Chapter 277: Master (7)

Chapter 277: Master (7)

1.

Just like that, the fight was over.

The overwhelming difference in strength between the two of them made it impossible for Paola to resist, and she was defeated by Eloa without putting up much of a fight.

This was only possible because the latter had recovered her mana.

If she immediately came here after her battle with the Red Knight, she definitely would have been caught by those grotesque tentacles and ended up as their quick snack.

Eloa stood before the lotus flower, which was still shining brilliantly.

At that moment, something unexpected happened.

Lying against the flower, Paola mustered the last bit of her strength to yell at her, blood oozed out of her mouth.Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com

“W-Wait...!”

Surprisingly, even after her heart was pierced, Paola was still alive.

Perhaps when she fused herself with that Homunculus, she inherited some of its tenacious vitality as well.

But, that just meant she’d cling to life a little bit longer, she’d still die eventually.

“...”

Seeing this, Eloa raised the Sword of Covenant again.

This time, she aimed to swiftly end her suffering with a clean cut to the neck.

“S-Stop! Hear me out...please...!”

Paola looked at Eloa in desperation, her blood-stained teeth revealed.

Thick blood was still oozing out of the gaping wound in her chest.

If she didn’t get treated soon, death would be inevitable for her.

Eloa paused, but she positioned her sword so that she could strike the witch in front of her at any time.

This wasn’t the first time that a criminal begged their lives to her.

There was even a criminal who was overwhelmed with fear, begging for her mercy before their fight even began.

Yet, she never once halted her sword or listened to their pleas.

Instead, she silently bore the burden of her own karma.

These were the same witches that had killed the innocents without care, killed other witches’ apprentices, and even murdered their fellow witches.

Whatever it was that came out of their mouth would never justify what they did. They were those who deserved every kind of condemnation from her.

There was no room for her to compromise or sympathize with them.

...No, that was just an excuse.

Eloa knew it, more than anyone.

She was only trying to escape.

Using her desire for revenge and the dark emotion that she harbored as a refuge to waste her life until it fell apart.

“...”

But even Eloa, who usually would just cut the foe in front of her without any hesitation, couldn’t just dismiss the Cowardly Witch.

Because she could see herself in her.

“You, too...! Could understand...! What losing someone feels like...! To lose your apprentice witch due to your own mistake...accepting the irreversible consequences...! You, too, should know how agonizing it is...!”

At this point, Paola had grown extremely desperate.

Even the slightest movement like opening her mouth made her punctured lungs scream in pain.

She screamed out her desperation at Eloa, squeezing out the words that she wanted to convey.

“I...I am...just like you...so...you can understand me, can’t you? My feelings when I did those things...”

There was another reason why Eloa couldn’t just easily strike the criminal with her sword. Because she realized that her plea was not just for her own life.

She wasn’t trying to win her sympathy to prolong her own wretched life.

“I didn’t do all this because I wanted to... This isn’t about some silly magic... You understand me, don’t you? I...just want to...undo everything!”

Just like her, she was desperate to fix her mistakes.

Her guilt weighed down on her, making her feel like a sinner just for breathing.

In her desperation, she became willing to grasp onto anything that might alter the past.

She still let herself to wallow in denial, clearly showing that in her face as the veins in her neck started to bulge.

“...”

But, seeing Eloa’s silence, she finally realized that the executioner had already placed her blade on her neck.

“How can you be so heartless...? I thought you said you understood me...? We’re the same, aren’t we...?”

With her desperate pleas mercilessly rejected, Paola’s face twisted into a mix of rage and hatred.

She directed her condemnation, which was akin to a desperate scream, solely at Eloa.

“I understand your anger and despair well. After all, I have experienced them all myself.”

“Shut up! You don’t know anything! I...! Just for this... I...!”

Eloa looked down at Paola with pitiful eyes as the latter succumbed into her rage.

“Your grief, regret, despair...that wretched feeling of guilt... I’ve experienced it all. I, too, would have done anything to save Ravi...”

But that was before she met Siwoo.

Maybe, if the one who was standing here was her past self who was wandering around without a goal after losing her target of revenge...

If she considered the Cowardly Witch’s proposal with her heart that was just a step away from breaking apart completely...

She probably wouldn’t shake her head so easily.

It’d be too arrogant of her to think otherwise.

After all, Eloa never saw herself as someone with a strong mental fortitude.

She could see herself agonizing over this, maybe even extending a helping hand to the desperate Paola, who was on the verge of death.

“But, if I were to use your power to bring her back...she’d definitely be mad at me...”

“Ha! You’re making this cowardly choice because you’re scared of being hated?!”

“Yes, I’m scared.”

Eloa let out a deep sigh.

“I can already picture it. She’d yell at me, asking why I did that, why did I bring her back to life...? But, I know that she’d forgive me eventually. She’d cry, scream, maybe even hit me, get mad at me for a long while, but eventually she’d come around and give this incompetent teacher of hers a hug.”

“...”

“After that, I’d spend the rest of my days wandering around, trying to make amends for all my wrongdoings.”

“Then...wouldn’t it be fine...?”

“But, that’s not what she would want. That’s just me being selfish. I have to walk the path that was left for me, to grieve those who were gone and keep on moving forward.”

“...”

Paola’s voice faded, as if she had poured all her energy into her passionate speech and anger.

Her throat was choked by the hot blood that kept oozing out of her lips.

She could sense that her end was near.

Neither of them spoke another word after that.

They had said all they needed to say.

“Anything else you want to say?”

“...”

Now stripped of her last hope, Paola glanced up at Eloa, her eyes looked dead.

In her hollow chest, where even her thoughts refused to bloom, a thick, suffocating hatred blazed like wildfire.

That was the loathing she directed right at the foe who had stolen every ounce of hope from her.

“I hate you.”

With that as a cue, Eloa’s sword moved, creating a beautiful arc.

The blade glided effortlessly, slicing through Paola’s neck while shattering the lotus she leaned on without making a sound.

After she returned the bloodless sword into her subspace, Eloa muttered bitterly.

“Yeah, I understand that feeling too.”

After the lotus flower, which was slowly crumbling like a heavily cracked glasswork, collapsed, covering Paola’s body beneath it...

Eloa headed towards the place where Siwoo was /genesisforsaken