C738
Jin's face contorted as he swallowed a sigh.
The fragnts of chains falling from Rosa's face descended slowly, as if frozen in ti.
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 mont.
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 seed entirely unhard...
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 seed to absorb light, eyes with a gleam of determination, a gaze that calmly and heavily pressed upon anyone who t 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 montarily 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 montarily 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 so sort of fragnt 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 ."
However, Rosa responded with a completely unexpected reply to Jin's words.
"Aren’t you trying to save because you know who I am?"
"What...?"
"Why are you referring to 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 seed genuinely alive. She seed like soone 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 all this ti is the sa as ?"
"What are you babbling about...?"
"Jin!"
"Twelfth Flagbearer!"
Urgent voices were heard from behind, belonging to Hedo and Octavia.
Swoosh!
At the sa ti, 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-ard ancient patriarch.
'...No, could it really be the ancient patriarch?'
Cutting the chains doesn’t necessarily an 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-ard 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 nurous 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 na is Jin... Jin Runcandel. Strange things are happening." Ｒ𝐀Νо𝔟ÈȘ
Rosa spoke as if she knew nothing.
"Shut up!"
Jin dashed towards Hedo.
He felt the need to buy him so ti 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 rembered during Rosa's ti as acting matriarch.
Jin decided not to think further about the evil deity’s intent.
Clang!
Jin’s sword clashed with the one-ard 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 on itself than being controlled by it.
Jin reactivated the eternal flas 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-ard ancient patriarch is another Rosa, but I need to confirm it.
He couldn’t simply dismiss the possibility of being a genuine forr patriarch like Alpen.
If he closed off that possibility due to overwhelming circumstances or doubts, it would an 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 sothing to say. However, she seed uncertain where to begin.
Without acknowledging Rosa's gaze, Jin extended his sword towards the one-ard ancient patriarch.
Even if it’s a trap, on. 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 mont when Jin and the one-ard ancient patriarch completed their hundredth exchange.
Hedo and Octavia rejoined the fray, and the intense battle between Alpen and Lyon also ca 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-ard ancient patriarch had wielded a flawless sword even without an arm, but that was the limit.
The one-ard 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 co out in person.
Clang...!
Bradamante uncovered a chain link that covered the ancient patriarch’s face.
The eternal flas spread through the cracks, lting the chain links.
Little by little, the face within the chain began to reveal itself, and once again, Jin's judgnt 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 mont, 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 imdiately and dodged the strike.
Only a few seconds remained for the eternal flas to completely consu 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 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 so 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 overwheld 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 an?"
"Do you still see as... the evil deity?"
"Why are you behaving like a human...?!"
Jin stopped speaking in astonishnt.
Rosa's face was much younger than he rembered, much younger than he thought.
Suddenly, Jin realized that Rosa had appeared with a youthful appearance since he cut the chains.
She looked like soone in her twenties, soone of his generation.
His heart sank.
Jin's breathing beca heavy.
"Now I vaguely understand the situation... Jin. You must be my son and Cyron's. Cyron and I decided to na our last child, Jin..."
/SHADOWK
-
(Up to '120' more ch4pt3rs)
-
Reviews
All reviews (0)