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The golden light energy enveloped Jin's body.
The light was so bright that it seemed like it would blind one's eyes. Paellito clenched his teeth while shielding his eyes with one hand. The divine energy held his demonic energy in check.
"Holy Queen...!"
Paellito tried to thrust his sword further, but it remained firmly fixed in Jin's heart and did not move at all.
'What kind of power is this for someone who should already be dead!'
Paellito couldn't budge Jin's hand that held the blade even though he had overwhelmed Hedo with his physical strength. He pulled so hard that his expression contorted, but Bascala showed no sign of moving.
Jin's right arm, which had been as stiff as stone and his fingers were falling off just moments ago, was engulfed in golden energy and gradually returning to its original form.
Even his severed left arm and other damaged body parts were regenerating into the same state. His eyes, which had dulled, regained their intense glow, and his once ice cold body was now filled with warmth. The black blood flowing from his heart was rapidly diminishing.
Jin seemed to be resurrecting.
Paellito continued to exert all his strength to remove Bascala while trembling with horror at this terrifying fact. He pulled with both hands, struck Jin's face and chest with his fists, and even tried to bite his throat.
"Kaaaah!"
However, there was no damage to Jin at all. Instead, Paellito felt the excruciating pain as his fists and teeth crsuhed.
Slish...!
Soon, Jin removed Bascala from his body. In the process, Paellito exploded his demonic energy several times, but it only resulted in him and the sword being bounced away.
Paellito, who was pinned to the ground, looked up with a bewildered expression. Jin was floating a step or two above the ground and stared down at him without any expression. He had completely recovered as if all his wounds had never existed.
The entire sky was bathed in the golden energy emanating from him. No matter where Paellito looked, he saw only a blindingly intimidating landscape. He hastily adjusted his stance and prepared for an attack.
However, Jin had no intention of immediately thrusting his sword. The situation had suddenly reversed.
"Jin, I'm sorry. All that the Holy Kingdom and I can do... is to postpone your death."
Lani spoke as if she collapsed and sank to the ground. Jin turned around to look at her.
Lani's breathing was heavy and she was gradually fading away. Soon, she would become completely transparent and vanish.
It's impossible to completely resurrect Jin.
Lani felt sorry and angry about this fact and shed tears. Despite Ayula sending all her remaining true energy and the entire Holy Kingdom had prayed fervently, they couldn't bring Jin back to life.
Lani, too, was now about to face her own extinction.
"That's enough. So, wait until the fight ends."
Lani wanted to reply that it couldn't be possible and she wouldn't be able to say farewell, but she disappeared before she could say something. A lump of light remained in her place, it was something that shouldn't have existed in the first place.
Even Ayula, who had brought Lani here, hadn't expected this turn of events. Jin couldn't take his eyes off the light for a while.
And Paellito thought that Jin must be suffering. That he was experiencing the pain of losing a close friend right in front of his eyes.
"Puhaha... it seems the dreaded immortal Ayula has sacrificed herself to postpone your death. Yet, you couldn't protect her. Do you have any worth at all? Worth enough for Ayula to give up all her powers?"
Jin didn't hear Paellito's voice that was filled with malice and resentment.
He was concentrating. He wanted to know what this remaining light was, that was left in place of Lani and when he had faced it before.
It didn't take him long.
'Sword Emperor Castle.'
The place where Glyek had swallowed him and Ron during the Sword Emperor Castle War.
Jin had encountered this light before, back when Ron Hairan had finally overcome the chaos and reached the Genesis knight's domain.
At that time, Jin had only faced that light but hadn't seen it directly with his eyes since he wasn't a Genesis Knight. He was aware only of the fact that Ron had shared a part of that light to save him.
Unlike that time, Jin could now clearly stare at the light of the Genesis knight with his own eyes. He could tell that the wall blocking the light had vanished.
'The light of the Genesis knight…'
He had imagined it countless times since his previous life.
Jin had thought every day about the moment of becoming the Genesis knight, the moment he used that power to stand tall at the pinnacle of the world like his father.
But it didn't bring him as much excitement as he had imagined.
Because becoming a Genesis knight didn't solve all the problems. Somewhere along the way, Jin had come to see Genesis knight not as the final point of achievement as a martial artist but as a means to achieve his dreams.
Putting an end to all crazy people who threaten his life, people, and the world, and entering a peaceful era.
And thus, as a regressor, he would get rid of all the burdens he bore for the world and put an end to the long struggle that had continued since his previous life.
Becoming a Genesis knight is the process he must go through to achieve that.
For the first time in a long while, he had overcome a major hurdle. Jin left the remaining light that was in Lani's place and turned around.
It was then that Paellito recognized it.
"Ah... You. You're... in the same domain as me. Just a temporary power obtained from Ayula's energy... isn't that right?"
"It's true that Lady Ayula postponed my demise through Lani. But the fact that I awakened immediately after death is something even Lady Ayula didn't seem to know."
Fate, Paellito couldn't help but think of that word.
'Is the fate of a regressor truly superior to all other fates? Can a mere mortal, a human, dare to possess such a fate?'
If that was the case, then Paellito could never defeat Jin. The fate given to Paellito was undoubtedly lower in rank than that.
He felt unjust.
Throughout their encounters, he had never once been in danger and overpowered Jin and his party, and even spared Jin's life several times.
The gap in fate seemed to enforce his defeat. No matter how strong he was, no matter what he did, it seemed like fate was telling him that he couldn't defeat Jin Runcandel. Even if Jin admitted defeat and knelt down, fate wouldn't allow it.
Jin saw through his thoughts.
"That's right."
"...What did you say?"
"If the Sun God had continued to exist in this world, or if the order of pain you always preached had been established in the world, I probably wouldn't have had any means to defeat you. Because that would have gone against the order."
Jin slowly approaches Paellito.
"But the ground you're standing on now is not such a terrifying world, Paellito. There's nothing predetermined here... Anything can change at any moment, and the results can always be different. That's the world we know, the order we know."
"Shut up!"
Kwahng!
Paellito rushed forward and swung Bascala downward. Jin easily parried it and effortlessly disrupted his stance.
"Ugh!"
"Right now, you probably can't understand what I just said. You and your kind are using evil to shackle yourselves. That's why Zito clings to the order. He wants to enjoy pain safely without fighting."
"Shut up!"
Heugh!
Paellito exhaled a gasp. His body was trembling from an unexpected shock as he tried to block Jin's sword. The flying sword had grazed his forehead and sliced through his upper arm before he could even blink.
Paellito was completely unable to respond to this sudden counterattack. The majesty of the Sword Demon that had once cleaved the sky and the earth seemed completely like a lie now.
And it wasn't just because Jin had become Genesis knight.
It was because inner demon had swallowed up Paellito. If Paellito had been in this state from the beginning, Jin and his group would have easily subdued him.
"Paellito Belgasyum, how did you come to this?"
Paellito had no time to answer. Jin was looking at Paellito's shadow, while extending his sword.
Thanks to Genesis Knight's insight, he could vaguely see glimpses of Paellito's past, when he had led the resistance before being brainwashed by Zito.
"You were undoubtedly someone who fought for a cause. You fought for the world without feeling the debt of a regressor, with an unshakable resolve. At that time, you would have possessed the most radiant willpower in the True Demon World. Countless people would have gathered under that light."
Jin felt admiration for that past Paellito.
He felt a sense of camaraderie, a desire to fight together, and the belief that even if they had only known each other for a short time, they could have entrusted their backs to each other.
But the monster currently using evil was not that person.
"Kaaah…..!"
"I felt you from back then, but I cannot forgive you."
Suak-!
Bradamente passed through Paellito's left arm. Paellito's left arm fell to the ground and disintegrated into particles.
It was thanks to the faint senses of the Genesis knight remained within him. Without that, it would have been his neck that was severed, not his arm.
Paellito was constantly thrown everywhere and spewing blood just like he had done to Jin earlier.
Occasionally, the powers of the demon gods embedded in Bascala blocked Jin's path. However, no plague or curse could threaten Jin anymore.
His shadow force that had been blocked in Bascala has returned.
The darkness of his Shadow Force was spreading through the golden light that had transformed into the aura after Jin became a Genesis Knight.
Paellito wanted to move away from the light and darkness, but everywhere he turned, it was a dead end.
"You've killed too many people. Brainwashing can't be an excuse. Even if you were a radiant being, even if you saved countless of your kin from Zito, in the end, you're going to face someone like me if you became a monster."
Paellito suddenly felt the sensation of a wall behind him. The shadow force curtain was like a massive wall blocking his retreat.
Jin knew that from today onward, the human world would never forget Paellito's massacres and destruction. The day when his great past would be used to justify his sins would never come.
But when Zito died, perhaps there would be people in the netherworld who would revere Paellito. Jin thought about this as he looked down at Paellito.
Paellito had stuck Bascala into the ground and was holding a black marble in his hand.
'...chaos energy?'
Jin immediately recognized the element that formed the marble. It was the marble that Kelliak had given to Paellito.
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