Chapter 1225 – #287_The Witch Of The Constellation (5)
#1219
1.
Keter’s chosen one.
Originally, a ‘Shin Siwoo’ who should have devoured Shin Siwoo and been reborn as a stud to usher in a new era.
I know that he avoided being devoured by Keter’s chosen one through some method and is maintaining a symbiotic relationship.
That’s because Erelim has been watching Shin Siwoo for a long time.
It’s also why Shin Siwoo, who hasn’t been a witch for long, was able to fight and win against formidable opponents.
It’s also why he was able to turn around battles where defeat was almost certain.
It’s also why he can stand against Erelim in this place.
It must be thanks to that ‘Shin Siwoo’ who finally revealed his true form.
Although his heart was pierced, given the abilities he showed, he was fully capable of continuing the battle after recovery. The fact that he relinquished the initiative implies that the true enemy is the one before him.
The test for Erelim and Shin Siwoo starts now.
Erelim saw Shin Siwoo, who was crouching as if hanging in the sky, making eye contact with her.
An alien presence presses down on her chest.
A being who would do anything to climb higher on the ladder of magic.
His obsession, where even his humanity has been castrated like a machine part functioning for a single purpose, is no exaggeration to say it is the greatest among witches.
“……”
The skill that can be inferred from the surrounding magical field is also different.
As if measuring the opponent’s skill, or like a beast eyeing its prey, his emotionless eyes shine from within his helmet.
-Whirr! Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!
Along with a heavy driving sound, the surrounding magic circles bloomed profusely.
To a human, it would be an overflow of abstract and geometric patterns, but it’s different from a witch’s perspective.
A wondrous beauty like a pile of blooming flowers.
Erelim felt a demonic beauty that made her skin crawl.
It’s not strange to feel beauty when looking at magic.
That’s because high-level magic cannot be achieved simply through the sum of intellect and knowledge.
It’s art born from endless inspiration, artistic sensibility, and self-sacrifice accumulated over generations.
Therefore, all magic is bound to be a final work and a crystallization of beauty created by a witch.
Like a painting completed over several generations.
“Bloom.”
From the magic circle manifested by Shin Siwoo, barriers extend like branches.
The barriers that occupy space are concentrated with a terrifyingly powerful control ability.
-Whoosh!
Erelim, who hadn’t moved an inch from her spot since the battle began, flapped her huge wings.
The evasive maneuver caused an impact that seemed to turn the world upside down.
Normally, space should collapse and the scenery should be shattered.
Nevertheless, the barriers that surged like the branches of a flowering tree remain unshaken.
Erelim’s wings swelled greatly as she noticed that the collapsing space was being fixed by the barriers that had spread like fine roots.
The huge rift that appeared behind Erelim’s back is the ‘Wings of Akasha’.
A dimensional rift that connects the heavenly Akashic Records with the real world.
“Revere.”
Using the Wings of Akasha, which had swelled further, as a canvas, hundreds of types of magic poured out.
It’s clear that the ‘distortion’ he wields has an advantage in terms of compatibility against most magic.
However, among the thousands of magnetic magic that Erelim wields, there are means to counter it.
Mainly magic related to fields and concepts.
-Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
A bombardment of efficient magic, filtered out, focused on the weak points of the barriers that grew like branches.
The moment the branches lost their connection and crumbled, Erelim narrowed her eyes.
Like the severed heads of a hydra splitting, even more branches sprouted from the ends of the already broken branches.
It was as if he had anticipated Erelim’s response in advance, and he immediately counterattacked.
This time, the branches, which had completely blocked Erelim’s retreat like a net, stabbed from all directions.
“You are….”
Only then did Erelim realize why she felt both beauty and creepiness at the same time in the magic that Shin Siwoo was wielding.
The beauty of the magic that Shin Siwoo wields is fundamentally different.
It’s the result of a cold, rational mind that has considered all variables and built up only for the most efficient magic.
In terms of painting, it’s like a painter who has coldly judged the concept of ‘beauty’ in a cruel way. No, it’s the style of a machine.
Without any respect or awe for art, he defined and implemented ‘aesthetics’ through algorithms.
There is no creed or belief in it.
Only purpose exists.
Shin Siwoo only dissects and calculates the essence of magic, precisely drawing a mechanical beauty.
That bizarre distortion is creating a sense of incongruity.
“Bloom.”
At the same time as Shin Siwoo’s incantation, the battlefield became a lavish flower garden.
Golden flowers bloom from the vines of the barrier that wraps around the entire battlefield, as if to imprison Erelim.
As the petals, scattered and falling with full bloom, filled the inside of the vines, Shin Siwoo stretched out his arm forward.
A hand gesture as if trying to grab something.
Between the falling petals.
The remnants of the petals, connected in an instant with sparks flying like an electric current, formed a kind of magic circle.
Even Erelim couldn’t figure out what kind of magic it was.
Countless illusions and deceptions were hindering observation.
The moment Shin Siwoo clenched his fist and Erelim felt an instinctive sense of crisis and immediately moved out of place…
-Crack!
As if a giant hand had grabbed it, a part of the space was literally torn off, condensed into a single point, and disappeared.
Erelim narrowly avoided it, but the Wings of Akasha did not.
One of the two pairs of wings was crushed like the wings of a butterfly being crushed in a child’s hand.
“……!”
The feedback of the magic, which was crushed without any resistance, struck the inside of Erelim’s spirit through her magic circuit.
A shock as if a huge bell had entered her stomach and was ringing, and a rush of bitter blood welled up.
Only after witnessing the complete result did Erelim realize the type and nature of the magic.
A magic that combines barriers, waves, and dimensional magic.
The flower garden becomes a drawing paper for drawing magic, and the magic circle connected by petals is completed by using the symbol of grasping as a trigger.
The realization of absurdity that is only possible with a computational ability that transcends human limitations.
Instead of being horrified, Erelim quickly dealt with the internal injuries.
-Whirrrrr!
Once again, golden magic circles scattering light around her.
Shin Siwoo’s hand is trying to crush space again.
At the same time as regenerating the scattered Wings of Akasha, she condensed them like folding sails to reduce the area of impact.
She delivered the force that vibrated the dimension directly to her spirit, and instead narrowed the gap and dug in.
The branches of the barrier that had already spread in all directions tried to block Erelim with sharp thorns, but it was meaningless.
Erelim felt the blood slowly heating up as she cut through the remains of the thorns that shattered and disappeared like icicles.
In the barbaric era before Gehenna existed, when fratricide was commonplace.
There were no greenhouse flowers among the witches who lived in that era.
Everyone struggled to survive.
That’s why the old witches are revered.
Erelim was also an old witch who had gone through that era, but there is no denying that the senses she had sharpened had become dull, buried under the long years of peace.
It has been so long since she fought an opponent equal to her.
However.
The instinct for struggle engraved by experience does not disappear.
It’s just that it’s in a long sleep, waiting for the moment to awaken again.
2.
As he sank into the bottom of the black Ain like a swamp, Siwoo was prepared for a tragic death.
He thought that if he was swallowed by the unconscious, his consciousness would naturally be shattered into pieces.
Death.
He thought that eternal silence would come.
Wouldn’t that be normal?
Siwoo didn’t have the power to control Black Siwoo, so he just imprisoned him and used him occasionally, but he was far stronger than Siwoo.
There was no need to leave impurities, so he thought he would naturally be eliminated.
So, even though he didn’t cry his eyes out, he closed his eyes with a solemn heart, as if facing his end…
He even muttered some touching words to himself, and said goodbye to his lovers in his heart…
“Huh?”
His consciousness is still there.
He wasn’t swallowed by the darkness of Ain and torn to pieces either.
Looking around, the structures inside Ain are still intact.
It’s the result of the magic that Siwoo has accumulated so far.
However, the ‘door’ that was embedded in the ceiling and used to seal the unconscious in the past is firmly locked.
The way to take control of the body towards the surface consciousness is closed.
“…Did I just get trapped in my body?”
For now, he was relieved.
Whatever it is, it’s better than death.
Thinking that way, hope arises.
-Thud!
At that moment, a huge roar that shook the entire Ain hit his ears.
Siwoo reflexively looked up at the sky.
A battle was raging in the consciousness above.
It’s a strange feeling.
What’s above is just the firmly closed ‘door’, and the bottom (or ceiling) of Ain, which forms a calm surface like black oil, but he can feel and see it.
The clash of the great powers that Erelim is wielding in the battle of the distant realm and the precarious fight that is cutting away at life, which Black Siwoo is currently using.
Also, the Ain of Black Siwoo, which is constantly changing and repeatedly breaking and completing in order to leap higher.
“……”
Looking back, the times when he had made great achievements were always in an instant.
When he imitated the Black Knight after observing him using magic.
He always showed a higher level ahead of Siwoo, and Siwoo embodied it in his own way and made it his own power.
In other words, this is an opportunity.
An opportunity to watch his method more closely than ever before and surpass him.
Let’s do it.
Let’s put aside whether it’s possible or not.
My teacher said that it’s never too late to give up.
He looked at Ain.
In response to that will, the structures within Ain were shattered one by one.
