City ​​of Witches 86

Chapter 86 – #19_The Uninvited Guest (7)

#84

1.
After the exhilarating insult, a chilling silence descended.
It would have been less frightening if she had jumped up and down in anger.
Her cold, subdued rage was reflected in Aea’s eyes as she stared intently at Siwoo.
It was as unsettling as a venomous snake crawling on bare skin.

But there was no time to be afraid.
Defense was no longer enough.
Having delivered the insult and with Aea’s anger directed at Siwoo for letting the twins escape, all that remained was to struggle for survival with his life on the line.

Raise the spear.

“Bloom!”

A black shadow emerged from Siwoo’s arm, forming a massive lance over 5 meters long.
A cavalry spear made solely to pierce the enemy.
Now, there was no need for magic to divert the shadows or extra mental power to establish a mobile formation.
Siwoo lowered his body, aimed the spear, and charged at Aea.

Water lizard gait.
A spear of maximum hardness created by densely arranging shadows in a grid structure.
The shadows ejected from his back spread like wings, accelerating Siwoo’s body.

The field of vision narrowed instantly due to the acceleration.
A sprint riding the wind.
The distance to Aea, who was far away, closed in an instant.

“I’m tired of that now.”

Among the dozens of fluttering ribbons.
A single ribbon cut through the air.
Just one ribbon collided with the spear.

“Ah…”

Siwoo stopped in his tracks.
Just three steps.
If he had taken three more steps forward, the tip of the spear would have reached Aea.
However.

“I played with you a little. Do you think you’ve become something?”

The spear shattered.
The lance, created with maximum hardness using a grid structure, split like bamboo when it touched the ribbon.
The armor covering his arm was completely blown away by the impact, and the hand that had been gripping the spear was so distorted that it was hard to recognize its shape.
If he hadn’t had the armor and gauntlet, his entire arm would have been blown off at the moment of impact.

“Ugh… Ugh…”

Hot blood gushed from his throat.
A metallic stench and a vision already stained red.
Siwoo stared blankly at his hand.

His fingernails were gone.
His fingers, bent and broken haphazardly as if caught in a factory machine, looked like they could be tied into knots if he was lucky.

Pain?
Is this sensation what they call pain?
No, more than that, can a human hand really change like this?

His desperate resolve, squeezing out everything he had, was shattered by just one ribbon.
The blow from Aea that Siwoo had barely managed to block was, from her perspective, an attack that wasn’t even enough to be considered a pastime.

The overwhelming difference in power that had existed from the beginning had finally shed its veil of deception.
He knew it.
That he would never reach her.

“Cough! Hack! Cough…!”

Suddenly, blood burst from his mouth.
When magic forcibly loses control and collapses, there is a price to pay.
Siwoo coughed and spat blood onto the dirt floor.
The pool of blood, large enough to cover a cushion, was mixed with pieces of flesh that were frightening to identify.

The black armor that had covered his body disappeared.
All of his magic power was exhausted.
His kneeling legs were stiff like logs and wouldn’t move at all.
He hadn’t been able to hear out of one ear for a long time.
His eyes were crusted with blood and wouldn’t open properly.
His fingers had turned into a grotesque human craft.
Every time his heart beat, the pounding like a drum seemed to split his head.

Yeah.
He did well enough.

What slave would have ever managed to give a banished one such a hard time?
Aea walked towards Siwoo with measured steps.
She looked down at him, unable to move, with indifferent eyes.

“Where did the twins go?”
“I don’t kno…”

Aea’s pointed shoe didn’t wait for Siwoo to finish his answer and kicked him in the chest, where he had barely managed to raise his upper body.
He couldn’t even scream.
Although she hadn’t used magic to kick him, the blow that struck his vital point in his ruined state made Siwoo’s head spin.

“Ugh, seriously. This is so annoying.”

The sound of her grinding teeth fell on his hunched back.

“I finally had a chance for revenge… and you ruined it all.”

Her slender fingers grabbed Siwoo’s hair and forced his head up.

“What are you going to do? How are you going to compensate me? You’re so annoying! I’m going crazy with annoyance.”

Aea’s hand caressed Siwoo’s cheek.
Her sharp thumbnail slowly dug into Siwoo’s left eye.
The adrenaline that had briefly made him forget the pain was meaningless in the face of the agony of having his eyeball gouged out.
A bizarre groan escaped from Siwoo’s open mouth.

“G…uh…ugh…g…ah….”
“Yes, yes, that’s cute. Cry more cutely.”
“You…b…bitch…”

Siwoo’s half-mad gaze, sensing death, glared at Aea.

“Actually, I don’t like letting you go so easily. But it seems like your master is coming back soon.”

Aea’s hand came out of his eye socket.
The mangled vitreous humor and blood dripped from her fingertips.
A single ribbon slowly moved towards Siwoo’s empty eye socket.

“Now, just wait.”

Siwoo sensed death.
The barrier rippled, and a person walked in.
She had rushed so frantically that her hair and clothes were a mess.
He thought for a moment that she didn’t look like the usual Amelia.

“Siwoo…!”

Amelia’s face turned pale as she discovered Siwoo and Aea amidst the anomaly that had enveloped the mansion.

“Goodbye.”

As Amelia called out Siwoo’s name, the ribbon, which had turned sharper than a needle, pierced Siwoo’s head as if it had been waiting for that moment.

“Ah…”

Blood dripped from Siwoo’s open eyes, nose, and mouth, which was connected to his nasal cavity.
The blood, which poured out like a faucet had been turned on, was mixed with a slick, transparent liquid.
A final thought flashed through his battered mind.

Shin Siwoo, the twins who will cross the barrier, Sadalmelik set as the boundary of the fountain, I’ll make it cheap for you, I want to drink cola, what principle fills human thirst, the moon of Gehenna is always full, the beauty of creation, the mysterious value of pi, 3.14159265355820…..3025…what was next? Ah…. 152674450, how many digits did I memorize, finally reaching, the first 999999, Feynman point, whispering, open your eyes, if you recall your memories, I was free, singing, in the world of zero, the shadow is born again, may this body burn forever.

Blackout.

“Welcome, Baron Merrygold.”

Aea, who had finished piercing through Siwoo’s brain through his eye, threw Siwoo’s body away like a doll and spread her arms wide to welcome the prey she had been waiting for.

2.
She ran, ran, and ran.
Hundreds of particles enveloped Amelia’s body.
Amelia was propelled dozens of times faster than when using the water lizard gait.

The impulse inside her chest grew stronger.
Like centrifugal force increasing as it rotates, a single-mindedness grew stronger and more solid.

“Siwoo… Siwoo… Siwoo…!”

Just by saying his name.
She wanted to share this new feeling with him.
To say thank you, to say sorry.
And…

She wasn’t afraid.
She wasn’t scared anymore.
The impatience and anxiety were crushed and disappeared by the warm light that had swelled up, and only confidence that she could do it overflowed in her chest.

Every time her toes touched the ground, numerous light particles condensed and exploded.
Amelia cut through the sky like a bird.

The mansion was in sight.
The mansion where she had started living with Shin Siwoo not long ago.
Was he still there?
Had he run away?
Amelia spurred on her sprint.
And she saw it.

-Ripple!

For a moment, she saw a bottle-shaped membrane enveloping the mansion.
It turned translucent for a brief moment before returning to its original transparent form.

“Huh…?”

Amelia ran across the field without slowing down.
It didn’t take any effort to recognize the identity of the transparent membrane.

An otherworld barrier.
A unique magic formula that blocks the outside world from the inside.
Considering that she hadn’t detected any sense of incongruity or distortion until the barrier was disrupted, it was a barrier that had been created at a fairly high level.

“………”

Anxiety surged.
Otherworld barriers are mainly used by witches in the mortal realm to avoid getting caught up in trouble.
But this was Gehenna.
There was no need to hide the fact that she was a witch from the eyes of the banished, nor was there any need to hunt homunculi while minimizing the impact on the mortal realm.

So why had a barrier appeared at Amelia’s mansion?
Because someone wanted to hide the fact that they were using magic inside.

“Siwoo…!”

Then, who in Gehenna would want to hide their use of magic?
A banished one.
Those wicked witches of evil.

Amelia felt her vision darken.
Regardless, her body was moving through the air at a much faster speed than usual.

The mansion visible beyond the barrier looked the same as usual.
But that was a kind of disguise to hide the abnormal situation inside from the outside.
As Amelia reached out her arm, countless clusters of particles extending from her fingertips tore at the barrier.

What Amelia saw as she threw herself into the barrier was a garden that looked like it had been caught in a typhoon.
Garden trees uprooted and lying on the ground, a lawn that had been turned upside down, exposing the dirt.
And a witch of unknown identity and Shin Siwoo, who was being held by her.

His appearance was beyond words.
There was no part of him that wasn’t stained with blood from head to toe.

“Siwoo…!”

Amelia reached out her hand to use magic.
The magic power contained in her womb boiled up all at once and formed like water droplets in Amelia’s hand.
The only thought she had was that she had to get him out of that witch’s hands.
At Amelia’s intrusion, Siwoo looked at her with his remaining eye.

“Goodbye.”

Before his lips could move to say something, the ribbon that had been aiming at Siwoo pierced his head.
It pierced his face easily and unrealistically, like stabbing a steak with a fork.
There was no time to tell her to stop.
There was no time to protect him with magic.

As the witch stood up, Siwoo, who had been pierced by the ribbon, dangled from the end of it.
His corpse, thrown carelessly into the air, flew towards Amelia.
Amelia reflexively reached out her arms and caught his body.

“Welcome, Baron Merrygold.”

A body soaked in blood, sweat, and an unidentified sticky liquid was held in her arms.
His body trembled like a dying insect.
Blood foam flowed from his mouth, and in his empty pupils, crushed vitreous humor, nerves, and blood vessels were tangled.

“Ah…ah…ah…”

It was like a terrible nightmare.
Why was this happening?
She hadn’t apologized yet.
She hadn’t said thank you yet.
She hadn’t told him to go to the mortal realm together, to stay with her in the future.

“W-wait… I, I’ll heal… heal you…”

White particles extending from Amelia’s body covered Siwoo’s body.
She wasn’t a witch who was well-versed in healing magic.
No, no matter which witch you put in this place, it would be impossible to heal this kind of injury without any equipment.

The liquid flowing from his nose and mouth was cerebrospinal fluid.
The banished one’s blow had pierced Siwoo’s brain.
Even if she tried to hold on, his life was slipping away endlessly.

“Ah…ah…why…why… I just… wanted to say… something…”

All she could do was hold him in her arms.
Her delicate dress was completely stained with blood.

“I’m Aea Sadalmelik, a witch who came to steal your mark. I happened to get your perfume while I was researching, and it seems like it will be quite helpful.”
“………”
“You seem to cherish that slave very much? That’s good. He was crying pathetically until just before he died, calling out your name, ‘Lord Merrygold! Please save me! Lord Merrygold! It hurts so much!’ I should have shown you that.”

The trembling in Siwoo’s body stopped.
No matter what Aea was saying in front of her, Amelia caressed Siwoo’s cheek.
His face, drained of blood, had become frighteningly cold.
It was like touching a plaster statue rather than skin.

Her chest felt tight.
The pain of loss didn’t even give her time to dwell on the agony and constricted her breathing.

In the end, was she going to be left alone again like this?

Amelia hugged Siwoo tightly.
The loneliness and solitude she had become accustomed to bloomed in her heart like a single black rose.
On that rose, the poison called anger was beaded like dew.

“Weep.”

With the incantation, a sky-blue light began to flow from Amelia’s eyes.
Yes.
For Amelia Merrygold, magic was.
Always a poem of tears to mourn those who had left.