Chapter 1059 – #251_A Story After Death (5)
#1053
1.
“Did you have fun all this time?”
The leader of the Nile team, affiliated with the Lehar Group.
20th Rank, Nile Balor.
Her witch title is ‘Witch of the Evil Eye’.
“You should have.”
Her base of operations.
Medellín, known as the second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá.
Following the death of the Witch of Desire, who once unified the South American drug cartels, she rose to become the matriarch of the Medellín Cartel.
“Because all that’s left for you is pain.”
Her main hideout.
The upscale bar of the hotel ‘Estelar Milla de Plata’.
“Hmm, scary.”
He probably found her after knowing all this.
“Are you alone?”
Having sensed that so much information had been deciphered, she had assumed the worst when she was ambushed.
However, Nile’s anxious eyes were now filled with desire.
Because she roughly understood the situation.
The Witch of the Path was a traitor who had allied with the Witch of the Sword for the sake of the male witch who had been captured by Hexennacht.
Considering various circumstances, it was presumed that the male witch and the Witch of the Path were lovers.
He probably sought out Nile to avenge his lover.
Foolishly, ‘alone’ in this public-filled South American continent.
Shin Siwoo.
The rumors about him are quite noisy.
Not only is he the only male witch in history, but he’s also said to be a disciple of Duke Tiferet, that he smashed Rosie Alu’s head in Hexennacht, and that he killed Urshula, the Witch of the Reverse Flow, alone.
However, most of the public do not believe those absurd rumors.
It’s a common occurrence.
A supernova shining with Gehenna’s unique false reputation.
The young men who were praised as if they would rewrite history, as if they were the most talented witches in history.
Nile had twisted the necks of many witches who were full of flowery rhetoric.
She had personally crushed their overbearing confidence to the ground.
Most of them didn’t know combat, they didn’t know how to fight.
They didn’t know the true meaning of the phrase ‘by any means necessary’.
“He’s tempting.”
But even if Shin Siwoo’s reputation was false, his essence was still sweet.
The male witch before her was a rare trophy that could easily buy a country.
“Gaze upon me.”
Magic power settled in Nile’s upturned eyes.
Intoxicated by revenge, intoxicated by playing the role of a tragic hero.
She ‘saw’ Shin Siwoo, who was standing blankly while delivering a plausible line.
-Thud!!!
All the objects in the space that Nile captured in her vision turned grayish-white.
It wasn’t just that they lost their color.
They had lost their original material and properties, and had simply turned into lumps of stone.
A curse that appears in various myths and legends, Nile’s first Evil Eye, the ‘Evil Eye of Petrification’.
It was as fleeting as the moment a camera shutter captures a subject, but it was not a direct hit.
The Red Knight had disappeared.
More precisely, the space rippled and vanished.
Not just a simple high-speed movement, but dimensional magic.
A normal witch would have been flustered and frozen, but Nile’s reaction was swift.
She turned around in response to the strange magical wave and shadow she felt behind her.
-Whoosh!
What cast a shadow over Nile’s head in the high-ceilinged upscale bar was not the Red Knight, but a huge wooden table.
The Evil Eye of Petrification only works if the target is within sight.
If there is an obstacle, it acts as a cover.
“Not a chance!”
But if Nile’s only talent was petrification, she wouldn’t have secured a place in the harsh world of public enemies.
-Screeeech!
Along with a strange vibration of metal fragments being ground, the table that had turned into a stone was twisted.
Unlike the Evil Eye of Petrification, the ‘Evil Eye of Destruction’ crushes objects within sight.
It has the disadvantage of a narrower effective viewing angle, but its power is on a different level.
Nile’s winning pattern was to restrict movement with petrification and finish with destruction.
If he was just using a table as cover, she could just destroy everything behind it.
“He’s not there…?”
-Crack!
But contrary to expectations.
The Red Knight was nowhere to be seen among the wreckage of the table, which was twisted beyond recognition.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
The turn had passed.
Nile sensed the situation and looked around.
At the same time, she prepared a new Evil Eye.
In the darkness created by the shattered lights, the Red Knight was rushing in like a beast hunting its prey.
“Gaze upon me!”
Nile’s third Evil Eye, the ‘Evil Eye of the Forbidden Realm’, which captured the sprint, shone.
Its effect is ‘stop’, to slow down moving objects to a speed infinitely close to 0.
Compared to petrification and destruction, its power itself can be said to be a degraded version.
But this Evil Eye of the Forbidden Realm is Nile’s hidden trump card.
If ‘petrification’ and ‘destruction’ are the shutter of a camera, the Forbidden Realm is video recording.
As long as she is looking at it, it works constantly, so it perfectly complements the gaps of the other two Evil Eyes, which have a delay in casting, as well as buying time and checking.
-Screeeeeech!
The movement of the Red Knight, who was sprinting with a red afterimage at a speed that was difficult to follow with the naked eye, showed a visible burden.
His movements slowed down as if he were moving through water.
The force trying to move forward and the force trying to stop sharply opposed each other, scattering red sparks.
Got him.
If she was a witch with a normal body, or a witch with a means of response, it wouldn’t be difficult to avoid either ‘petrification’ or ‘destruction’.
But could she avoid petrification and destruction even when restricted by the Forbidden Realm?
Nile was sure of her victory.
“Bloom.”
That was until she saw the fiercely burning golden ring above his head.
-Kiiiiiiiiing!
The fiercely burning golden magic power soon turned red.
Red spreading along the blood vessels of the crimson armor.
The Red Knight, who had been struggling like he was caught in a tough net, accelerated several times in an instant.
The ground he stepped on shattered and scattered, and amidst the collision of scattering magic power and the brilliantly shattering flames.
Nile made a choice.
To derive the optimal tactic no matter what unexpected situation she faced.
Improvisation that could only be honed in countless life-threatening battles.
There was no point in trying to avoid it now.
The reason why the Red Knight, who had been avoiding her Evil Eyes, had revealed himself in front was surely to fight head-on.
She would maintain the ‘Forbidden Realm’ with her right eye as much as possible, grab him once more with ‘petrification’ with her left eye, and then finish him off with ‘destruction’.
A do-or-die chicken game decided by who was faster.
“Ah…”
But contrary to Nile’s expectations, the Red Knight, who had leaped at a diagonal angle instead of head-on, casually let the petrification flow away.
As if he had never intended to break through head-on in the first place.
At the same time, one of Nile’s eyes went dark with terrible pain.
As the Red Knight passed by Nile, the tip of the spear he had casually thrust out pierced her left eye.
“————Aaaaaaah!!!!”
With a chilling scream, Nile collapsed, covering her face.
The Evil Eye is the beginning and end of Nile’s self-magic.
Therefore, she had taken basic protection and countermeasures for her ‘eyes’.
But as if to say that such things were meaningless, the red spear easily burst Nile’s eyeball as if it were stirring a soft jelly.
“Ugh! Uwaaaah!”
Nile shed tears of blood and vomited repeatedly.
She had the courage and experience not to bat an eye at moderate pain, but this was not just simple pain.
An unknown, strange distortion was searing her affected area with an intense pain as if burning her entire frontal lobe.
“You, you biiitch!”
Where had she been mistaken?
Was it because she thought he was a young witch who still lacked experience?
Or was it because of her prejudice that he was from Gehenna?
Or was it because of the rumor that he was a disciple of Duke Tiferet, who always used honest tactics?
She had never imagined that he would dodge her attack as if responding head-on and calmly stab her eyeball.
She had not expected him to carry out such a murderous attack so calmly.
“Ugh!”
Ribbons that wrapped around Nile’s body, which was belatedly trying to recover, fixed her to the ground as if she were a specimen.
Her bones were crushed by the immense physical force that made it impossible for her to struggle even with all her might.
“It hurts, right? I’ve been through it, and it’s no joke.”
Nile saw the red shadow cast over her head.
She saw the spear tip that nonchalantly pierced her other good eye, before she could even stop him, along with his playful banter.
“————!!!!!”
A sharp scream once again soaked the quiet bar with gushing blood.
The struggling of the witch who had lost both eyes was pitiful and desperate, but she could not break free from her restraints.
“You, you bastard… You… do you know who I am? I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.”
All Nile could do was to mutter empty curses venomously.
“I’ve never been able to understand it.”
He, who had been silent for a long time, finally opened his mouth.
“I couldn’t understand why you could be so vicious, what you were so desperate for, how you could so easily throw off the shackles of humanity you speak of. I couldn’t understand.”
It was a cold and indifferent voice.
Not a trace of sympathy or pity, or the elation of a victor intoxicated by a life-or-death battle, desire, or pleasure.
The inorganic tone overwhelmed Nile.
“But now. I think I can understand you a little.”
Nile held her breath.
The smoke from a strong cigarette lingered at the tip of her nose.
“Tell me. The location of the other teams affiliated with the Lehar Group. And the logistics fleet heading to Hexennacht. If you cooperate, I’ll spare your life.”
She could tell even without seeing.
Nile, who handles the Evil Eye, has even opened her mind’s eye.
Although it was a roughly drawn croquis, she could tell that his spear was aimed at Nile’s defenseless heart.
She also knew that he would pierce her heart without hesitation as soon as she finished answering.
“…Team Betelgeuse, not far from here.”
Nevertheless, the reason why Nile readily spat out the information was because of fear.
The fear that she couldn’t gauge how far he could go to extract information.
The feeling of giving up, wanting to tell the truth and be at peace quickly.
“Good job.”
As soon as she finished answering, a red branch pierced her heart like a fork stabbing a cake.
The bar of the hotel, which had turned into ruins like a shattered craft.
Dark red blood following Nile’s motionless arm.
A beautiful lotus flower that leisurely absorbed everything from the three public enemies.
“……”
Siwoo, who had been watching it carefully, threw the half-smoked cigarette at her head and turned away.
