'Did it just laugh?'
Jin definitely saw it. Despite having a face completely different from a human, the expression distinctly gave off a sinister vibe.
However, there was no time to think about such things. Because in an instant, all the strength he had trained all his life disappeared.
Jin couldn't even feel a trace of the aura and mana that were close to 10-star. It was as if it had never existed in the first place.
"You must be feeling a sense of loss, brother Jin. But you just have to reclaim it from chaos."
Naturally, it was not as easy as it sounded.
But instead of despairing, Jin raised his head and glared at Chaos.
'There is no choice anyway.'
Come to think of it, it wasn't such a bad situation. If Jin had arrived at Laprarosa a little late, he would have been attacked by that chaos monster without knowing why.
Although he lost his aura and mana, most of the many formidable enemies that Jin had fought so far had much stronger power than him.
Fighting against stronger opponents and winning somehow was one of the things Jin did best.
The entity of chaos was looking at Vahn with a smiling face.
'It is very afraid of sister battle god. It is revealing it all by rolling eyes without thinking about it.'
Fear is a weakness. In that sense, Chaos looked very immature in Jin's eyes. Chaos isn't the only one who recognizes Jin as Vahn's weakness.
"Sister battle god. This situation is definitely purification, not training, right?"
"Yes. I'm not lying to train my brother. Indeed, that's something neither I nor the other brethren can do for you."
"Yes, I didn't ask because I thought sister battle god might have deceived me for training."
"Then?"
"Since it wasn't training, I was wondering if I could get help from my brethren in case of an emergency."
Vahn nodded.
"Of course it is possible."
Sss...
The straps of the extraction aid device tied to Jin's head were released. Jin, who slowly got up, picked up Sigmund.
Habits are scary.
He naturally tried to imbue the sword with lightning energy, but there was no response at all. Even Sigmund felt heavy without the power of the aura that always supported the body.
Chaos once again laughed at that part.
"That means I will never die fighting it."
The Plutonians could not directly hit Chaos, and if Jin was in danger, they could always save him.
"Of course you will not be crippled."
"Also, if it harms me beyond recovery. The brethren will definitely take revenge."
"I will always personally witness the fight between Brother Jin and chaos, so there will be no such incidents. However, if that thing kills you through a method we can't get involved with. At that time, I will definitely take revenge."
The corners of Chaos's mouth, which had been subtly sneering, stiffened.
'It has the intelligence to understand words, but does it have the ability to think only one step ahead? It keeps revealing superficial intentions.'
Jin doesn't know exactly how much power chaos possessed, but even the energy it took away from him was at a level close to 10-star. Besides, it has chaos energy, so it is highly likely that it was a formidable opponent even before Jin lost his strength.
It was fortunate for Jin that its intelligence was low.
"Are you going to fight right now?"
"Yes, sister battle god."
As Jin slowly began to approach, Chaos also spread its wings and got up. Its shadow covered Jin and Vahn.
'The feeling of intimidation... is no joke.'
Jin felt even more so because he had lost his strength. Jin was even convinced that he would die if chaos just lifted its front paw and pressed down as if it was killing a bug.
A nervous laughter escaped Jin due to the trembling helplessness. Jin's battle prowess, who had been engaged in sleepless sparring with the battle kings of the Plutonian tribe until just 30 minutes ago, had truly disappeared.
However, the confrontation between Jin and the chaos was progressing somewhat strangely.
The closer Jin got, the more it stepped back. Of course, it's not because Chaos is afraid to fight Jin.
It was because Vahn is about five steps behind Jin, preparing for any unforeseen circumstances.
'Is this what it felt like to fight with someone behind you?'
The two eyes of the Vahn were emitting blazing bloodlust towards the chaos. It was a look that quietly said, "Sit still and let brother Jin take his strength, then die quietly."
Jin was frustrated by the chaos that only widened the distance, and it's a worthy death for chaos.
"Hmm."
In the end, Jin started charging first. Chaos also tried to increase the distance faster, but when it met the blazing eyes of Vahn, chaos was unable to move as it wished.
And Jin was shocked by the fact that he was so 'slow'. A body that is not assisted by an aura is almost nothing more than a low-level martial artist.
Anyway, Jin vigorously thrust out his sword.
He couldn't leap all the way to Chaos's head, so his striking point was chaos's front feet. With full force in his abdomen and a powerful swing, the downward slash produced a quaint little impact sound— not a slash, not a clang, not a thud, but a cute little 'pong'! It once again shattered Jin's posture.
Even that wasn't the end.
Even though Jin himself attacked, he even bounced back because of the repulsive force of the protective shield that chaos reflexively deployed.
"Cough!"
* * *
Surprisingly or unfortunately.
It was only a full day later that Jin opened his eyes. To him, it felt like he had merely blinked once.
"Ha...."
As soon as Jin woke up, he sighed involuntarily.
Jin could quickly grasp the situation from the worried faces of his brethren looking down at him.
"Brother Jin! You woke up. Are you okay?"
"Hey, don't try to get up right away. Your bones are not fully healed yet."
"Bones? Did my bones break?"
"About seventeen... Normally, if it were your sturdy body, they would heal quickly, but it'll take some time now."
Only bones and organs were damaged thanks to training his blessed muscles to the limit. If he had been another low-level martial artist, he would have died instantly from the recoil of chaos.
For Jin, it was a series of shocks.
'Even so... I couldn't even perceive the moment I lost consciousness? Me?'
It was frustrating, but the memories of countless battles he had endured to the end passed through Jin's mind.
Jin has memories of enduring with will strength in any situation, but such an unsightly defeat!
"What happened to that guy?"
"Well...."
"No, it's fine. I asked the obvious."
Chaos was sleeping in the middle of the training ground. If compared to a person, it seemed to have received a shock equivalent to not losing a single hair.
'It's not a situation where mental strength or willpower can make a difference.'
Even if an ant exerted its utmost effort, it couldn't defeat a tiger. The gap between Jin and Chaos was almost of that magnitude.
While lying down, Jin opened and closed his fists, checking his body condition once again.
It seemed that he could feel an extremely weak aura and mana. The control that allowed even a single piece of cotton to move as he pleased was gone. It took a considerable amount of time just to become aware of this.
'Should I build up my strength from the beginning and deal with it? No, that would be hopeless within three years.'
Once he walks that path, he can reach the destination faster than before. However, three years would still be far from enough.
As Jin pondered, the door opened, and Vahn entered.
"Sister battle god."
Unlike the gloomy and serious Jin, she had a faint smile on her face.
"I didn't know that brother Jin would have such a foolish look."
"I did make a fool of myself. It's embarrassing."
"That's not what I meant."
As if she couldn't hold it, Vahn burst into laughter.
Jin didn't hate it even if she made fun of him. Instead, he felt relieved to see a humble side that was rarely seen among the absolute beings.
'Well, sister Vahn is immune to demonicization, so even when she reaches extremes, doesn't she become desolate on the inside like my father or Sir Ron?'
Vahn looked at Bradamante, which was lying next to Jin.
"It was a little odd since brother Jin naturally chose Sigmund over Bradamante before you ran into chaos. It seemed like the clever Brother Jin was missing something so simple."
"What do you mean... Oh, don't tell me?"
"Yes, brother Jin, you only lost your aura and mana. It means that your shadow force still remains."
In an instant, Jin's face reddened. The other Plutonians couldn't hold back their laughter, making Jin even more embarrassed.
Jin didn't think about shadow force because he felt a sense of loss of having lost all of his aura and mana.
"How stupid I was to forget this!?"
"I thought you were pretending to lose your shadow force just to catch the chaos off guard, like always."
A lump of shadow force formed in Jin's grip as he lay down. Jin let out a disheartened laugh as he saw it.
"If I dealt with it with the shadow sword...."
"The result would have been the same, but the process would have been different."
"I will face the chaos as soon as I feel better. In this fight, I couldn't even figure out its approximate power at all."
"Right. And even though it's invisible to my eyes and the eyes of other brethren, you should be able to feel the power it took from you, brother Jin."
The key was to fight and recover the strength. The more Jin regains his original strength, the naturally weaker chaos will become.
The recovery was over after five days. Jin, along with his brethren, once again found Chaos lying on the training ground and raised his sword.
Chaos reluctantly lifted its head, as if expressing exhaustion.
There were two reasons why chaos was so relaxed.
First, because Jin was unbelievably weak, and second, because even after unintentionally harming Jin, the Plutonians did not retaliate.
Therefore, Chaos planned to continue postponing its death by making Jin faint every time he attacked.
[Haaaaam.]
After yawning profusely, Chaos took a nap again with the protective shield on.
'Does it not know that I have shadow force, or does shadow force not pose a threat even if it knows?'
Either way Jin should check it out.
Jin approached Chaos confidently, and with Bradamante enveloped in shadow force, he struck the protective shield with all his might.
[Kyaaak!]
As soon as the shadow force touched the protective shield, chaos jumped up and blinked its eyes.
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