Chapter 400 – #86_Ballroom(7)
#398
1.
Albiereo Geminai, who was on a business trip to handle matters in the mortal realm.
Connecting communication between the mortal realm and Gehenna required enormous costs and facilities, but Count Geminai willingly bore the expense.
While she was in the mortal realm, she could handle family matters without having to travel back and forth, and conversely, she could contact businessmen in the mortal realm while she was at home. However, the most important reason was that she could video call her cute twins.
Through the expensive communication equipment, Albiereo, who received a report from Head Maid Galina, couldn’t help but doubt her ears.
“How much?”
“It was Siwoo?”
“Why…? Ah, I guess Galina doesn’t know either.”
“Okay, I understand. It’s a hassle, but please visit the vault bank directly and check one more time. Thank you for your hard work as always.”
The communication was cut off.
Albiereo blinked with a bewildered expression.
Just an hour ago.
A report came that a large amount of gold coins had been withdrawn through the credit certificate she had given to Siwoo.
It was an amount that even the count, who wouldn’t mind spending hundreds of millions of won for good liquor, couldn’t ignore.
“Oh my goodness, what on earth is going on?”
Albiereo had entrusted Siwoo with an unlimited credit certificate.
But she never imagined that he would spend more than twice the amount of the previously promised compensation in one day, and in a lump sum.
Did he buy a castle in Lenomond Town?
That couldn’t be it.
Even if he bought a castle standing on the best piece of land in Gehenna, it would be difficult to spend this much money.
If it were someone else, she would have immediately tried to guess their intentions.
But Siwoo’s case was a little different.
Albiereo knew a little about what kind of person he was.
At least, he wasn’t a spendthrift who would use a large sum of money recklessly.
Considering his usual character and the surrounding circumstances, the first inference that came to mind, ‘Is he going to run away with the money?’, was highly unlikely.
“That’s strange….”
She felt suspicious instead.
Just like how you might suspect voice phishing if you suddenly try to withdraw a large amount of cash from a bank.
The fact that he suddenly used such a large sum of money without asking for her understanding or opinion….
Albiereo immediately reactivated the remote viewing orb.
“Yes, Deneb. There’s something I need you to check.”
2.
Amelia stared blankly around, her mind in a daze.
The places she had wandered while hunting were all polar regions and uninhabited areas.
Therefore, seeing a large city in the mortal realm was a first for her.
The chaotic crowds pouring in and the car horns ringing in her ears.
Buildings larger than the biggest trees in Gehenna loomed over the city, their glass windows flashing menacingly.
“……”
Originally, Amelia didn’t pay attention to anything else when she went hunting.
It was so difficult that she felt like her heart would break just by silently carrying out the given task.
But this was Korea.
The hometown that Siwoo had wanted to go to so badly.
Even though she knew it was pointless, she couldn’t help but look around.
However, the situation wasn’t good enough for her to be lost in sentimentality.
The place recorded as Bianca Bellili’s location was Busan, a port city in Korea.
Amelia, who had left Clara asleep and traveled alone, realized that she was in a very difficult situation not long after arriving.
“What is it? Is it cosplay?”
“Wow… how can a person look like that?”
“Should I ask for a picture?”
First, the gazes pouring in and the chatter surrounding her.
Amelia, who was famous for being outstanding even among witches, attracted attention just by standing still.
Normally, she would have immediately suppressed her presence, but Amelia, who was even feeling dizzy from the flood of noise and the vast amount of information she was experiencing for the first time, belatedly flicked her fingers.
Immediately, as if Amelia’s existence had been erased, people lost interest in her.
But the real problem was not that.
“……”
First of all, there were too many people.
The hit list didn’t specify the exact location of the witch.
The method Amelia had used to find her targets so far was to deliberately scatter magic particles and have the targets attack first….
If she did that in a place with such a crowd, it would cause too much commotion.
It was also impossible to erase the presence of each particle.
Also, if she lured the enemy out as usual, it was also a considerable problem to give the first attack.
According to the hit list, Bianca Bellili was a witch skilled in long-range sniping.
Not just any random person, but a powerful target of the 22nd rank.
It was impossible for even Amelia not to feel burdened by starting a fight by giving the sniper the first attack.
-Thwoom!
In Amelia’s senses, who was feeling lost about where to start.
A huge wave of magic power was caught.
Even though it was a wave that came from very far away, her magic circuits felt a tingling sensation in response to the heavy surge of magic power.
Her sky-blue eyes turned to the distance.
-Thump!
As if to prove that what she had felt earlier was not a delusion, another shock was heard.
There was no immediate commotion on the surface.
This meant that this level of wave had leaked from inside the otherworld barrier.
It was not something that happened often.
Amelia immediately wrapped her body in particles and began to search for the source.
3.
“…Kuh!”
Bianca let out a troubled groan.
Shin Siwoo, who had torn through space and appeared.
The slash he had swung had cut off one of Icarus’s wings.
If it had been an ordinary wing, it wouldn’t have been strange for her to lose her balance and fall, but Icarus’s wings were an artifact.
Although her speed had decreased slightly, there was no problem with her evasive maneuvers that ignored inertia.
An aerial battle that started naturally.
Bianca poured out all sorts of artifacts to shake off the persistent pursuer.
“Shoot!”
Exploding flower-shaped artifacts that scattered, butterfly-shaped artifacts that slowly tracked the enemy and restricted their movement, flare-shaped artifacts that scattered to shake off the closely following enemy, laser-shaped beam-shooting artifacts, and so on.
There were dozens of types alone.
The number of projectiles themselves was already so numerous that it was meaningless to count them.
-Swoosh!
Shin Siwoo, who had become a tenacious pursuer, never let Bianca go.
Using his Sight Line and all sorts of means, just when she thought she had managed to create some distance,
Siwoo’s body, which had disappeared into the air with a bluish light, appeared somewhere, piercing through the air.
Not a linear movement skill, but a space jump that leaped over points.
Just the fact that he was folding space and running without the help of a ‘door’ was astonishing, and he was wielding such high-level spatial magic while holding a red branch covered in distortion.
That wasn’t all that was driving Bianca into a corner.
-Patsutsutsuk!
Chasing Bianca with flight and space jumps. Engaging in aerial combat with hundreds of ribbons, and pouring out magic power in a wasteful manner, one would quickly run out of magic power.
“Bloom.”
But now, every time she thought he would be exhausted and fall, there was an explosion of golden magic power.
The magic power that was almost depleted was completely replenished.
On the other hand, Bianca’s magic power was gradually being consumed.
Bianca, who was confident in a war of attrition, was starting to feel uneasy.
“Kuh…!”
If there was a single weakness of the Arc Hart’s bow, it was the interval that occurred when firing.
Bianca felt that limitation for the first time.
It was a disadvantage that she didn’t even need to be aware of normally.
If the enemy was annoying and sticking to her, she could just blow them away with her Sight Line.
If the enemy’s ranged attacks were interfering, she could create a distance of tens to thousands of kilometers with Icarus’s wings and then snipe them with her Observation Eye of Phenomena.
The gap that occurred while drawing the bow was covered by the Vetege’s Shield.
Each one had flaws, but when combined, they were five perfect divine artifacts.
That was the reason why Bianca had never been defeated in over a hundred years.
However.
Now, that weakness was clearly felt.
The nameplate of the ballroom and the flag of the arena, which prevented her from leaving the battlefield until the battle was over.
Bianca had designed the arrangement to prevent him from escaping midway and to prevent this battle from being discovered by others.
The radius of the battlefield created by the arena’s flag was about 3km, where the concealment performance could be maximized.
It was too narrow for Bianca’s greatest advantage, a one-sided bombardment from a distance.
She had never expected to engage in such a fierce close-quarters battle, so the device she had prepared with all her might was now turning into a disadvantage, tightening the noose around Bianca’s neck.
Of course, Bianca’s ability was the coordination and self-adaptation of artifacts.
If she spent a little time, she could break this restriction.
The problem here again was the presence of Shin Siwoo, who was constantly pecking at Bianca without a moment’s gap.
Siwoo, who had caught up with Bianca again.
The red spiral drew an arc and struck the shield fiercely.
-Bang! Kwang! Kwaang!
Vetege’s Shield, which turned any physical energy into zero.
The shield was screaming painfully every time it was hit by the red branch.
It was evidence that the protective performance was gradually decreasing due to the concentrated distortion field.
Watching the fragments of the shield gradually crumbling, Bianca felt that the time for a decision had come.
If the situation remained deadlocked, there was a risk of being defeated by gradually consuming her magic power.
Of course, if his body, which was clearly being overworked, completely stopped before that, Bianca, who had endured, would win.
Defeat.
Defeat, huh.
Bianca chuckled at the unfamiliar nuance she was rolling around in her mouth for the first time since she was born.
“Haaah!”
Bianca gathered as much magic power as she could.
She didn’t like throwing away petty sums and competing over who had more chips.
If she was going to go for the final showdown in a gamble, she would go all-in.
Bianca shook her Sight Line vigorously.
Siwoo was immediately bounced to the end of the barrier.
At the same time, hundreds of millions of small cubes filled the air within a 3km radius.
It was impossible for even Bianca to handle so many artifacts at once.
However, the objects that shimmered with beautiful light like fragments of stars floating in a zero-gravity space were ‘Imitator’s Dice’.
Since they were decoys that only copied the appearance of artifacts to deceive the enemy, the consumption of magic power was low.
Normally, their only function was to induce the opponent’s overreaction and gain an advantage in a war of attrition, but this time, their purpose was slightly different.
From her observation, his space jumps were always made from places where there were no objects.
In a space where obstacles were floating without any room to step, his fraudulent blink would be restricted.
No matter how quickly he reached this place, the one drawing Arc Hart’s bow would be faster.
-Giggigigigik!
The bow was drawn once again.
However, its form was different from before.
The seventy-two divided Vetege’s Shields lined up in a cylindrical shape, forming a battery.
A plan she had come up with after seeing Shin Siwoo deflect arrows by forming a ring tunnel.
The powerful protective performance of Vetege’s Shield was made to face inward, minimizing the dispersion of power.
The arrows of the night sky, which would normally have to spread in all directions, were compressed by the shield’s defense and aimed even more at one point.
What was created was a strike that was far more powerful than anything she had fired so far.
“So, you’re going to come out like that?”
Siwoo’s response, who had landed on the distant sea.
Had Bianca’s intention been conveyed to him?
He didn’t deploy his ribbons defensively.
-Kuuuuuung!
Instead, he spread out his ribbons like a flower.
The only difference was that the ribbons, which had been only 12 strands, had increased to dozens.
The ribbons, using everything from the bottom of the sea to the surrounding cranes and shipwrecks as bows, were drawn with a terrifying roar.
The afterimage of the previous clash.
The final strikes prepared by the two people finally.
Met in the air.
