Chapter 397 – #85_Ballroom(4)
#395
1.
Bianca, who had never fought based on capture, learned a new lesson.
It was that capturing a flying insect without killing it was very difficult.
Suddenly, Siwoo increased his tempo through a massive amplification of magical power.
His speed was already incomparable to before.
He was easily surpassing the speed of sound with just light jogging, showing off his superhuman speed.
If Bianca had tried to track him with her naked eye, she would have only been able to observe a blurry afterimage at best.
However, the ‘Observation Eye of Ideology’ was not just a shooting assist tool.
The Observation Eye, enhanced by Bianca, was the best observation device that could grasp the opponent’s information and even predict their movements almost perfectly.
No matter how much he increased his speed and charged, Vittege’s shield, linked to the Observation Eye, effortlessly blocked his attacks.
It was meaningless even if he twisted his ribbons and attacked multiple places at the same time.
Vittege’s shield, which could split into up to 72 pieces to defend, was an absolute defense that had never been breached.
Then, if she got frustrated with the sight of him swinging his spear while sweating and bleeding in front of her, she could just swing the Seisung Line to create distance again.
Therefore, to Bianca, it was a tedious war of attrition that was yawn-inducing.
He was clearly overworking his body.
No matter how versatile magical power was as an energy source, containing that much magical power entirely within a spirit body was dangerous.
Moreover, if he were to increase the thrust of a fighter jet with human muscles and bones, the consequences were obvious.
“Reckless.”
Even if he had lost his friend and his reason, she didn’t expect him to be so incapable of sound judgment.
Bianca struck the floor with her shoe again.
At the same time, dozens of white paper airplanes additionally floated up and immediately chased after Siwoo.
The projectiles flying at Siwoo were not just simple paper airplanes.
They were artifacts made to track and annihilate enemies, which Bianca had additionally modified.
The guided projectiles, which persistently tracked him while changing direction, cornered Siwoo.
-Bang! Bang! Bang!
However, he was not an opponent to be ignored.
Bianca was inwardly impressed as she watched Siwoo shoot down dozens of paper airplanes with fierce and flamboyant spear strikes.
Although it was difficult to call it a typical witch’s tactic, his skill was genuine.
For a witch who had existed for less than 10 years, he was indeed strong enough to beat up a weakened Eia.
If a witch who didn’t have a proper countermeasure were to face his unorthodox close-combat style, they would easily concede defeat.
Can you believe it?
A mere man was threatening to surpass the achievements built over hundreds of years in such a short period.
A burning possessiveness made her body tremble.
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Hoo…”
“…Aha.”
Bianca suddenly realized.
The reason why he, who had been charging in like he was going to die at first, suddenly stopped making reckless charges.
Anger is volatile.
Humans are weak.
Even the anger that makes one willing to die tends to disappear in the face of the helplessness of reality.
Siwoo, who had rushed in with his eyes wide open after hearing about his friend’s death at first.
But he would have sized her up in one exchange.
He would have felt more keenly than anyone that he couldn’t win.
However, he had already signed the ‘Ballroom Registry’ when he boarded this ship.
Since he had agreed to the contract with his own hands, escape was impossible, and Bianca had made Siwoo aware of that fact.
So, what was the reason for the opponent, who had realized the overwhelming difference in power and was even blocked from escaping, to be stalling for time?
“Just asking in case. Are you waiting for someone to come and rescue you?”
“……”
Bianca was convinced as she watched Siwoo remain silent.
There was quite a long time between the moment she received the notification that the message in the crystal ball had been checked and the moment he appeared.
If he wasn’t a fool, he would have prepared a plan for when things went wrong.
For example, he could have left a note saying, ‘Please come to ~ in about 30 minutes.’
Although Duke Tiferet would be wandering around Hong Kong looking for Eia, there were many friendly witches around him.
“Foolish, did you think I wouldn’t have thought of that?”
But Bianca had naturally anticipated that much.
Therefore, she had used an artifact from the moment she deployed the otherworld barrier.
‘The Arena Flag’.
If a battle broke out inside, it would not allow anyone to intrude until the fight was over.
Not only that, but it also made it impossible to even observe the otherworld barrier.
For an enemy, deploying an otherworld barrier with concealment was a basic necessity.
“It’s a waste of time. There’s no one who can break through this barrier and come to help you.”
“……”
A temporary lull in the conversation.
Bianca stopped firing the artifacts that had been forming an endless barrage, and Siwoo panted in place.
Blood could be seen dripping from the end of his gauntlet.
As expected, the excessive movements had started to tear his fragile skin.
“How about surrendering now? It’s a shame about your friend’s death, but… is it worth risking your life for a human?”
It was too brazen for the person who killed that friend to say.
However, there was no sign that Bianca was even aware of it in her optimistic proposal.
Just as Bianca was a witch, Shin Siwoo was also a witch.
On the other hand, the friend who had died was just a human.
The act of risking one’s life for a worthless friendship was nothing more than a foolish act of recklessness, no matter how much one thought about it.
It was extremely reasonable to preserve one’s life, even if it meant bending one’s pride.
“……”
A prolonged silence.
Bianca watched Siwoo with a small amount of anticipation.
It was enjoyable to observe a human who had been upholding a noble belief compromise and fall into depravity.
Just imagining making that man, who was now playing the role of a righteous hero, a slave to her desires and raising him like a pet made her lower body tingle with ecstasy.
“Takasho was a good guy.”
“Haa…”
“He wasn’t someone who deserved to die in vain.”
Bianca sighed deeply at the foolish answer that betrayed her expectations.
“Humans die in vain anyway. How long are you going to be tied to such pathetic emotions? You’re a witch, aren’t you? You should think rationally.”
This was not a taunt or a provocation.
It was a sincere piece of advice that came from pure intentions.
For a witch, there was nothing more valuable than magic.
Everything other than the desire for improvement, the spirit of inquiry, and desire was an additional emotion, and the morals and ethics advocated by humans were merely a social agreement of weak people who didn’t want to have their things taken away.
If one had transcended humanity, one had to throw off those shackles as well.
“No. You’re wrong.”
Witches were definitely different from humans.
They didn’t age, lived eternally, and were fanatics who were obsessed with magic.
But there was an apprentice witch who was upset about losing her mother.
There was also a former witch who worried about her daughter being left alone.
There was also a witch who blindly believed in Siwoo like an ordinary lover.
There was also a witch who was in pain after losing her disciple, and there were also twins who approached him in a friendly manner without being caught up in the prejudice of male slaves.
“You’re just a monster.”
“…How rigid.”
Bianca was not greatly disappointed.
That was probably the extent of his capacity.
He was a man who would eventually succumb if she broke his limbs and endlessly gave him ecstatic pleasure.
There was no reason to be disappointed that she couldn’t tame him with her silver tongue.
Siwoo checked his body’s condition.
His physical enhancement had exceeded the limit that his spirit body could withstand.
His entire body’s muscles were screaming in pain as if they had been wrung out like a rag, and his joints felt like they were about to melt like the drive unit that couldn’t handle the engine.
Nevertheless, he readjusted his spear as if he were holding a harpoon.
He twisted his body and added rotational force, throwing the red branch with all his might, leaving a long red tail in the air as it flew like a comet.
The act of throwing away the most powerful weapon he possessed.
Moreover, showing such behavior in front of Bianca, who could make artifacts her own, could only be interpreted as a desperate struggle of self-abandonment.
-Kiiing!
The red branch, which flew at the speed of light, stopped without fail in front of Vittege’s shield.
It stopped horizontally like an arrow stuck in a target.
“Is it over now?”
Bianca looked at Siwoo with a snort, amused by the fight that had ended so easily.
And then she discovered it.
A belief that had not diminished in the slightest, even after witnessing the overwhelming difference in power.
“No.”
The red branch reacted to the external impact and emitted a powerful distortion field.
And the amount of impact that had accumulated within the ribbon surrounding the red branch through numerous collisions in the battle so far had been steadily accumulating.
The reason why Siwoo had not charged at Bianca and had been on the defensive was not because he had realized that charging was meaningless.
It was because just controlling the distortion field that was trying to run wild was consuming a huge amount of magical power, mental power, and computational power.
The cursed artifact that had bloomed after devouring 1,200 humans.
Siwoo could only control a quarter of this artifact’s functions.
It was impossible to use the distortion field arbitrarily like the Red Knight, and he couldn’t even attempt to use the barrier.
However.
What if he could induce a runaway by adding to the accumulated impact?
“It’s just beginning.”
-Wooooooom!
The ribbon that had been controlling the ‘distortion’ that was running wild inside the red branch was peeled off.
At the same time, the distortion field and the red barrier that had been barely suppressed began to be released all at once towards their prey.
“Th-this…!”
To use a familiar analogy, it was like putting Mentos in a bottle of cola that had been tightly closed and shaken, and then throwing it at the opponent.
Bianca’s face showed confusion for the first time at the red branch that was indiscriminately firing distortion fields and barriers, regardless of friend or foe.
By itself, it could not overcome Vittege’s shield.
However, the distortion field, which was inherently incompatible with artifacts, induced an effect similar to an EMP burst on electronic devices.
Watching the artifact, which was losing its function and going haywire as it was being freed from control, Bianca began to retreat for the first time.
Siwoo didn’t wait.
Seeing Bianca in a panic, he took a step into the storm of barriers and distortion fields, trusting in the clover, and holding a newly created sword.
A resistance that felt like his body was being torn apart.
The high-concentration distortion field was like indiscriminately released radiation for a spirit body.
His vision was wavering as if he had been exposed to a large amount of radiation.
In the midst of a melting sense of balance and a burning sensation, he could see two clovers of Periwinkle breaking in an instant.
Periwinkle’s clover was also a type of artifact.
It was not entirely unaffected by the interference of the distortion field.
“A futile attempt!”
Bianca tried to take out a new artifact while moving away from the storm of distortion fields.
However, the Observation Eye of Ideology was also temporarily paralyzed.
She was slow to react because she never imagined that the man would cross the shortest path, risking his life.
-Whoosh!
Siwoo’s strike, which he had squeezed out with all his might, fiercely rushed towards Bianca.
