Chapter 271
Chapter 271
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 271
Chapter Title: Grasping the Red Branch
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Eloa backed away toward the wall, step by hesitant step, watching Siu locked in a brutal fight.
Shadows filled the entire room.
She couldn't see through to the battlefield hidden inside them.
"Siu...."
All she could do was clench her fists and cheer him on.
The occasional clash of weapons echoing from within proved the battle was still raging fiercely.
"Hoo...."
Amid the thick veil of shadows, Siu calmly regulated his breathing.
In truth, these shadows he conjured were nothing more than a bluff.
Even if the enemy knight didn't push them back with her distortion field, they wouldn't inflict much damage anyway.
But the enemy knight didn't know that yet.
As if wary of this unfamiliar nature magic, she maintained a distortion field about five meters wide, steadily driving back the shadows.
Thanks to that, Siu could employ hit-and-run tactics—closing in for melee, then slipping back into the shadows with a bit more freedom.
-Krrrrrrr
The enemy knight growled in frustration at the shadows encircling her.
If Red Branch's power had been at full strength, if she'd had ample mana reserves, she could have blown away every last one of these annoying shadows.
No, even now, if given just a little more time, she could dispel them all.
"Hah!"
-Kwaaaang!
But whenever she showed signs of expanding her distortion field, a black-armored figure darted in like a ghost to disrupt her.
Forcing her to clash sword against spear, making it impossible to adjust the field, and when she tried to counterattack, it plunged back into the shadows like an arrow.
If she pursued, four ribbons lashed out to block the chase.
She could follow if she committed, but those writhing ribbons felt plenty threatening in her current state.
They had a solid physical presence, making them hard to perfectly counter even with Red Branch—in other words, from the enemy knight's perspective, the "one truly dangerous attack."
-Krrrrrrr!
The witch in black armor was among the weaker ones the enemy knight had faced so far.
Her bizarre bag of tricks made her annoying, but not enough to inspire real crisis.
The enemy knight was already imagining ripping apart the black armor and shredding the pink-haired witch.
Yes.
That very line of thinking was the complacency Siu had baited her into.
The unchanging repetition of the same pattern.
Forcing the enemy to learn it.
That was Siu's first gambit.
Siu calmly tapped away at the calculator in his head.
The physical exertion of "charge in, swing the sword, and flee."
The mental task of "computing shadow manipulation spells."
Handling both simultaneously was quite demanding.
In fact, his mind felt scorching hot, like an overheating engine.
-Whiiiik!
Once more, Siu slipped out from a momentary shadow hideout the instant he sensed the enemy knight gearing up to expand her distortion field.
A typical witch couldn't react this sharply, but Siu could.
Because he could read mana flows.
-Kaoooo!!!
Right then, as if she'd been waiting, the enemy knight whipped around, spear raised high.
After several annoyances, her rage was at a boiling point.
So she turned Siu's predictable charges into bait.
The enemy knight poised to impale the incoming foe with her spear.
-Kwadududuk!
Siu slammed his feet into the ground mid-charge, braking hard and retreating.
The momentum-defying reversal strained his knees terribly, crumbling his stance.
-Koooo!
The enemy knight wasn't one to miss such an opening.
Like finally catching a skulking rat, she charged at Siu as he backpedaled.
This was the counterattack timing he'd been waiting for.
The enemy knight, who'd been cautiously observing her foe, made the first move.
Siu manipulated his mana exactly as pre-calculated.
The shadows roiling around them coalesced into a single form.
Merging and weaving together, they became ribbons with definite substance—no longer mere wispy smoke.
Hundreds of ribbons surged toward the enemy knight, swaying like sea anemone tentacles in the current.
Of course, Siu lacked the skill to produce that many ribbons on his own.
Each one required meticulous weaving on the Virgin's Loom, demanding intricate control and massive computation.
Even Ea Sadalmelik at her peak might manage it, but not Siu—not hundreds at once.
But like when he'd toppled that mother dog before, he could briefly manipulate a pre-spread mass of shadows.
In short, a bluff.
If he could induce even a momentary illusion of a threatening assault, that was enough.
Unaware of this, the enemy knight could only assume Siu had held back an ace.
She'd lunged to deliver the killing blow to a cornered prey, only to face a grand unfurling of ribbons like a duke's wings.
She already knew their power from prior clashes.
She might weather one or two direct hits, but hundreds at once? Her position was far too unfavorable.
Faced with the ribbons surging forward in an instant, the enemy knight hesitated—expand Red Branch's distortion field or contract it?
A split-second gap.
But that was plenty.
Siu charged alongside the hundreds of fake ribbons.
The "complacency" ingrained through repeated shadow-veil tactics amplified the "shock" of this sudden counter.
-Krrrrrr!!!
Red Branch's distortion field, already spanning a ten-meter diameter.
The bluff ribbons shattered futilely upon hitting its boundary.
Realizing the deception, the enemy knight furiously raised her spear—but Siu had already closed the distance tight.
Too late, she thrust; roots like a lightning bolt erupted forward in barrier form.
In the old pattern, Siu would've fled here.
But this time, he accelerated instead.
He dumped every ounce of mana used for shadow control into body enhancement.
Overloaded circuits throbbed like they might burst with each step, feeling triple-swollen from the strain.
Charging into that dense barrier gaping like the jaws of hell felt like dousing himself in oil and leaping into flames.
But Siu had his four-leaf clover.
Periwinkle's charm, guaranteed to avert death once.
Trusting its potency, he forced his trembling knees to shove off the ground against the fear.
One step.
The barrier struck silently.
The "Guardian's Contract" activated in that instant.
A translucent shield warped wildly before nullifying in a grand mana explosion.
The barrier scattered in the blast, somewhat ragged—that was sheer luck.
Another step.
Enduring his fading consciousness, Siu kicked off into the air.
Thankfully, the barrier lacked physical resistance, letting him maintain near-subsonic speed.
But pain like his body twisting, crammed in a dehydrator spinning for hours, ravaged him.
The armor that shrugged off anti-materiel rifles warped like clay.
-Kwaaaang!!
Evidently not expecting a suicidal plunge into her barrier's heart, the enemy knight's reaction was markedly slow.
Siu's body collided with her armor in a thunderous roar.
His consciousness blanked briefly from the barrier's agony and impact shock.
Wrenching his groggy mind back felt like ripping it apart; then he realized his body overlapped hers.
Slowly, he registered that the shadow armor had been shredded off, leaving him exposed.
-Krr
His gaze dropped downward.
Even as awareness fled, the shadow sword he'd gripped tight was buried to the hilt in her solar plexus.
The sensation from the blade tip told him her life was draining fast.
He'd won.
Siu retreated slowly with his tattered body.
The enemy knight stood dazed, staring at the shadow sword piercing her "core."
Siu's blade had become the fatal strike, severing her life.
-Kiiiiiik!
The enemy knight dropped to one knee.
The motion eerily mimicked a dying human, stirring unease.
-Krrrrr
Siu shivered seeing the helmet's glow flicker like a last burst of life before fading.
The enemy knight accepted her defeat.
Her long mission to protect the "Red Branch" embodied within her was over.
In that moment, her vision caught the pink-haired witch watching from afar.
Her hated nemesis, who'd tormented her endlessly.
Even facing death, that condensed rage squeezed out one final burst of will.
-Chak!
Somehow propping her collapsing body, the enemy knight spun the three-meter spear in her massive hand.
Throwing prep complete in a flash.
Siu realized the source of his chill.
The enemy knight meant to take Eloa as her companion in death.
"Master!"
Siu reached out.
A instinctive act, though he knew it was futile.
He grabbed the Red Branch spear shaft aimed at Eloa, ready to fly.
Intending to disrupt the throw.
And in that instant.
"————-!!!!"
The agony of seizing a red-hot iron rod.
Muscles, bones, every cell torn asunder without mercy.
Siu screamed like a dying beast.
The cry split into layers, as if multiple voices wailed at once.
Red Branch was no toy to grab barehanded.
Its owner's near-death state had weakened it greatly, but it remained a wrapped hazard.
To an ether body, like a control rod soaked in radiation.
Clutching such a peril with barely any mana left naturally brought this torment.
His body and soul literally ripping apart.
Yet even screaming, Siu refused to release Red Branch to the end.
As pain blurred his mind, the crisis sense that letting go meant Eloa's doom kept him gripped.
Collapsing behind the kneeling enemy knight, the spear slipped naturally from his hand.
Then he crumpled to the floor.
"S-Siu!!!"
Eloa staggered toward him, having watched it all.
Siu's limp collapse evoked unimaginable terror in her.
Along with regret and guilt.
Why had he, victorious, chosen to grab Red Branch with his hand?
Eloa knew.
"Pull yourself together! Siu! Siu!"
It was all because of her.
Siu had pushed that insane gamble to protect her.
Would she lose another disciple like this?
Would Siu, who'd healed her wounds, depart due to a misguided choice?
"Don't do this... Please open your eyes...."
Tears poured out.
Chest-ripping pain made breathing labored.
Then, a hand gently caressing her cheek.
Siu, cradled in her arms, wiped her tears with a faint smile.
"Master... I'm fine. Just blacked out for a bit."
Eloa felt no shame at bawling before her disciple.
Nor at clutching him like a beggar.
She was simply overwhelmed with gratitude that he'd risen unscathed, impulsively pulling him into a hug.
"Thank you... Thank you... Truly, thank you...."
The smile etched on Eloa's face shone brighter and more dazzling than the sunlight filtering through the ceiling cracks.