C625
Last day of January, 1803.
When Jin left Lafrarosa, he expected the endless expanse of the reddish desert to welcome him, as always.
After completing his first trip to Lafrarosa, Jin accidentally encountered Darkflame and remembered the felinoids he met upon entering this time.
"What...... is this?"
However, as soon as he opened the door with the shadow blade and entered the human world, the landscape that greeted Jin was not the familiar Great Desert of Mitra.
A sticky wind, like rotten oil, blew relentlessly.
The wind carried an acrid toxicity, and the land and sky beyond were shrouded in an ominous darkness.
Moreover, unsettling and deep roars could be heard from various directions.
Is this the Great Desert of Mitra..?Jin thought it was the Black Sea.
Jin looked at the ground and realized that the desolate landscape of the Great Desert of Mitra was "contaminated by Chaos."
There were only a few scattered pieces of sand here and there.
Even the last vestiges of nature's vitality had been forcibly embraced by this now murky and contaminated sand.
"Sigh."
The Great Desert of Mitra was originally the land of the Tribe of Legends.
The Great Desert of Mitra, which thwarted numerous adventurers seeking myths and legends, was the land that once housed the golden city, Lafrarosa, until the tribe faced its destruction.
Therefore, Jin dreamed of the day when the city of his brothers would shine again in this desert.
Just before stepping out through the door, Jin tightened the knot of the enormous backpack he was carrying even more.
The bag contained the Light Heart of the dead Legends from the past, a chaos purifier, Vahn's blood, and the blueprint of the golden army.
'Even in death, you stir up trouble to the end, Gliek...'
Jin ground his teeth at the thought of the terrible King of the Black Sea.
It was also worrying.
'If the Great Desert of Mitra is in these conditions, what about other places?'
Contaminated areas.
Two and a half years ago, there were about 50 known contaminated areas in the world.
As the days passed, new contaminated areas were discovered, but the Great Desert of Mitra was not contaminated until Jin went to Lafrarosa.
Just as the contagious Chaos was unleashed after Gliek's disappearance, the contamination on the ground was also spreading.
At first glance, the contamination of the Great Desert was at a severe level.
Not only was it contaminated by chaos, but it was considered as if Gliek's fragments had fallen directly on the land.
It was not an entirely unexpected problem.
There was no law saying that the contagion of chaos had to be limited to living beings.
However, the fact that weak forces like Runcandel and Zipple "could not prevent it" was another story.
'Or maybe the Great Desert of Mitra has been excluded from the Purification Areas. If a great amount of manpower is still being dedicated to cleaning the contaminated areas around the world, this could well be the case.'
It was just a matter of leaving the desert and investigating other areas.
Anyway, Jin's first impression of the human world after 3 years was very unpleasant.
"¡Keeek!"
Suddenly, something viciously attacked Jin with a threatening sound.
Jin, without even looking at it, raised his lightning energy and killed it.
There was no need to observe because the monsters were swarming from all sides, led by him.
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred... More than a thousand.
Jin quickly estimated the approximate number of monsters surrounding him, but soon gave up. Counting more than a thousand was not important at this moment. It was just a matter of killing them all.
Jin drew Sigmund from its sheath.
Battle God's Techniques: Ninth Sword Movement
Annihilation
In an instant, the dark sky turned blue.
A lightning energy in the shape of a wing, formed behind Jin, scattered a dazzling glow.
The lightning energy seemed to tear the black sky at any moment.
And as soon as the lightning energy was unleashed, a group of monsters running from the front died. They disappeared like dust consumed by fire.
Instead of screams, the bones and flesh of the monsters turned to ash and dispersed.
The nearby monsters, who reflexively saw the ashes disperse, met their death without more.
The pale blade sprayed sword energy in all directions, like the light reflected from a sharp blade.
It seemed that Jin was shooting randomly, but the countless blades massacred the chaos remnants without making a single mistake.
The monsters seemed to lack emotion.
Even when Jin lightly swung the sword, causing dozens of them to die at once, they kept charging without showing any sign of fear.
Jin did not want them to flee in panic.
If time and circumstances allowed, Jin wanted to eliminate all the monsters that profaned his brothers' land.
Every second, dozens or even hundreds of monsters exploded or were split in half.
The ordinary chaos-infected retained some semblance of their previous appearance as humans.
However, the monsters Jin was massacring were all pure remnants of chaos.
'There are quite a few.'
If it had been Jin before becoming the Battle King, he would not have decided to eliminate all the monsters in the desert. His original approach was to break through, escape, accurately assess the scale, and then seek more efficient methods.
This was to avoid the possibility of exhaustion and becoming vulnerable when facing the endless avalanche of monsters.
That was no longer necessary.
Even as he poured out lightning energy and aura like a madman, his body felt as comfortable as when he sat quietly meditating.
Monsters of this level could no longer threaten Jin, even if a million of them besieged him, just as ants could do nothing against a dragon.
At this point, it seems the entire world is using the Great Mitra Desert as a dump...
Or has Kinzelo fallen?
"But that's highly unlikely."
The Great Mitra Desert belongs to the Land of the Beastmen, and the Land of the Beastmen was currently Kinzelo's territory.
Even if the desert was considered worthless land, there was no reason to let it go to waste like this.
"If Kinzelo hasn't really fallen, someone will come soon anyway."
Arriving at this conclusion, Jin momentarily halted his sword.
It was because among the monsters, a human figure could be seen.
They weren't minions of any faction Jin would have expected to come after sensing his battle in the desert.
"Living golems"?
Or Demon Men.
They were distorted like the rescued victims during the subjugation of the Dark Magic Society, or they had neither faces nor hair like the Demon Men of the Imperial Family he faced in the Wantaramo Forest.
Intuitively, Jin could sense they were "discarded experiment subjects."
Furthermore, unlike the previous living golems and Demon Men, their bodies were fully contaminated by chaos.
Chaos Purifier could only be effective on infected individuals before full invasion and bodily transformation.
Moreover, these beings had already been subjected to experiments before being contaminated by chaos, so they were beyond the reach of purification even with Boras's purifying device.
Like other monsters, they lunged at Jin.
Jin, watching them closely as he dodged their attacks, soon realized a shocking fact.
"There seems to be a certain pattern in chaos..."
Like a magic circle or alchemical symbols, the chaos clinging to the bodies of these infected beings displayed a complex yet discernible pattern.
The traces seemed to be part of an experiment.
The major factions were not only cleaning up infected and contaminated areas but also "using" them.
Broadly speaking, experimental subjects could be classified into two types.
The incomplete Legend type created by Kinzelo and the incomplete Demon Men, which seemed to be created by collaboration between Zipple and the Imperial Family.
The former used lightning energy, while the latter employed aura and mana.
It was no longer surprising that these experiments pursued the ideals of the Tribe of Legends and the magical swordsman.
All Jin could do for them was grant them a quick end.
Some of them might have been forcibly captured, or they might have been betrayed after swearing allegiance to a faction and turned into test subjects.
In any case, Jin wielded his sword to ensure they felt the least possible suffering, even though the basic sense of such feelings seemed absent in them.
Time passed, and the monsters Jin had massacred exceeded tens of thousands. The discarded golems and Demon Men were no longer in sight.
Although the density of monsters charging at him remained the same, Jin showed no signs of fatigue.
The more he wielded his sword, the more his anger grew.
Jin hoped that soon, someone would appear whom he could ask and discuss this dire situation with.
And soon, Jin felt a new energy, not Chaos, beyond the dark landscape of the contaminated desert.
"They've finally arrived."
It was still quite far away, perhaps more than a thousand steps.
However, the figure emitting the new energy seemed to sway the unstable chaos winds.
"A demon, and a strong one. Zephyrin or Bianca. Which could it be?"
The energy pushing Chaos carried a dark energy exclusive to Demons.
It resembled the demonic energy Jin had sensed in powerful figures from the demon world, such as Zephyrin and Bianca Kaligo.
Jin unleashed a burst of lightning energy and calmly awaited the newcomer.
The lightning energy that erupted converged back into Jin's Light Heart, but the nearby monsters couldn't even bear it and rusted away into ashes.
"Oh..!"
Finally, the Demon appeared before Jin.
It was neither Zephyrin nor Bianca. It was a male demon Jin had never seen before, and as soon as he saw Jin, he exclaimed admiringly as if he had seen something interesting.
"I wondered what kind of madman would be playing in my yard without any fear... Are you Jin Runcandel?"
Clad in an extravagant coat adorned with elaborate gold embroideries, gemstones, and embellishments all over, he seemed to carry himself with what he believed was graceful elegance.
In other words, he was revealing himself to be an aristocrat of the demon world with his entire body.
However, despite the excessive display of vanity and extravagance, his mere presence made the monsters in the area falter.
When the monsters resumed their charge, a single gesture from him turned them into a bloody hailstorm.
It was clear he was strong, surpassing the standards of strength Jin had encountered so far.
"Black hair, handsome face, insolent gaze. That's right, Jin Runcandel! I never thought I would find you here. Allow me to introduce myself formally. I am Ranke Halovice, the first prince of the Halovice Family, the fourth grand duke of the Demon World. The ruler and protector of the northern regions of the Demon World and its inhabitants, the owner of Mount Tna and Mount Karion...."
"Bastard, are you a member of Kinzelo? It's clever of you to introduce yourself first."
Jin cut off his words and met Ranke's eyes.
"As I've heard, you lack manners....."
"Huh?"
Bang! Jin punched Ranke in the jaw before he could finish the sentence.
"Ugh!"
"If not, you would have introduced yourself with a broken jaw."
-
KO-FI
'Ko-Fi' for Adv4nc3 Ch4pt3r ( Up to '120' more ch4pt3rs) Publication of up to 6 w33kly ch4pters, thanks.
-