City ​​of Witches 635

Chapter 635 – #128_Labyrinth(6)

#635

1.
The pure white blade of the sword rang out coldly.
The contract sword, already swung several times at the enemy’s vitals, repeatedly failed to do its job, only sparking in the air.

-Clang! Clang! Clang!

“Huu!”

As Elroa inhaled, her small frame shrank further, spinning at an extreme speed.
When the rotation reached its critical point, the sword, flung using the centrifugal acceleration, clashed with the greatsword once more.

Many witches would be shocked to see this sight.

Duchess Tiferet, a witch who had modified all her magic for close combat.
That there was an opponent who could parry her full-power sword strikes with a ‘sword’ no less, despite her being a 23rd-level witch.

However, if they realized who her opponent was, they would nod in understanding.

‘The Sword Witch,’ Linne Samakiel.

Like Tiferet, she was a 22nd-level public enemy who had adopted a rather unorthodox fighting style,
a witch who had cut down countless strong opponents with her single-edged straight sword as her weapon.

If Tiferet’s sword, dedicated to the stability of the witch society, was an object of reverence,
then Linne Samakiel’s sword, wielded for her own stubbornness, was an object of terror.

Sometimes against public enemies, sometimes against nobles of Gehenna, sometimes against homunculi, the indiscriminate purpose of her sword was only the pursuit of ‘strength.’

Only she knew how many witches’ heads had rolled at her feet for that purpose.

What was certain, however, was that the swordsmanship she had perfected by building a mountain of corpses was also a threat to Elroa.

———!

A sword that pierced like a snake, following Elroa’s already futile sword path.
The sword strike, which had seeped in without a sound despite its ominous aura, aimed at her neck and heart in two directions.

If she tried to block one side rashly, it would change direction and target the gap.
Unlike the sharp and rational sword path, it was a sticky swordsmanship that clung like mud.

Elroa pulled her body back, attempting to nullify the either-or choice itself.
As if she had expected it, the greatsword completely changed direction and pierced even deeper.

Despite the inevitable counter-movement due to the human body structure, there was no deceleration, nor any sign of strain on her body.

Inertia control that violated the laws of physics.
It was Linne’s magnetic magic, and the reason why her sword was so tricky.

The range of application was not very wide, limited to the level of freely controlling the inertia acting on her own body.

However, if a seemingly insignificant ability was fused with master-level swordsmanship, the result was truly atrocious.
A swordsmanship that could not exist in reality was born.

The sword that had disappeared to the left would immediately surge from below, or the sword that had clearly been deflected would fly towards her neck without any deceleration.
Linne could swing her sword without risk because she could recover her attack even if she exposed a gap.
Conversely, Elroa was restricted in her actions because even the slightest gap would result in a fatal counterattack.

Naturally, she was forced into an unpleasant fight.

-Clang!

Elroa and Linne’s figures crossed paths.

“……”

The burning pain that came belatedly and the thin line drawn on Elroa’s cheek.
On the other hand, Elroa had cut Linne’s waist as she passed by.

If this battle had been between the two of them alone, Linne would have collapsed, spilling her intestines on the floor.
At the very least, she would have suffered a fatal injury that would have hindered her in battle.

However, what was transmitted to her hand was not the sensation of cutting flesh.
It was the sensation of something hard breaking.

The reason why Elroa had been struggling for more than 15 minutes against the Sword Witch, who had already won several victories.
It was because of the two witches who were acting as her assistants.

First of all, the identity of this sensation was probably the ‘bone shield’ used by the ‘Corpse Witch.’

As befitting the ‘Corpse Witch,’ who would come to mind when hearing the word necromancer, it was a magic that summoned a sturdy shield in exchange for a corpse.

The reason why Elroa was speculating ‘probably’ was because she could not visually confirm Linne’s appearance as she had distanced herself.

Left alone in the darkness again, Elroa composed herself, calmly waiting for the attacks that would pour in from all directions.
Flames flickered in her pink eyes, which held a nonchalant murderous intent.

“Hurry up and do something!”
“Why can’t you kill her yet?”

Elroa was having her own struggles, but the emotions felt by the Corpse Witch and the Silent Witch, who were watching her, were not calm either.

Was that really the same witch?

She had already used three corpses.
It meant that the bone shield, which had focused solely on defense, excluding all other functions, had been shattered three times.

Moreover, it was not just the Corpse Witch who was intervening in the battle.

“Are you sure you’re casting the curse properly?”
“Of course? She’s practically half-blind. Don’t you have any more useful magic?”
“Shut up! You know I’m preparing right now.”

Elroa was already under the ‘Sinking Butterfly’ curse of the ‘Silent Witch,’ who specialized in curses and chains.

A curse-type magic that completely blocked the five senses of the cursed.
Although Elroa was originally of a high rank and possessed the ‘Eye of Truth,’ she was already engaged in another battle and had difficulty concentrating on dispelling the curse.

Therefore, the Sinking Butterfly had steadily narrowed Elroa’s range of sight, hearing, and magic detection to within 1 meter.
Right now, it would be difficult for her to even grasp the opponent’s position unless they were close enough to clash swords.

Yet, instead of being defeated, she was still radiating the same unwavering spirit.

At that point, the same question could not help but arise.

“Can we really win this…?”
“Samakiel! What are you dawdling for! Go and fight already! The curse will be lifted at this rate!”

Linne, who had been silently preparing her stance, threw a murderous gaze behind her.

Although she was taciturn and had almost no emotional fluctuations, the emotions she felt in this situation were intense.
Envy, jealousy, anger.

How could she not break through Tiferet’s barrier even though she was fighting from such an advantageous position?

“…She’s ahead again.”

No.
That was not it.
If it were the Tiferet that Linne knew, she would have been on the defensive by now.

Even if she had been responding with a purely defensive stance, she would have left some deep wounds.

However, Tiferet, who she thought had already been perfected 20 years ago, had become even stronger.
It was as if she had been constantly sparring with swordsmen of a similar technical level.

She was drifting further away again.
Unlike her base jealousy and anger, Linne had finished her judgment calmly.

She had to implement the prepared Plan B.

“Corpse, prepare.”
“Just do it already! You just wasted a sacrifice!”

Elroa, who had been left in the darkness, took advantage of the lull in attacks to concentrate on dispelling the curse.
Her darkened vision slowly brightened, and her severed cognitive abilities returned.

“Okay, now’s the time!”

In front of her, the Corpse Witch, who had prepared a trump card magic to face Tiferet, was speaking in a triumphant voice.

The first thing that caught Elroa’s eye was the figure of someone all too familiar.

A witch holding a practice sword.
Flowing hair and eyes that shone pink like Elroa’s.

No, if it was shining, those eyes were too lifeless.
It was as if she had resurrected a corpse.

Someone she had never forgotten for a single moment.
Someone she had once lost by mistake.
Lapi Tiferet.

“How is it? Can you still swing your sword against your former disciple?”

This was Plan B.
A method to induce Tiferet’s agitation and create an opening.

It was to reproduce the image extracted from Aea Sadalmelik’s memories on the ‘Death Knight.’

According to the investigation, Tiferet was psychologically fragile and suffered from severe trauma regarding her disciple’s death.

What kind of confusion would she experience if she saw her resurrected disciple swinging a sword at her?
She probably wouldn’t even try to clash swords.

Although it was a familiar, the Death Knight was the best familiar that the Corpse Witch was proud of.

In a battle that was in a delicate balance, if such psychological agitation and obstacles were created, it would be an even more difficult fight, no matter how strong Tiferet was.

The Corpse Witch, who had such thoughts, realized that her judgment was clearly wrong.

“————!!!”

Tiferet began to roar like a beast that had lost its cub.
The Corpse Witch, who had been smiling at the wails that had originally started with sorrow, soon had her expression harden at the chilling sensation that seemed to scrape her spine.

Her eyes were rolling back.
She never thought she would actually see that expression, which was only used as an idiom.

Tiferet, who had instantly identified the culprit of the terrible atrocity with her bloodshot eyes, met her gaze filled with dense murderous intent, and her legs gave way as if she were standing in front of a wild beast with her bare body.

“Th, this shit…”

There was no need to be scared.
The anger that only focused on what was right in front of her was also a clear sign of agitation.
If the Silent Witch and the Sword Witch could take advantage of this gap…

“What are you guys doing!”

The Corpse Witch, who was belatedly looking around as if searching for a lifeline, had to reconfirm the situation she was in.

The two were gone.
She was left alone.

What this meant was clear.

The two had escaped while the Corpse Witch was distracted by casting her magic.
From the start, Plan B was a plan to use her as bait and have the rest of the group escape.

-Crack

Elroa’s hand gripped the sword hilt so hard it felt like it would break.

The thought of the other people who had escaped had completely evaporated.
The only thing she could see was the act of killing the vicious public enemy who was even mocking her beloved disciple’s death.

The 12 letters engraved on the sword’s blade shone at once.

“B, block it!”

The Corpse Witch tried to stop Tiferet somehow.
Unfortunately, the Death Knight could not even graze Tiferet’s clothes.

Elroa, who had leaped at a speed that even she could not properly perceive, swung her sword.

“Ah…”

The Corpse Witch stared blankly at her severed arm.
The extremely sharp sword strike did not even give her a chance to feel pain.

The easy cut, as if trimming a protruding rose branch, was so effortless that it was hard to believe that it was the process of a body part being severed.

Amidst the ominous murderous intent that could be physically sensed, the Corpse Witch realized as she looked at Duchess Tiferet.

Even when facing three people, she had not been using her full power.
She had only been conserving her strength to secure a definite victory.

To provoke and distract her by stimulating her trauma was absurd.

From the start, she was an opponent that should not have been touched.
No matter what method they used, there was no way they could face such a monster.

Regret was always too late, no matter how early it came.
The last scene the Corpse Witch saw was a spectacle of hundreds of pure white sword strikes filling her vision.