Chapter 941 – #203_Crossroads(10)
#935
1.
I can say with certainty.
Among the many enemies, few know the fear of Tiferet as deeply as Ea Sadalmelik.
Ever since she was tempted for a moment and killed a novice witch, Ea’s life had gone terribly wrong.
Because of Tiferet, who was chasing her as a mad avenger, she couldn’t build a decent business despite her abilities.
She couldn’t settle down in one place and had to wander and run away her whole life.
Ea had also tried her best to shake off this tiresome pursuit.
She had tried to fake her death.
She had also tried to take hostages.
But the deception was meaningless.
Before the obsession of a mother who had lost her cub, shallow tricks were meaningless.
She squeezed out every penny she had and gathered forces.
She hired enemies who were working as mercenaries and tried to hunt Tiferet in reverse.
However, the common belief that contract magic is weak against many was only true when the levels were somewhat similar.
The black sword wielded with wrath slaughtered all the dozen or so enemies who had gathered to hunt Tiferet.
Ea clearly remembers the nightmare of the infamous witches dying without even uttering a death cry.
An overwhelming force that could not be blocked, stopped, avoided, or overcome with wit.
A truly terrifying being.
That was Eloa Tiferet.
“Indeed. You have to be that good, don’t you?”
So, she could understand.
The sudden surge of magic in the dying body of Duke Tiferet.
The unleashing of the last hidden card.
“So, you’ve finally decided to struggle?”
Ea couldn’t help but feel a sense of emptiness when she reunited with Eloa, fully prepared.
Where did the poison go that made her legs buckle just by facing her, even when she was weakened?
What was with that lukewarm gaze?
It felt like the climax of a movie she had been focusing on throughout the playtime ended with only a bunch of MacGuffins.
She didn’t even expect her to beg for her life.
At the very least, she wanted to see her long-time enemy humiliated and soaked in disgrace as she was being violated in her final moments.
After laying the panting Eloa on the floor, she wanted to tell her how the novice witch she loved so dearly had met her end.
It meant that she didn’t want to kill the empty shell that was Tiferet.
“That’s a proper climax.”
It was welcome.
It was as if the last spoonful of seasoning had been added to this lackluster revenge drama.
But there was nothing to fear.
Even if it was a final struggle, it was still a mere flash in the pan.
A candle shines brightest just before it burns out, and that moment is fleetingly short.
“You…”
Ea’s words were cut off mid-sentence.
-Thud
The sound of stepping on a lump of meat with a water-filled boot echoed in the strange silence.
Ea stared blankly at her lower abdomen.
Her intestines flowed out through the crack in her skin that had been split horizontally.
The pain spread much later.
“……”
What happened?
Ea looked at Eloa.
Her detached eyes, which seemed to be looking nowhere.
Her lips tightly sealed with determination.
The aftermath of the violently burning magic, as if cherry blossoms were fluttering around her.
She had probably swung her sword and split Ea’s belly.
Ea had been watching the scene from beginning to end, but she just hadn’t recognized it.
“…Shit.”
Goosebumps rose.
The hairs on her whole body stood on end.
It was a chill of fear, and at the same time, a thrill for the climax she had been longing for.
This was the Tiferet that Ea had feared so much, the god of war.
“I will kill you and rise to a higher position.”
She would kill Tiferet and clear away her miserable past.
She would leap to the great realm of the 24th level, which she could never reach no matter what she did.
At that moment, Eloa disappeared from Ea’s sight.
2.
-Thwack!
Ea’s head exploded like a watermelon hit by a metal bat.
An injury that would undoubtedly kill even a witch instantly.
It was more than obvious that she couldn’t face Eloa head-on.
Nevertheless, the reason Ea appeared before her was because of this ‘Field of Lycoris’.
From the 21st level to the 22nd level, and from the 22nd level to the 23rd level.
Ea had invested all of her abilities corresponding to the two levels in building the Field of Lycoris.
Even if her combat power was only at the 21st level, it was a choice and concentration to reliably block Eloa.
In other words, it was no exaggeration to say that she had invested two levels solely in ‘anti-Tiferet magic’.
The most terrifying thing about Eloa was that she could forcibly conclude a contract between two parties and unleash tremendous firepower on a single target.
If the Field of Lycoris was just a ‘recovery’ magic, the contract would be permanently valid.
Ea, who had recovered from her injuries, was still a continuous entity, so she could not escape the coercion of the contract.
But if she gave up continuity, it would be different.
If she accepted death once and wrote a new body based on that data, the contract would be terminated.
It was impossible to continue a contract made with a corpse.
Moreover, it wasn’t just that.
Unlike simple recovery, resurrection uses the magic and soul stored in the ‘lotus’ to restore all magic and the fatigue of the magic circuits.
This was also a strategy for Eloa, who was weak in long battles.
A foolproof trap that could only guarantee victory.
This was the hunting method of the hunter Ea Sadalmelik.
“Die…!”
Therefore, Ea was not afraid.
The grand offensive of ribbons writhing from all directions.
A variety of crossfires worthy of the expression carpet bombing.
It was a body that would be used and discarded soon anyway.
There was no need to think about the aftermath for a body that would be used and thrown away.
The magic, which was squeezed out with all her magic power and used recklessly to the point of breaking her body, was definitely stronger than a typical 21st level.
A sure-win plan to bind Eloa like a snare and eventually make her collapse from exhaustion.
-Whirr!
About half of the hundreds of ribbons were arranged as ‘tentacles’.
Even if Ea didn’t recognize it, they were arranged to react automatically the moment they entered the detection range of the tentacles.
However.
-Thwack!
They didn’t reach.
As if she were a phantom, Eloa’s powerful fist, which had instantly traversed a space where it was more difficult to find a gap, burst Ea’s heart.
Ea only managed to see the hem of her clothes at the last moment when her heart was exploding.
Was she originally this strong?
Was Eloa Tiferet such a terrifying figure that she felt such a vast wall?
“Ugh…!”
Even in her doubts, Ea did what she had to do.
Resurrection meant that there were countless coins.
It meant that she could repeat countless trials and errors in a battlefield where her life could be lost with a single mistake.
Based on that fraudulent advantage, she revised her strategy as soon as her spirit settled into her newly resurrected body.
If she couldn’t recognize her properly, she could just indiscriminately fire.
-Screeeech!!!
Ribbons twisting in the air.
Unpredictable brute force and elasticity that could not be imagined from their delicate appearance.
The ribbons, which had been twisted to the fullest and transformed into the buds of morning glories, poured out in all directions like springs.
-Bang! Crash! Thud!
One of them would hit.
If she accumulated injuries like this, she would be able to slow down Eloa’s movements more than now.
That was the strategy she came up with.
“Shit…! What the hell is this…!!!”
Yet, they didn’t reach.
Even the unpredictable trajectories that even Ea, the caster, could not predict, could not stop the approaching death.
-Crack!
The tip of the contract sword, which was like a scythe, grazed Ea’s neck, spraying a fountain of blood.
Even if she changed her way of responding.
Even if she re-established her strategy.
Even if she repeated trials and errors, using her life as a coin.
As if it were her destiny.
As if it were inevitable from the moment the two existed.
Tiferet would always approach.
Tiferet would always cut.
“Fine…! Let’s see how long you can last!”
Ea changed her mind.
It was just one of the processes anyway.
In the end, the flash in the pan was just a final moment of brilliant burning.
As long as she could drag it into a long battle, it didn’t matter how she met her death.
The pain was only for a moment.
Since the most common way to break resurrection was mental breakdown, Ea had taken precautions to prevent the mental aftereffects of her previous life from reaching her reincarnated body.
The more Eloa struggled, the more her strength would be depleted.
The Field of Lycoris used the life force accumulated in the lotus as its power source.
The total number of times Ea had accumulated was 1,129.
And now, what was left was….
“…When did it get this bad….”
Only 599 times.
Ea gasped.
Only then did she notice her surroundings.
Half of the Lycoris, which seemed endless, were sparsely withered.
Instead, Ea’s corpses, which had been cut off and had parts of their bodies blown off, were scattered throughout the ruins.
A sense of unease spread, but her cold reason held it back.
Miracles did not exist in this cruel world.
It was an optimistic fantasy that the good, cornered, would borrow the power of justice and achieve a wonderful comeback victory against evil.
Tiferet was just someone who had only enough strength left to struggle.
Time was on Ea’s side.
No.
It had to be on Ea’s side.
“How much do you have left?”
Eloa, whom she had never been able to capture even once since the start of the full-scale battle.
It was only after Eloa stopped that Ea could properly check her condition.
“What did you do…”
The pink flames, instead of fading, were burning even more fiercely despite the amount of consumption.
Eloa, wrapped in magic that was flickering as if burning everything she had as fuel.
Just facing that pressure made her heart clench.
She was just holding her sword diagonally and looking straight at Ea with clear eyes, but she felt an overwhelming presence that she could never overcome.
Only then did Ea realize that Eloa had grasped a ‘power that should not be touched’.
“The level… the level is not supposed to be like that…. This can’t be, this can’t be happening….”
A realm that even Ea could not fathom now.
A gap that was wider than any moment she had faced her.
Ea took a step back for the first time since she had obtained the Field of Lycoris.
“Is there nothing more to show?”
Eloa looked at the pale Ea with eyes that had shed hatred, resentment, anger, and contempt.
The belief that had not broken even after countless hesitations and wanderings was in these two hands.
Therefore, in Eloa’s eyes, Ea was not an enemy.
She wasn’t even someone to hate.
A pathetic and shabby life that was just too busy trying to stay alive and fulfill her desires.
She was just an obstacle that had popped up.
Originally, she had intended to kill her until she could no longer live, but there was no need to fight anymore.
Eloa’s eyes had seen through the very foundation of Ea’s resurrection magic.
If she resurrected no matter how many times she was killed, the solution was simple.
She just had to cut out the existence of Ea Sadalmelik itself.
“Then, let’s end this tiresome relationship.”
The magic that had been shining so brightly that it hurt her eyes was focused entirely on one sword.
There was no fanfare.
At first glance, it was just an ordinary magic that didn’t feel like a grand power or mystery.
But Ea instinctively realized.
That was dangerous.
She shouldn’t have been complacent and thought about escaping at the last moment.
She had to turn around and run away right now.
“Wait, wait…! I have a proposal…!”
She let out a hollow laugh.
A proposal, a proposal.
Even at this moment, she was desperately begging for her life. What had she been living for, and what was she trying to live for?
Ea’s desperation, trying to induce agitation by cunningly wagging her tongue, did not reach Eloa.
“This lotus, you know what this lotus is, right?”
“I know.”
“Okay, I’ll apologize first. Should I kneel? Should I lick your shoes? Anything is fine. With this lotus, I can….”
There was no need to know.
Now was just the time to fulfill her duty.
“Your sin. The evil that must be punished. That is all.”
The moment of resolution, which could not be avoided, approached.
Ea, pulling out her ribbons for the last time and screaming in evil.
“Shibaal!!! Do you think I’ll die like this!!!”
The obsession with a life that was so distorted that it was ugly.
To her, who was screaming so loudly that her uvula was exposed.
“Yes.”
Eloa’s sword drew a diagonal line and fell silent.
“You will die here.”
