Chapter 572
Chapter 572
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 572
Chapter Title: Betrayal
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1.
Rurue was disappointed that Dorothy had left earlier than planned, but she quickly bounced back.
Instead of slumping over in gloom, she chose to bury herself in the military science materials and magazines she'd received as gifts.
She even turned down company for the ordeal.
Since Siwoo was only half-heartedly heading into the ordeal while throwing himself into his own tasks, she decided to focus on her own work as well.
"This is seriously an experience point event."
The ordeal offered sparring sessions that were incredibly close to real combat.
And not just against her own potential unleashed, but against a Black Knight several times more powerful in performance—it was the perfect opportunity.
Comparing before entering the ordeal to now, after pouring a full month into it...
Just in terms of raw combat power, wasn't the difference at least double?
The Black Knight, which had once felt like an insurmountable wall, now seemed catchable in as little as a month or three at most.
Unlike Siwoo, who kept growing stronger, the Black Knight's growth was fixed at a single instance from registration, which made the gap even more pronounced.
For example, new magic acquired after forming a bond with Rurue couldn't be used by the Black Knight at all.
Of course, Siwoo couldn't instantly copy high-hierarchy magic just from a single bond either.
However, through repeated intimacy, he had replicated its prototype more precisely, and after trial and error, he was making it his own.
The autonomic magic he internalized from bonding with her was "Waves of the Demonic Sea."
The massive tsunami that had easily swallowed a small city during their first clash at the aquarium—that was the spell.
Classified by lineage, it was a type of repulsion-field magic.
Diving deeper into its branches, it converted vast quantities of seawater into mana water to generate waves, harnessing those currents as dynamic shockwave magic through whipping motions.
The raging waves it unleashed crushed all resistance with unprecedented force, like a tyrant in its own right.
Compared to Siwoo's other magic, its destructive power was unmatched.
His shadow armor, reinforced with elemental magic, had been shredded to pieces before it even touched the waves.
However, he couldn't wield "Waves of the Demonic Sea" exactly like she did.
Imperfect replication aside, it demanded an obscenely huge amount of mana per use.
Rurue was born with mana riches.
Moreover, Rurue efficiently managed battleship-scale fuel consumption by summoning actual seawater through her auxiliary autonomic magic.
But Siwoo lacked such tricks.
In that situation, mimicking her waves outright would leave him mana-dry after just one surge.
So Siwoo took a detour.
He decided to utilize it as one method of handling the distortion fields of the Red Branch.
Though he'd described it lavishly as a tsunami until now, Rurue's method of summoning massive waves was actually akin to a "rogue wave" in principle.
The aberrant waves that suddenly surged dozens of meters in the middle of a flat ocean, stranding large ships without warning.
When wave wavelengths and directions align.
In other words, when waves overlap, their energy concentrates into a single massive force.
Grafting the sequence that drew out that massive force onto the Red Branch's "distortion field."
Not just limiting, compressing, and releasing the field, but channeling it into destructive wave motion.
This was the new magic he'd finalized in theory over the past few days.
"Let's test it in combat today."
Preparations were about done.
He closed his eyes and placed his hand on the Cradle of Dreams, channeling mana.
In that instant, his consciousness sank.
With the long-familiar vertigo, Siwoo entered the ordeal space once more.
"Huh?"
But the moment he stepped inside, he sensed something off.
This ordeal space, where he dueled the Black Knight, originally had a proper "end."
Even without dying inside, you could quit midway via the cliffs at the edges of the rectangular floor.
But now, they were gone.
White walls enclosed everything like a colosseum where life-or-death battles were mandatory, and the walls and floor were etched with unidentifiable...
Countless golden-glowing magic formulas.
"What the hell?"
Like the time the Red Branch reappeared in the Black Knight's hand, this anomaly might be a bug too.
No matter how artifact-like, without steady maintenance, things break down.
Perhaps, like an old electronic device's exposed circuit board, the artifact's construction formulas had simply surfaced.
"But... those magic formulas?"
However, as Siwoo carefully examined the internal formulas, he felt an eerie familiarity.
And unease at the same time.
It was a gut instinct honed from dancing on the edge of death.
-Clank clank clank
The Black Knight materialized like a mirage.
Shin Siwoo himself, with his inner potential fully awakened.
Only then did he realize the identity of the magic formulas constructing this cage.
A style no witch, no matter how brilliant her computational prowess, could imitate.
A style preparing for every variable and possibility—like comparing to Go, closer to a supercomputer than a human. His inner subconscious.
So this wasn't the design of some ancient deep-sea witch.
Nor some random error.
The Black Knight had interfered with the artifact, redrawing the ordeal arena to its own whims.
For what purpose?
"Why haven't you embraced the Witch of the Crucible?"
The voice from within the helmet was his own, yet unfamiliar.
A toneless timbre, stripped of all emotion, unlike the "Pierra" he'd heard before.
"Why ignore the fastest path to power?"
Not reproachful, devoid of resentment.
Not advice, devoid of goodwill.
Yet unmistakably a tone condemning foolishness.
"What are you talking about?"
This was Siwoo's first conversation with his deeply slumbering subconscious.
"Kether, unable to bear your foolishness, lifted that paltry burden from your heart. I could have ascended to heights several times yours."
"......"
More than the words, the situation left him speechless in bewilderment.
What had Kether done?
And what was about to happen?
"Embracing more witches is all it takes—a simple matter—yet you've done nothing."
The thoughts continued.
Siwoo grew stronger the more witches he bonded with, thanks to his ability to copy their magic.
If Siwoo had posted a "one-night stand wanted" flyer in Gehenna, at least hundreds would have flocked like clouds for a chance with the first male witch.
Then, as the Black Knight said, he could've acquired a variety of magic.
But he already had too many people to take responsibility for.
It was true he'd restrained himself despite numerous opportunities.
And he didn't think that approach was right anyway.
That was where Siwoo and the Black Knight's views diverged sharply.
"You're no longer needed."
With the Black Knight's declaration, the magic formulas extending in all directions lit up.
Parsing the magical flows reflected in his left eye alongside the words, he identified their nature.
The vivid dreamlike realism vanished, and the space itself morphed into "reality."
"I'll kill you and take this body."
The magic formulas that seized the Cradle of Dreams had redrawn the mere瞬息 dream of the ordeal into an entirely different realm.
A life-or-death arena for dominance over the surface consciousness.
Even death here meant no awakening.
No cliffs to run toward and fall from at the end.
Defeat inside would leave him trapped eternally in the darkness of his endless subconscious.
Maybe he'd been too complacent from the start.
If the Cradle of Dreams guided Siwoo to the "bedrock of the subconscious,"
he should have anticipated his extraordinary subconscious backflowing to seize this space.
"No, how could anyone predict this?"
Thinking about it, it made even less sense.
Who could have imagined his subconscious was such an off-spec existence?
"Pierra."
It was like heading out for a casual morning jog, only to encounter a bear at the spring.
As the Black Knight raised the Red Branch, signaling the end of talk, Siwoo donned his armor in response.
2.
Meanwhile, Rurue was whiling away the time leisurely.
"Ooh... I absolutely have to buy this."
Like a housewife excitedly watching home shopping, Rurue drooled over a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in a military magazine.
Imagining herself standing tall on that magnificent carrier, mantle billowing in the fierce sea wind as she waved her baton—it was thrilling just to picture.
"That said... the price... is pretty steep."
42 billion dollars.
She didn't know exactly how much, but it was clearly no small sum.
Probably more than she could handle even inheriting all her legacy.
Packing it full of carrier-based aircraft and assembling an escort fleet would cost another fortune.
After agonizing over it, Rurue soon arrived at a clear solution.
"No problem! Just plunder the neighboring countries!"
If push came to shove, raiding a U.S. military base could net it for free without paying a dime.
As the dreamy girl unfurled fluffy clouds of happy imagination,
Rurue suddenly shot to her feet.
She'd sensed a presence inside the submarine.
It was her close friend Dorothy, whom she'd thought had left hours ago, so Rurue tossed the magazine and dashed to the reception room.
"Dorothy! What brings this surprise?!"
"Your Majesty~ Hello~"
Like a frisky fawn in spring sunshine, nibbling new shoots, Rurue bounded over and hugged her tight.
Dorothy spread her arms and lightly received Rurue's fleshy charge.
"Didn't you say the vacation was over? A surprise return without a word—how could I not be absolutely thrilled?!"
Dorothy smiled back at the beaming, delighted Rurue.
"Actually~ I'm not staying long. Just forgot something here. Oh, and I have that gift I almost forgot too."
"Forgot something? A gift?"
Rurue's puzzled eyes caught the blinding silver gleam of Dorothy's mana-reflecting light.
Why was Dorothy using magic?
Was the gift some special artifact?
Still trustingly nestled in her embrace, Rurue felt a stinging pain blooming in her abdomen.
The belated "stab" sounded less like flesh tearing and more like a fork piercing tofu—light and soft.
"Ah... Huh?"
Dorothy's hand wielding a glowing white sword.
The blade piercing her lower belly.
Crimson blood blossoming like a flower on the white fabric.
The sword that had rent her gut slipped out just as easily, without resistance.
"Cough...!"
Rurue coughed, staring blankly between Dorothy and her wound.
Reflexively, she tried to cast a spell, but nothing happened.
Dorothy had struck a vital point no witch could afford to wound.
Collapsing with a thud, Rurue looked up at Dorothy in disbelief.
"Why... Dorothy... why...?"
Dorothy was still smiling.
A smile like her lips had been tugged upward by fishing hooks.
"This is my final gift to you, Your Majesty—and a lesson."
Chills ran down her spine.
That ever-present benevolent smile hadn't faded even as her hands were stained with blood.
"It's best not to trust public enemies too much~"