Chapter 1203 – #284_The Witch Of Proverbs (2)
#1197
1.
About 50 meters.
“I’d trust you a little more if you had some armor on.”
“But if you were to slap my cheek while wearing that armor, my head would explode like a watermelon. That’s problematic.”
That was the distance where Orselia and Siwoo stood facing each other.
Normally, it was a distance too far for human interaction without relying on machines.
However, it was a sufficient distance for two beings, classified as transcendents even among witches, to converse.
It was also close enough to reach out and take each other’s lives in an instant.
“You’re planning to devour me the moment I take it off, aren’t you?”
“You’re such a coward for someone with such great power, aren’t you?”
“Provocation won’t work.”
To illustrate the danger created by the gap between them, it was like two sports cars playing chicken at 300 km/h, within 10 meters of each other.
At this moment, Siwoo considered many things.
He could launch a preemptive attack and immediately engage in close combat.
With his recent growth, Siwoo had the capabilities for mid-range and long-range combat befitting a great witch, but his comparative advantage was still in close-quarters combat.
Currently equipped with Titan, Siwoo’s close combat power even surpassed Eloa’s.
If he could get even closer, there was a chance he could end Orselia before she could even react.
He would snap her neck in an instant, plunge the red branch in, and finish it off with the ‘Green Window.’
“Then…”
“Don’t come closer. I don’t fully trust you either.”
As he subtly started to speak and took a step forward, Orselia took a step back.
On Orselia’s retreating face, there was a smile that was impossible to interpret.
It was as if she was regretting that they couldn’t get closer due to their lack of trust, or perhaps it was a mischievous attempt to tease the hesitant Siwoo.
It could also be that she had completely seen through Siwoo’s tricks and was mocking him, or it could be the impulsive action of a madman consumed by desire.
Although he had negotiated and conversed with many witches, it was his first time dealing with someone as twisted as Orselia.
He couldn’t make heads or tails of her.
If it was neither of those…
Was Orselia thinking the same thing as Siwoo?
To draw him in as close as possible.
From Siwoo’s perspective, Orselia had given up the 50-meter distance without any defense, but conversely, from Orselia’s perspective, it could be that a foolish and young male witch was walking towards the deadline, unable to resist temptation.
Either way, this much was certain.
Whatever Orselia’s scheme was, the fact that she allowed a 50-meter gap meant that she was confident in a sudden close-range battle.
“……”
“……”
The distance neither widened nor narrowed, and the two’s gazes collided.
After a long silence, Orselia broke the stillness with a soft voice.
“How do you see me?”
Orselia raised both arms as if surrendering.
It was a gesture that had no particular meaning for a witch, but generally indicated a lack of intention to fight.
She took a step forward.
She slowly walked towards Siwoo, who had not removed Titan.
“I am a mirror that reflects your heart.”
“Is this suddenly a riddle?”
“If you desire, I will also desire, if you are wary of me, I will also be wary of you, and if you try to kill me, I will also try to kill you.”
There was no sign of any magical surge from Orselia, who was getting closer little by little.
Siwoo had also suppressed his magic to the fullest, but it was his specialty to momentarily draw it out and unleash explosive power.
The distance between them was 10 meters.
Now, it was a distance where they could discern each other’s subtle expressions even without magic.
“I’ll ask again. You can see me better at this distance, right? Now, tell me what you think I desire, what you desire from me. I can be anything.”
From 46cm to 120cm.
Orselia approached without hesitation to the distance that Edward Hall defined as the distance of personal relationships.
Orselia’s bizarrely alluring naked body also made his eyes spin even more seductively.
Siwoo tried to see the essence lurking in Orselia’s deep purple eyes.
The benevolence of a saint who bestows endless compassion on the weak.
The lust of a harlot who seeks sexual pleasure even while wallowing in hellfire.
The madness of a tyrant who kills others without any malice when the mood strikes.
The desire of a beast that blindly pursues profit and seeks to grasp what it wants.
The emptiness of a skeptic who laughs at everything in the world and treats it like a lump of charcoal.
It was the same as before.
Orselia seemed like a collection of multiple entities, not a singular one.
As she said, she was like an amorphous monster that could transform into any form.
“Let’s be honest. Show me what you desire.”
But finally, he saw it.
Something black and sticky, like a lump of melted tar, with countless masks displayed like decorations.
This was Orselia’s essence.
It was death.
Siwoo’s senses, stretched to their limit, captured a scene that could never be seen in a face-to-face situation.
On Orselia’s entire back, who had approached under the guise of non-resistance and goodwill, were densely packed, deformed mouths without tongues, mouths, mouths, and mouths.
The teeth of a predator, ready to devour at any moment, shone like bars.
Of course, it wasn’t actually visible, but it was an imagination so vivid that it was no different from seeing it in front of his eyes.
From 0cm to 46cm was the distance of intimate relationships.
A distance where physical contact was possible, and only the minimum personal space for self-defense was required.
Orselia, who had entered that space, tilted her head with an innocent expression and asked.
“What should we do?”
The only parts of Titan that could be freely attached and detached were the groin and hands.
Siwoo detached the gauntlet.
“Aah.”
He reached out and gently grabbed Orselia’s chest.
The sensation itself was nothing short of ecstatic.
Skin that was much softer than it looked.
Skin that felt surprisingly hot and resilient.
Just the contact alone made him feel an urge to surrender to desire.
At the same time, he felt a chill that made him want to vomit.
It was because he had confirmed it intensely the moment he touched her body.
This female body was not just at the level of an ‘ideal body.’
Like the light on the forehead of an anglerfish, or like the sweet fragrance emitted by a carnivorous plant.
It was the very essence of a predator’s fatal temptation to prey on its victims.
It was nothing short of a powerful curse that made a male shake his hips like a monkey until the moment his head was torn off when their flesh touched.
“Hehe, it’s soft, isn’t it? My insides are even sweeter…”
Orselia, who was smiling as if indulging in his childish behavior, blinked, and Siwoo’s body moved like a comb.
-Crack!
In an instant, he released her chest and grabbed Orselia’s shoulder so hard that it would break.
Here, ‘so hard that it would break’ was not just a metaphor.
Orselia’s shoulder bone was crushed like a cookie by his grip, and the skin and muscles inside ruptured, flowing out between his fingers like a softened tomato.
In his other hand, he instantly wove a distortion field and created a red branch.
It was a short spear version that could be used in close combat.
A thick purple mist spread like ink from Orselia, who had grasped the situation.
-Thud!
But faster than that, the red branch, thrust upwards, pierced through Orselia’s jaw and popped out of the top of her head.
Her eyes, unable to withstand the sudden shock, rolled around in their sockets before bursting like trampled grapes, and her white teeth shattered as they collided with each other.
The reason he aimed for the head was due to his past combat experience.
What was more precious to a witch than her life was the preservation and transmission of her mark.
Just as men reacted faster to a kick to the testicles than a punch to the face, witches also instinctively reacted and prepared faster for attacks aimed at their marks.
-Thump
As he pulled out the red branch, he thoroughly ravaged the mark in her lower abdomen.
With the hand that had been holding her shoulder to prevent her from escaping, he twisted and pulled off her tattered head, confirming her death.
Orselia’s limbs twitched like a bug undergoing rigor mortis.
It was a scene more gruesome than any gore film, but Siwoo did not hesitate.
It wasn’t the first time he had seen such a scene.
He also knew that he had to be cruel when necessary.
And the confirmation bias that he couldn’t kill this monster unless he did this echoed like a mantra.
Still, he couldn’t help but feel disgusted.
“Sorry about that.”
Still, he had captured a dangerous enemy with minimal consumption.
In the end, as he left this fish tank, he would devastate this place with the Green Window and the Red Branch until no bug could live here for tens of thousands of years.
So that they wouldn’t even dream of resurrection or recovery.
“Aren’t you going to do anything?”
“…I guess not.”
Siwoo turned around.
There, a perfectly fine Orselia was squatting next to Orselia, who was mutilated like a prop from a gore movie.
“Aren’t you going to do necrophilia or something? Her lower half is still clean. Or maybe stare at the intact parts with a perverted gaze. Or perhaps recall the pitiful death of the beautiful woman who was alive just a moment ago and masturbate in a thrill.”
“Can’t we just make it easy? How did you come back to life?”
Siwoo drew up his magic power.
Orselia smiled.
“Anyway, you were thinking about this. This was your ‘longing.’ It’s quite normal compared to the rumors and your way of speaking, isn’t it? I thought you were definitely a pervert.”
It seemed that she had used some kind of magic like the ‘Poem of Confession’ to read Siwoo’s true intentions.
Considering that the corpse had disappeared cleanly, it seemed to be a kind of illusion.
It was a sophisticated illusion where it was difficult to even properly grasp where the illusion began and where the truth ended.
There was no way that the guy who was called the strongest in the 23rd tier was only good at summoning.
The ambush had failed.
Nothing would change.
“Bloom.”
Siwoo activated his magic.
“Since we’ve both been exposed, let’s have a proper fight. I’m sorry, but I can’t spend too much time on this.”
Orselia smiled wryly.
“We’re already fighting. In reality, that is.”
“What?”
“Your arm. Doesn’t it hurt?”
At Orselia’s words, Siwoo unconsciously looked down at his arm.
And he felt a sense of emptiness.
His right arm was gone, along with the armor.
A terrible pain, as if he had been burned, belatedly lacerated his brain, and the scenery in front of him changed.
A completely destroyed city, covered in purple mist.
“…What the hell…”
Siwoo was lying down, as if he had been thrown into the ruins of a collapsed bell tower.
His right arm was gone.
He had stopped the bleeding, so there was no blood, but his whole body throbbed as if it had been pressed once by a press machine.
In the distance, the dance of unreal tentacles was violently undulating, as if Cthulhu had descended.
