Chapter 313
Chapter 313
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 313
Chapter Title: The Black Witch (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Death was closing in.
The Witch of Death had finally regained her true self.
The "filth" imbued with curses turned to ash and scattered the instant it touched her.
"Death overflows, Adora."
The Black Witch smiled in ecstasy.
That was it.
The very "death" she longed for!
Adora had finally fully embraced death.
"If it's you, you can even kill those 'Erroneous Existences.' The so-called Outer Gods, the great nine lords whom even they can't slay without their 'weapons.'"
Beings of the Abyss could not kill those inside the Great Rift.
To accomplish that, every manner of scheme had to be deployed.
But Adora needed no such "means."
Because Adora herself was the "means."
She was death itself, impartial to all.
"Adora. Do you know why the great nine lords became the rulers of the Abyss?"
The Black Witch unfurled a barrier.
It blocked Adora's "death."
And the "night" was dying at a speed beyond imagination.
As the filth dwindled and everything vanished, even the Black Witch wouldn't emerge unscathed.
Yet she didn't stop speaking.
"Because they can stand against the Great Rift. They are among the only beings capable of slaying Outer Gods, so everyone began calling them the 'great lords.'"
Without them, the Abyss would have fallen.
Not even the Twelve Races raised objections.
The decisive reason demons became masters of the Abyss.
"We can do it too. Become the masters of this Abyss, drive out the demons who persecuted witches. Then together, we'll head beyond the Great Rift to that 'utopia'!"
If Adora could kill Outer Gods.
Then witches could rightfully claim the demons' throne.
It was the dream she'd cherished.
For that purpose alone.
She had sought to mold Adora into the "Lord of Pride."
"Die."
Rip!
Adora reached out and tore the barrier apart.
The curse barrier the Black Witch had spread shredded like paper.
It was astonishing.
The curse died.
All the barriers vanished at once.
And that wasn't all.
'Curses of the same kind won't work anymore.'
Any curse slain once no longer affected Adora.
Conversely.
'But curses of different kinds will.'
This was the Abyss.
The place where every curse of the Abyss converged.
Countless varieties existed.
And the Black Witch could command them all.
A battle elsewhere might have been troublesome, but this was her domain.
'Disperse.'
The filth scattered.
Then it morphed into other "curses."
Innumerable curses assailed Adora.
They dropped her level, corrupted her mana, turned parts of her body to stone, dulled her senses.
They induced constant bleeding, twisted her memories, sowed confusion, spread pain with every motion, and permanently reduced certain stats.
They hindered recovery, blocked even natural healing, sealed specific spells, drained stamina with movement, and corrupted ambient mana to prevent absorption.
Every curse in existence targeted Adora.
Curses so overwhelming that dispelling them one by one was a Herculean task.
This was the Black Witch's most terrifying trait.
The very reason all demons shunned and despised her.
"Now do you see? Why we must join forces?"
Nightmares were just one of them.
A single curse among those the Black Witch commanded.
However.
There was one curse the Black Witch lacked.
"I lack 'death.' I wield everything else, but never true, definitive 'death.'"
Death wasn't a curse, after all.
It was a law unto itself.
Curses could be escaped.
Death could not.
Curses could be altered.
Death could not.
The impartial fate of all existence.
A force the queen of curses—a witch—could never command.
In other words.
"Curious, aren't you? Death is a law witches were never meant to wield. Only through you does it become possible. Your children, bearing curses of your blood, could manage it too... but not with your perfection."
Adora made no reply.
She couldn't.
Even moving her body was impossible.
She had to pour her effort into slaying and dispelling each curse individually.
The Black Witch spoke truth.
"You are the Abyss itself. And an Outer God besides."
"...?"
"Born from the remnants of an Outer God that plummeted into the Abyss."
"...."
Adora's origin story.
Adora bit her lip.
Wish was reviving, purging the curses upon her.
-Too many!
It fell short.
To slay the Black Witch, every curse had to be undone.
The Black Witch was the progeny of all curses.
'At the very least.'
Adora gazed skyward.
And unleashed her full power.
'Die.'
Crack!
She shattered the barrier.
The barrier safeguarding the created Abyss—and barring outside intrusion.
The instant it broke.
Whoosh!
"Black Witch, that's far enough."
"...Ataraxia. And I once held you dear."
The black dragon Ataraxia appeared.
She wasn't alone.
"This place holds some intrigue."
Drakan, head of the Sloth clan, stood with her.
Other dragons had followed in Drakan's wake.
"No matter that you're the 'Black Witch,' facing every dragon here would test even you."
Ataraxia revealed her true form at once.
Twenty dragons in their full glory.
Drakan was his clan's lord, and Ataraxia rivaled him in might.
"...How dare mere dragons trespass in a witch's domain?"
"There's more."
Ataraxia cried out.
"Arcanasi!"
Rumble—!
The earth quaked.
Arcana, slumbering at night's fringe, revealed herself.
And that was just the start.
Whoosh!
Swoosh!
More dragons emerged.
All from the "Despair" clan.
And their clan head.
"...Lady Arcana, truly?"
Shuraphim of Despair murmured at the sight.
Forty dragons in total descended upon the "night."
"Just as the records describe."
"Ah, the radiant Lady Arcana!"
The Despair dragons marveled at her form.
An original spirit, yet her majesty eclipsed true dragons.
Only then did the Black Witch's face harden.
"Drakan, Shuraphim... You hold no right to invade this place. I bartered this 'night' directly with your god, Sepiro."
Even Abyss-dwelling witches knew the dragon lords.
Shuraphim especially—a monster among dragonkind's elite.
Yet no dragon had license to intrude here.
It defied Sepiro outright.
But.
"Lord Sepiro never forbade entering this 'night.'"
Ataraxia replied coolly.
To face the Black Witch, she'd rallied Shuraphim and his kin.
Strange phenomena cascaded through the Great Rift—Sepiro had to be extracted from here.
"Fools. Sepiro's avatar already entered the Great Rift."
"...What?"
Ataraxia's expression darkened.
One step too late.
She turned to Adora.
"Is that true?"
"...."
Adora gave no answer.
Instead, she pointed downward.
Park Chan-woo.
Seeing him unconscious, Ataraxia let out a heavy sigh.
"Entered the Great Rift? Isn't he right there?"
"...That one's no avatar of 'Sepiro.' Do you truly not know?"
The Black Witch sighed.
Then pressed on.
"He's a fraud. A thief. A human. The avatar you ought to follow was sucked into the Great Rift alongside the 'Lord's Spear.'"
"...Lies."
"Sigh. Think Sepiro would craft multiple avatars? A being of that stature permits only one. As you know, the one in the 'Dragon God Hall' is the true vessel."
"Lady Arcana followed him. Proof he's Sepiro."
"Ah, I recall. That Arcana... a wretched soul ensnared by the 'Lord of Great Evil's' curse. The fraud merely lifted it."
The Black Witch perceived curse flows.
She knew Arcana's identity, her curser, her liberator—all naturally.
How the Lord of Great Evil's curse was undone escaped her, but it didn't make him Sepiro.
"You too, Adora. You dragons. All duped. He's a 'mass of errors'—nothing more, hence the delusion. You don't truly take him for 'Dragon God Sepiro,' do you?"
"...Ataraxia. He doesn't seem his avatar, indeed."
Shuraphim of Despair addressed her.
He added,
"Lord Sepiro did cede this 'night' to the Black Witch. And without confirming that one's identity, we can't intervene."
Arcana alone fell short.
Just curse-lifting, as claimed.
No decisive proof the human was Sepiro's avatar.
Ataraxia bit her lip.
No irrefutable evidence.
Yet she'd trusted he was Sepiro without question.
He'd achieved the impossible time and again, even split Arcana's core.
Still, insufficient.
Dragons' involvement confined to the "Great Rift."
"I'll permit scouring the Great Rift. Nothing beyond. Shuraphim, you sensed Sepiro here due to Great Rift ties, didn't you?"
"...Yes. Black Witch."
The Black Witch declared.
Even the last pretext evaporated.
Shuraphim shook his head at Ataraxia.
Her words rang true.
To him, that human wasn't "Sepiro."
"Tsk tsk. Fortunate you see it now. You too, Adora. Merely swayed by the fraud's glib tongue. Awaken."
The Black Witch regained her poise.
And.
That instant.
Shuwaaaaaa!
Suddenly, mana surged violently.
Park Chan-woo's body floated into the air.
Shuraphim's eyes quivered wildly at the mana.
"...Lord Sepiro?"