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Even though his head was smashed, the Plutonian-type golem remained standing. He even swung his fist wrapped with lightning at Jin.
Jin turned Sigmund and struck the Plutonian-type golem's fist with the hilt of his sword.
The Plutonian-type golem was vulnerable when his fist plunged downward, and Jin thrust his blade at the opening.
Thunk! The blade pierced through his chest, but once again, the Plutonian-type golem didn't fall. Instead, he used both hands to grab the blade, preventing Jin from moving.
Two other Plutonian-type golems approached Jin from the sides. Jin quickly analyzed their attack trajectories, and split the Plutonian-type golem in front him in half, and blocked the incoming attacks.
Their movements were surprisingly good.
The moment Jin evaded, the Plutonian-type golems adjusted the trajectory of their fists. It would be hard to imitate their movements even for most martial artists.
'Just a moment ago, they were mages, but now they move like top-tier martial artists. And their regeneration power seems almost like immortality.'
In addition, the lighting energy was annoying.
Jin became frustrated and anger welled up from deep within his heart.
The Plutonian-type golem, whose head was shattered and body split in half, was rapidly regenerating.
Veradin's guards couldn't help but gasp at this grotesque sight.
The first gray-robed mage who had seemingly stopped breathing was now standing once again and a blue aura glowing from his chest.
The other four mages appeared to be unable to use magic any longer as they turned into Plutonian-type golems.
"You were willing to deny your entire life as mages just to obtain such fake power?" Jin's cold voice made the living golems burst into laughter.
"Can a mere mortal call the immortal body fake...?"
"What are you laughing at? Have you gone mad?"
Swish!
Sigmund made a horizontal slash, and the living golem's head tumbled to the ground. The fallen head was incinerated by the fire of the Flame Orb, while Jin thrust the Waterfall, the Mystic Technique of the Plutonian Sword, into his body.
The thunderbolt attached to the blade rained down and covered the living golem. As the name suggests, thunderbolts poured down like a waterfall and left nothing in its wake but a massive pit where the living golem once stood.
Only a few small and charred pieces of his body were scattered near the pit.
It is difficult for anyone to imagine that it is the flesh and bones of any living being.
However, Jin had a gut feeling that it wasn't the end, and the Plutonian-type golems didn't seem to lose their confidence.
"You seem to be ignorant of the true meaning of immortality, 12th flagbearer of Runcandel."
The charred flesh rapidly regained its original color. The scattered bones and organs were forming anew from the empty space where the Plutonian-type golem had stood.
The living golems seemed to take pride in this fact. Jin still had an expressionless face but the living golems thought that Jin was quite shocked.
To Jin, it was just repulsive. It sent shivers down his spine as if a cockroach had suddenly appeared at his bed and instinctively crushed it underfoot.
He struck the regenerating body once more with a bolt of lightning. With no other Plutonian-type golems defending, the body was scattered in all directions once again.
And once more, it regenerated.
By then, the Plutonian-type golems were beyond proud, and their expressions were intoxicated with victory
Normally, in a situation like this, you will be gripped by unknown fear. And your instinct would tell you to flee when facing an enemy you couldn't kill, no matter what you did.
The Plutonian-type golems naturally thought Jin would do the same. After all, he was only nineteen years old and had no experience fighting an immortal like them.
"Ha."
Jin shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh.
"You're a bunch of delusional fools. Immortals? This is just high-speed regeneration, you're nothing more than mongrels."
It wasn't the first time Jin encountered high-speed regeneration. Just recently, he had fought against Ozdock, an ancient demonic creature with an inner core, who possessed a similar ability.
"It's almost laughable how you so-called great mages get ensnared by this useless power."
Snap, sizzle!
Suddenly, ice crystals formed in Jin's clenched fist. The ice crystals were repeatedly growing and shrinking with furious force and created an eerie sound.
"You can't kill us anyway."
"Is that so?"
The Plutonian-type golems hadn't quite grasped the situation yet.
'Is this how it's done, maybe?'
The ice barrier magic Jin was casting was the same as the one used by his teacher, Valeria Hister.
Ice Barrier Seal.
Jin recalled how Valeria sealed the Majin corpse in the Wantaramo Forest.
'It seems like a versatile spell, so I've asked Valeria how to use it... but I don't know if I can succeed at it in one go.'
When Jin had left the Wantaramo Forest and spent several days with Yona and Valeria, he had seized every opportunity to seek advice related to magic from Valeria.
He remembered a few clues about the Ice Barrier Seal magic from that time.
-Anyone can use the Ice Barrier Seal magic. But to properly seal and maintain it, you need to know how to completely separate mana from your body. You use that separated mana to form a kind of lock.
-How do you separate mana?
-That's a bit tricky to explain. I gave you a simple concept to work with, so try practicing on your own.
Valeria's explanation was wrong from the beginning.
Among ice barrier magic spells, sealing was considered the most advanced spell. Only a tiny fraction of mages specialized in the ice barrier magic can handle seals.
Furthermore, maintaining the seal as intended was a completely different domain. The seals of regular mages only lasted until their mana ran out.
As far as Jin knows, Valeria is the most talented mage in the world, and Jin was her only acknowledged disciple.
Separating mana from the body.
Suddenly, he remembered his first mission as a cadet.
'At that time, I infused shadow force into my sword when I fought against Quazito Truka, and I also separated the shadow force from my body when I lost control over it. It feels like a similar sensation to that time.'
Jin got the feeling. The ice crystals that were randomly changing in his palm were gradually stabilizing.
"You won't die. Instead, you'll be sealed and become test subjects for research."
Soon Jin stretched out his hand and a white energy poured out of the ice crystals and enveloped the regenerating Plutonian-type golem.
Crackle!
The Plutonian-type golem froze in an instant and stopped regenerating. However, the horrifying thing was that the Plutonian-type golem's heart, encased in ice, was still beating.
Using the mana separated from his body, Jin applied another layer of magic to maintain the seal.
Jin felt that his mana was no longer depleting, and that meant the magic spell was casted successfully.
'It worked on the first try. In my past life, I've never had anything go so smoothly even when I was learning from my teacher.'
Yet, there were still other bodies to seal. When the Plutonian-type golem's body fell to the ground, the remaining Plutonian-type golems lost their triumphant expressions.
"It seems like you don't understand the definition of 'immortality,' after all."
"You...!"
"You simply denied yourselves because you no longer had the will to achieve anything more. And, is battle prowess really the criterion to determine the value of life?"
"If you simply think that immortality means you can regenerate your body infinitely, it's because your world is nothing more than that. Humans like me used to deny what you've achieved in your lifetime."
Jin said with a chuckle.
"...Anyway, your mana won't be infinite. You won't be able to maintain that seal forever."
"You're still mistaken. It can keep going, I don't need to do anything. I will cut you in pieces and seal you. Then I will hand it over to research mages. From then on, they will maintain the new seals."
In an instant, the Plutonian-type golems felt their power of "immortality" slipping away from them.
As Jin explained, once they were placed in the mages' research labs, the fact that they couldn't die as they wished became a bitter curse.
One of the Plutonian-type golems who particularly feared this reality was the first to turn and start running.
They were attempting to flee.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A burst of energy from Jin's sword sliced through both of their legs. While their regeneration was quick, they weren't able to recover their heart filled with fear along with their body.
Their regenerated legs refused to move forward out of fear. Meanwhile, the random attacks from their flailing lightning posed a threat not only to Jin but also to the other golems.
"Tsk."
As the other golems avoided the lightning bolts, Jin skillfully got between them and swung Sigmund.
It didn't take long to cut them up into suitable pieces for sealing.
'It's even more bothersome when it's a mage.'
As he watched the haphazard rain of lightning that struck indiscriminately, he couldn't help but feel a bitter sensation.
The fact that so many of the world's powerful individuals were abandoning themselves to Kinzelo's and Zipfel's empty promises.
Pthzz, crackle, thud...!
Soon, all the Plutonian-type golems were lying on the ground, sealed within Jin's Ice Barrier Seal.
"Hey."
Jin turned around and called Veradin's guards.
"You guards, return to the Sword Emperor Castle on your own. I'll take Veradin with me. Shuri, pick them."
[Mya.]
Shuri swallowed the seals whole, and Jin extended his hand toward Veradin.
Veradin stared at Jin's hand for a moment.
"It is hard to believe that you've been beaten by these kinds of bastards if I thought about how you fought in the Ventica."
It didn't make sense.
From the beginning, he did not ask for help, and the fact that Veradin had been driven to the brink of death by these guys. With the power Veradin had shown in Ventica, he could have easily dealt with these living golems.
This only fueled Jin's suspicions, not about Veradin but about the one controlling him—Kelliark Zipfel.
"At that time, I wasn't myself, Jin."
"You can still do that. The proposal I made back then is still valid."
-I want to make a proposal to you.
-What is it?
-Leave the Zipfel.
Jin made this proposal to Veradin, when he went to Veradin's mansion during his reserve flagbearer days.
Veradin didn't answer but took Jin's hand and climbed onto Shuri.
From then on, the two of them didn't exchange a single word until they returned to the Sword Emperor Castle.
That was because Veradin had passed out because of his wounds, but even if he had been in perfect condition, it would have been the same.