Chapter: 336
“What on earth…?”
I couldn’t help but mutter this out loud, dazed.
Just moments ago, Yoon Si-woo and Beatrice had been fighting at the flat basin on the peak of the rocky mountain.
But now, that place had completely vanished in the blink of an eye.
Like something had eaten it, the once towering peak had been roundly hollowed out, presenting a sight that would leave anyone who saw it speechless.
As I stared blankly at the now-empty space where the peak had been, it belatedly dawned on me.
Yoon Si-woo, who should have been there, had disappeared along with the peak.
“Y-Yoon Si-woo…!”
I shouted his name as if I were screaming, hastily flying on Ari as I scanned the surroundings.
“…Over here, Scarlet.”
“…! Ari, that way!”
Thankfully, amidst my frantic scanning, I heard Yoon Si-woo’s voice.
He was standing on the mountainside, a good distance below where the peak once was, with his sword planted in the ground.
I directed Ari, flying straight to Yoon Si-woo, and upon confirming that he was safe, I let out a sigh of relief.
“Hah, you’re safe… thank goodness…”
“Yeah. It’s a relief, but it seems like we’ve gotten into a bit of trouble…”
But my relief was short-lived as Yoon Si-woo’s response made my expression harden.
I could clearly sense the tension in his voice.
“It seems that wasn’t his full strength until now. The regeneration speed of his barrier has increased significantly. If I hadn’t been careful, I could have been caught up in it.”
Yoon Si-woo murmured, staring sharply up the mountain.
At that moment, a voice resonated from the direction he was looking.
“Hehe, you’re right. This is the first time in my life I’m showing my full power.”
It was undoubtedly Beatrice’s voice, the one responsible for obliterating the mountain peak.
I turned my gaze in the direction of the voice, following where Yoon Si-woo was looking.
“My ability to erase what I touch expands in a spherical shape around my body. But it can’t work like that. If I erase everything I touch in such a way, I’d erase even the ground under my feet and end up crashing down into the ground, which isn’t exactly my favorite place.”
I could see Yoon Si-woo’s eyes widen in realization.
“So normally, I’m careful to ensure that my ability doesn’t activate downwards; I’ve always used it that way, even if it takes more time to be careful every time I use it.”
Smiling, Beatrice walked slowly toward Yoon Si-woo.
“But doing that meant I couldn’t win against you. You kept getting closer while I was focused on my timing. So I decided to just unleash my full power without worrying about the ground I was standing on, but if I had known it would turn out this way, I should have tried it once beforehand.”
Yoon Si-woo and I could only swallow hard as we watched Beatrice approach.
“My ability isn’t just about erasing what I touch; it also rejects interference—”
She was coming closer.
“Even the interference of gravity—if I reject it like this, it becomes irrelevant.”
She was walking on empty air.
“Can you tone it down a bit, you filthy witch?”
I muttered nearly in tears at the sight.
I already knew that a witch’s abilities were not bound by physical laws.
Lucy’s ability to cut everything.
The Witch of Gluttony’s absolute recovery ability.
The ability of Beatrice to erase what she touches.
But don’t these things have a visual impact?
When a person witnesses phenomena or existences they cannot comprehend, they tend to feel fear toward them.
When that fear exceeds a certain level, it turns into a feeling of awe.
And there, above our heads, on thin air, was Beatrice.
That was more than enough to evoke such feelings in me.
In that moment, Beatrice felt like an invincible monster, a deity that should never be opposed.
However, Yoon Si-woo, unfazed by that sight, raised his sword again to fight.
“Scarlet, stay back.”
“Yoon, Si-woo.”
I instinctively grabbed his wrist as he stepped forward to face Beatrice.
If only I could, I wanted to stop him from charging at the monster, the one defying a god.
My worries for Yoon Si-woo made it difficult for my hand to let go of his wrist.
But both he and I knew it.
This battle was unavoidable.
So instead of holding him back, I slowly released his wrist and made my request.
“…Promise me you’ll come back safely.”
“…I promise.”
Yoon Si-woo nodded at my plea, assuring me.
That was a more reassuring answer than anything else for me.
He was the type of guy who always kept his word.
Having promised to come back safely, I believed he would, and climbed onto Ari’s back to retreat from the battlefield.
As soon as I confirmed that I was at a distance, Yoon Si-woo immediately charged toward Beatrice.
“Hah!”
To reach the Beatrice floating in the sky, Yoon Si-woo leaped.
He dashed up the mountainside and reached the highest point of the rocky mountain in one go.
Leaping, he successfully slashed through Beatrice’s approaching barrier with a single stroke.
“Hehe, do you think you, a human, can reach me up here?”
But the sky was not a place for humans in the first place.
Yoon Si-woo succeeded in cutting through Beatrice’s barrier, but the backlash stole away his upward momentum as he jumped into the void.
Like Icarus whose wings melted in the sun, Yoon Si-woo slowly started descending.
I felt anger rising as I saw Beatrice sneering at him, as if mocking him for daring to challenge someone above.
But both Beatrice and I overlooked one crucial fact.
That was Yoon Si-woo was not a mere human.
I caught a faint whisper from him.
“Holy Sword, activate.”
At the same time, a brilliant flash erupted.
A dazzling golden light enveloped the sky.
The open Holy Sword of Gwanghui generated a golden swirl.
For a moment, Beatrice’s eyes widened at the sudden burst of light, but realizing it couldn’t penetrate her abilities, she chuckled and murmured.
“Hehe, such flashy tricks won’t work against me.”
But interrupting her was,
“I know.”
It was Yoon Si-woo, appearing behind Beatrice, swinging his sword.
“Ugh?!”
“Damn, was that shallow again?”
Beatrice’s hastily conjured barrier barely grazed Yoon Si-woo’s sword, leaving a mere scratch on her back.
Not satisfied with the outcome, Yoon Si-woo clicked his tongue as Beatrice countered with an attack.
Yoon Si-woo managed to deflect the attack.
But due to the recoil, instead of plummeting, Yoon Si-woo’s body shot upwards.
That was because he suddenly stepped on a sword that had appeared beneath him.
I realized that was Yoon Si-woo’s secret to reaching Beatrice.
Evidently lost among the abilities of the Holy Swords, Yoon Si-woo could summon and dismiss his swords at will.
Using that to summon a sword beneath him, he leaped into the air…
Was the Holy Sword merely a distraction?
As I watched Yoon Si-woo battling Beatrice, flying around in the air, I felt a dizzying sensation.
It might seem simple to say in words, but it was sheer madness.
It required transcendent abilities for instantaneous judgment and physical coordination while airborne.
What made that possible were undoubtedly the supports from those Holy Swords.
I observed Yoon Si-woo, engaged in combat with Beatrice.
Wearing pure white armor and wielding a pitch-black sword, two swords glimmered behind him.
When combined with Lucy, they transformed into protective armor that bolstered and shielded his body.
With the Undying Holy Sword, which elevated recovery to its limit at the cost of lifespan, and one that improved instincts as though foreseeing the future upon activation, the Indus Holy Sword, which I had never seen before.
Among the seven Holy Swords Yoon Si-woo possessed, I recognized six based on the original story, where their names and abilities were mentioned.
Taking a quick look, aside from the Holy Sword of Truth and Gwanghui that he was using as stepping stones, he seemed to activate all usable swords that would help him in combat.
The multi-activation of Holy Swords was something that hadn’t been possible even in the original story, so I wondered just how he’d reached that level.
It was truly an expression of all the power Yoon Si-woo could muster.
Perhaps because of that, Yoon Si-woo was engaging Beatrice in a fierce fight, almost neck and neck.
Or rather, to be honest.
Even in such a struggle, Yoon Si-woo was being pushed back.
“Ugh—!!”
“You’re pretty tenacious…”
Crashing against Beatrice’s barrier, Yoon Si-woo was sent flying far away.
Despite Yoon Si-woo pouring all his strength into slashing through her barriers one after the other to close the distance, Beatrice was similarly fighting all out.
The speed at which she reformed barriers was akin to the blink of an eye now that she was no longer concerned about the ground beneath her feet.
When the distance was greater, it took time for her barrier to expand outward, but as Yoon Si-woo got closer, he had to slice through the newly created barrier as soon as he attacked, making it difficult for him to get nearer.
To attack, he needed to close in, but the situation made it hard to do so.
Even amidst all this, Yoon Si-woo continued to fight fiercely, repeatedly pushing and being pushed back.
The rocky mountain where Yoon Si-woo and Beatrice battled had shrunk to the point that its original outline was almost unrecognizable, reduced nearly to rubble.
A battle with an opponent strong enough to reshape the terrain through combat.
To me, that battle looked as though a human was daring to challenge a god.
However, the longer Yoon Si-woo continued on…
“Gah…!”
I sensed the situation shifting.
“What the hell, this guy…”
“Ugh…! It’s getting faster!”
Yoon Si-woo’s frequency of being thrown back was decreasing.
He was spending more time fighting close to Beatrice.
The number of times his sword grazed against Beatrice’s body steadily increased.
Even in such an extraordinary battle, where it seemed nothing could surpass the madness of what was happening.
Yoon Si-woo was getting stronger.
He truly embodied the innate talent befitting a protagonist of a story.
If only he had time, he could reach the level of a god.
“Yoon Si-woo… you really…”
It is true. In the stories, it is always humans who slay gods and monsters.
And such humans are what we refer to as heroes, warriors.
These individuals are the ones who bring hope to the people.
As I gazed at my hero, I held that hope.
I harbored hope looking at Yoon Si-woo as he began to corner Beatrice.
And that hope was suddenly shattered.
“Cough…”
“…Huh?”
In the next moment, seeing Yoon Si-woo fall and cough up blood, everything came crashing down.
“Y-Yoon Si-woo…! Ari, over there!!”
I panicked and urged Ari, managing to catch Yoon Si-woo just before he slammed into the ground.
But it was clear to anyone that Yoon Si-woo’s condition was already critical.
“Why… suddenly, why…!”
I cried out desperately.
[It’s not sudden. You know the reason, don’t you?]
I heard Lucy’s voice.
“You already know the reason, don’t you?”
I could see the black energy starting to spread from Lucy’s grasp to Yoon Si-woo’s body.
I hurriedly tried to pull Lucy away from Yoon Si-woo, but the darkness that had already begun seeping into him wouldn’t erase.
“That, no way…”
[Indeed, it’s not too much to say. It’s reached its limit.]
I could only clamp my eyes shut at her grave tone.
A whimpering sound escaped my mouth.
“…Is he going to die?”
[If it continues like this.]
“Is there a way to save him…?”
[There’s not absolutely no way, but…]
“Can he be saved?!”
[There’s a possibility, but in this state, it would be impossible. That girl won’t just let him be.]
Just hearing about a chance to save him momentarily sparkled hope in me, and I looked ahead.
There, I saw Beatrice slowly descending toward us.
She looked like the grim reaper coming to deliver death to Yoon Si-woo.
Despair consumed me; I felt my hands tremble and my teeth grind against each other.
From above, Beatrice gazed down at me and mumbled as if pronouncing a verdict.
“I don’t know the details, but I guess the annoying one has fallen. So, Eva. I’ll send you along with him.”
The end.
If I just stayed calm, it would be over.
With Beatrice, both Yoon Si-woo and I would die, and it would end.
As that thought crossed my mind,
“No…”
I shook my head before I knew it.
“Even if it’s not me, Yoon Si-woo… at the very least, Yoon Si-woo must…”
It wasn’t that I had rid myself of my fear of Beatrice.
The thought of letting Yoon Si-woo die surpassed that fear.
But I couldn’t stop her with my own power.
I looked down.
There lay the one sword that could inflict a wound on Beatrice: the pitch-black sword.
“…Lucy, please.”
So I spoke toward that sword.
“Lend me your power.”
[Lend you my power? You’re thinking you could fight using my power?]
“…Otherwise, I can’t win against that girl.”
Lucy sounded incredulous at my words.
[Setting aside if it’s possible or not, do you really think I’d lend my power to you, who isn’t even my master?]
“…I think you will.”
[And why do you think that?]
“…Because you are Yoon Si-woo’s family.”
At my response, Lucy fell silent for a moment before speaking up.
[You’re quite the bold girl. I’m feeling a bit upset, so I won’t lend my power. However, if you’re willing to make a contract, I might consider it.]
At the mention of a contract, I replied to Lucy.
“Then let’s make a contract.”
[Child, what do you wish for?]
“I want to hit Beatrice. One good hit.”
[If I help you with that, what can you give me in return?]
I answered her question about the price.
“I’ll give that girl a good hit for making Yoon Si-woo like this.”
[Ahaha.]
Lucy laughed out loud.
[Well then, that’s certainly a price I can’t refuse. The contract is established. I shall lend you my power, so go ahead and give it a try if you can.]
Having made a contract with Lucy, I drew my sword to protect my fallen hero.
As I stood against the approaching goddess, I raised my sword.
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