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1.

Eloa gave up thinking about what would happen ‘next’.

Her fear of death was cut clean by the swing of her sword.

The only thing that she was thinking about was how to come out of this fight victorious.

Once she managed to get rid of all the distracting thoughts, both her mind and body became one with her sword.

She unleashed her mana freely, moving around with the sword in her hand, as if she was dancing.

The White Knights that were supposed to be tricky to deal with were cut into half and collapsed like mere tin cans.

Meanwhile, their white spears swayed like bamboo being struck by a storm.

-Woooong!

At that moment, a red spear crawled in, accompanied by a ghastly sound.

Even until this point, the Red Knight was still so cautious.

It refused to engage with Eloa in one-on-one battle.

Using the meat-grinder tactic, it deployed waves of White Knights, one after another, only launching its own attacks when Eloa showed a gap in her movements.

-Bang, bang, bang!

Even in that kind of commotion, where the echoing sounds had turned into shockwaves, Eloa could still sense the presence of the red spear aiming towards her back.

This was thanks to her ‘Omniscience’, the covenant that allowed her to perceive everything in the radius of 30 m from her, letting her detect any attacks even if they came from her blindspot.

“Ha!’

Eloa quickly dodged the spear thrust by rolling her body on the ground that had been smashed like cookies.

Facing the Red Branch directly would be a foolish move.

That was why she went as far as doing such an unsightly move just to dodge it.

After avoiding the Red Branch’s barrier, she twisted her body and leaped toward the Red Knight’s direction.

While Red Branch was the thing that kept bringing those White Knights back to life…

The battle still wouldn’t end unless she dispatched the Red Knights.

However…

-Clank, clank, clank!

Before she could land a hit, the Red Knight retreated promptly.

Then, hundreds of White Knight blocked her path, acting as if they were some sort of wall.

Unable to feel any emotion, they were more than ready to risk their lives for their commander.

Though she could conjure up a storm by utilizing both her physical strength and swordsmanship at once, she still couldn’t break through the Phalanx Formation that they deployed.

With that, the Red Knight managed to disengage safely.

Maybe it’d only come in again when she started to show signs of exhaustion and gave out a big enough opening for it to slit her throat.

“Huff…huff…”

At this point, her breaths felt like they only came down to her chin.

They were so erratic that the tip of her tongue felt like it was made out of metal.

Time was running out.

She needed to end this quickly.

Putting all the remaining mana and strength she had into a single strike…

-Crack!

Her two feet stepped on the ground, steadfast, like the root of a tree.

She wielded her sword at an angle.

From the distance, she could see her enemy’s eyes, curved, as if eerily laughing.

-Woooong!

Magical pressure was pressing on her from all sides.

White veins spouted on the back of her hand, accompanied by sparks of pink mana.

“Jazak—!”

As if they sensed a bad omen, the White Knights rushed at her direction all at once, following the order of their commander.

They completely disregarded their lives, using their bodies as shields to protect the Red Knight.

All to block her next attack.

Meanwhile, Eloa was focusing her strength on a single point to an extreme level.

As the body, mind, and the sword became one.

Even a simple slash would cut the heavens.

She raised her sword silently as all the distracting thoughts disappeared.

Her death, life and even the boundaries between them rested solely on the tip of her sword, that wasn’t any wider than the strand of her hair.

Heaven and earth trembled.

The sword drew a clear line, as if cutting through the space itself, emitting much more powerful mana than she had ever emitted in this battle.

All the White Knights that were caught in its trajectory disintegrated, as if they were struck by a nuclear bomb.

The outpour of concentrated mana exploded, creating a blinding flash of light.

And the moment the sword was raised above her head…

————!!!

The sky became visible from where they were.

From this space, 45 m underground.

The thick walls, cements, foundation, everything that stood in her way were demolished, replaced by a hundred meters long crevice.

Then, the sword that she had poured all her life into finally fell down upon her enemies.

————-!!

Following a roar that was as loud as a bomb, it collided with the Red Branch.

A semi-circular distortion field spread at the same time, alongside a barrier that extended like the veins of a leaf.

The Red Knight’s body, which had been leisurely handling Eloa up until now, started trembling violently.

Even if the Red Branch’s distortion could disperse the impact, even if the mana was dispersed by the barrier…

Faced with this much power, it couldn’t help but be pushed back.

The distortion field was unlike a physical barrier.

It was an impenetrable shield that would distort the ‘force’ that it received by manipulating the direction of the force itself, rendering all kinds of force useless against it.

Even Eloa’s strikes wouldn’t be able to penetrate through this barrier.

-Bang!

Or so it thought…

As soon as her strike collided with the distortion field that was spread forward like a shield, the field began to break apart.

This strike of hers came from her concentrating all her power in a single strike, to the level that it broke the limit of common sense. To put it simply, the field wasn’t able to handle this much force at once.

-Crack!

Though, by the time the strike reached Red Knight’s defenseless body, it already lost most of its force.

It was a clear hit.

The Red Knight’s bright red breastplate was now dented heavily, as if it was struck by a hammer.

But…

That was it.

The Red Branch also seemed to have exhausted its ability to restore the White Knights.

If it didn’t, all those White Knights that she cut down with her previous strike would have been restored already.

Seeing the way it staggered, the Red Knight which had received the full blow from her also didn’t seem to be in a good shape anymore.

If only she could attempt to swing her sword like that once more, the Goddess of Victory would have been smiling at her at this moment.

“Krrrr…”

Unfortunately, the Red Knight still had the strength to stand.

Instead of falling down, it stared at her with a gaze filled with hostility.

“Haa…”

Meanwhile, Eloa had completely exhausted her mana.

Her covenants had already been fulfilled, it was hard enough for her to just stand, let alone move. The stress on her muscles and bones were too great.

-Clank!

At that moment, the Red Knight moved.

Its gait was clearly not normal.

The way it moved her limbs was so unnatural, as if it had just been struck by a high voltage current.

“Kra ra ra ra”

Nevertheless, it marched toward her, with a smile full of joy.

Despite it being a monster, it showed such a human-like expression, giving off an unsettling feeling.

It stood on the remains of the White Knights that it could no longer revive, facing her directly.

-Thud!

“Uhk—!”

Then, it swung the Red Branch towards her abdomen.

The 3 m spear was being swung by a 2.5 m giant.

Being struck by the dull side of the spear, Eloa flew a few dozen meters in the air before crashing onto a wall behind her.

It wasn’t a fatal blow.

As evidence, Eloa was still struggling to stand while holding her stomach.

She resolved herself, even if she had to fall here, she wouldn’t want to die an unsightly death.

-Clank, clank, clank!

The Red Knight walked toward her again.

-Slap!

It swung its gauntlet towards Eloa’s cheek, who was barely able to stand up.

As her skin made a loud sound when it met the hard metal, she was blown away again for several meters.

She could feel the blood vessel inside her mouth burst open and her skull cracked.

From this second strike, she could tell what exactly the creature’s goal was.

To torture the enemy that had been tormenting him for years.

It was so human-like for a mere monster to do something like this, but considering what it had done up until this point, it wasn’t something surprising to her anymore.

Eloa stood up again, trying to lift her sword, but she realized that she couldn’t.

There wasn’t even an ounce of strength left in her arms.

Which meant the only thing she could do now was to brace herself to the future of her being tossed around like a ragdoll, violated, and eventually die by its hands.

“Krrr.”

At this point, Eloa’s hair had turned messy, covering her face.

She saw the Red Knight’s looming shadow over her again.

The moment the monster raised its shoulders high to strike her again, it happened.

A black, fluttering particle, like a cloak, came between her and the monster.

Black sword, as black as the armor of the person who wielded it, entered her sight.

It was a familiar back to her.

“Do it in moderation, you bitch.”

Spouting those words with a voice filled with anger, was Siwoo.

As soon as he finished saying that, he sent a forceful strike towards the monster.

-Crack!

The sword of shadow, swung exactly the way Eloa had taught him, struck the monster’s helmet cleanly.

With a cracking sound, the Red Knight’s body was flung away,

Of course if it still had its full power, there was no way that Siwoo could even get closer to it in the first place.

No matter how strong he had grown, there was such a clear difference between their strength that he could never make it up with any kind of skills or techniques.

Nevertheless, his attack connected and the Red Knight was flung away, which meant that it had been weakened significantly.

Just like Eloa, who had unleashed her full power, the monster had also done the same.

Siwoo looked back towards Eloa and asked.

“Master, are you okay?”

For a moment there, she only blankly stared at him before everything clicked on her mind.

Just before this, she had accepted her death gracefully, so she thought that she was dreaming.

But, when she saw him, she immediately regained her clarity.

“W-What are you doing here? I-I thought you had run away a while ago?”

“Sorry for being a disobedient disciple. I knew I should have run away.”

The range of the distorted space was wider than any of them thought.

Siwoo had to run around for 10 km before he could finally find where Eloa was.

After that, the first thing he saw was the sight of the enemy beating his Master up one-sidedly, so, there was no way that he’d thought to escape right there and then.

Thinking that she became weaker in the face of death…

Eloa forgot about the situation she was in and screamed out in tears.

“This isn’t the time! Hurry up and run away!”

She grabbed his wrist and tried to urge him to go, but he only stared at her with a resolute gaze.

He came here with a goal and it didn’t seem like he’d go away before that goal was fulfilled.

“Master, that thing isn’t in perfect condition, didn’t you notice?”

After receiving an attack from him, the Red Knight stood up slowly.

A long gash remained on the part of its helmet that he struck with his sword.

Normally, this kind of attack wouldn’t get past its distortion field, but somehow, Siwoo managed to get a clean hit in.

In a way, this was the perfect opportunity.

If only Eloa had some mana left in her, her victory was pretty much decided already.

“Master, you should take back the covenant you gave me. That will be our best bet to win.”

Eloa recognized what he meant by those words.

She had killed all the White Knights and the Red Knight was significantly weakened.

If she could fight again, they could turn this into a two-on-one battle.

There wasn’t any guarantee that they’d be able to get this golden opportunity ever again if they were to run away now.

Because the Cowardly Witch would definitely come up with a new countermeasure.

He was suggesting that they both take on the creature together.

But Eloa shook her head.

“I can’t do that, I have no more strength left.”

Even if she were to take the covenant back, it wasn’t like she could immediately reuse it again. Besides, the covenant wasn’t really a combat-oriented covenant.

And above all, her body had already turned into a mess because of her other covenants.

“Then, I’d have to take it down by myself. Is it even possible?”

Eloa’s heart was torn in two.

Though he managed to hit it because of a surprise attack, the fact that he could attempt a surprise attack to begin with was enough proof that it was already severely weakened.

This was, without a doubt, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that would never come by again no matter how long they waited.

He believed in his talent.

It would be a rational decision to let him go and give it a shot.

But, to make him risk his life for a ‘maybe we could win’ situation?

If something goes wrong and he…

Eloa, who was about to express her concern, looked at Siwoo’s eyes.

Those aren’t the eyes of a hero who knows no fear and possesses absolute confidence…

Self-doubt, fear, anxiety…

Those are the eyes of someone who has the courage to take a step forward…

Maybe, I underestimated him too much. He isn’t someone I need to be so overprotective about.

What if I think of him not as my ‘disciple’ but as a ‘colleague’? Would my opinion change?

Slowly pondering her thoughts, she closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again.

“It might be worth a try.”

As soon as he heard her words, Siwoo lifted his sword without any hesitation.

“Alright, let’s do it /genesisforsaken