Chapter 903 – #197_The Witch Exists
#897
1.
An attack that re-enacts the angel’s judgment by consuming all symbolism.
Dorothy’s ‘Judgment’ was her last resort, risking everything.
The Day of Judgment signifies the day when heaven and earth are connected.
For a while, she wouldn’t even be able to borrow the symbolism of chapels and nun’s habits.
Of course, even if that were possible, she wouldn’t be able to do anything with the meager magic power she had left.
“Cough!”
What happened?
As she coughed, a sharp pain ran through her entire body.
It felt as if her body, which was like an empty shell with its insides hollowed out, was filled with cotton wool of pain.
Her magic power was depleted.
Her magic circuits, pushed to their limits, were not responding.
Dorothy slowly moved her unfocused eyes.
She realized anew that even moving her eyes consumed a certain amount of energy.
Even her large breasts, which she was usually proud of, now felt like a heavy burden, weighing down her breathing.
After blinking a few times, her vision, which had turned bright red, calmed down, and she could see the surrounding scenery.
Instead of a chapel, there was a garden.
In the middle of a golden garden, piled high with gold, silver, and jewels instead of flowers and trees, stood a beautiful set of scales.
It was quite large.
And it was probably inside Lydia’s barrier.
She belatedly recalled that before Lydia Magnus founded Solidus Trading Company, her witch name was ‘The Witch of Libra’.
On one side of the scale, a heart was placed, and on the other side, gold coins were falling in real-time, balancing the weight.
The side that had been tilted towards the heart was leveling out as the gold coins piled up.
She didn’t know the meaning of this space and the scales, but even with her slow brain, she was certain.
Lydia’s magic was working perfectly, which meant she had lost.
Her gamble, which she had been forced to make due to Lydia’s scheme, had failed.
“Dorothy, you’re not dead, are you?”
Lydia’s calm voice, as if driving a nail into a coffin, was heard.
“Ugh…”
Dorothy, with difficulty, turned her eyes again and frowned.
Lydia, exhaling a long stream of cigarette smoke, looked extremely grotesque.
One of her arms was twisted and pulled out, revealing a hideous cut.
The hand holding the pipe with her still intact arm had all its bones exposed.
Her intestines were spilling onto the floor, and her beautiful blonde hair was covered in blood, as if her skull, including her left eye, had been blown away.
Beneath her torn dress, her lungs could be seen wriggling with every breath she took between her ribs.
It was as if a necromantic witch had forcibly breathed life into the corpse of a beautiful woman who had been in an accident.
But that was only for a moment.
-Clink, clink, clink
Endless gold coins poured onto the scale.
As the two sides of the scale leveled out, Lydia’s body regenerated as if rewinding a video.
Lydia, who hadn’t even flinched despite suffering such injuries, was completely restored as if nothing had happened when the scale reached perfect balance.
-Whoosh
The other side of the barrier was lifted, and reality returned.
Dorothy writhed in the basement, covered in blood.
Lydia looked at Dorothy and exhaled smoke.
“It’d be a problem if you died. You’re more marketable alive. Didn’t I tell you? I’ll get back everything, with interest. Hey! Hey! Hey!”
“Pfft…”
Thick, red blood flowed from Dorothy’s mouth.
Lydia, who had been completely unconcerned, frowned and approached Dorothy.
She had bitten her tongue, squeezing out all her strength.
In a normal situation, it’s nearly impossible to die from biting your tongue, and if you’re a spirit, it’s practically impossible.
But if your body is already in a near-death state, there’s a chance of going into shock.
“You stubborn thing. Doesn’t it hurt?”
But Dorothy’s suicide attempt, as she didn’t want to be a burden, failed.
Lydia quickly healed and stopped Dorothy’s bleeding, and as a bonus, she put a special ‘collar’ on her that prevented her from drawing on her magic power.
“Your breasts are huge. What did you eat to grow like that?”
She used a cleansing spell to remove the bloodstains from her clothes and body, then laid her on the bed.
Although her visible injuries were healed, Dorothy still couldn’t move a finger.
She could barely manage to utter a single word.
“…What are you going to do with me?”
“Sell you for a high price, as always.”
Lydia, sitting casually at her bedside, stroked Dorothy’s hair as if asking what kind of question that was.
Lydia’s eyes no longer held the gaze of an enemy.
It was the gaze of a merchant carefully polishing a precious item displayed in the most visible spot on a store shelf.
“First, drink this.”
After stroking Dorothy’s hair for a while, Lydia took out a very luxurious glass bottle and put it to Dorothy’s mouth.
Inside, a green liquid with a mysterious glow was sloshing around.
“Ugh! Ugh!”
Since Lydia had blocked her nose, Dorothy had no choice but to gulp down the liquid that flowed into her mouth to avoid suffocating.
She was wary of the unidentified drug, but as soon as she drank it, she could feel the effects of the medicine seeping into her battered spirit.
Then, Lydia placed her hand on her forehead and used healing magic.
“I’m going to heal you, so don’t struggle. If you’re annoying, I’ll cut off your limbs.”
“What kind of trick is this?”
“Quality control of high-value goods is a merchant’s basic virtue.”
“You’re not falling for me, are you?”
“I wonder if you recovered your tongue for nothing.”
Since she was collared and had no strength to resist, Dorothy obediently accepted the healing magic.
Even though she had been captured, it was too early to give up.
It was necessary to restore her body to its full condition for any future opportunities.
But soon, an unbearable fatigue turned into drowsiness and overwhelmed her.
She was barely able to lift her eyelids, driven by a sense of duty to grasp the situation as much as possible.
And the fear of what might happen when she opened her eyes again.
“…”
Soon, a languor that no human willpower could withstand enveloped Dorothy.
Her spirit entered a sleep mode to heal the accumulated damage.
Lydia, holding onto Dorothy, who had fallen asleep as if she had fainted, continued to heal her for a long time.
“Hmm.”
Where should she sell this to get the highest price?
How should she navigate this situation to maximize her profits?
What was Lilith’s true intention in establishing a homunculus king and sending an army to the East Sea?
Although the seat was more comfortable than any first-class seat and the speed was faster than any express train, blindly believing in Lilith was like stepping onto a train bound for hell.
-I’m too sexy for my shirt Too sexy for my shirt So sexy it….
A ringtone went off from Lydia’s bag as she was healing Dorothy with ample time.
“Yeah, it’s me. What is it?”
It was a report from her secretary.
“Okay, I understand.”
Lydia, having received a report on the series of events that had occurred in the present world, let out a hollow laugh.
The landing of the homunculus army led by Lilith was a diversion.
The real major incident had occurred on the opposite side of the Pacific.
The Witch of Reverse, Urshula von Himmelslauf, had sunk the US fleet.
She had uploaded the propaganda video to the internet all over the world, and the White House had acknowledged it.
The ‘Concealment Treaty’ signed between the witches of Gehenna and the leaders of various countries had been broken, and the existence of witches had been revealed to the general public.
This was something Lydia had no idea about, so it must have been a secret matter carried out within the hardliners of Hexennacht.
Meanwhile, the fact that the ‘gate’ that defined witches and magic as ‘mysteries’ was stopping, and that homunculi were starting to operate outside the other side of the barrier, was something that even the hardliners had not predicted.
This was why the two different forces were quiet amidst these changes.
But the witches of the two cities, teeming with great witches, wouldn’t be trapped forever just because the gate had closed.
No matter how powerful Keter’s magic was, wasn’t it magic from 600 years ago?
The moment they burst out of the gate, an unprecedented chaos would ensue.
Hexennacht, with the hardliners in control, would prepare for war and world conquest.
Gehenna would not stand idly by.
“…If there’s a debt to be repaid, it has to be repaid.”
Lydia lifted Dorothy with telekinesis and left the basement.
2.
A video was uploaded to the internet.
The location was the middle of Myeongdong Street, where they sell expensive and tasteless food to tourists and are unfriendly to locals.
[I was out near the Myeongdong studio today because I’m scheduled to do a collab with Mr. Musick, but this is a real big deal!]
Amidst the shrill screams and people scattering in all directions, a man was stubbornly holding up a tripod for filming, going against the crowd.
[Do you see that? Do you see that, guys? Wow, this is crazy! This isn’t a hoax, it’s a real situation!]
A clumsy filming technique, alternating between filming his face and the scene.
Thanks to the advancement of technology, smartphone cameras were able to capture the video that the YouTuber wanted to capture, even in poor filming conditions.
[Monster! It’s a monster! A monster appeared, and it’s not even the Han River!]
It was as he said.
A monster was standing in the middle of the street.
It was about 2 meters tall.
It looked like a cheap rag doll made of cloth.
The protruding straw and the swaying movements made it look like a scarecrow moving in the wind.
The monster, with its black eyes densely packed all over its face and body, blinked and swayed through the stalls.
[Hoo… Hoo… Ah, this is crazy. It’s really scary, you know? I’m going to get a little closer. I’m a real man, after all, right? Oh, shit, I’m really scared.]
The YouTuber, lowering his voice and muttering curses, approached cautiously and then gasped.
He understood why people had run away so quickly after seeing the monster, which seemed unreal at first glance.
The scarecrow’s arms and legs were sharp blades that looked dangerous at first glance.
Moreover, it was stained with a sticky blood, as if it had already sliced through one or two people.
[I don’t think I can do this. If I go any further, I think I’ll really die. I’ve already reported it to the police, you know? I’m so scared I’m about to piss my pants, so I’m going to get out of here carefully. I’ll say it again, this isn’t a hoax, it’s a real incident.]
But in front of the YouTuber, who was speaking in a low voice like a mosquito, the scarecrow appeared as if it had been there from the beginning.
[Aaaah! Aaaah! Aaaah!]
The YouTuber screamed and ran away in a panic.
-Kyurukyuru
But the escape was meaningless.
The scarecrow let out a giggling sound and easily caught up with the YouTuber.
[Uaaah! Shit! Help me! Aaaah! Someone help!]
The fact that he didn’t drop the camera tripod even while screaming at the top of his lungs, to the point where the microphone was about to break, could be said to be an expression of his professional ethics.
-Kwirrrr!
[Hiek! Hieeeek!]
And the moment the scarecrow’s blade was about to slice his neck with a white flash.
-Clang!
Sparks flew in the air.
What was captured on camera was a knight who had appeared out of nowhere and blocked the monster and the YouTuber.
It was a black knight wearing black armor and holding a red spear.
“Hey, stop filming and run away.”
The black knight glanced back and said in a lackluster voice that didn’t convey any sense of tension.
