Chapter 957

C957

‘Ha, my eyes…’

Zito’s vision was bathed in a brilliant light.

He felt a sharp light strike him between the eyes. Jin’s blazing golden sword energy was cleaving the abyss beneath the sky and cutting through Zito.

Crack, sizzle…

Zito’s head split in half. His dark, massive form was composed of flesh, bone, and organs like a human’s.

The pain that had continued since the day the Sun God died, and the torture he inflicted upon himself without a single day’s rest.

He hadn’t fought in his true form like this in a long time, but because of this, Zito’s body was less robust than other immortals of the same class.

The weak bones hidden beneath rock-hard skin were shattering. Zito’s skull was already split in half, and the golden sword energy poured out of it. Cerebral fluid burst forth and evaporated simultaneously.

Zito tried to stop the sword with his remaining arm, but it was futile. His fingers melted away, and his arm simply fell lifeless.

Meanwhile, the ring formed by Jin continued to press upon Zito. Initially, he had tried to use it as a shield to block the artificial sun’s explosion, but the ring contracted each time he resisted the explosion’s repercussions and shook Zito’s insides.

Space constantly warped as the deafening roar continued.

However, the space where Jin and Elona were remained untouched. Not even a wisp of smoke from the explosion could interrupt Jin.

[Gah, ugh…!]

Thud-!, Zito’s severed head fell to the ground.

The immortal’s body didn’t lose its function despite being so mangled. The altar of pain was brutally destroyed, and Zito looked at it through his split left and right eyes.

He could see the broken, bent, and scattered posts, and the clumps of soul and life hanging from them. Some were enveloped by Jin’s aura and turned into golden lumps, while others simply vanished and disappeared.

Zito couldn’t understand why there was a difference between their fates. All he felt was an indescribable sense of unease.

[Are you… claiming to be a true king like the Sun God? Who the hell are you to share his fate?]

Jin remained silent.

He was too focused on the Sun Splitter’s cut, and his voice wouldn’t have been heard even if he had responded. Jin himself didn’t know why the beings were distinguished from one another.

[Who do you think you are to ignore my pain like this? Heluram! I’m sure you’re watching right now. You should answer too. Why do I have to disappear here?]

Zito couldn’t look at the abyss. His eyes were fixed on the ground and couldn’t move.

[Don’t you know how I feel, Heluram? You said you respected the fate of immortals born as byproducts of the sun. Especially my life, which suffered the most. Come out, Heluram! Come out and tell me something I can understand…!]

At that moment, Jin’s sword touched Zito’s heart.

[Gah!]

The fear of death consumed him.

Zito didn’t have much tolerance for pain he couldn’t control, as demonstrated in his battle with Ayula and when he reached the abyss to retrieve the artificial sun.

“It seems we’re finally reaching the end, Zito.”

Elona said as she deflected the debris flying towards Jin.

Zito’s powers were weakening because his heart was being destroyed. Now, Elona experienced far less pain than before when making contact with Zito.

“It seems you relied heavily on the Witch Heluram. I also met her a thousand years ago. She was someone who seemed far from trustworthy.”

The artificial sun’s explosion didn’t reach Elona’s vicinity. The entire subspace was collapsing due to the explosion’s repercussions.

[All orphans must pay a fair price! Even if you try to stop me, the witch will do it in the end. She will punish the orphans. Kahaha…!]

A crazed laugh echoed.

Elona was instantly surprised by his persistence and stared at Zito’s body, which was beginning to disintegrate. She was impressed by Jin’s skill, who didn’t care about Zito’s madness and continued with the Sun Splitter’s cut.

[Don’t think you’ve won. You will never be able to live a secure life as long as the witch exists. Even if a new order arises in the world, it will eventually deteriorate and betray you.]

As Zito finished speaking, the golden sword energy finally split his heart in two.

Zito gasped for breath, and his dark purple heart slowly began to wither.

The hard lumps that had formed his heart burst, and the purple blood of pain gushed forth. The ground trembled with each drop that fell onto the surface. The extremely concentrated authority of the God of Pain was spiraling out of control and contaminating the subspace.

Surprisingly, the purple blood was even more threatening than the artificial sun. Just as Elona was trying to strengthen her shield due to the poisonous mist that arose when Zito’s flesh oxidized, Jin spoke.

“This kind of person always immolates themselves when they die.”

“Jin, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Now that I’ve cut his heart, we finally have time to talk. Although I’m a bit tired.”

Jin still held his blunt sword.

It seemed things would end as he had initially foreseen. Now that he had severed Zito’s head and heart, the only thing left was to completely destroy Zito’s body to prevent any possibility of him rising again.

The contraction of the golden rings accelerated.

The rings maintained the same brilliance as before and continued to squeeze Zito despite being closer to the purple blood and poisonous mist.

And they converged towards Jin’s sword energy little by little.

Each of those rings could be said to be a kind of magic composed of Jin’s true energy. Therefore, Jin had to completely recover the ring to properly recover later.

Of course, the last resort for Zito would be to break the rings. The battle may be over, but there’s no way he could let Jin go peacefully.

[You’ll come with me, Jin Runcandel.]

“If you wanted to make that happen even a little, you should have taken hostages somehow, like you did with Paellito.”

Zito’s purple blood and poisonous mist clung tenaciously to the rings. But Zito’s head and heart were severed, so his strength couldn’t overcome Jin’s regeneration authority.

“Honestly, I felt a little dizzy when you twisted the rings and recovered the artificial sun. Maybe you should have put more effort into breaking at least one ring instead of recovering the artificial sun back then. If you had, I wouldn’t be standing here like this now.”

Tsuuuaaak…!!

Finally, the blunt sword that had been cutting Zito’s body stopped, and the path where the sword had passed still shone brightly and hadn’t faded.

The rings gradually gathered along that sword path as if descending a road. Jin’s body, which had been as hot as lava, cooled with each ring that was absorbed.

Several seconds passed.

Zito’s voice was no longer heard. Only the poisonous mist arising from the lumps and his decaying dark flesh continued to stain the subspace.

Jin and Elona read Zito’s energy with their sharpened senses for about ten seconds. But they felt nothing.

Zito had vanished. The God of Pain and the ruler of the True Demon World for the longest time had disappeared without leaving a single word or legacy.

“Whew, what a pathetic end.”

Jin spoke as he slumped to the ground.

The price for forcibly using the Sun Splitter’s Cut was belatedly catching up to him. He felt he couldn’t take a single step unless he recovered some stamina.

“Thank you for your hard work. We’ve finally defeated that guy, Sir Jin…”

It was definitely a much easier victory than when he faced other transcendent beings like Glyek, the Evil God, or Paellito.

However, Jin wouldn’t have survived if Elona hadn’t arrived. Similarly, if Elona had faced Zito without Jin, she wouldn’t have been able to utilize her full power and might have fallen.

“We both won in our own way. I had planned to face Zito with Murakan, but at that time I thought I had no choice but to fight him alone, but then you appeared like a savior.”

Elona suddenly lifted Jin and placed him on her shoulder.

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to kidnap me while I’m weakened.”

“No way. It seems you’re getting a little slow due to exhaustion. Poisonous mists are flowing on the ground.”

“That was a joke. That filthy guy really knows how to wear people down to the very end.”

Bubbling…!! Sizzle!

The ground and walls of the subspace were boiling like a putrid swamp. The air became toxic and scorching. It couldn’t even leave a scratch on Elona’s rigid body and shield, but it was deadly for Jin in his current condition.

“I think Zito’s death is affecting the entire True Demon World right now. Most likely, the land across the True Demon World is boiling like this.”

“And for some reason, I feel like Zito’s remains are gathering in one place.”

“You’ve already recovered your senses that much? You read it correctly. All of Zito’s remaining energy that spread throughout the True Demon World, along with the residual energy of the artificial sun, is converging in one place.”

Jin and Elona intuitively thought of the same name.

“…Kelliark Zipple. It seems it’s him. If it’s not the witch.”

Jin felt uneasy remembering his face. It occurred to Jin that perhaps even Zito’s death might have been part of his plan.

“From my memory, the witch isn’t interested in powers like these. It’s likely Kelliark Zipple.”

Jin lightly touched Elona’s back.

“Don’t worry about Beradin. He won’t die until Murakan does. And right now, I can clearly feel that my Guardian Dragon is alive.”

“I know Murkan’s power at his best better than anyone. He’s also a terribly strong being.”

“Zito said Murakan is fighting Kelliark, so the battle is probably still ongoing.”

“I can still fight quite well thanks to the fact that you mainly handled Zito by yourself, Sir Jin.”

“I have to go save Beradin even if I don’t have the strength to hold a sword. I’ll recover as much as possible while relying on you until we reach where Zito’s energy is converging.”