Chapter 601
Episode 156: Purification of Chaos (5)
“Did he just… smile?”
I was certain I saw it. Despite his utterly inhuman face, the expression was unmistakably sly, almost contemptuous.
But there was no time to dwell on what kind of creature he was. In an instant, all the power I had honed my entire life vanished.
My aura and mana, once nearly at a ten-star level, had completely disappeared—as if they had never existed.
“You must feel a great loss, Brother Jin. But you can reclaim it from chaos.”
Of course, it wasn’t as simple as those words suggested.
Still, instead of despairing, I lifted my head and glared at Chaos.
“There’s no other choice anyway.”
Come to think of it, the situation wasn’t all that bad. If I had arrived at Laprarosa just a little later, I would have fallen to that monstrous chaos without even understanding what hit me.
Though I’d lost my aura and mana, most of the formidable foes I’d faced before had powers far greater than that.
Fighting stronger opponents and somehow snatching victory—that was one of my greatest strengths.
Chaos, the entity itself, had already wiped the faint smile from his face and was now watching Ban closely.
“He’s clearly terrified of the Twin Gods. And he’s so careless that he’s revealing it just by rolling his eyes.”
Fear is a weakness. In that sense, Chaos looked incredibly inexperienced to me. It wasn’t only Chaos who saw Ban as a weak point.
“Twin Gods, this isn’t training, is it? It’s purification, right?”
“That’s right. I’m not lying to train you. None of us can handle that thing for you.”
“I wasn’t asking because I thought you’d trick me for training.”
“Then?”
“Since this isn’t training, I wanted to know if we could call on your help in an emergency.”
Ban nodded.
“Of course you can.”
Softly, the bands of the extraction assistant tied around my head loosened. I slowly rose and drew Sigmund.
Habits die hard.
I instinctively tried to infuse the sword with my brain energy, but nothing happened. Without the aura that had always supported my body, Sigmund felt heavy in my hands.
At that, Chaos sneered again.
“So, you mean I’ll never die fighting that thing.”
The Mingwang clan couldn’t strike Chaos directly, but if I were in danger, they could always come to my aid.
“Not only that, but you won’t be crippled either.”
“And if that thing ever injures you beyond recovery, the brothers will surely take revenge.”
“I will always be present at the fight between Brother Jin and that thing, so such misfortune won’t occur. But if it kills you by some means beyond our intervention, then revenge will be certain.”
Chaos’s lips twitched with a sneer, then stiffened.
‘He understands words but only thinks a step ahead. He keeps revealing his shallow intentions.’
I still didn’t know the full extent of his power, but the energy he stole from me alone was roughly ten-star level. Add to that the chaotic energy he wielded, and he was likely a formidable opponent even before I lost my strength.
His low intelligence was, at least, a small mercy.
“Ready to fight now?”
“Yes, Twin God Brother.”
As I slowly advanced, Chaos spread his wings and rose. His shadow engulfed both me and Ban.
“The pressure… it’s no joke.”
Without my power, it felt even more overwhelming. I was certain that if he pressed down with his forepaw like squashing a bug, it would be over.
A bitter laugh escaped me from the sheer helplessness. Just thirty minutes ago, I had been sparring endlessly with the Twin Kings of the Mingwang clan, but now that strength was completely gone.
Yet the standoff between Chaos and me was strangely unfolding.
The closer I got, the more he retreated—not out of fear of me.
Ban stood about five steps behind me, ready for any emergency.
‘So this is what it feels like to fight with someone watching your back.’
Ban’s eyes blazed with murderous intent at Chaos. It was as if he was silently telling him to sit still, take the full force of the Twin Gods, and die.
I was frustrated by Chaos’s constant retreat, and Chaos must have felt the same.
“Hmph.”
Finally, I charged first. Chaos tried to put more distance between us, but Ban’s fiery gaze pinned him down, leaving him stuck.
And once again, I was shocked by how ‘slow’ I was. Without the aid of aura, my body was barely that of a low-level warrior.
Still, I swung my sword with all my might.
Unable to leap high enough to strike his head, I aimed for his forepaw. Gathering all my strength and shouting a fierce battle cry, I brought down a descending slash…
But instead of a sharp clang or a heavy crash, the sound was a soft “pop”—a tiny, almost comical noise that shattered my spirit.
And that wasn’t the worst part.
Despite attacking, I was bounced backward by the recoil of the shield Chaos reflexively raised.
“Ugh!”
Amazingly—or perhaps sadly—
I didn’t open my eyes again until a full day had passed. To me, it felt like I’d only blinked once.
“Ha…”
A sigh escaped me the moment I woke.
Looking down, I saw my brothers’ worried faces and immediately understood the situation.
“Brother Jin! You’re awake. Are you feeling okay?”
“Hey, don’t try to get up yet. Your bones haven’t healed.”
“Bones? You broke bones too?”
“About seventeen places… Normally, with Brother Jin’s strong body, they’d heal quickly, but this time it’ll take a while.”
Thanks to my blessed physique, the damage was limited to bones and organs. A lesser warrior would have died instantly from Chaos’s backlash.
For me, it was a series of shocks.
“How could I… not even realize I was knocked out? Me?”
Countless battles I had endured flashed through my mind—fighting through every hardship with sheer willpower.
And yet, this humiliating defeat!
“What happened to that thing?”
“Hmm…”
“No, never mind. That was a stupid question.”
Chaos lay sprawled in the middle of the training ground, barely scratched—if he were human, not a single hair would have been out of place.
“Willpower or spirit won’t change anything here.”
It was like an ant trying to beat a tiger through sheer determination. The gap between Chaos and me was that vast.
I lay there, clenching and unclenching my fists, checking my body again.
I could faintly feel a trace of aura and mana. Since I’d lost the control that let me move even a single hair at will, it took a long time just to sense it.
“Do I have to build my power from scratch again to face him? No, that would take more than three years.”
I’d been down this path before, so I could reach it faster than last time—but three years was still nowhere near enough.
Just as I was about to ponder this, the door opened and Ban stepped in.
“Twin God Brother.”
Unlike my gloomy, serious expression, she wore a faint smile.
“I never thought you had such a foolish side, Brother Jin.”
“I did get beaten pretty badly. It’s embarrassing.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Unable to hold back, Ban chuckled softly.
Even if she was teasing me, I didn’t mind. It was a rare, humble moment I never saw from the absolutes, and I was grateful for it.
‘Well, Ban is immune to demonization. Maybe that’s why, even at the peak, she hasn’t become as cold inside as Father or Sir Ron.’
Ban’s gaze fell on Bradamante beside me.
“It was strange from the start that you naturally chose Sigmund instead of Bradamante before charging at that thing. I thought the brilliant Brother Jin was missing something obvious.”
“What do you mean…? Oh, no.”
“Yes. You only lost your aura and mana. Your spiritual energy remains intact.”
My face instantly flushed red as the other Mingwang brothers tried to stifle their laughter, making me even more embarrassed.
In my despair over losing all my aura and mana, I hadn’t even considered my spiritual energy.
“How could I be so stupid? How did I forget that!?”
“I thought you were pretending to lose your spiritual energy too, just to catch that thing off guard as usual.”
A small orb of spiritual energy formed in my palm. I looked at it and let out a hollow laugh.
“If I’d fought with the spirit sword…”
“The outcome would have been the same, but the process would have been different.”
“I’ll fight again as soon as my body heals. I didn’t even get a good read on that thing’s power this time.”
“Good. And though none of us can see it, Brother Jin, you should be able to sense the power that thing stole from you.”
The key was to recover that power during battle. The more strength I regained, the weaker he would become.
Five days later, my recovery was complete. Once again, I stood with my brothers before the training ground where Chaos lay, sword in hand.
He reluctantly lifted his head, as if Jin were utterly exhausting him.
There were two reasons why he remained so unfazed.
First, Jin was ridiculously weak. Second, even after unintentionally harming Jin, the Mingwang clan hadn’t retaliated.
So, Chaos planned to keep knocking Jin out every time he attacked, postponing his own destruction indefinitely.
Haaaah.
After a long, drawn-out yawn, Chaos raised a protective shield and settled back down for a nap.
‘Does he not realize I have spiritual energy? Or does he know and simply not see me as a threat?’
Either way, Jin intended to find out.
Striding forward, he struck the shield with Bradamante, now infused with his spiritual energy.
Kyaaah!
The moment the spiritual energy hit the shield, Chaos sprang to his feet, blinking rapidly.