Chapter 747
Episode 184: Beyond Fate (19)
Whoooooosh…!
As if it were a lie, the vast sea of spiritual energy that had blanketed the ground vanished all at once. Only the protective aura that had enveloped Jin remained, lingering over the spot where he had just collapsed.
‘…So it really was the synchronization rate being too high that caused the problem.’
Jin stood up, checking his body.
It felt as if a mountain pressed down on his shoulders—his body heavy and sluggish.
He had used a power several times greater than what he normally possessed in such a short time, so some damage was inevitable.
‘Not enough to keep me from fighting. Besides, the fiend’s damage is far worse than mine.’
He lifted his head and saw Ram’s shattered form, broken beyond recognition.
Before him lay the fiend’s body.
Its horns were snapped and twisted, its flesh melting away—signs of the brutal battle that had pushed the red lines to their limits.
Before Jin could take any further action, the fiend’s body completely dissolved and scattered into the air.
“What just happened?”
“Is it… over?”
“The mental assault through chaos has stopped.”
Trembling voices echoed throughout the allied ranks.
Everyone desperately hoped this horrific battle was finally at an end.
But Orgal narrowed his eyes and shook his head.
He and Jin were the first to notice the spiritual energy beginning to condense again.
[It seems the fiend has achieved a kind of awakening.]
“Awakening?”
At Veradin’s question, Orgal nodded.
[Yes. Crossing the boundary between life and death to grow is not a blessing reserved only for mortals. If my prediction is correct, the fiend has just attained a higher divine status. A gamble taken to stand against the Lord of Death’s avatar…]
“…So that means it’s stronger than before?”
[In absolute terms, yes. Given enough time to recover, the fiend will definitely be stronger. Right now, the spiritual energy the avatar destroyed is too vast. I can guess why the avatar suddenly stopped manifesting, but if it had just three more minutes, the fiend wouldn’t have awakened.]
“Three minutes… that’s unfortunate.”
Veradin was overwhelmed with both regret and a crushing sense of futility.
Even humanity’s strongest forces, risking their lives together, couldn’t achieve what the avatar nearly did in less than half an hour.
Veradin resumed command. While Ban pressed the fiend, fortunately, the fleet had suffered relatively little damage.
The comrades on the ground were running toward Jin.
“Jin!”
“Are you okay?”
“Little brother!”
[12th Squadron!]
Just as Jin turned to look at them, a sudden chill ran down his spine, and he hastily raised his sword.
Sssshhh—!
A streak of black sword energy grazed Jin’s cheek.
Then, hundreds of sword energies rained down toward Jin and his comrades.
They were attacks from the fiend.
The comrades stepped forward to form a protective barrier, but Jin raised his own shield first, preventing them from moving forward.
“The spiritual energy has thickened. You’ll be hit—everyone, fall back!”
[Little brother, this time you really pushed this mother to the brink of annihilation.]
The fiend’s gloomy voice echoed again.
The melted flesh from moments ago had been a fake; the fiend now floated in the air, fully intact.
[That was truly dangerous… But once again, fate did not allow anything to come between you and me. The avatar was certainly stronger than I, but in the end, it failed to finish the job.]
Kraaaah!
The fleet unleashed a barrage of fire at the fiend.
Countless shells struck directly, but the explosions only briefly obscured the fiend before being absorbed into the spreading black veil.
The fiend looked down at Jin with a sinister smile.
[Now, I think I understand your feelings a little better. This is what it feels like when fate aids me.]
“At this point, aren’t you tired of spouting that nonsense?”
[I look forward to it. But since the situation has changed, the stage must change as well.]
No sooner had the fiend finished speaking than the ground beneath Jin and his allies began to tremble.
The earth shook as if it would collapse.
Crack, creak…!
But the tremors didn’t cause the ground to cave in.
Like the roots of a giant tree being uprooted, the earth itself began to rise.
The rising land floated swiftly toward the fragments of Ram scattered like dots in the sky.
“Fleet, scatter and evade! Don’t collide with Ram’s fragments!”
The fleet ascended in formation, matching the speed of the rising ground, while the ground forces sprinted madly to avoid the debris.
It took less than ten seconds for the earth and Ram’s fragments to merge.
No casualties occurred among the ground troops during this, but about twenty ships and a dozen dragons were crushed by the fragments.
Ten li.
The area of the rising land matched Ram’s battlefield exactly.
The earth flowed like water, filling in Ram’s shattered cracks.
Ram was being repaired.
The allies were once again stunned, forced to find gaps in the fissures or widen them to climb to Ram’s upper levels.
Jin swung his spirit sword relentlessly. The Overload Heart was like a power source in overload, unable to properly form spiritual energy.
One by one, the allies secured positions atop Ram.
Every time a tumor-like rupture appeared somewhere on Ram’s upper surface, allied ships, dragons, and troops climbed up.
In other words, the allies rose with the earth, ascending above Ram.
The first thing they saw was the sky, darkened black, and the clouds.
The fiend stood in the center, waiting for Jin’s arrival.
Ram’s form, restored by merging with the earth, was unstable compared to before.
Like a patchwork garment, it was stained and cracked in many places, and its main cannon seemed nonfunctional.
But the fact that this monstrous ship, nearly ten li in size, had regained form was enough to unsettle the temporary alliance.
As Orgal had said, if given enough time, Ram would become whole again—stronger than ever.
The opportunity was still now or never.
If they failed to annihilate the fiend today, the next to vanish would surely be the temporary alliance and all of humanity.
[What will you do now, little brother? You might want to run and wait for the avatar to return… but I won’t allow that.]
A storm of spiritual energy swirled again at Ram’s edges.
The fleet couldn’t break through, and even Orgal’s dimensional gate malfunctioned.
“I never even considered running. I came here to finish this today…”
Spirit energy release.
From Jin, spiritual energy spread like a spider’s web.
It quickly cast a dark shadow over the entire area where Jin and the fiend stood.
At the same time, the fleet’s observation mages confirmed chaos forces pouring out from the spiritual energy barriers surrounding Ram.
“North wall! Approximately ten thousand troops confirmed! Composed of chaos dragons, black ships, and knights!”
“Thunderstorm!?”
“The former Tenth Knight, Padler Runcandel! Behind him, numerous troops including black knights…!”
[So that’s why you weren’t visible. It’s finally your turn to go to hell, Padler!]
“The knight who just attacked the 2nd fleet is definitely a superhuman—the remaining squad leader!?”
From all directions—north, south, east, and west—new chaos forces surged in.
Blue Thunder King Padler Runcandel and the remaining four squad leaders.
Jin couldn’t hear his allies’ voices. The distance was too great, and the mingling spiritual and chaotic energies between him and the fiend blocked sound.
But through his senses, Jin knew new reinforcements had arrived.
“More hidden troops, fiend?”
[It pleases me greatly that I must use all my cards to face you. And I even had to risk gaining a higher divine status…]
The fiend suddenly twisted its waist and clamped its mouth shut mid-sentence. A black mass spilled from between its fingers. Its eyes widened.
“Pleased? You stopped halfway, but still acted so arrogantly despite receiving the avatar brothers’ secret techniques. Seems you were too intoxicated by your rapid growth to realize your true state.”
After the avatar fusion ended, Jin inherited all the memories from Ban’s battle with the fiend.
‘Kyeol’—a sword technique that tears through the opponent’s soul.
Even if the fiend succeeded in awakening, deep wounds from Kyeol still remained in its body and soul. Invisible spiritual energy writhed inside the fiend.
“And the reinforcements left are the same on our side.”
Jin deepened his spirit energy release.
—Tell Jin to unleash his spirit energy to the fullest when the time is right. Then, that one will manifest immediately.
A message Misha sent to Jin through Siris and Mort before the final battle.
“Kraaaah!”
The fiend roared and charged at Jin.
Jin didn’t dodge the frenzied assault but smiled mockingly.
Before the frenzy could reach him,
Spirit energy condensed before Jin, forming a shadow.
Long, rough hair down to the waist, fierce eyes half-lidded, and a low voice full of swagger.
“Long time no see, kid.”
It was Murakan in human form.
As soon as he appeared, he grabbed the fiend’s blade barehanded, stopping it with monstrous strength.
“Why do you always say the same lines in situations like this?”
“Because they sound good.”
“True enough.”
[Murakan…!]
The Fiend glared at Jin and Murakan with a face twisted in rage.
“So, I expected you’d show up. Guardian of the old era. Last time, you were too busy running away. Think you can actually fight properly today?”
Murakan wanted to flash a cool grin and deliver a sharp comeback, but all he could manage was a pained yelp.
“Ow, ow, ow!”
The spiritual energy radiating from the Frenzied Sword God was seeping into his hand, burning like fire.
Startled as if scalded, Murakan stumbled backward. Even the Fiend was momentarily dumbfounded by the reaction. Jin instinctively pressed his palm to his forehead.
“Hmph, I almost forgot the Fiend’s a source of spiritual contamination. Kid, nobody saw that, right?”
Jin shrugged, but inwardly felt relieved watching Murakan act like a fool the moment he arrived.
If he wasn’t taking things seriously, it meant he wasn’t a threat too dangerous to handle.