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→ The Darkness that Came from the East (6) ←

1.

Siwoo’s training schedule had become more intense than before.

Not because of any specific reason, but because he felt the need to do something in a situation where he didn’t know any kind of danger that might come.

Originally, he’d only train hard for a couple hours around noon, but now he doubled it, once in the morning and once again in the evening.

Naturally, he felt exhausted to the point that he felt he was about to die.

With Eloa’s strict and old-fashioned manner of teaching, she never let him slack off. So, he ended up being beaten up in the morning and once again in the evening, making him all bruised and battered.

-Vroooom!

Currently, they were inside the luxurious supercar that ran with a sleek engine sound.

“So, I was given about half a day off each week. With Takasho’s help, uh, the friend I mentioned before, I’d use the time to shop in Tarot Town for essentials. Well, ‘essentials’ might be a little bit of a stretch…it was more like I bought some magic items…”

“…”

Siwoo was recounting his time in Gehenna to Eloa, as she had requested.

Meanwhile, Eloa was sprawled comfortably on the backrest with her eyes closed.

Glancing at her with a side-eye, Siwoo asked.

“Are you tired?”

At that moment, her tightly closed eyelids fluttered and she opened her eyes.

“No, I’m listening. Sorry, even though I was the one who asked you to talk about yourself…”

In truth, this intense training regime was also tough on Eloa.

If she had one persistent weakness, it was her stamina.

Her past attempt to enhance her self-essence magic for greater strength had disrupted the balance she had achieved before.

It was way easier for her to unleash an incredible burst of power, but she’d be burned out just as quickly.

As a comparison, she was like a high-performance race car with poor fuel efficiency.

Not to mention that to deal with Siwoo, who was significantly weaker than her, she’d need more ‘strength to rein in her power’ than ‘strength to swing a fist’ to prevent him from getting seriously injured.

It was akin to holding a soft tofu to keep it from falling apart.

Also, just because someone had a higher rank, didn’t mean they had more mana.

The accessibility of mana and the amount of mana the witches could store heavily depended on their brand and magic type, not their ranks.

If more mana meant higher rank, Siwoo, who was able to generate a tremendous amount of mana through mana amplification, would have ranked around the 25th rank by now.

In comparison, Eloa’s capability to store mana wasn’t that great.

That was why after the second training session, she’d often close her eyes to take a quiet rest like this.

“I really hope I’m not asking too much of you.”

“Doesn’t matter. Don’t you feel your own progress?”

“Well, I mean, with your teaching… I’ll shut up.”

“There you go again, stop teasing me.”

Siwoo’s playful words elicited a chuckle from Eloa.

“Anyway, at the very least you don’t only have bad memories living in Gehenna, huh?”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly, but I guess so, yeah. Sometimes, I do reminisce about my time there. I also missed the friends that I made there…”

“You were Baroness Marigold’s personal slave at one point, right? Did she treat you well?”

He hesitated for a bit before responding.

“…Yes, but she troubled me a lot before she took me in.”

His hesitation only lasted for a really short time, but Eloa managed to pick up the subtle shift in his mood.

Whenever he talked about his time as a slave, he’d enthusiastically share various stories about it, but when it came to Marigold, he always fell silent.

And more importantly, he never initiated any kind of discussions about her.

“I should probably thank her if I ever meet her again.”

“You met her before, Master?”

“Yes, when I first heard the news of Ea Sadalmelik’s demise. Deneb arranged for us to meet since that wicked bitch met her end by the Baroness’ hand.”

“Ah…”

Come to think of it, we got to meet each other thanks to that.

He glanced at the passenger seat to see if she was upset, but she seemed like the usual Eloa.

Just her eyes looked sleepier than usual, as if she could nod off at any moment.

“How was she?”

“Hm?”

“I mean, Ms. Amelia, how was her…condition…?”

“Well, things were pretty hectic for me at the time, so I didn’t get a good look at her, but…like the rumors said, she was pretty for a witch, I guess?”

An awkward silence followed.

Siwoo was the one who dispelled the slightly heavy atmosphere.

“Master, you’re pretty too.”

“Enough with the flattery. Didn’t I tell you to stop teasing me?”

“I’m being serious though.”

“Enough is enough!”

Eloa always tried to keep a serious demeanor, but whenever Siwoo complimented her, even his esteemed master couldn’t help but feel flustered.

He knew she kind of liked it secretly though, that was why he’d periodically throw in some compliments here and there.

“Anyway, about today—”

“Siwoo! Look out!”

As they took a turn onto a national road near an alleyway, after traversing a quiet street…

Eloa suddenly shouted his name urgently.

Startled by that, he looked ahead and saw a dark figure lit up by the headlights.

Immediately, he slammed on the brakes with all his might.

-Screech!

With a screeching sound of tires grinding against asphalt the body lurched forward as he slammed on the brakes.

But, even though he managed to react quickly, the distance between him and the figure was too close.

It was because the figure had been completely out of sight and had only darted out at the last second.

-Bang!

The car jolted with a strong impact, as if it bumped into something hard instead of just a person.

He could hear the sound of an object rolling over the car roof as it passed over the windshield.

“Oh, shit…!”

Siwoo immediately tried to open the door and get out, but Eloa firmly grabbed his wrist.

“I’ll get off first.”

“Master, this isn’t—”

“It isn’t a human. Calm down.”

Suddenly, Eloa summoned her Sword of Covenant, holding it diagonally towards the car’s bumper.

Siwoo took a deep breath.

Thinking back, he wasn’t speeding or anything.

At most, he only drove the car at around 60 km/h.

He managed to hit the brakes before the collision and with the supercar’s superior brake system, the speed would have reduced even further.

Yet the front car was almost completely wrecked.

If what he hit was really a human, it wouldn’t be in such bad shape.

Eloa cautiously opened the door, pointing her sword at whatever the thing it was that had rolled behind the car.

“…”

Siwoo followed her outside, glanced at the wrecked bumper, and joined up with her.

On the asphalt, there was a woman sprawled out.

Her clothes were torn in several places and she had gruesome wounds and burn marks all over her body.

It was obvious that she didn’t get those injuries from the car crash.

Amidst the horrible scene, Siwoo noticed her familiar fox-like features and her fiery red hair.

“A witch.”

“Wait, I know her. She’s Della Redcliffe.”

Now he understood why the car that Periwinkle gifted him was wrecked by such a small impact.

It was because her automatic defense had kicked in.

Though he felt sad about the car he had grown attached to being wrecked beyond repair, at the very least he hadn’t hit a person.

“Redcliffe? She is?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Redcliffe had a close relationship with Xochitl.

They were in the same class at Trinity Academy and were known to be close friends, especially back when the Cowardly Witch was still known as the Witch of Thousand Beasts.

The reason why Ms. Sua suspected her involvement in this is because she disappeared after the Dagon’s Flute incident, right?

“Step back a little.”

The crash seemed to have knocked her out.

If she was in a perfect condition, her autonomous defense wouldn’t have been so weak.

Rather, she’d definitely absorbed the impact and retaliated, not lying here looking helpless.

Siwoo noticed that the wounds all over her body weren’t ordinary wounds.

Even for a witch, they were life-threatening wounds if they weren’t treated well.

Still, Eloa couldn’t risk Siwoo approaching a witch who was suspected of being an accomplice of a criminal.

Just as she was trying to piece together the situation…

A faint dome-shaped barrier began to spread over the area.

“This…”

-Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

As soon as the barrier encased the nighttime streets, five White Knights showed up.

The completely identical knights were each holding a long white spear.

They were the ones who had been chasing after the fleeing Della.

With their four eerie glowing eyes, they scanned Siwoo, Eloa and the fallen Della.

No words were being exchanged, well, they didn’t seem to communicate with each other to begin with.

But, despite their actions resembling those of basic artificial intelligence, they possessed a clear strategy to encircle their targets.

They moved, forming a formation that was suited for hunting.

While they lacked individuality, they had a solid sense of being a cohesive unit.

“Siwoo.”

After checking them out, Eloa turned to Siwoo.

During their training sessions, there was always one thing that never stopped bothering Eloa.

His lack of actual combat experience.

No matter how close their sparring sessions got to a real fight, there was always a difference when comparing it to the time when they fought for their own lives.

Since it didn’t seem like Della was on the verge of dying right away, and she could immediately step in if Siwoo found himself in danger…

“Why not give it a shot? I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Got it.”

Siwoo nodded before silently conjuring his shadow.

It wasn’t just fear and tension that bubbled up inside him when the White Knights showed up. There was a weird mix of excitement and curiosity too.

There was no doubt that he had grown after receiving countless beating from Eloa.

He had mastered how to enhance his body with mana, learned how to utilize Fa Jin, and practiced countless times to perfect his usage of the Myriad Weapons Mastery Covenant.

However, it was still impossible to tell how much exactly had he grown if he only used his spars with Eloa as a standard.

No matter how much he had improved, Eloa always held back in their spars.

It was like learning boxing from a world champion boxer who had won eight weight classes and sparring with him daily.

Like beating up street thugs while thinking, ‘Ah, I’ve gotten stronger’.

The last time Siwoo had faced a White Knight, it was on that rooftop and it took everything he had to barely take one of them down.

Even then, it was only possible after they crossed swords several times in one-on-one combat.

Now, how would things play out exactly?

After all the special training he received from Eloa, who was said to be the strongest witch when it came to close quarter combat, would things be different?

“Bloom.”

His shadow, previously gathering around him, rose up like black smoke and covered his body.

It formed a sleek and sharp armor.

There was a story about Cheonuimubong, a fairy’s clothes that were deemed as perfect without a single stitch.

Something out of reality, just like his armor.

There weren’t any weak spots or gaps in his armor.

It fit him like a second skin, allowing him to move freely while protecting him from impact effortlessly.

The entire armor was dark and it didn’t even reflect a hint of light,

With the helmet formed from the direction of his spine covering his face, the only light coming from him was the glint in his magical left eye, glowing a fierce hold.

As Siwoo reached out his hand, a heater shield that covered his upper body completely appeared in his left hand, while the longsword that he had been using extensively materialized in his right hand.

Despite his racing heart, his limbs grew cold.

Fear, anticipating the worst scenario possible, filled his heart, while a cold tension settled on his skin like frost.

After all, fighting wasn’t something he enjoyed.

If he could, he’d rather avoid it.

But then he recalled the day when Sharon’s body got punctured by the Drowned Witch.

The feeling of helplessness as he could do nothing but watch that terrible tragedy unfold.

Then he came to understand.

That those who succumbed to fear would only end up losing.

Throughout the past few months of training, Eloa always reiterated the same message.

Be afraid of battles.

Never see it as something enjoyable.

But, when it came down to it, never, ever back down.

And this was the time for him to learn how to face his fear and stand his ground.

He extended his sword forward, adopting the defensive stance that he had honed through countless beatings.

“Let’s do this.”

He murmured to himself.

Right at that moment, the five White Knights lunged forward in unison.