CHAPTER 718

[T.L: punisher87]

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Outside of Rikalton, the battlefield of Jin and Diphus.

The wasteland was being torn apart.

The surging energy emanating from the Thunderblade Sigmund swept through the sky and the earth like a massive storm.

It had been a considerable amount of time since the two of them teleported from Rikalton Castle.

Despite the intense battles that had been raging across the entire terrain of the wasteland, neither of them had suffered any significant injuries.

They were unable to land a decisive blow on each other.

Jin was wasting more energy. 

This was because Diphus easily dodged and counterattacked through flight, Jin had to continue spreading his energy throughout the entire battlefield to pressure him.

However, even though Jin was "wasting" his strength, it was not lacking.

As time passed, Diphus marveled at the increasingly concentrated energy Jin was exerting, even without receiving such abilities himself.

[This kind of power without being endowed with power like me...…. I can see why you rebelled against our mother. You wouldn't have felt the need.]

Diphus spoke while dodging a lightning bolt.

[But not everyone can do what you can.]

Jin didn't respond and focused his gaze on the moment before the lightning struck the ground, disappearing somewhere.

'This isn't the first time. It has been happening since earlier... My attacks that the Fourth flagbearer evaded or repelled are vanishing.'

At first, Jin didn't notice. The intensity of their clash made it impossible to detect the faint traces of his missed lightning bolts.

However, the balance of their battle was now shifting. The taut rope was being pulled slightly towards Jin's side.

And there was only one reason for it.

Even if Diphus received a portion of Rosa's power, he couldn't surpass Jin in strength.

Even if he were at full strength, the situation would be the same. Diphus had suffered irreparable damage from the eternal flames and had forcefully used teleportation, widening the gap even faster.

'Where do my vanished attacks go? Do they somehow return to the Fourth Flagbearer through some method, or...'

[It seems like you're concerned about those remaining in Rikalton Castle. You just started pushing me back and if your focus keeps wavering like this...]

Zzzap!

Diphus flicked his Volgar and spoke. Jin raised Sigmund, firing off a lightning blast, but once again, the missed attack vanished before their eyes.

"Focus, will you? It doesn't seem like dealing with missed attacks is an action meant for our fight," Jin said unexpectedly, as he simultaneously retrieved all the dispersed energy on the battlefield.

Diphus descended slowly, shrugging his shoulders.

[You have a keen eye. I didn't expect you to notice so soon.]

"If I were worried about my comrades, I would have found a way to return to Rikalton Castle. I didn't come here to engage in a slow and steady fight with you."

Jin changed his sword.

"To be honest, I don't really know why you follow up on missed attacks. But it doesn't matter now. The exploration phase is over, and you won't have the luxury to do such things anymore..."

A white aura enveloped Bradamante.

The serene and shining aura emitted an entirely different atmosphere from the violent energy that had been trampling the wasteland.

[Do you think it's okay to forsake your lightning energy and shadow force and rely on inferior power?] Diphus asked.

Jin changed his sword to minimize missed attacks.

The nature of the lightning energy was excessively ferocious, inevitably leading to numerous attacks slipping away.

Also, the reason why Jin chose aura instead of shadow force was for the purpose of conserving strength.

'He is confident that he can't defeat me. He's already fighting with the assumption of his own defeat,' Jin realized.

Indeed, ever since the operation began, Diphus' every move had been meticulously calculated to buy time.

Separating Jin from his allies, unleashing illusionary magic towards Zipfel's side, and deploying the majority of his troops towards Kinzelo.

Even now, it was the same. Diphus was fighting in a half-hearted manner, dealing with missed attacks.

Jin concluded that all these actions were meant to assist Rosa's intervention.

Another evidence is Orgal and Syris. 

Even though a considerable amount of time had passed since Jin separated from the group, there was still no news of the teleporters among his allies.

'Currently, there is no one in the Garden of Swords faction that can handle Orgal and Kinzelo except for the evil god. But the reason people with teleportation abilities can't find me is because Orgal is tied up somewhere.'

If Orgal had been with the allies in Rikalton Castle, he would have already sorted out the situation and started looking for Jin.

In particular, with Orgal's ability, he should have visited Jin several times.

And there was only one existence in the Garden of Swords that could bind Orgal like that.

Evil God, Rosa.

Orgal is currently unable to join the battlefield to prevent her participation.

Jin had to conserve his energy because he needed to support Orgal after dealing with Diphus.

"Are you sure it's okay? All the things you've done so far... that's not something elder brother Diphus would say. He was someone who only fought with his sword. He later expressed his intention to participate in the return of the magic sword for the sake of the clan, but he still revered the sword. Because we're swordsmen."

So, show me the essence of being a swordsman.

Immediately after Jin finished speaking, Diphus felt a momentary sensation of pure whiteness obscuring his vision. 

What blocked his sight was the blade of Bradamante.

Due to being accustomed to the speed of the lightning bolts, his reaction was delayed.

With a speed surpassing thought, Jin unfolded Runcandel's decisive killing move.

Runcandel 6th Decisive Killing move: Lightning.

The decisive killing move that Dipus used in the first mission to kill Barton with Jin. Jin chose the sword as a start.

Diphus hurriedly stepped to the side and spread his wings.

However, in the place where he flew up, another decisive killing move of Runcandel was already descending.

Runcandel 3rd decisive killing move: Meteor shower.

There was nowhere to escape.

Suddenly, hundreds of sword energies covered the sky, piercing through the clouds and disorienting Diphus' vision.

The rapidly escalating speed of the battle was disorienting, but up to this point, Diphus was capable enough to fend off the attacks.

He could have easily redirected the missed attacks towards Rikalton Castle. 

However, Jin had already anticipated that he wouldn't have that luxury.

That meant he had thoroughly learned all of Diphus' patterns and responses during the exploration phase.

Diphus not only had the luxury of dealing with missed attacks, but he also had no room to catch his breath and relentlessly pressed on.

As Diphus blocked the five streams of meteor shower and tried to send the deflected attacks towards Rikalton, Jin had already twisted his body along the altered trajectory of the meteor shower and unfolded a new sword.

Supreme ruler Sword 1st Decisive killing move: Meteor Shatter.

This time, contrary to the meteor shower, the sight of sword energies soaring from the ground continued.

Unlike the true Supreme ruler Sword unfolded by Ron, the sword energies didn't shine with an ashen light, but Jin had acquired the sword technique by changing what he had seen in the Sword Emperor castle war to the Runcandel style. He received help from Battle god Vahn when training in Laprarosa.

With the clash between the meteor shower and the Meteor Shatter centered around Diphus, one of Diphus' wings was torn apart.

'Regeneration takes 2 seconds.'

No matter how fast, it took 2 seconds. It was the speed at which Jin had confirmed Diphus' wings being torn apart several times with the battle god move earlier.

However, Jin prepared the next sword even faster.

Runcandel's 5th secret technique: Light speed thrust.

Due to the constant fluctuation caused by unleashing multiple decisive killing moves at once, his center of gravity kept shifting. However, Jin demonstrated the overwhelming speed of unfolding the light-speed thrust even faster than 2 seconds.

The light speed thrust pierced through Diphus' remaining wing

'Four seconds until the aura backflow calms down.'

The backflow did break out. Jin closed the distance while calmly calming the backflow, and the fallen Diphus regained his stance and fend off the remaining sword energies from the meteor shower.

Diphus couldn't follow up on the missed attacks as he was busy defending against Jin's onslaught.

After 4 seconds, the distance between Jin and Diphues was twenty steps.

And Jin's aura backflow completely stopped progressing, and Diphus's wings were on the verge of regenerating.

'By now, he must have realized. No matter what he does, my sword is faster than his regeneration.'

As expected, instead of struggling to keep the distance, Diphus approached Jin and swung the Volgar.

A huge blade soaked in chaos fell on Jin's head.

However, the move that Jin prepared while switching swords was the end of this fight.

'However, he may think that I don't have enough time to open the eternal flame.'

It was true. In such a desperate battle, even Jin couldn't fully unfold eternal flame.

So he had to accumulate the time to unfold eternal flame little by little, always staying slightly ahead in the battle.

He had to push Diphus back step by step until there was a cliff behind him.

Runcandel's 1st Decisive killing move: Heaven Shatter.

Among the legacy left behind by Jorden, the pinnacle decisive killing move of the clan.

When Bradamante was thrust into the ground, Diphus, who was charging forward, realized too late what that action was for.

"You have good instincts. It must be thanks to the memories of elder brother Diphus."

But it's too late.

The aura that had eroded underground was exploding, creating a massive sword energy that split the earth and sky in half.

Diphus hurriedly stepped to the side, but even from that direction, the Heaven Shatter's sword energy shot up.

Even the fragments of aura left in the sky by the meteor shower and Meteor Shatter were being swept away and pulverized by the Heaven Shatter.

[Kraaah...!]

The shattered fragments of the meteor shower stabbed into Diphus' back, and the Heaven Shatter sword energy was piercing the ground more fiercely, raging towards the sky.

Among them, there was a scene where one of them swallowed Diphus' freshly regenerated left wing and left arm.

If it had been his right arm holding Volgar, the battle would have ended at this point.

However, the battle continued, but the outcome had already been decided long ago.

Jin was certain of that. Diphus, too, had entered the battle with the expectation of defeat from the beginning.

Even though he knew he would lose, Diphus had pulled Jin into the battlefield to provoke a one-on-one duel.

To buy time for Rosa.

And to plunge Jin into despair.

Thinking of his intentions, Jin clenched his teeth once.

"In the end, when I kill you... do you think I will despair? Don't delude yourself, 4th flagbearer. Elder sister Mary and I have already prepared to send elder brother Diphus."

With eyes wide open, Jin finished the Heaven Shatter and swung his sword at Diphus once again.

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