been devastated by the long mental attack, Jin had almost overlooked that simple truth.
Having reached his conclusion, Jin gently pulled the white line.
And when the door opened, what he saw was not Rosa’s ego.
It wasn't a hollow, empty space or a vague darkness. It was the back of a man sitting down.
“Father…?”
It was Cyron Runcandel, Jin’s father. The reason he stood where Rosa’s ego should have been was because Jin had not become a monster.
“Jin.”
He had never missed his father as desperately as he had in recent days.
Strength returned to his limp limbs, and hot blood seemed to rush back into his hazy mind. Jin found himself running toward Cyron without even realizing it.
However, he could not reach him.
A vast, deep cliff, like a great ocean, separated Jin and Cyron.
As Jin stopped at the edge of the cliff, Cyron turned around.
It was his father’s face, seen for the first time in a very long while.
The father and son looked into each other’s eyes for a long time.
“You have endured well.”
At those few words from Cyron, Jin suddenly realized something.
In this lonely and agonizing Inner World, Cyron had actually been watching over him from beginning to end.
“The day will come when we meet again.”
With those final words, Cyron turned and began to walk away.
It was as if he were telling Jin to return to their respective battlefields.
Jin watched his father walk toward somewhere deeper and darker for a long time.
He felt that saying anything more would ruin the moment.
As Cyron’s back disappeared and Jin turned around, he saw the paths of the Inner World that had shattered earlier being reconstructed.
Like Cyron, Jin silently walked back up that path.
When Jin emerged from the Inner World and regained his physical senses…
Four days had passed outside, and Rosa’s mental attacks, which had been plunging the world into agony, had completely vanished.
Feeling more energized than ever before, Jin pushed open the door of the training ground with all his might.