Chapter 534
Episode 145: Omen (3)
The moment the white stone was handed over, Hailan’s war inevitably lost its meaning.
If this war had been one that could end simply by surrendering the white stone, Jin would never have come here in the first place.
“If this conflict escalates any further, I won’t be able to offer the same proposal again under my authority. I only wish to minimize unnecessary deaths.”
“Now that Ziphl and I have sent reinforcements to our respective friends, it’s no longer just a war between the Empire and Hailan. Unnecessary deaths? Is there such a thing between Runcandel and Ziphl? Either way, it’s fate that one side must be completely wiped out eventually.”
In the end, Laramakua had no choice but to give up on negotiations.
“…You will regret this.”
“The discussion is over. Return to your ranks. Don’t add any needless words that might earn my grudge.”
Truthfully, Jin wasn’t confident enough to be so forceful.
A full-scale war with Ziphl was an enormous burden even for him.
No, it was more than a burden—it was a dangerously uncertain situation with no clear answer yet.
Still, Jin refused to back down for one simple reason.
“Ziphl is the one who first spoke of all-out war with Runcandel… That alone makes me reconsider just how important the white stone really is.”
The white stone.
That cursed object, which tarnished the honor and pride of his friend’s family, was something that—even if Ziphl was willing to risk a full-scale war with Runcandel—had to be obtained at all costs.
Jin wasn’t standing firm because he wanted to; he was enduring because he had no other choice.
This was no longer just a matter for the Sword Emperor’s faction. If the white stone held such value, Ziphl would surely use it to leap to the next level. And stopping Ziphl was Runcandel’s greatest mission.
Of course, Jin wasn’t completely without hope.
“Mother and the family’s elite must be watching the situation closely.”
The Emperor had already revealed the existence of the white stone to the world, and Ziphl had sent reinforcements, even unveiling mass-produced ships.
There was no way Runcandel would remain idle in the face of such a massive event.
“Mother probably hasn’t yet judged the true value of the white stone, so she’s likely waiting and watching for now. But if Ziphl commits fully, the family will step in decisively. Without fail.”
Talaris was no different.
Though she was still observing the battle as a bystander, the moment she concluded that the white stone posed a serious threat to the world in any form, she would join the fight.
If Ron and Dante didn’t use the white stone as a last-ditch measure, her sword would be aimed at Ziphl.
“Even if Ron is unconscious, Dante would never make such a choice. And if he ever harbors extreme thoughts, I’ll stop him. As long as I can prevent that, Talaris won’t have to pressure the Sword Emperor’s faction.”
Jin had heard from Hailan’s knights on the way to the front about Ron’s condition.
Thinking about how Dante must have been keeping the unconscious Ron close to the Sword Emperor’s faction still pained him deeply.
“Veradin.”
At the same time, another friend came to mind.
“I believe you’re doing something for Dante as well.”
If he were in his right mind, he certainly would be.
Jin hoped that, unlike the mission to assassinate Barton, Veradin wouldn’t become a war puppet and strike Hailan. That would be too cruel for everyone.
Laramakua spun around sharply and transformed back into her true form.
As soon as she took her place in the sky, the battle resumed.
The brief lull just moments ago was a lie; the battlefield was instantly filled with screams and explosions.
Most of the cries came from Ziphl’s mages and dragons, along with the booming sounds of their fleet breaking apart.
Alongside Murakan, the power of the five Sword Emperors stood out especially.
Unlike Dante, they possessed strong bodies and unleashed secret techniques relentlessly, cutting off the enemy’s lifelines.
Techniques like the Celestial Slash lit up the night sky in dazzling bursts, and occasionally Jin’s own lightning technique displayed its majesty.
The Emperor’s ground forces could no longer tighten their encirclement. Amela’s bombardment support was relentless, and Jin’s comrades—including Valkas and the Prochi siblings—were still active on the flanks and rear.
The opening and middle stages of the battle were thus tilting toward victory for the Sword Emperor’s faction.
Yet those fighting for Hailan were not elated. If anything, the better the situation became, the more resolute they grew, preparing for the next fight.
This was far from over.
Ziphl’s first wave of reinforcements had clearly diminished in scale. Only about five mass-produced ships remained, and most of the mages and dragons had fallen. Even those survivors seemed destined to perish within minutes.
Their leader, the Azure Dragon Laramakua, roared weakly, having lost one wing.
“This should be… enough.”
Laramakua thought.
There was one matter unknown to both the Emperor’s forces and the knights gathered for Hailan.
In preparation for such a crisis, Ziphl had devised a method combining unfinished technology with ancient dark magic.
Suddenly, blood flowed from Laramakua, tracing a magic circle in the air.
It wasn’t large or brightly glowing, and it formed so quickly that no one in the chaos noticed the moment it appeared.
Jin and his comrades only recognized the magic circle several seconds after it was completed.
“What is that?”
“A blood magic circle…!?”
Murakan immediately breathed his dark breath toward Laramakua upon sensing the magic circle.
His black breath pierced her heart, scattering the blood that formed the circle.
Yet the blood quickly gathered again, maintaining the magic circle’s shape.
And Laramakua wasn’t the only one forming the blood magic circle. Other surviving dragons and commander-level mages under Ziphl were drawing identical circles with their blood.
What their magic circles catalyzed was death itself—constantly blooming across the battlefield without pause.
Kiiiiiiik…!
The blood magic circles resonated, producing a strange metallic screech.
Knights from the Sword Emperor’s faction who could strike from the air kept attacking the circles, but even when torn, the circles reformed and merged.
Soon, the combined magic circle took the shape of a cube.
“A cube?”
Suddenly, Jin recalled the Gaipa Archipelago.
The artifact Midor Elner used to summon Myuron Ziphl was also a perfect cube.
“No way…”
A spatial-temporal device.
“So it wasn’t just an artifact—it could be summoned by magic as well…!”
Gasp!
Laramakua coughed up blood and collapsed, completing the magic circle with her death.
There was no need to shout warnings. Allies in the sky had already sensed something was wrong and were retreating.
The magic circle began to emit a dark red light, resembling the ominous sun of a fateful day.
Before long, it formed a massive dimensional gate.
The first to emerge from the gate was a ship almost identical to Kojek.
Zzzzzzt…!
As the ship passed through, the surrounding space warped.
A tremendous gravitational force sucked in corpses and blood still lingering in the sky, creating eerie noises.
Before mass-produced ships existed, Kojek was the only ship, known to perform differently depending on its pilot.
The same applied to mass-produced ships. Their true power depended on the magic power of their pilots—mere transport or devastating war machines.
Ziphl’s previously destroyed mass-produced ships had shown little notable performance.
But this newly arrived fleet was powered by mages of a completely different caliber. Even without fighting, it was obvious.
The density of magic enveloping the ships was unlike anything before.
Even knights unable to read magic felt a tingling all over their bodies from the sheer intensity.
“Phantom Corps.”
Jin had anticipated more reinforcements.
The summoning through dark magic had only hastened their arrival, and the appearance of the Phantom Corps was something he had known from the start, so it wasn’t a shock.
Still, Jin let out a bitter laugh at the sheer number.
Over thirty mass-produced ships emerged from the dimensional gate, each operated by Phantom Corps.
“How many Phantom Corps do they have…!?”
Back when Jin was a trainee knight, the first Phantom Corps he encountered on Veradin’s island numbered only fifteen.
At that time, judging by the awkwardness of their chain magic, Jin was certain their number was at least twenty.
But now, over thirty ships appeared, each powered by the magic of at least two Phantom Corps members.
Simple math put the number close to sixty—an impossible figure without deep thought.
If they had maintained that many Phantom Corps all along, Ziphl could have wiped out Runcandel long before the era of Siron.
There were two possible explanations.
“Either they recently invented a training method far surpassing the old one, rapidly increasing their Phantom Corps numbers…”
Or they resurrected the dead.
It had already been proven long ago, during a battle with Andrei Ziphl, that Ziphl could revive humans using magic stones.
Jin assumed the latter.
“The mages resurrected alongside Myuron Ziphl in the Gaipa Archipelago… It’s the same as then, only larger in scale and quality.”
Kuhahaha!
From the first ship to appear came familiar voices.
Midor Elner and Myuron Ziphl.
“Fate is fate, huh? You’re here too…!”
“After crossing hell twice, this Myuron Ziphl…!”
Before they could finish speaking, Jin and Murakan simultaneously launched lightning-fast thrusts and breathed out their dark breaths.
The breath infused with the secrets of Runcandel and the power of the Black Dragon tore through the protective barrier, shattering the bow of the ship where Midor and Myuron stood.
So abruptly and futilely, Midor and Myuron met their second and third deaths.
After Jin and Murakan’s power swept through the front, only their ankles remained at the ship’s prow.
“They’re not cockroaches or something, but no matter how many times we kill them, they just keep coming. They’re just going to put on some pathetic show and disappear anyway,” Murakan scoffed.
But both he and Jin knew the truth: the reason the idiot brothers from Ziphl died was because the phantoms from the other ships hadn’t come to their aid.
Though they stood at the front, Myuron and Midor were not their commanders.
The phantoms saw them as nothing more than low-level pests—just bugs who happened to be the son of Keliak, given a position they didn’t deserve. Whether they lived or died was of no concern.
So even as the lead fleet’s ship was damaged and Myuron and Midor fell, the phantoms silently continued to draw on their magic.
‘These guys… they’re definitely out of their depth,’ Jin gritted his teeth, thinking.
He could only hope that these resurrected phantoms wouldn’t be as formidable as the real deal he had faced the first time.