Chapter 227
His plan had been entirely grasped .
Crow Mask revealed his hidden card without hesitating . Geometrical figures began to form above his outstretched hand .
The Tesseract .
Before he knew it, Swan had closed the distance between them entirely . Considering the way she fought so far, he thought her strength lay in waging long-distance battle . But this was a dangerous misconception .
The bow that Swan held changed shape and morphed into a sword . She coated the sword in aura and pressed Crow Mask hard . Compared to a typical high-level swordsman, the level of skill she displayed did not lag behind at all .
‘She gave up her long-range dominance and instead rushed in… ’
In the face of such an unexpected counterattack, Crow Mask operated the Tesseract solely for defense .
‘This is so annoying . ’
Swan frowned .
Swan already had a rough idea about Crow Mask’s abilities from Desir . Although he was much stronger than the information she had suggested, such strength was second entirely to the artifact she was truly wary of .
‘I thought there was a chance to win since I used spells stored in Memorize . ’
He sensed a killing blow, immediately moving his head to the side . The spot it had just been was cleaved, leaving behind several strands of his hair . If his reactions had been just a little bit late, he would have lost his head and not just a few strands of hair .
After making him use-up his most threatening magic, she had deliberately engaged him in close-quarters combat . Her talent certainly lay in ranged attacks, but her close-quarters threat was still considerable .
She was convinced that she had the advantage over Crow Mask, the magician .
But this wasn’t the case . Crow Mask continued to hold out . Rather, Crow Mask was slowly gaining the edge in this skirmish .
Swan kicked aggresively . But it wasn’t just a normal kick; compressed aura shot out of her leg like a bullet . Just as it was about to make contact, small-scale spatial distortion magic was invoked, blocking the strike .
The Tesseract allowed Crow Mask to invoke magic perfectly in real-time . It would structure spells in an overly efficient manner . The only downside to it was that even the user could not predict what spell would be used . However, no matter what it was, only the best magic for the situation would be deployed .
It truly felt like a cheat artifact . It was as if it were creating a new spell every time a spell was invoked . And to top it all off, each spell looked completely different from one another .
‘It would have been really nice to have Desir here, for times like these . ’
The Tesseract operated on a completely different magical system of spell casting to the magical system that Swan had studied and learned to counter . Therefore, nullification by aura was impossible .
It was a quick-and-fast battle .
*Clang*
Sparks flew as blade, aura, and magic all clashed .
After a strong collision, they were bounced apart from each other by the impact . They both leaned against the railing at the center of the room .
They stared at each other, like two cats ready to pounce . Suddenly, the corners of Swan’s mouth were drawn up into a smile .
“This really is a scandal . For some reason, I thought your attack was familiar . ”
Crow Mask, which had not been moved by any words so far, felt a sense of unease gnaw at his gut .
“I thought you were dead, but you’ve managed to stay alive… Icarus Quirgo . ”
She greeted him as if they knew each other .
They had encountered each other in the past, so such an informal greeting was not too strange .
Swan Katarina stood on the side of the Imperial Army during the Revolution and fought with the Revolutionary Army . It was around that time that she earned the title of the strongest archer in the Empire .
And there was a time when she faced him .
“Where’s that noble ideal you’d been crying for? Why did you get into bed with the Outsiders?”
Swan’s sarcasm appeared to cut deep .
Crow Mask invoked magic instead of answering .
The spell he sent her way carried a larger amount of mana than any previous attack .
[Gravity Compress]
Swan responded to it .
She fired an arrow containing aura and shot down the spell he invoked .
Her mouth continued to move nonstop .
“Why are you covering your face with that ridiculous mask? It wasn’t my cup of tea, but you had a very fine face . ”
Swan pinpointed the disgust of Crow Mask .
“Shut up, Swan Katarina . ”
Crow Mask replied irritably .
“You only have enough aura left for a few more arrows . Take your last words seriously . ”
“That’s true . But that doesn’t really change your situation, does it?”
An arrow was fired so fast it appeared to move faster than light itself . The aura arrow bore down on Crow Mask .
The Tesseract immediately began to invoke defensive magic . In the meantime, Swan dug into Crow Mask once again .
Crow Mask activated Memorize .
For a moment his figure began to blur, and then began to form elsewhere .
He let his guard down briefly, reassured that he had barely escaped .
This proved to be a costly mistake . His figure immediately bounced back and smashed into the wall, now partially stuck inside it, revealing a research facility constructed at the top of the tower .
It may have been a place to study chimera . There were all kinds of meat pieces in vats and on the wall .
Numerous pieces of equipment, presumably imbued with defensive magic, were torn apart, unable to withstand the shock .
“It can’t be helped . ”
Crow Mask raised and dusted himself off .
“I don’t know what you can’t help . ”
Crow Mask looked up nonchalantly, before seeing Swan’s bow, with an aura arrow already nocked and aimed at his forehead .
“You followed me?”
“It’s really time to bid farewell now . ”
The woman’s eyes were completely cold as she stared him down . The compressed aura arrow destroyed Crow Mask’s upper body .
Blood splashed everywhere .
“Yes, why didn’t you let me go as I was about to flee?”
“I can’t do that . ”
A disembodied voice responded .
[Void Sword]
A blade of nothingness flew towards Swan .
“Urgh . ”
Swan leaped away with an inhuman reaction speed, but this attack was not something that could be entirely avoided .
Her right leg fell to the ground, no longer attached to her torso .
Her balance was broken, but Swan immediately self-corrected and kicked against the ground with her remaining leg . She frowned at the sting of pain .
“How can you… ”
Swan stared forward with an unconvinced face . Slowly, Crow Mask raised himself upright . His destroyed upper body had already been restored .
“It’s insurance . ”
His cape fell to the ground . At that moment, Swan could see a huge gem that was half smashed . It was a device with various magic circles implanted inside .
Everything fell into place . She understood the current situation .
It was a technique similar to the homunculus, the nightmare of the Allied Forces .
“Inversion of causality . ”
Swan made the remark in vain .
Crow Mask erased the near-death experience that he had suffered through a reversal of cause and effect .
She didn’t think he would have such technology . No one could have predicted this .
But questions arose and swirled around her mind .
‘Why didn’t he use this from the beginning?’
‘It must not be something that can be used recklessly… ’
Swan’s guess was correct .
It was the last insurance the Skull Mask gave to Crow Mask . It was a single-use item, but those kinds of tools could spell the difference between a win or loss .
She grabbed the stump of her missing leg with her palm before gathering aura and cauterizing the wound . The bleeding had stopped, but the situation was serious .
She didn’t have much aura left .
‘I only have enough for one shot . ’
Swan gathered her aura in a display of force, so as to not allow Crow Mask the time to react . This was make or break . Her aura was entirely exhausted, after she let loose with this attack, and Crow Mask had meddled with cause and effect to recover from a fatal injury . In addition to this, Swan had completely lost all mobility .
Crow Mask also seemed to have realized his superiority .
“If you had gone out quietly, you would have survived a little longer . ”
“Truly, I hate persistent men . ”
“You will die . ”
“You’re in a similar situation to me anyway, aren’t you?”
The battle was fierce .
While Swan was well aware of how much aura she had consumed in the battle thus far, this surely applied to her enemy as well .
“Similar? What are you talking about?”
Crow Mask spoke in a mocking tone . Simultaneously, Swan felt an overwhelming force coming from Crow Mask .
“You… !”
A vast swarm of mana raged around him . This wasn’t something as trite as simply hiding mana in reserve, the level of it was different .
Crow Mask had reached the Seventh-Circle .
A circle unattainable under ordinary circumstances .
This was a decisive declaration that drove a wedge into the hope that Swan had been desperately clinging to .
Swan’s smile fell from her face for the first time .
All that remained was despair .
Crow Mask spoke to Swan, who was preoccupied wallowing in her loss .
“You put on a fun show, Swan Katarina . ”
“Huh, this really leaves a nasty taste . ”
“Let’s say this is a habit of being overly cautious . ”
A spell unfolded before him . He invoked this spell without even maintaining a defensive spell . He did this, even after seeing her arrow cancel so many of his spells .
This was a naked provocation from Crow Mask .
With such an absolute advantage, he was provoking Swan . There was no way Swan didn’t know it .
She calmly drew her bow .
“You know that fighting a beast on the brink of death is the scariest thing? You could die because of that beast, you know?”
“Nonsense . ”
Swan’s bow began to hum due to the powerful aura imbued in it .
There was soon more aura in this arrow than Crow Mask expected .
The reason was soon revealed .
Aura was a type of energy, and humans were a veritable engine that produced energy too . An engine can be run to produce a fixed amount of power, but if one didn’t care about the life of the engine, they can typically draw extra power for a price .
Swan managed to squeeze out more energy from her worn out body .
The amount now gathered was not something that could easily be ignored, no matter how strong a Seventh-Circle magician was .
“Do you intend to see your end here?”
“Not even someone like you can escape from this, huh?”
His mouth dried up . The aura arrow, which was formed by burning her King Level talent, was colossal .
It was a collection of the entire woman known by the name of Swan Katarina .
In Crow Mask’s right hand, the Tesseract rotated violently . Each party realized that this was the end of the battle .
The game would end in just a moment .
In a sudden moment of clarity, Swan was left thinking as time drew out to infinity .
This was the last exchange . She only had two options .
The first was to use this power to kill Crow Mask . No matter how much power he had as a Seventh-Circle magician, he had consumed a considerable amount of strength in fighting her . It was definitely possible to deal a major, if not fatal, blow to him .
The second option was using this power to destroy the tower .
The basement of the tower . There might be valuable clues as to the purpose of this tower in there, but if it’s being guarded this heavily, destroying it would surely deal a strong blow to the Outsiders as a whole . And her last arrow was enough to raze the tower to the ground .
Time snapped back to normal, and the time left to make a decision was rapidly shrinking . She had to make a decision .
‘I’ll bet on it . ’
[Abyss Hall]
Swan’s arrow was launched .
Almost at the same time, Crow Mask’s spell washed over Swan .
Swan’s body ragdolled at the impact, and slammed into the wall behind her . The force was so violent that she lifelessly bounced off the wall before collapsing in the corner of the room .
*Boom*
Swan could not be seen amongst the rubble and dust, but Crow Mask did not bother confirming whether she was alive or dead . Instead, he stared down at the result of her choice .
There was a huge hole, which tore all the way through to the bottom of the tower .
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Chapter brought to you by SlopypeepS .
???: …
ED: Purplemen101
TLC: N/A
QC: N/A
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