Chapter 705
Episode 179: The Inescapable Trap (4)
Dante turned his head, his face paling and twisting with anguish.
The army of Dipus that had emerged from the dimensional gate was instantly turning the surface into a battlefield of chaos.
Despite the entire capital already being on high alert due to Joshua’s invasion, it was impossible to hold back the sudden onslaught of the Chaos Dragons and the Black Fleet.
‘Damn it… Joshua was just a decoy…!’
A bait for Dipus’s forces.
Thousands of civilians and knights who tried to protect them had already been wounded or killed, all because they were chasing after that mere distraction.
They had just subdued Joshua, only to face an even larger invading force descending upon the empire’s lands.
And the power wielded by Dipus, commanding this new Chaos army, was unmistakable even from this great distance.
A strength far beyond anything Joshua had, shaking the skies and the earth alike.
[Ha, ha ha ha… hahahaha!]
Joshua burst into a hollow, bitter laugh.
Though born from failure and self-mockery, to Dante it sounded like the cruel sneer of a victorious enemy.
Swish!
Rashid’s blade sliced across Joshua’s neck.
Even after his head was severed, Joshua’s eyes shed black tears as his laughter continued without pause.
‘This was a fatal mistake. I should have prepared for a follow-up attack…!’
For Dante, the lives of the people were paramount, so this outcome was unavoidable. He alone was tasked with slaughtering and chasing the invading forces, while everyone else focused on rescuing civilians.
Realistically, it was the best strategy. Dante was the only one in the empire capable of simultaneously handling ground and aerial combat against the Chaos army.
His head felt like it was about to explode. Even if he shattered Joshua into pieces before leaving, the man didn’t seem like he would die. There was a high chance he’d recover during Dante’s absence, wreak havoc again, join the enemy, or escape.
‘Still, I have to abandon him for now and move on.’
Just as he made that decision, Dante sensed a familiar energy emanating from the direction where Dipus’s army had appeared.
‘Jin…!’
The energy of lightning and spirit.
It was Jin’s aura.
Nearby, Dante also spotted flames and a strange green magic he hadn’t seen before—that was Veradin’s power.
The two had just arrived and joined the battlefield.
Jin and Veradin had intended to meet Dante first, but upon seeing the dimensional gate open in the sky, they quickly assessed the situation.
[Ha ha ha! Hahaha! Ack!]
Joshua’s laughter finally ceased as Dante crushed his head.
The shattered skull gathered in the air, grotesquely reforming and healing.
“What’s so amusing, you trash? The true Runcandel, whom you could never even dare to look at, has arrived. If you find yourself laughable, I can understand.”
As Dante resumed his fight against Joshua, Veradin spread a massive protective barrier.
The shield covered an entire district of the city, but with the dark, stormy wings of Dipus pouring out chaotic energy and the Chaos army rampaging, protecting all the civilians was impossible.
Innocent lives were inevitably being lost. The roar of explosions, screams, and the howls of Chaos Dragons pierced the chaos-soaked sky.
“I’ll chase after Dipus. You take care of this place!”
Jin shouted, and Veradin nodded.
“Don’t expect too much. We can’t save everyone. I’ll do my best to weigh the scales.”
Jin swung his sword to break through the Chaos army, carving a path.
His blade, charged with lightning, flew straight, tearing Chaos Dragons apart like twigs.
He stepped on the falling dragon corpses and fragments of the Black Fleet like stairs, ascending into the sky.
More and more Chaos Dragons swarmed like ravenous beasts the closer he got to Dipus.
“Fourth Rider!”
The words slipped out, laced with bitter anguish—not because chasing Dipus without wings was difficult, but because the atrocities he was committing were so unfathomable, they were painful to witness.
It felt as if the hatred of the dying empire’s people stabbed into his back like horns.
Dipus was once one of the heroes who saved the most civilians from the chaos unleashed when Gliek died.
As the Fourth Rider of Runcandel, he had resisted the Corrupted until the end, sacrificing himself to save the other Riders and rebels, never once seeking power beyond the family’s sacred sword.
But now, Dipus was committing massacres so vast they could never be undone.
At this moment, it would have been better to kill him here and now—to stop him from killing people and destroying the world at the Corrupted’s bidding.
Jin’s legs felt weak as he stepped on the corpses of Chaos Dragons, but he steeled his resolve and kept chasing.
He reaffirmed his determination to strike without hesitation.
Yet a strong intuition told him he wouldn’t be able to catch Dipus here.
He must have already prepared every possible escape.
Kiiing!
Jin’s rapid lightning-fast thrusts grazed Dipus’s wings.
Even a direct hit wouldn’t seem to faze him.
Dipus didn’t look back, pressing forward as if uninterested in fighting.
“Do you think I don’t know why you keep running, Fourth Rider? You want to tie me down here so your army can strike elsewhere more easily.”
Jin landed on the rooftop of a tower, behind him a trail of magical ice stretched like a comet, replacing the corpses of Chaos Dragons he had stepped on.
[You know me well.]
Dipus paused mid-flight and turned.
The voice Jin finally heard was not the one he remembered. It was dark and hollow, like the voices of the Corrupted or the kings of the Black Sea, digging a gloomy pit in his mind.
His face now bore a horn in the center of his forehead, just like Rosa’s, and his eyes shone black as obsidian. The greatsword Volgarman confirmed that this was truly Dipus.
[If you know, then why do you keep chasing me?]
“I’m already cornering you. Keeping you tied to the front lines is the lesser evil to minimize damage on the surface. If I didn’t chase you, you’d keep striking directly, wouldn’t you?”
Just as Dante was the only one who could handle Joshua and his army alone, Jin was the only one who could hold Dipus back.
[Yes, that’s right. Mother must have sent me here considering the possibility you’d be in the empire. You’re completely playing into her hands. Watch your back.]
“I don’t think I need to. One side of the empire’s capital is already destroyed and crumbling…”
The Chaos army was retreating, disappearing into the black dimensional gates that opened like honeycombs in the sky, with the Black Fleet carrying hostages escaping.
Jin kept his eyes on Dipus.
“But don’t forget—I’m not someone who just takes hits, Fourth Rider.”
[That’s why Mother still cherishes and loves you. Show me how you plan to land a blow on me now. I’m about to leave, after all.]
A dimensional gate began forming behind Dipus.
Teleportation.
Since first learning that the Corrupted possessed such an ability, Jin had been certain it came with a heavy price.
If it didn’t, the war would have ended in defeat for the temporary alliance long ago.
Jin still didn’t know exactly what the cost was—only that it likely involved humans or despair as a medium.
But one thing was clear.
No matter what Rosa used as a medium for teleportation, once her ‘true self’ or ‘clone’ was struck, she could no longer use it freely.
Jin regarded Dipus as a clone of the Corrupted.
‘Dipus received a portion of the Corrupted’s power. But unlike Joshua or other knights, he wasn’t just enhanced by chaos.’
Dipus was originally a strong warrior. Unlike Joshua, his origins were different, so even if he had gone through the same process, he could have become a whole different level of powerful.
But the chaotic energy Jin sensed from Dipus now was comparable to the level Rosa had when Jin first met her in Inse.
Therefore, if Dipus suffered a wound he couldn’t easily recover from, it would be no different from Rosa herself being struck.
Jin switched his sword to Bradamante.
[Bradamante? What are you trying to do with spirit energy now? Why not just draw the Pluto Reign Sword? Oh, that would kill too many humans on the surface, so you didn’t choose it.]
Dipus grinned and spread his palm toward the ground.
As chaotic energy condensed in his hand, the air warped.
[Still, it was somewhat fun, Twelfth Rider. Before I go, I’ll give you a gift. Take it well. If you want revenge, come find me anytime. I’ll be waiting gladly…]
Just as Dipus was about to unleash the chaotic energy toward the surface, Jin surged forward.
Dipus had expected Jin to throw himself at the ground, not at him.
The moment the chaotic energy left his hand, tens of thousands of humans on the surface would vanish in an instant.
He was ready to sneer—was Jin so blinded by rage that he’d recklessly swing his sword at him, indifferent to innocent lives?
But as Jin closed in, Dipus had no choice but to hastily retract the chaotic energy he’d aimed at the ground.
‘So you chose Bradamante not to use spirit energy…!’
It was an instinctive realization. The faint flame that first wrapped around Bradamante was a clear warning—it was dangerous.
The Eternal Flame.
Jin had been carefully preserving this secret technique for just this moment.
He had hoped that the Eternal Flame would possess the power to deal a fundamental blow to both the Fiend and Dipus.
Dipus hurriedly shifted his spirit energy into the great sword Volgar to block Bradamante, but the blade, already soaked in the Eternal Flame, slashed diagonally across his left wing, piercing deep into his chest.
“Recovery…!”
The wound burned by the Eternal Flame refused to heal.
The lingering flames at the injury site were actively preventing regeneration.
Though Dipus originally intended to re-deploy his spirit energy to the surface even if his body was torn, Jin’s relentless assault forced him to retreat immediately through the dimensional gate.