Episode 745
Chapter 184: Beyond Destiny (17)
Crack, creak, krkkrk…!
The lower half of Ram began to crush the Fortress of the Tyrant.
Ban’s left hand, gripping Ram, trembled with immense power.
“KAAAH!”
With a fierce shout, Ban slammed his left hand down hard. At last, Ram crushed the Fortress of the Tyrant beneath him, sprawling across the ground.
The massive bulk and weight of Ram caused the entire fortress to collapse. The Tyrant, trapped within the Mind of the Sovereign’s Sword, silently watched the scene unfold.
Shock and disbelief overwhelmed him.
The Tyrant glanced back and forth between the fallen Ram and Ban, utterly unable to comprehend what he was witnessing.
Ram was shattered beyond recognition. The main cannon at his core was completely twisted and deformed, and though the upper half was out of sight, it was surely cracked and parched like a drought-stricken land.
All of this had happened mere minutes after the Divine Fusion had begun.
Even Ban, along with those who had directly experienced the ‘Creation of the Stars,’ found their understanding utterly surpassed.
“How on earth did the ancient gods manage to defeat that monster?”
The Tyrant had long accepted that he was inherently inferior to the highest gods.
That was why he had deliberately avoided attaining perfect divinity.
Had he truly become a god, he wouldn’t be the head of the Runkandel family—he would have become a singular cosmic order, destruction itself.
Still, even with his incomplete divinity, he had been confident that no mortal could ever threaten him. That was, until he met Ban.
“Back then, even his own kind must have been with him. Was it a mistake not to seek true divinity from the start?”
The Tyrant grew restless.
Just as when he had decided to trust the Prophet’s hand, he now felt trapped, surrounded by walls closing in from every direction.
The Mind of the Sovereign’s Sword was consuming both Ram and the Tyrant’s body. The Tyrant carefully observed that the Mind was not growing any larger.
“…Is it because if it grows stronger, it might sweep away even my allies?”
The reason the Mind didn’t intensify beyond a certain point was clear: if it did, it could engulf even the temporary alliance.
If so, he could try to use that as leverage for a hostage situation—but even that seemed impossible.
The monster before him wouldn’t be fooled by such tricks.
“That won’t work. I need to find another way.”
He still had some power left. But even if he unleashed it all, he couldn’t envision a way to defeat Ban.
Should he try to attain full divinity now?
Losing the power he had shared with Dipus was a painful blow.
If that power had remained, he wouldn’t be pushed back like this.
“Though the Jin brothers said you are both their mother and their enemy, you are still someone they entrusted the family to for a time. And yet you betrayed their trust just to gain such meager power?”
“Meager? You dare speak arrogantly when your clan was destroyed half a millennium ago, and you’re barely parasitizing your youngest sibling? Do you think it’s all over already?”
The Tyrant’s body, bound by the Mind, began to dissipate into smoke.
“I admit I cannot defeat you. But summoning you, youngest, was a form of divine possession. If my guess is right, it won’t last much longer…”
Duration—that was the sole weakness of the Divine Fusion.
“I have to hold out until that time ends. Even if it means pushing myself too far, I must raise my divinity.”
To raise his divinity, to become closer to a true god.
Though transcending into a perfect god was impossible now that he had lost Dipus, he could still strengthen his divinity by using Ram.
It was a gamble even for the Tyrant. If he wasn’t careful, his ego could be erased, leaving behind only a malformed being driven by destruction.
In that state, even if he won this battle, there would be nothing left.
No family to protect, no land to rule, no meaning to the power he had paid so dearly for.
But he had no choice.
The Tyrant, who had long limited the options of Jin and the temporary alliance, now found himself forced into a corner.
Of course, Ban saw right through the Tyrant’s thoughts.
“Awakening? That’s something only humans do.”
The Mind of the Sovereign’s Sword grew even more ferocious.
The Tyrant’s smoky form rapidly evaporated.
Yet the smoke continued to drift relentlessly toward Ram.
Black spots began to appear one by one on Ram’s hull, which was bathed entirely in blue.
Each time a spot appeared, Ban struck it with lightning—but the spots formed faster than he could strike them down.
Those spots symbolized the fusion between the Tyrant and Ram.
Just as Jin had performed Divine Fusion, the Tyrant was becoming one with Ram.
“Becoming one with something to amplify your power isn’t a blessing reserved only for you, youngest.”
Though the Tyrant could never surpass Ban, he was still the Tyrant.
He had reserves. While fusing with Ram, he used the leftover spiritual energy to constantly target the allied fleet.
Even with the Sovereign’s Sword, the Brother Guardians, and protective shields, the spiritual contamination caused by the invading energy couldn’t be completely blocked.
One by one, those infected began to appear.
Even Orgal was starting to turn black all over from protecting so many.
“Don’t worry about us—just fight!”
The allies couldn’t bring themselves to shout that.
With the spiritual energy already overwhelming them, if the Mind grew any stronger, the entire allied formation could collapse.
That was also why the Tyrant could recklessly decide to fuse.
“Choosing to fuse with the witch’s ship only means that what I must destroy has become one instead of two.”
But Ban amplified his power without hesitation.
He knew better than anyone that his allies could be swept away—but he raised his strength for one reason.
Because he was there.
He was confident that even if the Sovereign’s Sword unleashed its next form, no ally would die. He was certain he could make it so.
Sovereign Sword Divine Technique, Tenth Form: Sovereign’s Binding (結)
The Blue Sea.
As the final form of the Sovereign’s Sword began, suddenly a vast blue sea spread across the ground.
Not just a metaphor—the Mind rippled like gentle waves.
The protective shields stretched out in all directions, the invading spiritual energy, and the people standing beneath it all remained unharmed, submerged up to their ankles in the Mind’s ocean.
The Mind rippled like water, without a trace of the Sovereign Sword’s usual destructive aura.
But everyone could sense it.
They could feel the immense power contained within that seemingly harmless Mind—power so vast it could evaporate even the endless ocean itself.
Ban stood tall in the middle of the Mind’s waves, motionless.
The spiritual energy clinging to Ram’s hull was gently drawn into the waves.
No matter how much spiritual energy it absorbed, the Divine Warrior’s ocean never grew murky. Instead, it shone clearer and clearer.
If you looked down, you could see your own reflection.
People were captivated by that light, their gazes fixed on the Mind’s sea without realizing it.
The contrast between the ground and the sky was striking.
Ram, low in the air, was so dark it seemed to swallow all the light in the world.
The Mind’s ocean covering the ground shone with such brilliance that it made one momentarily forget this was a battlefield where humanity’s fate hung in the balance.
The fusion and the Sovereign’s Binding were nearly complete at the same time.
The Tyrant was reaching the final stage of fusion.
His Runkandel self—the part he had fought to protect without becoming a perfect god—was trembling, on the verge of vanishing entirely.
Meanwhile, Ban was confident of victory.
Yet from the moment he unleashed the Binding, he noticed something strange: Jin’s voice inside him had disappeared.
“Jin brother.”
No answer came. He called several times, but Jin didn’t respond.
“Ban! Jin is disappearing…!”
Instead, he heard Lingling’s voice.
But even that voice sounded distant and faint.
Ban instinctively knew something was wrong.
Lingling’s voice was faint because she was barely holding onto Jin’s consciousness, which had been pushed deep into Ban’s mind.
Lingling was using all her strength to prevent Jin’s self from vanishing completely.
Divine Fusion was originally a martial art that borrowed the power of the Divine Warrior.
But now Jin had gone beyond that—he had effectively summoned the Divine Warrior through his own body.
Synchronization.
From the moment Divine Fusion began until now, the synchronization rate had been rising for no apparent reason.
At its peak, Ban had unintentionally taken over Jin’s body—and worse, Jin’s consciousness was being consumed.
That realization spun Ban’s mind into chaos.
If he continued the Binding, he could surely annihilate the Tyrant—but Jin would disappear along with him.
“You can’t use any more power, Ban! This idiot won’t hold on! No, he’s already breaking—I’m just holding him together!”
Ban closed his eyes.
Was stopping now the right choice?
Would Jin brothers want that?
Like a storm, Ban’s inner turmoil caused the Mind’s ocean to ripple with unstable currents.
Then Ban made his decision.
“Lingling, focus your mind and read Jin brother’s will.”
“What!?”
“I want you to confirm what Jin brother desires. What is he trying to say?”
“How can I read that when he’s being pulled into Ban’s unconsciousness like this…!”
“You can do it. You’re holding onto Jin brother. Hurry!”
Lingling held onto Jin, following Ban’s words. As the grip on Jin’s mouth and hand began to loosen, she truly felt it.
A faint, almost imperceptible sense of Jin’s will reaching deep within her. Even though over ninety percent of his self was buried beneath, his resolve came through clearly.
“Keep going… keep going? Hey, you’re gonna die if you do that! You’ll vanish without a trace!”
The moment Ban heard that, he tightened his grip on the sword.
Then, glaring at Ram—now fused with the malevolent spirit—he said firmly,
“If Brother Jin says so, it means he can endure it. No matter how painful it gets, I won’t let myself be forced into killing him. I will follow Brother Jin’s will.”