Chapter 746: Beyond Destiny (18)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 746: Beyond Destiny (18)
Jin’s appearance was transforming.
A tail glowing with Lightning Energy sprouted from his back, his hair grew long enough to drape over his shoulders, and his eyes took on the profound depth of a Pluto who had reigned as the absolute ruler of the human world for ages.
He was becoming the Fighting God, Ban.
This was the result of Jin’s ego sinking perfectly into the depths of Ban’s subconscious.
Inside Ban’s inner world, Ling Ling kept her eyes fixed on the pool where Jin had vanished.
‘Ban! No matter how I look at it, this isn’t right. At this rate, that idiot’s ego will be completely erased! You have to end this now!’
Ban nodded heavily.
Though his decision had been born from his trust in Jin, continuing the Pluto’s Sovereign Sword was an undeniably dangerous choice. As Ling Ling said, he had to give his all and finish the Evil God in a single, overwhelming assault.
A roar announcing that a single man had become the King of Light.
A will declaring he would annihilate his enemy.
A sword that transcended the limits of mortals.
A sword that could slay a god.
Lightning Energy that reached its apex became a light whiter than anything in existence. The Lightning Energy that had stained the ground began to bleach into pure white, coalescing into a vortex. The lightning swirling around Ban was saturated with divine energy, absorbing the very concept of "Order."
Sound was the first to vanish into the sea of lightning.
The thunderous roar of the Evil God merging with Ram; the bizarre friction of massive black flesh and machinery intertwining; the Evil God’s screams as her ego was torn apart by the pain; the breathing, gasps, and sighs of the onlookers; the sharp whistle of the wind from the storm of soul energy—all of it was drowned and trapped within the sea of lightning surrounding Ban.
Ban, the Evil God, hundreds of ships, and countless people were all in motion, yet within that space, only the Fighting God could produce or perceive sound.
Next, vision vanished.
The lightning shone so intensely it felt as if it would sear the retinas, forcing the eyes of everyone within its reach to close. Whether their eyes were open or shut, all they could see was a suffocating whiteness. Faintly floating within that void was Ban’s afterimage.
Regardless of their position or the direction they faced, everyone saw the same scene. Without exception, every person was looking at the blurred silhouette of Ban’s back—a back that inspired the absolute faith that he would protect them from anything.
The Evil God, on the other hand, saw Ban’s face.
It was a face so terrifying that merely looking at it felt as though her entire body—and even the life she had lived—would be torn to shreds. Those fierce eyes clawed at her very soul.
Since sound had vanished, she could not even scream. The Evil God could only gape her mouth like a fish out of water.
The last thing to vanish was time.
Everything trapped within the lightning came to a halt. Even Quicantel and Enya, who were under Olta’s protection, could not escape the absolute interference.
‘Olta… is afraid…!’
The two could feel Olta being overcome with terror. The God of Time could not overcome a phenomenon originating from a mortal’s sword.
Ban walked slowly through the frozen world.
Within the whiteness, only the pale blade of Sigmund glowed faintly, like a phantom. Every time Sigmund moved, the sea of lightning surged in response. When the sword pointed upward, the churning sea of light stretched with it; when the sword pointed downward, the soaring lightning subsided at once.
It looked like a massive whale leaping from the surface of the water.
Every time the whale of light moved in accordance with the sword, Ram was torn apart piece by piece.
Or rather, it vanished. The moment the lightning touched it, the soul energy composing Ram evaporated as if washed away by water. It was being annihilated, unable to return to either Ram or the Evil God.
A silent slaughter.
Those watching were forced to think of such a strange phrase. The Evil God, who had dyed the entire world in despair, was being executed in chilling silence.
Ban simply performed his sword dance, his face a stoic mask. With every infinitely elegant trajectory Sigmund traced, the Evil God’s despair deepened.
‘To think that I, Rosa Runcandel… was such a trivial existence…’
An uncontrollable sense of defeat welled up within the Evil God.
There was nothing. There was nothing she could do. Even as her body and soul were being carved apart by Sigmund, she had nearly finished her fusion with Ram. She had obtained an even stronger divinity without losing her ego as Rosa Runcandel.
But what did that matter?
Even if she fused with Ram a thousand times, she could not defeat this monster. Unless she became a perfect god—one positioned at the very highest peak of divinity—defeating Ban was hopeless.
It was enough to drive her mad.
She couldn't accept it.
She couldn’t accept that she was wrong, that the power she gained by discarding so much was useless, or that it had to end like this. It wasn't that she couldn't accept the existence of something with greater power than herself; she had always known such beings could exist.
What the Evil God truly could not accept was that this was not a fight between her and her youngest son.
The one she had staked her entire life to face was not the long-vanished leader of a great tribe but her own child.
And the Fighting God was ruining that fight.
Win or lose, the end of this battle had to belong to her and her youngest. If it were merely a matter of him borrowing strength, she could have accepted it. She herself had accepted the power of chaos, after all. But fighting a monster that retained not a single trace of her son was an abomination.
For she, too, had not completely discarded her ego as Rosa Runcandel.
By the time the Evil God’s thoughts reached that point, Ban’s Pluto’s Sovereign Sword was nearing its midpoint.
Ram now looked like an archipelago formed by a fragmenting continent. The entire hull, once spanning ten li, had been completely shattered. Like marine snow scattered by the death of a massive sea creature, the bodies of Ram and the Evil God were being thoroughly fragmented and dispersed into particles.
Then, the Evil God saw it: a single “line,” like a ray of salvation.
‘That line… what is it?’
A single red line was visible behind Ban’s back. It hadn’t been there before, but now it was connected to Ban’s body as if it had been there from the very beginning.
An intuition pierced the Evil God’s consciousness.
‘It’s the same kind of connection point the youngest cut when he faced Luntia!’
The line that synchronized Jin and Ban. That could be the only explanation.
‘Why didn’t I think of that? If I cut that line… the Fighting God can’t remain attached to the youngest! That line must have been the medium that summoned the Fighting God in the first place…!’
It felt as if a heart was pounding within her chest, a chest that had long since vanished.
Hope was born.
It was the same heart-pounding sensation Jin always felt in moments of desperate crisis—the thrill of finding a sliver of hope and reaching out to grasp it.
The Evil God was feeling it now.
Having been sinking into despair, she forced her soul’s eyes wide open. If she could just cut that line, she could fight her youngest son again. Her obsession burned.
A new scene unfolded. The fragments of the broken Ram slowly began to overcome the frozen time. It was an infinitesimal movement, but they were moving.
Ban did not consider this significant. For an entity with the Evil God’s power, this level of struggle was expected. In fact, he had already seen through her plan.
[You intend to destroy the link between me and Brother Jin…]
As if to mock her futile efforts, Ban didn’t even hide that he had read her mind.
The Evil God couldn’t hear Ban’s voice. Although Ban’s voice resonated directly within everyone’s minds, bypassing the silence, she remained deaf to it. She was melting down her entire being into a single obsession: the all-consuming thought of cutting the red line.
That thought soon took form.
Suddenly, a sword materialized in the air ten paces in front of Ban.
Frenzy—it was Rosa Runcandel’s cherished sword from her days as a human.
After Frenzy appeared, a hand formed to grasp it, followed by a torso to swing the arm, dark eyes to see ahead, and a head and face adorned with the horns of chaos. The Evil God’s body, once again in a form resembling a human, walked laboriously through the air, barely moving her feet as she pointed her sword at Ban.
[Do you think that’s possible?]
Ban erased her form with a single strike. As the lightning that followed Sigmund’s path swept over her, not a trace of Rosa remained.
The Evil God continued to form a body, and Ban destroyed it with a single blow each time. She had already reformed her body dozens of times, yet the distance between them had not narrowed by a single step. In fact, every time her body was annihilated, she was only pushed further away.
Even when hope exists, not everyone can grasp it by their own strength.
The disappearance of the Evil God’s body meant the fragments of Ram were being continuously consumed. If this continued, not even a handful of her soul energy would remain.
Ban heightened his concentration. He had no intention of showing the Evil God any leniency.
However, the moment Sigmund cut down the Evil God’s body for the hundredth time, a scream erupted from the deepest part of Ban’s inner world.
It was Ling Ling’s voice. And it was Jin’s scream.
Not even half of the “one hour” Quaul had predicted had passed.
‘Kaaah…! Ban, stop! This is really his limit! You have to stop the Fighting God Union right now if you want to save Jin!’
The pool in the inner world where Jin had vanished was boiling over. Even Ling Ling was being trapped and consumed within it. She was certain that stopping now was the last chance to save Jin’s ego.
At last, Ban stopped the sword that was carving apart the Evil God.
The Evil God ran toward him, dragging her battered body.
[You are lucky, Evil God.]
Ban did not dodge the sword as it approached his eyes. He simply let it cut the red line, thinking:
‘I’ll have to leave the rest to Brother Jin… and to that friend of his.’
Through Jin’s inner self, which he had read the moment the Fighting God Union was achieved, Ban had recognized that he was not the final card to be played.
‘I leave Brother Jin to you, Black Dragon Murakan.’
Frenzy severed the red line.