Episode 610
Chapter 156: Purification of Chaos (14)
Once again, Jin stood before the Gate of Chaos.
As usual, all the brothers of the Underworld King’s clan alternated their gazes between Jin and the gate.
“Today, his fate will be decided.”
“No matter what choice Brother Jin makes, we will follow him wholeheartedly.”
Jin looked at Ban, who stood expressionless. In her calm eyes was a trace of the loneliness she had felt these past two days, staring at the Gate of Chaos.
“I’m going in.”
As he stepped through the gate, the hollow darkness of chaos greeted him.
Normally, the massive form of Chaos would appear immediately upon entry. Every time, the battle began with powerful swings of its forelegs or devastating tail strikes.
But now, whether because it had lost its strength or for some other reason, Chaos was nowhere to be seen.
So Jin moved forward without direction.
He walked slowly for about an hour.
For the first time since entering Chaos’s domain, Jin realized that this dark space had an end.
A particularly black curtain began to appear. At first, he thought it was a passage to Chaos’s subconscious, like the Abyss of Gliek, but it was simply a boundary.
It blocked his path like a wall. Even when slashed with his spirit sword, no cracks appeared, and it remained unbroken.
Walking along the wall a bit further, he saw Chaos crouched in the distance.
When Chaos noticed Jin, it rose—but it was even smaller than the last time Jin had seen it.
Though still in the form of a dragon, its shape was rounded and soft, almost like a baby rabbit. It looked small enough to fit in the palm of a hand.
Moreover, the destructive power that once radiated from Chaos was gone. After being struck by Jin’s ultimate spirit sword technique, Chaos had lost nearly all its strength.
“Hmph, brat. Your face, all puffed up with premature victory, is really annoying.”
Jin’s face remained expressionless.
“I heard from Brother Tooshin outside that you haven’t killed me not because you can’t, but because you’re afraid of becoming even more lonely. Is that true?”
“What do I care? You’re going to kill me anyway.”
Jin sheathed his sword and set it aside. Then, as if signaling no intention to harm, he raised his hand and sat down ten steps away from Chaos.
“You never know. My mind might change depending on your answer.”
“Hmph! You’re just acting cocky because you don’t have your weapon?”
“You’re reading too much into it.”
“Do I look like I’m joking? Because of you, my life is ruined. I was supposed to hatch perfectly, united with you, but your brothers pulled me out, and that messed everything up. So we should have lived separate lives, but you keep trying to kill me.”
“That’s only natural since you stole my power.”
“Your monstrous brothers only sided with you. They ignored all my pleas.”
“It would have ended if you just returned my power.”
“If I did, I’d be useless to you and those monsters—and you’d have killed me! Do you think I’d even be talking to you now? Besides, you keep saying I stole your power, but that’s my power.”
A brief silence fell.
“You said your life is ruined. Is that because you lost all your power? Or because once you enter here, you can’t leave on your own?”
“…Wait, how do you know I can’t get out by myself?”
“Brother Tooshin told me. Every time I opened a rift, your inner self was transmitted.”
Chaos’s eyes widened. It had no idea.
“Hah! So you knew everything. And yet you just stood by while I kept trying to kill you? Impressive.”
Grinding its teeth in frustration, Chaos growled.
“She’s my brother. It’s only natural to classify you as an enemy.”
Jin shrugged.
He briefly retraced the dark space he had walked through. Nothing but pitch-black darkness, and even that was just a stretch of land he could cross in about an hour.
Thinking that this was all Chaos was allowed, Jin felt a pang of sympathy.
“Brother Tooshin must have looked at the gate with such lonely eyes because he deeply felt that loneliness.”
Jin had been able to read Chaos’s inner self when it was outside. Back then, unlike now, his feelings were filled with anger toward Chaos, yet he still felt pity.
Somehow, it reminded him of Shuri—his own Jade Cat, who had spent nearly a thousand years alone, abandoned in a desolate thorn forest in the Black Sea.
He decided to save it.
“I guess you can’t read my thoughts right now?”
“You’re just thinking about how to finish me off.”
“On the contrary. But there are a few concerns.”
“What?”
“First, I heard you’re the first Chaos, born from the witch Helluram. And the first Chaos is said to have especially unpredictable traits.”
“Who’s this witch Helluram?”
“What did you say?”
“I don’t know anything about that. I just woke up inside you.”
Chaos had no awareness of being the “first Chaos born from the witch.” That was why it always thought Jin’s power was its own.
It believed it was born from Jin, not the witch.
“Then why did you react so sensitively to spirit energy?”
“It’s instinctive fear. I can’t understand how I could exist at all, coming from someone like you.”
In other words, Chaos was a kind of seed. Helluram’s power had simply taken root inside Jin’s inner self, like a seed sprouting.
For Chaos, who planted the seed was irrelevant and uninteresting.
Its original plan to consume Jin and become one was just an instinctive growth process.
When Chaos explained this, Jin couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Hard to believe.”
“You’ll find out soon enough once you get outside. Your monstrous brothers will be able to read my inner self.”
“Are you trying to find a way out?”
“You really don’t trust me to the end. I ran away here because I was scared of your monstrous brothers and because you kept growing stronger by resonating with them. Now I’ve lost my power. What could I possibly do if I got out? Thanks to you, I have no cards left.”
It didn’t sound like a lie.
“True, you were afraid of the brothers even when you had power.”
Jin nodded.
“Fine. I’ll take you outside. How?”
“Just open a rift… really?”
“Since I’ve regained my power, I don’t really have a reason to kill you. My personal grudge has been somewhat resolved. There’s one last problem, but for Brother Tooshin’s sake, I can accept it.”
“…For the monstrous brothers’ sake?”
Swish!
Jin unfolded his spirit sword and opened a rift.
“Let’s go.”
Chaos followed Jin to the rift but hesitated for a moment.
“If I go out, won’t your monstrous brothers hate me?”
“Well, if you want to stay here, then do.”
“No, no. I’m going.”
When Jin and Chaos emerged into the training ground, the Underworld King’s clan stared wide-eyed in amazement.
“That’s the first Chaos?”
“It’s gotten so small.”
“I heard Jin wanted to give it a chance, and it looks like he decided to spare it.”
“Since it’s come to this, let’s welcome it warmly. It even looks kind of cute.”
“Oh, Brother Jin, well done! I was worried you might kill it. I’m Boras, King Otu! We’ll need your help with some research, so we should get close quickly.”
Caught off guard by the unexpected welcome, Chaos hid behind Jin. Jin noticed Ban’s frown deepen.
As soon as they came out to Laprarosa, Ban could read Chaos’s inner self again.
But Jin couldn’t hear Chaos’s thoughts.
“Come closer.”
Ban reached out to Chaos.
Chaos cautiously climbed onto her hand, watching her carefully.
‘They always said the brothers were monsters to be feared and hated, but with Ban, it’s like a gentle lamb.’
One last problem remained.
Just before coming out, Jin had mentioned it—the black spots on his body.
He had a hunch they would disappear if Chaos died, but he spared Chaos for Ban’s sake.
He had seen how deeply Ban mourned.
Ban had felt Chaos’s loneliness as if it were her own, a mixture of pity and kinship—a shared fate trapped in a dead world with no escape.
That was why she had looked at the Gate of Chaos with such sorrowful eyes.
Chaos seemed to be speaking something silently from within, and Ban nodded in response from time to time.
“…So, if we do this, Brother Jin’s spots will disappear? Understood, Brother Jin.”
“Speak, Brother Tooshin.”
“I will take this child under my care now.”
Jin didn’t question Ban.
Her choice meant she was certain Chaos could never threaten him or the brothers.
From Chaos’s body, black energy like spirit energy began to flow out.
The energy hovered near Ban before being absorbed into her radiant heart.
As Chaos’s energy seeped into Ban’s heart, the spots that had spread like tumors across Jin’s body gradually faded and disappeared.
It felt like some kind of contract, but from Chaos’s perspective, it was more like a ‘transfer.’
“But how could you be so cold? You were reading my innermost thoughts all along.”
“That’s because you tried to harm Jin, your brother.”
“So in the end, the reason you accepted me was because I might be useful to that damn guy.”
Ban gently ruffled Chaos’s hair and replied, “It’s not just because of that.”
And Chaos had been reading Ban’s mind too. Ever since that first crack opened and their inner selves connected, Chaos had come to understand the genuine compassion Ban felt for him all along.