Chapter 578
Chapter 578
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 578
Chapter Title: Betrayal (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Occasionally, I find myself asking it needlessly.
Just like how the aftermath of a movie whose ending you already know holds no further curiosity.
Every time I roll it around in my mouth, it's a truly clichéd and stale question.
Even so, if I must ask.
What is life?
2.
There is no perfect magic in the world.
It might just be due to Si-woo's limited knowledge and experience, but every witch he'd observed so far had her own weakness.
For instance, even his master had modified her contract magic for combat use, resulting in abysmal efficiency, while Bianca, specialized in long-range barrages, desperately avoided close quarters.
No matter how much a difference in hierarchy influenced a fight, there was always some variable, some breakthrough.
Melee overwhelms with raw power.
The highest firepower of long-range strikes gets blocked by feathers approaching absolute defense.
Thus, even Dorothy, who appeared at first glance like an impregnable fortress, must have a similar gap.
Dorothy approached with heavy footsteps and swung her sword at Si-woo.
For now, he deflected it.
-Kakakakang!
Rather than clashing head-on with brute force as before, he slid the spear's flat side diagonally to divert it.
“Oh my?”
Dorothy seemed to notice the change in feel as well.
The harder Si-woo swung, the more the recoil transferred back to him—meeting it head-on continuously was no solution.
Thus, he diverted the mighty current.
-Kaddddruk!
It wasn't easy.
A force that barely canceled out even when colliding full-force head-on.
Deflecting absolute power with skill alone bordered on the impossible.
So Si-woo made active use of his footwork.
Essentially just matching his weapon without bending his knees or twisting his body, evading only to the extent that he didn't block the sword's trajectory.
And as expected, Dorothy couldn't keep up with Si-woo's movements.
This was one common trait in the combat style she'd shown so far.
She didn't move nimbly.
At first, he'd thought it mere indulgence, holding back.
But gradually, the magic formula began to come into view.
While deciphering the complex formula inscribed on the lining of her nun's habit, he reached a different conclusion.
Magic manifests mysteries at the cost of mana.
And a great witch beyond the 20th hierarchy goes beyond mere manifestation to rewrite the 'settings' of the world itself.
Folding the sky to shoot an arrow, forging promises that fulfill themselves, summoning forgotten ancient gods, blooming flowers in barren fields...
In any case, performing such absurd miracles becomes possible.
Likewise, Dorothy's absolute power was a force that rewrote the laws of physics from their foundations.
But compared to the 'rewrites' Dorothy wielded, the mana she consumed was far too low.
Expending that much power freely should exhaust even a great witch in no time.
The answer was clear, then.
There were inevitable conditions and constraints to maintain that efficiency.
The keywords to uncover those conditions: 'nun's habit', 'angelic form', 'chapel'.
Looking at them, it was obvious—Dorothy's magic drew power from a system of symbols.
Just as even non-existent beings gain strength from layered history and myth, perhaps Dorothy's absolute power required symbols?
Here, he focused on the nun's habit and the chapel.
He scanned the flow of mana around them.
“You think you can just keep dodging forever~? I could do this all day?”
And he realized.
Dorothy was using the nun's habit as a medium to become the pillar and axis of this chapel.
Not just magically, but physically as well.
In other words, her ability to swing this overwhelming power wildly.
The chapel's refusal to crumble under any impact.
The nun's habit's exhibition of immense defensive power.
All were miracles premised on her standing on the ground as that 'pillar'.
Dorothy wasn't adjusting her power to go easy on Si-woo.
She simply couldn't perform flashy maneuvers because at least one foot had to remain planted on the ground.
Her usual languid speech, sluggish gestures, and leisurely combat style were habits concealing it...
But he'd seen through it for sure.
-Kadddruk!
He deflected another attack and extended the ribbons this time.
If he could make her lose her footing on the ground, that troublesome absolute power would be sealed.
Dorothy wasn't nimble enough to swat away the dozen ribbon strands coiling around her like snakes at point-blank range.
Yet even as the ribbons' immense strength—enough to wring juice from concrete—constricted her body, her movements showed no hindrance.
She neither showed pain nor even frowned.
No, she didn't seem to care at all.
“You into this kind of play?”
Ignoring the pointless jest, he strained to yank her up and hurl her away.
“Hah!”
Dorothy's leisurely face hardened rigidly.
But Dorothy wanted to stay planted on this earth.
And she kept trying to advance step by step.
True to its name, absolute power was absolute—no relativity existed.
No matter if a mere few dozen kilograms of flesh was pulled by tensions of tens or hundreds of tons, if Dorothy didn't will it, she wouldn't budge.
She knew this better than Si-woo himself.
-Tuk! Tududuk!
As expected, the ribbons tore away like spiderwebs, unable to overcome her strength.
Thus, what surprised Dorothy was the attempt itself.
He had tried to detach her from the ground.
Meaning he'd grasped the structure of her autonomic magic 'Advent' in that brief instant.
Not some battle-hardened witch of centuries, but a greenhorn who was little more than a babe in her eyes.
“No way. You figured it out?”
But her brief shock faded as she smiled leisurely once more.
It might be disappointing for him after such spirited effort, but Dorothy's magic wasn't the type exposed by mere insight.
To topple Dorothy as the pillar, her feet had to leave the ground—but by then, the absolute power was already active.
To break the absolute power meant overcoming it head-on—a fatal contradiction.
“I'm pretty~ heavy, you know? No chance.”
Rumors of his fierce stand against Bianca checked out—he was no ordinary foe.
For the long-range-only Witch of Desire to handle Si-woo clinging so tenaciously must have been quite the ordeal.
After idle musings, the exchange became tediously draining from Dorothy's perspective.
-Kadddruk! Kakang!
Dorothy pushing forward relentlessly, Si-woo barely deflecting.
Mysterious that he could hold out this far with martial arts bordering on non-magical...
But that was the end.
His reserves were visibly bottoming out.
“This is such~ a pain. Can't even kill you, which makes it worse.”
The spear receiving her sword with difficulty sank lower and lower.
As if even lifting it was burdensome, its tip now scraped the ground.
As expected, no ordinary blade.
Even with Dorothy still planted, it marred the chapel.
Was he deliberately scraping to collapse the magic circle via the red barrier?
But that was futile.
No matter his biotics, affecting the vast ritual across the entire chapel was impossible.
Hadn't he realized that far?
Or, having realized, did he intend to grind the whole floor away like sharpening an axe into a needle?
“Clinging like that won't do a thing~ Anyway, answer me~ You're like some muttering psycho bitch.”
This time, as Dorothy swung harder at Si-woo's midsection, she suddenly sensed something off in her own mutterings.
Come to think of it...
Why was he clinging so desperately?
She'd dismissed it since the tide overwhelmingly favored her.
But Shin Si-woo wasn't a fool.
Even if melee was his forte, he possessed respectable long-range capabilities.
Was stubbornly sticking to close combat in this situation mere stubbornness?
She looked into his eyes.
And felt a chill run down her spine.
The gaze shining from within the black helmet visor wasn't that of a man abandoning the fight or driven to despair.
It was the eye of a predator lying in wait in the underbrush, calmly biding for the perfect moment on its prey.
What had she overlooked?
Was there some gap he could exploit in this situation?
Even the strongest witch he'd faced so far couldn't pierce her absolute defense to harm Dorothy.
No injuries, not even a drop of blood.
These fights devolved into tediously repetitive labor.
“Fear not!”
Thus, Dorothy had never truly feared combat, as if reciting scripture.
Let alone against Si-woo, clearly far below her league.
And for Si-woo, who'd crawled through countless limbs to hone his battle experience, such carelessness was perfect prey.
A pure white ring appeared above Dorothy's head, just like before.
Myriad feathers formed massive wings that flapped, scattering mana on a whole other level.
Even for Dorothy, this complete form—with its severe constraints—couldn't be sustained long due to the vast mana drain.
Dorothy's idea was simple.
Whatever he schemed, more power would crush it.
Feeble tricks always shattered before the invincible shield.
Si-woo's purely defensive stance shifted to offense.
Simultaneously, feathers whipped from Dorothy's wings flew slowly toward him from all directions.
Seemingly sluggish at a glance, each carried absolute power.
Even a meteor in their path would meet no resistance, flying on with the same speed and force.
Sure enough, his spear—which had been unnaturally dodging the feathers—thrust toward the ground.
Seeing the tip embed in an absurd trajectory, Dorothy was convinced of victory.
“Got you.”
However.
The moment Si-woo slammed his fist into the spear's grounded butt with full force.
-Dung! Dung! Dung!
With three overlapping transverse waves, the ground collapsed.
No footing remained for Dorothy amid the shattered terrain, crumbling like cheese through a cutter.
Dorothy's eyes widened in shock.
Scarlet sparks erupted like geysers, tousling her bangs—a storm of condensed distortion rising from the fissure.
For that brief instant without footing, bereft of the chapel's blessing, the nun's habit couldn't resist the storm—an artifact's natural bane.
The feathers and angelic ring vanished as swiftly as they'd appeared.
Si-woo spun, yanked his spear free, shed his crumpling armor like kitchen foil in the aftermath, and plunged deep into Dorothy's now utterly exposed abdomen.