Chapter 401
Chapter 401
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 401
Chapter Title: Masquerade (8)
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1.
The clash began with a shockwave.
A red spear and the black night sky intertwined in the air like two coiling dragons.
The collision between concentrated space and overflowing distortion fields produced a bizarre result.
The colors of the world vanished.
Only black or white existed.
In between, seawater defying gravity floated as large and small droplets, rippling through the zero-gravity space like swimmers.
A white glow spread very slowly, passing through the gem-like scattered water droplets and refracting into seven colors of light.
Even the axis of gravity twisted unnaturally.
A phenomenon occasionally caused by intense natural mana storms.
Space randomization.
The massive impact clashing with the distortion field had twisted even the natural phenomena inside the barrier.
Bianca thought.
She still had mana left.
If she wanted to fight more, she could.
But this place was already the outer scripture.
In an unobservable point where even the basic common sense that water falls from above to below was denied, performing magic was no different from suicide.
A simple spell to light a fire might go awry and burn her entire body.
A basic act of firing mana might be bent by the refracted space and return to her.
A forward-deployed defensive formation might twist and turn into self-harm magic.
At the very least, until this twisting settled, she had to be cautious even about twitching a finger.
And Bianca saw it.
Two opposing forces perfectly canceling each other out, like a candle flame being snuffed.
In the chilling silence amid the black and white.
A suit of armor rose, bearing golden mana-reflected light on its back like the dawn.
Its destination was the witch it recognized as the enemy.
Pure determination made it forget even the fear of death.
Unseen anomalies in life, the gravitational axes pulling at its body from all directions.
Nothing could halt his battered footsteps.
Some preserved their lives amid the unfinished battle.
Others took a step forward, disregarding their lives amid unknown threats.
At the crossroads of victory and defeat, ridiculously, it was not magical prowess but mindset that decided.
"This is..."
Before the sigh could finish, the two crossed paths.
Along with her wings severed by the flashing spear blade, Bianca sank like falling feathers, swaying left and right.
2.
Shin Si-woo checked his body's condition.
A state soaked not just affected by the distortion field, but down to the marrow.
His entire body's energy was depleted, and squeezing out even a handful of mana was difficult.
Repeatedly using amplification for mana recharge was impossible with circuits reduced to rags.
Then there was only one way.
A tempting prey that would open new horizons of magic lay right before his eyes.
Steal the witch's magic right in front of him and amplify mana from there.
"Yo...u pla...y..."
Bianca, drifting atop the shattered sea, no longer had the energy to resist.
Beaten without even Vitege's shield, she was truly unable to lift a finger.
One unexpected point: in the final moment, Shin Si-woo, who severed Icarus's wings, did not immediately take her life.
Seeing Shin Si-woo walk across the sea surface as casually as strolling a plain, Bianca realized.
"Planning to steal my magic too?"
He had not spared Bianca for petty reasons like respect for life.
Facing his ruthlessly cold gaze, a fact she had briefly set aside resurfaced.
Shin Si-woo, who had dropped Ea Sadal Melik down to the 13th hierarchy.
She had heard he possessed an innate ability to steal other witches' magic through sexual intercourse.
The ability itself seemed laughable at first glance, but the results could not be mocked.
Just looking at Ea showed the tragedy of having one's magic stolen while alive.
For a witch, it was like having limbs severed.
Yet Bianca accepted it readily.
"Fine, ravish me as you please. In return... spare my life."
"......"
Shin Si-woo, having shed even his armor, finally stood before Bianca.
Due to the clash's impact, Bianca's clothes were in tatters, fully exposing her ample breasts and thighs.
Historically, many kings met their end on the blade of a black hand atop the bed.
A woman's skirts and legs softly wrapping the waist tended to disarm a man completely.
Bianca's provocative gaze turned toward Si-woo.
Jade-green light gleamed at the corners of her eyes.
"Devour me."
Beneath the water surface where she pressed her back.
There, her trump card remained—an artifact prepared by squeezing every last drop of mana in that falling moment.
Waiting until the equally exhausted Si-woo drew near, the aberrant maw burst through the water surface.
Dense teeth, like spear tips of tightly packed spearmen, clamped from all sides like a carnivorous plant devouring an insect.
"I'll devour you too."
Seizing the moment of carelessness at the end.
The teeth that sought to crunch both Bianca and Si-woo suddenly froze stiff.
Sudden pouring rain.
It covered Si-woo, Bianca, and the artifact's maw, blanketing everything.
The seemingly ordinary rainwater halted magic's effect wherever it fell.
It sucked in mana heavily, allowing no control.
"What is this..."
In Bianca's bewildered gaze, her body began to slowly crumble.
Flowers bloomed—flowers and flowers.
Wildflowers pierced skin and tore flesh, sprouting indiscriminately across the rippling sea, the artifact, and the witch's body.
"Ha... haha..."
Her final trump card foiled.
Bianca's body, wearing a hollow laugh, turned into a pile of flowers and collapsed, leaving remnants spinning atop the water.
Si-woo rose and pinpointed the cause.
As he sought the intruder who had suddenly interfered just as he was about to devour his prey.
His eyes caught a stiffly frozen golden-haired witch.
3.
No matter how much she searched, she couldn't find it.
The place Amelia traced via mana waves was a shipyard that showed nothing suspicious even upon close inspection.
No traces of a separate barrier, no further heavy mana pulses felt.
At this point, it was natural to think it was just a mistake.
For a witch of Amelia's caliber, overlooking a nearby barrier was nearly impossible.
Feeling it was a false alarm, Amelia turned to leave.
As if to grab her, another heavy mana impact resounded.
What Amelia caught was the trace of a crumbling barrier.
Though still midday, beyond the sky hung a shattered night sky like fragments.
In the middle of the black sea floated the Witch of Desire from the hit list, drifting like fallen feathers.
Her state was abnormal.
Just her torn clothes and pallid complexion from mana depletion made it clear.
And the man looking down at her.
That back she had longed for and imagined so much was Shin Si-woo's.
"Ah..."
A slow sigh brought forth trauma.
Shin Si-woo with his head pierced at Ea Sadal Melik's feet.
Regardless of context, just seeing "Si-woo alone with a public enemy" paled Amelia's face.
As if waiting, a massive maw lunged to swallow the prey on the water surface; Amelia swallowed a scream and cast her spell.
A crumbling pile of flowers.
This time, not a moment's hesitation.
Amelia scattered both the artifact and the Witch of Desire, then dashed across the sea toward Si-woo without delay.
Si-woo's body was even more battered than Bianca's.
Blood dripping so profusely it was hard to tell his original skin tone.
The worry from those horrific wounds made her forget fear.
Her feet, which had only retreated in fear of what to say or how to face him, now raced ceaselessly toward Si-woo.
Truthfully, she was afraid.
Terrified.
Of rejection.
Of facing the outcome she had skirted around.
Si-woo's tears at their parting and his anguished cries still echoed in her chest.
The nightmare repeating every night might happen today.
It might become irreversible.
Si-woo, looking down at the vanished Bianca turned to flowers.
When his gaze turned to Amelia.
"......"
The moment Amelia's eyes met Si-woo's as she splashed across the water, her steps gradually halted.
What to say.
How to face him.
The countless words she had rehearsed before collapsing exhausted after the hunt.
Not one could pass her lips.
His firmly shut mouth did not open.
A cold gaze cleanly severed even the faint tail end of hope.
The atmosphere carried subtle irritation, as if facing an unwelcome intruder, allowing no excuses or apologies.
Only severance and rejection lay there.
"Si...woo..."
Time, halted by her barely squeezed call, flowed again.
Si-woo, having met her eyes, turned his head away as if ignoring Amelia.
His gaze pointed not at her, but toward the eastern sky.
-Splash, splash
Si-woo's back, turned without a shred of lingering.
Watching his retreating figure heading somewhere without even minimal conversation.
As the twisted Inner Barrier crumbled, Amelia's heart crumbled with it.
4.
Amelia curled up, endlessly replaying the same scene.
Silently hunting the homunculus, capturing the public enemy.
If she said it was for him, she would be forgiven; any conflict would resolve with time—that selfish optimism.
All of it revealed as mere illusion.
Si-woo did not get angry upon seeing Amelia.
He turned his back without even the leisure for a single word.
As if returning to that time when he felt no emotions.
Perhaps he had no desire even to resolve the conflict.
Then what had she fought for?
Was casting herself as the tragic heroine, hoping he would look back, impure atonement from the start?
What should she do now?
Where should she return to?
In the merciless reality where not even a single tear fell as it hadn't sunk in yet, Amelia sank endlessly.
"Amelia! How can you just leave without a word? You scared me!"
Clara's hand landed on Amelia's shoulder as she slowly bowed her head.
"Cla...ra..."
Clara realized something was wrong from Amelia's expression, crouched and staring as if she would burst into tears at a touch.
"I... met Si-woo..."
With the decisive blow confirming what had happened, Clara was certain.
"I couldn't say... anything... He didn't say anything either..."
"Amelia."
Clara gripped Amelia's hand firmly as she tried to flee alone again.
The pain from the grip like clutching tight anchored Amelia's consciousness slipping into panic.
"What happened? Tell me properly."
"I don't want to... It hurts... I hate everything now..."
"Amelia!"
Clara scolded Amelia sternly.
Her naturally loud voice from her cheerful, spirited nature boomed louder than ever.
Amelia's startled eyes turned to Clara.
"We're friends! At least tell me what happened! I... I want to help you too..."
"Clara..."
Tears dropped from Amelia's widely opened eyes.
Her delicate face grimaced painfully, breathing labored.
Amelia explained everything that happened upon meeting him.
Facts and emotions mixed, speech slurred, half-sobbing ramblings made it hard to follow.
Yet Clara listened calmly from start to finish.
How Si-woo had reacted to her.
The despair she felt.
Clara held Amelia and listened to her lament from one to ten.
"Amelia."
"......"
Clara patted her back as Amelia only hiccupped, unable to respond properly.
"So you haven't even properly talked yet?"
"I couldn't... say anything..."
"No, no, I'm not blaming you. The point is, nothing's certain."
Amelia's body stiffened slightly at Clara's words.
"Instead of suffering alone like this... how about mustering a bit more courage?"
"......"
"Just like you met Si-woo suddenly, he must have been startled by your abrupt appearance. He might be thinking differently now. Or maybe regretting inside, like you."
Amelia rarely trusted others' words.
Too long alone, her deepest bond ending in catastrophe had rooted deep human distrust.
But Clara's voice rang unusually clear in Amelia's heart.
"Let's head back to Gehenna first. Even if talking's hard, at least try to meet."
"How... should I..."
Clara, embracing Amelia preciously, stroked her fragile golden hair.
Her lips whispered kiss-like into Amelia's ear as she clung like a baby.
"Don't worry, I'll help. No need to think about complicated stuff."
A whisper sweeter than a serpent's temptation flowed into Amelia's heart.
"Just listen to my whispers."