Chapter 533 – #112_Trial (2)
#533
1.
-Clack!
The sound of two steel balls colliding intensely.
It was the scream of the red branches, intertwined like snakes in the air.
An upper, middle, and lower thrust aimed to seize the initiative.
Behind the three thrusts that a normal human could not even perceive, only a single monstrous sound erupted.
The contract of the King of All Diseases, settled in the brand, informs.
Where and at what timing to attack to make the second that decides life and death your own.
What kind of attack will be most effective.
-Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
In the blink of an eye, divided into several parts of a second, the two tangled spear tips began to coil in the air like vipers.
Red barriers burst out instead of sparks.
Distortion fields erupted instead of booming sounds.
To suppress the opponent with technique, to deflect the wildly extended offensive.
The ground where the two stood was shattered by the wrestling at the tip of the spear, a clash of sharp high frequencies.
-Clang!
The interlocking of the spear strikes, which had been wrestling in a chain, came undone.
Immediately, a pair of red semicircles spread their wings like butterflies.
-Bang!
A surreal fight that transcended the realm of humans.
I clenched my teeth at the dizzying shock that blurred my vision.
“Ugh!”
It wasn’t just the shock that was the problem.
The red branches were originally a cheat-like artifact that gave a unilateral advantage in close combat.
Even my master, the strongest martial artist Siwoo knew, struggled against these branches.
As a result of such branches clashing mercilessly, the shockwave of distortion was also reaching this side.
I had wrapped part of the spear shaft with a ribbon engraved with a control formula that I had researched with Count Yesod to reduce the backflow, but this was nothing more than a temporary measure.
“……”
But it was manageable.
In the previous clash, which I had swung with all my might, it was the Black Knight who had retreated further.
The principle of focusing power on one point was also somewhat lacking in the Black Knight’s technique.
That would be the case.
I don’t know about R’lyeh, but the ‘Shin Siwoo who had maximized his potential’ that Siwoo was facing was another persona.
A body optimized solely for magic, abandoning all other functions.
But ‘spearmanship’ is not magic.
On the other hand, Siwoo had pushed his martial arts to the limit through regular sparring with his master.
Even if they had the same contract with the King of All Diseases, their proficiency was different.
There was room to dig in.
“Hoo!”
-Bang!
That’s why I swing it hard once more.
Fighting at an advantageous distance.
That was the very first lesson Elloa had taught me.
The ground beneath my feet exploded from the impact, and at that moment, when that much power was fully loaded into the spear shaft.
-Swish!
A spectacle of black ribbons crossed between the Black Knight and Siwoo, as if a curtain had fallen.
I had expected it.
I knew that if he realized that continuing to clash was disadvantageous, he would create distance.
I had even predicted that he would use the ribbons for that purpose.
There was no need to figure it out one by one with my body.
The Black Knight was none other than Shin Siwoo himself.
The Maiden’s Loom was, after all, a magic specialized for mid-range combat.
It was a great physical magic, but there were gaps right after it was woven.
At this distance, the red branches were superior in both power and speed.
I tore through the ribbons, which were less agile than the spear strikes, and pushed my body forward.
“….!”
As the ribbons, torn in one blow, scattered like flower petals, Siwoo sensed the blue-tinged aftermath of magic power.
It was the residue of a coordinate movement formula.
-Screech!
Looking back immediately, the Black Knight, who had instantly created a distance of tens of meters, was unfolding black wings and twisting the ends of the ribbons sharply like lances.
The power contained in a single strand was comparable to that of heavy equipment.
Yet, it could move with free trajectories and unbelievably fast speeds.
Moreover, there were easily hundreds of them, five times the number Siwoo could handle.
If the battle became deadlocked at this distance, I would be stuck in a situation where I would be unilaterally beaten forever.
“Bloom!”
Therefore, at the moment when I was trying to forcibly use the coordinate movement formula, even using repeated amplification.
Siwoo felt an indescribable chill.
An intuition that could be felt even without seeing it directly, an intuition that only those who had overcome countless struggles on the border between life and death could possess.
I forcibly pushed away the sense of crisis that was being conveyed right in front of my eyes and the inner whisper that said, ‘Don’t take your eyes off it,’ and looked behind me.
As expected, the red branches, with their shaft tied to a ribbon, were flying towards my back.
While using the ribbons as a feint to buy time, and using the coordinate movement formula to get behind me.
The red branches had been hidden, concealed among the ribbons.
Right now.
In preparation for Siwoo using the coordinate movement formula to forcibly close the distance.
He was not just skilled in combat using magic.
Just as Siwoo had devised strategies to face powerful enemies, the Black Knight was also engaging in a battle of wits against Siwoo.
Why hadn’t I thought of it?
It wasn’t just me who knew the Black Knight’s information.
The Black Knight also knew about the magic that Siwoo could use.
“Bloom.”
The Black Knight’s repeated amplification and the dry incantation.
At the same time, the ribbon strands that had spread out in a fan shape swelled up with magic power all at once.
In front of me was a spectacle of ribbons that were about to begin a bombardment.
Behind me, the red branches were relentlessly digging in, trying to pierce my back.
The priority for response was clear.
Cancel the coordinate movement formula and forcibly twist my body to cut off the branches.
After that, I would receive the ribbons and think of a way to break the deadlock.
The fight was not over yet.
It was at the moment when I had made that resolution.
-Ting
A clear and pure sound spread like a ripple in Siwoo’s ear.
It was a sound like lightly tapping a glass half-filled with water with a spoon.
“Uh….”
At the same time, the world was tilting diagonally.
It wasn’t that the world was tilting.
The vibration that spread without regard to the intense noise was something Siwoo had experienced before.
Self-magnetic magic using the sound of Jemenae.
As the vibration transmitted through magic power shook the semicircular canals, I lost my balance along with nausea.
Above Siwoo, who was barely touching the ground with his hand and trying to get up.
An endless stream of sharp ribbons, which had blackened the sky like a lance charge of heavy cavalry, poured down.
From here on, it was too late no matter what I did.
All Siwoo could do was mutter a low curse.
“Damn it, he’s so strong.”
And Siwoo’s consciousness went dark, like an old cathode-ray tube turning off.
2.
“Hah…! Hah…!”
My eyes snapped open.
The ceiling was visible in my clear vision, and R’lyeh’s face, which occupied half of it, was visible.
Thanks to her blinking, curious eyes, I was able to realize that I had returned to reality.
“Are you alright?”
“Ah… yes.”
“You have drool coming from your mouth.”
“Thank you.”
I wiped my mouth with the handkerchief that R’lyeh had dropped on my face, and also wiped the sweat from my forehead.
My body was tired from the magic power being drained.
“How much time… has passed?”
“About 3 minutes have passed.”
“3 minutes….”
It took about 1 minute to go inside and meet my clone.
Even if I woke up as soon as I faced death, it was about 2 minutes.
I had been defeated in just 2 minutes.
I knew the gap, so I never took it lightly.
I was serious without a moment of carelessness.
However, the clone in my subconscious was far stronger than Siwoo had imagined.
The number of ribbons that could be handled at the same time was also vastly different.
There was almost no interval in the use of the coordinate movement formula, and he even used the self-magnetic magic of Jemenae, which I had recently acquired.
Moreover, since the magic used by the two was the same, and there was only a difference in specs, it was not easy to create variables by using compatibility or momentary wit.
“You are the first person other than me to use the Cradle of Dreams. How was it?”
“…I’m bewildered.”
“Were you not in pain?”
“It ended before I even knew what was going on….”
Except for the fact that my body was a little sore from the aftermath of being caught in the distortion field, I didn’t even know if it hurt.
If that had been a real battle, I would have been torn to shreds without even feeling the pain.
Thinking that way, I felt a chill run down my spine again.
“Rest for a bit. Now it is my turn. Today, I will achieve a magnificent victory against the fake and inherit the kingdom!”
R’lyeh put her hands on her waist and spoke energetically, as if firing a shout forward.
I was still out of it from the aftermath of the battle, but it wasn’t hard to notice that it was a slightly squeezed-out spirit.
“Why aren’t you applauding?”
“As expected of Your Majesty! You are amazing!”
R’lyeh, listening to Siwoo’s enthusiastic applause and cheers, placed her hand on the Cradle of Dreams.
“Launch!”
Magic power flashed along with a strange shout.
The amount of magic power surprisingly varied depending on the storage capacity of the brand, regardless of the hierarchy, and in R’lyeh’s case, she was a truly enormous magic power holder.
-Woo-oong!
A heavy wave-like undulation occurred, and the black bead turned bright blue.
At the same time, R’lyeh collapsed to her knees and fell to the side.
Since I had to wait a little anyway, Siwoo reviewed today’s battle.
It was a battle that ended more emptily than I had expected, but it wasn’t that there was nothing to learn.
Rather, after regaining my senses a little, I realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Unlike Siwoo’s magic, which was somewhat lacking in compatibility, the magic was perfectly embodied in his own way.
The magic formula and the flow of magic power observed with this left eye were clearly imprinted in my head.
This was nothing less than a cheat sheet.
Originally, I would have had to go through many trials and errors and real battles to obtain the data, but now I could pull it forward and see it directly. If I repeated the trials, there would surely be a dramatic improvement.
And about 30 seconds later, much faster than expected.
“Puhahaha!!!!!!!”
R’lyeh, who had collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, raised her upper body with a terrifying momentum.
Her wide-open eyes and her spiky, upright hair made her look like a cat that had been splashed with cold water.
“My trial is over! I shall return!”
“Huh? Already?”
Siwoo was fast, but R’lyeh was not just fast, she was on another level.
It felt like she had gotten up as soon as she had laid down.
At this point, it was believable that she had just run straight towards the cliff as soon as it started.
“How dare you! I lost, but I fought well! How dare you dismiss my struggle with just one word, ‘Already?’”
“I, I apologize.”
R’lyeh, who was indignant, even added a clumsy impersonation.
But was it just my imagination?
She looked refreshed, as if she had finished a homework assignment that she didn’t want to do.
It was supposed to be a trial.
It seemed like I was much more serious about it.
“When I get back, I must finish watching the movie.”
“Your Majesty.”
I grabbed R’lyeh, who was stretching with a proud expression as if she had done something great.
“Hmm? What is it?”
“I am sorry to ask, but… may I try this trial one more time?”
A reaction of disbelief, as if she was wondering, ‘Did I hear that right?’
The emotion that was thinly revealed after that was, for some reason, reluctance.
“I grant it. It’s not like it’s a consumable item anyway. I will bestow upon you the honor of accompanying me on the next trial.”
“That’s not it… Is it okay if I try it again right now?”
“……”
R’lyeh looked at me with a blank stare.
“Isn’t your magic power depleted?”
“I can replenish it quickly.”
I used repeated amplification, one of my specialties, to restore my depleted magic power to the end.
I could do this about 5 or 6 times without any problems.
R’lyeh, who was slightly dazed, couldn’t even answer and just nodded.
Without even having time to care about that, Siwoo fought his clone a total of 4 times.
It was only a 20-minute battle in total, though.
