Chapter 101
"Run."
Jin felt as if his entire body was saying those words.
It was a lightning-fast warning.
A blaring red alarm echoing in his mind.
"Hey."
He called out to Kendrick beside him.
Had he sensed that something was wrong?
The response that came back was quieter than usual.
"What?"
"Should we bail?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I've never run away in my entire li—"
A brief silence.
It sounded like he swallowed dryly.
"…I'll consider it. For Zahad's future."
Even the proud Kendrick subtly changed his words.
This wasn't the time to worry about appearances.
At this moment, Jin and Kendrick realized the true nature of their opponent in different ways.
Jin glanced at his status window.
Kendrick recalled a lesson from his patriarch training.
And they both reached the same conclusion.
An Apostle.
It stood silently inside the sacred chamber.
Drops of blood dripped from its fingertips, creating a crimson stippling on the ceremonial robe beneath.
A breeze, summoned from somewhere, lifted the hood resting lightly upon its head.
And then, a face was revealed.
A closely cropped head of hair, with one eye concealed beneath an eyepatch.
A gaze colder than the lifeless swordsmen surrounding it.
That gaze was like a blade—just having it in one's sight felt as though it could slice through skin.
But there was no time to be frozen by phantom pain.
Behind that one-eyed figure, Jin could see the black stakes driven into the ground in all four cardinal directions.
And at their center, atop a stone pedestal, lay a long sword encased in a glass container.
Jin immediately recognized it as the relic mentioned by his status window.
In truth, it wasn't hard to figure out.
Even now, murky energy was seeping from the black stakes, slowly corroding the golden barrier surrounding the presumed relic.
So, we just have to stop it from taking that thing?
Jin chewed on his lip like a rice cake left out too long.
One obstacle after another.
Barely escaping the bloodstained giant tree, and now he was face-to-face with a monster that could cut a man down with its gaze alone.
Just what did the Sword Saint entrust me with?
The question echoed in his mind, fading without an answer.
A second stretched into an eternity as the Apostle finally spoke.
"…Zahad, is it? How?"
A question mark lingered at the end of the sentence.
It seemed the Apostle was also confused by the situation.
But unlike Jin, the Apostle found an answer on its own and murmured softly.
"So it was the Sword Saint after all. Is this what it means to have a will that touches the heavens? No wonder I was warned to be cautious."
Its gaze drifted into the distance.
Towards the arena.
As if it had locked eyes with someone.
"But we were faster."
It smiled.
And in the next moment, he was already in front of Jin and Kendrick.
Not even Jin's enhanced nervous system, reinforced by his rotation technique, could track the movement.
A metallic tang of blood lingered in the air left in its wake.
Whoosh.
In the stretched-out eternity of a single second, the Apostle's hands traced arcs of light.
A thrust with four fingers pressed together, excluding the thumb.
A straight trajectory, aimed at the heart.
At the same time—
Jin and Kendrick reacted.
Kendrick stomped down hard.
Using his planted foot as a pivot, he spun, generating a centrifugal force akin to a storm.
Dragon's Ascent.
A technique that restricted the opponent's movements while enhancing one's own.
A principle of the late strike prevailing over the early.
His swirling hand left zigzagging afterimages in the air.
He barely managed to intercept the Apostle's fingers as they closed in on his chest.
Clang!
A sound too loud to come from mere flesh meeting flesh.
And then—
Another impact.
Boom!
Beyond the shuddering air, Jin had forcefully deflected the Apostle's hand with the back of his own.
While Kendrick countered with technique, Jin relied purely on instinct to bridge the gap.
A case where the body moved before the mind.
If someone asked how he did it, his answer would be the same—
"I have no idea."
This too was a realm of natural talent.
An Irregular.
A body that evolves endlessly as long as it lives.
And so, it didn't end here.
The potential that dreamt of eternal growth refused to settle for mere defense.
Immediately—
From beneath the hand that had deflected the attack, Jin's fingers curled inward like a beast's claws.
Starting with the thumb and ending with the pinky, five fingertips crackled with lightning.
Crash!!
His arm came down with a thunderous roar.
Thunderbird's Claw.
But Jin refused to call it by that name, instinctively copying a move he had admired from a half-demon character in his childhood.
Thus, it became Mountain Soul Iron Claw!
The transition from defense to offense was seamless.
His curved fingers lashed toward the Apostle's chest.
And the recoil followed.
"…!"
Jin was violently thrown back by a sharp jolt of pain.
As was often the case with highly condensed power, if it failed to pierce its target, it exploded on impact.
A classic, unavoidable flaw.
In other words, Jin's attack had failed to break through the Apostle's flesh.
The next moment—
A hand burst through the hazy dust and clamped around Jin's head, slamming him into the ground.
His head hit first, sending his legs flailing into the air.
Not even Jin could withstand such an impact without his mind briefly shutting down.
And it did.
His upturned eyes failed to capture the Apostle's face looming above him.
But his subconscious remained alert.
Tight!
His hands clamped around the arm gripping his face—a silent testament to his survival instinct.
At the same time, Kendrick moved.
Jin had bought him a brief opening.
By now, he had completed his third rotation.
The momentum built into his next strike was immense.
Zap!
The Apostle flicked it away with a single hand.
Unlike Jin, who had countered Kendrick's Dragon's Ascent by rotating in the opposite direction, the Apostle didn't even bother.
It simply shattered the accumulated momentum with brute strength.
As if to say, "Only the weak rely on counter-techniques."
Gulp.
Blood welled up in Kendrick's throat.
Just like the day he lost to Jin, he had been struck down by the recoil of his own attack.
But this time, he wouldn't let it end the same way.
Boom!
Gritting his teeth, he stomped down, launching into his fourth rotation.
Gathering the swirling vortex that threatened to scatter, he spun once before colliding with the Apostle again.
And, as expected, he was sent flying.
His stance was in complete disarray.
Kendrick found himself at a crossroads in an instant.
Should he abandon the Dragon's Ascent technique and retreat, or take another step forward, fully prepared for death?
The Young Thunder Kingchose the latter without hesitation.
Thud!
The moment his fifth step—symbolizing his unwavering resolve—cracked the ground beneath him...
"...!"
Jin opened his eyes.
He was still clutching one of the Apostle's arms.
Since he had only lost consciousness for a brief moment, there was no hesitation in executing his next move.
From his fallen posture, he thrust his hips and waist upward, launching his heel straight up.
An upward kick that struck the Apostle's chin with explosive force.
His tightly coiled fast-twitch muscles unleashed their full power—
For a moment, the Apostle's head was thrown back.
At the same time, Kendrick stood before him.
Whoooosh—!
The currents that had wrapped around him five times had now transformed into a storm.
It began with his fist slamming into the Apostle's face with a deafening impact, followed by a lightning-fast barrage of consecutive strikes.
Each one was aimed at a vital point, a lethal blow without exception.
Naturally,
The Apostle's body trembled violently.
It jolted, shuddered, and then—
Suddenly, it dispersed into a crimson mist.
What?!
Jin had seen this before.
The moment his eyes widened in realization—
Fwoosh!
The blood mist was sucked into the swirling winds and began to circle Kendrick, forming a crimson vortex around him.
Then, an explosion.
The ensuing shockwave and deafening roar sent Jin tumbling across the ground.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
It was like skipping a stone across dry earth.
In the process of being flung about, he must have hit something wrong—his right field of vision went completely dark.
Sssshhh—!
As he hastily braced himself against the ground, his fingertips carved ten deep grooves into the dirt, tearing several fingernails loose.
But that didn't matter.
Jin scrambled to his feet, squinting against the wind whipping against his face, and looked ahead.
At the edge of his vision, he saw Kendrick collapsing, his body in shambles.
And next to him, the Apostle, taking on human form once more.
"...A vampire?"
"The successor of True Blood."
The only one of this era.
With that brief addition, the Apostle turned, and at the same time, Kendrick's head was driven into the ground.
"I didn't expect the grandson of Gabelus to be this formidable.The title of Young Thunder King is no empty boast—I acknowledge it.You had the shoulders broad enough to carry your family name."
Then, he pressed his foot down on the back of Kendrick's head.
Licking the blood trickling from his lips as he did so.
"But who are you?You weren't one of the variables we accounted for."
Jin didn't answer.
He simply watched the unmoving back of Kendrick's head before slowly raising his gaze.
His brow twisted.
Flames of fury burned in his eyes.
"Move your foot."
"I didn't quite catch that."
"I said, move your damn foot, you son of a bitch."
The Apostle shrugged.
And in response, he pressed down even harder.
Crack!
Kendrick's face was driven further into the ground, fresh blood pooling beneath him.
Jin launched himself forward.
As the scenery blurred past, the Polar Radiance sealed within his heart, which had never ceased its rotations, yielded its place to its dormant counterpart.
Fwoosh!
The flickering sparks of lightning faded, replaced by a translucent heat rising into the air.
"...What?"
The Apostle's single eye flickered with surprise.
Jin's fist slammed into his abdomen.
Even with his vision half-blurred, he struck precisely where the liver was located.
And for the first time, a crack appeared in the Apostle's brow.
Jin's fist hadn't suddenly become overwhelmingly strong.
It was simply a matter of compatibility.
A cause-and-effect relationship predestined long ago—
Since the moment the Blood King Janedin was defeated by the head of the Solard family.
The Apostle's head snapped back.
A burning sensation spread from his shattered jaw.
"...Bastard!"
The Apostle chanted an incantation even as his broken jaw mended itself.
But before he could finish—Jin's fist smashed into his face once more.
His body staggered backward before suddenly splitting into a swarm of bats.
A vast, overwhelming number of them—so many that they blackened Jin's entire field of vision.
So what?
Jin exhaled a surge of heat.
The mirage-like waves it generated swept through the bats like a fiery tide, reducing them to ash.
***
The flames that had once slain their king.
A pure, radiant blaze—光炎 (Radiant Flame).
A natural predator, in every sense.
Yet still—
The thousands of bats circled in the air.
And as the Apostle's fragmented consciousness divided among them, they all reached the same realization.
Everything about this was wrong.
How could the wielder of Polar Radiance also possess Solard's flames?
That alone was baffling, but there was something even more concerning.
Even if he was a natural enemy, the difference in power should have been absolute.
Could a rabbit, no matter how fierce, ever pose a threat to an elephant?
At most, it should have been crushed underfoot.
And yet, Jin defied that logic.
Even now.
Despite having already been struck by countless blood spells,
Despite staggering under their effects, he stubbornly kept moving forward.
The Apostle finally realized—
This wasn't just a matter of natural enemies.
Something far more fundamental was at play.
[What the hell are you?]
The same question as before, but now it carried an entirely different weight.
A voice filled with the certainty of facing something that absolutely must be destroyed.
Of course, Jin didn't answer.
Or rather, he didn't have the capacity to.
This guy is insane.
He had fought a Vampire Lord before.
Back then, a single burst of heat had been enough to make them shrivel up in agony.
But this one—this one was completely different.
An endless swarm of bats filled his vision.
Each one transformed into some kind of maddening spell.
Unlike those mindless creatures in the underground who only bit and clawed,These were weaponized, honed to a completely different level.
Explosions, piercing strikes, restraints, direct impact—Illusions and hallucinations twisted his senses.
His head pounded, his vision spun.
The accumulated shocks reached deep into his bones.
At this point, it was a miracle he was still standing.
In truth, he had no idea—
That thanks to the [Pure Flame] and [Devourer of True Blood],
Over 80% of the damage had already been mitigated.
All he knew was that he had to keep going.
No matter what, he had to drag that opponent—
That master of extreme out-fighting—
Back into his range.
By now, Jin's body was like a crumbling statue, eroded by endless spells.
If not for the recovery and resilience that even a True Blood Vampire would envy,
He would have collapsed long ago.
He deeply regretted that his manifestation of the Pure Flame wasn't as profound as Jahad's.
But he had no time for such thoughts—he focused solely on what he could do.
Enduring the incoming spells.
Reducing the seemingly endless swarm of bats, one by one.
His flame-wrapped fist burst another bat out of the air.
But nothing lasts forever.
Kwaaang!!!
A bombardment of magic struck him from both front and back, flipping his vision upside down.
This marked the tenth time he had blacked out.
But for the eleventh time, he clawed his way back to consciousness.
However, his body no longer listened.
His upper body tilted back.
His legs, drained of strength long ago, failed to keep him upright.
The moment Jin collapsed onto his back—
Thud.
Someone caught him from behind.
"This isn't the place for you to die, Jin."
A gentle voice followed, carrying the scent of elegant roses.
"…You."
"Just rest for a moment."
Beyond his blurry vision, a beautiful face curved into a dangerous smile.
Jin, now lying softly on the ground, coughed as he gazed forward.
Clicking footsteps moved away from him.
There was no mistaking it—that was Michelle's figure.
"I can't allow anyone to touch my treasure."
And in the next instant—
From behind her, a pair of massive wings unfurled.
Scattering jet-black feathers, reminiscent of a raven.