Chapter 940 – #203_Crossroads(9)
#934
1.
Keter, who claimed to be ‘order’ to approach perfection.
Lilith, the impurity, on the contrary, only pursues chaos and confusion.
This is no different from the basis of their existence and all their actions, so asking why is foolish.
Just as humans want to see fireworks simply because they are beautiful.
Lilith just wants to see the flower of euphoria blooming in destruction and disorder.
“I admire you, Eloa.”
In that sense, Eloa was such a delicious opponent.
“Justice that does not wither even in tragedy. The nobility that you have endlessly pursued while doubting yourself. You finally cut off your lingering attachments and regrets and bloomed like a beautiful flower.”
Clearly, this is the middle of a battle.
Eloa’s perception stretches endlessly.
A bizarre distortion of time where one second feels like several minutes.
It is Lilith’s self-magnetic magic, ‘Whispering,’ that has led countless witches to destruction.
It is different from childish methods like brainwashing or hypnosis.
If it is a violent emotion, it slightly changes its direction and pushes it away.
If it is an empty heart, it penetrates like water seeping through cracks in rocks.
If one of the two conditions can be met, Lilith’s poison slowly erodes the subject without awareness.
If the former was the case with Amelia.
The current Eloa is the latter.
A heart that has lost its purpose in life and wanders is like darkness where not a single ray of light seeps in, no matter which way you look.
It is like an abyss so lonely, desolate, and fearful that if even a faint cluster of light appears, you will unknowingly reach out.
Lilith is just showing the lost lamb the light.
2.
Darkness spreads.
At this point, Eloa forgot everything about Lilith, Whispering, and contracts.
Eloa blankly stared at the figure of Eloa facing her like a mirror.
It is her true feelings.
The despair hidden deep within speaks to Eloa.
‘You did well. You did so well that you couldn’t have done better.’
“…….”
‘Don’t you know? What will happen after this.’
-Phat
A spotlight shines in a dark space like an empty stage.
The ruins where she was fiercely battling with Eia just a moment ago.
Eloa lies in the wreckage where clusters of spider lilies bloom gracefully.
Her eyes are blurred and unfocused, and blood flows from her chest.
The contract sword, which had defeated countless enemies, stands obliquely like a tombstone at Eloa’s head.
In front of it, Eia was looking down at Eloa with an arrogant expression.
“It was dangerous. Even though your strength was so depleted, you managed to do this much.”
This is not reality, but a hallucination.
However, considering the current situation, it was also a reality that was highly likely to be realized.
Eloa had already used most of her power.
On the other hand, Eia will slowly kill her with spider lilies, which can be said to have been developed solely to fight Eloa.
‘There are things that cannot be changed with just the heart. We will eventually lie on the cold stone floor and die at the hands of the hateful enemy who killed Lapi.’
“I know.”
Humiliation and anger fill Eloa’s eyes sharply.
But that was only for a moment.
For Eloa, who had lost her driving force, it was just something that didn’t matter.
What she had believed to be right was nothing more than an obsession, and there was no longer any reason to move forward.
So, what should she fight for?
Is there any need to struggle?
Death is fair.
Regrets and despair are punishments given only to the living.
“If I close my eyes in eternal rest, that too would be salvation.”
Eloa, who shone more desperately the more difficult the crisis and the more burdensome the hardships and adversities.
It was an answer that did not suit her to utter.
Eloa tried to curl up her body and bury her head.
As if wanting to turn away from reality.
As if trying to respond to the despair that covered her like a wave with resignation.
‘Do you really think so?’
With a faint laugh, the scene changes once again.
There is Siwoo in the city, facing adversity, who had caused Eloa anguish.
He was facing Eia.
This is also an illusion, but it is a reality that is highly likely to be realized.
“You rude little brat. Your teacher is dead. Now I’ll kill you, and next is Merrygold’s turn.”
Eia, who had escaped from the abyss and regained her strength, was not satisfied with just killing Eloa.
She vowed to take bloody revenge on everyone who had turned her into a vengeful spirit and driven her into the wilderness.
Siwoo has certainly grown, but can he really defeat Eia of the 23rd level?
‘If we fall here, what will happen to our cute disciple, our beloved lover Shin Siwoo?’
Eloa’s breath quickens.
An illusion that is ten thousand, a hundred million times more painful than her own death.
‘Another tragedy to be repeated. Are you going to stand by and watch this too? Are you going to give up, comforting yourself that death is rest?’
The only love that she cannot give up, even if she has lost her way, plants a spark of fighting spirit in Eloa’s dying heart.
She doesn’t mind being cut to pieces several times if it’s her own life.
But it’s different with Siwoo.
Her beloved disciple who had supported and sustained the crumbling Eloa.
If she loses such a disciple again, eternal rest has no meaning.
“I can’t do that.”
Eloa stood up.
She tore away the lethargy and skepticism that were pulling her body down and renewed her will to fight once again.
‘If that’s what you want. You just need to make a contract.’
The contract sword that was stuck obliquely at her feet.
Above the contract sword, which is composed of 12 letters, a 13th contract that should not exist appears.
The dazzling pink magic power engraved on the stroke representing the contract that must be fulfilled was more beautiful than any power Eloa had ever possessed.
This power, which wriggles as if asking her to grab it and choose it, is clearly the best move to overcome this situation.
A path prepared for Eloa, who cannot decide for herself where to go.
An attractive proposal that will allow her to overcome this adversity simply by swallowing her doubts and closing her eyes to the truth.
‘Come on, hurry.’
Eloa’s trembling fingertips carefully grasp the hilt of the sword.
The hesitation that remains is just an instinctual urge.
It is an instinctual warning that such a sweet and comfortable choice must come at a price.
But as she grasped the sword, she realized that the abundant power filled her empty body.
If she gets this power, Eloa can do a lot.
She can protect Siwoo.
She can not die.
She can kill that hateful Eia.
She can kill, kill, and kill again with overwhelming power.
Enough for a body that resurrects no matter how many times it is killed to remember fear.
Enough for the resentment and hatred that she had engraved so many times to be resolved.
‘Haven’t you been agonizing and hesitating until now? Always trying to go the right way.’
‘As you know, that’s arrogance. It’s not something a human can do.’
‘If a line arbitrarily drawn by an imperfect being is a straight line without any deviation, that’s even stranger.’
So, what should she do?
‘The easiest way to determine what is right and wrong.’
‘Don’t you already know?’
‘Draw a circle under your feet.’
‘Use that line as a fence and look at the world from within that area.’
‘What is inside the fence is good. What is outside the fence is evil.’
‘Of course, it’s terrible self-righteousness. But between facing a miserable end after hesitation and accepting self-righteousness and gaining new hope.’
‘Isn’t it a problem that doesn’t even need to be considered which is the wiser choice?’
That’s right.
If she does that, there is no need for any more agony or anguish.
All enemies are evil.
Therefore, after killing Eia, she can kill all the enemies.
With this newly acquired power, through this thirteenth contract, she can carry out justice.
There is no need to think more complicatedly about the anguish of humans that is holding Eloa back.
The only beings Eloa needs to save are Shin Siwoo and Eloa herself.
On the other hand, humans are beings outside the fence.
If there is no need to protect them.
They are also evil.
‘Isn’t there something we are good at?’
‘If you have lost your purpose in life, you just need to find it again.’
‘Look at this city.’
‘Look at the terrible tragedy and the wickedness of humans that are rampant in this city.’
‘And hate and despise the humans who will bring about such a catastrophe someday.’
‘How fulfilling was that time when you danced the sword dance in a haze of blood mist?’
‘That time when you were intoxicated with that pitch-black joy. Weren’t you able to let go of your pain?’
‘Siwoo will surely understand. He will never leave you alone.’
‘You just need to end all your worries, snuggle in his arms, and whisper love.’
The hilt of the sword, which had absorbed Eloa’s sweat countless times, was wrapped around her palm like an extension of her bone.
It naturally tried to push power into Eloa.
The moment Eloa firmly grasped the sword, Lilith smiled.
The whisper took root.
Now, the remaining ending was predetermined.
At that time.
“I believed that my teacher would always choose the right path.”
Eloa heard a hallucination that should not exist.
The voice of Lapi, whom she had met in a purple dream.
“Lapi, I promise you. I will continue to fight for the right path and for justice.”
Eloa had vowed one thing while hugging Lapi.
That this sword would continue to be wielded to protect the weak and the good.
Eloa’s grip on the sword, which she had been holding blankly, loosens.
“The past me fought for revenge.”
This time, Eloa smiled.
Why hadn’t she thought of it until now?
She smiled, thinking of Lapi, who would be looking down from the sky at her weak self and her teacher until the very end, and scolding her.
“But the current me. I wield the sword to protect what I believe is right.”
Eloa, looking at the contract sword with her clear, shining pink eyes.
Her two eyes, which see through falsehood and lies, finally see through the identity of the 13th contract.
Its identity, with the pink plating peeled off, was a magic power stained with hideous malice.
The fruit of sin that would have destroyed everything about Eloa the moment she accepted it.
Eloa realized once again that all these illusions were Lilith’s tricks.
“If you want to choose someone to play along with your tune, look for someone else.”
“So? What can you do if you refuse my offer? You’ll just die at Eia’s hands anyway. Shin Siwoo, Rinne too. They can’t come to save you.”
In the end, the subject of this ritual is Eloa.
Without hesitation, Eloa tore away the mental image and escaped from the space created by Lilith.
The battlefield she returned to.
As Lilith said, the war situation was bleak.
Eia was in perfect condition, and Eloa was a wreck with only one contract left.
Eloa, who had tried to give up everything in the face of overwhelming despair and lethargy, had not struggled.
She had simply tried to accept the tragedy, turning a blind eye to even the slightest possibility.
“Why are you suddenly grinning? It’s creepy. Did your head go bad because it’s time to die?”
But Eloa has a reason to fight.
She has a reason to live.
If so, she will examine all possibilities and seek a new method.
Eloa’s magic is a contract.
Its essence is that if you pay the price, it has the property of trying to be fulfilled no matter how unreasonable it is.
In short, if you pay a high price, you can be even more unreasonable.
At this moment, there was only one thing Eloa wanted.
“I make a contract.”
Even if it is uncertain.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a precarious justice that seems like it will break at any moment.
It doesn’t matter if she endlessly agonizes, is frustrated, and wanders in despair.
Not settling for comfortable self-righteousness, but agonizing over questions that have no answers.
That is the life that Eloa vowed in front of Lapi.
That is why she wants to protect the imperfect justice she bears.
That childish, shallow justice that seems like it came straight out of a fairy tale can be simply explained in four letters.
Good triumphs over evil.
There is only one thing she wants.
“May the power to punish evil dwell in these two hands now.”
She seeks a wish that is no different from a child’s tantrum more seriously than ever before.
“The price is….”
-Wooooooo!!!!
Abundant magic power dwells in Eloa’s whole body, which had been depleted.
Along with the dazzling pink magic power, twelve letters shine.
The power of the war god, stronger than ever before, dwells in Eloa’s body, which is smiling brilliantly.
“Everything I have.”
