City Of Witches 277

Chapter 277 – #61_Priest (7)

#276

One.
The fight is over.
The gap between the two was so overwhelming that Paola could not even resist and was defeated by Eloa.

Of course, this was only possible because Eloah had recovered his magical power to some extent.
If it had been Elroa right after fighting the red knight, it would have been a bite-sized snack after being entangled in those disgusting tentacles.
Eloa stood in front of a lotus flower that shone with brilliant light.

Then something unexpected happened.
Paola, who was lying on a lotus flower, stopped Eloa with her sticky congestion and a desperate voice.

“Energy… Iron… !”

Surprisingly, Paola survived for a while even after her heart was pierced.
It was probably because he assimilated his body to the homunculus and inherited some of its tenacious life force.
But even that is only a postponement of the hour of death.

“…….”

Eloa raised her contract sword again.
This time she was determined to ease her pain by slitting her throat.

“Stop… Please listen to me… !”

Paola hurriedly looked up at Eloa, baring her blood-stained teeth.
The wound in her chest that still clicked and gushed thick blood.
Without appropriate measures, the fate of the cowardly witch was clear.

Elroa stood tall, just as she was about to swing her sword.
Many achievements begged Elroa for her life.
There was also a witch who was overcome with fear and begged for her mercy, giving up everything before she even entered the fray.

But Elroa never stopped her sword or listened to them.
Instead, she silently carried out her own karma.
They indiscriminately killed humans, killed apprentice witches, and killed the same witch to satisfy their own desires.
Even if there is a plausible cause, it is wrong and a sin to be condemned.
There was no room for compromise, appeal, or sympathy.

No, this is just an excuse.
Eloah knew.
She said she really just needed a place to run.
That she had only used the black feeling of vengeance as a driving force to support her life’s purpose that had collapsed.

“…….”

However, she was an exception to the cowardly witch of Eloah, who cut through hesitation like a knife.
Lim can’t deny that because Paola’s look on her overlapped with her own.

“You… You know… What is the sadness of losing… ! Losing her apprentice witch through her own mistakes, and having to accept irreversible consequences… You don’t even know how painful it is… !”

Paola was desperate.
Even if you can’t move properly, if you open your mouth, your punctured lungs will be painful.
Squeezing out her voice, she desperately called out to Elroa.

“Me too… I am the same as you… Then you might be able to understand… If you are, you know how I felt when I did this… “

Also, the reason Eloa couldn’t easily draw her sword was because she could see that Paola’s plea was not just for her own life.
She never intended to buy Elroa her sympathy in order to prolong her vile life.

“I didn’t do this because I wanted to… It wasn’t like this because of mere magic… Can you understand? I just wanted to turn around!”

Paola, too, is just struggling to right the wrong.
She felt guilty and remorseful just for breathing.
She was in a pitiful situation where she had no choice but to cling to anything to get hold of her past.

When decapitating a feat and a homunculus.
She never thought that her actions were truly for justice.

She said that Raffy accidentally said, ‘I want to save people’, and since the target of her revenge was public exploits, she has only hunted exploits and homunculus.
What if she had nothing else to blame for the cowardly witch, and what if she had someone by her side who would listen to her?

“I understand. Your pain, your heartbreak, your sorrow, your sorrow… You understand more than anyone.”

The cowardly witch, Paola Xochitl, was the distorted mirror of Eloa Tiphareth.
If it hadn’t been for Raffy’s last words.
She was the version of herself she might have met if Elroa had not overcome her sorrow and guilt and had fallen.

Elroa got down on one knee and brought her eye level with the cowardly witch.
There is pity and sympathy in the magenta-colored gaze.

Did you find any hope there?
The cowardly witch speaks even more passionately and weeps.

“Here… The result is complete, with this lotus flower, even your apprentice witch can be saved… ! Just pretend you didn’t see me and move on… If you save my apprentice witch, I’ll disappear too… ! After that, you can revive the apprentice witch as much as you like with this lotus, isn’t it? Is it the best for you and me? Right?”

Eloa looked at the lotus again.

“Okay! Is it possible to get rid of all our regrets with just that? You can be happy again! It’s a feat, it’s an Aquarius witch, even if you don’t burn with a vengeful spirit… That we can start over… !”

A lotus flower that blooms modestly.
It was arguably more beautiful than any artifact Elroa had ever seen in her life.
To the extent that it is hard to imagine that it is a flower that has bloomed on a pile of uncountable corpses.

Just like the heart of a mother thinking of her young.
Although the cowardly witch’s actions were unparalleled, her love for her apprentice witch must have been pure enough to bloom such a beautiful flower.

“Yes, you can… Everything can go back….”

Paola’s words were subtle.
The fact that she had to sacrifice countless people to activate her lotus flower in order to achieve her own ends was left out.
For right now it seemed only right to bring Tiphareth into conflict.

If it’s someone who has the same sadness as you and shared the pain.
This one word will be more desirable than any temptation.
And those words exactly penetrated Eloa’s heart.

Raffy can be revived.
It’s not like pointless revenge.
You can say the words you couldn’t convey, teach the lessons you couldn’t give, and now you can share a future that you can’t send.
The most ideal form of the future that Eloah can think of is here taking shape.

Eloa closed her eyes.
She couldn’t forget Raffy’s voice, her cute nose and round eyes.
A treasure of Eloah that would not have been exchanged for anything in the world.

If you hold the cowardly witch’s hand, she can face it again.
In the dream, even that was not a hardened, bloodless corpse.
Now, here, in real life.

“How many people have died to make this lotus bloom?”

Elroa calmly and quietly cut off the lingering feelings.
When she opens her eyes again, everything about Raffy that had bloomed in her mind disappears like a mirage.

“That doesn’t matter… After all, they’re people you don’t even know… There’s nothing wrong with wanting to see the person you love the most again… !”
“I have no right to criticize you. I have neither the right to dismiss your sadness as lingering nor the right to deny you.”
“Great! I’ll give in… ! Let’s try to save your apprentice witch first… ! Then I’ll… “

Even knowing that order isn’t an issue.
Even though she already knew her own offer had been rejected.
Paola denies reality by erecting a blood vessel around her neck.

“…….”

But when she sees Elroa, who has no answer, she realizes as certain as the blade of a guillotine has come down.

“How could it be okay… ! She said she understood… Do you think you are different from me?”

After her desperate pleas and pleas were cut short, hatred and anger took their place.
Paola’s condemnation, which is close to screaming, is directed at Eloa.

“I understand your anger and despair. So did I.”
“Shut up! You know nothing! I, I, just for this… Just for this….”

Eloa looked down at the desperate Paola with pitiful eyes.

“I mourn, I regret, I despair, I struggle with guilt every single day. I too would have done anything in my power to save Raffy.”

If only she hadn’t met Siu.
She lost even the object of her revenge and wandered, wishing she had been in this position herself.
If only she had listened to the cowardly witch’s proposal with a heart that seemed like it would crumble any moment.
Could I have shook her head as easily as I do now?

If you answer that you can deny it, that is arrogance.
Elroa didn’t think of herself as a very strong person.
She must have suffered, and perhaps she helped Paola, who was in a dying state.

“But if I borrow your power to revive Raffy, he will surely be sad.”
“Under! Does that mean she makes such cowardly choices because she’s afraid of being resentful?”
“Yes, I am afraid.”

Eloa let out a deep sigh.

“When she brought the kid back to life,” She says. It is good in her eyes to see her blaming her for knowing what she did and why she saved her life. But she will surely forgive. She will cry, rant, hit, scream and resent me, but in time, I am sure she will eventually hug her nerdy teacher.”
“…….”
“After that, I will wander this world until the moment I close my eyes to atone for the sins I committed.”
“If so… That’s it….”
“That’s not what Raffy wants. It’s just my selfishness. The only path left for me to walk is to mourn the departed and move on silently.”
“…….”

Paola’s voice was hoarse, as if she had exhausted all her strength in the fervor and rage that squeezed the last of her life out of her.
She choked her throat in boiling fresh blood, which flowed endlessly between her lips.
The end is near.

Eloa and Paola didn’t open their mouths anymore.
If it’s already a conversation, she’s given enough.

“Do you have any last words you want to say?”
“…….”

Deprived of even her last hope, Paola looked up at Elroa with one of her dead eyes.
A thick malice and hatred burned like a fire in her empty chest, where nothing of her would come to mind.
It was hatred for the enemy who had taken away all hope.

“I hate you.”

Eloa’s sword drew a beautiful spiral.
Without even the sound of cutting, the elegantly drawn blade of the sword grazed Paola’s neck, and in succession, even the lotus flowers she was leaning on were crushed.
Eloa returned the sword that had not even a drop of blood on it to the subspace and then chanted in a bitter voice.

“Even that, I can understand.”

After checking the lotus flower slowly crumbling like a cracked piece of glass and Paola’s corpse covered under it.
Elroa moved her steps to the place where Siu would be waiting.