City of Witches
chapter-266

1.

Even after they walked for 1 km, Eloa never gave Siwoo a chance to fight.

It wasn’t like he didn’t have the chance to either. Unlike the first time when there were more than thirty White Knights rushing at once, they had only been coming at around eight to ten Knights at a time.

“Stay back.”

The reason for this was because, despite her allowing him to participate, her heart was still heavy about it.

She didn’t want him to receive an irrecoverable injury because of a single lapse in judgment from her.

So, she decided to not let him join in the fight until he really had to.

“Ha!”

This was already the tenth group that they were facing.

After cutting down nine White Knights at once, Eloa caught her breath again.

Unlike the first fight, she didn’t need to use her mana grandiosely.

Just as the Cowardly Witch sent all these Knights to gauge her strength, she had also been gauging the Knights’ strength.

The Red Knight was one thing, but these White Knights couldn’t even be considered as her enemy due to the massive gap between their power.

So, all she needed to do was just use her energy as efficiently as possible while dealing with each group that came rushing in.

“Something’s strange.”

“What is?”

Eloa muttered, which prompted Siwoo to ask.

“I expected her to immediately send the Red Knight along with the White Knights all at once, or maybe try to exhaust my mana by keep sending the White Knights on our way, but she did neither. Even someone who is barely competent in strategy knows that those two are the most efficient moves, but why did she…?”

From the very beginning, they hadn’t encountered any major obstacles at all.

In fact, Eloa had already killed 150 White Knights effortlessly.

That was already more than 10% of the Cowardly Witch’s total forces.

Their progression had been so smooth that she couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“Maybe she sent most of her forces outside? You know, to deal with the barrier and all.”

“That shouldn’t be the case. This place is the center of her plan, she has to protect it at all costs.”

It was unthinkable for her to just ignore the Witch Point’s strongest fighting force when they were already so deep inside her territory just to deal with the barrier outside.

That would be no different from going all in at a poker table with a bad hand.

Eloa tapped the blade of her Sword of Covenant with her fingers before muttering…

“We’ve come this far, so there’s no way that the Cowardly Witch failed to notice us. And there’s no way that she thought those White Knights she sent would be enough to stop us.”

She could dismiss it as her trying to probe their fighting power, but they had already way past that point, since both sides had gathered plenty of data on each other.

At the very least, she should have figured out that she wouldn’t be able to stop Eloa unless she acted more aggressively and sent out the Red Knight or a Homunculus on its level.

There was also the possibility that the other two witches were doing exceptionally well to take her attention away, but…

“Why did she keep throwing away her forces senselessly like this…? I can’t think of anything other than she’s trying to buy time…”

“Maybe that’s exactly what she’s trying to do.”

Siwoo, who had been standing still behind her, said that while Eloa wiped the sweat off her forehead.

“Do you have something in mind?”

“Well, no one knows what’s the use of the ‘Altar’. There is a chance that if she completes it, she could use it to completely overturn the situation. That should be enough of a reason for her to stall us here.”

“Makes sense.”

As soon as Eloa’s words dropped, a familiar deafening sound reverberated through the tunnel once again.

-Ooo—ooo—ooooo—

As its distance got closer and closer to them, it also got louder and louder.

Hearing the unpleasant noise that was more annoying than the sound of someone scratching their nails on the blackboard, the pair let out a frown.

“I’m sick of hearing that.”

“Same.”

And Della had to deal with this kind of noise for months? How could she even stay sane after all that?

Siwoo couldn’t help but praise her mental fortitude.

If it was him, he’d have gone mad on the third day.

“Let’s hurry. Also, like I’ve said multiple times, if it gets too dangerous, just prepare to retreat. I’ll buy you time.”

“Got it.”

-Oooo—-!

When the noise suddenly stopped, they couldn’t see any White Knights rushing toward them.

This halted the pair’s footsteps as they stayed still, feeling incredibly uneasy.

The scream that had been dragging on for a long time was suddenly cut off in the middle like a cassette tape being cut.

When it was still there, the unpleasant noise left them wondering when it would end.

But, when it finally stopped, they wished that it could start once again.

Because this meant that something had changed.

The place where the pair stopped was a crossroads where five tunnels converged.

To get to the altar, they’d need to take the second tunnel from the right.

“Get ready.”

Eloa raised her Sword of Covenant again.

Now, she was expecting a full-scale attack from the Cowardly Witch.

To take advantage of the massive difference in number, first, one would need a big enough space.

The crossroad where they were at was the perfect place for it.

She didn’t know what exactly to expect, but what she knew was that whatever it was that the Cowardly Witch threw at them, they needed to take care of it quickly.

“Don’t hold back, use your full strength.”

“Understood, Master.”

“Also, be careful.”

“No need to worry about me, I won’t hold you back at least.”

-Clank!

Unlike before when few White Knights came out at once, this time the metallic sound came from all directions.

The sound went on and on.

Even Siwoo could tell that there were more than a hundred of them there and they were in for a tough battle.

“Alright.”

Since she had sent out this many forces all at once, it was safe to say that the Cowardly Witch thought that she had the total advantage here.

But Eloa still looked calm.

So far, this was the greatest danger they had to face ever since they entered the waterway tunnel, but it actually wasn’t all that bad.

In fact, the White Knights were actually tougher than Eloa had expected.

To explain the situation, Eloa’s self-essence magic and fighting style was like a sports car with amazing horsepower and terrible fuel consumption rate.

If the Cowardly Witch kept on sending 50-100 White Knights per batch, she’d be in deep trouble.

Her mana would run out midway and she’d end up dying helplessly, most likely.

That was why this situation, where a bunch of them coming at once while not being accompanied by the Red Knight, was a good situation for her since she’d end up saving more mana.

The only problem was that, with only six covenants, she would have a great trouble dealing with those guys.

“Hereby, I declare a covenant.”

So, she added two more.

The seventh covenant, to use a quarter of her magic and convert it to pure power.

This was to make up for her lack of power against the horde of White Knights.

Their number was comparable to half of an entire army.

She figured that she’d need a quarter of her mana to deal with them all, so she used it as an exchange for her covenant.

The eight contract, to grant herself ‘omniscience’ within a 30 m range.

With this, even when she was surrounded by countless enemies like this, she wouldn’t have any blindspot for them to use against her.

This would immensely help her in this one-against-many situation and this would allow her to know if Siwoo ever got into danger.

The White Knights rushed toward them all at once, to the point that the wide space felt especially cramped.

Wielding her Sword of Covenant, Eloa faced them directly without fear.

-Bang! Clank! Boom!

Just like a wolf jumping into a flock of sheep, radiating sword aura in all directions, she pounced on them, leaving pink-colored after-images everywhere as she did so.

Every time she swung her sword, the White Knights were cut.

Just the swing of her legs could split them in half.

When they got too close to her, she’d tackle them with her shoulder or just elbow them to their demise.

The White Knights who could effortlessly tear up ordinary witches to shreds turned into nothing more than tin cans when facing her onslaught.

Their compatibility didn’t favor the White Knights well.

Red Branch’s force field that could help its wielder to interfere and defend against magic attacks didn’t affect Eloa much..

Because her covenant directly enhanced her physical strengths.

When the magic was permeated into her bones and muscles, there was barely anything that the force field could do.

Of course there was the basic protection of the force field as well, so she still needed to deploy more strength than usual to break through it.

Eloa took down four White Knights at the same time before glancing over to look at Siwoo’s condition.

No matter how strong she was, when facing this number, she couldn’t help but let a few of them slip past her.

Around seven or eight knights ran past her towards Siwoo, avoiding her barrage of attacks.

Seeing this scene, she immediately felt anxious and worried for him, but soon enough those feelings were eased by a lot.

“Ha!”

Siwoo swung his sword, as if he was spinning in place.

Unlike Eloa, who had superior techniques and control of her power, his onslaught wasn’t as explosive as hers.

Nevertheless, he was still able to face the White Knights who came to face him calmly.

Enlightenment was something that was hard to come by, but once it came, it wouldn’t disappear from one’s mind in a short period of time.

Just like last time, his swordsmanship was still beautiful and the fluttering ribbons that sharply cut through the space only added to its beauty.

It was a sophisticated swordsmanship.

Refined.

And of course, beautiful.

Though there were more White Knights that he had to face this time, he was still able to deal with them by prioritizing to reduce their numbers first.

-Clang!

He tried to imitate Eloa’s moves, albeit his was way more clumsy.

Though, it was proven to be effective as it produced more accurate and powerful blows than normal, letting him cut the White Knight in half in a single swing.

This was the result of his training all this time, combine that with the Myriad Weapon Mastery Covenant that he possessed, it let him thrive through the battlefield.

He had grown considerably stronger than when he first started.

Now he barely had any trouble dispatching more than one of them at once.

Blood rushed through his veins as he felt the sense of unity in his body. It was as if every part of his muscle could move to obey him right now. As if his whole body had become one with the sword.

He slashed the White Knight from the top of its head down to its crotch, holding back a laughter that was threatening to escape his lips.

“Haah… Phew…”

It was a completely one-sided battle.

Siwoo took a deep breath.

Eloa too, after wiping the sweat off her brow and tied her disheveled hair back together.

A total of 598 White Knights were annihilated by her hands while Siwoo took on 22 of them that slipped past her.

Of course, in the general scheme of things, Siwoo’s contribution was way lower than hers, but this battle had proven that he had become way stronger than before.

“Did you get any injuries somewhere?”

“No, what about you, Master?”

“Of course not. These fools can never touch my hair.”

Eloa’s expression became more relaxed after that exchange, while Siwoo was smiling at her joyfully and pridefully.

She began to think that maybe she was being too paranoid.

After all, there was a chance that the Cowardly Witch was just too flustered by their unexpected attack to the point that she failed to put up a proper response.

Though the real enemy hadn’t appeared yet, she started to have that kind of optimistic thought.

At that moment…

-Bang!

A loud noise echoed.

Not long after the pair turned their gaze to the pile of metal that used to be an army of White Knights…

-Bang!

A sound, resembling a metal plate being struck, echoed from the distance.

This time, it was accompanied by tremors, just like an earthquake.

As the cause of the phenomenon was still unknown, Eloa cautiously grabbed her Sword of Covenant, while Siwoo turned his gaze toward the tunnel where the sound originated from.

-Clank, clank, clank!

Not long after, the sound of heavy, bloody footsteps followed.

Then, it appeared. Right in front of them, in the crossroad, under the decorative lights, a knight with a size larger than the White Knights, clad in bright red armor, close to that of the color of blood.

“The Red Knight…”

It exuded a completely different atmosphere than the White Knights.

Even though the only difference it had from them was its color and it was a little bigger, Siwoo’s instincts were screaming at him to run away.

This guy is on a different level.

Eloa noticed that it had grown half a meter taller than back when they last met, now it stood at 2.5 m tall.

In its right hand was a long red spear, perhaps around 2 m long, the Red Branch.

After absorbing all the sacrifices, concluding the ritual on the altar, both the Red Knight and the Red Branch was painted in a much darker crimson color.

“...!”

“...!”

Siwoo, who was nervously staring at the foe in front of him, and Eloa, who was preparing to brandish her sword, drew in their breath at the same time.

Because they noticed something in the creature’s hand.

It was holding two witches in its hand, grabbing them by the hair, dangling them around in the air.

The Witch of Harvest, Evelynn, the one who flirted with Siwoo without a care before coming here.

There were no traces of her lower body left and her internal organs were dangling from the remaining part of her upper body.

Part of her bright red flesh was covered in dust. It was safe to say that the Red Knight had been dragging her around for a while now.

The Witch of Glass, Patricia, with her white hair and pretty gray eyes.

Her expression froze, perhaps there was a tinge of fear and astonishment in there.

Nothing was certain about what kind of expression she was making because only half of her head remained.

Needless to say, both of them had already died.

-Krrk, krrrrrk

This sight made the pair completely speechless.

Ignoring their reaction completely, a sound that was similar to scraping metal flowed through the Red Knight’s helmet.

Humans and Homunculi were different kinds of being, both had completely different body structures.

By extension, the language they used wasn't the same.

But, even if the pair couldn’t understand what the creature was trying to say.

Even when there wasn’t a single sentence being exchanged between them and the monster.

They knew. What kind of emotion that it was trying to express under that unpleasant sound.

Joy.

The joy of facing up against the adversary that had pushed it to the brink of death over and over again after becoming incomparably stronger than before.

Old resentment.

Perseverance.

Anger.

To the monster, this was the perfect opportunity to showcase all of those things.

And so, it laughed. Even when it finally opened its eyes, it was still smiling.

Its ‘twenty pairs’ of eyes that embroidered its helmet curled upwards with a red glint, resembling a wicked smile that a human would make.