City ​​of Witches 1229

Chapter 1229 – #288_Fable(3)

#1223

1.
A hill made of ash, scattered like snowflakes.
On top of the witch’s mausoleum, which shone with a deep green light, golden and white glows intertwined like two dragons.

“Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom!”

The incantation, repeated as if he were insane, mixed with mad laughter, struck Erelim’s ears.

“I can’t forgive it. Anyone who touches my people will pay the price! Don’t worry, Dorothy. That won’t happen again. Master! Am I not Siwoo Tiferet?! Malika! Listen to your mom and wait! Daddy’s coming!”

Anyone could see he was out of his mind.

Like the ramblings of a schizophrenic patient, the context and connections of his words had collapsed.
He spoke and laughed madly, as if to no one in particular.

It almost seemed like he didn’t care about this fight at all.

But such incoherence did not mean Shin Siwoo was weakened.
Instinctively, he relentlessly attacked Erelim, as if he wouldn’t let her widen the gap she had carelessly narrowed.

Where his gestures pointed, crooked barriers like tangled tree roots rose, blocking Erelim’s retreat.
The red branch in his hand unleashed a bizarre swordsmanship that was too fragmented to have any form or structure.

It was no longer magic or anything Erelim knew.

It was the will to do what he intended.
Magic and mana were merely tools.

-Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

The magic of the old era collided with the magic of the new era.

Erelim twisted, distorted, bent, and stretched space.

Like bubbles rising in a violently shaken liquid, the space swelled with bubbling sounds, barely deflecting a dangerous blow outward.

“That’s a bit of a shame. Just a little bit. If I just do a little more, I feel like I’ll understand. Naturally, like water flows. Freely. Keep the form, but don’t be conscious of the form… But the moment I put it into words, the limit is set. Language is a tool of thought. Don’t use tools, think. Is that it?”

It wasn’t just a misunderstanding or delusion that Siwoo appeared like a madman in Erelim’s eyes.

Siwoo’s thoughts were like a leaf drifting in a vortex where up, down, left, and right were reversed.
It was like navigating to find a single point in the infinite universe.

His mutterings, like seizures, were close to an instinctive struggle to maintain his ego within that chaos.

“Cough! Cough! Ah… I’m hungry… My head hurts. I want to rest. Can I even do this? Ugh, my body is a mess. Ughhhhhh!!!!”

A spray of blood erupted with a violent cough.
Not only that, he vomited a whole bowl of thick blood.

Because his concentration was scattered, the golden barrier that had been blooming so well collapsed on its own.

Magic wielded haphazardly leaves deep wounds on the spirit body, proportional to its power.

Forcibly shoving mana into the mana circuits, creating a vacuum, using unverified magic on the fly, or suddenly canceling such magic, it was only natural that the spirit body would be wrecked by the feedback.

It was only because the instinct for survival activated ‘Resurrection’ that he was barely maintaining his form.
Uncontrolled power was leading his body to death every moment.

“It hurts… It fucking hurts!”

The terrible pain was a bonus.

It was full of heat and swelling, as if his muscles were melting, and his bones felt like they would crumble.

The worst was the searing pain in his nervous system.
He was so tired that he wanted to stretch out and sleep for three weeks.

And even that sensation was fading vaguely in the torrent of thoughts that were ruthlessly swirling in all directions.

What Siwoo was trying to do was like trying to play a piano that was struck randomly.
It was like trying to make a delicate machine with materials assembled at random.

To give up everything he had built and create something from nothing, that was what it meant.

“More useless thoughts… I told myself not to be fooled by wordplay.”

Anyway, this was certain.
This was not something a person could do.

“Are you giving up already? You can’t. You can’t… I’ve come this far, and I’ll be able to go back soon… Erelim, you just, you just have to die. Right? Huh? Wait a minute. Just wait a minute.”

A clear breeze blew through Siwoo’s mind as he wiped the blood with his sleeve.
An idea like a lighthouse giving light to those who were trying to find their way in the vastness of despair.

Let’s see.
He said it wasn’t something a person could do?

Right.
Why had he forgotten?

A witch is not human.
She is a transcendent.
This sorry state was a disgrace caused by not accepting that difference.

He had to change.

-Whirrrrr!

In response to Siwoo’s will, strange-shaped leaves floated around him.
They were 1 meter long, with a thin, sleek, streamlined shape reminiscent of willow leaves, and a pure white opalescent color.

These leaves, which had risen like this, wrapped around Siwoo in layers, as if making a cocoon.

Siwoo, who had suddenly stopped without sticking any further.

Erelim, who had not missed the opportunity, barely secured some distance and looked at the result.

An egg or cocoon that wrapped its contents in a white shell.
A peaceful appearance that was completely unsuitable for the battlefield.

He was refining. Tempering. Finding the answer within.

“Ah, now I understand.”

What is a witch?

One who has chosen to walk the path of magic to achieve the majesty of creation.
A chosen being who deserves divine praise for transcending the ordinary.

A witch who breaks free from the shackles and advances to the mystical needs to be different from ordinary humans.

If she is to achieve true freedom, true transcendence.
She must throw off the shackles.

The shell shattered as if it were crumbling.

Siwoo appeared with his arms wide open, with exaggerated movements like a stage actor.
His eyes shone with a brilliant golden light, and with every deep breath he took, ripples formed and the surrounding mana fluctuated.

Now, Erelim couldn’t even gauge Siwoo’s level.

The mana that was gathered when he inhaled made Shin Siwoo look like an ordinary human.
On the contrary, the more she looked at him, the more she felt an unfathomable depth that made her spine tingle.

“Ooooh. My head doesn’t hurt at all now.”

The smoggy haze in his head had turned refreshing.

This sense of omnipotence.
The freedom of feeling like he could do anything, having broken free from the shackles and torn off the fetters.

Siwoo’s eyes, which had been spinning like chameleons, fixed.
On Erelim.

“Duke Erelim. You touched something you shouldn’t have.”

The moment their attacks crossed, Erelim made eye contact with Shin Siwoo.

Erelim felt the cruel ferocity, the dryness, and the condescending contempt lurking within him.
She felt the unpredictable, innocent omnipotence of a god.

“I’ll. Crush. You.”

The innocence of a child does not always mean good.
Likewise, Siwoo’s eyes now were not the eyes that a human could produce.

Finally, Erelim diagnosed Shin Siwoo’s condition.

The word ‘freedom’ often has a positive connotation.

One of the reasons is that its antonyms are filled with negative words, but it is also because it is a concept that historically always sides with the victor.

The name ‘freedom’ was always given to the vanguards who stood against the remnants of the old era that had to be overthrown, such as authoritarianism, autocracy, and colonial rule.

Shin Siwoo had broken free from the shackles and gained freedom.

For Siwoo, who had built up his magic to gain freedom from slavery, freedom was always a longing in his heart, or a noble value he wanted to obtain.

But it must not be forgotten.

Uncontrolled freedom is nothing more than chaos.

“……”

Shin Siwoo, who had thrown off another layer of shell.

The shadow of Keter once again loomed heavily over Erelim’s head.

He did not hesitate to break his body and mind to stand before Erelim.

He was putting everything on the scales and trying to win this battle.
To surpass Shin Siwoo, Erelim also had to put something equivalent on the scales.

Erelim quietly closed her eyes. And opened them.
The blood that was swirling around her left eye, which had finished recovering, scattered in the light emitted by the mana reflection.

“Revere.”

Erelim had made a ‘contract’ with the world.
She was realizing the ‘force’ that could be wielded by paying the price.

Blanche Erelim’s true purpose was not to catch up with the achievements of the witch of creation.
It was not to enjoy the power she had accumulated and have the name of Erelim be praised forever by posterity.

She just wanted to prove to the witches that Keter had abandoned and left behind that they were not wrong.
If so, Blanche Erelim’s ‘next’ was not necessary.

By the world that had responded to the contract, a restriction was engraved on Erelim’s brand.
The content of the restriction was ‘Non-Succession’. It was the price for the witch’s lineage being cut off.

Instead, a corresponding abundance of power was imbued in her body.

The most powerful of all the powers she had wielded so far, a power that she would never wield again, was given to Erelim with her leap to the 26th level.

The wings of Akasha split as if they were dividing, turning into eight pairs.
The majesty of the wings that had connected the sky and the earth just by unfolding them was now enough to cover the entire heavens and earth.

————!

At the same time, Erelim felt the gaze of a huge being that had touched the outer world, a huge surveillance that could only be described as such.

The absolute law that governs all rules at the very bottom of the layers of the world.
In Keter’s words, the ‘system’.

For the balance of the world, the system only allows up to the 25th level.

————

However, the system, which had been examining Erelim, realized that her power was a temporary amplification due to the contract, and quietly erased its presence again.

“What? What did I see? It felt like it came and went for a moment. Was it just my imagination? Anyway. Auntie. You look really strong? Did you have some kind of awakening? Well, I had 3 phases, no, 4 phases, so I’ll understand if you use a trick.”

Siwoo, who had been looking at the sky with his mouth open, smiled and looked at Erelim with interest, then wiggled his fingertips.

-Pararararak!

With just that, a wave of distortion that jumped up without any warning and followed his command.
Siwoo unconsciously deployed the distortion field in the form of the magic that remained most strongly in his mind.

Ribbons that stretched out like black petals.
Distortion spears that protruded like red stamens.
The deadly javelin that had once bewildered Bianca with a huge gap.

Of course, the difference in power from that time was meaningless to compare.

-Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

With a tense sound as if bending a bow too much, the space wrapped by the ribbon folded with a creaking sound.
The tension of folding space was converted directly into kinetic energy, and the red stamens were fired like crossbow bolts.

Erelim also responded to it.

A pure white light that realizes the caster’s wishes into any result.
A beautiful light that pierced through the clouds from the heavens and fell like a spotlight covered the entire battlefield in white.