Episode 1140
Chapter 259: The Truth of the World, Your Truth, My Truth (9)
Hwaaaaaa…!
Solar energy burst forth wildly in all directions, escaping from Keliak’s grasp. Kinzelo’s power was no longer his own.
The solar energy surged and crashed recklessly, striking the ground. Jin’s light repelled most of it, but the solar energy spreading beyond the battlefield was unstoppable.
Following Malugia’s will, which had reawakened, those solar energies would utterly obliterate this world without a trace.
“If it means breaking you, I won’t hesitate to waste the power of the Sun God.”
“Insane bastard…”
“The 677th dimension will soon vanish completely. Let’s settle this before that happens—let’s see who stands at the end.”
A burst of crimson flame shot from Keliak’s staff. Jin slashed through the fire with his sword and charged, but Keliak calmly parried the strike.
When Keliak perceived Jin as light, he moved at the speed of light; otherwise, it was just a heavy, downward strike.
Still, his movements were fast and forceful, though incomparable to when he saw Jin as light. Wielding his staff, Keliak pushed Jin back and fired a beam straight at his chest.
“I’ve been making this too difficult for you, Jin Runcandel. But it was worth it. I was able to cast off the ridiculous vanity of wanting to become the One True God.”
Klang!
The beam was blocked and deflected by Barisada. Gritting his teeth, Jin steadied himself low to the ground and swung his sword again at Keliak’s forehead as the latter closed in.
The blade grazed his forehead.
But Keliak no longer used the power of the Demon Stone. If he did, Jin would once again appear as a glowing orb in his eyes.
“Jin!”
It was Veradin. Clutching wounds inflicted by Dante, he charged toward Jin.
Murakan, Hedo, Luna, Runtia, Siris, and Yona formed a surrounding formation.
No one else was in any condition to fight. Even Siron and Ban couldn’t lift their fallen bodies. In truth, those coming to aid Jin now were barely standing themselves.
No one remained to support Keliak from the Demon Army. The White Fleet had been utterly destroyed without a single ship left, and all forces, including Changseong, had already fallen.
“Alright, everyone who can still move, come! There’s no land left to return to. I will remember you all.”
A formation centered around Jin took shape.
Jin’s secret technique, the Light-Speed Thrust, targeted Keliak’s heart first. Keliak blocked the sword energy and instead closed the distance, but Yona’s blade slashed shallowly across his side.
He was tired.
He had essentially fought the entire Balmel Alliance alone, defeated transcendent beings like Helluram and Malugia, and slaughtered over 90% of all life on Earth.
On top of that, he now had to fend off beams fired from the solar energy he had just abandoned. Jin wouldn’t be able to block the solar energy falling on him as well.
Keliak struck Yona with a fist. She collapsed to the ground, coughing blood, but still tried to grab his ankle.
At that moment, if Krantel hadn’t struck Keliak’s shoulder, Yona would have been crushed beneath him, her head shattered.
“Die!”
Krantel shouted hoarsely and swung, but his staff blocked the blow. Yet at that instant, a falling solar energy slammed into Keliak’s back.
Jin seized the opportunity, lunging forward and stabbing Barisada at Keliak’s neck. The blade was deflected by the hand and fell to the ground, cutting his ankle instead.
Meanwhile, Murakan transformed one arm into its true form and struck Keliak, while Dante’s Rashid and Veradin’s Flame Orb targeted the briefly airborne Keliak.
Their attacks were blocked by his shield, causing no damage. But then Runtia summoned all her remaining strength and thrust the twin swords, Charle, piercing the shield. She saw one side of the shield shatter and lost consciousness.
Siris was the one who drove his sword into the crack. The pure white blade of the Ice Blade pierced through Keliak’s back.
Everyone watching widened their eyes.
It was near his heart. Even without using the Demon Stone, Keliak had shown signs of regeneration, but now, distracted by the power of light, he was not healing.
“Hmph!”
Crack, crunch…!
Keliak gripped the Ice Blade protruding from his chest and crushed it with monstrous strength. Siris retrieved the broken blade, and Keliak reached to grab her head.
Hedo’s sword sliced through that arm. The blade cut into his flesh and stopped at the bone.
Keliak roughly shoved him away and threw the sword stuck to his arm. Except for the unconscious Runtia, all the comrades charged at him again.
They could win.
If this continued, they might truly defeat him. Jin and his comrades all held that hope. Unlike before, Keliak was now allowing attacks to land.
“You’re right, Jin Runcandel. I was crazy—to think I could become the One True God and give up such a thrilling fight.”
He laughed like an excited child.
Amid desperate warriors, he alone laughed. Wishing this battle could last forever, yet knowing better than anyone that it couldn’t, Keliak strode forward, closing the distance with Jin.
He took the solar energy raining down like a storm all over his body and blocked the sword energies from Jin and his comrades, but he was already drenched in blood.
His hair was disheveled, flowing like a beggar’s, and his blood-soaked face bore eyes that shone strangely bright.
There was no time to respond. Jin and his comrades were now so exhausted that their eyes shut involuntarily with every swing.
Their consciousness flickered in and out. Runtia suddenly sprang up, tried to strike, then collapsed again.
They couldn’t even tell how the fight was progressing. They just swung their swords vaguely at Keliak, who appeared as a glowing orb in their blurred vision.
Sometimes something caught on their blades—Keliak’s arm, leg, head, or maybe just the ground—they couldn’t tell, but something was there.
Around that time, Jin felt the power of light fading.
“No… if the light disappears, people will die again…”
Without light, they couldn’t fend off the solar energy pouring down recklessly. Yet somehow, the solar energy was no longer falling on the battlefield or the world—it was targeting only Keliak.
Jin and his comrades hadn’t noticed, but it had been that way for some time.
Looking up at the sky belatedly and absentmindedly, Jin realized why the solar energy had started targeting only Keliak, not the people or the world.
There was only one reason.
“Lady Elona…? Is it really you?”
The intact solar energy, the Malugia remaining within it, and Elona’s will.
With the very hands that had mercilessly slaughtered people as slaves of Ziphl, Elona was now desperately trying to save lives. Though she couldn’t stop the world’s destruction, she was determined to save those fighting here—especially Veradin.
Keliak staggered under the solar energy repeatedly striking him.
The staff he held dropped to the ground. No blood flowed from his body anymore.
He didn’t pick up the Demon Stone lying on the ground and instead approached Jin.
The light within Jin had completely vanished. Like Keliak, he paid no mind and swung Barisada.
Losing all sense of distance, the sword cut through empty air and fell to the ground. But Jin rose again and pointed his sword at Keliak once more.
Now, even the faintest sword energy couldn’t be summoned. But Keliak had no shield either.
When they stopped a step apart,
Keliak’s body was riddled with fist-sized holes, and only one eye remained. He had been stabbed dozens of times by Jin and his comrades’ swords and crushed by solar energy.
Yet he still stood.
“As expected… you never back down.”
Keliak’s cracked voice echoed.
Jin couldn’t understand him.
He couldn’t comprehend the hollow desire to conquer all dimensions, the reason for Keliak’s immense strength, why he fought him even while discarding the solar energy and Demon Stone, or why he smiled so contentedly despite being irreparably broken.
He understood nothing.
“Just one thing… Keliak Ziphl.”
“What is it?”
“Why didn’t you run away…?”
If Keliak had fled instead of abandoning the solar energy and Demon Stone—
If he had simply opened a dimensional gate and escaped somewhere to buy time until Jin’s light vanished—
He would have won without fail. Keliak had clearly seen that the light power Jin had gained would soon disappear.
Even if Jin had pursued him through the dimensional path, he would have eventually lost the light power and been trapped inside.
Thunk…!
Barisada pierced Keliak’s forehead. Keliak looked down at Jin with the sword lodged in his head.
Then he grabbed Jin’s neck with both hands.
No one could protect Jin from him. Even those who had fought until the end had lost consciousness.
“Finite holds greater value than infinite. Why would I stoop to defeat you so pitifully?”
“What…?”
“The battle was already won the moment the Red Sea first overflowed. At that time, the 677th dimension faced irreversible destruction. Even if some of you survive here, how long will it take for you to fill this world with life again? Thousands of years, at least.”
Jin felt Keliak’s grip tightening around his neck.
But just as he was about to lose his breath, the hold suddenly loosened.
Moments later, Jin watched as Keliak’s body dissolved into particles, scattering into the air.
“You will forget me someday, Jin Runcandel. But I will remember you all forever. And when that time comes, I may return… on a day when everyone has forgotten this moment…”
Clatter!
The Barisada that had been piercing Keliak’s forehead fell to the ground.
“Gasp… huff…!”
Jin coughed up bloodied, ragged breaths, glancing repeatedly at the spot where Keliak had stood. Even after witnessing his final disappearance, it was hard to believe it was truly over.
He sank to the ground, looking around.
Fallen comrades lay motionless, and the Sun Machines had stopped moving. What remained were the survivors of the battle… and a world that had ultimately met its ruin.
Amid the haze of uncertainty, a dimensional gate suddenly opened right before his eyes.
“Jin Runcandel…”
The voice that followed was unmistakably Octavia Ziphl.