Episode 625
Chapter 161: Return (2)
January 31, 1803.
As Jin stepped out of Laprarosa, he expected, as always, to be greeted by the endless expanse of the sand-colored great desert.
He even chuckled to himself, recalling the chance encounter with the Dark Flame during his first trip to Laprarosa, or the mysterious tribe he met upon entering this time.
“What is this…?”
But the moment he opened the portal with his spirit sword and stepped into Inse, the landscape before him was nothing like the Mitra Great Desert he knew.
A thick, viscous wind, like rancid oil, blew through the air.
That wind was saturated with a deadly poison, and beyond it, the land and sky were an ominous pitch black.
From all around came eerie, guttural howls.
“This is supposed to be the Mitra Great Desert…?”
If anything, it looked more like the Black Sea.
Peering down at the ground, Jin realized this desolate scene was the Mitra Great Desert, but one “contaminated by chaos.”
Here and there, patches of sand remained, clinging stubbornly to the last vestiges of natural life—but even those were tainted and dull.
“Haah.”
The Mitra Great Desert was originally the land of the Mingwang tribe.
It was a place that had crushed the hopes of countless adventurers chasing myths and legends, yet it once held the golden city of Laprarosa until the Mingwang’s downfall.
Jin had dreamed that one day, his city and his brothers’ would shine brilliantly again in this desert.
That was, until just before stepping through this gate.
He tightened the knot on the massive pack strapped to his back.
Inside were the crystallized hearts of the fallen Mingwang, a chaos purifier, Ban’s blood, and the blueprints of the Golden Fleet.
“Even in death, Gliek keeps causing chaos…”
The thought of the horrific Black Sea king made his teeth grind.
And worry gnawed at him.
“If the Mitra Great Desert is in this state, what about the other places?”
Contaminated zones.
Two years and six months ago, about fifty such areas were known to the world.
New contaminated zones were discovered every day, but until Jin’s last trip to Laprarosa, the Mitra Great Desert had remained untouched.
“After Gliek’s destruction, the infectious chaos must have spread, and the land’s contamination grew as well.”
Even at a glance, the desert’s corruption was severe.
It wasn’t just chaos-tainted—it looked as if fragments of Gliek himself had fallen onto the earth.
Not entirely unexpected.
Chaos infection wasn’t limited to living beings.
But the fact that great powers like Runkandel and Ziphl hadn’t stopped it was another matter.
“Or maybe the Mitra Great Desert was excluded from the purification zones. Given the massive manpower still devoted to cleansing other contaminated areas worldwide, that’s plausible.”
He could check on the other regions after leaving the desert.
For now, his first impression of Inse after three years was simply: deeply unpleasant.
“Kyaaaak!”
Suddenly, something let out a ferocious screech and pounced on Jin’s back.
Without even glancing, Jin unleashed a burst of lightning energy, instantly vaporizing the creature.
Monsters swarmed from all directions, led by that one, so there was no need to waste time observing.
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred… over a thousand.
Jin quickly estimated the number of monsters surrounding him.
But he stopped counting.
Once the number passed a thousand, it didn’t matter.
He just had to wipe them all out.
Sigmund drew from its sheath.
The Ninth Sword of the Mingwang Sword Spirit Technique:
Annihilation.
In an instant, the blackened sky turned a deep blue.
The lightning energy forming wings behind Jin radiated a dazzling brilliance.
The surging lightning seemed ready to tear the dark sky apart.
As the lightning spread, a group of charging monsters in front of him fell lifeless.
They vanished as if burned away by flames and dust.
Their bones and flesh, reduced to ash by the lightning, scattered into the air.
Nearby monsters reflexively watched the ash scatter—and died instantly.
Pale blades of light scattered like reflections, slicing through the air.
Though it looked like a wild barrage, every slash of lightning precision-cut the remnants of chaos without error.
The monsters showed no emotion.
Even as dozens fell to Jin’s light swings, they kept charging.
Jin didn’t want them to flee in fear.
If time and circumstances allowed, he wanted to exterminate every monster defiling his brothers’ old land.
Every second, dozens to hundreds of monsters exploded or were torn apart.
Typical chaos-infected beings usually retain some trace of their former human form.
But the creatures Jin was slaughtering now were not infected—they were pure remnants of chaos.
“There are a lot of them.”
Before becoming the Fighting King, Jin wouldn’t have dared to vow to wipe out all the desert monsters.
His usual approach was to break through and escape first, then assess the scale and find a more efficient method.
He had to avoid exhaustion and danger from endless waves of monsters.
But now, that wasn’t necessary.
Even while pouring out lightning and aura like a madman, he felt as comfortable as when meditating.
No matter if a million monsters swarmed, they could no longer threaten him.
Like ants can’t harm a dragon.
“At this rate, it feels like the whole world is using the Mitra Great Desert as a dumping ground… or maybe Kinzelro has fallen? That can’t be.”
The Mitra Great Desert belonged to the beastmen, and the beastmen’s land was currently Kinzelro’s domain.
No matter how worthless the desert was, there was no reason to neglect it this badly.
“If Kinzelro hasn’t truly fallen, someone will come soon enough.”
Jin paused his swordplay.
Among the swarming monsters, he spotted a humanoid figure.
They weren’t minions from any faction Jin expected to come after sensing the desert battle.
“Biological golems!?”
Or maids.
Like the twisted victims rescued during the Dark Magic Council purge, or the faceless, hairless maids from the Vantara Forest’s royal experiments.
Jin instinctively knew these were “discarded test subjects.”
What set them apart from previous golems and maids was that their bodies were completely saturated with chaos.
Chaos purifiers only worked on infected before full possession and physical mutation.
Besides, these had already been experimented on before infection, making Boras’s purifier useless.
They charged Jin just like the monsters.
Watching them carefully while dodging, Jin soon realized something shocking.
“There’s… a pattern to the chaos.”
Like a magic circle or ritual, the chaos clinging to the infected bodies showed a complex but consistent design.
It seemed to be part of the experiments.
Outside forces weren’t just cleaning up infected and contaminated zones—they were also “using” them.
The test subjects fell into two main categories.
Failures created by Kinzelro’s masters, and failures of maids seemingly produced by a collaboration between Ziphl and the royal family.
The former wielded lightning energy; the latter used aura and magic power.
It was no surprise that their goals aligned with the Mingwang tribe and the sword mage.
All Jin could do was grant them rest as quickly as possible.
Some might have been forcibly taken; others betrayed after pledging loyalty to factions, reduced to test subjects.
Either way, Jin swung his sword to spare them as much pain as possible.
Though it seemed they no longer even felt basic sensations.
How much time had passed?
Jin had already slaughtered tens of thousands of monsters, and the discarded golems and maids were nowhere to be seen.
The density of charging monsters remained, but Jin showed no sign of fatigue.
The more he swung, the more his anger swelled.
He hoped someone human would appear soon to answer for this horrific situation.
And then, beyond the dark, contaminated desert landscape, a new energy began to stir—one not of chaos.
“Finally.”
Still about a thousand steps away.
Yet the aura radiating from the newcomer made the chaotic winds tremble uneasily.
“A demon, huh? Just one. Zephyrin or Bianca. One of the two?”
The aura pushing back chaos carried the dark energy unique to demons.
Magic energy Jin had felt from powerful demon lords like Zephyrin and Bianca Caligo.
Jin detonated all his lightning energy at once, then waited silently.
The exploded lightning converged back into his crystallized heart, and nearby monsters couldn’t withstand even that—they turned to ash.
“Oh…!”
At last, the demon appeared before Jin.
Neither Zephyrin nor Bianca.
A man Jin had never seen before.
Upon seeing Jin, he let out a breath of admiration, as if witnessing something fascinating.
“What kind of crazy bastard dares to wreak havoc in my playground… You’re Jin Runkandel, aren’t you?”
A lavish coat embroidered with gold thread, jewels and gold ornaments hanging all over it—he seemed to think himself elegant, but his exaggerated gestures were almost overwhelming. In other words, he was flaunting with his entire being that he was a noble of the demon realm.
Yet, despite the frivolous appearance adorned with vanity and luxury, just his mere presence made the monsters in the area hesitate.
Then, with a single wave of his hand, the monsters charging at him were torn apart, turning into a hailstorm of blood-red fragments.
He was an incredibly powerful being.
At least, by the standards of strength Jin had known until now, that was undeniable.
“Black hair, handsome face, and a cocky glare. That’s right, Jin Runcandel! Who would’ve thought we’d meet here like this? Let me introduce myself properly—my name is Lanke Halobiche. First son of the great Halobiche family, one of the four great dukes of the demon realm. I am the ruler and protector of the northern demon lands and its creatures, the master of Mount Trna and Mount Carion…”
“You, Kinzellogy? It was a wise move to announce your name first.”
Jin cut him off, locking eyes with Lanke.
“As I’ve heard, you’re quite rude.”
“Rude?”
Crack! Lanke couldn’t finish his sentence.
In an instant, Jin’s fist slammed into his jaw.
“Ugh!”
“If you hadn’t, you’d be introducing yourself with a broken jaw.”