Chapter 952
Episode 235. Jito (1)

Jito grinned slyly, licking his lips with his tongue.

That tongue suddenly stretched out long and snake-like, coiling around him. The sharp thorns pricked and scraped his entire body in an instant, covering him in a mess of purple, bloodied wounds.

‘Just like when I fought Ayula, this guy’s truly insane.’

To any onlooker, the sight was agonizing. Yet Jito, battered and worn, seemed to revel in the stinging sensation of his slackened tongue, a twisted satisfaction gleaming in his eyes.

“Hehehe, looks painful, doesn’t it? But actually, this is all pleasure. You’ll come to understand soon enough. Not just you—soon the whole world will.”

Just as Jin was about to respond, Jito lunged forward, swinging his thorned axes. Crack! The ground beneath Jin exploded, sending shards of black debris flying in every direction.

Normally, stones or dirt kicked up during battle pose no threat to warriors of their caliber. But Jin instinctively knew better.

Jito’s domain—the vast pocket dimension they were in—was an extension of Jito himself.

Every fragment that erupted from the ground was a piece of his flesh, each capable of becoming a weapon.

Ssshhh—!

As expected, the shards near Jin combusted in a poisonous dance, and just as Jin tried to scatter them with a whirlwind of sword energy, they transformed into thorns.

Jin quickly focused his dispersed energy, striking the thorns with his blade. The clash of steel and spikes rang out loudly.

“You’ve got a strong mind. Just having my weapons touch your body must send waves of pain through you, yet your expression doesn’t change. That’s even more thrilling.”

The God of Pain.

If such a being existed in Inse, Jito would surely be called that. Any form of ‘contact’ with him meant being engulfed in agony.

“But your mental strength isn’t limitless. How many days do you think you can last fighting me? One? Two? Three?”

Jito didn’t entertain the possibility of defeat. He was only curious about how long the victory would take.

Even a Changsung-level warrior couldn’t kill him.

Paelito had already proven that in the past. For Jin to have any chance, something catastrophic would have to happen to the artificial sun.

But Ridolos guarded the artificial sun. Since no problems had arisen, Jito was certain Biceps had been wiped out by now.

“By the way, Paelito couldn’t even last a day. But you’re better than that fool, right? I’ll give you two days.”

The twin thorned axes relentlessly hammered the ground. Jin kept his distance, avoiding direct clashes with Jito’s weapons.

Enduring pain in battle was nothing new, but Jin needed to observe Jito carefully while dodging.

‘I have to seize an opportunity to end this quickly.’

Jin was certain of one thing: if the fight dragged on, he would lose.

Jito’s power here was inexhaustible, and ordinary swords couldn’t even land a proper hit.

On top of that, Jin had to dodge or deflect more attacks than he could count breaths. Facing a ‘top-tier immortal’ with no restrictions was inherently unfair.

“You must have had a hard time eliminating my flesh fragments outside, huh? But as you can see now, those losses mean nothing. Like scooping handfuls of sand from a desert—it changes nothing. No mortal can stand against me.”

“That’s something we’ll find out for sure when this fight’s over.”

Calculations complete, Sigmund summoned the Golden Thunder, illuminating the area around Jin. Then, instead of attacking Jito directly, Jin swung his sword toward the sky.

The Sovereign Sword: Golden Thunder Technique
Heaven-Splitting Style, Form One

Inspired by Paelito’s sword techniques, this massive sword energy cleaved the black sky in two, just like the day he shattered Ayula’s shield in the Holy Kingdom.

The sky was tearing open. Like a thin veil ripping apart, beyond the split blackness lay another darkness.

That darkness was the Abyss of Hell. Jito’s domain existed beneath that abyss.

“Ugh, I closed that off because I hated seeing it. And now you’re tearing it wide open? That’s bad for you too. I don’t want it to spoil before I get to play with it.”

Of course, Jin didn’t expect the Abyss to actually be there.

He simply judged that destroying Jito’s domain would be beneficial. He needed to create a zone where he could drop the Golden Thunder.

‘Judging by the reaction, the darkness above isn’t connected to Jito’s power.’

Jito was visibly trembling, showing no intention of hiding his hatred for the Abyss. That space belonged to the witch Helluram.

Jito tried to close the sky again, but Jin unleashed the Heaven-Splitting Style once more, preparing to rain down the Golden Thunder.

The gathered bolts of lightning obscured the Abyss, turning Jito’s sky into Jin’s.

The Sovereign Sword: Golden Thunder Technique
Heaven-Splitting Style, Form Two

A sharp flash briefly blinded Jito.

Though immortal, he could still rely on insight to compensate for lost sight. Yet even a momentary loss of physical sensation was startling.

This was something even Paelito at his prime had failed to achieve.

Paelito had once split his sky with the Celestial Annihilation Slash, but when faced with the Abyss, he immediately gave up on any counterattack.

‘Is it the blessing of Solderet? He seems completely unaffected by the Abyss.’

Jito was shocked to see Jin remain unscathed by the Abyss.

“Jin Runcandel, I had you rated highly, but you’re even more impressive than I thought… to face the witch’s Abyss and come out unscathed.”

“Stop babbling. Just take the lightning. It’ll be electrifying.”

Kyaaaah!

Thousands of golden lightning bolts poured down. Each strike broke a few of the thorns covering Jito’s body.

Countless pillars rising in the pocket dimension shattered as well. The souls bound to them shattered like glass and scattered, while the tormented creatures found death’s peaceful release.

Sometimes, the places where souls and life had been left behind golden marks of regeneration. But most vanished without a trace.

Normally, Jin might have pondered the difference, but now was the time to focus entirely on the battle.

Amplifying his radiant heart, Jin unleashed the Heaven-Splitting Style, Form Two, with even greater ferocity. The lightning was more massive and threatening than the Sovereign’s Domination Sword he wielded before reaching Changsung.

Thunder and lightning filled the layered space, ruthlessly tearing apart Jito’s flesh.

For the first time in a long while, Jito screamed with joy at the pain inflicted by another.

Jin hated hearing it and intensified the lightning further.

“That so-called god…”

He had to deal a blow so terrible that even he couldn’t enjoy it.

But despite appearances, Jin’s thousands of lightning strikes weren’t a one-sided assault.

As he’d experienced before, anyone who touched Jito in this space was engulfed in pain.

It wasn’t just weapons clashing; it was energy colliding with energy. And now, with the Golden Thunder filling the entire pocket dimension, Jin’s mental strength was draining rapidly.

His face betrayed nothing. Like during meditation, he wore a calm expression.

But inside, he fought to repel the relentless power of pain piercing him. It felt as if Jito’s thorns were stabbing every inch of his skin.

“I’ve never lost a battle within myself, Jito. I wonder if you can say the same.”

“Ugh… Kekekeke! The longer you endure, the more excited I get. Even if the whole world falls asleep, exhausted by the pain I spread, you alone will stay awake forever to entertain me.”

Jin amplified the Heaven-Splitting Style once more.

The pocket dimension had long since lost its original form, now resembling a black desert. Jito knelt on one knee, his thorns broken, barely holding himself up by the two thorned axes embedded in the ground.

But that was just a pose he took to savor the pain. He wasn’t truly in danger yet.

He saw right through Jin’s thoughts.

“You want to seize a chance to kill me in one blow, Jin Runcandel. And you probably have the means.”

The Sun-Splitting Slash, and the perfected Sovereign’s Domination Sword.

After deciding he must kill Jito in a single strike, Jin believed only those two techniques could do it.

But even at Changsung, Jin couldn’t wield the Sovereign’s Domination Sword at half its prime power.

The Sun-Splitting Slash wasn’t complete either, but it seemed enough to deal a fundamental blow to Jito. Facing him directly had made that clear.

He wasn’t stronger than the Solderet Jin had forged through meditation. If he could cut that Solderet, cutting Jito wouldn’t be so difficult.

“But I have no intention of giving you that chance. I do care for you, after all. It’d be putting the cart before the horse.”

Jito slowly began to rise.

Jin didn’t further strengthen the Heaven-Splitting Style. He had to conserve his energy. Using more now might leave him short when facing future variables.

Above all, the biggest reason was that he had to save enough strength to unleash the Sun Splitter. After all, the key to this battle was to strike Jito with the Sun Splitter at the perfect moment.

[Hoo! I think I’ve enjoyed the warm-up enough. Now, let’s get down to the real game. This is actually a pretty simple fight, Jin Runkandel. In the end, it all comes down to which one of us can hold out longer.]

Before he knew it, Jito had reformed his body behind Jin’s back. The broken thorns had all regrown, and the gaping, torn wounds had fully healed, leaving him looking as good as new.

[You said you’ve never lost an inner battle, right? But Jin Runkandel, this isn’t our inner world—it’s reality. No matter how well you block the pain that digs into your mind, if you can’t kill the real me, it means nothing. Heh heh…]

Jito smiled as he swung his thorned axe. A single thorn on the blade grazed Jin’s cheek as it passed by.