Chapter 740
Episode 184: Beyond Fate (12)
The group immediately drew their swords in all directions.
But the sinister spirit was nowhere to be seen. Only its gloomy voice echoed through the vast darkness.
[What did it say to you? That petty, drawn-out curse was clearly fueled by its grudge against me—I heard every word—but nothing else came through.]
Jin stared silently into the empty air.
“Monsters don’t need to know what people say to each other.”
[People’s words, huh? So you actually considered that impurity, separated from me, as human?]
“At least it felt a lot closer to human than you ever did.”
[Heh. I don’t know what you two talked about, but it seems that last trace of my humanity—the impurity—shook your heart. I saw you become aware of that corpse the moment you heard my voice…]
“Don’t jump to conclusions. Enough talk—show yourself…”
Screeeech!
Just as Jin finished speaking, the young Rosa’s corpse suddenly tore apart, flesh and bone fragments flying everywhere.
The spiritual energy that had been trapped in the body swelled rapidly.
As the sinister spirit had said, Jin had felt a strange emotion during his brief encounter with young Rosa.
He wondered what might have been if she had kept that pure, strong heart and become his mother—if she hadn’t become a fiend. What if…?
Perhaps that was why.
Jin was visibly shaken by the sight of young Rosa’s body being shredded beyond recognition.
Though he showed no outward sign, the sinister spirit could not be fooled.
[Oh dear, quite a sight, isn’t it? If you had accepted the gift I tried to give you last time, you wouldn’t have had to feel such useless emotions…]
It was a reference to the earlier skirmish between Jin and Rosa in the Netherworld.
Young Rosa’s corpse was torn apart completely, but the proliferating spiritual energy devoured the scattered remains like a ravenous beast.
Then, the energy began to take shape.
In an instant, a massive, dark form emerged.
It resembled a quadrupedal beast.
Its eyes glowed a fiery red, ominous and fierce. Its claws and fangs were larger than a human torso, and its dark fur seemed to absorb all light around it. It looked remarkably like a wild predator from the mortal realm.
A black panther.
The name that symbolized Rosa in her human days.
The creature exhaled ragged breaths as it loomed over the group.
Jin met the black panther’s gaze, a smirk playing on his lips.
“You’ve abandoned your last shred of humanity. Is it time to discard the name you once bore? You cling strangely to your human past. Maybe you regret what you’ve become—a fiend—and unconsciously keep pulling these pathetic stunts.”
[If there’s one thing I regret, it’s empowering Joshua instead of you. Had I recognized you as the true one from the start…]
The sinister spirit’s voice trailed off into a bizarre laugh.
After about ten seconds, its voice faded completely. Instead, the black panther took a few heavy steps, casting a shadow over them.
[Growl…]
The beast fixed its gaze on the group and slowly circled them.
Despite its massive, heavier-than-a-dragon body moving, no footsteps could be heard.
The situation was grim. Most of the group was severely injured from the fierce battle with the previous generation’s commanders.
Only Jin and Bianca were capable of fighting at or near their usual strength.
Octavia, in particular, was completely unable to fight.
If the battle began, the group would have to protect her and the unconscious, mysterious former commander alongside her.
They briefly considered their options, but Jin had already made up his mind.
“Bianca, protect the others.”
“I’m supposed to fight alone?”
“Yes.”
“But… we don’t know how strong that thing is. It could be dangerous.”
“If I’m in trouble, I’ll call for help.”
“Okay… got it.”
Bianca wanted to urge him to reconsider, but seeing the fierce determination in Jin’s eyes, she held back.
Even she felt a chill run down her spine at the intensity radiating from him.
His anger toward the sinister spirit and the frustration of having to fight under such unfavorable conditions to protect the commanders all exploded at once.
“I’ll crush it.”
The moment Jin spoke quietly, the black panther launched its attack.
Its massive paw distorted the space as it slammed down above Jin’s head.
Jin didn’t dodge. He took the blow head-on.
The shockwave rippled outward, creating a huge semicircular crater in the ground.
But the paw hadn’t struck Jin—it had hit the ground.
Just before the paw landed, Jin sidestepped with a swift footwork technique and swung his sword.
The slash left a long, perfectly straight cut across the black panther’s raised paw, as if slicing through the very fabric of space.
When the afterimage faded, a heavy chunk fell from the beast and rolled on the ground.
Thud!
It was the black panther’s right front paw—the very one it had just swung at Jin.
[Krgh!]
The severed paw melted like water, forming a sticky pool of spiritual energy.
Normally, the severed limb would have regenerated instantly, but the Bradamante was already tainted with faint eternal energy.
The black panther’s wound tried to heal continuously, but the eternal energy stuck to it, slowing the process.
[Grrooo… Khaak!]
The beast swung its remaining left paw, pushing Jin back.
But Jin sliced it down in a single strike, eyes blazing.
Another heavy thud sounded as the black panther’s paw hit the ground.
With both front paws gone, the beast struggled to maintain balance.
In just two exchanges, Jin’s overwhelming advantage in close combat was clear.
Neither the black panther nor Jin’s allies had expected this.
Of course, the allies had assumed Jin would have the upper hand, but not to this extent.
‘The sinister spirit didn’t create this beast just to desecrate young Rosa’s corpse. There must be something threatening about it.’
Jin’s gaze fell on the severed paws lying on the ground.
The sticky, black spiritual energy pools bubbled like a potent acid.
‘Is the floor breaking apart?’
Since descending into the Netherworld, Jin and his group had learned a few things about this place.
First, as Alpen said, once you go down, you can’t come back up.
Second, the internal structure constantly shifts.
Third, the spiritual energy forming the pocket dimension is nearly impossible to destroy completely, like a normal building.
If it were possible, they could have just destroyed everything on their way down instead of fighting the guardians on each floor.
But the pools left by the melting black panther’s limbs were different.
They were dissolving the spiritual energy walls that even Jin’s spirit sword couldn’t pierce—like sugar melting away.
Jin paused his attack to study the pools.
The black panther regenerated its paws during the pause, but they were far from perfect.
The wounds looked grotesque, as if only the bones remained, and cracks burned with eternal energy.
Crack, creak!
The beast howled in pain with every swing of its paws.
Jin deliberately dodged the attacks.
He didn’t want to recklessly strike before understanding the pools’ effects.
The problem was that the eternal energy had already cracked the beast’s regenerating limbs.
Even when the black panther missed, the cracks widened, sending flesh and bone fragments flying.
All of them melted the ground like the first severed paw.
Dozens of large holes had already formed near Jin and the beast.
Inside, an endless abyss stretched downward, just like the lower levels they had seen before.
Like burning paper, the holes kept expanding.
Only seconds had passed, but the chasms had already spread to the area near their allies, who had fallen back.
The nature of the holes was unknown—whether they led deeper into the Netherworld or were deadly traps.
One thing was certain: falling into them would be exactly what the sinister spirit wanted.
Jin considered stopping the fight and leading his allies to safer ground, but a chasm now separated them, impossible to cross by jumping.
‘When did this happen?!’
With every passing second, the eternal energy clinging to the black panther grew larger.
It no longer looked like a panther but a mass of flesh engulfed in blue flames.
Every movement scattered burning flesh fragments, rapidly melting the space between Jin and his allies.
‘The black panther wasn’t made for battle in the first place. The sinister spirit must have expected me to use eternal energy right away and prepared this trap…!’
In other words, this was a warning and a countermeasure against Jin’s eternal energy.
A warning that if he kept fighting the sinister spirit and its forces using eternal energy, the situation would only become more dangerous—that he would fall.
Jin summoned freezing magic to create a path and dashed toward his allies.
At this rate, the floor would collapse completely, and there would be no way to avoid falling.
So it was better to stay close to their allies.
“Grab hold!”
Jin barely caught the hand Hedo reached out as they crossed the last icy path.
But by then, more than ninety percent of the ground beneath them had already melted away. Even the black panther chasing Jin had fallen out of sight below.
In the end, the group had no choice but to cling tightly to one another and brace for the fall.
[When we fall, don’t let go of each other’s hands, no matter what. If this leads to the lower level, even a momentary slip could separate us.]
As their comrades nodded at Alpen’s warning, the final patch of ground gave way, and they began to plummet.
Thud…!
Unlike before, the fall ended almost instantly.
The moment they hit the ground, the group exhaled in relief, confirming that everyone was still holding hands.
But as they looked around, it quickly became clear there was no reason to relax.
[…How many of them are there?]
Black panthers swarmed in every direction—hundreds, by the looks of it.
Among them was the panther that had fallen with them.
And it was thrashing wildly in agony, spreading the Eternal Blight clinging to it onto the other panthers—like a contagious disease.
The group instinctively imagined what would come next.
From now on, all those black panthers would be consumed by the Eternal Blight, melting the ground beneath them.
If they couldn’t stop it, there was only one thing waiting for them.
An endless fall.