Inside the royal palace, a panicked woman rushed straight to the royal guild master, Harden Gunslot, to report the massive invader currently towering over the outer wall. Instead of panicking, Harden was strangely calm. He already knew the situation was beyond normal emergency levels. Still, he assured her that everyone who could still move had been deployed, and that the Holy Knights who remained available were also heading out to suppress the chaos.
Unfortunately, that only made the woman more terrified, because Harden dropped the worst possible news. Half of the Holy Knights were currently away from the capital on another mission.
At this point Harden was completely certain the attack had been planned. These enemies had deliberately waited until the kingdom's strongest defenders were scattered before launching their strike. If the Grand Commander had been present, he probably could have stopped the giant Corruptor, but right now they had to survive without him.
Then the boss Corruptor fired a devastating blast straight toward the castle. Harden quietly accepted that this might be the end.
But just when everyone thought the royal palace was about to be erased, Jin appeared and blocked the attack head-on. The woman instantly recognized him as the man from Kodama Village and practically lost her mind from relief.
After the blast finally disappeared, Jin landed on the ground and gathered power into one hand. Without wasting a second, he fired his own attack right back at the monster. The blast landed, and even though it was strong, it only left a small cut on the Corruptor's shoulder.
Jin quickly realized the problem. This thing was far too massive to delete with one casual shot. Even worse, the teleportation had drained far more energy than he had expected, which meant he could not fight the way he usually did.
So he changed the plan. He drew his blade and prepared to cut the giant down with speed instead of raw output. With one swing through the air, he released a powerful impact that sliced the Corruptor from a distance. Then he launched himself forward, fully aware that the damage was already regenerating almost immediately. Still, that small opening was all he needed.
Jin applied the fundamentals of nanomachine control. First he removed his own body weight using gravity manipulation. Then he generated wind by controlling atmospheric pressure, turning himself into a living missile as he shot forward across the battlefield.
At the same time, one knight was pinned to the ground by a Corruptor and was seconds away from being eaten. But before the monster could finish him off, a fireball crashed into it and burned it alive. The students from Harness Academy had joined the fight. Thanks to their help, the knight managed to stand again.
Unfortunately, the students immediately ended up trapped by two more Corruptors. Luckily for them, they were standing directly in Jin's path. As he rushed past, he casually erased both monsters as if they were nothing more than annoying insects in the road. The knight and the students could only stare blankly, barely able to understand what they had just witnessed.
Jin kept charging toward the boss Corruptor, desperate to close the distance before its wounds fully regenerated. The monster sensed him coming and launched an attack in his direction, but Jin dodged it cleanly and kept moving. He sliced through every Corruptor blocking his way, refusing to slow down for even a second.
Eventually he reached the giant and cut straight into one of its legs, making the monster lose its balance. Before it could recover, Jin unleashed several more slashes across its entire body, forcing the enormous beast to collapse helplessly to the ground. The moment it tried to rise again, Jin created a spear from his power and hurled it straight into the Corruptor's head.
The impact exploded across the battlefield, and just like that, the boss Corruptor was finally dead, leaving everyone around him completely shocked and wondering who this man truly was.
Three days later, the civilians were already busy repairing their homes.
Jin, meanwhile, was sitting in his room, honestly relieved that the damage had not been as catastrophic as it could have been. The incident had been huge, but the city had somehow avoided total collapse. He also had to admit that the Holy Knights had worked fast. Even though they had not been able to move freely during the giant Corruptor's attack, their cleanup afterward had been impressively swift.
The academy had been sealed for investigation. Lord Rudman, believed to be the mastermind behind the disaster, had already been captured. Several instructors and even academy officials suspected of involvement had been detained as well. In other words, everyone suspicious was being dragged to the royal castle for questioning.
Jin figured the academy would stay closed for a while, but the incident also gave him something serious to think about. When enemies gathered in one place, he could wipe them out easily. But if they scattered across a wide area, protecting everyone became much harder. If he truly wanted to defend the people of this era from Corruptors, he needed to get stronger.
Thinking about that, he pulled out the cube Kagura had left behind. But before he could focus, someone knocked on his door.
When he opened it, Myria was standing there. She explained that her elder brother had summoned him. Apparently Argus wanted to thank Jin properly and discuss another matter.
Jin asked why she had come all the way there herself when the academy was supposed to be closed. Myria said it would be too rude to send a servant to summon someone as incredible as him, so she had come personally as a representative of the Alton house.
Hearing that, Jin teased her, asking whether she was finally done calling him an inferior species. Myria immediately swore that she had reflected on her behavior. After everything she had seen, she now understood that people should not be judged by appearance, and that no matter who they were, they deserved basic respect.
She was practically begging for forgiveness when Hakama arrived and instantly started teasing her for the total personality flip. Jin was happy to see Hakama, and the girl explained that she had got bored at the dorm. Then she casually walked past Myria as if she owned the place. Myria immediately got annoyed and called her a shameless country bumpkin for barging into Jin's room, which forced Jin to ask whether she had really reflected at all.
Later, the group arrived at Argus's residence, where every servant warmly welcomed them.