Chapter 746
Episode 184: Beyond Destiny (18)
Jin’s appearance was changing.
A tail shimmering with thunder energy sprouted, his hair lengthened to drape over his shoulders, and his eyes now held the profound depth of a sovereign who had ruled over mortal life for countless ages.
He was becoming the embodiment of the War God—Ban himself.
This was the result of Jin’s consciousness sinking completely into Ban’s subconscious.
Lingling’s gaze never left the pool inside Ban’s inner world where Jin had vanished.
“Ban! No matter how I think about it, this isn’t right. At this rate, that fool’s consciousness will disappear completely before long. We have to end this as fast as possible!”
Ban nodded heavily.
Though he had trusted Jin’s decision, inheriting the Sovereign’s Reign Sword was undeniably a dangerous choice.
So, just as Lingling said, they had to give it their all and finish off the Fiend in one swift strike.
A roar announcing that one person had become the King of Light.
A will to annihilate the enemy.
A sword transcending the limits of mortals.
In other words, a blade capable of slaying gods.
At its peak, thunder energy turns into a pure, dazzling white light.
The thunder energy that had stained the earth now bleached to a brilliant white and began to whirl.
Swirling around Ban, the sea of thunder energy brimmed with sacred power, absorbing ‘order’ itself.
Sounds were the first to vanish into this sea of thunder energy.
The deafening roar born from the fusion of the Fiend and Ram, the grotesque grinding of black, massive flesh and machinery, the Fiend’s screams torn from its soul by agony, the gasps, shock, and sighs of those watching—all were swallowed.
All sounds were trapped within the sea of thunder energy surrounding Ban.
Though Ban, the Fiend, hundreds of fleets, and countless people were all moving, only the War God could make or hear any sound within this realm.
Next, vision disappeared.
The thunder energy burned so fiercely it seemed to scorch the retinas of everyone inside, forcing their eyes shut.
Even with eyes closed or open, all they could see was an overwhelming, suffocating white.
Within that white, a faint afterimage of Ban lingered.
No matter where they stood or which way they faced, everyone saw the same scene.
Every single person saw the blurry back of Ban.
A back that inspired faith—faith that it would protect them from anything.
Meanwhile, the Fiend saw Ban’s face.
A face so terrifying that just meeting its gaze felt like the very fabric of one’s life would be torn apart.
Those sharp eyes clawed at the Fiend’s soul.
With no sound, it couldn’t even scream.
The Fiend’s mouth gaped like a fish gasping for air.
The last thing to vanish was time itself.
Everything trapped in the thunder energy came to a halt.
Even Quikantel and Enyajo, blessed by Olta among their allies, could not escape this absolute interference.
“Olta is… afraid…!”
They could even feel Olta gripped by terror.
The god of time was powerless against this miraculous phenomenon born from a mortal’s sword.
Ban walked calmly through the frozen world.
Within the white, only Sigmund’s pale blade glowed faintly like a ghost.
And whenever Sigmund moved, the sea of thunder energy surged in response.
When the sword pointed upward, the sea’s sharp depths stretched out with it; when the sword pointed downward, the once-rising thunder energy sank in unison.
It looked like a giant whale breaching the surface.
With each strike of the sword following the whale’s leap, Ram was torn apart piece by piece.
Or vanished.
The spiritual energy forming Ram evaporated like water washed away by thunder energy.
It was disappearing without any chance of returning to Ram or the Fiend.
A silent slaughter.
Those watching could only think of such a strange phrase.
The Fiend, which had once stained the world with despair, was being extinguished in eerie silence.
Ban simply danced his sword with a calm expression.
Between the endlessly graceful arcs left by Sigmund, the Fiend’s despair piled up.
“Am I… Rosa Runkandel… such a worthless being…?”
Uncontrollable defeat welled up inside the Fiend.
Nothing.
There was nothing it could do.
Even as Sigmund’s blade cut through both body and soul, the fusion with Ram was nearly complete.
It had gained a stronger divine status without losing its identity as Rosa Runkandel.
But what good was that?
No matter how many times it fused with Ram, it could never defeat that monster.
Unless it became a perfect deity—the highest god above all—there was no hope of overcoming Ban.
It was maddening.
It was unbearable.
To admit it was wrong, that the power gained after sacrificing so much couldn’t change this outcome, that it all had to end like this.
It wasn’t that it couldn’t accept the existence of a force greater than itself.
From the start, it had known something more vast could exist.
What the Fiend truly couldn’t accept was that this wasn’t a fight between itself and its youngest.
The one it had sworn to oppose with all its life wasn’t the leader of a great race lost fifty thousand years ago—it was its own youngest son.
The War God was ruining that fight.
Whether defeat or victory, the final battle had to be between the Fiend and its youngest.
If it was just lending power, that would be understandable.
After all, it had accepted the power of chaos itself.
But fighting a monster that no longer had even a trace of its youngest was horrifying.
Because it hadn’t completely abandoned its identity as Rosa Runkandel.
Just as the Fiend reached this realization—
Ban’s Sovereign’s Reign Sword was halfway through its strike.
Ram looked like an archipelago formed by a continent splitting apart.
A ten-ri-long hull was completely shattered.
Like the death of a massive sea creature scattering its remains like ocean eyes, Ram and the Fiend’s bodies were thoroughly fragmented and scattered into particles.
The Fiend caught sight of a single, salvation-like ‘line.’
“What is that line…?”
Behind Ban, a red line appeared.
It hadn’t been visible before, but the red line connected naturally to Ban’s body as if it had been there all along.
Suddenly, a realization stabbed the Fiend’s heart.
“The same connection point the youngest cut when facing Runtia!”
The line that fused Jin and Ban.
It could only be that.
“Why didn’t I think of this before? If I cut that line… the War God won’t be able to stay attached to the youngest anymore! The War God was summoned precisely because of that line acting as a link…!”
From the chest that had vanished without form, the heart pounded wildly.
Hope had appeared.
That hope Jin had always found with a flash in his eyes at desperate moments—the thrilling feeling when reaching out to grasp it.
Now, the Fiend felt it keenly.
Drowning in despair, the Fiend opened the eyes of its soul.
If only it could sever that line, if only it could cut it, it could fight the youngest again.
Its determination blazed.
Then, the shattered fragments of Ram began to move slightly, defying the frozen time.
Though barely perceptible, the fragments stirred.
Ban regarded this indifferently.
Given the Fiend’s power, such a desperate struggle was expected, and Ban had already discerned the Fiend’s plan.
[They intend to sever the link connecting me and Jin…]
With a hint of disdain, Ban made no effort to hide that he had read the Fiend’s strategy.
The Fiend couldn’t hear Ban’s voice.
Even if sound vanished, Ban’s voice echoed clearly within everyone’s mind.
Still, the Fiend couldn’t hear it because it was consumed entirely by a single obsession.
The determination to cut the red line.
That obsession soon took shape.
Suddenly, a sword formed in the air ten steps ahead of Ban.
It was Gwangran, the beloved sword of Rosa Runkandel’s human days.
After Gwangran appeared, a hand to grasp it formed, then a torso to swing the arm, eyes to see ahead, and a head with horns of chaos.
The Fiend’s body, now resembling a human once more, struggled to walk through the air.
It staggered forward, sword pointed at Ban.
[Do you think you can?]
Ban erased that form with a single strike.
As Sigmund’s thunder energy surged, sweeping over Rosa, no trace remained in the air.
The Fiend kept forming its body, and Ban ended it with each blow.
The Fiend had already formed its body dozens of times, yet Ban’s distance never closed by even a single step.
If anything, each time the body vanished, the gap only widened.
Even if hope existed, not everyone could seize it on their own.
The Fiend’s body disappearing meant Ram’s fragments were being consumed.
If this continued a little longer, not a shred of the Fiend’s spiritual energy would remain on this land.
Ban sharpened his focus.
He had no intention of showing any mercy until the very end.
But when Sigmund’s blade had cut the Fiend’s body about a hundred times—
From the deepest part of Ban’s inner world, a scream echoed.
Lingling.
And Jin’s scream.
The hour Kwal had predicted hadn’t even reached halfway.
“Kaaah…! Ban, stop! This is really the limit! You have to end the War God fusion immediately if you want to save Jin!”
The pool of the inner world, now emptied of Jin, was seething.
Even Lingling was trapped inside, slowly being consumed.
Lingling was certain that only by stopping now could Jin’s consciousness be saved in this final moment.
At last, Ban halted the sword that had been cutting down the fiend.
The fiend, battered and broken, lunged toward Ban.
“Lucky you, fiend.”
Ban didn’t dodge the sword that came within inches of his face.
He let it slice through the crimson line, quietly thinking to himself,
“I guess I’ll have to leave what comes next to Brother Jin… and that friend of his.”
Through the glimpse he caught inside Jin’s mind the moment their spirits first merged,
Ban realized he wasn’t the first—or the last—piece in this game.
“Take care of Brother Jin, Murakan the Black Dragon.”
With a furious strike, the madness cut through the crimson line.