City ​​of Witches 1226

Chapter 1226 – #287_The Witch Of The Constellation (6)

#1220

1.
“What?”
“Is it over?”
“Really? Is it over just like that?”

The puppets of the box—Arca—who had cooperated under the contract with Siwoo to regain their bodies if they defeated Erelim, were dumbfounded.

The fight was over.
Due to Shin Siwoo’s defeat.

The link with Shin Siwoo was severed, and the glass window inside the mansion that allowed them to observe the outside world closed.
The witches who had gathered to help him slumped their shoulders in vain.

“The opponent was Duke Erelim, after all.”
“But, I thought it would be different after catching that monster, Orseria…”
“It really was absurd…”

In the long silence, everyone felt dejected.

They were tools.
They had lived as tools for at least several years, and up to hundreds of years.

But a prince who didn’t see them as tools and promised to save them… a prince who was a bit strange in the head and had a wall, but anyway, a witch-riding prince had appeared, and they had reached such a futile end.

“He didn’t seem like a bad person…”
“Luna, are you crying?”
“…I’m not.”

Now, their fate was about to be handed back to Duke Erelim.

If Duke Erelim was the same Duke Erelim from their memories, there would still be some hope, but after hearing the situation from Shin Siwoo, she had become a public enemy.
And there was no way a public enemy who didn’t care about others’ opinions would give up such highly efficient artifacts.

“Huh?! The link is back on?”
“What? Really?”

As Amira, who was in charge of the nodes’ intersection, exclaimed with a brightened face.

-Kugugugugung!!!

“Aaaah! What is this?!”
“Dodge! Dodge! Everyone, dodge!”

The mansion shook like a train overturning, with the sensation of the entire mansion being thrown.

-Kugugugu….

The vibrations gradually subsided, and the witches, who had been huddled in various places like frightened chicks, peeked out the window.

Beyond the shattered glass, all they could see was a black landscape like outer space.
They knew what this scene was.

It was the Aein.

The entity connected to the box—Arca—was Siwoo, not the Black Knight.

As soon as Siwoo, who was trapped in his subconscious, regained his senses, he was dragged into the depths of his subconscious, as if he had dived with a heavy stone tied to his waist.

They didn’t know why Shin Siwoo was alive and inside the Aein.
Besides that, they didn’t know what was going on at all….

But they saw it.

-Chwararareuk cheolkeok chwararareuk cheolkeok

Siwoo, who had even forgotten that Arca had appeared, was staring at the Aein’s structure.
In response, the Aein’s magnificent structure was dismantled and reassembled repeatedly.

Each time, a huge roar and the sound of precisely meshing machinery echoed in the black space.

“…He’s tearing down the Aein and rebuilding it?”
“Good heavens…”

From a witch’s perspective, that was definitely insane.
Dismantling all of the Aein’s structures was no different from resetting all the codes that had been built up so far.

Even if the materials remained, there was no guarantee that the newly built structure would have higher efficiency and optimization than the existing one, and if that were the case, it would be nearly impossible to perfectly restore it to its former state.

It was most shocking that the results being completed were by no means inferior to the existing structures, even though it seemed like a final desperate act after giving up.

“Is it a male witch perk…? Can all men do that if they become witches?”

No.

In the case of the Black Knight, he was able to do it with the computational power to calculate all variables.
Siwoo was born with outstanding intuition and, although not as good as the Black Knight, he also had excellent computational power, making the impossible possible.

Since the collected materials were here and wouldn’t disappear, he just had to reassemble them.
It was simple in theory, but he was performing a miracle in an impossible realm.

“…It’s not enough.”

It was a sight that seemed like a miracle to the witches in the box, but Siwoo felt it keenly.

It wasn’t enough.
Siwoo was already looking at the answer sheet that Black Siwoo had completed.

But that was not an area that Siwoo could imitate.

It was a distorted realm that could only be reached by sacrificing the entire brain for computational power.
With Siwoo’s current skills, trying to imitate it would only result in a cheap imitation.

In the first place, Black Siwoo’s methodology was only for him.

“……”

He steeled himself.

Until now, when reassembling the Aein, Siwoo had at least left the foundation and framework.

But he gave up on everything.
With the mindset of starting over from the beginning, he redefined the magic he held in his hands.

In fact, even if he struggled like this, he didn’t know if it would work out properly.

If Erelim defeated Black Siwoo, the situation would be over.
What Siwoo was doing would be futile.
Even if he found new power here, there was no guarantee that it would break through the ‘door’ and gain control of the surface consciousness.

But such an uncertain future didn’t enter Siwoo’s mind.

In a state of trance, with a burning sensation as if his brain was on fire, he took one step at a time.
He just moved forward.

2.
Perfect.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this word exists for Blanche Erelim.

The sum total of wisdom passed down from ancient times.
She, who handles the Heavenly Void Record, has no weaknesses or incompatibilities.

If the enemy is a witch who mainly uses symbolic systems, she can use magic that is toxic to symbols.
If the enemy is a witch who mainly uses concepts, she can use magic that is difficult for concepts to interfere with.

She is an unreasonable powerhouse who can freely dig into the weakest part of any opponent.

In short.
It means that Shin Siwoo is an even more unreasonable powerhouse than her.

-Giiiiiing Kwaang!

Erelim’s body, which soared like a butterfly, pierced through the seemingly seamless branches of the barrier, as if distorting space-time.

The enemy’s attack grazed her ear.
A precarious dance where a single mistake could cost everything.
A life-and-death struggle that Blanche Erelim was all too familiar with.

Erelim adapted to the battle every moment.
Meaningless evasive movements decreased, and her attacks became sharper and more precise.

The Black Knight avoided close combat with Erelim and kept his distance, but Erelim was superior in pure speed.
In the aerial dogfight where countless spells exploded, Erelim’s wings contracted once more.

-Kwajik!

Erelim shot up through the gap in space that was crushed by Shin Siwoo’s hand movement.
One wing was barely torn off.

The excruciating pain, as if her insides were being torn apart, turned Erelim’s stomach upside down.
A moment ago, Erelim had an overwhelming advantage over Siwoo, but now, even approaching him was difficult.

The disadvantage in power, which she hadn’t felt in who knows how long, chilled her heart with a shudder.

“Ah…”

Regardless, looking at his magic, she couldn’t help but feel awe.
It was the pure respect that someone who had devoted their entire life, decades more than a human’s lifespan, solely to magic could have.

There was another point that made her feel even more awe.

It was that ‘Shin Siwoo’ was getting stronger even at this very moment, as if assembling magic that only existed in theory and blueprints, finding problems, and supplementing them.

The magic became more precise and grand.
The attacks became sharper and more seamless.

A dazzling technique that was difficult to even grasp how many moves ahead he was seeing.

Even a single strand of magic that he casually threw out contained the greatness that any witch would make their lifelong goal.

Indeed, it was worthy of being the legacy left by the great Keter.
The thrilling beauty that she had always admired from afar and had always obeyed was being reproduced….

It was also despair.

“Bloom.”

Erelim’s other-dimensional barrier, ‘Spirit Tomb,’ was being painted over.
Like the dawn pushing back the darkness. Shin Siwoo had invaded the space that was made up of her inner world.

As if the background was changed by stage equipment during a play, the golden landscape that rose from the horizon proudly pushed back half of the deep green world.

The landscape was an object made up of huge gears, springs, and celestial devices.

The epitome of mechanical aesthetics, where countless large and small devices, numbering in the hundreds of millions or more, meshed together without a single error, Laplace’s demon.

The sound of the huge gears meshing was like the heartbeat of a giant shaking the heavens and the earth.
The hazy starlight that had risen above the Spirit Tomb’s sky was crushed by the dazzling light that was scattered.

Erelim, who had originally been ahead of Shin Siwoo. The gap that had seemed so distant. It was closing at a terrifying speed.

Now, she had barely managed to lead a fifty-fifty battle, but it seemed that the balance would soon collapse.

“……”

Erelim looked.
At the tombstones of those who were now few to remember, those whom only Erelim mourned and remembered.
At Shin Siwoo, who shone brilliantly, as if mocking all their efforts and struggles as futile.

Shin Siwoo, who was merely a shadow left by Keter, said.

This is reality.

The witches you cherished are just remnants of the old era.
They are just branches that should have naturally become obsolete, blocked by the limitations of the system.
Your efforts to gather and cherish the abandoned were all in vain.

“No, that’s not true.”

As if reversing the blooming of a flower, Erelim’s Akashic wings took the form of a flower bud.
The pure white light that gathered at the tip of the petals converged into a single point.

It was a prayer.

The despair of those who had reached their limits, the regret of those who had devoted their lives, the surrender of those who could no longer postpone, the lament of those who wanted to leave their grand dreams to future generations.

But the only thing they had in common at the last moment of their lives was a pure resentment towards magic.

The crystallization of the remaining will soon became a single light in the hands of the queen who led the abandoned.

“Revere!!!”

The origin that existed before magic even took the form of magic was aimed at Shin Siwoo.

-Cheolkeok! Cheolkeok!

Shin Siwoo responded to it.
A defensive formation that was squeezed out as if spat out by a huge machine that occupied half the world.
A barrier that seemed impossible to break through, from its size to its hardness to its responsiveness, protected him.

The light was fired.
The purest light, like the origin of the world.

What Erelim held in her grasp was not just the obsession of one person.

The weight of the karma on her back was different.
Everyone had a mission. There was a reason why they had to surpass him.
She couldn’t make the end of those who were sleeping under these tombstones meaningless.

————!!!!!

The pure white light that ran through space broke through Shin Siwoo’s magic formula as if crushing a cookie.

The light that had blurred the edges of objects and then erased them as if bleaching them disappeared.
A roar. Gears that were broken and bounced off. A bent shaft. A tattered celestial device. A collapsing background. Shin Siwoo falling.

“I can’t lose to you. Absolutely. I can’t.”

Only Erelim, muttering as if making a vow, remained on the battlefield.