Chapter 144 – #31_City Life (4)
#142
One.
The disgust of raw things shook my stomach once.
He is a man with no face.
They are just strangers I met by chance in a public park.
The kind of other people who, if this were not the case, would each pretend to be absent and would each go about their business.
However, when the homunculus, which had stained its snout red with the blood of another person, revealed it to Siu.
Siu felt a strong murderous intent.
It is normal in nature.
All beings in nature eat to live and run to survive.
Since the dining table and the space for slaughter were separated by advanced civilization, not many modern people would be able to realize this fact.
And the sight of an inhumane meal unfolding in front of him came as a great shock to Siwoo.
A citizen’s park that is about the size of a low hill.
This man must have come here thinking of his health.
One of your family members may have pushed you on the back to tell you to go out and lose some belly fat.
By now he might be worried about the father’s coming home too late.
There is life.
There is a story.
Is it okay for such a human life to end with just one meal?
“Haap!”
The spear of shadow escaped from Siwoo’s hand and flew faster than his spirit.
It was as if a black line had been scrawled in the air with a brush.
The homunculus’ reaction to him was astute.
Quickly twist your body to dodge the attack.
It was a softness that could not have been imagined with a huge fuselage.
With that blow, he must have clearly recognized Siu as a hostile target, kicking the ground with his back foot and narrowing the distance of about 20m in the blink of an eye.
-Bang!
“Kuk!”
A clash ensued.
Siu held out his shield forward and fell backwards.
Armor and shield of shadows created by magic.
It’s performance itself is different from normal plate armor.
In response to external shocks, it not only actively disperses and drains power, but also has a partial nullification effect during magic.
However, I was only hit by a torso, but it flew backwards as if I had been hit by a truck.
Siu realized that his opponent was a homunculus.
Even a seemingly large dog is a fighting weapon created by the Witch of Creation.
I got up in a hurry and fixed my shield.
My spine is tingling.
If there was no armor supporting the whole body, wouldn’t the spine bend backwards?
“Kurrrrr…”
On the other hand, it seems that Shiu’s resistance was surprising even to the homunculus.
Contrary to the momentum from earlier when he attacked the defenseless prey, he was staring at him growling with his body lowered.
Is it because he has been living in boredom and inertia for a while?
The sound of his heart beating so fast that his head hurts is especially clear in his ears.
Siu raised his shield up to his chest to protect his neck and heart while changing the shape of his spear.
The effective attack range of the spear is limited to the ‘dot’ of stabbing.
Meanwhile, that monster bounces around like a rubber ball and attacks at high speed.
In this case, it was judged that a weapon with a wider attack area and a “Line” Attack would be more effective.
The best form is the sword.
A long blade extending over 1M long.
A cross guard to prevent your hand from slipping and gripping the blade.
Siwoo has no experience of holding a real sword, let alone learning Western swordsmanship.
But that didn’t matter.
A shadow has no weight anyway.
As long as you can stab or cut your opponent with a sharpened blade, that’s enough.
At that time.
The homunculus, who had lowered his body while crouching, started attacking again.
Not only did it run on the ground, but it also moved freely in the dark, moving freely up to the Z-axis, spurring trees through jumps.
It’s fast too.
It was like a gravity-defying motorcycle bouncing around at full throttle.
“Huh…!”
Siu calmly watched the movement, then swung his shield at the homunculus attacking from directly above.
It wasn’t just whipped.
Siwoo, who has no residual skills such as strengthening his body with magical powers, would break his arm or lose his shoulder if he did such a thing.
Therefore, as if he were wearing a powered suit, mana was injected into his armor itself to increase its hardness and strength.
-Bang!
“Keep it!”
Unlike a little while ago when he fell backwards terribly, Siwoo doesn’t even move in place.
On the other hand, the homunculus, which thrust its muzzle and was hit straight by the shield, fell to the floor with a snatch like a dog with a double blade.
Now is the time Siwoo was aiming for.
I vigorously wield the longsword I made earlier.
– Perseok!
The blade of the longsword swung at will bluntly cut into the monster’s neck.
It was a really strange feeling.
Should I say it feels like cutting thick rubber?
The heavy vibration transmitted to the hilt is itself unpleasant.
“Kkeukkeukkkeukkeukkeukkeukkeukkeukkeuk!”
Seeing the foamy homunculus dying, Siu pressed the blade harder once more.
It is a sword of shadow that has already dug deep into the cut surface.
The added pressure of the armor severed the homunculus’ head like a factory cutter.
“Whoa… Whoa…”
A homunculus that twitches its limbs for a long time like a fish even after its head is cut off and then dies.
Siwoo calmed his still beating heart and disarmed his whole body.
Killed.
Won
“Fuck…”
He slumped to his seat.
It wasn’t as strong as I thought, but it wasn’t that I could easily kill it either.
No one knows what would have happened if Siu’s shield hit had missed and was crushed by his weight and speed.
My whole body felt heavy, as if it were wet.
Just having a fist fight in the street is draining your strength, let alone hunting.
I catch my breath while sweeping back my bangs, which were drenched in cold sweat.
I guess I still need some time to think.
As I sat down and calmed myself down, the bizarre body of the homunculus peeled off layer by layer and soon disappeared, leaving only stains like charcoal soot.
In the middle, I saw something like an empty crystal.
Siu picked up the decision without a word.
At first glance, it looked very similar to the egg of Gnosis.
The difference is that I don’t feel any magic power or magical effect.
After all, it is just a glass marble.
“……”
Siu put it roughly in his pocket and turned his gaze to the observatory.
It was already in such a terrible condition that the intestines were pulled out, so the possibility that the uncle was still alive was slim.
Still, I had to check it out.
Because there is only one thing.
If we take action now, we might be able to save it.
The observatory where Siwoo arrived after staggering.
There was nothing there.
The corpse that had been bitten by the homunculus just a moment ago, and the bloodstains and fragments of intestines that had stained the floor dark red.
I can’t see anything.
It had disappeared neatly, as if it never existed in the first place.
Instead, only scarlet lights illuminate the empty road surface.
“……”
I do not know what to say.
Would it be too trashy to think that it’s a relief that you didn’t have to see the ghastly corpse?
Haha…”
I laughed for some reason.
It was an empty laugh.
2.
As soon as Siwoo returned home, he took a cold shower.
Clothes soiled with dirt and sand that had dug into the armor in the middle of the day were put in the laundry basket.
“Homunculus…”
Siu didn’t know anything about the homunculus in detail.
A guardian who protects the legacy of the Witch of Creation.
It usually exists in a crystalline state, but when it wakes up randomly, it wanders around the world surrounded by a barrier.
Because each individual uses different magic, it is very difficult to hunt, so hunting is not recommended for quite a few witches.
That’s it.
Even the book Siu was reading contained only this amount.
But what scene did you see today?
The homunculus was eating humans.
Besides, while I looked away for a moment, the corpse had evaporated neatly.
“Under….”
Siu laughed.
According to Count Gemanai, the population of homunculus in the present world is rapidly increasing.
Since Siwoo has a stigma, he was additionally asked to be extra careful.
I don’t know why the homunculus hunts non-witch humans.
However, it was difficult to regard the scene Siwoo encountered today as something special.
It means that similar things are happening all over Korea and all over the world.
So, why haven’t people been aware of this until now?
“It’s obvious.”
Inference through the given information drew conclusions more easily than expected.
Didn’t Siwoo experience it earlier?
As he was eaten by the homunculus, his kite was cut off and he became a non-existent being in this world.
He lost the right to be commemorated and became prey to a mere beast.
Siwoo turned off the shower, wiped his body roughly, and came out to the room.
He sat down on the sofa and opened a can of beer.
It was the first time I had seen people die.
It was the same as seeing it from a distance, so there was no big shock.
No, I don’t know if it’s actually shocking.
The only thing I could think of was the sound of the homunculus ripping open his entrails as his head went blank.
Siwoo suddenly remembered.
Back in the present world, the dark figure hanging from the department store’s display board.
By the time I ran away, it was already gone.
“Is that also a homunculus?”
How many homunculus are still left in this world?
Are so many people dying because of it?
So what can we do now?
“……”
If it had been before, I wouldn’t have known.
Even if I knew, it wouldn’t have been anything else.
But now it was different.
Siu has the eyes to see the homunculus, and the power to face them.
He has too many things to be a bystander.
Wouldn’t he then have to catch and kill the remaining dangers?
“It’s someone else’s business.”
In other words, Siu doesn’t get hit by a fair amount of homunculus.
He can dodge moderately and has the strength to resist.
At least, there were no disadvantages with the option of ‘don’t hunt the homunculus’.
Moreover, Siu is in seclusion in the present world.
I couldn’t figure out how things would get messed up if I caught the eyes of another witch while trying to catch them.
Siwoo glanced at the ring he was wearing on his index finger.
It is a shape in which silver dyed black and white is twisted.
A ring that symbolizes being a guest of Zemanai.
I may be able to solve some of the problems with this, but…
“Let’s quit.”
Siu brushed her wet hair.
I might have to close my eyes a bit today.
It is the behavior of heroes in textbooks to take risks with a modest sense of justice, information that is not yet certain, and at the point where there is a way to bypass it.
Siwoo didn’t think he was that great of a person.
Siu went back to his room and lay down on the bed.
“……”
We should just assume that they were caught up in a natural disaster.
You have to think that I was just a little bit unlucky.
Of course, I’m very sorry about the man I saw today, but can’t I help it?
It may be a cowardly excuse and self-justification for some, but for Siwoo, it was a matter of life and death.
3.
“Hey, I’m crazy.”
Eventually, Siu got out of bed and, swearing, headed for the mountain where he captured the homunculus earlier.
