C738
Jin's face contorted as he swallowed a sigh.
The fragments of chains falling from Rosa's face descended slowly, as if frozen in time.
Why...?
Rosa!
The one who should have been covered by the chains should have been an ancient patriarch worthy of respect.
Jin had deliberately fought at a disadvantage, driven by the sole conviction that he had to save such an ancestor.
He had lost several opportunities to cut off his opponent's head and had endured many injuries for this moment.
The reason he couldn't help his comrades who had been fighting behind, beside, and in front of him was all for the sake of rescuing the ancestor who should have remained intact within the chains.
But what he had fought so hard to save turned out to be the evil deity, Rosa.And not only that, she seemed entirely unharmed...
Freed from her restraints, Rosa did not glow with a faint indigo color like the other beings in the mausoleum, nor did she grotesquely transform into a chaos monster.
She simply had the appearance of a human, or rather...
She had the appearance that could be called Runcandel.
Long, black hair that seemed to absorb light, eyes with a gleam of determination, a gaze that calmly and heavily pressed upon anyone who met it, and hands that firmly gripped the sword, never letting go.
The head of the Runcandel Family, who led the Garden of Swords in place of Cyron for many years, and a giant of her era.
Rosa Runcandel maintained eye contact with Jin.
Damn it!
Unintentionally, Jin muttered a curse.
His breathing quickened as if momentarily suffocated.
He barely suppressed the growing urge to vomit, accompanied by a cold dizziness, and reflexively distanced himself.
If the battle continued from this point, he felt he would make a mistake.
I'm finished.
That thought crossed his mind first.
If Rosa staged this act to give him a psychological shock, she couldn’t have been more successful.
The allies were also astonished.
They too had momentarily shifted their gaze from their respective opponents to Rosa.
I must remain calm.
This is just a trick of the evil deity.
The Rosa that appears human...
Must be some sort of fragment created by the power of the evil deity.
Jin gripped his sword.
"It seems your sadistic tendencies have increased... evil deity. I never expected you to go this far to confuse me."
However, Rosa responded with a completely unexpected reply to Jin's words.
"Aren’t you trying to save me because you know who I am?"
"What...?"
"Why are you referring to me as the evil deity?"
Once again, Jin could only feel his insides twist.
The freed Rosa didn’t even have the resonant voice characteristic of the resurrected.
She seemed genuinely alive. She seemed like someone determined to protect Runcandel at all costs.
Jin's heart pounded wildly.
"I am Rosa Runcandel. Why do you mistakenly believe that the monster that has bound me all this time is the same as me?"
"What are you babbling about...?"
"Jin!"
"Twelfth Flagbearer!"
Urgent voices were heard from behind, belonging to Hedo and Octavia.
Swoosh!
At the same time, a cutting energy sliced through Jin’s back.
It was a sword energy shot by an ancient patriarch targeting Jin.
Because Jin was focused on Rosa, his reaction was slightly slower than usual.
The sword energy grazed his lower back, causing droplets of blood to spatter.
The wound wasn’t deep.
The one who shot the sword energy was the one-armed ancient patriarch.
'...No, could it really be the ancient patriarch?'
Cutting the chains doesn’t necessarily mean that Rosa reappears.
An indescribable unease continued to cloud Jin's mind.
As he dodged the sword energy again, he turned to see his exhausted allies.
Bianca’s opponent was on the verge of death.
Alpen and Lyon were battered, but the battle wasn’t yet decided.
Hedo had finished off the 35th patriarch and was assisting Octavia.
While facing both simultaneously, the one-armed ancient patriarch displayed even greater strength than when the battle began.
As Jin had just freed another chain, there was an increase in the influence of evil affecting that ancient patriarch.
"Ugh!"
Octavia leaned forward, vomiting blood, as she took a step forward.
Hedo, protecting her, received several sword energies directly, leaving numerous wounds all over his massive body.
"Twelfth Flagbearer? Do you refer to yourself as the Twelfth Flagbearer of the Family? And your sword is Bradamante, correct? Your name is Jin... Jin Runcandel. Strange things are happening." 𝘙𝐚ꞐÖВĘŞ
Rosa spoke as if she knew nothing.
"Shut up!"
Jin dashed towards Hedo.
He felt the need to buy him some time to recover, even if only briefly.
Rosa didn’t obstruct Jin as he ran.
On the contrary, Rosa intercepted the sword energies flying towards Jin and protected him.
Rosa's sword, when intercepting the sword energies, wasn’t as powerful as the current evil deity, nor as powerful as Jin remembered during Rosa's time as acting matriarch.
Jin decided not to think further about the evil deity’s intent.
Clang!
Jin’s sword clashed with the one-armed ancient patriarch’s.
With just one exchange of attack and defense, Jin understood why Hedo and Octavia were struggling so much.
The ancient patriarch’s sword possessed the power to inject chaos into the opponent, like the evil deity.
Now, the Grand Heir was closer to assimilating into the omen itself than being controlled by it.
Jin reactivated the eternal flames in Bradamante.
He needed to finish off the ancient patriarch as quickly as possible and bring order to this chaotic situation.
I can't completely dismiss the possibility that the one-armed ancient patriarch is another Rosa, but I need to confirm it.
He couldn’t simply dismiss the possibility of being a genuine former patriarch like Alpen.
If he closed off that possibility due to overwhelming circumstances or doubts, it would mean abandoning the ancestors who fought for the Family, even after an unwanted resurrection.
Therefore, he had to break the chains without killing.
As Jin pondered, Rosa continued to protect him and watched his back intently.
As if she had something to say. However, she seemed uncertain where to begin.
Without acknowledging Rosa's gaze, Jin extended his sword towards the one-armed ancient patriarch.
Even if it’s a trap, omen. I will not abandon a single one of my ancestors who resisted the evil deity to the end.
Even if it wasn’t an ancestor but another sudden appearance of Rosa, he would simply have to strike it down along with the Rosa behind him.
The sword of Jin charging towards the ancient patriarch no longer harbored doubts. The inner confusion he experienced when suddenly facing Rosa had begun to subside.
As Jin regained his composure and started focusing on the ancient patriarch, Hedo and Octavia also began to regain their composure.
Bianca finally annihilated the 29th patriarch, coinciding with the moment when Jin and the one-armed ancient patriarch completed their hundredth exchange.
Hedo and Octavia rejoined the fray, and the intense battle between Alpen and Lyon also came to an end.
The bodies of Lyon, Tucker, and Neph disintegrated into particles as their heads rolled on the ground, shattered by the shockwaves of the battle.
The battle that began as a one-on-one was now a five-on-five showdown.
As much as they assimilated, the ancient patriarch ultimately wasn’t the evil deity.
Until now, the one-armed ancient patriarch had wielded a flawless sword even without an arm, but that was the limit.
The one-armed ancient patriarch had managed to withstand five opponents until now because Jin had decided not to kill him.
If he had fought with the intent to kill, the battle would have been much shorter.
Evil deity, stop this nonsense and come out in person.
Clang...!
Bradamante uncovered a chain link that covered the ancient patriarch’s face.
The eternal flames spread through the cracks, melting the chain links.
Little by little, the face within the chain began to reveal itself, and once again, Jin's judgment was correct.
It's not Rosa...
Although the chain wasn’t completely cut, at first glance, the face was clearly different from Rosa's.
At that moment, when Jin attempted to cut the chain once more, the ancient patriarch unexpectedly lunged towards Bradamante, as if intentionally exposing himself to be stabbed.
Jin reacted immediately and dodged the strike.
Only a few seconds remained for the eternal flames to completely consume the chain, and Jin had no intention of losing his ancestor.
Once a few seconds passed, the bindings that held the ancient patriarch would naturally dissolve.
However, the ancient patriarch didn’t pursue Jin and moved to the side.
Is he passing me by?
The evil deity’s intent controlling the ancient patriarch wasn’t for Jin to be mortally stabbed by his sword.
The evil deity predicted with precision that Jin would dodge it.
The true target of the evil deity was none other than herself, who constantly watched Jin from behind.
Rosa.
All of Jin's allies were positioned in front of him.
The only person left behind him was Rosa.
Puh!
"Huh?"
The ancient patriarch’s sword pierced through Rosa’s chest.
Even though Rosa had shown almost flawless swordsmanship while being controlled by the evil deity, for some reason, she, who was behind Jin, couldn’t dodge a single strike.
"Ugh...!"
Suppressing a groan, Rosa grabbed the blade that had pierced her body.
As the ancient patriarch who stabbed Rosa collapsed and ceased moving, Rosa fell to one knee, gasping for breath.
"Ugh..."
Jin couldn’t understand her current state.
Why had the evil deity stabbed herself, and why did Rosa seem to suffer like a human?
And why was he overwhelmed by such a foreboding sense of dread?
He couldn’t comprehend anything. But Jin unconsciously rushed towards Rosa.
It was a mortal wound.
If Rosa were truly human, she would be on the brink of death.
"Evil deity... What does this mean?"
"Do you still see me as... the evil deity?"
"Why are you behaving like a human...?!"
Jin stopped speaking in astonishment.
Rosa's face was much younger than he remembered, much younger than he thought.
Suddenly, Jin realized that Rosa had appeared with a youthful appearance since he cut the chains.
She looked like someone in her twenties, someone of his generation.
His heart sank.
Jin's breathing became heavy.
"Now I vaguely understand the situation... Jin. You must be my son and Cyron's. Cyron and I decided to name our last child, Jin..."
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