Chapter 1201 – #283_Counterattack(4)
#1195
1.
At the time when the war sentiment against Gehenna was at its peak, Hexennacht recruited Orselia Limos, the Witch of Proverbs, as their leader.
This was different from when they had promoted the ‘Witch of Aries’ as their figurehead.
Psyche Teagarden was practically a figurehead, while Orselia was given real command.
This was quite an unusual personnel move.
Just as the witches of Gehenna had pride and honor, the public also had their self-esteem.
Rather, they tended to cling to it more desperately because it was all they had to protect without any other social safety net.
The public society was a wilderness where you had to appear strong if you weren’t strong to survive.
However, they put Orselia, who had not helped in launching Hexennacht, and who had even caused numerous disputes with the Qliphoth, in the position of leader, even giving her enormous benefits.
If this wasn’t an unusual personnel move, what was it?
But there was a valid reason for it.
Orselia, the Witch of Proverbs, was the greatest force that Hexennacht, which was suffering from a strategic disadvantage at the time, could employ.
1 second.
The Gehenna witches, who were advancing, belatedly discovered Orselia.
Due to the abnormally contracted magic field caused by Orselia’s self-magnetic magic, which devoured magic power, her presence was detected late.
2 seconds.
Orselia leaped into the front lines of Gehenna’s familiars with her second jump.
At the same time, the purple mist ‘Predation Zone’ that unfolded from her body was activated.
3 seconds.
The familiars who were rushing to stop Orselia under the command of the summoning platform were literally crushed.
4 seconds.
Without even glancing at the familiars, Orselia, who had jumped again, landed in the middle of the Gehenna front lines.
She was smiling broadly, as if she was enjoying something, until her elegant beauty was distorted.
5 seconds.
The witches instinctively unleashed magic at Orselia.
The command from the command center was to ‘avoid engaging the Witch of Proverbs and immediately create distance,’ but it was too late.
The witches’ magic was swallowed into the purple mist and converted into Orselia’s prey.
6 seconds.
Orselia’s prey was not just magic.
Witches were her favorite ‘delicacy,’ and this place was a dinner table set with delicacies and gourmet food.
A black fissure that appeared on her side opened, and tentacles with dense, sharp teeth burst out explosively.
According to the advance information obtained by the chief of staff, it was the second liberation of Erysichthon.
7 seconds.
The witches, who had received instructions not to give her ‘food,’ immediately retreated.
Inside the Predation Zone, Erysichthon’s tentacles moved at an unbelievable speed.
Five witches who tried to escape were caught.
The caught witches tried to cut it off, burn it, and deploy defensive formations to shake it off.
However, the fate of the unfortunate witches entangled in the heteromorphic tentacles was decided at that point.
Despite their pathetic struggles, they were devoured without leaving a single bone fragment.
They had participated in the battle with honor and pride, but it was a death without honor or pride.
8 seconds.
Orselia’s presence, who had finished her gruesome meal as if a high-speed replay of an army ant’s predation video, instantly amplified.
She had digested the witches she had eaten and immediately converted it into power.
In addition, the range of the purple mist ‘Predation Zone’ that was spreading around her, and the ferocity of the hungry beast that was rampaging through the Predation Zone as if it were a water tank, had also doubled.
9 seconds.
Twelve more witches who failed to escape the predation range of Erysichthon became prey.
The radius of the Predation Zone expanded to 2km in an instant, completely blocking the advance.
It took less than 10 seconds for Orselia’s appearance to reverse the atmosphere of the battlefield.
“Hmm, is it because they are noble people? Their skin is so tender.”
Orselia, who was making an evaluation in a bizarrely echoing voice as if a crude autotune had been added.
Despite the sudden intrusion, Gehenna’s judgment of the situation was immediate.
To deal with Orselia, half-hearted assistance and support would only be a hindrance.
The time left until Siwoo returned and captured Orselia was about 2 minutes and 50 seconds.
They needed a high-ranking witch who could hold her alone.
In the case of Countess Metis Gremory, she would have to continue providing support fire, so Gehenna brought out the maximum force currently available.
“Oh my, what a very gracious reception? How did you know that I especially like blondes?”
“You have a filthy and disgusting taste.”
“That’s a prejudice. I even published a book on table manners in the 19th century, you know? It was a bestseller.”
Orselia, who was licking her pink lips and smiling as if she was ecstatic, and Amelia, who was blocking her path.
Amelia’s eyes were so cold that they felt like they would freeze everything they looked at.
In the past, Amelia had received a list of people to kill from Keter and had been subjugating public enemies and exiles.
Among them, there were several who had committed horrific atrocities.
All of those people had a foul stench.
“What’s your name? I know you’re the Witch of Perfume, but I forgot your real name.”
“It’s not a cheap name that a stray dog can pick up.”
“How coy.”
In that respect, the stench that Orselia emitted was on a different level.
A fundamentally twisted sense of morality and ethics.
A monster whose ugly nature had burst out of its human shell.
She was a ‘dangerous’ witch, more so than any witch she had ever encountered.
“I’m sorry for killing your friend, but don’t hate me too much.”
Orselia’s face, half-distorted by the cracks that had bloomed all over her body, did not even show a glimpse of her beauty.
“If I receive such a cold look of contempt….”
She intentionally induced a painful hunger that was close to a curse.
Orselia’s desire and longing for predation was the very foundation that sustained her.
She had been regretting that she had been spending that precious hunger on miscellaneous snacks, and then a delicacy had appeared.
It was only natural that her reason was shattered into pieces.
“I’m so, so, so, so excited to see the expression you’ll make and the screams you’ll let out when you’re chewed up and torn to pieces….”
Finally, Orselia was distorted to a bizarre degree.
Cracks resembling mouths spread across her skin, and Erysichthon, who had poked out from the crack in her waist, repeatedly opened and closed its mouths as if urging her to eat.
It was a terrible sight that could only be seen in a nightmare.
“A lady shouldn’t forget her dignity. Now, try to follow me. I’m so, so excited to see the expression you’ll make and the screams you’ll let out when you’re chewed up and torn to pieces…. So? What’s next?”
Orselia, who only tilted her head at Amelia’s provocation, had the corners of her mouth stretched wide to the left and right.
Between the bizarre smiles that reminded one of carnivorous plants, sharp teeth were densely protruding.
“That’s interesting. I’ll put you in a special ‘box’.”
In the mist that had already covered the surroundings, Erysichthon’s tentacles, which had sprouted like sea anemones, were nimbly swaying.
Amelia had seen how the tentacle strands, which were only the thickness of a twisted rope, could tear a witch to pieces with their ferocious power and appetite.
But there was something that shouldn’t be missed while being distracted by its digestive power.
The primary reason why Erysichthon was dangerous was the speed at which its tentacles moved.
Like Siwoo’s main weapon, the Maiden’s Loom, the tentacles, which had free movement and could freely expand and contract, were so fast that they could not be identified even with vision enhanced by magic.
Amelia had only calculated the movement of the particles she had spread in advance.
The speed of the tip of the tentacle when it was swung like a whip was 120 km/s.
Although it was the maximum instantaneous speed when the speed reached its peak, it was about 350 times the speed of sound.
This absurdly high-speed attack caused an explosion of 720 megajoules just by the impact of whipping through the air.
It was the energy that could easily collapse a medium-sized building, and the rumbling sounds that had been heard from all directions were caused by that explosion.
And there were thousands of such tentacles being swung.
If it was just a physical impact, it was a level that a witch could somehow deal with, but they had just seen what kind of ending awaited them the moment they were entangled at the end.
Amelia was not a witch with such great mobility.
She couldn’t avoid such high-speed and continuous attacks.
Then she would eliminate them before being hit.
“Weep.”
Amelia scattered magic particles that would become seeds around her.
If she scattered them too widely, they would only become Orselia’s food, so she reduced the range and maximized her control.
-Swish!
Just as the tentacle that was far away seemed to blur and then pounced in front of Amelia’s nose.
The seeds that had permeated the tentacle bloomed and scattered into a bunch of wildflowers.
“Not bad?”
Orselia continued her attack without caring.
After all, only one tentacle had disappeared, and she could repeat this kind of attack thousands of times.
-Whizz! Whizz!
-Swish! Swish!
Was it faster for Amelia to neutralize the tentacles at the right time, or for Erysichthon to digest the particles and crush Amelia as it was?
In other words, it was a contest of how quickly and rapidly one could control magic power.
Amelia’s elegant eyebrows, which had been exchanging blows like a tight tug-of-war, twitched.
Something was wrong.
-Bang!
While Amelia was buying time, Siwoo, who had succeeded in joining the main force, threw the ‘Sixth Indigo Spear: Birdcage’ with all his might.
Among the seven-colored spears, the ‘Birdcage’ was created in cooperation with R’lyeh.
It had two functions.
One was to simultaneously activate the ‘hunting rights’ and awaken the dormant homunculi on a wide scale.
The other was to confine the enemy and the user in R’lyeh’s ‘fish tank.’
Once inside, neither could get out or in until one of them fell.
If Orselia boasted immense power through predation in a battlefield where many were distributed, wouldn’t it be enough to create a forced one-on-one match, like Bianca’s ‘Flag of the Arena’ in the past?
“Oh, is it already time? That’s a shame.”
Ignoring Orselia’s lament, Amelia urgently told Siwoo, who was being sucked into the fish tank.
“Siwoo, be careful. Something….”
With the words that were not fully conveyed, Siwoo and Orselia were already standing in the middle of a strange city.
It was the first time for Orselia, but it was a familiar place for Siwoo.
It was a real medieval-style port city where he had an unavoidable something with his little aunt while hunting the Foreign Minister of Lakenlaken.
Orselia, who was not at all flustered by the sudden change of scenery, nonchalantly spread her arms wide.
“Hmm, it’s a shame that I couldn’t eat the appetizer, but I don’t mind the main course either. I really wanted to eat you.”
Siwoo quietly looked at Orselia.
He had seen it in the data, but it was even more disgusting in person.
It was like seeing huge horsehair worm strands coming out of the side of a squashed camel cricket.
It wasn’t just the appearance that was disgusting.
Her words and actions were all messed up.
Siwoo, who had dealt with quite a few crazy bitches, intuitively realized that Orselia was a mad dog comparable to Rosie Alue.
“Alright, it’s Act 2.”
And there was a lesson that Siwoo had learned while dealing with such crazy bitches.
Without hesitation, Siwoo took out the Red Branch and amplified the distortion field to the maximum.
“No. It’s your finale.”
The fact was that this Red Branch was quite effective against crazy bitches.
