Chapter 1038
Episode 249: The First Sortie of the Pluto Clan (5)

A translucent, blue light intertwined with the blade.

A radiant, luminous heart; eyes burning pure white. Within them, the image of Nirgand flickered continuously. Though his crow-like visage revealed little expression, half of it was still discernible. He was accepting his fate.

For Ban, this was all too familiar. Every opponent she had faced so far had shown a similar demeanor to Nirgand’s—whether human or divine.

“Heh heh… Yes, who could possibly survive you? It’s just a pity I won’t get to see that blue blade sever their necks myself.”

Nirgand’s spiritual energy and solar aura surged rapidly. Golden crystals sprouted from his body like massive horns.

Normally, Ban would have acted before his power grew so immense, but she waited patiently until her brothers were safely out of sight, sharpening her lightning energy.

At last, the moment all three of the Five Kings of the Black Sea vanished from view, Sigmund sliced through the air for the first time.

The heavy blade descended slowly, as if sinking into empty space.

But before the blade’s movement even finished—or rather, from the very instant it moved—Nirgand’s body split in two, scattering dark flesh fragments and golden chunks across the battlefield.

“Ugh…!”

A dark scream echoed.

He realized the moment his body was cut: this was no ordinary blade that distorted senses or wove illusions.

It was will.

The blade that cleaved Nirgand was not a physical edge, but Ban’s will, already spreading across the entire Black Sea battlefield. There was no corner left for Nirgand to hide or evade.

It was as if millions of swords wielded by a divine warrior filled the entire field. That’s why Nirgand had no choice but to abandon evasion from the start.

There was only one option.

To stand firm and advance. If he hadn’t already accepted that today would be his end, Nirgand would have lost his mind to despair.

“Graaah…!”

The torn and shattered flesh began to reassemble.

This was not by Nirgand’s will, but the decision of the fragments of the sun. They swallowed his scattered spiritual energy and reforged it into harder crystals, without adding the usual murky aura.

The primal stones of the Five Kings of the Black Sea resembled the power of the Sun God. The fragments brought by the Sun God’s faith had been implanted into Nirgand so swiftly, and their fusion with his spiritual energy was naturally compatible.

Crack, screech—

Torn apart and rejoined again. Though less than five minutes had passed since the battle began, Nirgand had lost his form over a thousand times.

Of course, for the Five Kings of the Black Sea, form was merely a trivial indicator of state. But no one else in this world could trample Nirgand at this speed—only Ban.

If Shiron, Ban, Jin, Luna, and the other warriors of Changseong did not exist in this world—

Nirgand would possess the power to end the world at any moment. Nothing but Changseong could deal a fundamental blow to the Five Kings of the Black Sea.

“Ban, what do you intend to become? What is it you seek with such power?”

“It’s a question I’ve misunderstood for a long time. I thought I fought only for the survival and prosperity of the Pluto Clan. I believed that was all there was.”

Nirgand’s entire body was pierced by the will of the divine warrior, followed by the roar of hundreds of thousands of real thunderclaps.

The blackened earth of the Black Sea, tainted by spiritual energy, was nowhere to be found on the battlefield. Ban’s blue lightning and Nirgand’s solar aura clashed relentlessly, creating blinding white shockwaves.

“Hmm?”

“Now, the reason I came here to cut you down is the same. My power exists for my brother Jin.”

“Jin Runkandel… You mean Shiron’s son?”

“Yes.”

The ‘we’ Ban spoke of did not include only the Pluto Clan.

“My brothers and I are not just beings with great power. From the start, we were monsters—or destined to become monsters. Like you, and like my foolish ancestors who gave you that power.”

Sharp golden shards rained down from Nirgand’s wings, striking Ban. It was the first time Nirgand had successfully counterattacked.

The fragments left scratches across Ban’s body but failed to pierce deeply. Only a few drops of blood appeared.

“But Jin is not like that. My brother will accomplish something the world has never seen.”

“What exactly is that?”

“I don’t know precisely. I only feel it. Only my brother Jin can do it. For example, saving the world. I am merely the sword to carry out that task.”

“Save the world? That’s vague. Can you be more specific?”

Nirgand’s tone was not mocking. He was genuinely curious. He wanted to understand why someone like Ban had chosen Jin Runkandel.

Even before Ban mentioned Jin, Nirgand had thought about him several times. Jin was the one who killed his brother Gliek, and the human Shiron mentioned most often.

Unlike Gliek, the Five Kings of the Black Sea, who remained in the Black Sea, had repeatedly tried to infiltrate Shiron’s mind. Naturally, Nirgand had tormented Shiron dozens of times, and within Shiron’s inner world, many thoughts related to Jin existed.

Looking back now, Shiron seemed to have viewed Jin with a similar perspective as Ban.

“You wouldn’t want a world where someone’s will can erase what exists, Nirgand. In such a world, even this fight would be meaningless. If the one with that power doesn’t want your life, they can simply erase it.”

“There is no such power. You must mean the Zipl. They will fail. If you oppose them, there’s not even a small chance.”

“It exists. And though I may be the strongest person in the world, I cannot stop that power. That burden falls only on my brother Jin.”

“Fate, is it…?”

Ban truly felt it. An immense destiny focused solely on Jin.

At that moment, Nirgand flinched and looked up at the sky.

Though he had accepted his impending death, he had no intention of fighting carelessly. Yet he looked upward because he sensed a gaze.

A witch’s gaze, watching both him and Ban. Nirgand had never seen the witch so unsettled before.

Unlike Nirgand, Ban did not sense the witch’s gaze. She only guessed there must be a reason behind Nirgand’s sudden action.

“If I can’t sense it, but Nirgand can, it must be something closely tied to spiritual energy. Then it can only be the witch.”

The witch had spied on him before. Unlike now, she had even come to Lafrarosa to meet Ban. In fact, Ban was the person the witch had observed most.

Ban paid no mind and continued the fight.

Right after a shower of fragments passed, Sigmund extended like a beam of light. Ban closed the distance to Nirgand in an instant, and the blade already touched his heart—the fragment of the Sun God.

The moment the blade met the fragment, a thunderous boom erupted. For Ban, it was the first time in a long while she failed to finish something with a single strike.

The recoil sent Ban briefly into the air. Nirgand roared and shot golden horns at her. Golden beams burst from his eyes.

Ban did not dodge but descended head-on, striking again at the Sun God’s fragment. Shards from the broken horns pierced deeply into her collarbone, waist, and thigh.

But those wounds were a calculated sacrifice to strike the fragment more effectively. She was determined to cut it with this second strike.

“If even a trace of Nirgand’s power leaks beyond the Black Sea, it must be stopped now.”

In that brief moment as Ban fell, all the lightning energy covering the battlefield condensed into Sigmund. The entire area instantly glowed with golden light.

Ban and Nirgand both sensed the fight was about to end. The solar aura engulfed Ban, but her falling speed did not slow.

The blue blade split Nirgand’s head.

Then, without hesitation, it surged toward the Sun God’s fragment. The fragment released all its solar energy at once before the blade touched it, but Ban was not repelled as before.

Screech…!

Ban felt a dull resistance, as if the blade caught on bone, but only briefly. Sigmund sliced through the Sun God’s fragment and fell to the ground.

As the fragment, which had shone with golden radiance, was severed, Nirgand’s spiritual energy began to spill out.

His body no longer healed. Particles of spiritual and solar energy scattered in all directions.

“Hoo…”

Ban caught her breath and looked down at Nirgand’s massive eye lying on the ground. It held not anger or sorrow, but curiosity. Curiosity about what Jin Runkandel was, and why someone like Ban would exist solely for him.

The eye crumbled like a pile of withered sand. Nirgand met his end without ever learning the answer.

The fierce energy of the fallen Tuwangs was spreading across the sky. It was an attempt to prevent the lingering spiritual and solar energies radiating from Nirgand’s corpse from escaping.

‘The power is even greater than I expected. Cleaning this up is going to be more troublesome than I thought…’

Just as that thought crossed his mind,

Ban slowly turned his head beyond Nirgand’s body. Far off in the distance was the location of the dimensional gate Nirgand had used for his final move.

From within it, Ban sensed an energy that, despite being his first time encountering it, felt strangely familiar.

It was the energy of Siron.