C631
Approximately five hundred aura disruptors.
Over the past two and a half years, Qwaul had pushed the performance of disruptors and related artifacts to nearly the limit, conducting numerous tests beforehand.
So far, none of Jin's companions had been able to defeat five hundred disruptors.
First of all, there was no need to reach five hundred, and even Valkas and Quikantel couldn't properly use their aura when facing more than two hundred disruptors.
But now Jin was unaffected by the disruptors.
Instead, as soon as the disruptors were deployed, Jin released a tremendous aura and even covered all the people waiting outside the battlefield with new protective shields.
Just like Ron Hairan protected people from chaos in the Sword Emperor Castle war.
"Ignoring all the disruptors and granting individual shields to hundreds of people is something that cannot be achieved solely with an aura of over 10 Stars... It's not within human capabilities. You've become a monster, Jin."
Quikantel involuntarily swallowed saliva.Even for her, who remembered Murakan's peak, the martial arts Jin was displaying now were shocking enough.
In a way, it even seemed to her that Jin had become more terrifying than Murakan back then.
At this rate of growth, even combat prowess would soon match Murakan's, but judgment and insight had never truly belonged to the young human.
Puz-!
Suddenly, a blue glow spread across the battlefield. After the battle began, Smarion's energy, which had been surpassing Jin's, was being devoured by the aura and lightning energy.
"They're treating me like a mere beast. Isn't this a fight but a hunt for you?"
Smarion showed disgust and shot his sword energy towards Jin's companions.
However, the sword energy seemed to disintegrate in the air before reaching the shields.
It was countered by Jin's energy, which spread in layers.
"It would be wise to focus on me. Attempts to threaten me through others will only work against you."
Smarion narrowed his eyes.
Now, Jin couldn't see the composure Smarion had shown at the beginning, while Jin had a calm face like the first time.
What Jin was saying was true.
Taking his companions hostage in a state where he couldn't handle Jin properly right now was an effective method only until "he reached the Ghost Castle".
Jin wondered why Smarion hadn't done that.
It wasn't a sufficient explanation to say that he just wanted to fight Cyron or those kinds of humans.
"Perhaps it's the result of Smarion resisting the demonic nature. That's why my companions aren't dead when I arrive."
It wasn't a situation where Jin could have a calm conversation about it.
Whether his companions being unharmed was the result of Smarion's resistance to the demonic nature or not.
There was no change in the fact that Jin had to subdue him.
Even if it was the former, it would mean that Smarion's last humanity, which remained in the demonic nature, desperately desired it.
"It seems I've underestimated you after being absent from the world for so long."
Squeak-!
A rear image was left where Jin had been.
At the same time, Smarion's twin swords broke again, and he struck with his bare fist the sword of Jin, which was penetrating his chest.
A deafening roar echoed from the clash between Bradamante and Smarion's fist.
Others trembled at the powerful shockwaves transmitted through the guardian brothers, the dragon's fire shield, the divine power of time, and various protective shields.
As they began to accelerate the battle, Smarion's body scars rapidly increased.
Jin didn't allow a single effective blow after the deployment of the disruptors.
Before long, Smarion changed tactics.
All attacks became heavier.
"He can't win if he drags the fight, so he must somehow deliver a decisive blow."
The battle of high-level martial artists had to be delicate and precise.
Although most of Smarion's enlightenment gained during his time as the Ghost Leader had become turbid due to the demonic nature, his sword still retained the characteristic subtlety of a transcendent individual.
However, Smarion was in the process of even ending that remaining subtlety.
As soon as he decided that a head-on confrontation was out of place, he chose to end both.
"Haha!"
Bradamante pierced Smarion's left shoulder.
At the same time, Smarion threw the sword from his right hand towards Jin's chest.
The blade penetrated the Shadow Energy armor and lodged into Jin's chest just a finger's depth away.
The blade carries decades of chaos Smarion has accumulated.
An unmatched murky energy unlike any poison in the world spread through Jin's body in an instant.
Of course, Smarion expected Jin to recoil in panic.
He thought Jin would vomit blood, lean forward, and struggle to master the chaos that somehow entered his body.
However, Jin didn't care and burst the sword embedded in Smarion's shoulder without a hint of panic.
Jin is a member of the Tribe of Legends.
Through this training, Jin went beyond the concept of brothers as a human but also acquired physical characteristics almost identical to them.
Unless it was the first chaos that Heluram directly used, or power equivalent to it.
All kinds of "general Chaos" in the world could no longer affect Jin. No matter how vast and dense it is.
"It's ridiculous.... bastard, what's your true identity?"
Smarion's last attempt didn't work.
Smarion, who had increased the distance, panted with his left arm hanging.
As Jin's Shadow Energy armor was pierced, he concentrated all his energy, but Jin didn't even seem tired, let alone injured.
If he could have faced Jin alone, he could have escaped and planned another day, even with just a fraction of the power he had left.
But indeed, the fight was already over.
Smarion couldn't think of another way to threaten Jin.
Even now, it was obviously impossible to take his companions hostage, and there was no way to escape.
"You were looking for my father when you saw me."
Jin approached Smarion slowly.
Smarion was desperate and swung his sword, but Jin effortlessly dodged or parried every blow, demonstrating the disparity in their skills.
"When you were the leader of the ghost mercenaries, you must have been much stronger than you are now, but you couldn't become my father's opponent."
Only Jin can say that the ghost leader Smarion Proch was stronger before than now, when he was invaded by Chaos.
Without reaching Jin's level of transcendence, one could never think that way.
It's because there's a realm that can never be reached by demonization instead of absolute composure.
Even if the power is much greater.
"But I wondered why my father, Cyron Runcandel, kept you alive in those days."
-My lord, you probably don't even know that my father ever had a fight with Cyron-nim.
-My father and the former ghost leader...?
I didn't see it myself. It was even before I was born. However, the fight lasted all day and in the end Cyron-nim won, but for some reason Cyron-nim didn't kill my father.Although Smarion, the ghost leader not controlled by the demonic nature, was strong enough to fight Cyron at that time for 'a day', and even after losing the battle, the ghost mercenaries did not give their loyalty to Runcandel.
However, Cyron often visited the Ghost Castle to inquire about Smarion's well-being.
"After clashing swords with you, I have a vague idea why my father did that."
[What are you talking about?]
"My father would have respected the fact that you resisted Chaos."
Resistance to Chaos and respect for it.
If you think about it, there were many strange points in the fight between Jin and Smarion from the beginning.
Smarion was able to break the seal at any time long before Jin arrived.
Therefore, Smarion could have annihilated the humans surrounding him at any time until Jin arrived.
Even if most of Tikan's strong men were waiting, they couldn't compete with Smarion.
But Smarion didn't do that.
He rightly said that he was waiting for someone like Cyron.
A few times, Smarion's Chaos erupted and made the surroundings chaotic, and casualties occurred in the process, but there were no decisive damages to the Tikan side.
Only when Jin appeared, Smarion focused all his Chaos and bloodlust on him.
Jin thought there was no reason for Smarion to do that, no matter how you looked at it.
Except for one assumption, the premise that "Smarion resisted the demonic nature not to kill people".
"I have decided to assume that you resisted Chaos until I arrived. It must be thanks to your sword being so dull all the time, and the Proch Brothers and my people didn't die."
In other words, Jin speculated that Smarion let go of the last thread of resistance as soon as "a being that could kill him" appeared.
[Maybe because you are Cyron's blood, so you're good at saying arrogant nonsense.]
"So I would like to pay my respects before ending the fight. Not to the Chaos monster in front of me right now, but to the human Smarion Proch, who defended the Ghost Castle alone from Chaos until yesterday."
Swoosh...!
Suddenly, the aura and lightning energy covering the battlefield disappeared.
Smarion's murky energy, which he had bound, also disappeared.
It was Jin's Shadow Energy that quickly began to fill the space again, and the battlefield, which was chaos of mixed powers, quickly became silent.
Within it, Chaos rose like a punch a few times, but like a stone thrown into the sea, it seemed to sink into the Shadow Energy.
"Damn it......"
Jin stopped walking and aimed Bradamante at Smarion.
There was no need to use the Ultimate Shadow Sword Technique.
Gently, as if closing the eyes of a dead man, Bradamante pierced Smarion's chest.
Smarion shuddered once and grabbed the sword, and Jin calmly looked at his faded red eyes.
Smarion's eyes didn't look at Jin, who had stabbed him, but at the darkness beyond tainted by Shadow Energy.
In a life tainted by madness and chaos, the only warm memories were the time he embraced Lata and Fey.
Even that ended up being years of abuse and violence towards each other.
Smarion didn't get sentimental when recalling that time.
As Jin expected, as soon as he arrived, Smarion lost the last remnants of his humanity.
It was only a coincidence that Smarion focused on his children, or it was like the rigor of human Smarion after death.
But in Jin's eyes, it seemed like the fateful result of Smarion's resistance to chaos.
"Goodbye, Smarion-nim."
Finally, the fallen Smarion turned into particles and dispersed among the Shadow Energy filling the battlefield, and Jin briefly paid silent tribute to him.
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KO-FI
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