Chapter 1082 – #257_Libra’s Witch(4) – DeepL
#1076
1.
There is something that has long been considered bizarre.
In various combat sports, two fighters would embrace warmly after a match.
The world calls it sportsmanship and cool, but when you think about it, isn’t it pretty weird?
They beat each other mercilessly, leaving each other bleeding and shedding blood, and yet they act like they have no animosity towards each other.
It’s pretty deformed.
But now, fighting for their lives.
You’re fighting a man whose veins are about to burst, and you’re in a close fight that could end in mutual death.
I can understand that feeling.
I can understand how Ursula, the witch of the Netherworlds, would send Xiu an unspoken favor in the closing moments of the battle.
Lydia’s magic is beautiful.
The karmic flicker of golden particles sometimes bloom like flowers, sometimes spin like pinwheels, sometimes become swords, shields, and spears that stand in Xiu’s way.
A witch’s dream of meticulous magical control.
Stubbornness and self-righteousness rewritten above the laws of the world.
Watching this kaleidoscopic display of shattering and reforming, you forget that Lydia is your enemy and stand in awe.
How foolish is this?
How foolish to try to match the feats of a god with the body of a mere mortal.
Nevertheless, Lydia finally blossomed into such a beautiful kaleidoscope.
Great magic, lofty heights, transcendent wonders and transmigrations, accomplished through hard work and sacrifice, overcoming setbacks and adversity.
“Alas, how…. beautiful.”
Lydia gazed at Xiu with an ecstatic expression.
One of Lydia’s powerhouses, the Armament of Annihilation, wove the flames of destruction created by consuming gold coins into a specific form.
A lesser witch whose mainstay is symbolism would be easy prey, and even then, she would be consumed by a karmic fire that would powerfully destroy all value upon contact.
But Xinxiu comes.
He breaks through the barrier, sparks flying, and approaches Lydia step by step.
“Oh—!!!!!!!!”
Xin Xiu roars loudly, piercing through the noise of the battlefield.
He’s not just trying to look cool or strong.
Lydia knows exactly what Xiu’s condition is.
Blood trickled through the gauntlets gripping his spearhead.
The intermittent spurts of blood that erupted through his helmet whenever he breathed heavily.
Magic circuits burning from his misshapen blasts of power.
You want to rest.
You want to quit.
Both body and mind, pushed to their limits, must be urging Xin Xiu to give up.
To stop, to say enough is enough.
There are countless compromises and half-measures.
But Xinxiu doesn’t stop.
In fact, he’s even more insistent.
He shows no signs of hesitation, exuding a determination that sends chills down Lydia’s spine.
His body is crumbling in a comet-like glow of magical energy.
That’s why it’s as beautiful as a star in the sky that can’t be grasped.
Then.
-Whoosh!
The angel’s rings begin to spin.
Like Dorothy’s, Cynthia’s ring is more than just a band.
It’s three rings with a single concentric axis, interlocking like an elaborate folding leaf.
As the layers of teeth provide stability, Xinxiu’s power is amplified.
Something is coming.
Small, red beads form around him, like pomegranate grains.
Magic that condenses the distortion field and fires the beads like a shotgun.
At the same time, a ribbon forms a large circle behind his back, creating a ‘gate’.
A wide-ranging bombardment, limiting the enemy’s movement.
Then, applying dimensional magic, he splits the Red Branch Javelin into countless pieces.
It’s a replica of the barrage that captured Herya.
-Bam!
Lydia took out a special gold coin.
In essence, this special gold coin is used to prevent instant death, which is one of Lydia’s main tactics.
She uses a variety of spells to limit her opponent’s options and psychologically pressure them.
When her opponent is unable to hold out in a hand-to-hand combat, she uses this special coin to ‘physically’ deflect their attacks.
As long as you avoid instant death, recovery is not difficult.
All you need to do is place a gold coin equivalent to the Libra of the Golden Garden.
In other words, your opponent will have thrown up all of their stakes on Lydia’s bluff.
It’s an absurd trap, but one that’s unlikely to be utilized in this battle.
It’s because of his red branch.
It’s doubtful he’ll be able to revive in the face of the cursed Ye Zhang, who emits a distortion field that tears apart notions.
Thus, Lydia took the initiative to intercept.
“Overflowing gold may be my source….”
She flicked one of the four remaining special gold coins and let it fall to the ground at her feet.
“Murus.”
Lydia spreads her arms as if in command, and a massive wall of fire rises.
It resembles a castle of gold.
A ravenous wall that materializes the magnitude of humanity’s desire and greed.
A realm of absolute invulnerability is proclaimed.
The vast expanse of golden flames engulfed the scattering red orbs with a roar.
Koo-koo-koo-koo-koo!
The castle is unmoving.
Even the roar and impact that should have scattered them outward is only a faint vibration.
“—-!!!!!”
A desperate cry from a desperate human.
A primal scream, close to the source before language.
On the contrary, laws carved under strict and elaborate rules shine from the tip of the spear.
Control the runaway distortion field.
Controls the runaway red branches.
Distort the phenomenon of the “one spear”.
The method of distortion is the superposition of dimensions.
If you temporarily overlap the dimensions and manifest the overlapping javelins as a door, you can create a javelin baptism like a Japanese saturation.
-Koo-koo-koo-koo-koo!!!
The entire castle of Invulnerability is shaken.
The magic that nourishes the life of a single archwitch is being distorted.
Every time the spear touched the golden walls, an unexplainable phenomenon occurred.
Instead of a roar, a cacophony of sound echoes, like the strumming of an out-of-tune piano, or the laughter of the people in the square.
Sparks that have nothing to do with their magic flare up and draw strange shapes, or failed magic circles of unknown origin flicker in and out of existence.
The space ripples, or moves very slowly, as if it has reached an event horizon.
A ‘mystery’ that cannot be explained by theories that arise from the collision of ideas and concepts too strong to be explained.
A randomization of space, an unobservable zone for both man and witch, has occurred.
-Bang!
Xin Xiu had crossed that unknown territory.
With an explosive leap, he pierced through Lydia’s walls, just as one of the walls that had steadfastly withstood the javelin baptism buckled.
His armor was already tattered and he was bleeding more blood than sweat, but his unstoppable determination and spirits made him look even more like a comet as he charged forward with an azure energy.
However.
“Gotcha.”
That was all Lydia had to say.
Xin Xiu attempted to break through the weak spot Lydia had deliberately set up.
Like a siege weapon waiting for soldiers to break through the first gate, the stakes circled and aimed at Xiu.
Hard to follow with the naked eye, his movements slowed significantly in the aftermath of his forced breakthrough.
What was once a rampage through space is now a clear, concise straight line.
But.
“Not yet.”
That was as far as Xin Xiu had in mind.
He had forgotten about the presence of the pike, which exuded such an imposing presence.
He knew that the moment he crossed this wall, he would be in the line of fire of the stakes.
Therefore, I unleashed the magic formula I had already calculated.
-Whirly, whirly, whirly!
The ribbon stretched out in front of him, forming a circle.
This is a small-scale implementation of a dimensional ‘gate’.
The ultimate defense that goes beyond deflecting enemy attacks through spatial distortion to banishing them from the dimension itself.
72 layers in total.
An offense that changed in an instant.
Lydia fired her spear at the distorted space as if it were made up of many layers of lenses.
Xin Xiu crouched, ready to leap out as soon as the attack was blocked.
The spear flew out, and Xin Xiu’s eyes widened.
“Oh, you should have dodged that.”
Lydia laughed.
Xin Xiu was horrified.
The golden stakes sliced through space as effortlessly as the seventy-two shields they’d built with all their might, as if they didn’t exist.
No sound.
No resistance.
Just a deadly silence, flying towards Xiu’s heart.
This is Lydia’s one and only example of Mistiltein.
A branch of mistletoe so beloved by all that it killed even the gods who granted it immortality.
A cursed dagger that responds to Lydia’s will, defying all laws of action and reaction, matter and immateriality, piercing and killing its target.
Standing on her feet, Xiu has no immediate means of evading it.
But an equally powerful red branch should be able to stop it.
Immediately channeling his remaining magic into the branch, Xiu thrusts his spear as hard as he can.
-Keying!
The blunt tip of the dagger and the willowy tip of the red branch collide in midair.
-Churrrrrr!
Lydia’s second plan is activated.
An invisible chain wraps around Mystiltein and binds Redbud.
Shi Yu swallowed hard at the creepy sensation and checked on the redbud.
“Shit, shit, shit, I told you to avoid it.”
“…….”
The red branch was broken.
Or, to be more precise, dead.
For the first time, the terrifying artifact that was made of a substance that didn’t exist in the world, that had consumed dozens of witches and tens of thousands of humans, that had sometimes even threatened its master’s life, had lost its red color.
“Whoa. You struggled.”
Xin Xiu was certainly strong, but it was that EX-ranked Ye Zhang that made him truly fearful and tricky.
Xin Xiu himself seems to have a decent level of distortion field, but without it, it would be difficult for him to exert his full power.
So I held his feet to the fire and aimed to crush him with the ‘everything killing’ Mystiltein, from concepts to ideas.
The result: a jackpot.
The remains of the red branches, turned to mushy humus, were scattered by the magical currents and vanished.
“Now what?”
Standing in front of Lydia, Xiu replied in a blood-curdling voice.
“We have to fight.”
“That’s high-handed…. I still stand by my offer. We had a good time once, didn’t we? Have you forgotten who it was that saved you from certain death?”
I didn’t quite understand.
What more could he possibly want to do with his mangled body and the loss of his ceremonial robes?
It’s strange how he still believes there’s a path to victory.
I don’t understand his unbreakable spirit.
“What do you expect? The odds are stacked against you.”
Before Lydia, who sighed deeply at the foolishness of tying my hands, Cynthia prepared her ‘next’.
“Well.”
Why don’t you give up?
Stupid question.
“It was a routine for me.”
He places his hand on the lotus that has consumed countless lives.
