Chapter 956

C956

Zito continued to torment Jin even at that moment through his contact with Elona.

He was doing so to create any small opening he could. Zito would never emerge unscathed if the Sun Splitter Cut was fully executed.

‘Damn it, perhaps it would have been better to fight someone like Ayula. This kind of power is something even most immortals can’t possess in the first place.’

Zito knew better than anyone that all of Hell was briefly tainted with Jin’s golden energy.

As far as Zito knew, there were no more than three immortals capable of filling the entire Land of Pain with a power that wasn’t demonic energy.

‘I was sure Jin Runcandel could find a way to defeat me, but… I never imagined it would be to this extent. What the hell? Could a mortal truly possess this much power, or was it granted to him by the Witch?’

However, now wasn’t the time to be surprised.

A massive golden swamp large enough to swallow a god was opening in front of him. He had to use all the unique means and abilities he had been saving to survive.

[It’s a shame, Jin Runcandel, but I have to give you up. I’ll save Orgal for the future.]

Zito’s true form quickly became clearer.

At the same time, a surge of demonic energy emanated from him and pushed away the golden energy that had been accumulating around him. He decided to target Elona first instead of Jin.

He judged that the ‘resonance’ between Elona and Jin, who shared pain, needed to be severed to stop this sword.

“Kuk!”

As Zito anticipated, Elona immediately reacted to the mental attack and staggered backward. Zito intended to use Elona as a hostage to temporarily delay Jin’s attack.

However, Elona had now recovered her memories of her glorious days. Thanks to those memories, the dark past that resurfaced through the mental attack couldn’t shake Elona like before.

Zito’s fist struck the ground where Elona had been standing, and the ground exploded and collapsed. Elona managed to swiftly move behind Jin unharmed.

‘Ah…!’

Elona inwardly sighed as she lifted her head and looked ahead, momentarily forgetting the pain.

A massive golden ring was encircling Zito. He was struggling to break free from the ring, but a purple shockwave emanated from the outside of the ring with each attempt, followed by a deafening roar.

Then, another identical ring formed as Jin retrieved his sword and swung it at Zito once more.

In this way, a total of four rings bound Zito. The rings intersected each other and completely blocked all sides of Zito.

Zito’s arm or leg would peek out from the rings at times. But the golden energy illuminating the surroundings would surge and corrode the parts of Zito’s body that protruded.

‘This is… different from the Sun Splitter Cut Temar used.’

Elona recalled how Temar had used the Sun Splitter Cut. The sword Jin had used now had the same element, but its form was completely different from Temar’s sword.

Jin hadn’t directly inherited the Sun Splitter Cut from Temar. He was attempting to replicate the sword he had briefly glimpsed in Kaytam’s painting world, so it had to be different.

However, in Elona’s eyes, Jin’s sword didn’t seem inferior to Temar’s. In fact, it felt even more stable. And Zito couldn’t break free from the rings and continued struggling.

“Huff…!”

Jin sheathed his sword and gasped heavily. Sweat and blood constantly evaporated from his body, which was as hot as lava.

“That was close.”

“Do you have the strength to cut him?”

“Yes. I managed to keep him restrained to prevent his escape, but it seems my stamina has been affected.”

“It’s because of me, right?”

“That’s not true. If the resonance hadn’t occurred, it wouldn’t have been easy to seize this opportunity in the first place. I can use this sword by just sharing some of the pain, so it’s a cheap price to pay.”

Jin looked into Elona’s eyes.

“From now on, I’ll pour all my will into cutting him. It will probably be the longest single strike I’ve ever made since I first held a sword.”

The Sun Splitter Cut that Temar executed at his prime a thousand years ago was similar to an extremely fast strike in terms of its form.

Initially, Jin had tried to cut Zito using the same method. However, the reality of the great evil called Zito that he faced in actual battle was something that could never be brought down in an instant.

Jin decided it would be right to use an extremely heavy and blunt sword, much like the sword Cyron had shown him when he returned to the Garden of Swords after the end of his career as a Provisional Flagbearer.

This was why he had intentionally created the rings, which weren’t present in Kaytam’s painting.

“Are you saying you expect me to handle all the variables that have occurred in the meantime?”

Jin nodded.

“Yes, Elona Zipple. It seems we communicate quite well.”

“Yes, I feel as if I’ve met an old friend. I will fulfill my promise and confront my past once we defeat that evil monster together.”

“I’m glad you think so. It seems there are still some memories surfacing in your mind.”

“These are the memories of the only time I couldn’t hate myself. I will make sure my patriarch doesn’t have to go through the same experience as I did.”

Elona extended her fist towards Jin. He chuckled and bumped fists.

[*Kaaaaa!*]

Zito’s struggle was intensifying. However, the rings binding him remained firmly in place, not moving an inch. Only shockwaves continued erupting from the rings, causing explosions across the battlefield.

Jin focused again and fell silent.

Now, his sight was solely fixed on Zito. His insides were filled with the will to defeat Zito, and his body seemed to exist solely to kill Zito.

Even an ordinary human could kill Jin in his current state. His body and his inner self were completely focused on Zito, and he hadn’t used any means to protect himself from external attacks.

It was now Elona’s time to watch over Jin.

Elona’s head felt like it would explode every time it came into contact with Zito’s energy. However, she tightly gripped her staff.

[*Ahhh… Do you think I’ll end like this?*]

Zito screamed as he clung to the central ring.

Jin began to swing his sword. The blade moved downwards like a slowly sinking glacier, without even making a sound.

The light flowed extremely slowly.

Zito looked at the light forming before his eyes along the trajectory of the sword.

He had to resist or kill Jin before the light reached him, preventing him from completing the Sun Splitter Cut.

[*Kaaaa!*]

Zito began pushing the ring he was holding. His hands gripping the ring disintegrated and regenerated repeatedly. And purple ashes flew.

Slowly, the ring began to move. It seemed it would take a long time for Zito to completely break free. But Jin’s sword would reach Zito’s head before that.

However, Zito’s goal wasn’t to escape the ring.

‘I’ve got it!’

He intended to open the hermetically sealed sky of the abyss. He had been careful not to open the abyss until now, but this time, he had to use the abyss. Zito extended his arm through the gap created in the rings.

*Squeeze!* Soon he clenched his fist, and the sky distorted. The abyss was revealed once more.

Zito ruthlessly thrust his arm into it. Zito screamed in agony as his arm entered the abyss. It was a pained scream that didn’t match his previous cries of pleasure when experiencing pain.

[*Grr… Gah…!]

Zito seemed to be searching for something in the abyss for a while, like a person rummaging through a box.

Elona extended her mana towards Zito’s arm, but she couldn’t land a substantial blow on Zito with her current willpower.

Still, she couldn’t amplify her mana further to increase the destructive power. And if she forced things further, she would probably interfere with Jin’s sword.

‘He’s trying to retrieve something… That is…!?’

Zito’s arm was emerging from the abyss again.

He had a pale, shining sphere in his hand. It was relatively small, but Elona could feel the immense power contained within the sphere.

The artificial sun.

It was practically the heart of the True Demon World, and now it rested in Zito’s hands. It was Zito’s final card.

[*Jejejeje, Jin Runcandel. This time was truly dangerous… But if this explodes, it’s the end for both of us.*]

Zito clenched his fist without a moment’s hesitation. At the same time, his arm disintegrated into particles, and light spread in all directions.

However, the ring encasing Zito turned into a shield and redirected most of the power of the artificial sun’s explosion towards Jin and Elona.

Zito used the ring to withstand the explosion and chuckled.

Darkness descended upon the True Demon World, just as the golden energy briefly enveloped the entire True Demon World when Jin executed the Sun Splitter Cut.

There would be no light in the True Demon World for a while with the destruction of the sun.

[*In the end, I only need Orghal Remilias! I was too greedy and almost killed myself. I’m fed up. Goodbye, Jin!*]

Jin gritted his teeth as he listened to Zito’s distant voice mixed with the sounds of the explosion.

However, he wasn’t angry about the unexpected upheaval, nor did he think he couldn’t complete the Sun Splitter Cut.

In fact, his victory seemed even more certain now, as long as he didn’t let go of his sword.

“That was really tense, but is this your last move?”, Elona said as she used her magic to block the explosion in front of Jin.

Zito couldn’t comprehend it.

He expected Elona to be able to block some of the artificial sun’s explosion, but he never imagined it would be this easy for her.

Elona completely blocked the explosion, so Jin could swing his sword without any obstacles. The blade was now approaching Zito.

[*How… how are you blocking this? Isn’t it difficult at all?*]

“I don’t need willpower to block this. I’m not killing a transcendent being like you, but simply blocking a force that’s simply powerful… let’s say I’m also useful sometimes. The power I possess exists for moments like this, for people like this. I’ve forgotten that fact for too long.”

*Huaaah…!*

Elona swung her staff, and the artificial sun’s explosion split, and began to carve a path.

Jin was completing the trajectory of his sword along that path.