City ​​of Witches 446

Chapter 446 – #93_Your Memory(4)

#445

1.
What jolted Siwoo’s fading consciousness was a dizzying sensation of falling.
Like a skydiver piercing through cumulonimbus clouds, Siwoo burst through the dark cloud of particles, and what he saw was:

A vast darkness, so immense that measuring its size was meaningless.
The totality of Amelia’s loneliness and sorrow.
Amelia, endlessly sinking into its depths.

He saw her, a woman who had spent her entire life circling through regret and remorse, ultimately choosing to be alone.
In the aquarium of solitude, where no earnest words could resonate, Amelia was slowly drowning.

“——!”

He called out Amelia’s name.
But Siwoo couldn’t even hear his own cry.

The violet magic that coiled around Amelia like a snake had finished its encroachment.
Even if she had severed the leash of Lilith, she hadn’t stopped the rampage itself.

Alone, one cannot be hurt.
By emptying one’s surroundings and retreating into one’s own world, a false peace can be found.
The desire to be left alone.

Amelia had chosen that.
With emotionless eyes, now a stark blue, she looked at Siwoo, unleashing a rough and violent magic.

Was he running?
Or was he simply falling?
He couldn’t tell, and it didn’t matter much.

The distance between them was still vast.
As far as the moon, floating hazily in the sky above.
The misunderstanding caused by disconnection, the gap that had widened because they couldn’t understand each other, or perhaps because they understood each other too deeply, seemed just as far.

But,
even at this moment, they were getting closer.

“——!”

Siwoo cried out again, a soundless scream, and simply reached out.
His body was already tattered.

Siwoo had nothing left: no Red Branch, no sturdy armor woven from shadows, no ribbons to move freely.
All that remained was a shabby body, soaked to the bone in Amelia’s particles.

He saw her hand slowly rising.
Amelia, already in a rampage, was unaware of anything around her.
She was trying to eliminate all impurities around her for the sake of a ‘world’ where she could be perfect alone.

Siwoo, having flipped through her memories, knew what would happen if he came into contact with the resonance Amelia would create with so many particles in her body.
He would become a handful of fleeting flower petals.
Even so, Siwoo chose to move forward.

-Kwaddeudeudeuk!

Siwoo felt the resistance of the magic tearing at his body.
As if warning him that he could not guarantee his safety if he came any closer, a sharp pain spread throughout his body. Behind him, the particles that had been swirling like dark clouds receded.
The sky, shining with pure white light as if the day had cleared, was not by Amelia’s will.

The magic that cut through the darkness, aimed at Siwoo and Amelia, looked like a spear of light.
Like the stern judgment of a god punishing foolishness, there was a resonance of magic within it that felt beyond sacred, even awe-inspiring.

There was no doubt.
It would be strange if the one who could use that level of magic with such precision in a distorted space was not the 24th-ranked Duke Erelim.

The scheduled 30 minutes had passed.
Even if he managed to push forward, that spear would pierce both Siwoo and Amelia.
Life was precious.
But not everything was more important than life.

Siwoo pushed through the magic that was binding his body like rose vines.
His clothes were torn and disheveled.
There were no major wounds on the surface, but on his bare hands and arms, there were bulging signs of ‘flowering.’

-Ting!

Even in a space where only silence existed, a sound rang in his ears.
A clear vibration, like lightly tapping a wine glass filled with water with a spoon, was punishing the uninvited guest who had not been granted access.

Siwoo saw it.
His left arm, stretched out forward.
The gorgeous flower that had begun to bloom at his fingertips was cleanly devouring one side of his hand.

“——!”

It was excruciating pain.
It would be foolish to hope that the sensation of muscles and bones separating and being eaten from the inside by an alien life form would not hurt.
The flower that had begun to sprout from his fingertips would not stop until it reached his heart, through his arm and shoulder, and spread throughout his body.

Siwoo had failed to block Amelia’s self-magnetic magic, and he had judged that it was impossible.
But he had seen the memories Amelia was hunting, the rules of the magic she was using, right next to her.
He had accumulated data that was incomparable to his first attempt.

“——!”

Bloom.
With a chant that screamed until his throat burst, a violent spark of magic raced through his body.

It was not normal magic.
It was nothing short of a self-harming magic that shattered his body’s magic circuits by consuming all his magic power.

The flowers that Amelia was blooming were ultimately seeds that had been sown in advance and were blooming due to the vibrations.
If the magic circuits through which the vibrations spread were in a state of shock, that is, if his body was temporarily in a state no different from that of an ordinary human, then the flowering would stop. He had bet everything on that hypothesis.

Whether the hypothesis was correct or not.
Or whether it was just an unknown complex phenomenon occurring in a random space, he didn’t know.
A shrill vibration passed through his body, but Siwoo barely managed to step into the void that seemed bottomless.

He clutched his left arm, which had half disappeared.
Amelia was within arm’s reach.
It had been a long journey.
The two, who had only been confirming their differences, could finally face each other.

“…….”

Gehenna, the city of witches that had lived its own life, separated from the present world for a long time.
Unique proverbs and sayings that do not exist anywhere else are created there.

Among them, there is a saying like this.
No human can stand on a rainbow.

A rainbow is a symbol of a splendid utopia and perfection.
Among humans, it is used to express that there can be no perfect person,
and among witches, it is a self-deprecating expression that no one can reach the level of the Witch of Creation.

He didn’t know about the latter, but in the case of the former, it was really true.
No human can stand on a rainbow.

Sometimes a trivial misunderstanding.
Sometimes immaturity.
Sometimes a wrong way of expressing love.
Sometimes hatred and resentment.
They hurt each other and create an irreversible breakdown in their relationship.

Fate is a humble flower that blooms on such a tangled pile of dirt.

If the being standing on the rainbow could be called a god, then to that god, that flower would look too insignificant and a worthless result that would easily wither.

But it is not so for humans.
Weak humans can be happy together and can smile at each other.

-Patsutsutsutsu!

Magic was still swirling from Amelia’s body.

No matter how excellent the engineer, they cannot stop a runaway train that has derailed.
In the sky, a pillar of light, guaranteed to be a fatal blow, was descending like the blade of a guillotine for execution.

All Siwoo, who had no strength left, could do was walk towards Amelia.
He had no other thought but to embrace Amelia, who had been suffering alone, gathering her misalignments.

They had met with such difficulty.
Would they have even 10 seconds left to be together?

Siwoo embraced Amelia.
He didn’t care at all how painful the magic was that was roughly stirring up his devastated body.
He was just uttering the words he had wanted to say so badly.
His lips, stained with blood from the cracks, opened.

“I’m sorry… I’m so late….”

Did these words reach her?
Even if it was the last moment, did it provide even the smallest comfort?
He held Amelia, who was frozen like a doll, carefully, so carefully.

“I won’t leave you now.”

The surroundings were getting brighter.
The heat sizzling above his head was immediately felt, and at the moment when the merciless judgment of God pierced the two of them.

Drip, drip.

Siwoo heard the sound of water droplets falling.
No.
It was the sound of tears trickling down and wetting his clothes.

From that point, the world that had lost its original color regained its own hue, and the dark particles scattered faintly.
The distorted and tangled space returned to its original state as if it were a lie.
Even the spear of light that had been pouring down towards his head turned into a huge pile of flowers and scattered.
The time that had been frozen coldly began to flow again.

-Pop! Pop! Pop!

The remaining sparks of the fireworks that had not yet ended decorated the sky.
The people who had gathered to enjoy the festival watched the shower of flowers scattering splendidly out of nowhere and shouted with a mixture of joy and admiration.

The collapsing world was gone.
The ferocious magic that had been tearing apart everything around it, and the sacred spear that had been trying to judge it, were also gone.

Instead, he felt a force pulling at his collar, filling the void.

Siwoo raised his head beyond his blurred vision.
There was Amelia.
There was Amelia, looking at Siwoo, not knowing what to do with her trembling hands.

“Siwoo… Siwoo… your arm… your arm is hurt….”

Even though she had wanted to see Siwoo again so badly.
Even though she had been so afraid of reuniting with Siwoo.
Amelia Merigold was endlessly shedding tears of worry, looking at Siwoo’s left arm that had been cut off.

Siwoo made eye contact with Amelia.
Amelia was just pulling at her clothes, as if she wanted to run away at any moment, like a guilty person.

Siwoo thought that Amelia, who was just moving her lips without knowing what to say, was truly like her.
Anyway, she would surely hear him now.

“Amelia-nim.”

When he called Amelia’s name, her body stiffened with tension.

“It’s all right.”

Siwoo lost consciousness and fell into Amelia’s arms.
Under his blurred thoughts, he repeated another saying of Gehenna.

God is cruel and does not give miracles… a cynical saying befitting a witch.

The aftermath of a magical rampage is proportional to the individual’s achievements.
Amelia had no ability to stop her own power that had already gone out of control.
That’s why it’s called a ‘rampage.’
However, Amelia not only withdrew her magic herself but also used her remaining power to offset even Duke Erelim’s magic.

For such an event that defies common sense, is it okay to call it a miracle given by God?
If not, then it’s childish and trite, but…

Perhaps a humble flower bloomed on a tangled pile of dirt.

A small but beautiful flower.