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1.

Eloa’s sword strike managed to cut through the 45 m thick hard rock and cement cleanly as if they were cakes.

Though, the fact that the foundation did not collapse and fall down on them meant that her cut had been precise, there was no leak of energy or mana occurred.

Light leaked down from the ceiling from the V-shaped crevice.

And below that majestic wall of light, Siwoo and the Red Knight were facing off against each other.

A 1.8 m tall man, clad in black armor, holding a sword in his hand.

Facing a 2.5 m tall monster, wearing its red armor with a red spear in its hand.

When it came to Homunculi, most of the time, one had to deal with a significant difference in size.

For example, the first Homunculus, the monster of shadow that Siwoo killed was about as big as an intercity bus, while the mother dog he faced later was as big as a small-size villa.

As for the monster in front of him, perhaps because it was in a form that was resembling a human…

Or because of the forty red eyes that were staring at him from under its helmet…

While there were only two heads difference between their heights, it felt like the monster in front of him was way bigger than all the previous ones he had faced.

“Siwoo, listen carefully.”

Interlocking in a war of nerves, the man and the monster were assessing each other’s weaknesses.

At that moment, Eloa started to point out the abilities of the monster in front of him.

“Since you’ve managed to land a surprise attack on him, it has grown significantly duller and slower than it should be, practically speaking, it’s already on its last legs. But, you still need to be very careful or else you’ll pay for it.”

“Understood. Can you tell me about the Red Branch?”

Siwoo walked slowly without taking his eyes off the Red Knight.

The creature also did the same, mirroring him wherever direction he took a step in.

A human and a monster slowly walking, creating a circle.

One could use an object to store some kind of magic within.

Those kinds of objects, the ones which were able to store the magic semi-permanently, were called artifacts.

But, when the magic that was embedded within an artifact went beyond simple magic, capable to support one’s self-essence magic or even exuding self-essence magic on its own, that artifact would be conferred with another name; Mystic Codes.

The reason why Red Knight was such a difficult opponent was precisely because of its Mystic Code, the Red Branch.

Classifying it roughly, it possessed three different abilities.

“The Red Branch is a tricky Mystic Code. It has a distortion field that acts as a shield to block any incoming magic and force that comes towards its wielder. When the magic or force hit the spear itself, it would distort it and reflect it towards the source.

“You should be able to endure it the first or the second time it happens, but the damage will accumulate quickly, so don’t even think of dragging the battle out.”

No matter how great the magic was, there was still a cost to pay for casting it.

The Red Knight wasn’t the only thing that was spent, the Red Branch too.

It was clearly evident by how it was unable to regenerate the fallen White Knights like it used to.

“Aside from that, it could also let out a barrier that allows it to distort its own trajectory. While its speed isn’t something worth noting, it’s still extremely powerful, so keep your eyes on the tip of the spear.”

“Understood.”

“That’s everything. Now you only need to trust yourself. Are you ready?”

Siwoo pondered over Eloa’s words for a moment before nodding.

Meanwhile, Eloa was also wondering if she had made the right choice as she stared at his back.

Siwoo already got the gist of the situation.

The Red Knight and the army of White Knights were the Cowardly Witch’s greatest fighting power.

That was why Eloa gave it her all to completely obliterate the latter and severely weakened the former.

If they were to run away now, both the Cowardly Witch and the Red Knight would go into hiding again.

Despite them looking for her workshop for months, Sua and Eloa still failed to find it.

The fact that they managed to find it in the first place was thanks to Della, who successfully escaped from her captivity.

If they were to let Xochitl and the Red Knight go, there was an extremely high chance that they would never find those two again due to how good they were at running away and hiding.

Given enough time, both of them would regain their strength back again and probably bring a greater disaster upon this world.

There was no way someone as meticulous as the Cowardly Witch wouldn’t have a Plan B just in case her current plan went awry. With her status as a Criminal Exile, she wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice even more innocent people just to fulfill whatever her goal was.

Still, despite all this, Eloa was still trying to look for another way.

Because, no matter how much she believed in Siwoo, it still hurt her to see him fighting by himself while she could only sit in place doing nothing.

But, her contemplation didn’t last long.

Because the Red Knight, which had been glaring at him all this while, made a move first.

-Tang!

Its speed was significantly slower than when it was at its full power.

But that didn’t mean it was slow.

Siwoo was only able to capture its blurred figure when it was right in front of him.

-Bang!

He swung his sword to defend himself, blocking the Red Branch’s advance.

So, the sword of shadow collided with the red spear that came from an angle.

And…

“Ugh—!”

Why did Eloa tell him not to confront the Red Branch directly? Siwoo was experiencing the reason firsthand.

He was just blocking its attack, not even trying to swat it away or anything, but his stomach felt like it was being turned upside down.

The impact that the distortion field redirected was transmitted from the tip of his blade down to his armor, making it ripple as if it was made of fluid.

Thanks to the distortion and the impact he received, his form was disrupted.

Siwoo was only able to stabilize his armor and prevented it from shattering when the Red Knight launched another attack at him.

It whirled the spear in its hand like a windmill before slamming it down toward him, who still hadn’t been able to correct his stance.

A blow being carried by the momentum of centrifugal force, paired with the red barrier that extended like the root of a tree to add to its range.

Siwoo couldn’t do anything against it but to pull back.

-Bang!

The blade of the spear grazed his helmet, shattering it like it was a cookie.

While the barrier that extended from it cleanly hit his chest.

“Urrgh!”

“Siwoo!”

Even if the barrier’s extending speed was so slow and there was barely any magic power behind it, it was still something that couldn’t be taken lightly.

Because the barrier still served its purpose, to distort Siwoo’s own ‘existence’.

For a spirit body, an amalgamation of mana, spirit and physical body, this ‘distortion’ was akin to poison.

If the Red Knight was in full power, that would be it.

Siwoo would have died right there and then.

In fact, if it wasn’t because of the Guardian’s Covenant trying to restore his distorted existence, he would have died right there.

As soon as his blurry consciousness became clear again, he raised his sword again.

“What kind of monster…”

It wasn’t like he was approaching this fight recklessly, he knew that this wouldn’t be an easy fight.

In fact, his left eye had been warning him about how strong the enemy in front of him was.

At that moment, the red spear slid from the Red Knight’s hand.

Holding the other end of the spear, the creature swung it towards the ground, as if trying to split it into two.

Once again, Siwoo retreated.

Just like last time, a barrier that extended like roots came out of the tip of the spear, rushing towards his direction.

This was the biggest problem he had to face at the moment.

The Red Knight was strong, but it really was severely weakened.

There were gaps and openings for him to exploit freely as its stance looked both unstable and unbalanced.

If he could close the distance between them and launch his attack, it would be possible for him to end it right there and then.

But the existence of this barrier prevented him from doing that, covering all the openings that it made as it was moving around.

He couldn’t exploit any of the gaps at all.

And from the clash just now, the barrier wasn’t something that he could just ignore either.

In terms of pure physical strength, the Red Knight was stronger than him by a mile.

While he didn’t know about this for sure, the fact that he was on his wit’s end because he couldn’t steal back the initiative heavily implied that he was completely outskilled.

Since that was the case, could he even win? Was there still something he could use to win from this position?

Yes, there was. Magic.

Ultimately, the Red Branch utilized magic to perform its tricks.

Which meant, the reason why the monster was so difficult to deal with was because of magic.

So, what exactly would happen if he just read the flow of its magic and dispel it?

“Bloom!”

While retreating from the Red Knight’s onslaught, as it was trying to prevent him from catching his breath, Siwoo amplified his mana.

Shadow particles, pitch-black in color, enveloped his body all at once, blurring his traces.

Those particles came from his amplified mana and he used them as a smokescreen.

“Krrr!”

Seeing the newly manifested shadow, the Red Knight stopped its onslaught, hesitating.

But, as soon as it realized that the shadow was just something that was made of small particles, it immediately utilized its distortion field.

As long as the shadow hadn’t turned into something solid, this distortion field was a perfect counter for it.

And just as it had thought, the smokescreen made of shadow immediately dissipated as soon as it touched the distortion field it deployed, as if it was being erased by an eraser.

-Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

But, at that moment, like a guided missile splitting through thick cumulonimbus, four strands of ribbons with sharp twists at their end came out.

Since the Red Knight’s vision was narrowed to the radius of 3 m, this seemed like a surprise attack to it.

Nevertheless, it was still able to fend off the attack as it brandished its spear.

As this was happening, Siwoo was watching from the shadows.

The reason why he deployed his shadow as a smokescreen wasn’t so that he could run away.

He was using it to test out the capabilities of the distortion field.

Utilizing his left eye, he carefully observed the series of actions that the Red Branch performed.

Just from that, he managed to obtain some crucial information.

He managed to figure out how much of an overpowered item the Red Branch was.

In close proximity, it would transfer the wave of distortion that it had towards the enemy that it touched, using it to damage them from their insides. Meanwhile, against long-ranged magic attacks, it would deploy its distortion field like a veil and distort the composition of the upcoming magic.

To speak in game terms, it was like one of those broken items the devs made so that the players could cheese through impossible-to-beat bosses.

Both close-ranged and long-ranged attacks couldn’t get past it, so how could he win against it?

But, through his observation just now, he managed to discover one other thing.

The characteristics of the distortion field.

Usually, the field was sitting idly around the Red Branch like a shrunken balloon.

Using the same analogy, the monster could inflate the field like a balloon to widen its area of effect. But the catch here was that as it got more inflated, it became less concentrated as well, and the strength of its distortion effect grew weaker.

Which meant, if Siwoo were to forcefully widen the field by using his shadows, then, he could get in closer and engage the monster in close-range combat since the feedback of the distortion would become significantly more tolerable to him.

To prove this theory, before the Red Knight could pull the distortion field back, he immediately rushed in and closed the gap.

The shadows that were still up in the air were suddenly being dispersed by a gust of wind and following that, Siwoo’s sharp sword strike fell down.

-Bang!

Although the surprise attack was carried out perfectly from a place that the Red Knight didn’t expect, the monster still managed to block it.

It raised the Red Branch and swung it diagonally to block his sword strike.

Clenching his teeth, Siwoo prepared himself for the pain that was about to come.

-Clang!

But, the Red Branch only bounced, leaving out a few sparks, the pain he received wasn’t great either.

At most, it made him feel nauseous, as if he was struck by seasickness.

Still, this wasn’t enough.

The field was only one thing, he still had to deal with the barrier. Before that task was done, he would never be able to beat this monster for good.

“Bloom!”

Once again, he hid in the shadows and amplified his magic four times.

His left eye stung due to all the amplifications, but he still proceeded to turn all the amplified mana into shadows.

The scenery soon turned into something that you’d find when a big fire had risen, dense black smoke filled the air.

“KouzaK——!”

At a glance, it seemed like the Red Knight was showing its annoyance with that yell as it brandished its spear again.

Following that, it used the distortion field to push the smokescreen made of shadow without much difficulty.

In truth, the shadow that Siwoo deployed didn’t really possess any particular effects.

Unless the shadow was sticking close to his body, it was hard to give them any kind of substance. The ribbons were exceptions to this, but he could only control four of them at once.

At best, the shadow could cover his enemies’ eyesight a little and hindered their magic.

Would this be enough to beat the enemy in front of him?

The question made him second-doubt himself.

And the answer was, of course not.

But, this wasn’t the end of his /genesisforsaken