Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Uninvited Guest (6)
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Siwoo had been bracing for her attack from the very moment Ea's fingertips twitched.
He unfurled the shadows seeping from the gaps in his armor ahead of him.
The armor served as his final bulwark against impacts.
To counter her assaults more aggressively, he needed another tool.
A shield to deflect the strikes.
There was no need to hold a shield himself and block directly.
He could just float it in the air and use it as cover.
The shadow shield, shaped radially to disperse impact, took the form of a broad cone.
Siwoo planned to let the ribbon's attack slide along its slanted surface.
He lowered his stance and opened his mouth.
And then.
The anticipated shock arrived.
-Boom!!!!
"Kuhk!"
An enormous shockwave.
The clash of mana as the shield met the ribbon reverberated straight through Siwoo's body.
Intense agony that made his guts shrivel hit him, and gastric acid surged up his throat.
Even though he'd clearly blocked it, it felt like being caught in a bomb blast.
"Assistant!"
"...No!"
He waved off the twins rushing toward him amid his ominous aura.
The twins' safety was only guaranteed now because this unfair duel was strictly between Siwoo and Ea.
Even that fragile security could twist in an instant if she took a whim.
For now, he had to humor her while preparing other options.
"You can block that much, huh?"
Ea's calm voice pierced his ringing ears.
It had gone exactly as calculated.
The slanted plane he'd created had deflected most of the impact, and the shield had shattered like pizza slices to disperse the rest.
But what Siwoo hadn't anticipated was just how ruthless and cruel Ea truly was—far beyond his expectations.
If he hadn't wielded the laws of shadow with such finesse, one of his limbs would already be torn from his body, rolling on the ground by now.
Ea had definitely gone easy on him.
But only just enough to preserve his life.
She had zero interest in how battered the rest of his body got.
"Then, one more shot."
-Kkiiigigigik
Once again, the ribbon twisted in midair with a whirl.
A taut sound like a bowstring pulled to its limit vibrated the air.
But it wasn't just one.
Two.
Three.
A total of three ribbons targeted Siwoo and the twins.
"You fucking bitch."
Siwoo gritted his teeth and downed a second vial of condensed mana essence.
"Spread out!"
Shadows erupted from his palm, painting the air like octopus ink.
This time, the form differed from before.
Not radial, but a denser, honeycomb-structured shield, meticulously woven.
And not just one layer—he'd layered three sequentially for maximum caution.
Based on the previous impact, anything more would be overkill.
This was the precise line: preserving spare mana and mental strength without sustaining irrecoverable wounds.
"Can't you just die?"
His calculations were complete.
All that remained was the gamble.
He tapped his knee with a finger, gauging the timing.
The shield didn't need constant rigidity.
That would demand too much mana.
By focusing power in that fleeting instant of collision, he could defend with far greater mana efficiency.
But if the timing slipped even slightly, the shield would tear like paper.
And then his unworthy master's flesh and blood would dance in the air.
-Boom!!!!!
A thunderous clang like hammering sheet metal.
The ribbons hammered the shield relentlessly, with barely a second's gap between strikes, but they never reached Siwoo's heart.
The shockwave—twice as fierce as before—pummeled his entire body.
Pain like being beaten with a baseball bat all over.
Yet Siwoo's gamble succeeded.
The strike that grazed his cheek by a hair's breadth lost its ferocity and fluttered back as a limp ribbon.
"Cough...!"
"You blocked that too? Shame you look worn out after just two, though."
The garden, devastated as if bombed, came into view as the dust cleared on the wind.
Siwoo knelt on one knee amid the haze.
Siwoo calmly assessed his condition.
Warm blood trickled from his left ear.
His eardrum must have burst; sound was muffled on that side.
His eyelid, grazed by the shredding ribbon as it shattered the shield, burned fiercely.
Blood of unknown origin filled his mouth, and his once-sharp vision blurred like overlapping lenses.
Just endure one more time. Just once.
With desperate resolve, Siwoo gripped his thigh and forced himself upright.
"Honestly, I'm impressed. How's a slave pulling off magic like that? Though the efficiency looks awful."
"Hoo...."
Siwoo ignored Ea's words.
He had no time to waste on her now.
He needed to calculate mana and mental allocation for the next attack.
"Now, thirteen this time. A truly tragic, unlucky number."
As Ea raised her fingertips, thirteen ribbons coiled in the air, glaring at Siwoo.
One, then three, now thirteen?
She switched phases like half his HP was gone, despite him not landing a single hit—rage boiled up at the bitch.
Before Siwoo could desperately ponder the next shield's structure, Ea smiled and made an offer.
"Here's your chance."
Ea spread her arms theatrically, beaming like an actress.
Her eyes gleamed with oily excitement, as if she couldn't get enough of this game.
"You know it too, right? Next round, one of your limbs gets lopped off for sure."
"....I know."
He hated to admit it, but it was true.
He had no margin left.
To perfectly block that assault, he'd have to sacrifice one or the other for certain.
"Look at those twins over there, sucking their thumbs like idiots. Doesn't it piss you off? One guy's fighting for his life."
"No choice—you won't stay put."
"I'm talking results."
She was buying him time he desperately needed anyway.
No reason to refuse.
She'd just spew more psycho nonsense, so he'd play along.
"One of those twins is the little sister, right? The one sniffling away without a word while her big sis offers to sacrifice herself and fight."
"Heh...."
Odette shrank the moment Ea's gaze hit her.
Even as Odile hugged her shoulders, the trembling wouldn't stop.
"Hey, kid. What's your name?"
"No need to answer!"
"Better if you do."
Ea blew on her fingertips as if caressing them.
Odette hesitantly parted her lips.
Her voice quivered like aspen leaves, half-soaked in tears.
"O...Odette...."
"What about you? No words? Your big sis bravely offers herself up, this poor slave's performing tricks to save you both. So what're you doing?"
Under Ea's merciless criticism, Odette averted her eyes.
For the timid girl, even meeting that cold stare was overwhelming.
What hurt Odette most was that her words weren't baseless fabrications.
Her mind went blank; no urge to step up.
Just terror at being the focus of her attention—shaking, wanting to flee.
"Odette, don't listen. She's just toying with us."
"That's no way to take someone's goodwill. I'm just trying to teach basic manners to a Miss Odette lacking common sense."
"Sis... I'm fine..."
Odette barely met Ea's eyes.
The cat-like pupils, steeped in madness, scanned her up and down.
"Kneel and beg for your life. I'll make this stage a bit easier then."
Though Odette was an immature, cowardly witch, she wasn't devoid of shame.
She had pride as heir to the Gemernai countess line.
She knew kneeling to a schemer and begging for life was utterly pathetic.
"Won't even do that?"
But she had no choice.
After rationalizing, compromising with herself, and ultimately fleeing inward.
Odette's legs slowly bent.
Just before her knees touched the ground.
"Hey, lady, cut the crap."
Siwoo's mocking words froze the air.
Ea's intrigued gaze on Odette shifted to the ragged Siwoo.
"Lady?"
"Can't stand looking at you. Gone to fat and still acting up?"
Ea smirked.
A knowing laugh.
"I get your intent, but was that the right call?"
"Dunno."
Shadows oozed thickly from Siwoo's arms.
While Ea had focused on Odette, he'd downed an upper-grade mana essence certified by the Emerald Tablet Society.
Thanks to her leisure, all calculations were done.
Vast mana overflowed from Siwoo's body.
Absorbing and wielding foreign mana.
It was Siwoo's verified specialty, proven in Latifundium.
All that remained was deploying his self-generating magic, researched over time, with the absorbed mana.
"Lady Odette."
"Y-Yes... Assistant..."
Odette finally burst into sobs, sniffling her reply to Siwoo.
"When you inherit the Gemernai name later, give this bitch a beating for me."
"Uh... Uuk...."
"You've shown plenty of courage, Lady Odette."
Siwoo's hand traced a semicircle.
At the tai chi-like motion, Ea tilted her head, watching with interest.
"What's that?"
Silver circles began floating around Odile and Odette.
Siwoo's eyes blazed with reflected light, like burning embers.
The 'gate' spell was unfinished.
The magic formula Siwoo had perfected only handled mana absorption and amplification.
Completion for piercing the backworld and present realm was under 10%.
However.
While defending Ea's attacks, Siwoo had completed the rest.
Perfectly crossing dimensions in that short time was impossible, but randomly swapping coordinates within the 'same world' was feasible.
Siwoo had reformulated this emergency escape spell amid blocking her assaults.
The 'Coordinate Shift Formula'.
A hastily completed fragment from his ongoing research.
"Kuhk....!"
His head burned from overload.
Mana waves rampaged through unused circuits, wrecking his body.
-Drip drip
Nosebleed.
His overheated eyes burst capillaries, bloody tears streaming from the veins.
"Assistant...?"
"Stay still!"
"What's this... No way...?"
The formula neared completion.
In his one good ear, mechanical whirring hallucinations rang.
"You're escaping! Go get anyone—Amelia, the countess...! I'll hold this psycho bitch off meanwhile!"
Not everyone could flee.
Mana consumption and calculation complexity scaled with mass.
Plus, someone had to block attacks during the magic circle's activation delay.
-Whiiiiiing!
"N-No! Assistant!"
"Pointless. No one escapes this bottle—"
Ea hadn't reacted to the twins' flight because she trusted the bottle.
It perfectly separated inside from outside; no one could escape.
-Gurgle...!
And her faith crumbled in an instant.
The entire bottle barrier shuddered violently.
A tiny gap had formed where she hadn't paid attention.
Just big enough for one person to crawl through.
"Impossible!"
Such anomalies didn't happen randomly.
Ea looked up at the bottle's ceiling in horror.
The shadows Siwoo had squeezed out to block the ribbons.
Shadows she'd thought dispersed by the impacts had clung thickly to the bottle's upper interior.
In the brief moment Siwoo activated his teleport, they'd latched on, prying a minute crack.
"Assista—!"
The twins' anguished cries vanished.
Teleport successful.
Simultaneously, the barely torn gap in the bottle sealed shut.
Siwoo had minimized defense against Ea's attacks to lure her complacency.
Diverted shadows bit by bit to prepare the bottle's crack.
Meanwhile, reformulated his self-generating magic for the twins' escape, plugging in variables for their conditions.
Siwoo collapsed to his knees in place.
He truly had nothing left now.
As his torso swayed, about to topple.
Siwoo mustered every last ounce, gripping his trembling legs to stand.
He didn't know where the twins had landed.
Somewhere in Gehenna, but random variables made it unpredictable.
Maybe nearby.
He needed to buy enough time for Ea not to pursue immediately—for the twins to activate the music box.
"How's that? Pretty good for a slave, right?"
"........."
It felt damn good.
His body wrecked, but seeing Ea's slack-jawed stun was pure catharsis.
Ea's twisted lips parted.
"Insolent cur. I was gonna keep you pretty since you're half-decent looking... Now I'll rip you to shreds and feed you to the twins."
Siwoo hauled his staggering torso upright and downed another mana essence.
All mana sucked into the circle had left him barren.
Now, waves rippled anew through his circuits.
"Hoo."
He swept back sweat-matted hair.
Flashed a cocky grin and flipped her off spectacularly.
"Fuck your mom."
No regrets now.