Episode 599
Chapter 156: Purification of Chaos (3)
‘This feeling is eerily similar to when I faced Ron, who was consumed by demonic corruption…’
He had experienced something like this deep within Gliek’s abyss. Back then, as chaos and spiritual energy intertwined, Jin had felt his power surge.
That power seemed to vanish after his battle with the demonized Ron, but it had left behind a stain—a form of parasitic corruption—that continued to torment him.
His heart pounded as if it would burst.
Jin couldn’t hear the voices of his brothers surrounding him. His mind buzzed as if submerged underwater, yet amidst the chaos, his senses sharpened unnaturally, stirring an unwanted fighting spirit.
Despite nearly delivering a fatal blow to one of his brothers just moments ago, he still felt the urge to keep fighting.
It was like being addicted to a powerful drug—suppressing that urge was no easy task. If the people before him weren’t his brothers but strangers, he might not have been able to stop his sword.
Since the Sword Emperor War ended, Jin hadn’t faced an opponent strong enough to awaken his demonic power again. The fight with Kwal was barely a warm-up, so he hadn’t experienced this state until now.
Good and evil, righteousness and heresy, light and darkness—
These opposing desires stirred violent ripples within Jin’s soul.
He thought he had barely contained it, but the demonic energy writhed like a fierce serpent, refusing to be quelled.
‘If I use this power, I could transcend to an unimaginable realm in an instant…’
For a warrior, there was no sweeter temptation.
Just once, if he made up his mind to embrace it, an unfathomable force would flood his entire being.
It felt as if someone had bestowed a blessing upon him. Even the uncontrollable nature of demonic corruption seemed like it would vanish if he simply accepted the power fully.
‘Why should I reject it?’
As his thoughts drifted there, his demonic corruption intensified further.
The voices of his brothers became muffled, then faded entirely. Their forms blurred into shadowy figures.
He even regretted having thrown down his sword for a moment.
Those shadowy figures began to feel threatening. It was as if he needed to defend himself from these ghostly presences at any moment.
“Graaah…!”
Jin let out a scream and violently shook off a hand reaching for him—it was Belliz’s.
He had clawed with all his might; if Belliz weren’t a Touking of the Mingwang clan, her hand might have been severed or torn off. Yet she didn’t flinch and grabbed him again.
Belliz’s strength ranked among the top Toukings. Still, she had to exert all her power just to hold onto Jin’s arm.
“Hold Jin down!”
The other Toukings joined in restraining him. Despite taking blows from fists and kicks charged with monstrous strength, they managed to subdue Jin because they were Mingwang Toukings.
“Brother, snap out of it!”
The struggle grew fierce. They had no choice but to break his limbs and restrain him with crushing force.
Jin coughed up blood and howled in pain, yet he recovered swiftly each time. With every recovery, his strength seemed to grow even more.
The brutal restraint was so intense that some of the other brothers couldn’t bear to watch and shut their eyes tightly. It was unbearable to see one of their own being broken by their own hands.
Jin had no choice but to stop himself. The Toukings’ restraint had limits. No one knew how much more his body could endure.
“Brother Jin!”
“Ugh…ugh…!”
Soon, Jin spat out black blood and his rampage ceased. At the peak of his demonic corruption, the Toujin Blood once again held him back.
Even after that, the Toukings didn’t let go of their grip for a while longer. They all felt like they were holding a ticking bomb, unsure when it might explode.
“Are you… okay?”
Jin lay sprawled out, looking up at his brothers’ worried faces. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief, but Jin’s heart shattered with guilt.
“My brothers…”
“Heh heh heh, Brother Jin. Don’t carry that guilt!”
While the brothers chose their words carefully, Teto was the first to speak up.
“That’s poison. Your inner self? Your heart? Whatever it is, it’s not in a good state right now. If you drown yourself in guilt, you’ll only weaken yourself further. That will naturally weaken your will to push back the parasitic chaos. So, for efficiency’s sake, you need to get rid of those feelings.”
“Oh? The Twelfth Touking actually said something sensible for once. Is the Second Touking’s hard work finally paying off?”
“The Twelfth Touking is right. You need to find mental stability, Brother Jin.”
Jin met their eyes for a few seconds and then nodded.
Instead of guilt, he chose to hold only gratitude. The reason he could feel that so easily, despite nearly killing his brothers and causing them trouble, was simple.
Brothers don’t keep score of debts.
Jin was also someone who followed the Mingwang clan’s code. If the ones he almost harmed had been other comrades, it wouldn’t have been so easy for him to lighten his heart.
“Thank you, brothers.”
“Here, drink some cold water.”
“Alright, let’s think about this calmly, calmly. We can handle Brother Jin like this because it’s us. What if it were Inse?”
“I don’t even know how many limbs have been broken.”
“Well, when you first came, you were cut dozens of times. In a way, this is better than that.”
Instead of dwelling on the severity, Jin and the Mingwang clan lightened the mood. As a result, Jin felt the remnants of his demonic corruption quickly subside.
The Mingwang clan had seen cases like Jin’s before. They knew precisely that the mental state had the greatest impact on demonic corruption.
“Brother Jin.”
“Yes, First Touking.”
“You’re basically undergoing rehabilitation right now. You just stumbled this time, and you might stumble many more times.”
Baltrock placed a hand on Jin’s shoulder.
“Each time, what you need to do is just shake it off quickly and get back up, like you did now. Don’t worry about why you fell or if you hurt anyone while falling.”
“And what we need to do is keep reaching out and helping you up every time you fall.”
“Isn’t it strange? Teto keeps saying the right things…”
Jin nodded.
Having such warm and reliable brothers, having a home, was truly a blessing.
“So… pick up your sword and get back into stance.”
It had only been minutes since he almost stabbed Teto. The brothers didn’t seem to care about that at all.
“Right now?”
“You can’t be afraid of going berserk again. The Toujin brother must have foreseen this situation and still ordered us to check your skills and condition.”
“That means the Toujin brother trusts you just like the rest of us, and probably believes nothing serious will happen even if you lose control again…”
“Probably?”
Though Jin loved and trusted his brothers deeply, he was sometimes taken aback by the Mingwang clan’s cold pragmatism.
“Pantel! Go ask the Toujin brother if it’s okay to continue given the current situation.”
At Garmund’s command, Pantel left the training ground. He returned quickly, nodding.
“He says to continue!”
“Of course. Looking back, we probably overreacted. The Toujin brother told us to do this.”
“Right, right. Since the Toujin brother said so, nothing serious should happen.”
“Uh, everyone’s saying that without much confidence. Are you sure it’s really okay?”
“Who’s next? The one who won rock-paper-scissors earlier? Oh, that was me!”
“Garmund, don’t lie. After the Twelfth Touking, it was the Second Touking, then Baltrock, and the rest… Damn, what was the order again?”
“None of us remember anyway. Let’s just cancel and decide again with rock-paper-scissors.”
“Are we never going to get a turn? The Toukings?”
“Hey, after seeing all this! The ordinary warriors will just watch until Brother Jin’s chaos is purified. But let’s get closer to watch. If he goes berserk again, we’ll need to restrain him quickly together.”
There was no room to refuse. Jin gripped Sigmund once more and resumed sparring.
The sparring continued for four days.
During that time, except when sleeping (which they all did together in the training hall to prepare for any rampage), Jin kept clashing weapons with the Toukings.
He went berserk over twenty times.
The worst rampage nearly destroyed the training ground, while the mildest ended with him taking two punches to the jaw.
‘I have no energy left…’
The training had been so intense that even the chaos seemed drained of strength. He was too exhausted to even go berserk.
His demonic corruption wasn’t truly gone.
Just as Dante had opened the door to Gliek’s temptation, there was always a barred gate inside Jin’s heart.
A door of temptation that promised relief and power if opened.
The Toukings showed signs of fatigue too. They weren’t just sparring; they had to restrain Jin every time he lost control. They couldn’t help but grow tired.
‘If I hadn’t heard from Dante about the temptation of chaos… and hadn’t endured the tragic Sword Emperor War… I might have opened that door by now.’
His teeth chattered with nervousness. Trembling, he reached out and gripped his sword again.
“Next… who’s next?”
The Duel Kings cleared their throats awkwardly, avoiding Jin’s gaze. Those same Duel Kings who had been so eager to fight first were now subtly passing the responsibility onto one another. The ordinary warriors watched from across the way like spectators at a distant fire, urging the Duel Kings to step up already.
Just as Teto, the youngest of the Duel Kings, was about to push himself up, battered and bruised, a voice rang out from the far side of the training ground.
“The chaos extraction assistant is complete, brothers!”
It was Boras, the second Duel King. Whatever had happened while he was building the extraction assistant had left his entire body covered in soot and ash.
The Duel Kings, relieved at the prospect of finally getting a break, moved to greet Boras warmly. But when they caught the steely look in Ban’s eyes—the warrior standing beside Boras—they straightened up immediately.
Then Ban spoke, his tone flat and firm.
“Keep going, brothers.”