Chapter 904 – #197_The Witch Exists (2)
#898
1.
A series of events had occurred, and 48 hours had passed.
Just two days.
Two days in everyday life would be a short time that passed by without much meaning.
However, at a time when an unprecedented existence, incomprehensible to human wisdom, had shattered a fleet and monsters were appearing all over the world, it was also enough time for an enormous amount of news to pour out every hour.
To summarize only the major events, they were as follows:
First, on the first day.
The ‘Legion’ had disbanded, and the homunculi reappeared in various parts of the world.
Whether it was a misfortune or a stroke of luck, the homunculi did not immediately attack humans.
They simply wandered around like neutral monsters, leaving countless photos and videos on the internet.
However, as it was impossible to know how they would resume their activities, the witches who had gathered in the East Sea were redeployed to the location point branches around the world.
Here, a new fact was revealed.
The witches had deployed a reverse barrier to subdue the homunculi, but they had torn through the barrier and moved outside.
Excluding speculation about the cause, the conclusion was that in order to subdue them, they had to perform a spectacular magic show in front of humans.
At this point, the secrecy pact had completely lost its purpose.
The leaders of 182 countries around the world held an emergency remote meeting and officially announced the existence of witches and homunculi.
How they announced it was up to each country’s discretion, so they adjusted the nuance according to their respective positions.
The Western and pro-Western countries, led by the United States, mentioned the witch factions such as ‘Gehenna,’ ‘Hexennacht,’ ‘Witch Point,’ and ‘Exiles,’ making it clear that the attack was a unilateral act by Hexennacht that threatened the security of the international community.
On the other hand, anti-Western countries, the Middle East, South America, and the Third World, where the influence of the public was strong, avoided direct mentions as much as possible so as not to offend Hexennacht, and expressed regret for the situation arising from misunderstandings.
The impact was enormous.
News was reported worldwide, and information about witches spread rapidly through the internet and social media.
There were heated debates about magic, homunculi, and especially witches.
Due to the unprecedented events, panic buying of essential goods occurred all over the world.
Korea was no exception.
The government declared that it would respond by mobilizing its defense forces to the fullest extent, and asked people to go about their daily lives without worry, as they were forming emergency military training and response teams, but it was not very meaningful.
Canned goods, rice, frozen meat, butane gas, toilet paper, and even Shin Ramyun mild flavor were sold out in an instant.
The second day was a bit more dramatic.
The homunculi, who had not moved unless they were preemptively attacked, resumed their activities.
This caused devastating damage.
The number of witches deployed at the location points was limited, and most of them had already exhausted their magic power after one battle, which made the situation worse.
There were cases where homunculi, which were not very strong, were concentratedly bombarded by the firepower of modern weapons and subdued.
Countries that succeeded in subduing even one homunculus used this to their advantage in propaganda.
However, there were too many tragedies that they had not been able to respond to, and small victories were not enough to calm the seething public opinion.
Even the U.S. military, which was called the Space Defense Force, confirmed that it was virtually impossible to subdue a homunculus with more than 10 eyes unless they used nuclear weapons or received help from a witch.
However, it was too much of a burden to even consider using nuclear weapons.
Homunculi mostly appeared near cities where many people gathered, and firing nuclear weapons at their own territory where civilians were gathered was like burning down a house to catch a flea.
In the end, the lack of response personnel and the unexpected disaster painted the prologue of a post-apocalyptic story.
The tallest building in the world’s financial district collapsed, and airports and borders were crowded with refugees.
Hospitals were setting up temporary tents due to lack of space, cities were completely burned down by large-scale fires, nuclear reactors exploded, the Eiffel Tower collapsed, and so on.
Reports of major disasters and casualties were constantly on the news, not just daily, but hourly.
In the meantime, China, which had maintained only closed exchanges with witches, announced that only about 10 deaths had occurred thanks to the advanced crisis management capabilities of the current president and the Communist Party.
However, the country that was reporting the least damage was the small island peninsula of Korea in the east.
Given its small land area and the overpopulation of the Seoul metropolitan area, it was impossible for the damage to be small.
-Why aren’t monsters appearing here?
-The tiny Joseon Hell Peninsula is being ignored not only by the international community but also by monsters WWW
-I live in Wolmido, and I saw monsters through my window until last night, but when I woke up, they were gone?
-I thought the world was about to end, so I confessed to the convenience store girl I had a crush on, but she rejected me….
-People are dying like crazy
-They tallied the cumulative deaths and it’s over 700,000 in one day
-It doesn’t feel real
-The housing prices are too high, so the monsters must be going to other countries lol
-Today, I will awaken to a life of play that will never disappear forever without any side effects, conditions, or compensation, and no one or nothing can steal or make it disappear.
While everyone was puzzled and unable to guess the cause, the Blue House spokesperson scratched their itch by providing a clear explanation.
They officially expressed their gratitude to the guardian deity ‘Teacher Sua’ who had protected Korea since ancient times, and to Duke Tiferet, her close friend who had been working for humans for 100 years.
This was all the information that the general public could know, but in reality, there was no way that Teacher Sua could handle such a disaster alone.
There was another person who had the greatest influence on this, and that was Shin Siwoo.
He was making a great contribution to the absolute defense while staying at the Seoul branch with Sharon and Amelia.
For reference, L’Rye and Linne remained in the South Sea and Japan, respectively, acting as breakwaters to block the primary entry.
“Siwoo, you’ve worked hard again today.”
“Master, were you not sleeping?”
“How can I sleep comfortably when my disciple is suffering?”
Siwoo, who had returned to the Gwanghwamun branch, which had become a base after defeating a monster in the middle of Myeongdong Street, was greeted by his master in comfortable pajamas.
Eloa’s contract magic requires not only magic power but also a separate price.
Eloa, who had been greatly exhausted in the last battle, was recuperating and building up her strength.
Of course, even in the midst of that, she was still performing her role as the head of the emergency response headquarters admirably.
“Come here. You’ve worked hard.”
“It was nothing. It was a bit annoying, though.”
A scarecrow equipped with self-magnetic magic that repeatedly disappeared and reappeared in real time.
This homunculus was quite a tricky opponent.
However, it was no match for Siwoo, who had gained combat power at the 21st level through all sorts of combat experience and magical growth.
“Is my disciple going to be awkward when their master has their arms open? Come here and hug me.”
My master tiptoed and gave me a tight hug.
The soft yet elastic, cozy sensation mingled with a pleasant fragrance.
A warm welcome.
Normally, my face would have been beaming, but my heart was not at ease.
Not only was the whole world in chaos in real time, but there was something else that worried me more than anything else.
“Is there still no contact from Dorothy?”
“That’s right.”
“Haa….”
Contact with Dorothy, who had left for South America to spy on the ‘Legion’ before Siwoo came to the present world, had been cut off.
As I sighed gloomily, my master tugged at my clothes as if she was reading my mind.
“I’m sorry, I made a needless request….”
“No, it’s not your fault, Master.”
It would have been the best choice at that point.
I was not so unreasonable as to blame my master based solely on the outcome.
However, it was still too early to conclude the worst.
Perhaps she was simply in a situation where it was difficult to communicate, or perhaps Dorothy had to move more carefully as the world had become like this.
That didn’t mean that it was easy to send a search or rescue team for her.
“I will go myself as soon as I recover my condition.”
“No, if anyone goes, it should be me.”
“Siwoo, that’s out of the question.”
“Master, you could be in danger too, I can’t just stay here alone.”
Currently, Korea is not the only place where witches are appearing and active.
South America, the front yard of Hexennacht, was like a demon’s lair.
Hexennacht, which had already been influencing the underworld, was suppressing the backlash with force and was taking over the real power.
Just a few hours ago, a citizen who was holding an anti-witch peace protest in Mexico was burned alive.
Even Eloa would not be guaranteed safety if she set foot in such a place.
Eloa’s biggest weakness was that she was weak in large-scale battles and long-term battles….
“She’ll be fine wherever she is.”
“…I have to believe that.”
In the end, there was only one option.
For now, I had no choice but to believe in Dorothy and do my best to minimize the damage caused by the homunculi.
-Ring ring
At that moment, the internal phone rang.
The caller was Teacher Sua.
[Eloa, there is a call from Gehenna. Count Kohav urgently wants to contact you]
“I understand. I will call right now.”
This morning, Gehenna had restored only the lines first as the ‘Gate’ was being rebuilt.
Thanks to that, the Tree of Sephirot and the emergency response headquarters were able to hold meetings remotely.
But after all the long meetings were over, a call from Count Kohav.
Eloa tilted her head, but connected the remote crystal ball to Count Kohav’s personal contact number.
[I’ve received the call. Are you Duke Tiferet?]
Count Kohav answered the call as if he had been waiting.
“That’s right.”
[I apologize for asking to contact you so suddenly]
“Let’s get to the point.”
Eloa’s tone was inevitably cold.
She had a grudge against Duke Erelim, and she didn’t like Count Kohav, her loyal servant and lover, very much either.
[If there are people around you, can you ask them to leave?]
Eloa glanced at Siwoo and replied.
“He is someone I can trust.”
After hesitating for a moment, Count Kohav bit his lip resolutely as if he had made up his mind and opened his mouth.
[There is a prophecy that can stop the current situation. It is a highly reliable prophecy that has already been deciphered]
“What do you mean? I didn’t hear about that in the meeting.”
[Yes, but still…. I think it’s right to tell you. It’s my own decision]
Eloa, who was puzzled by the sudden news, was told by Kohav about two prophecies that Duke Erelim had tried to hide.
A prophesied solution to resolve this chaos.
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