Episode 605
Chapter 156: Purification of Chaos (9)
Jin and the Mingwang clan gathered in front of the Chaos, which had transformed into a door. Ban bared his battle flag, but Chaos showed no reaction at all, as if it had truly become an object.
“I thought Jin would win… Did he run away?”
“It doesn’t seem like running away. It’s like Chaos itself has become the door. Strange guy. No wonder he’s called the original Chaos.”
Even Jin hesitated to step inside this time.
‘His thoughts are completely blocked. It’s not that he’s silent—once he turned into the door, all connection was severed.’
The last glimpse Jin had of Chaos’s inner self was that this door was his trump card.
“Brothers, until just now, I was able to read Chaos’s thoughts. That’s why we could handle his attacks so easily.”
As Jin explained the situation, a collective sigh rose among the Mingwang clan.
“I thought with the Fusion of the Twin Spirits, it would be a simple fix, but it’s just one problem after another.”
“Still, Jin has regained his strength faster than expected. There has to be a way. The Fusion hasn’t been undone yet.”
The Fusion of the Twin Spirits remained intact even after Chaos transformed into the door.
But unlike the others, Jin and Ban saw this as a problem. Jin didn’t know when he might lose consciousness, and Ban was constantly forced to transfer her energy to him.
“Brothers, this calls for some serious thought. Let’s move somewhere else to discuss.”
Jin and the Mingwang clan left the training ground, leaving two ordinary warriors as guards. Fortunately, once they were a li away, the Fusion between Jin and Ban was undone.
‘She’s hiding it well, but Ban seems a little worn out…’
Ban, the Twin Spirit, originally had nearly infinite energy.
But as she herself admitted, her prime was long past.
She lost some strength when the Mingwang clan was destroyed half a million years ago, and weakened further after transferring energy to Jin multiple times.
So for Ban, the Fusion was a forced amplification—something pushing her beyond her limits.
Her energy was hard to control, and Jin’s ability to absorb it was inefficient.
The other Mingwang clan members couldn’t even imagine Ban getting tired from “just” that.
Naturally, all eyes turned to Boras.
“Otu King brother, do you have any guesses this time?”
“Yeah, Otu King brother is a genius. You must have some idea, right?”
Boras scratched the back of his head awkwardly, chuckling.
“Well, honestly, I don’t have a clue. The Fusion, Jin reading Chaos’s thoughts, Chaos turning into a door… all firsts. Let’s watch for a few days and think together about what to do.”
Even after a week, Chaos remained in the form of a door.
During that time, Jin spent his days training and conducting various experiments with his brothers to understand how the door worked. He confirmed two things for sure.
First, only Jin could enter the door.
Second, even the Spirit Sword couldn’t cut through it.
If anyone else tried to step through, a powerful repulsion would push them back.
Most of the strength Jin had lost was still bound to Chaos. Though invisible now, unlike when Chaos was in dragon form, Jin could still sense it.
Even when Jin swung the Spirit Sword, the door blurred like water for a moment, then quickly returned to its original form.
They didn’t even try to strike it with the Mingwang clan’s psychic powers, fearing it might damage Chaos.
The immortal phoenix Tess, who usually provided a last-resort solution, couldn’t be summoned here—this was Laprarosa, a dead world.
“In the end, Jin has no choice but to go through the door himself.”
“That seems to be the case, Twin Spirit brother. The last thought I received from him was that he could no longer rely on the brothers’ help.”
Stepping into the unknown trap was just a matter of steeling one’s mind.
The problem was that if something went wrong inside, Jin might not be able to handle it, and the brothers might be powerless to help.
Still, the Mingwang clan decided to wait outside the door. Jin had packed plenty of kakto and water, just like when setting out on a journey.
“Ah, is it really okay to send Jin like this?”
“Jin, I know it’s hard to accept, but even if you lose some strength, how about traveling with the others?”
“That’s impossible, brothers.”
“Sigh, I shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t mean to dismiss Jin’s feelings.”
“No need to explain. I understand. Maybe things will go better than expected inside the door, so don’t worry too much. I’ll be back.”
“Wishing you luck, brother.”
“I hope the Twin Spirit’s power stays with you inside…”
The Mingwang clan felt like they were sending a child alone into the sea. Jin waved at them as if to say he was fine, but he was just as uneasy.
Swoosh!
The moment he stepped through the door, the scenery abruptly changed.
‘I expected this to some extent. It’s similar to entering Gliek’s pocket dimension.’
Darkness warped and twisted everywhere, with only Jin’s outline clear. Such pocket dimensions were no longer new to him.
So, I just have to keep moving forward…
Just as he thought that, a low, gloomy breath echoed from somewhere.
[Welcome…]
Less than ten seconds after entering the pocket dimension, Jin instinctively looked toward the voice—and immediately froze.
‘Damn it!’
He locked eyes with Chaos.
Though already huge in the training ground, now Chaos was on a whole other level. One of his pupils alone was large enough to overwhelm Jin.
Jin’s body tensed so sharply his fine hairs stood on end, but he swung Bradamante and cut through Chaos’s glaring eye.
Clang!
It felt like striking ancient million-year-old steel. The blow hit Jin more than Chaos.
That single strike was enough to make it clear.
There was no way to beat him now.
‘Even with the Fusion still active, not a scratch…!?’
He couldn’t guarantee victory even before losing strength. The best option was to retreat.
Things were worse than when they first extracted Chaos.
[Twin Spirit Fusion, huh? That monster’s power resonated with the remnants inside you, making it quite difficult.]
A more despairing moment.
In the training ground, Jin had read Chaos’s thoughts unilaterally, but here it was the opposite. Chaos could see right through Jin’s mind.
Jin glanced back in a panic—there was no door.
He hadn’t even taken five steps beyond it. He couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.
‘This is the worst. We considered every scenario with the brothers, and nothing could be worse than this.’
Bang!
A blow that felt like his body would vanish struck, and Jin’s head spun. Chaos’s massive, previously unseen front paw had swept him sideways.
[This is the powerful front paw strike you missed last time! Heh heh heh.]
Bones and organs rattled violently, blood burst from every orifice on his face. Without the Spirit Armor, he would have died instantly.
He didn’t feel anger or pain.
Only disbelief.
‘This is the most ridiculous cheating I’ve ever seen.’
[Exactly! That’s how I felt. It was fun when the monsters ganged up on me, right? How does it feel to be on the receiving end?]
“That’s not something I want to hear from the guy who stole all my power.”
Jin spoke calmly but was frantically thinking.
[Wondering why the door disappeared, and how to get out?]
Another powerful front paw strike came, too wide to dodge. Even if it were smaller, the speed made evasion impossible.
Jin was flung back, barely holding onto consciousness.
To think I’d regain nearly 30% of my strength, have the Fusion active, and still feel this powerless!
No door. Then I have to make one.
Fortunately, Jin had experienced something similar before.
Whoosh!
Spiritual energy wrapped around Bradamante.
[That power isn’t much of a threat to me here.]
“Is that so?”
Jin swung Bradamante not at Chaos, but at the empty space ahead.
Like a miracle, the space tore open, forming an escape route. Through the gap, he could see the training ground and his waiting brothers.
‘Didn’t he read that I escaped a similar space using the Spirit Sword?’
Whether he didn’t read it or deliberately allowed the gap, it wasn’t the time to ponder. Jin had to get out first, deal with the rest later.
Throwing himself through the rift made by the Spirit Sword, Jin burned with a fiercer determination than ever.
‘I’ll get stronger and finish this, no matter what.’
Creak!
Just before escaping, hundreds of black spikes suddenly formed in the air like bows, stabbing at him. The spikes Chaos created relentlessly pounded Jin in the brief moment, but couldn’t pierce the Spirit Armor.
“Huff, huff!”
“Jin brother!?”
“Already back—no! Jin brother, you’re bleeding!”
“Boras brother! Treat Jin immediately…!”
Thud!
As Jin collapsed to the training ground floor, the Mingwang clan rushed over, shouting.
Jin barely heard their voices.
Instead, just before losing consciousness, he stared at the rift he had escaped from.
With a blind, burning gaze promising revenge.
“I’ll kill him… no matter what it takes.”
Then, unlike the chaotic figure he’d shown until now, he fixed a steely gaze on the rift beyond—the very gap that was swiftly closing the moment Jin slipped through.
When the rift sealed completely, leaving his domain once again engulfed in the void of chaos, he muttered to himself,
“Hmph. Come back again, you foolish brat.”