"Brethren Garmund, this guy can definitely make a cunning escape. So let's…"
Garmund shook his head.
"No, then you'll either get injured or die. His aura's pretty tough for me, too, so the impact will be felt across the horizon."
"Heh, I didn't think he'd self-destruct."
"Go on, Brethren. Don't you know? I'll be fine. Just tell my story for generations to come."
Jin gritted his teeth.
"…I understand."
"We brethren do not dwell on returning favors. Hurry up and go, but don't go anywhere where you won't see my back."
Jin sighed and hopped on Shurry, who immediately bolted off.
And as Garmund said, if he didn't fend off Volcano, Jin wouldn't survive.
A kamikaze attack.
A sword created in consideration of the worst of the worst scenarios. Volcano would evaporate the island. In fact, it would probably evaporate the neighboring ones as well.
With a 7-8 star pureblood Runcandel using it, there was no stopping it.
Joshua let out a roar as his body began to glow red.
His veins protruded from his body due to the sheer amount of aura filling his body. At this point, nothing could pierce him. Then, the inflated silver blade began to melt.
The radiating heat from Joshua had begun to melt the steel.
"That bastard, how dare he… What a shame as a successor of Temar."
Garmund could not approach Joshua. Even he couldn't attack through the accumulated aura.
However, he did not back off. His sword glowed blue and began to gather its signature blue lightning.
The aura around Joshua died down, and the lightning in Garmund's blade intensified. It appeared that both of their preparations were similar in level.
However, Joshua faced death's doorstep to prepare this kind of power while Garmund readied himself for just another swing of his sword.
"Die….!"
Joshua's final words echoed throughout the island. With the aura damaging his vocal chords, it sounded more like a screech than a shout.
A sphere of aura expanded from Joshua's chest. In an instant, the aura condensed into the tip of his sword.
This was the signal for the beginning of the attack.
Ting…!
The sound of hitting an empty kettle. A ringing noise.
It was followed by loud booms that warped the surrounding air. As the aura released in every direction, explosions scattered about.
A blinding light.
In the middle of it, nothing was left of Joshua. Every ounce of his physical strength got converted into pure aura to fuel the secret technique, Volcano.
He had died.
And the eruption of aura mimicked that of a volcano.
Thus, the secret technique's name.
The aura began to rain down, slowly melting away the island.
And from the impact, the earth shook and churned the waters. Crevices streaked across the ground and violent waves stormed the shore.
The only place that could still be considered 'land' was where Garmund stood, as well as the sand behind him. Shurry continued to sprint across the sand.
"Gyaaaaaa!"
His chant and lightning fought the incoming impact of Volcano. Blue lightning wrapped his body, but Garmund never planned to sacrifice his body.
The lightning formed a net-like pattern that contained Joshua's exploding power.
Unlike the chaotic rampage of aura, Garmund calmly and swiftly whipped his sword around in the air. Essentially, he split apart the wave of aura that swept toward him.
Splitting the tsunami of energy, he kept both himself and Jin safe. His vision began to return as the explosions had grown a bit weaker.
However, he knew this wasn't the end.
Even a dormant volcano would erupt again. Garmund's goal was merely to buy time for Jin to escape.
And he chose to dispose of his opportunity to escape.
Thankfully, he couldn't see Jin behind him.
"Alrighty then, give me your worst…!"
Garmund readjusted his stance and his eyes began to spark.
* * *
The erupting Volcano continued for ten minutes.
The island was gone. Only a small island of obsidian remained, probably only five meters in diameter.
And Garmund successfully blocked every attack headed Jin's way.
Thanks to that, Jin stood on the miniscule island without a scratch.
For five minutes, he waited for the explosions to stop. Now, rather than lightning or aura, it was the sun's light that warmed up his face.
He had to find Garmund.
"Brethren!"
He sifted through the rubble while riding on Shurry's back. He constantly shouted while scrambling through the rocks and trees floating in the water.
"Man, my ears hurt…"
"Brethren!"
As soon as he saw Garmund, he gritted his teeth.
On a tiny block of obsidian, he was kneeling with both his arms gone. Boras's sword was broken, and the light was fading from his eyes.
Jin brought him up on Shurry's back.
"Don't look at me like that. You know I'm fine, so why are you so sad?"
Garmund glanced at both of his shoulders and laughed.
Rather than blooding flowing from his wounds, it was a black mist that leaked out. It was spiritual energy.
"Still, it was painful…"
"A little pain for you is nothing."
Although 'Black Light Call' was classified as a summoning spell…
Rather than summoning, it was projecting. A door to Lafarosa was opened, and one of them would be projected out as a spiritual energy image.
Tantel and Jin discussed it before he left.
—On that note, if it's alright, I'd like you to investigate it.
—Isn't there a way for you to escape? Tantel, you came to get me in the first place.
—That's only when the apprentice arrives at the rendezvous point near the desert. Beyond that, there's only one other way to exit, but it's pointless.
—Why?
—The Battle Goddess will tell you.
And that was what Vahn passed down to Jin.
With his current spiritual energy level, he could only cast it once every year or two.
The summoned entity was not the Illustrious Legend, but their soul. With the soul and spiritual energy, a Lafrarosian could experience the overworld.
These images also retained their appearance and strength, but that was it.
Basically, Garmund wouldn't remember this period of time, hence why he reminded Jin to tell his story.
"Whew, Temar's swords are pretty insane. How did that bastard manage to take two arms from this guy?"
Jin felt a little sorry for Garmund. If Joshua hadn't been so foolish, there wouldn't have been any need for another person to suffer.
"I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing? I'm gonna forget anyway."
"No, it's just that… Please think about it. Although you aren't really injured, my family looks like this, right in front of me. Would you not be shocked?"
"Uhm… Well, that makes some sense."
Garmund smirked and raised his foot.
He patted Jin on the head. He couldn't use his hands at the moment, so he improvised with his other set of paws.
"Is everyone else doing fine?"
"Of course! We didn't have anything to do since you left, so we just talked about the great things you'd do."
Garmund chuckled.
"Anyway, that was Joshua, yeah? You've finally killed your archnemesis?"
"That's true, but I feel it's a bit incomplete. He'd never choose to commit suicide like that."
"What the heck, then he's some sort of ghost? Or maybe a fake?"
"I don't think so. That had to be Joshua."
"Yeah, that's what I thought. I watched him die with my own eyes. Well, unfortunately, you couldn't get the satisfaction of killing him yourself."
Jin nodded.
"Indeed… It's a little anticlimactic. I thought it would occur after I returned from my trials."
"I guess I'm happy that I could be of some help. I also really like how you chose me with your first casting. Damn, I guess it's time to leave."
Garmund began to fade into a black mist. Soon, the soul would return to Lafrarosa.
"Please let them know that I miss them dearly, and also tell them that I'm doing well. And…"
In response, Garmund just smiled silently. He didn't remind Jin again.
"Alrighty, I'll make sure to do that. I hope to see you back in Lafrarosa."
Garmund disappeared in Jin's arms. The black mist twirled around Jin and then dissipated into the air.
Jin glanced around to look for Kuzan and Beris, but he didn't think they'd survived.
"Let's go back, Shurry."
Meow!
During the time he headed back to the base…
Jin checked the presses at each city he stopped by, but nobody was even covering Joshua's absence, let alone his death.
Jin only heard news of him when he returned to Tikan.