City ​​of Witches 907

## Chapter 907 – #197_The Witch Exists (5)

#901

1.
Even Hexennacht, who had planned the entire situation, hadn’t anticipated that it would cause the gate to malfunction.

They didn’t know how Gehenna or Witchpoint would react to this provocation, and there was no reason to face them head-on.

Therefore, Urshula had gone into semi-forced seclusion at her villa in Varadero, Cuba, with her concubines.

Showing off the greatness of a witch to powerless humans was a tedious task, but the situation of just fondling her concubines’ breasts at the villa was even more boring.

However, an interesting thing happened amidst all this.

Urshula, wearing a cheongsam and revealing her smooth thighs, was smoking opium and staring intently at the prophecy and its interpretation that Lilith had given her.

The stinging smoke from the cigarette she was holding stung her eyes for a long time, but her pupils didn’t waver even slightly.

That was how much Lilith’s temptation had drawn Urshula’s attention.

“Urshula, is that the witch’s whisper that just arrived?”
“Helga, go out and do some shopping.”
“But… it’s boring without you, Urshula.”

Helga, Urshula’s concubine, was sitting on the desk in the office, pouting.
Urshula replied with her usual indifferent and listless tone.

“If you’re bored, go burn some humans or something.”
“Ah, the anti-witch protesters? But after Priscilla showed them an example, there haven’t been any protests.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, they burned so brightly that there’s probably no ash left.”

If you traced back the cause of the witch’s existence being revealed, it was easy to deduce, but anti-witch sentiment was rapidly spreading throughout the world.

The countries close to the witches of Gehenna or Witchpoint were trying to package the witches as ‘heroes’ and divide sides, but South America had no excuse to attach.

This was because the root cause of all this was Hexennacht, who had been backing South America.

As a result, a large-scale anti-witch protest had recently occurred in Mexico City, and Priscilla, who was in the mortal realm to assist Urshula, had quelled the disturbance by incinerating hundreds of protesters with flames.

“Anyway, Helga, don’t bother me anymore and go out.”
“Then I won’t disturb you. I’m happy just watching you ponder, Urshula.”

Urshula couldn’t help but chuckle at Helga’s coquettish tone.
When she opened her arms, Helga scurried over and sat on Urshula’s lap.

“So, what is this?”
“A prophecy about the floodgate. Apparently, the disgustingly great Creation Witch left a safety device for her descendants. It’s like a higher command system that can manipulate the behavior patterns of homunculi.”
“Oh my, really?”

Helga covered her mouth in surprise.

“I’ve been skimming through it for a while, and there’s no sign of manipulation. There are no misinterpretations, it’s raw information.”

A prophecy is like a melody in magical terms.
The entire message becomes a single melody and conveys the content.

If manipulation or false information were intentionally inserted, it would be noticeable, like hitting the wrong key while playing the piano.

Also, as represented by the prophecy ‘Keter does not move,’ the content of the prophecies that Lilith provided was mostly quite reliable.

“Ah…!”

Helga was surprised again.

The first surprise was about the existence of the floodgate itself.
A little later, she was even more surprised because she understood Urshula’s intentions while she was pondering.

“Don’t tell me, you’re not planning to report this to Hexennacht?”
“I wonder what I should do?”

Just as there are no perfect humans, the same goes for witches who are based on humans.
There was no way that a group formed by imperfect beings would be perfect.

Any group has flaws stemming from the imperfection of its existence.

If you were to point out Gehenna’s flaws, it would be their complacent indifference, and if you were to point out Hexennacht’s flaws, it would be their extreme individualism.

Urshula was the same.

“It’s a shame to share this opportunity with the Qliphoth…”

The ‘Flood,’ which would be implemented when the existence of witches was revealed, was an event that even the hardliners of Hexennacht, who had led this situation, had not anticipated.
However, it was clear that the Flood was a stroke of luck that worked in favor of the hardliners as a whole.

First, the Flood had tied up the witches of Witchpoint and Gehenna.

Unlike Hexennacht, who hardly cared about the destruction of the mortal realm, Gehenna had no choice but to focus on damage control for the sake of their businesses all over the mortal realm.

Second, Hexennacht was able to exert more influence in the mortal realm.

After all, only witches could deal with homunculi.
This was the same situation as a company that monopolized the cure spreading the epidemic.

The countries under Hexennacht’s influence were outwardly criticizing Urshula’s attacks, but behind the scenes, they were desperately crying out for help.

“In this situation, to get the ‘floodgate’ in my hands…”

It was an opportunity to gain an overwhelming influence that was on a different level than before.

By restricting the activities of homunculi, she could extort astronomical sums from the countries of the mortal realm.
Conversely, she could also trade with Hexennacht in exchange for allowing the homunculi to become active again.

Sense of belonging?
Loyalty to the group she was in?

If there was a greater profit in front of her, she could abandon them at any time.

“Helga, can you contact Priscilla?”
“Huh? Are you really going to do it?”
“I can’t miss this opportunity, can I? I think I’ll need a little help, though.”

Urshula smiled ambitiously and adjusted her eyepatch.

“Well, it’s a little scary, but I like it. Helga will always support your choices, Urshula.”
“You’re being cute. Hurry up and finish the call. I’ll be even cuter to you.”
“Yes!”

Helga, who had answered cheerfully, quietly left the room to contact Priscilla.

The expression of the frivolous woman, who had been grinning, gradually turned into a mask-like expressionless face as she moved away from Urshula’s office.
Looking around, Helga quietly took out a satellite phone from her pocket.

[It’s been a while since I heard from you? Is everything going well?]
“Lydia, this is Helga. I have important intelligence.”

A public society where schemes and tricks are rampant.
The clumsy ones don’t survive.

2.
Lydia, the head of Solidus, had many followers and subordinates.

Among them were spies.
Helga, the exile who was closely attached to Urshula based on her beauty, was also Lydia’s spy who was leaking information from the hardliners.

The salary thief, who hadn’t been able to get any prior information during the last attack on the US fleet, had now caught a big one.

“Things are getting interesting.”

Lydia, who had booked a VIP room at the biggest club in Bogota and was drinking whiskey, put down the satellite phone and swallowed a fruit snack.
Amidst the booming bass and EDM, Lydia was lost in thought.

Certainly, the potential value of the floodgate was not something to be ignored.
It could be used in both strategic and political aspects, and whoever obtained it would gain great benefits.

Born with a knack for calculating profit and loss, she pondered how to connect this situation to her own benefit.

“What’s wrong~?”

Dorothy, who was drinking with her, asked.

As you can see, Lydia had granted Dorothy, who was a prisoner and hostage, quite decent conditions.

Maintaining the quality of a slave at its best was a basic for a slave trader, but more than anything, Dorothy had a very cheerful personality.

If she had been crying and trembling and only looking at her surroundings, she would have been locked up in a hotel and left alone, but Dorothy was a witch who was good to have as a drinking partner.
She had even shared the know-how she had gained from running an arms dealing business in the mortal realm.

Of course.
That didn’t mean she forgot her duty as a slave trader.

Lydia was ready to sell Dorothy to anyone who offered a high price without hesitation.

“The place you’re going to be sold to has been decided.”

Dorothy’s face, which had been nonchalant, stiffened.
She covered her reflexive tension with a nonchalant guise and asked.

“Really~? I wonder which wonderful witch bought me? How much did they offer?”
“I don’t know yet, but probably very expensive.”

Lydia laughed.

3.
“Gurgle… gurgle…”

In a dark and narrow room, a Latino man was writhing, his eyes rolled back.

The sound of phlegm bubbling could be heard, and the man trembled all over before finally dying.
The man, who had all his life and magic extracted as if squeezed out, became a lump of meat and fell to the ground with a thud.

The ribbon that had been wrapped around the man’s body absorbed all that energy.
Like roots absorbing nutrients from the earth, it led that energy to a red lotus placed on a platform.

The lotus, which seemed to be made of pieces of bright red glass, exuded a mysterious and brutal beauty, trembled, and then became still.

But there was no change she had expected.
This attempt had only added another layer of blood smell to the narrow, metallic workshop.

“…This is crap.”

Ea Sadalmelik swung the ribbon and threw the man away.
The man’s corpse, which had been flung away, added to the mountain of corpses that had already piled up.

The crystallization of sin piled up by the Cowardly Witch to revive her apprentice witch.
The true effect of the ‘lotus’ that originated from the red branch was in dealing with the concept of ‘regeneration and restoration.’

It was also thanks to the power of this artifact that Ea, who had received Lilith’s help, had not only fully recovered her rank but had also reached the great realm of the 23rd rank.

An abnormal growth rate.
Wouldn’t it be strange to have the desire to cross another wall like this?

However, the lotus, which had already reached saturation, did not accept Ea’s sincere human sacrifices no matter what method she used.

Well, if it were that easy to cross the wall of the 24th rank, there wouldn’t only be two witches in history who had reached that realm.

At the point where five hundred test subjects had died uselessly, Ea frowned in dissatisfaction.

“It doesn’t work that way, you know?”

-Bang!

The welcoming greeting for the uninvited guest was a barrage of swaying ribbons.

Ea Sadalmelik’s trademark, and now a ribbon equipped with a variety of powers that were incomparable to before.
Lilith, who should have been turned into a crushed meat paste, walked out calmly from the collapsed debris.

Annoyingly, she didn’t even look surprised.

“I think I said I’d kill you someday. Was that today?”

Ea’s eyes, which were the most ferocious and dirty among all the witches in history, narrowed sharply.

“I’m sorry for making you feel bad, but I think you’ll change your mind after you hear everything I have to say.”
“I told you I don’t need your help anymore.”

Lilith, who had been grinning with half of her face distorted, immediately got to the point.

Information related to the floodgate.
And even Lilith’s plan related to it.

Ea’s face, which had been murderous, changed subtly.
To be precise, it was the expression of someone who was pondering.

“I’ll make it so you can kill the Tiferet Duke you hate so much this time.”