"Choose wisely."
The man with the scythe stared at Jin for a few moments with his expression completely blank. Slowly, a chuckle escaped his mouth before gradually growing into loud laughter.
"You’ve got balls I admit!"
He leaned forward before propelling himself into the air, landing effortlessly on a tree branch. Then rested the scythe on his shoulder and grinned as he turned to his men. "Take care of him quickly, we don’t have time."
The other two cloaked men rose to their feet, one gripping his long spear while the other his massive sword as they approached him.
Both fixed their gazes on Jin, filled with hostility as they already bared a grudge against him.
"Hm." Jin turned to them. "Since he backed out, I’ll have you two answer in his place. So which is it?"
An immense pressure immediately slammed down on the two men, nearly pinning them to the ground. Their bodies tightened under the overwhelming force, and even attempting to move a single step felt like it will require almost half their strength and effort.
"What!?" The man with the spear muttered to his shock.
"Is this his Natural Presence? How can it be so overwhelming!?"
Jin sighed, then took a step forward. "I’m trying to be nice here, so I really do need your answer."
"Tsk!"
"You bastard..."
Although the answer was painfully obvious, for some reason, deep within their core, they felt as if fighting him with his blindfold off was the safest and wisest choice.
"You think purposefully blocking your vision gives us a chance against you!?" They immediately channeled their Nature Energy throughout their bodies, using it to resist Jin’s Natural Presence. Then they tightened their grips on their respective weapons and charged toward him. "How dare you mock the Dark Convenant!"
The two men vanished from where they stood, reappearing on both sides of Mr. Jin. In a coordinated attack, they swung their massive sword and thrust their long spear toward his sides, attempting to strike him simultaneously.
Mr. Jin leaped into the air, effortlessly evading their coordinated attacks as the massive sword and long spear swept past him.
But before he could land, the man wielding the large sword immediately stretched his free hand towards him, his palm aimed directly at Jin while he was still suspended in midair.
"You’re not going anywhere!" A golden-black aura surged through the man’s arm, flowing toward his outstretched palm. The energy gradually condensed at the center of his hand till it formed a sphere. "Magnetic Nature Art..."
"What?"
In the next instant, it felt as if a powerful vacuum had formed around him, violently sucking him towards the man wielding the massive sword.
Before he could react, his body was abruptly dragged downward, hurtling him towards the man with alarming speed.
"Now!"
"Understood." The man wielding the spear began spinning it rapidly in front of his body. With each rotation, sparks of electricity crackled along its length, growing more intense until the entire weapon was engulfed in a layer of lightning.
Then he tightened his grip on the electrified spear and thrust it forward at Mr. Jin. "Lightning Nature Art" Thunder Harbald."
A blast of concentrated lightning shot out from the top of the spear, and towards Mr. Jin, its blinding light reflecting in his eyes before exploding on impact.
A deafening boom followed as lightning arcs spread in every direction, tearing through the trees and engulfing the entire area in a cloud of smoke and dust.
The two men drew back away from the smoke.
"Did we get him?" The man with the spear asked as they watched the cloud of smoke carefully.
"You know, the moment you ask that question, you know you sure as hell didn’t get him." A voice came out of the smoke.
"What!?"
As the cloud of smoke slowly settled, Mr. Jin remained standing in the same spot, seemingly unfazed.
His clothes were slightly ruffled from the explosion, while faint arcs of lightning continued to crackle across his body before gradually fading away.
"Impossible... He took that hit head on?"
"The ability to manipulate and control lightning, as well as magnetic forces. Undoubtedly they belong to the Second Origin, but those abilities itself are incredibly rare and not something I should take lightly."
Mr. Jin’s smile vanished completely, leaving his face devoid of amusement. Slowly, he raised a hand to the top of his blindfold and began pulling it down, revealing his eyes as the atmosphere around him grew increasingly tense.
"You have exhausted your time, and since you were unwilling to give an answer, I’ll answer for you."
Almost immediately, a tremendous pressure erupted from his body, slamming the two men to their stomachs and pinning them firmly to the ground.
Behind them, the surrounding trees were crushed beneath the overwhelming force, their trunks and branches collapsing and disintegrating into dust until nothing remained but a cloud of debris.
"W—What is this pressure!?"
Even the third man on the tree branch could feel it, although it wasn’t aimed at him.
Mr. Jin slowly raised both hands before bringing the tips of his four fingers together. Then his faint blue eyes glowed softly as he said. "Dragon Nature Art:...Longinus Impact."
An overwhelming force descended upon the two men, crushing everything within its reach. They were slammed further into the ground as the sheer pressure spread across a fifteen-kilometer radius, shattering the earth and reducing the surrounding trees to dust.
The ground ruptured violently, sending debris flying as an enormous cloud of smoke and dust surged into the sky.
Moments later, as the dust slowly settled, all that remained was a vast crater stretching across the devastated landscape, its deepest point plunging ten meters into the earth.
The third man’s eyes widened, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. The overwhelming pressure had blown him off the tree branch and sent him crashing to the ground.
As he struggled to his feet, he stared at the massive crater before him, unable to comprehend the sheer destruction.
"Impossible..." He turned to Jin who just stood there motionless, all this happened in the blink of an eye the moment he took off his blindfold. "How... Weren’t you just purposely blocking your vision?"
His eyes widened. "Unless..."
"Bingo." Mr Jin turned around with a smile. "The purpose of my blindfold isn’t too limit my vision, it’s to greatly limit my Nature Energy. The moment I activated my Origin few seconds before I was even born, there was a problem growing up. Every word I spoke, everything I gazed at, they all caused something close to a cataclysmic event."
He put his blindfolds back on. "I even ended up crushing the doctor who helped birth me just by looking at her. Naturally I learnt how to control the nature energy leaking out of my mouth, but my eyes were a different story, therefore a special blindfold with the ability to consume Nature Energy on contact was made specially for me."
"I... See." The man with the scythe slowly regained his composure, the shock in his eyes gradually fading as he finally broke free from his stunned silence.
"I was a fool to not have noticed before. They have been rumors circulating, so you are him? The man who obtained the principle of domination from god, Jin Kaiser."
The man’s expression softened as the reality of the situation sank in. It was painfully clear now that this battle was completely out of his league. "I shall retreat for now, but do not assume that this is over because you killed some bunch of newbies."
The fabric of space-time suddenly tore open behind the man, revealing a dark void beyond. Without another word, he stepped backward into the opening, his body gradually disappearing as the rift closed behind him, leaving no trace of his presence in the Abyss.
Then Mr Jin looked forward at the crater, then sighed as he said. "The Dark Convenant, huh?"