Kwajik-!

Malek’s ghost sword pierced the magic swordsman’s heart by breaking the armor.

“Khuck?!”

Kududuk….!

The magic swordsman was startled by the blade that pierced his chest.

Due to the unexpected and quick movement of Jin-seong, the magic swordsman was helplessly attacked with his eyes wide open.

“How can you make such a move….?!”

Chaaa!

The magic swordsman burst his magic power to push away Lee Jin-seong. Lee Jin-seong took a step backward and stared at the magic swordsman, who was grabbing his chest.

“Kaaaaaak……!”

The magic swordsman eventually kneeled down while screaming.

Then, he started rolling on the floor.

“……”

However, Jin-seong felt a sense of frustration. It was because the magic swordsman’s scream was too repetitive. Jin-Seong knew very well that his scream was different from the scream of one who’s actually in pain. He spoke quietly.

“……Stop acting.”

“…….”

Hearing that, the magic swordsman, who was rolling on the floor, stopped moving. He slowly lifted his head and looked at Jin-seong.

He even had a slight smile on his face.

“……Can you tell?”

“……Yes.”

The magic swordsman lifted his body and murmured while removing the dust.

“I can’t feel any pain since my body has once been dead.”

And his pierced chest did not spill any blood. But that wasn’t important.

‘…..The wise man must have got excited to meet this dude.’

The magic swordsman, who thought the wise man would have passed on clairvoyance skill to Jin-seong, wanted to check Lee Jin-seong’s limit. This was because Lee Jin-seong’s attack a while ago has raised expectations.

It was too early to finish the combat.

“You made a point there…. But the next one will be different from the ones before.”

The magic swordsman raised his hand to the front.

Chiiiik……!

It was then a black sphere rose from his hand. The sphere had magical power circulating it as if it was in a swirl.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to say this myself, but not many have survived after getting hit by this sphere.”

With that said, the black energy sphere slowly increased its size to the point it became as big as a huge rock. But it didn’t stop from there.

Pzzz, Pzzzz!

Along the swirl spreading like a ripple in the center of the sphere, the swollen magi condensed. Then, black sparks began to bounce off of it.

“It is an energy sphere created purely by contracting magi. But it’s not just a mass of power.”

As if supporting the magic swordsman’s explanation, the sphere started burning with a black flame.

“It can be a burning flame.”

The flame became bigger and mutated into a black cold piece of ice chunk.

“It can also be a cold bomb that can freeze anything.”

Then, it turned into a lighting orb that is full of bouncing electricity.

“It can now penetrate anything.”

After showing the magi that can be transformed by each attribute, it returned to the original energy sphere. With that in his hand, the magic swordsman declared.

“Okay. Now, defend it!”

The magic swordsman threw the energy orb that he was holding to Jin-seong.

Bang!

It was then the energy orb, which was shot so fast that it could not be seen, flew towards Jin-seong.

‘It’s dangerous.’

It will be hard to avoid this time. Even though he just stabbed a great blow to the magic swordsman, it was his body that stopped functioning properly.

‘I can’t move my muscles right now. I can’t avoid it.’

I have to slash it.

It was the moment when Jin-seong barely managed to fix his posture while holding the ghost sword.

Whooo!

A red spear that suddenly popped out swept in front of him. A red spear embossed in the shape of a snake struck the energy orb with all its might.

“Yaaaaaa!”

Crack….!

The red spear wielded pierced the central side of the energy orb. The energy orb flexed like a crescent moon, like a baseball that had been rightly hit by a bat.

Clang!

It bounced off from its trajectory with a loud metallic sound.

The energy orb flew in an arc shape at a frightening speed. Then it crashed into a huge mushroom tree.

Crack!

It penetrated through the mushroom tree that was a size of a building.

Baaannng!

It crashed into a cliff and eventually exploded.

The ground shook with a huge shock, but the explosion did not reach the place where Jin-seong stood. After hitting the energy orb, Kang Min-ah swung her long spear and stood in a fighting posture.

“Don’t come near Jin-seong!”

Kang Min-ah’s hair was fluttering and blocking Jin-seong’s front.

The magic swordsman stepped back and shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh no, the snake is awake!”

Hearing that, Kang Min-ah looked at the magic swordsman with her odd eye shining.

Ssssk…!

It was her greatest talent, ‘Nightmare’s eyes.’

The person who makes eye contact must relive their most terrifying experience while remaining defenseless. Even if it only lasts for a few seconds, it could decide between life and death in a battle between rankers.

She lit her odd eye blue and red, waiting to make contact with the eyes of the magic swordsman. However, the magic swordsman, who already knew Kang Min-ah would wake up, lowered his eyes to the floor as if he was saying goodbye and stepped back.

“I think I should end the combat now. It’ll be hard for me if an odd eye interferes in! So….”

He then put on black magi like a cloak.

Srrrrrk…..!

He disappeared in the air by taking advantage of his magi. Also, the Grand Duke of Lust also disappeared. With the appearance of Kang Min-ah, the situation was settled in an instant.

Whew…….

Jin-seong let out a deep sigh and sat down. And after confirming that the danger had completely disappeared, Kang Min-ah asked Jin-seong, lowering her upper body.

“Jin-seong! Are you alright?!”

Kang Min-ah grabbed Jin-seong’s cheek with her hands. Jin-seong nodded.

Tssssss…

Fortunately, the pain was rapidly diminishing by the unnamed god. Jin-seong immediately stood up and spoke.

“…..We must go to the Foutain of Purification.”

But Kang Min-ah couldn’t lift up her worries.

“Can you move now?!”

“How about you? Are you okay?”

Kang Min-ah, who was surprised by his question, turned her gaze.

“Me, me? Ah, yes! I’m okay! I only fainted for a short time….”

The Grand Duke of Lust put an illusion in Kang Min-ah’s head just before he faced Lee Jin-seong and took away her power. The problem was that because Kang Min-ah was directly connected to the Grand Duke, her consciousness itself could be polluted.

Jin-seong was concerned about that.

“Professor, wait.”

Jin-seong touched the small horn that had grown on the side of Kang Min-ah’s forehead line.

“Ugh!”

Kang Min-ah was startled, but Lee Jin-seong started thinking silently.

‘The size of the horn didn’t increase.’

Fortunately, the Grand Duke failed to dominate Kang Min-ah’s consciousness but only made her faint.

‘Must be the effect of Abstinence Card.’

He asked again, lifting his hand from the horn.

“How are you feeling?”

“….It felt good.”

“……”

Jin-seong stared at Kang Min-ah.

“What do you mean?”

In any case, he was wary of whether the Grand Duke’s allusion remained.

Kang Min-ah, who realized what went wrong, clapped her hands strongly.

“N, no, I mean it’s not that I liked your touch. I’m, I’m okay. No, I mean….”

And Kang Min-ah, who was greatly embarrassed, continued to speak.

“Nothing really happened between you and me…. You came out in my hallucination but….”

Kang Min-ah suddenly stopped speaking.

“……”

Then, with her eyes wide open, she stood like an unwound doll and looked at Jin-seong.

Jin-seong looked at her without saying a word.

The silence continued for a while.

“Ah……”

The more she spoke, the more she felt embarrassed as if she was being sucked into an endless quag.

So she eventually spoke of her true feelings.

“What I’m saying is that I was happy that you came out… That’s it….”

“……”

Jin-seong was relieved by her honest attitude.

“….It’s okay. If you were in allusion, you would’ve been busy hiding your feelings.”

Hearing Jin-seong’s calm voice, Kang Min-ah was touched.

“Jin-seong…. You don’t see me as a pervert, right?”

“…..”

Jin-seong ignored Kang Min-ah, who unnecessarily called herself a pervert, and raised his right arm that was contaminated with magi. It was an arm that had become unusable after wielding the Tyrfing.

Jin-seong looked at her and said.

“If we go to the Fountain of Purification, my arm can also be recovered. Let’s move quick.”

“Okay…..”

“I think we’ll arrive there within 30 minutes if there’s no interference in between.”

Ssssk.

Suddenly, Kang Min-ah carried the spear forward, turned her back to Jin-seong, and bowed her back.

“…..What’s wrong?”

“Get on my back!”

Kang Min-ah hurried Jin-seong, who was looking at her dazed.

“You got hurt a lot while drawing your sword! Look at you right now!”

Clearly, Jin-seong didn’t look alright as he had his clothes stained with blood and torn due to the curse of the seal.

But it was okay because he already finished his recovery.

“It’s okay.”

Jin-seong passed her and started walking ahead.

“Ah!”

Jinseong moved forward without giving her any room. Kang Min-ah became slightly sad by his reaction, but she immediately followed.

It was then Jin-seong shared the information he learned.

“The man who attacked me a while ago is the swordsman of salvation.”

Kang Min-ah stopped and stood still.

“Huh? For real?!’

She was startled, making a weird sound.

“Didn’t he die?”

“…..Yes, he died after stabbing his sword into his heart of corruption.”

Kang Min-ah, whose face turned serious, followed Jin-seong.

“…..Is he undead?”

Jin-seong nodded.

“…..Damn it, so that means that the first hero is our enemy…. The magic swordsman was a dark magician who was famous for freely using his magic omitting the formula… !”

Crrrrrrr….!

The heart of corruption from a distance away was twisting itself while making a terrifying sound. Kang Min-ah was startled.

“What, what’s wrong with that?”

“The heart of corruption is activated.”

“Can we leave it like that? Don’t we need to seal it again?”

“We won’t.”

Jin-seong took out Tyrfing that he had saved in the slot and showed it to her. It was a brilliant sword emitting purple magi.

Kang Min-ah seemed to be worried.

“Shouldn’t we put this back in now?”

Jin-seong silently shook his head.

Even if the heart of corruption is sealed now, it will only be a temporary solution in the end. When the time of destruction arrives, the seal will be released and it will run more violently, making it much more dangerous than it is now.

‘So, it’s best to deal it with the dead here.’

Although the first hero appeared as our enemy, Jin-seong actually thought that it turned out well.

“Both the dead and the heart of corruption will die here.”

On the ground of the Forest of Decay, where various giant insects and monsters were crawling, Setz was running, stepping on the branches of the mushroom forest where the sun was shining brightly.

‘It was around here.’

And for a moment, she stood on a deep cliff where she could look down on various mushrooms. Seeing the scene that appeared like a lake, Setz frowned.

‘Never knew that I will come here again.’

Setz peered through the space beneath those mushrooms with the hawk’s eyes, glaring at the ominous pounding heart of corruption. What was there, however, was not just the heart.

“….That person is…..?”

Slash!

Slaasssh!!!!

A man dressed similar to Jin-seong was slashing the dead.