City ​​of Witches 517

Chapter 517 – #109_Missing(4)

#517

1.
In the nameless void of Gehenna.
Hidden in the middle of a maple forest, Cleh gritted her teeth, holding her breath.

The plan had succeeded.

But it was a half-baked success, not a complete one.
First, after sneaking in, she easily secured Shin Siwoo’s location through the bats.

The usage of the fishbowl was simple.
If you imbued it with magic and threw it, any human within a 5-meter radius would be sucked inside.

Therefore, Cleh chose to use her familiars like a drone dropping a bomb, rather than risking detection by following him.

According to the plan, she should have pushed Shin Siwoo into the fishbowl and disappeared without a trace, a perfect crime…

But a problem arose here.
He was with Deneb Geminai.

This diminished the effectiveness of the fishbowl.
While she could easily handle a half-baked man pretending to be a witch, a count was a different story. Even if the twins weren’t together, it wouldn’t be a complete state.

However, by the time Cleh belatedly issued a stop-drop order, the bat had already thrown the fishbowl.

As a result, she was now in a situation where she might not gain anything after struggling to crawl into Gehenna.

It was entirely Cleh’s fault, actually.
No matter how much she limited her power to suppress her presence and added concealment functions to prevent reverse tracking, the compatibility was poor, and she failed to control her familiar.

But Cleh was the type to blame her familiar rather than admit it.

“You stupid birdbrain!”

For the record, bats are mammals.

However, the arrow had already been shot and hit the target.

Along with the innocent count who got caught up in it.
Since there was nothing more she could do by staying, she had to focus on escaping Gehenna safely.
Although the plan had failed halfway, the precautions she had taken meant that the possibility of anyone noticing her sneaking in was close to zero.

The smuggler she had previously charmed with illusion magic had informed her that the next departure would be in three days.
Three days had passed smoothly since the incident, so she just needed to leave this wretched cave and head to Border Town as soon as the sun set.

Cleh, who had been grumbling and rolling around in the cave.

“Bianca…”

Suddenly, the object of her lost love and hate came to mind.
If it had been her, who was more ruthless, cautious, and cruel than anyone else, she would have succeeded in this kind of thing very easily.
A dry sneer seemed to echo in her mind, saying, ‘See? That’s all you’re capable of.’

“Shut up, I have my own way.”

Cleh shook her head to clear her mind and crawled out of the cave she had dug as a temporary hideout.

After spending three days in a narrow tunnel, Cleh, who was shaking off the dirt from her blood-red hair, looked somewhat ridiculous.

In fact, Cleh was among the strong among the public enemies.
21st rank, all sorts of self-generating magic specialized for combat.
Cleh herself didn’t admit it, but because of her somewhat sloppy behavior, many public enemies targeted her.

But Cleh had survived, and she had a wealth of combat experience, having walked a bloody path since her succession.

The reason Cleh used such complicated means, from sneaking in to hiding, was because this was the ‘City of Witches.’

Witches believe in and are devoted to magic.
It was an achievement they clung to, generation after generation, even sacrificing their lives.

That’s why no one would suspect that a ‘public enemy’ who had snuck in would be hiding in a dugout.
It was a situation where doing nothing was the best policy.

As expected, there were no other signs of life in the cool air she felt after three days.

-Caw

Suddenly, a cry made Cleh, who had been cautiously looking around, turn her head.
There, a large crow was perched on a maple branch, turning its head this way and that.

“Shit, you scared me…”

Cleh, who had been on edge, cursed and rubbed her chest.

But that was only for a moment.
She realized that the nictitating membrane of its eyes was staring intently at her.
It was an unpleasantly dark gaze.

-Flap! Flap! Flap!

And one, two more.
Seeing crows flying around it, Cleh immediately felt that something was wrong.

Crows that act in groups are active, curious, and intelligent.
But it was clearly strange for them to gather so openly and quietly stare, not even making a warning sound when their territory was invaded.

“Damn it…!”

These crows were all familiars.
In other words, someone had discovered her presence.
As soon as she realized this, Cleh scattered drops of blood from her fingertips like a shotgun, blowing the crows away.

-Caw! Caw! Caw!

Dozens of crows were easily slaughtered by magic, and black feathers fluttered and fell into the snowy forest.
As if responding to their screams, a flock of crows darkened the sky she saw through the branches.

“Crazy…”

But what made Cleh feel bewildered was not just the crows gathering from all over Gehenna.

Something was approaching with the chaotic wind.
The huge storm could be felt even without seeing it, and the presence was vivid despite being quite far away.
A presence wrapped in tremendous magic was approaching without any intention of hiding.

The forest trembled from the aftereffects of the rough and violent wind alone.
A witch landed lightly in front of Cleh, who was drawing up her magic in the howling storm.

“……”

Just by facing her, she could feel the hair on her whole body standing on end.

This was the same sensation she had felt when she had glimpsed the merciless hunt of Duke Tiferet before.
A realm that made her feel an insurmountable wall, no matter what tricks she used.

Bright blonde hair and sky-blue eyes.
The witch, who resembled a fairy with her chilling beauty, had a creepy blank expression.
It was enough to make her feel a boiling rage, even though they hadn’t exchanged a single word yet.

She knew who she was.
She was one of the people around Shin Siwoo that Bianca had collected information on.

The Perfume Witch, Amelia Marigold.

But there was something Cleh didn’t quite understand.

There was information about her in the data Bianca had collected, but it wasn’t given much importance.
Rather, the rumor Cleh had overheard, that ‘the Perfume Witch had caused a disturbance in Gehenna and was stripped of her barony,’ was more detailed.

Anyway, she couldn’t understand why she had appeared with such a determined attitude, as if she had been waiting for this moment.

“What is it?”

Cleh listed the possibilities she hadn’t considered.
The possibility that she was unexpectedly close to Shin Siwoo.
The possibility that Shin Siwoo and Deneb Geminai had broken out of the fishbowl and told her what had happened.
But there was too little information to grasp the situation with this.

“I don’t know why you’re doing this, but…”

Since they hadn’t started fighting yet, she had to buy time with conversation and look for a chance to escape.

“Weep.”

Contrary to her expectations, the Perfume Witch didn’t ask or demand anything.
Instead, with an incantation, a pale blue magical reflection formed in her eyes, and rain poured down like a downpour.

“You bitch! Talk to me! Overflow, blood!”

She couldn’t just be defeated like this.
Cleh immediately released the seals on her magical blood vessels throughout her body.

The blood, which had been extremely suppressed to hide her presence, went wild and supplied power to her whole body.

Cleh’s self-generating magic was done through blood, befitting her title as a True Ancestor Witch.

Therefore, the magical blood flowing through her body was not just ordinary blood.
It was blood essence, refined and distilled from the blood of hundreds of people to extract a single drop.
With the condensed power and life force fully imbued, she could strengthen her body to a level that ordinary spirits could not handle.

Accelerating blood flow.
Because of that, the blue veins popping out on her skin and her eyes turning even redder made her perceive everything in slow motion.

In that short moment, Cleh created a dagger as she pounced on her opponent like a beast.
This dagger, with its thin, blood-red blade, was also made of her blood.

The anxiety and fear of a strong enemy were fleeting, and she had seized the initiative.
She had secured the perfect distance.
A clean, unadulterated strike was flying towards the exposed nape of her neck.

In this moment of rushing towards an enemy who seemed defenseless, she was sure of victory.
She had pierced the hearts of many witches with her weapon, which was no different from being coated in poison.

“Die!”

When the fiercely swung dagger plunged into the slender neck.

Cleh realized that her judgment had been hasty.

The figure shattered and scattered.
The enemy she had targeted was not the real body but a clone made of fine particles.
Cleh, not panicking even though her attack had failed, prepared to leave the battlefield.

-Bang!!!

The moment her leg, with its superhuman power, kicked off the ground, an explosion occurred as if a mining TNT had gone off.

The sonic boom of the air exploding violently shook the forest.
This much aftershock was caused by the pure reaction of movement, not even an attack.

“I almost got screwed!”

She hadn’t completely escaped the situation yet, but she could breathe a sigh of relief.
If she could just hide, she would be able to conceal her presence and escape Gehenna.

-Click!

“What…?”

However, Cleh, who was about to disappear into the forest in an instant, heard a clear and crisp sound as her fingertip flicked.
It was impossible.
Because she was flying at supersonic speed right now.
Soon, she realized that the source of that ominous sound was ‘inside’ her own body.

“Kuhak!”

The moment a clear wave shook her body, Cleh lost her speed and crashed into the middle of the forest.
She had completely lost control of her magic for a moment.

“Kuh… Kuuh…!”

No matter how much she drew up her magic, it leaked out as if pouring water into a bottomless pit.
Only then did Cleh realize that the Perfume Witch had already deployed her magic.

The rain that had suddenly started pouring down from the moment she appeared.
At first glance, it didn’t seem to have any magical effect, but the moment she received it with her body, Cleh had already been caught up in the magic.

To be able to use such powerful magic so secretly.

In front of the horrified Cleh, the Perfume Witch finally revealed her true form.

Cleh, who was stuck in the mud, looked up at her with trembling eyes.

The moment their eyes met, she felt a chill.
A cold, contemptuous gaze that showed no mercy or forgiveness.
The dignity of a queen who seemed like she would mercilessly trample her even if her mind and body reached their limits.

“Weep.”

The Perfume Witch moved her lips without hesitation.
At the same time as the second incantation, wildflowers sprouted everywhere that the rain touched.

Beautiful.
It was so beautiful.

With that impression as her last, Cleh’s consciousness was cut off.