City ​​of Witches 825

Chapter 825 – #172_Purple Rose(5)

#819

1.
In truth, Eloa’s magic didn’t have many technical elements.

Unlike Lydia, who was also in the 23rd tier, she didn’t use any unidentified techniques.
She didn’t use wide-area attacks utilizing particles and waves like Amelia, nor did she create massive tidal waves like L’Riel.

All she used were spirit enhancements through contracts, the subtleties of explosive force, transcendence, and swordsmanship that had reached the realm of magic.

Compared to the great witches who defied the natural order and wielded all sorts of mysterious magic, it was normal to feel like, ‘There’s nothing particularly special about her?’

Her fighting style was also extremely simple.
It consisted of only two sequences: ‘Approach and slash.’

An ignorant enemy might think, ‘This could be doable?’

A single pattern meant that it was easier to find a way to break it.
In fact, many enemies had thought similarly when facing Eloa.

And immediately after confronting her, they realized it was a rash misconception.

If you inserted just one word into that misconception, you could explain the situation they faced.

Eloa ‘always’ approaches.
And she ‘always’ slashes.

She breaks through with her body, which is wrapped in anti-magic contracts, against minor magic.
She cuts down large magic that could inflict fatal wounds with her sword.
Even if they desperately try to create distance, she approaches at an even faster speed.

And if they are within Eloa’s range, the game is as good as over.
Because a relentless attack that makes defense, blocking, and evasion meaningless will begin.

This is Eloa Tiferet’s single pattern that no one has ever broken.
In other words, the strongest single pattern.

Hundreds of life-or-death battles and thousands of life-or-death subjugations.
She had never lost even once, which is why she was given the title ‘God of War’ apart from the alias ‘Contract Witch.’

Siwoo, facing Eloa on the narrow spiral staircase, felt a difference in class from the confrontation itself.
The reliability he had always felt when looking at her back on the battlefield turned into intimidation.

“I contract.”

-Woong!

Eight letters that shone and disappeared on the side of the contract sword.
The presence of the output, which was on a different level from the sparring they had used as part of their training, swelled thickly.

It was as if the small Eloa had suddenly become a giant.

“Be careful not to get hurt.”

Just when the pink magical reflection seemed to sway coldly, a sword extended diagonally from the left.

He blocked the middle with his spear and stood his ground.
Or rather, he tried to stand his ground.

However.

-Clang!
“Kuh!”

A clash of magic and magic.

The power of the two was already in the realm of superhuman.
The shockwave created by just one exchange shattered the spire staircase, and the stone walls made of granite crumbled like cookies.

His bones and muscles screamed as the force pushed in relentlessly.
They told him that if he held on any longer, they would break.

-Kugugugung!

Siwoo, who jumped out, breaking through the debris of the collapsing spire, immediately spread his shadow wings.
He flew over the lavender thicket, scattering the shadow particles that had been converted into propulsion like iron filings.

He had known it from the beginning.
If he engaged in close combat with his master, there was no hope.

What Siwoo saw in his eyes, thinking he had created enough distance, was quite a terrifying sight.

-Thwack! Thwack!

His master, kicking off the sky and running towards him.

She was literally running by stepping on the sky.

She wasn’t using flight magic like Siwoo, or even creating a thin plate with magic and kicking off of it.
She was running by exploding the atmosphere with her enhanced leg strength, pure physical power.

Every time her toes hit the air, a roar like an explosive went off, and a pure white pressure wave burst out.
A cone-shaped shockwave, belatedly following her trail, was tearing through the forest.

That speed was clearly faster than Siwoo’s retreat.

“…It doesn’t make sense.”

His hair stood on end.
Even though he had started fleeing a long time ago, it seemed like he would be caught soon.

But it wasn’t like Siwoo had been doing nothing.

The shadow particles he had intentionally scattered while fleeing.
The particles in the forest, waiting for his command, simultaneously transformed into the shape of ribbons.

Originally, the ribbons could only be manipulated if they were in contact with Siwoo’s body, but Siwoo had taken it a step further.
He had installed a ‘magic circle’ using a force field.

With this method, it was possible to manipulate the ribbons that were outside.

-Chwaaaak!

Ribbon strands, like carnivorous plants, surged through the waves of the purple forest.
They were directed towards Eloa, who was sprinting like a giant hand.

No matter how powerful Eloa was, she couldn’t ignore the physical force of the ribbons woven from the maiden’s loom.
If her speed was reduced even once by getting caught, thousands of ribbons would sequentially bind her.

-Woooong!

However.
Pink magic exploded again at Eloa’s feet.

An unbelievable re-acceleration.

She reached a speed that even Siwoo couldn’t properly discern with his eyes, and she soared into the sky like a firebird, easily outstripping the ribbons’ pursuit.

“Haaap!”

Just when he thought she was about to break through the atmosphere, a slash fell like a meteor.
There wasn’t enough time for coordinate movement.
He barely managed to block it, but it was impossible to completely reduce the impact.

He couldn’t avoid being quickly slammed into the ground.

Instead of dust, purple petals fluttered softly.
Eloa landed lightly in front of Siwoo, who had barely landed.

“You can’t beat me by just running away.”
“I suppose not.”

Siwoo’s eyes confirmed the ninth contract shining on Eloa’s sword.
It had been concluded when the two’s swords and spears collided.

A contract with a nature to be achieved on its own.
That was Eloa’s magnetic magic.

If that contract was concluded between them, Siwoo could also know the contents of the contract.

The contract that had been forced this time was a contract that ‘nullified the buoyancy and lift of both parties.’
He could no longer fly freely like before, and if that was the case, it became even more impossible to create distance from Eloa.

“Master, you are really strong.”

And this wasn’t even her full power.
She had wrapped her contract sword with thick magic like cotton to reduce the impact, considering Siwoo’s safety.

Even if he had become familiar with her fighting style through their previous sparring, he couldn’t guarantee even the slightest chance of victory against her.

“…So stop this meaningless resistance and hand over the brooch.”

Persuasion was also impossible.
Eloa would never stop.

Regardless of the reality, at least in her mind, this battle was for Siwoo, who had fallen for Lilith’s temptation.

She would definitely try to take the brooch and bring her beloved disciple back to her ‘senses,’ even if it meant seeing him in a somewhat painful state.

“I can’t do that.”
“Siwoo…”
“I could die and be reborn, and I still wouldn’t be able to beat you, Master.”
“Why won’t you listen, even though you know that?”

Eloa’s face contorted as she watched Siwoo still preparing for battle.

He hadn’t come here without any countermeasures.
His goal was to get as far away from the lotus as possible.

If they fought in the lotus, which was the core of Eloa’s dream, he would be interfered with.

Siwoo had recently been venturing into a new area.
It was magic that dealt with ‘concepts,’ just like Lydia’s gold coins and Linne’s black and white world.

More specifically, it was about incorporating the original ability of the Red Branch, ‘distortion,’ into magic, but so far, he had not achieved any significant results other than low-dimensional applications that could deflect impacts.

Unlike other magic that manipulated visible things, the use of concepts was terribly ambiguous and dangerous.
There was a high possibility of inflicting fatal self-inflicted wounds with a moment’s mistake or carelessness.

“I’ll correct myself. In reality, I won’t be able to beat you, Master.”

But this place was not reality.

It was a space of dreams and concepts that realized wishes and desires.
It meant that he could draw an ‘ideal self’ that was impossible to realize in reality.

“But if it’s a dream, it’s a different story.”

-Kiiiiing!

A ring floated above Siwoo’s head.
A clear golden fractal pattern rose above the pitch-black ring.

It was a new magnetic magic created by combining the ‘Angel’s Ring’ with ‘repeated amplification’ from his previous battle with Rosie.

The explosively surging magic created a fierce storm around it.
It had tremendous performance in itself, but power that exceeded its limits always had its limitations.

It was a time-limited ultimate move that required a huge cost in exchange for allowing him to use vast amounts of magic.
After about 5 seconds at most, the magic circuits throughout his body would heat up like a furnace, causing terrible pain and aftershocks.

However.

“Bloom.”

He distorts.
Unlike the real world, which was based on solid and dense settings, he manipulated the dream world, which was like soft clay.

-Kiiiiiiiiing!

The ring, which had reached its critical point of rotation and seemed like it would break off its orbit at any moment, began to transform.
It shook like the blurry afterimage of an object moving at high speed, and then took on a definite change.

Three rings that rotated slowly, like precisely meshing gears, with one concentric circle and one axis.

Geometric gears stabilized between them.

This was originally a magic that Siwoo had conceived but could not bring into reality.
It was something that required ‘distorting’ several stages of logical errors, which was impossible with Siwoo’s current abilities.

But now, it was different.

Siwoo materialized the most powerful magic he could think of, in its most ideal form.

Magic, power, surged without end.
Even L’Riel, who was born with a lot of magic, would not be able to hold onto this much power continuously.

Like the power that governed the movement of celestial bodies, a huge amount of energy creaked and emitted a heavy infrasound.

“What on earth are you…”

On the other hand, his master was aware that this world was reality.
As long as she didn’t break free from the dream, such illusionary magic was impossible.

In order to make her realize that this was a dream, Siwoo just had to show her.

A reality where something that could never happen was happening,
For example, a reality where Siwoo was overwhelmingly dominating Eloa head-on.

Dream and reality collided.