Chapter 263 – #59_Salvation(2)
#261
1.
When the two people woke up in the early morning after sleeping for about four hours.
A sudden phone call made them immediately head down to the branch manager’s office.
Della had woken up.
When they arrived at the branch manager’s office, Della was sitting on the bed, a white cloth draped haphazardly over her.
She sat there with a dazed expression, as if she were still half-dreaming, her entire body wrapped in bandages.
There were so many wounds that almost no skin was exposed.
“…Thank you for saving me.”
Della expressed her gratitude as soon as she woke up.
Her expression still seemed unable to grasp the sudden change in reality.
No matter how strong one’s mental fortitude was, being imprisoned in a dark, underground place with no light, pierced by a spear, was not an easy thing to endure.
While Branch Manager Sua was disinfecting and organizing the bed, Elroa stepped forward to face Della.
Elroa, who had rushed down without proper preparation, looked rather disheveled.
Her attire was the same as usual, leggings and a sports bra for easy movement, with a windbreaker thrown over it.
Even her pink hair, which reached down to her buttocks, was tousled as if she had just woken up.
However, Tiferet was Tiferet.
The soft and fluffy appearance she had shown Siwoo last night was nowhere to be seen.
Her atmosphere was solemn, like a well-honed blade, with straight eyebrows.
The aura of subtle sharpness was filled with a dignity that made the title of a martial god not seem out of place.
“Let’s get straight to the point, Baroness Della Redcliffe. There is suspicion that you cooperated with the Cowardly Witch.”
“Cooperated? Is this how you treat an accomplice?”
Della pointed to the bandages wrapped around her body and gave a bitter smile.
It was a smile that looked utterly exhausted, like someone who had just been rescued from a prisoner-of-war camp.
“It’s possible that you were sent here as a disguise. In fact, none of the twelve stab wounds pierced any vital organs.”
Elroa’s point was valid.
In reality, Paola had only pinned Della to the wall to incapacitate her, not to take her life.
“I’ll tell you everything I know. If there’s even one lie, you can judge me then.”
“There’s no need for that. There’s a more certain way.”
“Gwijoo.”
Just as Elroa was about to draw her contract sword, not allowing even a single lie, Teacher Sua, who had guessed her intentions, intervened.
She was probably going to make a contract with Della to get her honest confession.
If this were a more relaxed situation, it would have been the best course of action.
However, now was not a good time.
“Gwijoo, please conserve your strength. Haven’t you already used one contract for the sake of Shin Siwoo?”
Elroa was currently the most powerful force that the Location Point possessed.
It would take some time for Elroa to recover her contract and regain the power of her incantations.
In a situation where anything could happen at any moment, using a contract was not appropriate, according to Sua’s judgment.
“Let’s ask the Baroness first, and if there’s anything suspicious, it won’t be too late to do it then.”
“…Understood.”
While Sua and Elroa were talking, Della slowly moved her eyes to look at Siwoo.
A strange light flickered in her ruby-like eyes.
Siwoo was quite an impressive figure in Della’s life.
“…You’re not an ordinary human, after all.”
A man who was also a witch.
He had the Count of Jeminai as his patron.
Although various circumstances did not favor him, he had a record of defeating Della.
Moreover, he was present at an important meeting where Branch Manager Sua and Duchess Tiferet were talking.
He could never be an ordinary man.
Perhaps he was part of a large-scale project experiment in which several witches had collaborated.
Della’s thoughts solidified in that direction.
“It’s been a while. I’m sorry for suddenly hitting you with my car.”
“It’s okay. If you have any alcohol, can you give me some? Preferably wine.”
When Siwoo saw that Della was about to speak, he preemptively apologized for the car accident, and Della waved her hand as if it were nothing.
If she hadn’t met him, she would have been caught by the White Knight who had been tracking her anyway.
Being hit by a car was actually a blessing in disguise.
Della drank the wine Siwoo brought straight from the bottle, quenching her parched throat.
Almost half the bottle disappeared into her stomach in one go.
“Haa… I wanted to drink this so badly.”
Della looked satisfied and turned to face Elroa again.
“I’ll tell you everything I know.”
2.
The reason Della risked her life to escape.
It was to inform Location Point about the terrible disaster that would soon occur.
In fact, if someone else had been involved in this, Della would not have been so enthusiastic.
After all, all humans die.
From old age, starvation, accidents, diseases, disasters, wars.
In this vast world, tens of thousands of humans die more insignificantly than insects every day.
Now that a disaster that would engulf hundreds of thousands, millions of people was about to occur, it was, in a way, just a part of the cycle that had been repeated from the past to the present.
A witch who pursued the path of magic, deviating from the laws of nature from the very beginning of her existence, had no obligation to prevent it.
Della truly believed that.
However, the fact that the person behind this was her friend Paola made Della feel a sense of responsibility.
Paola had already committed an unforgivable sin, but Della didn’t want her to be criticized by other witches with a derogatory term like ‘Cowardly Witch’.
Therefore, Della calmly conveyed what she knew.
The Cowardly Witch had subjugated the Red Knight.
She had created a large army of White Knights through the hearts collected from Dagon’s flute last time.
The four witches had also been sacrificed for the plan, and as soon as the unidentified ‘altar’ was completed, the White Knights would emerge from the closed rainwater tunnels in the near future.
To kill even more humans, to gather even more magical power.
“……”
“……”
Immediately after receiving Della’s information, which sounded somewhat detached from reality.
The branch manager’s office was enveloped in a chilling silence.
Branch Manager Sua, who had lived for a long time and experienced major historical events several times, was shocked and opened her mouth.
Even Elroa, who had a strong backbone from all sorts of combat experience, stared at Della with a look of astonishment.
Siwoo was speechless.
“I thought you’d react like this. But you don’t have the luxury to be so relaxed.”
Was it because she realized, even as she spoke, that it was ‘already too late’?
There was not much enthusiasm in Della’s tone.
Rather than expecting them to stop Paola, she was filled with self-reproach for not saving Paola sooner.
Elroa, who had been in shock, barely regained her composure and opened her mouth.
“…There’s no proof yet that everything you’ve said is true.”
“What part? That Paola will soon unleash the monsters of the deep sea and cause a massacre with the White Knights? That nearly four-digit numbers of humans have already been sacrificed for it?”
“Aren’t you a close friend of the Cowardly Witch? It could be a deceptive tactic to break our will by delivering distorted information.”
“It’s an obvious answer, but I swear on my witch’s name. If there’s even a little bit of wrong information, I’ll take responsibility later.”
The dam was already on the verge of collapse.
It was cracked to the point of no return, and it was too late to do any repairs. Even a drop of rain would cause it to collapse and submerge the surrounding lowlands.
That was the situation right now.
“According to what the Baroness said, the Cowardly Witch has already subjugated the Red Knight and formed an army of White Knights, which are replicas of the Red Knight?”
“Yes.”
“Then, what is their number?”
Was it because it hadn’t been long since she woke up?
She had left out the most important part.
Della slowly lowered her head and said.
“Twelve hundred.”
“Twelve hundred…”
“It’s not just the number that’s the problem. The spears they wield are replicas based on the Red Branch.
The closer they are together, and the closer they are to the Red Branch, the more they resonate and create a barrier in the form of a force field.
Unless you have a physical attack system like the Duchess over there, it’s almost impossible to counter them. I was only able to take down twenty out of thirty-two.”
Della was a great witch of the 20th rank.
She could freely manipulate flames and heat and cast spells continuously through relay magic.
Even Della was stopped by only 20 White Knights.
How could such a thing be possible, no matter how bad the compatibility was?
“We’ve already given them too much time. Sochitl didn’t prepare this plan in a day or two. She’s been building it up piece by piece over decades. And we’re trying to stop it overnight.”
Paola, who had only been able to enhance and control homunculi, had reached the point of replicating them after a long time.
Not stopping there, she collected the necessary artifacts and ceremonial attire to assemble the puzzle of the picture she wanted.
While the witches of the present world were neglecting public response, relying on Duchess Keter alone, Paola had been preparing for a long time with an almost insane obsession.
“It’s already too late to stop her. There’s only a little bit of grace period left.”
“It’s not too late yet.”
It was Elroa’s confident voice that cut through the gloomy atmosphere.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“The closed rainwater tunnel stretches for 12 kilometers. There are more than six vertical ventilation shafts that connect to the outside. No matter how great the Duchess is, she can’t stop the rain with one hand.”
Clearly, the Cowardly Witch had completed her preparations perfectly.
It was also true that Sua and Tiferet’s response was inadequate in comparison.
However, not all of the things mentioned earlier had happened yet.
If it was before the White Knights ran wild, before they jumped out into the world and massacred civilians, there was still a way to respond.
“So, before she does anything more, I’ll go directly. I’ll kill the Cowardly Witch before the plan starts and end this whole situation.”
As Elroa said, if she went down into the rainwater tunnel and killed the mastermind, the Cowardly Witch, everything would be resolved.
However, that meant stepping into the enemy’s lair, which was prepared with utmost care.
It meant going to strike the place where the enemy’s forces were concentrated.
No matter how famous Duchess Tiferet was for her public service and homunculus skills.
Could she face 1200 White Knights, the Cowardly Witch, and the Red Knight at the same time?
“I haven’t been standing idly by either.
I have finished preparing to put a barrier over the entire Seoul area to prevent the previous tragedy from repeating itself. Even if the Cowardly Witch sends out 1200 homunculi all at once, they can be confined within the barrier for a while.”
Sua had not been neglecting the situation without taking any action.
Although she could not stop the witches from leaving Seoul and could not bring in any particularly great support, she had prepared a device to act as a buffer until the worst situation occurred.
“And right now, I will summon all the witches.”
It was a matter of urgency.
When she sent out the summons with the artifacts she had prepared in advance, all seven witches gathered at Location Point in less than an hour.
