1.
The moment Ea moved her fingertips, Siwoo had prepared himself to receive her attack.
He deployed the shadows that leaked out from his armor in front of him.
The armor itself was his last line of defense against the impact.
That meant he needed a more proactive way to respond to her attack.
A shield to deflect it.
With this particular shield, he didn't need to directly hold it up to block her attacks.
He only needed to make it float mid-air and used it as a cover.
The shield of shadow took a broad conical shape with radial pattern on its surface to disperse the impact it would receive.
With the shield's inclined surface, Siwoo planned to redirect the ribbon's attack.
He lowered his body, opened his mouth, and then…
The anticipated impact came.
-Bang!
"Ugh!"
The clash between his shield and the ribbon resulted in a fierce collision of mana, causing a tremendous shockwave. The impact reverberated back to his body.
He felt an intense pain that caused his internal organ to contract and gastric acid surged up his throat with a gurgling sound.
Even though he clearly had defended against it, it still felt like he was engulfed in a bomb blast.
"Mr. Assistant!"
"…Don't!"
He instinctively stopped the twins, who were approaching him, with his hands.
The reason why the twins' weren't in particular danger at the moment was because of this unfair confrontation between him and Ea.
But, even this moment of respite could go away in a heartbeat at Ea's whim.
'I should consider currying favor with her while preparing an alternative strategy.'
"Can you block this?"
Ea's nonchalant voice pierced through his heavy heart.
Everything went according to plan.
The shield's tilted surface effectively dissipated most of the impact and the remaining force was dispersed as the shield of shadow shattered like a pizza.
However, Siwoo hadn't anticipated the extent of Ea's cruelty and ruthlessness.
If Siwoo hadn't improved his mastery over the 'Law of Shadows', she would have torn off one of his limbs by now and he'd end up writhing on the ground.
She was definitely holding back on him.
But only so that she wouldn't end up killing him.
Other than that, she had little interest in the damage his body would receive from her actions.
"Alright, let's start another round."
-Twang!
Once again, the ribbon twisted and spiraled through the air.
A sound of taut bowstring being drawn to its limit resonated through the air, causing it to tremble.
But this time, it wasn't only one ribbon that moved.
Not two either.
But three.
A total of three ribbons were aimed at Siwoo and the twins.
"This bitch."
Siwoo gritted his teeth and consumed his second bottle of concentrated mana water.
"Bloom!"
Shadows erupted from his palm, weaving through the air like an octopus' ink.
Its form was different than before this time.
Instead of having radial patterns, it took the more intricate and compact shape of honeycombs.
Moreover, he deployed three sequential layers to add to its defensive capability.
Considering the impact he just felt, anything more would be unnecessary.
Besides, this much was his limit as he needed to have extra mana and mental strength to recover from the damage he would receive.
"I can't afford to die here, can I?"
He was done calculating everything.
The only thing he needed to do was take on the gamble.
Siwoo tapped his knee with his finger as he waited for the right timing.
There was no need for the shield to maintain a consistent level of toughness.
Because it would be a waste of mana.
He just needed to concentrate his strength at a brief instance: the moment of collision. This way, he'd be able to defend against her attack with much higher mana efficiency.
However, if he were to time it wrong even slightly, the shield would be torn apart like flimsy scraps.
Following that, the shield owner's flesh and blood would dance through the air.
-Bang!
A loud sound like a piece of metal being striked by a hammer echoed.
Without a second's delay, the ribbons struck the shield relentlessly, but they ultimately failed to reach Siwoo's heart.
An even stronger shockwave reverberated through his body.
The pain he felt was excruciating, as if his whole body was being struck by a baseball bat.
Nevertheless, his gamble was successful.
With a precarious momentum, the ribbons grazed his cheek, but after that, they lost their ominous force and returned to their original fluttery form.
"Cough…!"
"You managed to block this too? Too bad you seem to be spent after just two strikes."
Despite merely being struck by the shockwaves, the garden had turned desolate, as if an air bombardment had swept through it.
As the dust, which was thick enough to obscure one's view, flew away with the wind, Siwoo's body could be seen, kneeling on one knee.
He calmly assessed his condition.
Warm blood trickled from his left ear canal.
It was as if his left eardrum had burst out, he couldn't hear anything from that side anymore.
He could feel a sharp pain on one of his eyelids as it was grazed by the impact of the clash just now.
A single trickle of blood was flowing out from his mouth and lastly, his clear vision became blurred, as if he was looking through a stack of lenses.
'I'll try to endure another strike.'
With a determined resolve, Siwoo grasped his thigh and rose to his feet.
"Honestly, I'm surprised. How could you cast such a spell when you're just a mere slave? Well, its efficiency seems poor…"
"Phew…"
Siwoo ignored Ea's words.
He had no time to pay attention to her at the moment.
Instead, he needed to calculate the mana and mental strength he'd allocate to endure her next attack.
"Alright, there are thirteen of them this time. An unlucky and a very tragic number."
As Ea clenched her fist, a total of 13 ribbons clustered in the air were directed towards Siwoo.
'She started with one, three and suddenly thirteen?'
Siwoo felt a surge of anger toward the bitch for increasing the difficulty as she pleased despite the fact that he hadn't even struck her yet
He desperately pondered about the structure of his next shield when Ea let out a mischievous smile and offered him a suggestion.
"I'll give you a way out."
She stretched her arms out like a theater actress as she revealed a bright smile.
Her eyes flickered with a feverish radiance, as if she was unable to contain her excitement for the game she was playing. It was to the point that anyone could find her gesture unsettling.
"You should've figured it out already. You'll lose an arm or a leg from this attack."
"…Yes."
As much as he wanted to deny it, her words were right.
There was no other way around it.
If he wanted to block her next attack perfectly, he had to sacrifice something.
"Look at those twins over there. Don't they annoy you? While you're out here fighting with all your might, they're just trembling while sucking on their fingers."
"I can't blame them, if they made a move, you won't stay still."
"Alright, let's focus on other thing, then."
He didn't have enough time to begin with, he wouldn't be wasting more time to nitpick about what other people were doing.
Then again, since she was going to keep spewing this crazy psychopath-like nonsense, it would be better for him to just play along to some extent.
"Among those twins, which one is the younger? The older sister said she'd sacrifice herself and fight in her place, but the younger one just stood there sobbing without saying a word, didn't she?"
"Ah…"
As soon as Odette caught sight of Ea's gaze, she shrank back.
Even though Odile was embracing her shoulders, her trembling didn't subside.
"Kid, what's your name?"
"Don't answer her!"
"If you know what's good for you, you'd answer me."
Ea spoke as she blew the nails that she was caressing.
Odette then carefully opened her mouth.
Her voice trembled like bamboo facing against the win, half-moistened by her tears.
"O-Odette…"
"You don't have anything to say? Your sister confidently said she'd sacrifice herself and the poor slave over here is playing a game with me to save you. But, what about you?"
Hearing Ea's relentless criticism, Odette averted her gaze.
She was a fragile girl, it was hard for her to endure Ea's gaze.
But, the thing that struck her the most was that Ea's words weren't empty accusations.
Her mind turned blank, rendering her unable to step forward to do something.
Just the fact that Ea directed her attention at herself terrified her, making her want to run away while trembling.
"Don't listen to her, Odette. She just wants to toy with our minds!"
"I'm just trying to teach basic morals to Miss Odette here as she seems to lack it. Does it really hurt you to accept my kindness?"
"I'm fine, Sis…"
Odette barely managed to meet Ea's gaze.
The latter's crazed cat-like pupils scanned up and down her body.
"Kneel down and beg for your life. I'll make things easier for you on this round."
Although Odette was immature and timid, she wasn't shameless.
She still had the pride of being the successor of the Countess Gemini.
She was aware of how disgraceful and demeaning an act of kneeling and begging for her life was.
"You won't do even this?"
However, it wasn't like she had any choices.
After bargaining and rationalizing the thought in her head, she came to a decision.
Her legs slowly bent.
But, just before her knees touched the ground…
"Just stop it already, Auntie."
Siwoo's disdainful tone froze the air.
Ea's gaze, who had been filled with interest as she stared at Odette, shifted to Siwoo, whose appearance had become disheveled.
"Auntie?"
"I can't stand it anymore. Don't you think you're too old to do something like this?"
Ea smirked.
It was a knowing smirk.
"I understand what you're trying to do. But, are you sure this is the right thing to do?"
"Who knows."
Shadows flowed loosely from Siwoo's arms.
While Ea briefly focused on Odette, Siwoo drank the high-quality mana water certified by the Emerald Tablet.
Thanks to Ea's generosity, he managed to finish his calculations.
A vast amount of mana overflowed from his body.
Absorbing, storing and using different types of mana.
That was Siwoo's specialized field that he found out during the event in the Latifundium.
The only thing left was to utilize the absorbed mana to implement his own self-essence magic that he had been researching all this time.
"Ms. Odette."
"Y-Yes, Mr. Assistant…"
Odette finally burst into tears as she responded to Siwoo with a quivering voice.
"When you finally inherit the Gemini's name, make sure to give this fucking bitch a hard time."
"H-Heuk…"
"You've shown enough courage, Ms. Odette."
Siwoo's hand drew a half-circle.
Ea tilted her head and gazed at Siwoo with an intrigued expression, as he performed a movement resembling the Tai Chi martial arts form.
"What are you doing?"
A silver circle began to form around the twins.
The light reflected in Siwoo's eyes blazed like flames.
His spell for opening the 'gate' was still incomplete.
The magical formula that he constructed could only absorb and amplify mana at best.
As for the part of the spell that could create an opening between the modern world and Gehenna, he had only completed 10% of it.
However…
While he was defending against Ea's attack, Siwoo managed to complete the missing pieces.
Though it was impossible to create a formula that allowed a perfect transdimensional travel in such a short moment, he could still make it so that he could transport objects or other people to a random coordinate as long as it was still within the same world.
Siwoo discreetly rearranged the formula for that emergency escape while parrying Ea's attacks.
The name of the formula was, 'Dimension Shift.'
It was a magic formula that he had completed hastily by extracting a part of the magic he had been researching.
"Ugh…!"
His head heated up due to the overload.
The surge of mana wildly traversed his body through the unused mana pathways, wreaking havoc within him.
-Drip, drip.
Droplets of blood trickled down his nose.
His eyeballs were burning as if subjected to pressure. Blood tears overflowed from his bursting blood vessels, creating a bloody stream on his cheeks.
"Mr. Assistant…?"
"Stay still!"
"What's going on…? Could it be…?"
He nearly finished the formula.
Through his one functioning ear, an auditory hallucination that reminded him of a heavy machinery echoed.
"Get away from here! Get someone, Amelia, the Countess, anyone…! In the meantime, I'll keep this crazy bitch busy!"
Not all three of them could escape.
The consumption of mana and the complexity of the calculations were proportional to the mass of the object he'd transport.
Furthermore, someone needed to defend against Ea's attacks during the time when the magic circle was activated.
-Whoooong!
"No… No way, Mr. Assistant!"
"It's futile. No one can escape from this water bottle…"
Ea's lack of response to him trying to get the twins to escape was because of her trust in her water bottle.
She knew that the space inside it was isolated from the outside, rendering anyone's attempt to escape futile.
-Splash…!
But, her unwavering belief crumbled in an instant.
Suddenly, the entire barrier rippled heavily.
A small crevice appeared in a part she hadn't paid much attention to.
It was just large enough for a person to barely squeeze through.
"This can't be happening!"
To her, this was an unexpected turn of events.
She gasped while looking up at the ceiling of the bottle.
With that, she found out that the culprit for what had just happened was the shadows that Siwoo extracted to block her ribbons.
The shadows that she thought had dissipated because of the impact the ribbon gave them, were now sticking to the upper part of the water bottle.
In that brief moment Siwoo activated his teleportation magic, he managed to create a tiny crevice by sticking the shadows onto the water bottle.
"Mr. Assist—!"
The twins' desperate cry disappeared into thin air.
They managed to teleport away safely.
Along with that, the narrow crevice was sealed shut once again.
By using as little mana as possible to defend against Ea's attack, he managed to deceive her and lull her into complacency.
He stealthily withdrew his shadows to widen the crevice in the water bottle.
At the same time, he reconfigured his self-essence magic to teleport the twins away, adjusting the variables to match their current conditions.
Siwoo knelt on the ground, collapsing into a sitting position.
He had no strength left.
When his unsteady body was about to fall down.
He summoned every last ounce of strength, gripping his trembling legs and forcing himself to stand.
He still didn't know where the twins got teleported to.
Despite the random coordinates that were used, they should still be inside Gehenna.
There was a possibility that they didn't get teleported too far away from here.
And so, to prevent Ea from pursuing them, he needed to buy some time, at least until they were able to activate their music box.
"How does it feel? Getting fooled by a mere slave?"
"…"
It was refreshing.
Seeing Ea's mouth agape, he could ignore his miserable state and felt a sense of satisfaction from it.
Ea's twisted lips parted.
"You arrogant thing… I tried to treat you kindly because you looked half-decent and yet you… I swear, I'll tear you to shreds and feed your body to those twins."
Siwoo staggered as he lifted his upper body to consume one more bottle of mana water.
He spent all his mana to activate the previous magic circle.
The pulsating waves of mana filled every circuit in his body once again.
"Phew."
He swept back the sweat-soaked hair from his forehead.
Then he raised his middle finger gracefully while wearing a triumphant smile on his face.
"Fuck you."
From now on, there was no turning back for him.