Chapter 269
Chapter 269
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 269
Chapter Title: Drainage Tunnel (5)
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1.
Eloa abandoned all thoughts of what came "next."
The fear of death was cleanly severed by the sword's movements.
In its place, her mind filled with nothing but seizing victory in this field of carnage.
Once stray thoughts and anguish were cleared away, her body became one with the sword, and the sword became one with her body.
Eloa danced her blade freely, unleashing her magic power without restraint—she was a storm incarnate.
The formidable white knights were sliced and shattered like mere foot soldiers.
The wall of white spears shook like a bamboo grove battered by a gale...
-Shaaaack!
A ferocious scarlet spear slithered through the gaps between them.
The enemy knight remained cautious to the end.
She never tried to face Eloa alone.
Like a chariot wheel tactic, she deployed the white knights one by one to create openings, then struck sporadically whenever Eloa showed a vulnerability.
-Kwarrr rumble boom!
Even amid the clamor that transcended sound, becoming a shockwave itself, Eloa clearly sensed the presence of the red branch stabbing at her back.
This was thanks to her contract "Transcendence Domain," which allowed her to detect every attack within a 30-meter radius, even from blind spots.
"Haat!"
Eloa quickly rolled her body across the already cookie-crumbled ground, dodging the spear thrust.
Clashing directly with the red branch was a poor choice.
Prioritizing evasion had forced her into such an unsightly maneuver.
After dodging even the barrier extending from the red branch, she turned toward the enemy knight and prepared to leap.
Those white knights were being resurrected by that red branch.
In the end, if she couldn't eliminate the enemy knight, this fight would never conclude.
However,
-Clank! Clank! Clank!
The enemy knight swiftly retreated in an instant.
Blocking Eloa's charge were hundreds of white knights, feeling like an impenetrable white rampart.
Devoid of emotion or reason, they feared nothing in staking their lives to protect their commander.
No matter how fiercely Eloa's sturdy body and fearless sword strikes advanced like a tempest, piercing through the white knights packed in phalanx formation with spears aimed squarely was impossible.
It was a clever display of conserving strength.
Once Eloa began showing signs of fatigue, she would likely intervene aggressively and go for the kill.
"Hah, hah... huff..."
Her breath had already risen to her throat.
It was ragged enough to taste iron on her tongue.
There was no need to drag this out any longer.
It was time to truly end it.
She had to stake all her magic power and strength on one decisive blow.
-Rumble!
Her two feet planted firmly on the ground like the roots of a sturdy tree.
Her sword angled downward obliquely.
In the distance, the enemy knight's eyes gleamed mockingly, anticipating her final struggle.
-Whoooong!
Magic pressure crushed everything around her.
White veins bulged on the back of Eloa's hand, and pale pink sparks of magic power began to erupt spectacularly.
-Jazak—!
Sensing ominous portents, the enemy knight commanded the white knights to charge at Eloa in unison.
Ignoring their lives, they piled themselves as a massive shield wall between Eloa and the enemy knight.
They intended to block Eloa's attack with their bodies.
All her power converged on a single point, the extreme focal point, and slashed.
If body, mind, and sword became one,
that strike would reach the heavens.
The moment she silently raised and slashed her sword upward, all stray thoughts vanished.
Death, life, and the boundary between them rested solely on the sword tip, thinner than a hair.
Heaven and earth trembled.
The sword strike drew a clean line, as if cleaving space or the heavens themselves, unleashing power on an entirely different level from before.
The white knights surging toward Eloa vanished all at once, as if caught in a nuclear storm.
A blaze of light rampaged like an explosion from the outburst of concentrated magic power.
The instant Eloa's sword arced overhead...
—————!!!
The sky came into view.
In the tunnel 45 meters underground.
Her strike had sliced through walls, bedrock, and thick earth all the way to the surface, creating a crevice hundreds of meters long.
Sword energy flared right before the enemy knight's face, as if hurling itself to its death.
—————!!
With a deafening roar like a bombardment, it collided with the extended red branch.
A semicircular distortion field spread simultaneously, along with barriers branching out like leaf veins.
The enemy knight's body, which had handled Eloa effortlessly until now, wavered for a moment.
Even if she dispersed physical impact through distortion and energy through barriers once more,
having met such immense force head-on left her no choice but to recoil greatly.
The shield of distortion wasn't a mere physical barrier.
No matter how powerful the physical impact, it cunningly twisted and manipulated its direction, rendering the external "force" meaningless—an impregnable shield.
Normally, Eloa's sword strike would never breach that shield.
-Crack!
Yet.
The moment Eloa's ultimate slash collided with the distortion field spread forward like a shield, it began to shatter.
Force and physical power concentrated beyond common sense had turned the impossible into reality.
-Crunch crunch!
With power to spare, the strike burrowed into the hollow center of the enemy knight's body.
It landed squarely.
The flawless scarlet breastplate crumpled and dented like it had been hammered.
However.
That was the limit.
The red branch's ability to regenerate white knights must have had its bounds.
Having consumed immense energy for defense, the white knights Eloa had just slashed weren't reviving.
The enemy knight, staggering after taking the blow, didn't seem perfectly fine either.
If she could unleash just one more such strike, victory's goddess would have smiled upon Eloa.
-Krrrrrr
But the enemy knight didn't die, and still had strength left.
She glared at Eloa with eyes burning with enmity, refusing to fall.
"Hoo..."
Eloa's body now held not a scrap of magic power.
As the contract's price took effect, immense strain loaded her muscles and bones, making even standing a struggle.
-Clank!
The enemy knight moved.
Her movements were unmistakably unnatural.
Like someone shocked by high voltage, her limbs jerked awkwardly.
-Kra ra ra ra ra
Yet she approached Eloa with a laugh of rapture.
The sound was so humanely monstrous that it sent chills through Eloa.
Stepping over the remains of white knights that no longer revived, the enemy knight stood before her.
-Thwack!
"Guhk!"
The red branch swung wildly, striking Eloa's abdomen.
A 3-meter spear thrust from a 2.5-meter giant.
Hit by the blunt rear end, Eloa flew through the air, crashing pathetically a dozen meters away.
It wasn't a killing blow.
Proof was that Eloa still lived, clutching her belly and writhing as she struggled to rise.
Even if she couldn't fight, she had no intention of dying groveling pathetically.
-Clank clank clank
The enemy knight advanced toward Eloa once more.
-Thud!
A gauntlet crashed roughly into the cheek of Eloa, who had barely stood.
With the sound of dry leather being whipped, she tumbled several meters again.
Her inner cheek tore, blood filling her mouth, and a skull-splitting impact lingered painfully.
In that brief interval, she fully grasped the enemy knight's intent.
She sought to thoroughly punish the foe who had tormented her for so long.
It was a profoundly human impulse, but given her human-like traits so far, hardly surprising.
Eloa tried to rise and lift her sword again, only to realize she couldn't.
Not a chick's tear worth of strength remained.
The path ahead was to be a punching bag, ravaged until her tattered corpse lay broken.
-Krrrrr
Eloa's hair disheveled, covering her face completely.
The enemy knight's shadow loomed over her again.
The moment her arm rose once more, Eloa saw it.
Black particles rippling like a cloak inserting itself between her and the enemy knight.
A sword matching the sleek black armor enveloping the figure's body.
The back of someone very familiar.
"Cut it out, you fucking monster."
The voice brimming with fury belonged to Siu.
No sooner had he spoken than a full-force slash whipped toward the enemy knight.
-Crack!
The shadow's sword struck the enemy knight's helmet exactly as Eloa had taught.
With a sharp cracking sound, the enemy knight's body reeled greatly and flew back.
Of course, if the enemy knight had been in perfect condition, Siu's attack would never have landed.
No matter how strong Siu had become, the gap in ability couldn't be bridged by luck or skill alone.
Yet her flying far away proved her condition was far from perfect.
Just as Eloa had expended everything, the enemy knight had suffered significant depletion too.
Siu turned and asked,
"Master, are you okay?"
Eloa snapped to her senses upon hearing Siu's voice, dazed as she had been.
Until then, resigned to death, she'd felt like she was in a dream.
Seeing Siu restored her reason.
"Wh-what are you doing here? Didn't you escape earlier?"
"Sorry for being a disobedient disciple. I can't exactly escape alone."
The spatial distortion had affected an disgustingly vast area.
Siu had run what felt like over 10km before finally spotting Eloa.
And the sight was the victorious enemy knight toying with and tormenting her.
How could he not lose his temper and intervene?
Had facing death weakened her resolve?
Eloa forgot the situation, barely suppressing tears welling up.
"This isn't the time! You need to escape!"
She grabbed his wrist desperately, but his eyes held no hesitation.
It was clear he'd made some resolve.
"Master, that thing's not in normal condition, right?"
The enemy knight slowly rose after taking Siu's hit.
A long sword mark scarred one side of her helmet where the shadow blade had pierced.
An attack that should have been blocked by distortion or easily dodged had landed as a solid hit.
In a way, a golden opportunity.
If Eloa had a bit more strength left, they could have won.
"Master, can you reclaim the contract you gave me? Ending it here for sure seems like the best scenario."
Eloa understood his meaning.
She'd repelled the white knights and drained the enemy knight's power.
A hard-won 1-vs-2 advantage.
If she and Siu fled now, securing such a chance again was uncertain.
The Witch of Cowardice would prepare countermeasures.
A joint assault, that seemed to be it.
But Eloa shook her head.
"Impossible. I have no strength left."
Reclaiming the contract wouldn't allow immediate reassignment, and guardian contracts weren't for combat anyway.
Above all, Eloa's body was already wrecked from paying the price.
"Then I'll have to do it alone. Think it's possible?"
Eloa pondered.
The surprise attack landing meant it was sufficiently weakened.
And this might be the last chance that wouldn't come again.
She trusted Siu's power and talent.
Perhaps he could deliver the finishing blow to the enemy knight.
But was it right to push him into mortal danger on a mere "perhaps"?
What if something went wrong with Siu...
As she opened her mouth to voice her worries, Eloa met Siu's eyes.
They weren't the eyes of a hero brimming with fearless confidence.
Eyes endlessly doubting, fearing, terrified...
Yet holding the courage to take one step forward.
Perhaps she'd treated him too much as someone to protect?
If she'd seen Siu not as "disciple" but "comrade," what decision would she make now?
Mulling it over slowly, Eloa closed her eyes tightly, then opened them.
"It's worth a shot."
The instant Siu heard her words, he raised his sword without a moment's hesitation.
"Then, I'll do it."