Episode 720
Chapter 180: Each One’s Battle (10)

As Jin stepped onto Mote, the white dimensional gate snapped shut behind him. Black chaotic energy spread like mold across the snowy otherworldly landscape.

“If we kill your brother… the power returns to the Wretched God?”

“Exactly. More precisely, the curse only activates if a brother kills him.”

“Then the Prophet wouldn’t have any reason to summon Dipus now. Could it be that he’s unaware of our battle situation?”

“That’s uncertain, but it’s almost certain something’s gone wrong with the Prophet’s plan. He remained composed even while facing our combined forces, but suddenly he lost his temper and tried to summon the Four Horsemen. I came here specifically to tell you about them.”

While the two spoke, Mote had already opened a new dimensional gate leading inside Ricalton Castle.

[Boohok, boo!]

The group quickly passed through the gate, hearing Ilina’s furious voice echoing.

“Are you insane!? Cutting off the connection with the clan head all of a sudden! Don’t you realize that puts him in danger—!?”

Ilina abruptly stopped herself, covering her mouth as she caught sight of the white dimensional gate open behind them.

‘Dipus severed the link with the clan head… Could it be he betrayed the Wretched God? I summoned him in a hurry, but this is a disaster…!’

She hadn’t anticipated that Valeria could track them, so seeing Jin and his group suddenly appear inside the castle, close enough to hear her voice, left her stunned.

‘Because my brother cut the connection, the Wretched God is in danger?’

As soon as they arrived at Ricalton Castle, Jin received unexpected information.

Noticing Ilina’s panicked gaze, Jin immediately shot a blade of energy into her chest.

Ilina’s body was pierced, but she quickly raised a protective barrier.

“You just had to mess things up again, didn’t you? Instead of summoning me, couldn’t you have thought to stop those fools from entering the wilderness?”

If she had, Jin would have ended up slashing Dipus, triggering the curse.

Ilina’s shield was ruthlessly torn apart by Jin’s blade.

She tried to lift Dipus with her spirit energy and flee, but she wasn’t faster than Jin.

“Ahh!”

Thud!

Bradamante stabbed Ilina in the back just as she turned around. When the aura on the blade exploded, Ilina’s body shattered in all directions.

But the flesh was just a shell—the true form was spirit energy.

The scattered fragments soon turned into black smoke, spreading throughout the castle.

In fact, it wasn’t just Ilina’s body—Ricalton Castle itself was made of the Prophet’s chaos spirit energy.

Long before Runcandel was tainted by chaos, the Prophet had been accumulating spirit energy here.

Now, the region called Ricalton was practically the Prophet itself.

“Damn it… I didn’t expect it to come to this. Fine, I admit my mistake. But maybe it’s for the best.”

“Ahhh!”

“Please, spare me…!”

As the entire castle dissolved into smoke, the prisoners trapped inside the inner fortress became visible.

Unlike the captives on the plains, they weren’t sealed within the Giant Beast fruits.

Those fruits had just been returned to the Prophet as well.

Similarly, the Giant Beasts on the plains were dispersing into spirit energy and converging toward Jin’s group.

[A bunch of bugs who get cocky relying on their mother’s power—I was sick of playing along with them.]

A black storm.

The massive spirit energy spreading in place of Ricalton Castle was the perfect embodiment of the Prophet’s true form.

Dipus vanished somewhere within that storm of spirit energy.

Surveying the situation, Jin quickly made a decision.

“Valeria, you and Siris escape immediately and join our allies. I’ll take on the Prophet alone.”

“If you’re going to fight alone again, then why did you bring our allies and temporary allies here?”

Siris asked.

“I’m not telling you two or the others to just leave. I’ll handle the fighting. The rest of you focus on rescuing the prisoners.”

Siris frowned with concern. She couldn’t gauge the Prophet’s true power. She’d never seen an enemy like this before—the Prophet wasn’t a living being but more like a natural disaster, a calamity.

Yet, on the other hand, she felt there was no disaster in this world that could physically kill Jin.

“Understood. We’ll withdraw and focus on rescuing the prisoners and protecting our allies. Some may have gotten lost in the sudden chaos.”

Especially since Valeria and Siris possessed record magic and teleportation, they would also relay real-time updates.

After they left, Jin looked up at the sky, which was filled entirely with the Prophet’s spirit energy.

“Is your transformation complete? So you’re the one who’s been pulling the strings behind Runcandel all this time. Your true form is quite convincing. People who don’t know better might mistake you for the witch Helluram.”

Sssshhh!

The black smoke slithered like a serpent, wrapping around Jin. He deliberately didn’t dodge, gauging its strength before bursting his energy to scatter the spirit energy.

[If I were your mother, you wouldn’t even dare meet my gaze. Not to mention the Four Horsemen and that damn Wretched God woman.]

Once he got a feel for it, Jin sensed the Prophet continuously releasing threads of chaos nearby, likely to deal with the temporary allies and prisoners.

Of course, Jin had no intention of letting that happen.

“Is that so? Well, just so you know, this fight is one-on-one, Prophet. Stop bothering innocent people. It seems calling the Wretched God is off the table now.”

[What if I refuse?]

“I’ll help you myself.”

The moment Jin answered with a grim expression, the Prophet suddenly felt its senses dull across all of Ricalton.

It was a sign.

Spirit Sword Ultimate Technique, First Form: The First Night

As Jin unleashed the First Night, the entire land of Ricalton began to tremble—not from destruction, but because the Prophet’s form twisted in unease.

Jin recalled his final battle with Lingling in Laprarosa.

Back then, inside Lingling’s pocket dimension, he had overwhelmed him with this very sword.

There was no reason the Prophet would be any different.

‘A parasite that feeds on human despair like a monster couldn’t possibly have the willpower to withstand this.’

Jin slowly circled the Prophet’s form.

Since it was just a black storm, there was no way to pinpoint a weak spot—like trying to find a flaw in the fog.

But on the flip side, that meant the entire black storm was a valid target.

It wasn’t an opponent so formidable that he had to find a weakness.

Swish, slash!

The sword, infused with spirit energy, tore through the Prophet’s form, slashing the storm of darkness.

“How’s that? Feeling like focusing on me now?”

[You…!]

Though partially consumed by the First Night’s spirit energy, the Prophet still moved its massive form with surprising agility.

But as Jin said, it could no longer interfere with the allies or prisoners.

It had no choice but to focus all its power on Jin. Thanks to that, the allies were smoothly rescuing the prisoners.

Jin spoke calmly, but inside, he was on the verge of madness fueled by deep hatred.

How was he supposed to accept that his family had been corrupted by such a creature, and that the corrupted family was destroying the world?

The monstrous Dipus, the countless people brutally slaughtered here today—

All of it ignited a furious roar from Jin, so loud it shook the entire battlefield, though he couldn’t even hear his own voice.

A blue flame flickered atop Bradamante.

As the eternal flame—an unquenchable fire—mixed with the black storm, the Prophet screamed incessantly.

[Kaaak! Kuaak!]

“Shut up. Compared to what you’ve done, this isn’t even a price to pay.”

Thanks to Jin binding the Prophet with his Spirit Sword Ultimate, the allies had already rescued nearly 70% of the prisoners.

The Prophet had originally planned to use those prisoners as sacrifices to fight Jin, but being consumed so quickly by the First Night was a problem.

Even if it had used the prisoners, the Prophet would have barely escaped.

Now, the Prophet had no choice but to admit this.

“Now I see. You were Ricalton itself. Today, this land will vanish completely from the world.”

Jin stabbed his sword like a demon into the Prophet’s wavering form.

He crushed the chaotic fragments in his grasp and stomped and tore apart the larger pieces.

If he saw any part trying to regenerate without the eternal flame, he burned it even more mercilessly.

If a wild beast tore through fog, it would look just like this.

Even the allies shivered at the sight of Jin’s fierce aura.

Revenge.

Jin wasn’t fighting—he was exacting one-sided vengeance.

The Prophet occasionally tried meaningless counterattacks but never once threatened Jin.

There was only one reason the Prophet hadn’t been destroyed yet.

Jin had no intention of finishing it off until the prisoners were safe.

And the Prophet clung to one last hope.

‘If the Wretched God comes now, even the Twelve Horsemen will have to retreat… Somehow, I have to make him kill Dipus.’

But Jin saw right through that and sneered.

“The curse is still active, huh? You don’t really have a face, but I can almost see your expression. That’s probably the only thing left for you to hope for.”

Even as Jin was frantically slaughtering the prophets, she kept checking Dipus’s location.

Dipus’s fading energy was so faint that even Jin had trouble detecting it. He was barely clinging to life.

He had flown toward the outer fortress the moment Jin unleashed her first night attack and crashed into the ground there.

That area had long since been cleared of prisoners, and the terrain had collapsed severely, so their allies weren’t searching there.

It was also where Mary had been knocked back after withstanding Jin’s assault from inside the inner fortress, just as Ziphl’s bombardment began.

In other words, Mary was now the closest person to Dipus.

“Hah… hah…”

She had just regained consciousness and was staggering forward.

From somewhere beneath the darkened mound of earth came a painfully familiar groan.

Soon, Mary’s blurred vision caught the shape of a person collapsed, broken and battered all over.

She couldn’t see clearly—whether it was Dipus or someone else lying there, it all looked hazy to her.

Still, Mary was certain. Even that blurry figure felt unbearably familiar.

“Dipus… oppa…”

Dipus didn’t answer, only wheezing shallow breaths.

Mary called his name a few more times before collapsing to her knees.

“I’m always the one who causes trouble… but this… this isn’t right. Not this time.”

For a long while, she bowed her head, laughing and sobbing, clutching him tightly. She rubbed his cheek, brushed his hair back.

Then, after a moment’s pause, she drew a dagger from her cloak.

Her beloved sword, Doksa, had already been shattered inside the inner fortress.

The blade trembled as she pressed it against Dipus’s neck.

“Let’s end this… oppa.”

Hesitating several times, Mary steeled herself and brought the dagger down.

She felt it clearly—the sharp sting of the blade piercing flesh and bone.

But then she realized the dagger hadn’t struck his neck—it had pierced his palm instead. Dipus had raised his hand to block it.

He felt his own blood and his sister’s tears fall onto his face as he spoke.

“Mary… if you kill me, the curse will be complete…”

“What…?”

“I’m going to die anyway… so just… wait a little longer… for the youngest.”

Bang! Boom!

Signal flares erupted across the battlefield, announcing that the prisoner rescue was complete.