Ch.179Flash

The revelation Serena gained from sending Laila and her gang, who were precariously balanced between life and death, back to death was a redefinition of the concept of cutting something with a sword.

Who in the world could cut a motion, who could cut a sound, and who could cut the action of swinging a sword?

Ordinarily, one could assert that it’s impossible.

Except for one person—Serena.

Whether black mana burned like flames on Olivia’s body or whether bizarrely twisted spaces overlapped in layers, it didn’t matter at all.

Similarly, whether it was beyond the reach of Serena’s Wind Shear or whether obstacles appeared in the sword’s trajectory, that too didn’t matter at all.

Only one thing was needed: the fact that Serena had decided to cut Olivia.

“I clearly said it.”

Blue eyes met pitch-black ones.

“If you don’t shut that mouth, I’ll make it shut myself.”

“You? Against me?”

As Olivia sneered, the spatial distortion intensified. Serena could instantly notice that the distance between them had grown enormously.

Clearly, Wind Shear and the greatsword were pressing against each other, struggling with all their might. However, the reality beneath was completely different. Even if Serena were to extend her fist from here, it would never reach Olivia.

Because the distance between Serena and Olivia had already become immeasurably far. What the eyes saw no longer held any meaning. The eyes were the first bodily organs to begin distorting.

To the naked eye, they were close enough that she could reach out and touch, and with some exaggeration, Serena’s exhaled breath might travel to Olivia’s vicinity before completely dissipating, but in reality, the distance was tens or hundreds of times greater.

So she closed her eyes.

In such a space, vision only added confusion and was utterly useless. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the world through her skin, reading the flow of mana.

Closing one’s eyes in front of an enemy was tantamount to suicide. However, in the current situation, trying to locate the enemy visually was the more dangerous action.

She observed Olivia. Wrapped in jet-black flames all over her body, she was pushing the greatsword with eyes that mocked Serena. The pressure on Wind Shear was considerable.

Even if Serena were to push away that greatsword and swing Wind Shear, she probably wouldn’t be able to take that woman’s head. Though she appeared to be right in front, she wasn’t truly there.

Conversely, if that woman pushed away Wind Shear and brought down her greatsword on Serena, Serena’s head would be split in half by that greatsword.

Unfair? This was a world created by that woman. It was natural for all physical laws to serve and honor their creator.

‘I can do it.’

So, she decided to cut through the entire world.

She took a deep breath and held it. She stepped forward with her left foot, bending her knee and putting weight on her left leg. Her center of gravity shifted forward.

In that position, she bent her waist and pulled Wind Shear so that its handle was positioned at her right side. Her left arm pressed against her abdomen. The tip of the blade pointed in the opposite direction.

As Wind Shear was pushed back, the greatsword came down toward Olivia’s head. There was no need to dodge. No need to be afraid.

Before that, before that greatsword split her head, she just needed to swing Wind Shear first.

“That promise.”

Serena opened her eyes.

And exhaled.

“I definitely kept it.”

It was to see with her own eyes the sight of that damned woman who had taken her lord having her lower abdomen torn open and her entrails spilling out.

She swung Wind Shear. The sensation of something incredibly thin lightly brushing against the blade surrounded by a massive amount of blue mana was gently transmitted through her fingers.

Attempts to twist space and create distance were nothing but futile struggles once Wind Shear had materialized the concept of cutting.

The current Serena could even cut the very fact that space had been distorted. As if to prove this, Olivia’s body, which had been felt from far away, was somehow pulled right in front of her.

She couldn’t block it, nor could she avoid it. Serena had already achieved her desired result even before Wind Shear was swung.

It wasn’t that results followed from causes. The result was derived first, and that’s why the cause came into being.

That was the meaning of reaching the realm of cutting what cannot be cut.

“—Huh?”

Olivia let out a short question. The greatsword that had been coming down toward Serena’s head froze in place. The jet-black flames wrapping her body gradually subsided.

Drops of blood formed beyond her short skirt.

The stab wound that started from the left iliac bone extended horizontally toward the pelvis, passing through the lower abdomen, and only stopped expanding after reaching the right iliac bone.

Serena took advantage of this gap to quickly create distance and readjust her posture. She wanted to continue the attack, but her previous movement was purely for a single strike, leaving too many openings.

She could force an attack if she wanted to. But whether that attack would be threatening was a separate issue.

“…You.”

Two pitch-black eyes, now devoid of luster, turned toward Serena.

“What did you just do?”

“I simply kept my word.”

Serena calmly responded to Olivia’s words while preparing for her next attack. She had inflicted a wound, but that was far from enough in many ways.

Olivia was still standing upright, and she didn’t seem to have taken that much damage. Her upper and lower body weren’t moving separately; she was still standing firmly on both legs.

It wasn’t a success because she had inflicted a wound; it was essentially a failure because the body wasn’t dismembered. It meant that the strike intended to sever the upper and lower body had only resulted in a wound.

‘Even then, she avoided a fatal wound…?’

Clearly, her fingers had felt the sensation of cutting through the female-specific organ inside that lower abdomen, designed to receive and conceive a man’s seed.

The problem was that it wasn’t a perfect success but an imperfect one.

And that meant that Serena hadn’t completely overwhelmed Olivia but had merely reached parity. Such a small gap could be reversed at any time.

Serena inwardly sighed. A strike she thought was nearly perfect, a new realm she believed she had opened, and yet they had only just reached the same starting line.

If that was the case, just how strong was this opponent?

“Kihihihit, kihit, kihihihihihit…”

At that moment, Olivia let out a strange laugh. It was a laugh so deeply consumed by madness that one might wonder why she was laughing like that.

It was even more bizarre considering that until just a moment ago, she had been glaring at Serena with dead eyes.

Serena quickly erased the question from her mind and firmly gripped the handle of Wind Shear. Trying to understand the psychology of a madwoman would only be to her disadvantage.

How that woman laughed or what antics she pulled had little to do with Serena’s concerns. After all, the dead can’t laugh.

And Serena intended to kill that woman.

“This is fun, yes. Definitely fun. So there was a reason why Master’s soul responded to you three? I don’t know what you did, but yes. There was a reason why Master’s soul fluctuated so dramatically. If you’re this good without even having elevated your soul’s caliber, then Master had good reason. Indeed, Master’s discernment is never wrong. That’s why he saved me. Because he recognized fools and idiots like you. Ah, that’s right. I have one more reason to kill you all. I’ll take you with me and tell Master that his discernment was wrong, and then I’ll comfort Master, who will be in despair, with my body. Hihi, good. Let’s do that. Yes. That would be good.”

“…You say my lord’s soul responded?”

Serena murmured, remembering one phrase from Olivia’s mad soliloquy that she couldn’t possibly ignore.

There was no need to ponder who “you three” referred to. But the expression about her lord’s soul responding continued to bother her.

The soul bond between her lord and herself, which was their covenant, immediately came to mind, but even that wasn’t a definitive answer. Hadn’t he said that the super-regeneration ability could restore even the soul?

So, Serena had no idea what correlation existed between her reaching another realm and her lord’s soul responding.

“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”

The stab wound that had appeared on Olivia’s lower abdomen was gradually healing. Seeing this, Serena frowned. Healing? That wound?

Even though it was half a success, that mark was a trace of cutting away even the fact that a body existed in that place. Ordinary healing magic shouldn’t even be able to counteract it.

Doubts piled up one after another, but there was no time to resolve them. Olivia, who had abruptly stopped her strange “kihihit” laughter, tilted her head with a creak.

“You can’t kill me with mere concept cutting.”

“Nonsense.”

Serena pointed the tip of Wind Shear at Olivia. There wasn’t a trace of hesitation in her movement.

“I’ll prove to you that your pathetic conjecture is wrong.”