Chapter 268
Chapter 268
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 268
Chapter Title: Drainage Tunnel (4)
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1.
"What is this?"
Siu stood blankly in the middle of the tunnel.
To be precise... in the middle of the tunnel that had become strangely spacious.
This was completely unexpected.
The two witches he'd smashed like bugs, the enemy knight that had appeared amid a terrifying aura, even his master who had single-handedly crushed hundreds of white knights—they had all vanished like a bad dream.
Leaving him utterly alone.
"This is..."
Dangerous.
He had no idea what exactly had caused the separation, but being tossed alone into the heart of the enemy's lair was more than enough to spark a profound sense of crisis.
Escape was possible.
Through training with Eloa, Siu had strengthened his body while steadily refining and improving his Coordinate Teleportation spell.
To simplify the existing Coordinate Teleportation procedure: 'Establish current position,' then 'Establish destination position,' then 'Calculate distance and warp'...
A lot of steps had been cut, but that was the gist of it.
Coordinate Teleportation was an incredibly complex and precise magic formula, demanding intense focus and mana control.
Without undivided concentration, the casting time dragged on forever.
That's why he rarely managed to use it for escape in actual combat.
To fix that flaw, Siu had gone through an optimization process to shorten those three steps.
In essence, he always pre-inputted rough coordinates for his current position while on the move.
For the destination, he randomized it but applied a 'ground level only' limit to cut calculation time and ensure a safe getaway.
Unless it was something like Ea's water bottle that outright blocked teleportation, he'd secured a way to bust out of here in short order.
The calamity stirred up by the Witch of Cowardice.
In the midst of this crisis, Siu resolved not to stand idly by.
Even if it was just a tiny bit of power, he'd lend it. At the very least, he wouldn't sit back and watch.
In that sense, right now was prime time to bail.
An enemy way beyond what Siu could handle had shown up, and he had all the time in the world to run.
On top of that, some unknown force had completely split him off from Eloa.
"Pierce through."
Without a second's hesitation, Siu kicked off the Coordinate Teleportation calculations.
Ever since the tunnel had abruptly widened, the ambient mana had shifted.
To be exact, it felt like powerful jamming waves trying to smother the mana flow—but nothing he couldn't shrug off.
Feed the interference into the variables, tweak as needed, and boom: an exit tunnel straight out of this ant hill materialized in a flash.
That's when it hit.
-Kurrrroooom!
The sound reverberated.
Just like before the red knight appeared, a vibration so colossal it crossed hundreds of meters.
A roar monstrous enough to zero in on its source.
Over there, Eloa and the red knight were likely deep in a deathmatch.
He figured this whole spatial distortion was the red knight's doing.
Which meant he'd probably been tagged as a 'meddler' or 'loose end' and shunted off alone to another spot.
"Is this the right call?"
He'd gotten the rundown on the red knight from Eloa.
As the Witch of Cowardice's top ace, sharing intel ahead of time was a no-brainer.
Per her account, the red knight was a beast who'd slipped away from her seven times running.
You could argue what kind of 'beast' bails after losing seven straight bouts...
Siu had thought the same back then.
But now, after watching Eloa fight in deadly earnest up close, his mindset had shifted.
Just one strike was enough to make him think, 'Thank god it's not aimed at me'—that devastating force and pressure, tanked head-on seven times, and the thing still clawed its way to survival.
Something Siu couldn't have lasted a second against.
And now that red knight was even stronger.
He couldn't begin to guess its current level, but something nagged at him.
Siu released the gauntlet on his left hand.
There, on the back of his hand, Eloa's contract gleamed—an hourglass pattern.
After the drowned witch's ambush, it was the spell she'd handed him.
She'd said it auto-triggered defensive magic in a pinch.
One out of her twelve contracts.
The fact that Eloa of the 23rd hierarchy had offloaded a full twelfth of her power to Siu was crystal clear.
Impossible to crunch the cost via simple math, sure, but...
-KABOOOM!
Roars thundered repeatedly from afar.
Meaning the fight was still raging.
In other words, Eloa hadn't pinned down the red knight yet—she was locked in a brutal slugfest.
Could he really just cut and run like this?
Leave Eloa—who wasn't at full strength because of him—hung out to dry against that savage red knight?
To be fair, it'd been Eloa who'd stopped him from leaving in the first place.
Periwinkle's prophecy had spelled out some seriously grim doom.
Still, Siu didn't want to just spectate like a chump.
This mess was the fallout of everyone's choices.
Responsibility cut both ways.
Least that's how Siu saw it.
"If this works..."
Siu eyed the four-leaf clover Periwinkle had slipped him.
Her footnote: it was a charm guaranteed to dodge one date with death.
Plus, he had the Orgel.
Crank it to max stealth mode, and he might at least peek at the battlefield.
Hard to picture, but if his master was in a bind, he could always cancel the contract and hand it back, right?
Crisis or not, some things needed doing.
Siu steeled himself and marched toward the source of the din.
2.
Some twelve hundred white knights. And the red knight storming in, clutching the fully awakened red branch.
As Siu had foreseen, Eloa was locked in grueling struggle after struggle.
The white spears gripped by the white knights resonated with the red branch, bearing down on the surroundings with crushing weight.
Wide-area debuff about summed it up.
They'd been a pain against the pack before, but massed like this? The effect hit home hard.
Like swinging a blade underwater—every motion bogged down.
That said, Eloa wasn't getting steamrolled one-sidedly.
"Haaap!"
With a crisp kiai, she whipped her Contract Sword in a ferocious arc, cleaving dozens of white knights in one go.
After witnessing the trashed ones rise anew, Eloa—eleventh contract unsealed—was toppling dozens per swing.
She must've racked up a thousand already, but the gap to the red knight spectating from afar? No closer.
Made sense. As she pressed forward, slicing white knights, the wreckage rebooted and leveled spears anew.
"Keuk!"
Eloa parried thrusts lancing in from sixteen angles at once.
Her free hand—swordless—smashed the perimeter like a claymore detonating, white knight clusters shattering and scattering.
Yet even Eloa couldn't fully blow off white knights dogpiling like relentless white ants.
The red knight's nasty ploy—piling pressure via weapon clashes alone—she could counter.
Her hunt-sharpened battle instincts weren't for show.
Dozens of counters flashed in her mind, ripe for trial.
Confidence? At least one would land.
But just as Eloa knew the red knight inside out, it knew her equally well.
Post-probing skirmish, victory no sure thing, it struck at her soft spots.
Two weak points.
One.
Eloa's contracts were built for one-on-one.
Hence, she crushed duels but ran somewhat light on Nature Magic for mob fights.
Two.
She sucked at wars of attrition.
Her Stigma's total mana capacity was below average for witches.
Plus, combat-tweaking every spell wrecked optimization, jacking up costs.
All contracts open now? Drain at peak—she felt mana hemorrhaging with every swing.
Of course, 'somewhat weak' to hordes was still just that: somewhat.
Herd some small fry to stall her? Might as well straw dummies in her sword path.
But these white knights, cloned off the red knight? Plenty tough.
Their life-ignoring spear thrusts? Even Eloa couldn't bulldoze past.
Slice 'em down? They popped back up quick for round two.
Thus, meat-shielding with white knights to grind her down? Masterstroke.
Ten steps forward meant carving twenty times the foes.
Result: Eloa's once-pristine garb shredded in spots, her lush pink-gold locks sweat-drenched like freshly doused.
Not all smooth sailing, but silver lining: Siu was safe.
No ping from the Guardian contract despite elapsed time.
Crisis on him? Auto-defense would've kicked in, alerting her.
Likely bolted to safety post-split.
That much was pure mercy.
"Huu..."
In a heartbeat, she slashed again, batting back strikes from roughly ten white knights.
Now, time to decide.
Bug out here.
Or stake it all to the bitter end.
This red knight and its white knight swarm? Likely the Witch of Cowardice's full deck.
Wipe 'em, and Seoul's threats evaporate.
Mana reserves? Scraping bottom.
Still, enough juice now to ditch pursuit and slip away clean.
Downside: full power reboot meant a solid week of R&R and mana regen.
Life saved, sure—but incoming apocalypse unchecked.
Drag this out further, red knight jumps in for real? No escape hatch.
Die or kill. Pick one.
-Gavakkkkk——!
The red knight bellowed.
White knights hoisted spears, mob-rushing Eloa—then it cleaved the pale tide, hurtling in.
Distant? In beyond-human clashes, point-blank.
Eloa's lapse into thought? Under five seconds, tops.
Yet that sliver birthed a torrent of flashes.
Eloa pictured her end.
All-out effort, still crumbling to the red knight—pathetic defeat.
Terror gripped her.
Run urge surged.
Every life-death razor dance to date.
Never once fearless.
"Rafi..."
Rafi's plea: protect the innocent.
Her dear disciple's unyielding creed—never once affirmed in life.
Foolish master, too late: clutched those dying words like a blade.
"Siu..."
Had she known it might be final glimpse, she'd have lavished praise on his growth.
Shown raw how she treasured him.
Eloa ached for that.
Time's halt shattered—crushing footfalls battered her ears.
Eloa crushed the hilt near-breaking.
"Come slowly."
All Stigma mana transmuted to raw power, flooding her limbs.
No skimping escape reserves—she poured it all.
Cherry-blossom eyes flared; she locked glares on her foe.
Today, Eloa Tiphereth would perish here.
Or claw victory from survival.
"I won't run."