Jin was only able to wrap Dante because he was small enough. If he had been as big as a normal man, he would never have managed to hide his shoe inside the cloak.
Was that a piercing sound? I must be mistaken, right?
Even if he heard it correctly, he couldn't afford to let Dante out now.
Jin looked at Beradin, who was on the ground. He was convulsing and seemed like he would faint very soon.
The best way to break through a barricade of Zipple Magicians was to keep Beradin as a hostage.
But waving Beradin as a flag to drive away the Magicians would leave an official record of defeat against him because countless journalists would come to witness the event.
If anyone had to find out, ideally, the fact that Beradin was knocked unconscious should be confidential information known only to the Zipples, as much as possible.
He won't cause trouble in his clan after regaining consciousness, right? And here I was thinking that Dante was the only one who would die for his beliefs.
There was a good reason why the two were so close. Dante and Beradin were two reckless types who would risk their lives for their beliefs rather than for efficient exits.
The fire grew stronger as it melted the gold. The molten gold alloy flowed in the opposite direction from Beradin, toward the sea.
"It's him!"
"We've located Jin Runcandel!"
The Magicians immediately turned their eyes to Jin. But unlike their hurried voices, they were not panicked as they had been in the plaza.
They were forming formations. Some cast shield barriers over themselves to defend against his Sword of Legends, while others prepared effective combinations of offensive spells.
There were twenty Zipple Magicians behind Jin, but he didn't feel tense at all.
Since he had just revealed his identity as a Runcandel and his fake name Vamel in the plaza, there was no need to hide that he was a swordsman anymore.
Of course, the Zipples could always press charges against the Runcandels for breaking the pact.
But this was what Jin thought about it: That's my clan's problem, not mine.
If he thought the Runcandels weren't powerful enough to handle such a problem, he wouldn't have revealed his identity.
No, in fact, he wouldn't have wished to become their next patriarch upon his return to life.
Mana gathered in Jin's palm. The Zipple Magicians clearly saw as the dispersed mana in the air instantly condensed into concentrated mana in Jin's hand.
They couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"Mana? Did he just gather that much mana?" The captain of the Magicians trembled as he spoke.
There was a reason for their surprise. Jin wasn't just gathering mana.
He was casting spells at an alarming speed, even for those Magicians who were constantly praised as prodigies before joining the Zipples.
In fact, Jin's mana was much more concentrated than the mana accumulated by the Zipple Magicians. They thought only pure-blooded Zipples were capable of handling such mana.
But to think a Runcandel could do it, and furthermore, a young provisional flagbearer!
"Open fire!" The captain of the Magicians angrily shouted. That damn Runcandel was plotting something, and he felt insulted.
The idea of a Runcandel wielding magic superior to theirs was horrifying to imagine.
Upon hearing his order, the Magicians unleashed multiple lightning bolts from their pentagrams. Shuri's eyes gleamed as the giant cat twisted to dodge the attacks.
Shuri leaped left and right to evade the mana bolts and slashed the inevitable ones with its claws. The Magicians calmly continued with their next move, as if they had foreseen it.
Call of Lightning, Wall of Flames, and Frost Prison. Various elemental spells emerged. Shuri barely had time to land on the ground to dodge them all.
As if that wasn't enough, they even unleashed a giant barrier.
Jin thought the Zipple Magicians were making decent moves against him.
Despite their numerical advantage, they calmly opted for established strategies to eliminate risks. The different elemental spells didn't intertwine to waste energy. They harmoniously blended together to exert pressure on Jin.
But that was it. They didn't take into account the unpredictability that a true genius was capable of.
It barely surprised them. How could they imagine that they themselves were not geniuses and that Jin possessed a much higher knowledge of magic than they did?
Whoosh!
Shuri evaded the flame that suddenly surged from the ground by leaping into the air.
The Zipple Magicians were waiting. They raised their staffs simultaneously and aimed at Shuri.
It was the same as when they fired the lightning bolts. The ten who were not casting shield barriers all unleashed the same offensive spell.
"Tear them apart!"
They unleashed the Winds of Hell, the epitome of an eight-star wind-based attack spell.
The artificially created winds flew towards Shuri and Jin. The winds were as deadly as blades fused with aura and were translucent, making it difficult to predict their trajectory.
And most importantly, Shuri was in the air, making it impossible to dodge the attack.
I'm sure they chose this spell because they can't go wrong with the range, and because it would be difficult for me to block it with the sword.
But Jin was waiting for the Zipple Magicians to also unleash the Winds of Hell.
Inverse Sky!
Just before the Winds of Hell reached him, a small patch of space above Jin's head distorted.
It was the opening to create the Inverse Sky orb. Once mana filled the space to create a tornado, the opening widened to become the Inverse Sky orb.
Nine-star mana was required to cast a proper Inverse Sky, but Jin had been casting an incomplete Inverse Sky with his seven-star mana.
But Jin had no intention of launching the Inverse Sky with his mana at that moment.
Ten Winds of Hell swallowed Shuri in the air. The spell's mana entangled and completely enveloped Shuri's descending form.
The Magicians expected to hear the sounds of Shuri's flesh and bones being cut and sliced, but instead, they heard a mysterious noise like the Winds of Hell and their mana being shredded by a saw.
In that brief instant, the Magicians instinctively felt that something was wrong.
Whoosh!
Shuri and Jin landed on the ground without a single scar on their bodies.
And before a second passed, the tiny speck of distortion that had caused the inverse sky turned into the largest orb Jin had ever released. The Magicians felt as if the entire sky had been covered by it.
Moreover, the orb emitted a grotesque sound, like the screams of a demonic creature.
Before the Magicians could figure out what was happening, Jin unleashed the backlash cascade he had performed in the air through simultaneous casting.
The Inverse Sky activated with the least amount of mana needed.
Next, he swung the backlash cascade with simultaneous casts, like a shield to change the direction of the Winds of Hell.
With that, all the Winds of Hell were sucked into the opening of the inverse sky, turning them into the energy needed to operate the inverse sky.
In other words, he absorbed the Winds of Hell and turned them against the Zipple Magicians.
The Inverse Sky was now larger than that of a nine-star Mage, for which Jin only had to spend enough mana to cast the backlash cascade.
Of course, this was something only theoretically possible for most Mages who were not Jin.
The Inverse Sky Jin launched into the air was a combination of at least five nearly impossible feats.
A swift casting to complete the Inverse Sky sequence within seconds, tactical mind to accurately predict the enemy's next move, simultaneous casting, precise control to accurately define the starting point of a spell while in mid-air.
And in addition to all these, the audacity and confidence to carry it all out in a life-or-death situation.
"This is how magic is used." Jin smiled. A drop of blood trickled from his lips.
But the slight injury was not a sign of backlash from using too much mana. When he swung the backlash cascade like a shield, the impact of the Winds of Hell caused his arm to hit his lips.
He felt his mouth go numb.
But aside from that, Jin was completely unharmed.
"Squad, deploy shields!" The captain was the first to realize the situation. He shouted orders like a madman. Half of the Magicians had no idea what was going on.
His understanding of magic was on another level, that's what the captain thought of Jin.
If he had known that Jin had such talent and also mastered the secret technique of Kiddard Hall, he would have surely fought differently.
Although they were not elite or special forces of the Zipple, they had twenty Magicians. How could they know they would be rejected in a magical and tactical spell battle? By a provisional flagbearer of Runcandel who hadn't even reached twenty, no less?
After absorbing all the mana from the Winds of Hell, the inverse sky started to suck mana from the area.
First, it went for the shield barriers that had been set up against the Sword of Legends Techniques. The attacking group cast new barriers, but rushed casts always did more harm than good for the Magicians.
Several Magicians were already in recoil. It wasn't an easy task for adequately talented Magicians who were only slightly above average to cast barriers immediately after executing a big spell like the Winds of Hell.
They were already destined for defeat once the Winds of Hell were absorbed by the inverse sky.
"You shouldn't have cast barriers. You should have withdrawn your mana and fled. That way, one or two lucky ones might have had a chance to escape."
In his past life, Jin constantly felt a sense of inferiority and defeat compared to his brothers and the knights of the Runcandel clan.
But he had never felt envy for the Zipple Magicians. Jin only started learning magic at the age of twenty-five, but he reached five stars within three years. The so-called talented Magicians didn't surpass him even then.
The only person who made him feel inferior in terms of ability was Beradin. But Jin always thought that he would have surpassed Beradin too if he had started with magic earlier.
And in this life, it was now a reality. And not only that, Beradin became the only Zipple that Jin genuinely liked.
Shing!
Sigmund emerged from its sheath. The blade gleamed brightly in the sunlight. The Magicians felt like they were in the corridor of death.
The inverse sky had them shackled and left them with no means to defend against it.
"Pierce through their defenses, Shuri."
Shuri lowered its stance and lunged forward like an arrow.
The Magicians who hadn't fallen into recoil yet cast spells to stop the feline, but their incantations were cut like falling leaves against the lightning-filled waves of Jin's sword.
From that moment on, it wasn't a battle anymore. It was a massacre. Jin had no intention of leaving any of them alive.
"Please, don't take it personally. Mourn the fact that you belong to the Zipple."
"You bastard! The Zipple will surely bring you down!"
"Good to hear that. I would have been greatly disappointed if you begged for your life."
With every strike of Jin's sword, the Magicians fell to the ground like marionettes whose strings had been cut.
A group of journalists arrived at the port. Upon seeing the scene, they covered their mouths, astonished.
"What's happening?"
The golden castle delivered by the Zipple was melting in the fire.
And in front of it all was Jin, bringing death to the Zipple Magicians.
Tonight, his name would be on every paper in the land.
