City of Witches Chapter 161

What is combat using Magic?

Countless Apprentice Witches ask this question during their lessons.

There is one game that many Witches use as a metaphor for it.

A small war fought on a narrow board of 64 squares—chess.

Magic combat is very similar to chess in that it requires a battle of wits, reading each other's intentions, and a contest of strategy and calculation.

However, when this analogy is made, an additional explanation always follows.

Magic combat is not a fair game where both sides take turns with the same pieces, the same time, and the same rules.

The stage is not a chessboard of 64 squares but a board of 10,000 squares, or sometimes even larger. The number of pieces each player can use, the number of moves they can make, and even the movement of the pieces differ from player to player.

The "number of pieces one can possess in a single game" is determined by how much magic power one holds.

The "number of pieces one can move in a single turn" is limited by how skillfully one can wield magic power.

The "movement and performance of the pieces" vary depending on how exceptional one's Magic is.

It is a game of intellect where all these variables are placed on the board, and players compete over whose Magic is more refined and how sharply it has been honed.

In that regard, Della overwhelmed Siwoo in every aspect.

Della, a Witch of the 20th Hierarchy, had spent long years honing her Magic.

Siwoo, a hastily cobbled-together amateur Witch spanning only one generation.

It was almost painful to even compare the two.

Naturally, with such a disparity in the players' skill, the hands they held also had a vast gap.

However.

"Grrk!"

The battle, which she had expected to end within a minute, kept dragging on.

-Crash!

The blade Siwoo swung with all his might was blocked by the "Hardened Flame" Della had deployed.

In terms of brute force alone, it was a fearsome strike capable of splitting a large granite boulder in two, but it was insufficient to break through Della's defense.

Simultaneously, Siwoo blocked the flames that erupted in retaliation with his shield. Before the flames enveloping the shield even vanished, he swung his Longsword with all his might against the wall of fire guarding Della once more.

-Crash!

"What in the world...."

When Siwoo first charged at Della, she had thought highly of that decision.

Of course, it was merely an evaluation made by an overwhelmingly confident superior looking down on an inferior.

If Della had any weakness, it was that since her Magic manifested through "Relay Formulas," there were intervals.

The stronger the Magic she attempted to use, the more Relay Formulas were required, and the longer the delay.

Thus, the best choice for Siwoo, who lagged in magic power, operational ability, and the level of his Magic, was to press Della relentlessly without giving her any openings.

-Crash! Crash! Crash!

Stick to her with a relentless offensive, preventing her from launching a major attack.

Anyone could come up with this idea, as one could see.

But not everyone could easily execute it.

Della's "Hardened Flame" was built with an automatic counterattack system, much like an Autonomous Defense System.

When attacked, it would unleash flames proportionate to the assault.

As long as one was an intelligent living being, it was only natural to instinctively flinch before such fierce flames.

Even if one blocked the flames, the fire and heat would obscure vision, and if one's skin was scorched, fear would inevitably cause them to retreat.

-Crash!

Yet, once again, the shadowy sword clashed against the wall of flame.

Sparks of fire cascaded down, and hot flames grazed Siwoo's cheek.

The face revealed beneath his helmet was already red and blistered from burns.

In the fleeting moment amidst the dazzling flames, Della's eyes met Siwoo's.

His heterochromatic eyes—one black, one golden—stared back at her without wavering.

Even in a situation where the slightest mistake could lead to severe injury or death, he continued his fierce assault like a hunting dog fixated on its prey, never losing focus.

Only now did Della become certain.

This man was not experiencing such combat for the first time.

He was an experienced individual who had been through similar situations before.

"Are you truly Count Gemernai's secret weapon...?"

It was a reasonable question to harbor, but no answer came.

It wasn't that he was ignoring her.

To Siwoo, who was swinging his sword in a half-State of No-Self, her voice could not reach.

Unaware of this fact, Della gritted her teeth.

If he would just retreat for five seconds—no, even three seconds—and show an opening, she could turn this pathetic trash into ashes. Yet here he was, baring his fangs and relentlessly targeting Della's neck.

What was even more frustrating was that, for now, she couldn't shake him off as he clung to her stubbornly.

-Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

Della shifted her gaze momentarily to see the cause.

A single Black Ribbon, starting from Siwoo's lower back, moved freely and pierced through the air.

Each time the Ribbon, moving as swiftly as a famished pit viper, pierced through a nucleus, the structure of the Spell Formula would collapse, and the Relay Formula itself would shatter like glass.

"Eeek...!"

Relay Formulas were the necessary preparations for Della to use Magic.

Only when a certain number was reached could she use large-scale Magic, not just trivial spells like Hardened Flame.

As if he knew this, Siwoo was disrupting and destroying the very deployment of the Relay Formulas from the start.

Because of this, she hadn't been able to exceed 40 since earlier.

As time passed, even Della's once-composed face began to harden.

Scattering Relay Formulas wasn't free.

As it was Magic, it strictly required the cost of magic power.

Amidst this meaningless consumption, Della's ample magic power was slowly being depleted, like clothes getting damp in a drizzle.

"You wretched bastard!"

Della shouted without realizing it.

This wasn't a duel.

A proper duel was a high-level contest where one's honed innate magic served as a weapon, pitting wits and abilities against each other.

To be dragged into a mud-slinging brawl like a dog biting an arm and refusing to let go was, in itself, a great insult to Della.

"Fine, I have a way too."

While maintaining the wall of fire, Della reestablished her Magic.

Because if she continued to be led by his pace, she could see the outcome.

The two characters she hadn't even considered—"defeat"—vividly surfaced in her mind.

She would reduce the required magic power cost at the expense of slightly weakening the potency.

The Spell Formula she aimed for was "Dancing Flame."

A trivial Magic that wraps around an enemy's arms and legs, roasting them to a crisp.However, given its physical stopping power, it should at least be enough to hinder Siwoo's fierce movements.

"Burn!"

As Della swung her arm, several of the scattered Relay Formulas began to vibrate.

The minimum number of Relay Formulas required for the modified Dancing Flame was five. The Relay Formulas Della had just squeezed out her magic power to synchronize and scatter numbered sixteen.

Moreover, there were already thirty-eight Relay Formulas floating in the air.

Even if the Ribbon, which was mercilessly slaughtering Relay Formulas, destroyed more than half of the newly scattered sixteen, as long as five or more remained, the Dancing Flame would activate.

In that brief moment, she had not only transformed the form of the Magic but had also simultaneously laid down additional insurance and deception.

Della, too, was a Witch of the 20th Hierarchy, worthy of the title 'Great Witch'.

She was not an opponent who would be easily and helplessly defeated.

Good.

Now this tedious stalemate is also over.

-Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

That's what she thought.

Until the Black Ribbon, which had been randomly piercing Relay Formulas, began piercing 'only the sixteen Relay Formulas' installed to activate the 'Dancing Flame'.

"...How?"

Her desperate counterattack, squeezed out using half of her remaining magic power, was rendered futile in the blink of an eye.

This accuracy was no coincidence.

He wasn't destroying Relay Formulas randomly; he was selecting and destroying the 'core Relay Formulas' in order.

At that moment, Della remembered.

This man, who appeared weaker than even a high-ranking Homunculus.

What if this man, whom she had believed existed far below her, hadn't provoked a dogfight from the very beginning?

What if there had been even the slightest hesitation during this stalemate?

The goddess of victory would have kissed Della's cheek without hesitation.

But reality flowed in the exact opposite direction.

The moment he entered the fight, he plunged into the flames without any hesitation.

He seizes upon the tiniest, momentary weakness and never relinquishes the initiative.

Ultimately, despite overwhelming odds, he managed to turn the situation around.

The factor that decided victory or defeat was not grandiose.

While Della was thinking of it as a game with her hands behind her back, this man was thinking of a life-or-death struggle.

Is this something that can come from someone untrained?

Absolutely not.

The ring signifying he is a guest of the House of Gemernai.

A man bearing a Brand.

Formidable combat sense.

A peculiar shadow that disrupts the composition of Magic Formulas and the armament formed from it.

Eyes that likely read the flow of magic power.

And the Ribbon covering his gaps.

Without a doubt.

He is the secret weapon of the Zemnarai family, created to hunt Homunculi or public enemies to supplement the dwindling number of Witches.

Otherwise, there's no way she would be pushed into such a defensive position.

It wasn't simply a matter of superiority in power.

He is an opponent as troublesome as if he were specialized for fighting Great Witches.

Della acknowledged Siwoo.

He is an opponent more than worthy of her exerting her full power without holding back.

A rival against whom she must display her full skill with all her might.

His apparent Combat Power and the prejudice of him being a man had been obscuring that truth until now.

"Fine, if you want a dogfight, I'll play along."

There is almost no magic power left.

This will probably be the final move.

Della took advantage of the moment Siwoo raised his shield to withdraw the wall of fire made of Hardened Flame.

Simultaneously, she diverted the magic power invested there into Body Enhancement.

Magic power racing through the Circuits spread throughout her body.

The durability of her Spirit Body rises to its maximum hardness.

Needless to say, the fastest way to apply magic power is to the Witch's own body.

Investing what remained of her magic power as if draining it completely, she proceeded to maximize Body Enhancement and Autonomous Defense.

Immediately stepping forward, she plunges into Siwoo's wide-open embrace before he can swing his sword.

Close combat.

An action Della wouldn't normally even attempt, but now the outcome of this fight was more important.

She judged that Siwoo's gap, as he had been mechanically pounding the wall of fire until now, was sufficient to exploit.

If he likes Close Combat that much, she could do the same.

She could take one blow through Autonomous Defense.

Afterwards, she would use the recoil from the Autonomous Defense to create distance, buy time, and deliver the final blow with the already scattered Relay Formulas.

Just as she steeled her resolve and threw herself forward.

Was it a coincidence?

She met his eyes.

The moment she met the intense gaze shooting from within his half-blown-away helmet, Della naturally realized.

The fact that even her final desperate struggle, plotted after abandoning her pride, was being read in his eyes.

"Wai...!"

Siwoo, who had been clinging on tenaciously until now, stopped his attack and created distance the moment Della threw herself forward.

This was the development Della had so desperately wanted until now, but not anymore.

At this very moment, her magic power was wholly invested in activating Body Enhancement and Autonomous Defense.

He absolutely had to strike her for the Autonomous Defense to trigger, and only by buying time that way could she reactivate the Relay Formulas to deliver the final blow.

Otherwise, she would have wasted her magic power meaninglessly.

Della urgently redirected the flow of magic power invested in her Spirit Body.

As her final chance flew away so vainly, she frantically tried to activate the Relay Formulas she had turned off.

-Bang!

And a Black Ribbon, half a beat late, plunges into Della's side.

The Ribbon, which had been flitting through the air to smash Relay Formulas without intervening in the fight until now, delivers a cross-counter as if it had been waiting.

It was an attack she hadn't anticipated at all, as it had never directly intervened in the fight even once.

"Guhk!"

A strange scream and spit flew from her mouth as Della's body folded sideways in mid-air and tumbled pathetically across the ground.

Author's Note (Author's Afterword)

Fire Friday! Happy Fire Friday!