Chapter 573
Episode 148: The Sword Emperor (5)

Dante was convulsing violently. His black blood trickled down Jin’s neck.

Jin clenched his teeth as he confirmed that the blood was tainted with chaos, turning pitch black.

Dante’s body pressed cold and stiff against his back.

Just moments ago, right after Ron and Jin had rescued him, his pulse was weak but his body temperature had nearly returned to normal.

Now, it was clear—Dante was dying.

How many trials had they endured just to save him?

Having overcome all that, Jin couldn’t bear the thought of losing his friend so senselessly. There was no room even for anger toward Gliek.

His mind was consumed by a single desperate thought: he had to save Dante.

Jin recalled what Ron had said before they escaped the abyss of Gliek.

“While I face Gliek in the final battle, you must get Dante out of here at all costs.”

“Head to the rear battlefield and find Lady Thalaris!”

They had to ask Thalaris if she had any means to temporarily seal Dante’s death.

Not only her, but Rosa and Kelliak as well—they needed to confirm if they had any way to save Dante and secure it. If they possessed the legacy of Numerus, they had to tell Dante to use it.

Normally, none of them would waste such sacred artifacts just to save one person, but this was no ordinary time.

With Ron ascending to the pinnacle of creation, even the great noble houses had to save Dante to avoid incurring his wrath.

“The chances that Runcandel or Ziphl possess the legacy of Numerus are slim. Even if they did, they would have used it by now given the situation. Still, I have to go there first…!”

Jin frantically turned his head, searching for any opening. But no matter where he looked, the chaos of Gliek blocked the path.

Following the trail left by Ron’s sword, Jin moved relentlessly, stepping through the void in hopes of finding even the smallest gap.

His intangible sword energy continued to dissipate the chaotic aura, but there was no sign of a space large enough to escape.

Moreover, while Ron swung his sword to carve a path, Jin’s safety inevitably had brief lapses.

The black grasp of chaos surged through those gaps.

Fortunately, it wasn’t yet impossible to evade, but it couldn’t last much longer.

Ron separated part of the protective energy shielding himself and overlaid it onto Jin and Dante.

Strictly speaking, Jin wasn’t directly fighting Gliek, and unlike Ron, who had reached the pinnacle of creation, he couldn’t precisely read the flow of Gliek’s attacks.

So Jin was unaware that chaotic energies lurking outside his field of vision were also targeting him.

Only when a black spear suddenly pierced through his shield from behind did he realize the danger.

“Jin, don’t dodge or block—just keep moving forward!”

Jin nodded. Each time Ron’s spear cracked the protective barrier around Jin, Ron sent him more energy.

Having the power to defy fate didn’t guarantee success…

Gliek’s words were not lies. Humanity only had a chance to win because Ron had reached the pinnacle of creation, but victory was not assured.

He was giving it his all.

Right now, Gliek was literally pouring every ounce of his strength into the battle.

And when the Black Sea King fights at full power, the consequences extend far beyond this place—the Sword Emperor’s territory.

KRAAAASH…!

At the sudden roar, everyone on the battlefield except Ron instinctively looked up.

The sky, stained black with chaos, was tearing open.

This was a rift on a completely different scale than when the Demon God Stone had altered the heavens.

Through the swirling chaos, black lightning struck down.

The merciless bolts obliterated knights and mages who had barely held on, and wherever the lightning touched, bottomless craters formed.

From those pits, chaos erupted like molten lava. The intensified disaster was mercilessly wiping out the elite forces of Runcandel and Ziphl.

And this was happening only within the Sword Emperor’s domain.

They could even see chaos flowing along the vortex in the sky.

That chaos spilling beyond the battlefield was heading toward the Empire. Beyond the Empire, toward lands where other people lived—toward the territories of Runcandel and Ziphl—at an unfathomably rapid pace…

“Is he planning to attack the entire world?”

Even Rosa, who had once said she didn’t care if the whole world perished as long as Runcandel survived, was horrified watching the chaos spread into the mortal realm. It was the most shocking thing she had ever witnessed in her life.

Not even the elite forces of each faction could withstand this chaos.

If such a force were unleashed recklessly upon the world, ordinary humans would never be able to cope.

The destruction of the world was inevitable.

“Do we have to rely on the prophet to come up with a solution? Though I don’t know what price that would demand.”

Kelliak shared Rosa’s grim thoughts.

“At this rate, not only will the Empire fall… Ziphl is in danger too.”

Both houses had already suffered severe losses. Runcandel’s Black Knights had begun to fall in battle, Ziphl had lost nearly its entire fleet, and countless dragons and mages had perished.

The fleet could be rebuilt, and the dragons could be reclaimed by finding those who had ceased activity and binding them.

But even if Ziphl’s fallen warriors were resurrected by the Demon God Stone, its power was still incomplete. Once dead, they could never fully return to their original selves.

Moreover, as Gliek unleashed his full power, the Demon God Stone itself was being affected again.

Until now, it had only trembled in fear, but now it was unstable, on the verge of going berserk.

“…Veradin, maybe we shouldn’t have tried to restrain his rampage from the start. I can only hope Kadun and Hedo make the right decisions without me.”

As Kinzel had first predicted, Runcandel and Ziphl still had a last resort.

But both houses absolutely wanted to avoid using it. If they had known about Gliek’s existence from the beginning, maybe—but now, it felt too late.

“The land my daughter must live on… how can we possibly stop this?”

Thalaris, who had been sitting down catching her breath, lifted her head and stared blankly at the sky.

The giants had no means to stop the chaos spreading across the world. Gliek said nothing, but his sense of triumph seemed to pierce their very bones.

Yet their despair did not last long.

Because the next moment, they saw a colossal protective barrier unlike anything humans had ever witnessed.

A massive dome-shaped shield of light enveloped the entire battlefield and stretched beyond the distant coast.

The protection—Ron’s creation at the pinnacle of creation—responded to the chaos, beginning to block the spreading corruption.

The shield’s domain expanded faster than Gliek’s chaos could spread.

It was an incredible power no one could believe a single human had created, now guarding the entire world.

Not even the gods could accomplish such a feat.

Only Ron Hyland could wield such protection.

“You said to defeat me, you must have nothing left to protect.”

Ron said as he thrust his sword forward. The scattered chaos of Gliek gathered along Ron’s hand, forming a humanoid shape before him.

This was not something Gliek had created—it was Ron forcibly drawing the chaos together, shaping it into a form suitable for cutting.

Screech!

As Rashid sliced through the figure, the entire space consumed by chaos trembled.

The spread of chaos from the vortex momentarily ceased, and as the form dissipated, Ron seized the chaotic energy once more.

“If not for that, I wouldn’t have made it this far…”

Ron continued to cut through Gliek relentlessly.

If Gliek had been facing Siron, holding humanity hostage might have been a brilliant strategy. Siron could kill him faster, but wouldn’t be able to prevent the mortal realm from suffering.

But against Ron, it was a clear mistake. Gliek should have concentrated all his power on Ron Hyland alone.

Gliek’s actions were not without calculation. He expected that if Dante died and the world faced destruction, his own dark energy would accelerate.

Ron still faced the threat of becoming a monster.

But the protection Ron had gained at the pinnacle of creation reached far beyond what Gliek sensed.

Ron’s protective barrier wasn’t completely blocking all the chaos flowing beyond the battlefield.

Still, the amount escaping was manageable for those left outside.

There would be damage, but total world destruction was no longer a possibility.

“No matter what you do, I will never become a monster like you. Even if Dante—my grandson, whom I saved with such difficulty—dies by your hand, never.”

[We shall see about that.]

At those words, Ron smiled faintly.

“Think you’ll get to see it?”

Gliek said nothing.

Ugh!

Dante, carried on Jin’s back, coughed up another black globule of blood.

His convulsions had finally subsided, but Jin could barely feel his pulse.

Thanks to Ron’s protective shield, Jin was far from the heart of the battle between Ron and Gliek, but it would still take time to reach Thalaris, Rosa, and Kelliak.

Jin doubted Dante could survive much longer.

Regardless of Dante’s fate, Ron had clearly gained the upper hand.

Gliek, having spread his power too thin, could no longer prevent Ron from forcibly shaping his body and cutting it down.

Each time Ron struck Gliek, the tremors across the battlefield grew stronger, and the amount of chaos seeping through the protective barrier steadily diminished.

For the first time, Gliek found himself on the defensive. Like a predator that refuses to let go of its prey’s neck, Ron was relentlessly pressuring him, never loosening his grip.

At last, those fighting outside could breathe a little easier. Rosa and Kelliak quickly ordered the wounded to be moved toward the section of the barrier with the least chaos.

Meanwhile, Gliek, having left Dante solely in Jin’s care, focused on Ron—and suddenly felt a strange sensation.

Ron’s goal was clear: to save Dante.

Gliek thought that if that was the case, Ron’s first priority shouldn’t be attacking him, but rather sharing the energy of the Star Formation he possessed with Dante.

[Aha.]

As if a realization had dawned, Gliek spoke aloud. The conclusion he reached was this:

“Ron Hyland… you intend to take me down with you in a suicide attack.”