CHAPTER 127: CHAPTER 127 | INTERVENTION

Nothingness stretched endlessly across the land, a silent void where even the air felt heavy, suffocating.

Darkness clung to the skies like a thick shroud, unmoving, lifeless—yet amid that abyss, a powerful crimson light burned far off in the distance, pulsing like a beacon through the gloom.

Jinn narrowed his eyes, the sharp glow of red flickering against his vision. His heart beat faster.

"There," Zendrell said, voice low but urgent, already stepping forward.

"Come on, kid."

Then he was off—dashing forward with great speed, his crimson eidra flaring behind him like a trail of fire.

The sound of his movement echoed faintly across the empty wasteland.

Jinn didn’t hesitate.

He clenched his jaw, adjusted the grip on his sword, and ran after him, his feet slamming against the invisible ground with bursts of force.

Each step pushed him faster, and each second brought the distant light into sharper focus.

Figures began to form as they got closer—blurry at first, but unmistakably familiar the nearer they drew.

To the left, Jinn saw it.

Venedix.

Locked in battle.

She stood in defiance against a towering figure cloaked in shadows and riddled with corrupted power.

Malgareth.

Their energies clashed violently—darkness and crimson eidra swirling into wild currents of destruction.

*Crash! *Crackle! *Roar!

The very ground trembled beneath their battle, and the air between them rippled from the raw pressure of their strikes.

Jinn shifted his eyes quickly to the right—and his breath caught in his throat.

His friends.

They were all there.

Standing at a distance, a safe gap away from the chaos of Venedix’s duel.

Garan stood at the front, arms crossed tightly as his predatory eyes never left the battlefield.

Biyo was just beside him, tense and alert, shielding the younger ones behind him.

Jinn’s heart pounded louder now—not from fear, but from the sudden swell of emotion at seeing them all again.

He gritted his teeth, pouring more energy into his legs, quickening his pace as his figure blurred into motion, closing the final distance.

The cold wind brushed past him. The echo of battle cracked through the air.

And then—he arrived.

"J-Jinn!" Kain shouted, his voice breaking with a mix of disbelief and joy as he pointed toward him, eyes wide with shock.

His heart raced at the sight—there he was, alive, standing tall amidst the chaos.

Jinn.

"Jinn, are you okay!?" Orin called out as she sprinted toward him, worry written all over her face.

The rest of the children weren’t far behind, running after her, their expressions filled with concern and awe.

But before Jinn could even reply, another figure stumbled into him—fast and without hesitation.

Ophelia.

She didn’t say a word at first.

Her steps were frantic, unsteady.

She nearly tripped as she reached him, but she didn’t stop.

She wrapped her arms around him tightly, holding onto him like she feared he might disappear again.

Her body trembled against his chest, and for a second, Jinn froze.

"I-I t-thought..." Ophelia choked, her voice cracking.

A single tear streamed down her cheek as she buried her face into him.

"I thought I’d lost you..."

Jinn said nothing at first.

He simply placed a hand gently on her head, resting it there for a quiet moment, his palm warm with calm.

Then he looked up and met the eyes of his friends—all of them standing before him now, battered, tired, but alive.

He was stunned.

"How...?" he asked, his voice low but filled with genuine confusion. His brow furrowed.

"How did you guys even get here?"

He glanced over each of them, his gaze resting briefly on Kain, then Garan and Biyo behind them, as if trying to make sense of the impossible.

The question hung in the air, heavy with disbelief.

Yet before anyone could speak up—before a single answer could be given—a sudden surge of dark power ripped through the battlefield.

*Whooosh!

A massive dark slash tore through the air, coming from the distant clash between Venedix and Malgareth.

It howled toward them at blinding speed, a jagged wave of corrupted eidra that could’ve torn the entire group apart.

But before it could land, a swirling barrier of dark energy materialized around them with a

*whirrrr

intercepting the slash just in time.

*Clang!

The sound echoed like thunder as the dark slash was stopped midair, its force pushing against the barrier before fading into nothing.

The corrupted energy dissipated harmlessly, leaving only crackling sparks along the edge of the shield.

Everyone turned to look.

Troy stood just a few steps ahead, his staff planted firmly on the ground, his other hand raised toward the sky.

He had cast the barrier—calmly, without flinching.

It was a stray eidra slash, clearly one of Malgareth’s attacks gone wild, thrown from the violent duel still raging between him and Venedix.

Troy lowered his hand slowly, then turned his gaze toward Jinn, stepping forward with slow, deliberate steps.

His eyes narrowed with interest, studying the boy in front of him.

"So you’re the one..." Troy said, voice quiet but heavy with meaning.

"The boy who holds a fragment of Muradryn."

He came closer, tilting his head as if trying to read something written on Jinn’s very soul.

"And the apprentice of Venedix herself..."

Jinn didn’t speak at first, just held his ground, eyes steady. But before he could respond, a familiar scoff echoed from nearby.

"Heh," Zendrell smirked, stepping forward casually, sword still resting on his back.

"Too bad. I’m technically his first mentor at this point. I was the one who taught him how to swing that sword in the first place."

He gave Jinn a sideways glance and shrugged sarcastically.

"Credits where they’re due, kid."

Jinn rolled his eyes slightly, then replied flatly,

"Technically... Merliyn was the first one."

That made Zendrell pause for a beat, before grumbling something under his breath and looking away.

But before the moment could turn lighthearted, another

*BOOM!

sounded—louder than before.

Troy raised his hand again as another wave of dark eidra crashed into the barrier.

The shield flared with energy, sparks crackling as it absorbed the second blast.

Another wild attack from Malgareth.

Jinn and the others turned instinctively toward the source—the battle between Venedix and Malgareth was growing more intense.

Eidra clashed in brilliant bursts of light and shadow, shaking the earth with each impact.

Troy took a slow step forward, his eyes now focused on the distant duel.

His expression hardened, voice low and thoughtful.

"This will only take a few more moments," he muttered, more to himself than to anyone else.

He stood like a sentinel, unmoving, his staff still glowing faintly at his side.

Jinn looked up at the swirling sky, then toward the clash that would soon determine everything.

The fight wasn’t over.

Not yet.

===

Crimson eidra waves slashed through the air, one after another—lacerating, violent, and so powerful they distorted the very air as they traveled toward Malgareth in a crisscrossing barrage.

The space around them shimmered with pressure, heat rolling off each arc as if the air itself was burning.

Malgareth raised his hand, casting a thick wall of dark eidra in front of him—a defensive barrier that pulsed with void energy.

But Venedix was already gone.

*Krrrk!

With a flash of movement, she kicked off the very air itself and blinked toward his side in a sudden burst of speed.

Before he could react, she delivered a brutal plunging kick right into the back of his knees.

*Thud!

The force of it made him buckle forward, off balance, his stance faltering just enough.

"Pathetic," Venedix muttered, her tone cold and sharp.

She didn’t wait.

With perfect precision, she thrust her blade straight into Malgareth’s armored chest—crimson eidra cracking along its length like lightning as it drove through steel.

*Shrrreeekkkk!

The sound of metal screeching filled the air, but there was no sound of flesh tearing.

No blood.

No bones.

Nothing.

The blade pierced clean through... hollow.

Malgareth’s body jolted.

His voice, however, erupted with anger.

"Fool! I have no longer a physical body!" he roared, his hands reaching to grab the sword embedded in his torso.

But it was already too late.

From the point of impact—where the blade had been plunged—crimson eidra began to crack outward, spreading like lightning veins through his torso.

The cracks pulsed and glowed brighter, until—

*BOOM!

A torrent of explosive eidra surged within him from the inside, roaring through his core like a violent tempest.

It wasn’t fire.

It wasn’t light.

It was pain.

Pure, raw disruption of his corrupted form—like electricity coursing through every fiber of his being.

Malgareth stiffened, his arms shaking, his helmet twitching as if something inside him was being electrocuted repeatedly, over and over.

His corrupted eidra sparked wildly as it clashed against the crimson power inside him.

But even then—

Even with all the energy flooding into him...

Even with the pain grinding through his body like knives—

It wasn’t enough.

He didn’t fall.

His voice growled again, deeper, darker.

"You think that is enough to destroy me?"

His hands tightened around the blade still in his chest, his body trembling not in fear—but rage.

The crimson energy continued to burn inside him like a storm refusing to die, and though it had failed to end him, the pain was undeniable.

His eidra—shaken.

His form—cracked.

But Malgareth still stood.

"KURGHK!" Malgareth’s whole armored body convulsed violently as the crimson eidra continued to surge inside him, crackling through the hollow metal like a storm of lightning.

His movements staggered, but even through the agony, he managed to lift his sword once more.

The grotesque heart attached to its hilt began to beat erratically

*Thump *thump *thump *thump!

growing louder and faster with each pulse, until Malgareth let out a distorted roar and slammed the weapon down toward the ground.

*BOOM!

The blade pierced the earth with devastating force, sending a massive shockwave of pure dark eidra exploding outward in every direction.

The air trembled as the black wave rippled, churning the ground and distorting the very fabric of space around it.

Venedix reacted instantly—she yanked her sword from Malgareth’s chest and leaped backward, her eyes alert.

But something caught her mid-air.

A sudden invisible force tugged her back toward the epicenter of the blast.

*Whhhrrr!

Her body jerked forward, as if unseen chains had yanked her by the limbs, dragging her directly into the path of the incoming explosion.

Venedix’s instincts screamed as she instantly conjured a protective barrier, a translucent crimson dome of eidra that shimmered into existence right before the dark wave made contact.

*CRASSSHHH!

The barrier held for a moment.

Just a moment.

Then it shattered—utterly destroyed by the sheer pressure of the blast.

The dark eidra slammed into it like a tidal wave, fracturing it from all sides before it collapsed inward.

*SHATTER!

Venedix was thrown back several meters, skidding across the broken ground as the wave finally passed.

Her footing quickly returned, but her eyes were now sharp and focused—no longer calm, no longer passive.

And then she saw it.

Malgareth stood tall once more.

His body—untouched.

The hole that had been blown through his chest only moments ago was gone.

Not a crack remained.

His armor shined with dark energy, whole and unbroken.

He had healed.

Again.

Venedix’s eyes narrowed, her breath slow but deliberate.

They were back to square one.

All of her effort, the burst of crimson eidra, the storm within his body—it had done nothing in the end.

But now she saw it.

She really saw it.

Malgareth’s eidra was no longer corrupted.

It wasn’t the messy, tainted type she had seen from other fallen beings or corrupted warlords.

No—this was something else entirely.

His eidra flowed like prime eidra—clean, precise, balanced... yet pitch-black in nature.

Pure dark eidra.

A kind of energy that shouldn’t exist.

And that strange pull she felt earlier—the way her body had been yanked without warning.

She recognized it now.

Her brows lowered, realization dawning across her face.

"That’s why..." she muttered.

Her voice dropped to a low whisper as she tightened her grip on her blade, the crimson aura beginning to flicker across its length again, brighter than before.

*Crack... *crack...

The ground beneath her began to split, thin lines of glowing eidra carving through the broken stones.

"Very well," Venedix said calmly as her hair started to lift from the rising energy.

Her voice echoed with new strength, deep and steady.

"I shall show you... my true power."