Episode 1085
Chapter 255: The Death of Keliak Ziphl, and Then… (Part 2)
Like a shed skin collapsing to the ground.
The corpse of Keliak Ziphl, who had opened the dimensional gate, was splitting apart from left to right. From within emerged the Keliak Ziphl of the 33rd dimension—the last remaining Keliak Ziphl across all dimensions.
His face was as young and pale as Jin’s own, and Keliak’s gaze locked onto Jin’s.
In that instant, Jin realized something immediately.
He could not defeat this being.
“That figures. Anyway, I suppose the information transfer is complete. Honestly, the Keliak of this world is a total failure—just a puppet for some Loki. The Keliaks I remember were far stronger. Especially one of them… he was something else.”
Orgal’s words echoed in Jin’s mind. This Keliak before him had to be that very one.
“…So you’re the leader of the Demon Army.”
Keliak didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stretched his stiff neck and loosened his body.
Still, Jin couldn’t bring himself to attack rashly. His instincts screamed a warning: one failed strike could be fatal—he might even lose his life.
“That’s right, Jin Runkandel. You look cleaner than I expected. I thought you’d be more battle-worn after surviving the chaos of this world, but your face is unscarred, almost delicate…”
Swish!
Suddenly, a blade-like sensation grazed Jin’s cheek, and a drop of blood splattered. Had Jin not instinctively executed a footwork technique, his neck would have been sliced clean through.
The wound on Jin’s face was caused by an extreme spatial explosion—less flashy than the one the recently deceased Keliak wielded, but tens of times more threatening.
“But one mustn’t judge a person by appearances alone. You’re the one who dragged me into this miserable dimension, Jin Runkandel. That last attack was a sincere surprise strike, in its own way.”
He was strong.
Including Siron and Ban, Jin had never faced anyone—or anything—this powerful before.
It felt as if enemy blades were pressed against his neck, his back, his entire body. Jin sharpened his senses to the limit, keeping his eyes fixed on Keliak.
The thunderous explosions that had shaken the battlefield since the fight began were fading. Even those who hadn’t witnessed the scene firsthand sensed the arrival of an overwhelming presence.
They had no choice but to recognize it.
From the moment he appeared, it was as if a dam had blocked the river—every function of the Golden Fleet ground to a halt.
The engines sputtered, barely keeping the ships afloat, and the shields vanished like extinguished magical lamps.
Untrained crew members clutched their throats, bending over as if suffocating.
The countless Demon Stones that had just appeared with the sanctum’s manifestation fell silent, too. Even witnessing all this, it was hard to believe it was caused by a single person’s arrival.
“What on earth… is that abomination…?”
Even Kragosma, who had been pressuring Ban and the allied forces, lowered his head and stared at the leader of the Demon Army.
Such immense power was impossible to believe as his own creation.
He had already felt it while facing Ban, but this was even more shocking. This mortal was undoubtedly a ‘hybrid’—a being who had devoured himself and his brethren to gain vast power.
Time seemed to freeze.
For about ten seconds, the battlefield was engulfed in silence; no one moved. Even the Golden Sea near the sanctum appeared completely still.
This was on a different scale.
He far surpassed the standards of the Inse. Like a top-tier god or a primordial being, no existing Inse criteria could explain him.
Jin was now facing this colossal entity alone, up close. Only the Changsung had ever managed such a feat.
Cold sweat drenched his body. The leader of the Demon Army, as if fully warmed up, took slow, deliberate steps toward Jin.
Anyone else would have retreated.
But Jin met his approach head-on, gripping his sword tighter.
Because even if he couldn’t win, he couldn’t afford not to fight.
‘There’s no solution against this opponent right now. The best move would be to retreat somehow… but I can’t back down without clashing at least once.’
To withdraw all forces, including himself, without dealing any damage to that monster?
Absolutely impossible—unless the Demon Army’s leader suddenly committed suicide for no reason.
Jin was aware of Keliak’s steady approach, the perfected spatial explosion, and the intentions of Malugia, who had orchestrated this entire situation.
At the same time, he had to find the most effective way to pull his allies back.
‘Malugia must have had a reason for bringing this guy here. There was probably some unseen conflict between Malugia and the Demon Army’s leader—likely a battle over dimensional interference. That’s probably why he came alone, without the Demon Army.’
With every step Keliak took closer, Jin’s body grew heavier.
When would be the best moment to strike back?
For the first time since ascending to Changseong, Jin couldn’t read the perfect moment to swing his sword. The other Changsung watching from afar were just as uncertain.
‘When should we enter to support the youngest? If we go in too soon, it’ll only put him in more danger.’
‘Damn it, I have to protect the kid, but I can’t gauge the timing… One wrong move and it’s fatal.’
At least Ban seemed to have a faint idea, unlike Luna or Murakan.
But even she thought there were more pressing matters than supporting Jin right now.
Kragosma.
They had to secure the Sun God’s essence. So far, the reason the Demon Army hadn’t ‘eradicated’ this world was because the Sun God hadn’t been fully resurrected.
Holding Kragosma hostage seemed the most promising strategy. But Ban couldn’t help but keep an eye on Jin while pressuring Kragosma.
While the entire alliance was struggling to make sense of the situation,
Jin and Keliak’s distance had closed to about a dozen steps. Jin had tried several times to swing his sword but held back.
At this rate, he felt his breath would soon run out. Before his ragged breathing burst from his lips, he had to make a decision.
“Good thing you came yourself.”
Suddenly, Keliak stopped and spoke.
There were exactly ten steps left between them. He halted because he didn’t want to allow even the slightest variable to the losers of the 677th dimension.
If he attacked Jin now, the Changsung would all rush in at once—perfect timing or not. In that case, Keliak couldn’t guarantee a ‘complete victory.’
A victory where he could defeat them without a scratch and ensure they never struck back until the war’s end.
Now was not the right moment to achieve that.
As Jin had predicted, Keliak had fought an invisible war with Malugia while preparing to come to the 677th dimension, and as a result, had come here alone for now.
He needed to secure the Demon Army and the complete Demon Stones of the Unified Ziphl first.
“It’s been a long time since I stopped in front of an enemy, Jin Runkandel. To think such a huge variable like you would appear in this wasteland dimension. I’m torn—should I praise you or acknowledge a few immortals among you…”
Fshhhk!
A sharp metallic sound suddenly rang out.
Right after Keliak swirled his hand through the air, instead of attacking Jin, he targeted a figure suspended in midair.
“Ugh!”
A deathly scream followed.
The battlefield was so quiet that everyone heard the voice. It was Lagal—the Demon King who had stayed with Keliak until the very end.
Lagal was injecting poison into the Demon Stone binding Elona, but since Keliak’s arrival, his body had frozen, unable to move.
He met his end with a hole in his chest, but no one knew what had caused the wound or where the attack had come from.
Even more shocking, Lagal didn’t simply turn into a corpse. The moment his chest was pierced, his entire body aged at lightning speed, as if experiencing eons in an instant, breaking down before hitting the ground.
The tenacious life that had survived since the Great Demon War had finally come to an end.
‘His magic power… no, his authority includes control over time. Even the Oltar’s contractors dare not challenge it.’
As Lagal vanished, the poison-soaked Demon Stone, swollen and blue, began to fall to the ground. At that moment, only one person in the alliance moved.
“Lady Elona!”
Veradin Ziphl.
Driven by the sole desire to save Elona, he summoned the power of the wind to catch the falling Demon Stone. The moment Veradin shouted, the Changsung instinctively sensed he would be killed by Keliak.
Jin wanted to rush to Veradin’s side immediately, but for some reason, he first confirmed that Keliak remained still.
‘Does that mean Veradin isn’t worth killing? Or… ah!’
Now Keliak’s gaze wasn’t on Jin, Veradin, or the other Changsung—it was fixed on the Demon Stone that had stopped falling.
The Demon Stone, drenched in Lagal’s poison, shone with an indescribably intense solar energy.
“Yes, Malugia. You’ve been waiting a long time for a chance to strike me. You’ll have to stop me somehow—just like all the Malugias who died at my hands.”
It was the sun blade of Malugia.