City ​​of Witches 739

Chapter 739 – #158_The Escape (2)

#739

1.
“Who is the Black Witch?”

The words slipped out of Zlata’s mouth, sounding genuinely puzzled.

Upon hearing that, Siwoo felt a chill of unknown origin.
It was more of an instinctive feeling than a rational judgment, the kind that makes your spine tingle.

Because there wasn’t even a hint of jest in Zlata’s expression.

After all, no matter how playful someone might be, would they make a joke out of a witch who had lost her apprentice and was grieving all day?

From what he had observed so far, Zlata wasn’t that malicious.
Rather, she was closer to someone who respected boundaries.

“…You’re really asking because you don’t know, right?”

Trying to deny that gut feeling, Siwoo looked towards Linne.
She had already changed into her clothes and he hoped she would provide a clear answer to this bizarre phenomenon.

“……”

However, Linne was also frowning, as if she couldn’t understand Siwoo’s words.
Unlike Zlata, she seemed to sense something ominous and was ready to draw her sword at any moment.

“Step aside for a moment.”

The Red Branch, which had been leaning against the wardrobe, flew into Siwoo’s hand as if drawn by a magnet.
He ran down the stairs and towards the room where Mama and Pina had been staying.

Something was going terribly wrong.
That thought was flashing in his mind like an alarm.

-Bang!

“……”

Inside the shabby room, originally used as a storage space, Mama was hugging Pina, endlessly stroking her cheek.
Her appearance, oblivious to the surrounding commotion, was the same as always.

Mama had been like that throughout her stay at Zlata’s mansion.

Submerged in grief and sadness, as if trapped in her own world, she wouldn’t properly communicate even when Siwoo opened the door to check on her.

“Wh-what is it? Who’s that?”
“……”

Zlata and Linne, who had followed Siwoo in a hurry, also looked surprised.
It was as if a being that hadn’t existed before had suddenly appeared.

That was what was strange.
Zlata herself had provided this room.
Moreover, it was Linne who had removed Mama’s collar and painstakingly brought her here.

At that moment, a noise occurred in his head.

No.
Had it really been that difficult to bring her here?

From Rosie’s mansion to Zlata’s apothecary, it had been a difficult journey, almost by sheer luck.

Siwoo had been busy taking care of Linne, who was on his back, and working on a joint concealment spell.
Manya and Malisha had been struggling just to keep up with Siwoo.

However, the part about how Mama had accompanied them was missing, as if it had been cut out.

“Who are you?”

Siwoo asked, pointing his spear.
Mama didn’t even look at Siwoo.
She just stroked Pina’s hair and opened her mouth.

“Truth and lies are like two sides of a thin card.”

The languid tone that followed was definitely Mama’s, but it sounded like a completely different person’s voice.

The color was different.
The tattered tone, like worn-out cloth, was now imbued with a fresh vitality, like a poisonous herb.

“Is what you’re seeing the truth?”

The unidentified witch made eye contact with Siwoo.
Her eyes, which had been like an opaque mirror, were now strangely clear and gleaming.

But the biggest change wasn’t that.

Without even blinking, Pina, who was in Mama’s arms, had turned into a pretty doll that a child would love.
The doll was wearing the same clothes that Pina had been wearing.

“Or is it a shallow lie?”

When he raised his gaze from the doll, he no longer saw the jet-black witch.

Instead, he saw a woman with voluminous blonde hair and a cruel smile.
It was Bianca Bellili, the public enemy who had cornered Siwoo using all sorts of artifacts.

“How is it? Fun, right?”

She tossed the doll aside carelessly and crossed her legs leisurely.
The witch’s transformation, from her smiling expression to her tone of voice and every gesture, was perfectly identical to Bianca.

-Whoosh!

Siwoo didn’t hesitate any longer.
It was because he had already vaguely grasped the identity of his opponent.

The one who had caused the most chaos and destruction in the history of witches.
The Whispering Witch.
He didn’t know what she was up to, but it was clear that it wasn’t out of good intentions.

Linne, who was in sync with him without needing to say a word, drew her sword from her waist in an instant and swung it at Lilith’s neck.

Since the situation was what it was, they couldn’t use magic that was powerful enough to leak outside.
Nevertheless, the sword and spear attacks that came from both sides were extremely sharp.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

However, Lilith’s head didn’t fly into the air.

He couldn’t even clearly discern what had happened.
But Linne’s sword and Siwoo’s spear each cut through the air in vain, and Lilith clicked her tongue slowly without even changing her posture.

“What are you plotting, Lilith?”
“Linne, I’m sorry, but I don’t have any business with you this time.”

Lilith didn’t flinch at all, even in the face of Linne’s piercing gaze, filled with hostility.

“Where is the Black Witch?”

His thoughts were in disarray.
When had the Black Witch become Lilith?
And when had Pina become a doll?

“Do you want to know?”

Lilith, who had been wearing a mischievous smile, lightly snapped her fingers.

At the same time, a reverse flow of memories began.

It was like entering a theater.
The memory of when he had entered Rosie’s collection room was being re-illuminated as if he were observing it from a third-person perspective.

‘Come on in? I don’t show this to just anyone.’

Rosie gestured with a very excited tone.
He wasn’t very keen on it.
However, because Rosie was urging him as if she wouldn’t leave the room unless Siwoo came, he reluctantly moved his feet.

‘How is our Mama? Isn’t she pretty?’

Rosie asked, rubbing her cheek against the witch from behind, as if hugging a large teddy bear.

No.
Rosie wasn’t ‘hugging a large teddy bear,’ but was hugging a large teddy bear itself.

“What is this?”

The following memory was from Siwoo’s perspective, when he had realized the identity of Rosie’s last collection and was shocked.

‘Pina, have you been well? You’ve been upset that I haven’t played with you lately, right?’

Like a child picking up a doll that had been thrown aside, Rosie sat Pina up and straightened her clothes.
She also brushed her tangled hair with a comb.

The doll’s appearance was also exactly the same as the Pina doll that was now rolling on the floor.
Lilith, who was causing more confusion than anyone, smiled and drove a wedge into the sense of incongruity.

“The Black Witch and her apprentice are already dead. 200 years ago, that is.”

So, were the atrocities that Rosie had committed against the mother and daughter for 10 years just a doll play?
Was Lilith the one who had deceived Rosie?
What kind of trick had she used to so easily deceive four great witches?

It was full of things he couldn’t understand.

However, Lilith didn’t give a more detailed explanation.
She was just observing Siwoo’s face, which was filled with bewilderment, as if savoring the chaos she had created.

“I really hate Keter. But I’m quite interested in you.”

Lilith offered a friendly remark to Siwoo, who was showing his vigilance.

“So, I’ll just give you a simple test and let you go.”

Lilith’s hand reached towards the sky.
On the surface, nothing seemed to happen, but the vibration that flowed into Siwoo’s ears was causing a sense of déjà vu.

-Screeeeeech!

It was a sound like drawing a huge bow.
Bianca’s artifact, the ‘Arkheart’s Bow’ that shoots at the sky.
It was such a wide-ranging magic that it couldn’t be observed inside the narrow mansion, but the bowstring was clearly being drawn towards the sky.

“Shoot.”

The moment the Whispering Witch, in Bianca’s form, recited Bianca’s incantation.

————!!!!!

A roar that reached the realm of a shockwave shook his lungs.

After the earth-shattering vibration, the mansion, which had been cleanly erased from the second floor upwards, revealed the sky.
The Arkheart’s Bow, which had been launched from the deepest part of the vertical city of Hexennacht, drew a huge line of destruction, piercing through the city and soaring high into the sky.
Several high-ranking witches who had been caught in the sudden attack were torn apart without even having time to scream.

“So, try to run away well.”
“You crazy bitch.”

This was a signal flare.
A signal flare to let them know that the root of all evil that had been making the city uneasy was here, so they should come and catch it.

-Clack, clack, clack

In less than 10 seconds, a palm-sized puppet doll flew in through the broken roof.
The red eyes of the monkey-like doll were looking at Linne and Siwoo.

Siwoo swung the Red Branch and smashed the puppet that was making a painful clicking sound.

But it was already too late.
They were already hell-bent on capturing Linne and the male witch.

It was too late to conceal their presence by destroying just one puppet, as too many watchful eyes were already on them.

By spirits and ghosts that appeared from somewhere, by bats, by invisible threads, by spirits, by compasses, by clairvoyance, by dolls, by premonitions, by magic eyes, by shikigami, by familiars.
Linne and Siwoo’s location was immediately pinpointed.

The gazes that were glaring from all directions, as if they were hunting prey, were enough to make their presence known.

“Well then, good luck.”

The moment the shadows covered her body like an eclipse, Lilith disappeared like a phantom.

-Goooooo!!!

Siwoo looked up at the sky through the broken roof.

In his magic eyes, which could intuitively perceive the flow of magic power, he could see the colorful magic fields that the witches, who had entered battle mode, were emitting.
Judging by the structure and precision of the magic fields, all of the dozens of witches were at least 20th rank or higher.

Like a constellation of stars heralding destruction and the end, they were rushing towards Siwoo and Linne.