Episode 640
Chapter 164: Land of the Ominous Spirits (2)
The soft indigo glow that had illuminated Lionel’s body was fading.
His soul was slipping away.
Without its soul, Lionel’s body twisted into a grotesque, shadowy mass, no different from the other chaotic entities.
The soul drifted like a breeze toward the Spirit Mausoleum. Jin guessed this was the key to summoning Lionel again later, so he swung his spirit blade without hesitation.
The blade sliced through as if cutting flesh, and Jin felt the unmistakable sensation—but even as the soul was torn, it refused to turn back.
Lionel would return.
But the immediate problem wasn’t Lionel—it was the new energy escaping the mausoleum.
‘This energy…’
A blue power, like the brain energy of the Mingwang clan, was emerging from the distant chaos.
It was the aura of a great Tenth Knight Jin had once seen in Temar’s tomb.
Padler Runcandel.
The second knight summoned from the mausoleum was none other than him.
Like Lionel, Padler’s body shimmered with an indigo light. There seemed to be some fundamental difference between ordinary chaos summons and these two knights.
“Tenth Knight Padler Runcandel. I have been honored with the Runcandel name by the clan head and have enjoyed infinite glory. From this moment, attacking the clan head will be a sin you must atone for even in death.”
The moment Jin saw Padler, the words he had recorded in his device echoed in his mind.
A thousand years ago, when Murakan, consumed by chaos, resolved to kill Temar in the Black Sea Tower, Padler was one of the two knights who accompanied him.
Jin didn’t know much about Padler.
He had only glimpsed fragments of his character in the records left by Solderet.
But one thing was clear.
Padler was someone who should never have been standing here.
No Tenth Knight was ever laid to rest in the Spirit Mausoleum. Not there, nor anywhere in the Garden of Blades—any record of them had been erased by Ziphl.
All the Tenth Knights Jin had met so far had been guardians of Temar’s tomb, waging lonely wars for centuries.
—(Garden of Blades has discovered relics of Temar Runcandel, the first clan head… No official announcement yet, but there is a strong will to reclaim the clan’s forgotten history.)
A sentence suddenly flashed through Jin’s mind.
‘Temar’s fifth tomb… Sir Padler must have been guarding it.’
The prophet was using Padler, the guardian of the fifth tomb.
Whether the clan reached the tomb before Valeria, or ambushed her after she found it—either way, Jin felt his chest twist with a sickening pain.
As Padler drew closer, the bodies of Ran, Vigo, Mew, and Anne—pushed far away by the battle’s aftermath—began to disintegrate into particles.
Those particles flowed toward Padler, becoming the materials for his summoning.
But Jin did not believe this meant the four were truly dead.
“Sir Padler Runcandel. You may not know me, but I know you.”
[No, I know you. Jin Runcandel, the current twelfth rider of the Runcandel clan. Illina told me about you.]
“What did they say about me?”
[You resemble Temar Runcandel, my lord.]
“I’ve heard that often enough.”
[But I have almost no memory of him.]
“I had hoped to hear stories from that time, but it seems that’s not to be. Then, is the reason you stand before me now… for Runcandel’s sake?”
Padler shook his head, eyes wide as if hearing something strange.
[Jin Runcandel. After you devoted your kingdom, your body, your life to someone you respected, and were betrayed… can you still fight for him?]
Jin said nothing, meeting Padler’s gaze. Black tears, like dried blood, streamed from his eyes.
[The only thing I remember about Temar Runcandel is that he destroyed my kingdom, Idal, with his own hands—leaving not a speck of soil or a single living thing.]
Padler Runcandel.
He was not a pureblood Runcandel. Like Silderay, he was inspired by Temar and granted the Runcandel name.
His real name was Padler Idal.
A thousand years ago, he was king of the Idal Kingdom, a legendary magic swordsman called the “Blue Brain King,” and a prodigy who perfected the flawless magic sword unique to the Runcandel line.
Jin couldn’t tell if Padler’s words were true, false, or twisted history.
But no words could erase the hatred filling his heart.
[I desire not the revival of Runcandel, but its corruption and ruin. The power chosen by Temar’s descendant—your mother, Rosa Runcandel—will drag Runcandel into the abyss.]
“Before meeting you, I encountered Sir Silderay and Sir Sara in Temar’s tomb. Though they were guardians forged from souls, I also glimpsed conversations between them and you in Solderet’s records. They were…”
[You want to say they were different from me? And so you want to force sacrifices on me too?]
A sneer twisted Padler’s face.
“Do you remember them?”
[No. I neither remember nor wish to.]
A soft sound.
Padler slowly drew his sword. ‘Silus,’ the blade that symbolized his Blue Brain a thousand years ago, radiated a blue light.
Unlike the chaos or soul-forged weapons, this sword was the very same one that existed a millennium ago.
[My only reason for defeating you today is revenge against Temar and the sole purpose of my existence as a demon. I bear you no personal grudge.]
“I don’t know everything about a thousand years ago, Sir Padler. And when I mentioned Silderay and Sara, I didn’t mean to say you should be like them.”
Jin squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.
“…I just wanted to say that they seemed to care deeply for each other. That must have been before the fall of the Idal Kingdom in your memories.”
-[Before you came, I killed all those bastards. Oh, more precisely, Padler and I wiped them out together. You’re late again, man. Where were you slacking off this time?]
-[Padler got a bit hurt. I’m fine as always, but that weakling might need some training from you or the clan head.]
-Can you stop using expressions like “melting” when talking about people?
-To me, “people” only means those who aren’t enemies of Runcandel, weakling. Don’t act all surprised when you know that.
-Still, it doesn’t seem good for your mental health.
-Am I a teenage girl? Take care of your health instead of my mental state.
The words Jin had heard when facing guardian Sara, and the conversations he glimpsed in the records.
Sara and Padler seemed especially close—more than comrades, almost lovers.
Yet now, Padler showed no reaction to the lingering remnants of karma scattered around.
Jin opened his eyes and lifted Bradamante.
It was possible to unleash the karma again. Though his stamina was drained from the previous fight, it was no problem.
But to strike Padler with the sword he had inherited from her felt cruel.
No matter what Jin didn’t know, he thought of Sara—the one who had awakened after a thousand years and first spoke Padler’s name.
[The heart that once connected us cannot replace all that I have lost.]
Jin nodded bitterly.
“I strike you today not just to discern truth from lies… but because I believe it is the path for you. Please do not forgive the desperate choice of a flawed descendant.”
Padler had surely died a thousand years ago.
The life of the dead awakened by chaos was filled only with hollow hatred.
Stopping this broken, forced journey—like a shattered cart dragged along—was the only thing Jin could do for Padler.
[So arrogant, just like Temar. To think you would dare to strike me with that weary body…]
Indeed, Padler was no opponent Jin could handle alone.
The strongest of the Tenth Knights, who had always fought alongside Sara. That meant Sara, the strongest Tenth Knight, had trusted him with her back. Even if she were at full strength, she couldn’t be sure.
“Also, please do not forgive me for not facing you alone.”
Spirit energy wrapped around Bradamante.
Spirit Blade Special Technique:
Black Summoning
The black blade sliced through the chaos-filled void. As always, a black portal opened along the blade’s path, leading to Laprarosa.
Jin was tense.
To subdue Padler quickly and to receive help in the upcoming battle and escape, the Twin Kings had to be summoned.
Even if a common warrior was summoned, it would help—but too much was riding on the fight with Padler.
Fortunately, seeing the summoned brothers, Jin breathed a silent sigh of relief.
A massive bow, far too large to be wielded by a normal person—the Great Bow, ‘Shinsal’—glimmered with brain energy.
The Mingwang clan’s Tenth Twin King, Kaio, was stepping through the black summoning portal.
“Sorry to call you out, Brother Kaio.”
“Brother Jin, has the time already come when you need the strength of other brothers, even after becoming the Tenth Twin King’s Sword?”
Though he seemed to speak gruffly, Kaio had been eagerly awaiting this moment more than anyone else after Jin left.
Just as Jin still carried feelings of guilt toward him, Kaio felt the same.
Even among brothers, grudges aren’t kept score.
“Anyway, this is what it feels like to win. I am Kaio, the Tenth King of the Great Underworld Clan. Summoned by my brother’s call into this world, I go by the name—”
Kaio suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
He sensed the brainwave of Padler, unmistakably resonant with the energy of the Underworld Clan.
“A human wielding power similar to ours… Could it be that you’re a descendant of Temar’s comrade, the one known as the Blue Brain King?”