Chương 59: Conflict of Interest With Intervention of a Barefoot Master

The situation was bad. Extremely bad. The Nazarai were surrounding us from every direction. Their floating dark forms created an impenetrable wall of shadow and glowing amber eyes. We were too weak to break through. More of them poured in from behind, grotesque elongated heads tilted toward us with all of them fixated on the ring in my right pocket.

Behind the swarm came the ignored humanoid insect, the transformed Aemilius Tietäjä was moving with horrifying speed, his compound eyes still locked solely on the prize. Every single one of them lavished the Nibelungen-crafted item. The rain grew heavier. What began as light drops turned into a relentless downpour. Cold, merciless sheets of water hammered down from the darkened sky like the heavens themselves were furious at the blasphemy unfolding in the ruins of Jeruem.

The water soaked through our clothes instantly, forming fast-growing puddles that clung heavily to our armor and ran in freezing rivers down our bodies. Mud mixed with the rain, turning the ground into a slick, treacherous sludge that sucked at our boots with every desperate step. The once-majestic ruins now felt like a drowning tomb. Visibility dropped. The cold rain blurred our vision, weighed us down, and chilled us to the bone as the noose tightened mercilessly. Iskatot struck first.

From the air he unleashed Umbral Dominion, his sickle-chain flail flying forward with terrifying speed and power. The weapon blurred through the rain like a streak of living night, spinning with lethal momentum. The air itself screamed as the chain cut through the downpour. The impact should have been devastating-enough to shatter the ethereal beast. Instead, the Nazarai ignored the blow completely. The sickle and chain struck its shadowy form with a dull, pathetic thud… and did zero damage.

It was like a dust flake landing on skin. The creature didn't even flinch. No flinch, no reaction, no sign it had felt anything at all. The Umbral energy simply dissipated against its body like clouds passing a mountain. Iskatot's eyes widened in disbelief for a fraction of a second... the first real crack in his usual unshakable composure. He yanked the chain back, the links rattling uselessly, and immediately released his Vestuto in fully emitting Animo.

Shadows surged around him like a second skin as he dove in again, this time swinging the sickle with raw, desperate power, but before he could fully unleash it, the Nazarai casually elbowed him in the stomach with brutal force, sending him skidding across the muddy ground. In moments we were completely surrounded by two of them. Iskatot understood the difference in power more than ever. Holding back his true self was no longer an viable option.

With a roar that shook the ground and split the pouring rain, Iskatot exploded into his hidden full might. His Animo skyrocketed from an already unbelievable 44, 000 to 71, 400 in a single, terrifying surge. The sheer pressure of it slammed into us like a physical wave, forcing me to brace my feet in the mud just to stay upright. Black eyes glowed with powerful afterimages, burning like twin voids filled with starlight.

His shadowy knight form the Shadribo Vestuto fully unleashed, tendrils of living darkness whipping around him like frenzied living weapons, hungry and uncontrollable. For the first time since I had met him, I saw something close to rage and desperation in Iskatot's face. His jaw was clenched so tightly the muscles stood out like cords. This wasn't just a fight anymore for us to survive. This was his way of refusing to let us die here and to fulfill his Herzog´s mission. He moved.

His speed became terrifyingly fast, almost impossible to track with our trained naked eyes. One moment he was beside us, the next he was a blur of shadow and violence tearing through the rain. Umbral Dominion coated his entire armor in a seething second skin of pure darkness, making every strike land with explosive, region-shaking force. The ground detonated beneath his blows. Dust and debris erupted so thickly into the air that you could only hear the deafening shockwaves and feel the bone-rattling impacts.

Rain exploded into mist around him. The very air screamed around this battle. But even as he fought with everything he had pouring every ounce of power, skill, and will into the assault... he knew the sole unfortunate truth. The Nazarai were still stronger. Far stronger than he himself wanted to admit. He used the attacks as a diversion.

In secret he copied a shadow, switched places with it, and threw all three of us into his Shadow Realm which is a world in a world away from our current predicament as long it does not get popped open. Like a black dot sliding across the ground, he raced toward the exit of Jeruem where the Nazarai´s reach will end, while carrying us inside the realm. Once safe for a moment where he could get a breather in before we moved on, he explained through gritted teeth, "I was here once, long ago...

it was around 6 years ago. They were too strong even, when I was half as powerful as I am today. Even with everything I have… their power is out of this world for me." He looked at me, eyes hard and truthful.

"Either this plan works of mine… or Erumes... you have to accept the state of things and throw them the ring. If I can't shake them off and reach the outside of the city… because for some reason back then i found out they do not leave it." This is now has become a test of my own skill, Iskatot thought grimly. Can my self-created dust hide our presence in the Shadow Realm… or can they reach us even there?

The Nazarai cut the non-moving copy of his Vestuto which fought using the tendrils in a quick succession of horrifying precision. The damage was surreal to witness inside the realm where we hid. Each slash was delivered with surgical, almost loving accuracy. The creature's scythe moved so fast it left faint golden-silver afterimages in the rain. When the cuts landed, they didn't just slice... they marked.

Eight glowing dots appeared on the dead copy, perfectly highlighting humanity's vital points: heart, throat, eyes, spine, temples, liver, lungs, and groin. The marks pulsed for a brief, terrible moment, as if the Nazarai was showing off its knowledge, proving it understood exactly how to end a human life with one clean strike. It wasn't mere violence. It was clinical. Intimate. Terrifying. Its elongated head then snapped toward the spot where we had been standing only seconds earlier.

Those glowing amber eyes burned with cold intelligence. It screamed. The sound was an echoing, soul-piercing wail that tore through the rain and ruins like a thousand dying voices crying out at once. It announced our disappearance of the lavished item to every Nazarai in the area. The second Nazarai, the one that hadn't engaged and only watched the situation. had raised a long, shadowy arm and pointed directly at the recently moving black dot sliding across the ground. They had found us. Then it issued a command.

A single, guttural pulse of sound that carried absolute authority of this Nazarai. The first Nazarai obeyed instantly. It dove into the dusted area and attacked Iskatot's Shadow Realm with its scythe. The blade tore through the realm like glass. The world shattered around us, spitting us back into reality of the Terrarum. We tumbled out into the pouring rain, only 1. 2 kilometers closer to the exit. Far from enough of bein save. Problem was the swarm closed in from behind. Too many. We were about to be surrounded.

I understood what I had to do. I ripped the ring from the white cloth and held it out with a trembling hand. The pull was magnetic like almost painful in a way. The ring burned against my palm like it didn't want to leave me, like it belonged on my finger, like it was part of my own destiny. Every instinct screamed at me to put it on, to keep it, to never let go. My dark red hair clung to my face in the rain as I stared at it one last time, heart twisting with loss and fury.

The Nazarai with open beaks ready to strike of killing the two companion of mine Galer and Iskatot suddenly froze. Their glowing amber eyes shifted to the ring with something like religious reverence. The hunger, the rage, the predatory focus... all of it melted into shining, almost worshipful joy. They grabbed it from me gently almost tenderly their fingers trembling as they cradled the small artifact like the holiest of treasures. The pain of letting go hit me like a physical blow. My chest tightened.

My eyes stung. I had carried that ring not for long but it felt like i had it for years on my possession, through every step of this journey. It was rightfully mine. It was recrafted by mine. But for them… for us to survive… I had to give it up and look away. Then the transformed Aemilius Tietäjä snatched it from them as they were about to give it to somebody. He bolted toward the edge of town, the entire swarm on his tail with greater anger than before. They caught him before he could make more than 3.

3 kilometers distance. Enraged, they cut him apart in four diagonal slashes. The ring flew from his grasp. But the scholar refused to die via those precise slashes. He snatched another syringe from his ruined straps and drank the dark yellow liquid in one desperate gulp. His veins and nerve-lines burst out of his body, reconnecting severed joints with grotesque speed. He caught the flying ring and slammed it onto his middle finger, fusing it into his flesh. The stone activated.

Ancient text etched into the ring suddenly flared to life, glowing with ethereal symbols that no one in our time could read. Dark blue light poured out of the stone like liquid starlight, crawling rapidly across his skin. It raced toward his liver first, pulsing there for a moment like a second heart, then spread outward through his nervous system in branching veins of cold energy. His Animo doubled instantly from 37. 000 to 74. 000.

"This is it!" Aemilius roared, voice thick with saliva and euphoria.

"This will help me reach higher limits for human research. I can help bring us humans closer to a new limit in evolution and breaking the old path. Ohh… this is it!" He was salivating, eyes wild with epiphany, body trembling in pure bliss as the ring's power coursed through him. The Nazarai attacked with stronger momentum than before. Their scythes whistled through the rain.

Aemilius felt the cuts deep, vicious, but thanks to the rings new properties and the syringe he took he healed back even faster, flesh knitting together almost instantly. He laughed at them, manic and condescending.

"You myopic, mindless fools. You look at the ring as something reverent… otherworldly… granted, which it is… but this should be used to bring humanity forward to a new Age. I thought you were the future of humans in the beginning of my own personal research, but you are just fools following the shine rather than becoming the shine itself." His compound eyes narrowed.

"I can't hand this ring over to some mindless oafs who can't see the potential it can bring forth. I will forcefully evolve it further. Bring it (humanity as a hole) away from stagnation." The Nazarai's beaks clattered for the first time. No longer just enraged but Apoplectic. Just because they had lost their human bodies and the right to speak didn't mean they couldn't understand every insulting word that was being said. The angered Nazarai of Jeruem attacked with renewed fury.

But this time Aemilius could dodge better, though he still got caught once every eleven dodges. Even through this his severed blood cells regenerated instantly. He mocked them between strikes.

"See… this ability? It is from an Helios Ant blood cells, you dumb mutts. Don't get it? I found such a rare ant in Hespericum during my journey. These small fourteen-centimeter ants get ignored because they only eat leaves and are pacifistic in nature. They work in unison like mindless puppets keeping their colony alive.

I killed one queen and king just to test its nature to make it angry and create an aggressive army of soldier but it turned out to be the solution i truly needed, as i had cut the king and queen apart... It regenerated back to full state one hundred and twenty-one times until it could no longer do so. And I have that blood in my system now. You can cut me up so many more times. I will prevail you all." He leaped with unnatural agility.

"My legs are of a Sycandic Insect, an insect from the mountains north of my nation, four thousand eight hundred meters high. Their legs can quadruple jump in the air. And now I have it, that was the reason i could even steal this beauty from you. You're wasting your time holding me here as a prisoner. I will eventually come out free… as I also have one more syringe on me. That one, in case of true danger, will change everything. But the cost is I lose my humanity for ten hours.

Just stop wasting your efforts and give up you dumb oafs." But the Nazarai refused to relent on their pursuit. Aemilius sneered.

"What a shame. Oafs are in the end just still oafs... just like you dared letting the Nibelungen get kicked out from the throne room. How dare you unintellectual muppets do that?! I could have found more answers to evolve humanity forward one thousand years ahead of our time…" Their fight descended into pure mayhem. Scythes clashed against regenerating chitin. Shockwaves tore through the region. Both sides were lost in violence.

Meanwhile, the three of us quietly slipped away from the battlefield, not wanting any of their devastating shockwaves to reach us more, as it already did. Their dimension of strength was way too high for us to withstand. With each passing second, more and more Nazarai from other parts of the town amassed on the scholar, desperately trying to tear the ring from him. The chaotic battle raged on, shockwaves shaking the region even harder. We kept walking, trying to gain distance from the madness.

Then a mysterious figure air-walked right behind us. A deep, manly voice asked calmly, "What is happening here?" Before we could turn around or answer, a strong, rough, calloused hand pressed onto my scalp. I felt something like a spirit swallowing me from the outside, it was cold, invasive, and impossibly fast. Two seconds later he pulled his hand back, having taken whatever information he needed. The man air-walked straight toward the fight.

With a single powerful kick he split both the Nazarai and Aemilius apart. The sudden arrival stunned them. The man teleported directly onto Aemilius' middle finger, grabbed the hand, and ripped the ringed finger off like it was a dry twig. The pain was surreal. Aemilius screamed louder than any cut the Nazarai had given him before.

"Who-why-how?!"were the only words he managed to choke out. The man threw the ring toward the center of the battlefield.

"Get it, its rightfully yours" he told the Nazarai. The creatures immediately swarmed after the thrown ring. Aemilius' finger regenerated in seconds, veins popping wildly.

"YOUUU…. FUCKKKKKK….. IT HURTS TOO MUCH…. AHHHHH…. I WILL ENJOY DISMEMBERING YOU HONEY GLAZED BEGGAR LOOKING FELLA!" The man turned toward him with a low, dangerous laugh.

"Beggar me? Hahahaha." At the same time he delivered a front-toe kick that sent the scholar flying all the way back into the deep ground, creating a massive crater on impact.

"I am not a beggar," the man said calmly.

"I am Hwan Songge from Gongreyo." He looked like a legendary honey glazed martial master in the prime of his thirties, his profound cultivation of Animo keeping him eternally youthful. Sharp monolid eyes carried the weight of more than a century of wisdom and battle. His jet-black hair was worn in a stylish, slightly long and flowing manner, a perfect blend of ancient Gongreyo warrior tradition and personal flair, with some strands tied back while the rest fell freely.

He wore traditional Gongreyo martial attire resembling a refined gi: a loose white shirt as the base, slightly open at the chest, covered by an open dark navy-blue vest that flowed dramatically with his movements. The edges were frayed and weathered from countless battles. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing powerfully built arms covered in dense calluses, as the evidence of a lifetime of training his fists and palms as lethal weapons.

Both hands were tightly wrapped in clean, aged white bandages extending up to his forearms. He fought exclusively with his hands and legs, carrying no weapons. He walked completely barefoot, his feet toughened by decades of training on mountain stone and forest floors. Two flowing strips of white cloth were tied around his bandaged arms, trailing elegantly behind him as he moved, adding a graceful aesthetic to his otherwise fierce appearance.

A royal, sharply trimmed beard followed the line of his face and upper lip, giving him a distinguished, battle-hardened elegance. Hwan Songge carried an aura of calm lethality combined with mastery of both time and violence. Aemilius Tietäjä, for the first time in his life, subconsciously understood that this man was the current epitome of the human limit he so desperately wanted to break. As Aemilius stood up, breathing heavily, he asked, "Why do you stand in the way of mine and humankind's evolution?"

The martial master whom was dipped in honey-toned skin, clapped back with calm authority: "While I read the young boy's past i know all the things that happened here, also I was once a Paladin of the Michaelanius Order for over forty-five years. I know your type. To bring humans forward by not stopping the killing of other humans in the name of evolution. In one hand, a noble gesture to make leaps and bounds in our autonomy and break our physical limits… but killing other humans for that to gain improvements?

That alone is hypocritical in nature. I will punish you in accordance with a Paladin's Law. You will receive the death penalty." The scholarly man rebutted with a mad laugh.

"Haha! Paladins and Law. You are the very reason humans are held back by some God while not trying to become God yourselves. Oh, how I hate myopic humans. You are just as brainless as those fools you just helped. I will counter-offer." He pulled out a final syringe.

"I will take this Branga syringe that I found years ago. While dead in cellular structure, I experimented it on one hundred and twenty-one humans. Now the perfected formula will bring me to humanity's next evolution stage. I will become an Emperor Level Human." He struck the syringe into himself. The transformation was more grotesque than the last. His body convulsed as he became a Branga humanoid... approximately 1.

79 meters tall, sickly pale ash-grey skin dry and cracked like old parchment, faint dark purple veins pulsing beneath. His face was elongated and gaunt with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline. Empty, sunken black sockets leaked thin trails of dark smoke instead of eyes. His mouth was wide and unnaturally stretched, filled with irregular, sharp needle-like teeth. Two small broken black horns curved backward from his forehead. His arms were longer than normal, ending in large hands with blackened, claw-like fingers.

Hidden beneath tattered clothing was a second, smaller pair of arms growing from his ribcage that twitched hungrily on their own. He wore the torn remnants of Aemilius' clothing, now corrupted and stained with old blood. A tattered dark cloak hung from his shoulders, constantly shifting as if alive. Even in this smaller, more humanoid form, the Branga fusion radiated a heavy, suffocating presence. Thin black mist constantly seeped from his body, draining warmth and life force from everything around him.

The air grew colder and heavier. Faint whispers of dying voices could be heard within the mist. His Animo blistering to new heights, eclipsing his ring-wearing times. The Martial Master answered with a curious smile.

"Ohhh… you have reached from a sapling's Animo of 28, 000 before to now 148, 000. You outsized your limit by adding 120, 000 and you are constantly rising in power. But that's still too weak, I'm afraid. I fought stronger opponents than you currently are. So let me show you the human potential that you saw as stagnation." He put his fists together, rubbing knuckle against knuckle.

"Gyehanpa." Little electric shocks sizzled from his hair. His jet-black hair lifted upward, turning electric blue with crackling energy surrounding his body.

"Now feel my Hwando Martial Arts." He ran forward in terrifying electric speed—breaking right through the Branga-fused beast before it could even register the movement. With two enlarged arms, he pumped his fists forward and touched the fusioned body. The impact was cataclysmic. The beast exploded upward into the sky. Dark blue aura imploded into countless particles, deleting it from existence. The man undid his "Gyehanpa." His hair settled back to jet-black as he turned his eyes toward us.