Ch. 169 🔒 The Witch and the Black Knight (46)
by Afuhfuihgs
Chapter 169 – The Witch and the Black Knight (46)
Edel, radiating an inky-black glow, shone brilliantly even in the abyssal depths of the ocean.
His overwhelming presence, having defeated Kyle, the protagonist of Aria Chronicle Part 1, six times, stood firm against Lapis’s curse head-on.
But,
Edel’s attacks, which merely unleashed demonic energy, had no hope of reaching Lapis.
[For Love, I Would Even Tear Out My Heart]
An Ult, a domain-eroding ability on par with Beryl’s Demon Eye, albeit limited to the sea.
Once Lapis’s Ulti was activated… even the smallest current became her blade.
Had it not been for the mercy of the ocean or the sirens’ protection, even the simple act of holding one’s breath would have been impossible without her permission.
There was no ordinary way to defeat Lapis in the sea.
“Edel, wait—!”
I desperately reached out to stop him, but—
The twin crimson lights within his helmet had already locked onto Lapis.
The moment Edel’s demonic energy clashed with the curse enveloping Lapis, the undersea cavern collapsed under the shockwave.
“Lazuli, my love. I’ll bring it to you soon.”
Yet Lapis paid Edel’s assault no mind.
As if he wasn’t even worth acknowledging… She stretched out her tentacles once more, solely focused on seizing the Triceratops.
“You think I’ll let you?”
Edel’s demonic energy exploded outward, swallowing the encroaching tendrils whole.
Then, with a surge of power, he shoved Lapis back, sending her vanishing into the abyss.
At the end of it all, a faint glimmer flickered like a distant star in the night sky.
Dooooong…
For a moment, a deep, whale-like tremor reverberated through the ocean depths.
KWA-BOOOOOM!!
The explosion came not as sound, but as a violent tremor.
The viscous shockwave wracked my entire body, twisting my insides.
I hastily summoned a magic circle, but the bone-rattling impact left me dizzy.
Even though I knew Edel couldn’t possibly die from something like this, anxiety gripped me as I frantically searched for him.
“Edel…?”
For a brief moment, I rejoiced at the sight of a faint glow in the abyss—
Only for an instinctive chill to crawl down my spine, forcing me to draw the Triceratops.
“Ah, if I just have that…!”
Lapis, unharmed despite the earlier explosion, shrieked like a banshee as she unleashed another curse.
“What do you plan to do with this?!”
Her curse, shaped like writhing tendrils, slithered through the dark depths, homing in on the Triceratops.
At the same time,
The Triceratops emitted a savage glow, devouring even the curse as it released a surge of mana.
Though their powers collided,
There was no explosion this time.
The Triceratops’s all-consuming force struggled to close the distance, blocked by the curse.
True to the power of a dragon capable of devouring the world, it was feasting on Lapis’s curse—but her curse, already dissolved into the sea, kept surging endlessly.
“You… Are you getting in the way of my love?”
Lapis, tearing her gaze from the Triceratops, suddenly locked eyes with me.
“In the way? Who’s the one interfering here?”
Who’s interfering with whom?
Don’t make me laugh.
If it weren’t for Ophé freeing Lapis from her seal and the Kraken’s appearance…
Edel and I would’ve been sitting by a campfire, enjoying dinner by now.
I’m not the one in the way—you are.
“And besides…”
I cranked up the Triceratops’s output, expanding it just like when I had cleaved through the sanctuary.
“Your love ended a long time ago!”
Right before it could reach her—
A curse-infused current, magnitudes stronger than before, halted the Triceratops mid-swing.
Even slowed, the Triceratops’s attack was nothing to scoff at, yet Lapis didn’t even bother dodging, still staring straight into my eyes.
Fluid resistance?
Or maybe it was Lapis’s curse at work.
Just a little more power, and I’ll reach her… But if I recklessly gathered mana, the surrounding curse would swallow me whole.
“Ended? What nonsense are you spouting? Lazuli loves me, and I love Lazuli.”
The curse embedded near Lapis’s heart pulsed violently.
“My heart trembles like this… all because of Lazuli. Love. Yes. This is love.”
It was too cold, too dark… too wretched to be called love. I couldn’t help but frown.
Of course. Unless “Lazuli” himself spoke the truth, my words would mean nothing.
I had hoped saying it might change something, but all it did was make my mouth hurt.
Guess I’ll have to borrow Ophé’s mouth after all…
“Lapis needs me. She wants my love. I want love too. This ocean… it wants his love. So…”
So what?
You’ll kill me and take the Triceratops?
I didn’t need to hear the rest—the curse-tainted sea was already trying to swallow me whole.
“So. If you interfere with my love… I’ll kill you.”
“Try it if you can.”
The moment Lapis’s curse surged toward me—
KWA-BOOOOOM!!
Right on cue, another explosion-like tremor rocked the sea.
Lapis, still wrapped in her curse, was sent flying back into the abyss.
A darkness darker than black illuminated the depths.
Edel’s demonic energy.
“Estelle, are you alright?”
Whether from the earlier shockwave or not, cracks ran through his armor, and half his helmet had shattered, revealing his face.
Who’s asking who if they’re okay here…?
I was speechless.
“Edel! Are you hurt? Let me see—I told you to wait!”
“Did you really think I’d fall that easily? My armor’s just a little damaged.”
As I fretfully checked him over, Edel brushed me off with his usual indifferent gaze.
“A little damaged”, my foot!
I didn’t even have time to get mad at his bravado before I cast a spell.
This was nothing like when Vempir had merely lost an arm.
Lapis’s curse writhed across Edel’s exposed skin, gnawing at him.
Had his demonic energy not held it back… He might’ve already been reduced to a corpse.
“You’re really okay, right? No nausea, hallucinations, anything?”
“None of that. If anything, my body feels lighter. Thank you. That sticky thing clinging to me was annoying.”
This guy…
He flashed me a smile that instantly dispelled all my worries.
“Let’s retreat for now. Fighting Lapis with her Ulti active is too much.”
Actually, this works out.
Lapis was nowhere to be seen, maybe she’d been blown farther away this time.
I’ll take this chance to get Edel back to land.
We’d have to regroup and return better prepared.
“No.”
I grabbed his hand to pull him upward, but he didn’t budge, stubbornly refusing like a petulant child.
“Now’s not the time for this! If you’re not careful, you could—”
Die.
I couldn’t even finish the sentence.
“Estelle.”
Edel’s crimson eyes… made me hesitate.
“Before I am a protagonist… I am the Black Knight.”
The Black Knight.
One who fights the strong to grow stronger.
“I would rather fall in defeat than flee from battle with a worthy foe.”
Because that was Edel.
And because I had taught him pure love for that very reason.
If I dragged him ashore now, there’d be no going back.
“We’ve only clashed twice. My condition is perfect, and my body moves lightly even underwater. Yes. Right now… I feel as though I could lose to no one but you, Estelle.”
“Edel, you…”
There was no bravado in his tone this time.
It was as if… he was telling me an absolute truth.
“I am learning pure love. That means I am growing stronger. Trust me.”
After I wiped the floor with you…
And now you’re telling me to trust you?
Unbelievable.
Come to think of it… Edel wasn’t a child I needed to protect, like Josie or Leo.
He was the second strongest in the demon realm, right after the Demon King.
The way he had lost so pitifully to me, the foolish sides he had shown—they had overshadowed his true nature.
And maybe I was the one overreacting, intimidated by Lapis’s overwhelming Ulti and the ocean’s constraints…
Whenever it was just Edel and me, I sometimes found myself thinking and acting in ways even I couldn’t understand.
Only now did Edel’s figure become clear amidst the murky, curse-tainted waters.
“Fine. But you’re not fighting alone. I’m joining you.”
On my own, running was the best I could do—but fighting alongside Edel? Who knew what could happen?
After all, Edel was, at least in this moment, not just the Black Knight, but the protagonist.
“I’ll be watching from the side to see just how much stronger you’ve gotten.”
And so,
I decided to trust Edel, the Black Knight who was learning pure love and growing stronger.
“Together…?”
“What, got a problem with that?”
But for some reason, Edel made a strange face, repeating the word “together”.
“Fighting together… It’s just unfamiliar. I’ve always fought alone.”
Oh. That’s what it was?
Edel’s first team-up…
Not bad.
Actually, I like it.
For me, too, fighting alongside someone was a first.
That realization—the first time—shattered the anxiety that had filled my heart until now. Strangely, excitement bubbled up inside me.
Hehehe~
In times like these, as pure love’s teacher, I had no choice but to say it!
“Oh? Then learn well. Fighting together is also…”
Before I could finish, I ramped up the Triceratops’s output.
As a fellow witch, I could easily sense Lapis hiding nearby.
“…part of pure love!”
With my cry, the Triceratops swung down—devouring Lapis’s tentacles whole.
If this is how it’s gonna be, then like in the original story, we’ll have to settle it with force…!
Lucent
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