Episode 659
Chapter 167: Temar’s Fifth Tomb (3)

The first chapter of the Twin God Technique’s secret art was unfolding.

A tremendous repulsive and attractive force, accompanied by a shockwave, violently shook the pocket dimension. The cracks that had already formed bled a dark, blood-like energy.

Amid the trembling, unstable space, the two locked eyes for several seconds.

Jin was the first to close the distance. His sword, glowing with a blue light, surged toward Runtia with a speed like a flash.

Clang!

Sigmund and Sharl’s blades collided, triggering a tremor.

In this initial exchange after unleashing the Sovereign’s Reign Sword, Jin realized that Runtia had grown even stronger than before.

“Mary’s Volcano!?”

Mary Runkandel had independently modified the family’s Seventh Final Battle Technique. Unlike the original, her version of the Volcano was used as an enhancement, not a self-destruct mechanism.

Jin had never heard that Mary had taught Runtia this technique.

“No, it’s different.”

Mary’s Volcano placed a tremendous strain on the user’s body but didn’t completely destroy it.

However, Runtia’s Volcano was relentlessly shattering her flesh.

Like a statue cracking, every part of Runtia’s body split and burst, instantly regenerating in a continuous cycle.

In other words, Runtia had only altered the form of the ‘explosion’ but was still enduring an impact nearly identical to the original Volcano.

This was only possible because of her regenerative energy and her innate transcendent durability.

Facing such overwhelming power, Jin felt a mix of sorrow and regret.

The blood relative who had the potential to become the Sword of the Era had ultimately become a monster.

[This sword is prepared for you, youngest sibling.]

[All the Chaos Devourers I’ve faced so far never hesitated to let their bodies break apart.]

Not only the unranked but also most ranked individuals behaved this way—Rondo, Smarion, Stam, Lionel, Padler, and now Runtia.

Only Ron Hiran had overcome the demonic nature and ascended to the ranks of the Prosperous, and that fact was clear.

Only those who guard themselves against breaking can move on to the next stage.

Otherwise, they’re just moths drawn to the flame.

[So what’s your point?]

[Your sister has only grown stronger, but that’s all.]

[Yet you’re already bleeding.]

Despite her body constantly breaking and regenerating, Runtia maintained her composure.

Meanwhile, Jin began to retreat slowly as she pressed the attack.

Jin’s three powers were organically connected, compensating for each other’s weaknesses.

Among them, spiritual energy was the core of his enhancement, and now that it was completely depleted, he was inevitably weaker in every aspect.

[Of course, you must have hidden swords of your own. Show me quickly—I want to feel the thrill.]

Runtia laughed wildly, her voice charged with excitement.

The fiercer the fight, the more her spirit expanded.

“Is her madness masking the pain?”

Unlike the raging Runtia, Jin gradually minimized his movements.

Runtia assumed his stamina was draining faster because he had been off since the start, and in truth, that was partly true.

But Jin was simply becoming more cautious, waiting for the perfect moment to end the fight in one strike.

[Seems there’s nothing your sister doesn’t know.]

[Enough with the trivial talk. This is my last battle.]

Bones rattled and hollows echoed as Runtia’s sword accelerated, Sharl cutting deeper into flesh.

Jin’s crouching wasn’t without gain.

“There are gaps in her regeneration.”

Fighting while her body was breaking apart in real time naturally imposed physical limits. The intervals were so brief that only a warrior of Jin’s caliber could detect them.

He analyzed the pattern of these gaps.

Though unpredictably irregular, Jin felt he could impose order—steering Runtia’s attacks in the direction he desired.

“I don’t have the senses of the Twin Gods, but as long as Runtia doesn’t stop, it’s possible.”

Jin’s swordplay began to flow smoothly, like water.

Runtia assumed this was just another desperate tactic.

Of course, she hadn’t left herself unprepared.

She expected Jin to have counters.

She simply couldn’t keep up mentally.

When Sharl’s blade grazed her neck twice more, Jin found the perfect opportunity to finish Runtia.

“Now.”

As Runtia’s strikes shifted from low to high, Jin leapt into the air as if trapped in a dead end.

Runtia seized the moment, unleashing a rapid series of thrusts at lightning speed.

Jin’s airborne position, his expected landing spot, and the blind spots he couldn’t perceive—all made evasion impossible.

At that instant, Jin opened the next chapter of the Twin God Technique he had been saving.

Sovereign Sword Twin God Technique, Tenth Sword, Second Form
Sovereign’s Reign Sword – Advance

A brilliant blue lightning flared in Jin’s eyes.

Runtia seemed to have been waiting for this, focusing energy into Sharl’s tip.

Along with the murky blackness unique to spiritual energy, a heavy black aura formed.

Runkandel’s Fourth Secret Art
Black Cross Star

A sword technique Jin had seen once before, when facing Hedo.

Sharl’s blade, marked with a cross, seemed to slice Jin from side to side. Runtia felt the cutting sensation but it was shallow.

“Even Joshua’s help comes in handy sometimes.”

Back at the Tower of White Night, Jin had witnessed Joshua’s Black Cross Star once.

Though Runtia’s version was no match for Joshua’s, Jin’s memory helped minimize his injuries.

Soon, the Black Cross Star’s sword energy traced a massive circle, encircling Jin.

Within it, a torrent of cross-shaped black sword energy swiftly concealed him.

All of this happened in an instant—including the Black Cross Star’s energy being torn apart by the Sovereign’s Reign Sword’s lightning.

Jin’s secret art with the Sovereign’s Reign Sword was beyond Runtia’s expectations.

For the first time, she was forced to retreat, though she still absorbed most of the lightning piercing her body.

“Kuh…!”

Holes the size of human heads appeared and vanished repeatedly across Runtia’s body.

The speed at which the Sovereign’s Reign Sword destroyed her flesh nearly matched her regenerative energy.

“The Volcano hasn’t been deactivated yet. Even so, this level of regeneration… Runtia is practically immortal inside this pocket dimension.”

Between the Volcano she unleashed and the second chapter of the Sovereign’s Reign Sword, only a handful of humans in the world could withstand such impact.

Even including those tainted by chaos.

Runtia wasn’t originally one of them, but she endured because this was her pocket dimension.

All the spiritual energy forming the pocket dimension was essentially part of Runtia herself.

Originally created by Solderet, the space’s energy was now fully utilized by Runtia.

In other words, to finish her, the entire pocket dimension had to be destroyed.

As long as spiritual energy remained in the pocket dimension, killing Runtia was impossible.

“Kaaak…!”

Thrown far by the shockwave of the Sovereign’s Reign Sword, Runtia thrashed like a beast tearing through a trap.

She knew.

If she could reach Jin just once more, she could strike down her youngest sibling.

She also knew that if Jin had entered with full stamina, she would never have won.

Jin was sweating profusely, struggling to control the lightning of the Sovereign’s Reign Sword.

Though he had reached mastery and avoided backlash, he couldn’t stop the rapid consumption of his aura.

As Runtia said.

Had Jin entered the tomb with his spiritual energy intact, the outcome would have been different, even if the situation was the same.

If his spiritual energy had been whole, Jin would have surely won this exhausting battle against Runtia and her pocket dimension.

But not now.

Though her regeneration was now lagging behind the sword’s destructive power, in the end, Jin’s energy would run out first.

Adding magic now wouldn’t help.

In fact, combining magic with the Sovereign’s Reign Sword at its second chapter would be even more dangerous.

Magic inevitably creates openings, and in such a precarious power struggle, the advantage would instantly swing to Runtia.

Moreover, since the pocket dimension was a ‘dead world,’ Jin couldn’t summon Tess.

Runtia’s steps grew wider as she advanced.

Despite her body twisting, the three swords she wielded—Sharl among them—remained perfectly still, aiming at Jin like a vengeful spirit.

[Exhaustion… is your… fatal mistake… You must feel… so wronged.]

At Runtia’s words, Jin closed his eyes briefly.

But the moment he had been waiting for was right here.

He wouldn’t risk magic or push his aura beyond limits.

The last card Jin had saved to face her, who held the entire pocket dimension’s spiritual energy, was his spiritual energy itself.

The connection point.

From the start of the battle, Jin had been certain there was a connection linking Runtia and the pocket dimension.

Runtia was not the true owner of the pocket dimension.

She had only forcibly become its master through the prophet’s trickery.

Because of that, it was only natural that a connection point was needed to synchronize with the pocket dimension, and throughout the fight, Jin carefully observed how her spiritual energy shifted.

Unfolding the Underworld Sovereign Sword was precisely to pinpoint the location of that connection.

“There it is.”

Shing…!

Amidst the roaring chaos, Bradamante quietly drew her sword from its sheath.

Almost all of the spiritual energy had been spent just to open the door, but not a single drop was left unused.

Jin summoned every last bit of that remaining energy to fully unleash Bradamante.

“No, it’s over now. Sister.”

The Underworld Sovereign Sword was deactivated.

Immediately, Runtia’s wounds healed in an instant, but Jin slashed through the blackened blade, severing the connection points between Runtia and the pocket dimension.

As soon as the links were cut, Runtia could no longer regenerate.

Seizing the moment when Runtia had moved expecting to recover, Jin plunged the blade into her chest.