C740
The group immediately pointed their swords in all directions.
The form of the evil god was not visible, only the unsettling voice that reverberated in the vast darkness.
["What did she tell you? Although the curse, so unusual and long, clearly conveyed the resentment she harbored against me, I couldn’t hear anything else,"] it said.
Jin silently stared at the empty air.
"A monster doesn’t need to know what humans talk about among themselves."
["Is that so? Are you saying that you felt that impurity, which was separate from me, as a human?"]
"She was at least much closer to being human than you are."
["Hehe, I don’t know what you discussed, but it seems that the impurity, which was my last trace of humanity, shook your heart. Seeing that you were aware of this corpse as soon as you heard my voice..."] it continued.
"Stop speculating. Show yourself and stop talking..."Zzaaaack...!
The moment Jin uttered those words, the corpse of the young Rosa suddenly shattered into pieces, scattering fragments of flesh and bone in all directions.
The reason for the rapid expansion was the chaos linked to the corpse.
As the evil god had said, Jin had felt a strange emotion during his brief encounter with the young Rosa.
If she had stayed as she was, with her pure and strong spirit, if she hadn’t become the evil god, how would things have turned out...
That was what he had wondered.
Maybe that was why.
It was quite shocking when Jin witnessed how the corpse of the young Rosa was torn apart without physical form.
Externally, he showed no expression, but he couldn’t fool the evil god.
["Such a vision is hard to bear, isn’t it? If you had received the gift I intended to give you last time, you wouldn’t have to feel such useless emotions..."]
It was a story about the previous battle between Jin and Rosa that took place in the inner world.
The corpse of the young Rosa had been completely shredded, and the proliferating chaos even swallowed scattered pieces of the corpse like a leech.
Then, the chaos began to take on a defined form.
In an instant, a huge, dark silhouette formed.
It had a quadrupedal posture, similar to that of a beast.
Sinister pupils emitted an unsettling light, claws and fangs larger than a human’s, dark fur that seemed to absorb all light.
It bore a striking resemblance to a beast, a predator, existing in the human world.
A black panther.
The alias that symbolized Rosa in her human era.
The creature exhaled a ragged breath as it stared at the group.
Jin gritted his teeth as he met the gaze of the black panther.
"Now that you’ve abandoned your last trace of humanity, is it time to discard the alias you used in your human days? It’s oddly nostalgic, clinging to your human days. Perhaps, deep down, you regret becoming the evil god and unconsciously commit such despicable actions," Jin remarked. 𝖗αŊo͍₿ƐṠ
["If there’s anything I regret, it’s that I gave power to Joshua instead of you. If I had recognized your true self from the beginning..."]
The voice of the evil god trailed off, followed by sinister laughter that lasted for a while.
After about ten seconds, the voice of the evil god ceased to reach them.
Instead, the black panther advanced with determined steps, casting its shadow.
[Grrr...]
The black panther circled the group while keeping its gaze fixed on them.
Despite the heavy movements of its bulky body, no footsteps could be heard.
The situation was not favorable.
Due to the fierce battle with the ancient patriarch, most of the group was injured to some extent.
Among the group, only Jin and Bianca were able to fight at their usual or similar power level.
Octavia, in particular, was completely incapable of entering combat.
During the battle, the group had to protect her and the unconscious, unidentified ancient patriarch.
As a result, the group briefly contemplated their strategy, but Jin had already made a decision.
"Bianca, protect the others."
Jin intended to face the black panther alone.
"Are you going to fight... alone?"
"Yes."
"That... How strong is it... I have no idea... It could be dangerous."
"If I find it too dangerous, then you can help."
"Well... okay."
Bianca wanted to advise him to reconsider, but she stopped when she saw Jin's determined expression.
Even she felt a chilling presence that made her spine tremble.
The accumulated anger against the evil god and the frustrations of fighting the ancient patriarch under unfavorable circumstances were bursting all at once.
"I’ll destroy it."
As Jin murmured those words, the black panther launched its attack first.
Its front paw distorted space as it descended on Jin’s head.
Instead of dodging, Jin faced it head-on.
A shockwave spread, causing the ground to sink into a large semicircular shape.
But what the front paw struck was not Jin, but the ground.
Just before the front paw made contact, Jin swiftly evaded and swung his sword.
At that moment, the sword strike left a persistent trail on the black panther’s front paw, which momentarily froze.
It was an absurdly long and perfectly straight line, as if the entire space had been cut.
After a while, when the image faded, a solid, heavy object fell from the black panther and rolled on the ground.
Thunk!
The fallen object was the black panther’s right front paw, which had just turned toward Jin.
[Grrr!]
The severed front paw melted like water, creating a sticky pool of turbid aura.
Normally, the severed part should have regenerated instantly, but Bradamante was already imbued with some nebulous Eternal Flames.
The injured limb of the black panther tried to regenerate incessantly, but the Eternal Flames adhered to it, slowing the process.
[Grr... Kaahaak!]
The black panther swung its remaining left front paw, pushing Jin back.
However, Jin effortlessly severed it with a swift movement.
Once again, the sound of a solid impact echoed as the front paw hit the ground.
Without its two front paws, the black panther couldn’t maintain its balance.
In just two moves, it became evident that Jin had an overwhelming advantage in close combat, a fact that surprised both the black panther and the allies.
Of course, the allies believed that Jin would have the upper hand, but they never expected him to dominate the monster so easily.
Surely, the evil god did not create this creature just to desecrate the corpse of the young Rosa.
'It must have some threatening element.'
Jin’s gaze shifted to the fallen front paws of the black panther.
He observed bubbling pools composed of sticky, black aura, resembling a potent acidic solution.
"Is the ground corroding?"
During their descent into the inner world, Jin and the group had learned some facts about this space.
First, as Alpen mentioned, once they descended, they couldn’t ascend again.
Second, the internal structure constantly changed.
And third, the chaos that made up the subspace was almost indestructible, making it nearly impossible to demolish the building-like structure.
If it were possible, they would have simply destroyed everything and descended without encountering the guardians of each floor.
However, the pools left by the black panther’s melted body were different.
They were dissolving the walls of chaos that even Jin’s Shadow Blade couldn’t penetrate, turning them into a sugary liquid.
As a result, Jin momentarily ceased his attacks and examined the pools.
Meanwhile, the black panther regenerated its front paws, but they were far from perfect.
The limbs had a grotesque shape, with only the skeletal structure remaining, and the Eternal Flames burned along the sectioned parts.
The black panther continued to attack with its front paws, screaming in agony from the torment of the Eternal Flames.
Jin deliberately avoided the attacks, as it didn’t seem wise to take down the creature before understanding the effects of the pools.
However, the problem was that the Eternal Flames had already caused cracks in its regenerating parts.
Each time the black panther missed its strike, the cracks widened, and its flesh and bone substances scattered in all directions.
Just like the initially fallen front paws, they melted the ground upon contact.
Near Jin and the black panther, numerous large holes had already formed.
Within those holes, an abyss of unknown depth, as seen when they descended to the lower levels of the inner world.
Like burning pieces of paper, the holes appearing on the ground continued to widen.
Only a few seconds had passed, but the destruction had already spread to the vicinity of their allies, who were positioned further back.
The nature of these holes remained unknown. Whether they connected to the lower levels of the inner world or if they were traps they shouldn’t fall into.
What was certain was that falling into those holes was exactly what the evil god desired.
Because of this, Jin halted the battle and considered the possibility of leaping toward his allies and to an area that had not yet been affected by the formation of holes.
However, an abyss had already formed between him and his allies, making it impossible to cross in one leap.
How did this happen so suddenly?
With each passing moment, the Eternal Flames clinging to the black panther had grown larger and more imposing.
It was no longer a black panther but a mass of flesh enveloped in blue flames.
Each time it moved, flesh splattered, instantly dissolving the space between Jin and his allies.
'The black panther was not created solely for combat. The evil god anticipated that I would use the Eternal Flames immediately and prepared this trap.'
In other words, this situation was a means for the evil god to avoid the Eternal Flames, a warning of the dire consequences that could unfold if Jin continued using them in combat—a warning that he might fall into an even more precarious situation.
For the moment, Jin created a path with his ice magic and leapt toward his allies.
If the ground kept collapsing at this rate, there would be no way to avoid the fall.
Therefore, it was better to stay close to his allies.
"Hold on to me!"
When Jin crossed the final ice path, he barely managed to grab Hedo's outstretched hand.
However, by then, over 90% of the ground had already melted away.
Even the black panther that had been pursuing Jin had fallen and was no longer visible.
In the end, the group found themselves clinging tightly to one another, bracing for the fall.
["When we fall, make sure not to let go of each other's hands. If it connects to the lower level, even a momentary release could cause us to be separated."]
As Alpen spoke, the group nodded in agreement, and when the last section of the ground disappeared, they began to descend.
Thud...!
Unlike before, the fall ended abruptly.
Upon landing, the group sighed in relief as they confirmed that they were all still holding hands.
However, as they looked around, they quickly realized that this was not a situation for relief.
"...How many are there?"
Black panthers swarmed in all directions.
At first glance, there seemed to be hundreds of them.
In the center, they could see the fallen black panther that had descended with them.
And it was going berserk, in agonizing pain, transferring the Eternal Flames that clung to it to the other black panthers, as if spreading a contagious disease.
The group instinctively imagined what would happen next.
From now on, all those black panthers would dissolve the ground with the exposed Eternal Flames.
If they couldn’t stop it, only one thing awaited them.
An endless fall.
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