City of Witches Chapter 171

20 seconds.

That was the time it took Sharon to annihilate all remaining Homunculi.

The moment Sharon's wand, adorned with emerald-green emeralds, glowed.

A small storm erupted inside the department store.

Watching the vortex that formed in the narrow indoor space shred the Homunculi—which hadn't been easily cut even with sword slashes—like buttered squid, Siwoo couldn't help but be impressed.

Standing in the center of the department store, now a wreck as if a terrorist attack had occurred, Sharon signaled the end of the battle by lightly tapping the tip of her wand on the floor.

"Whew... Done. Let's collect them quickly."

"Yeah, I'll help."

"I'll handle it quickly for now. You rest a bit. You've worked hard."

After finishing off the remnants, Sharon meticulously used every last drop of her magic power to simultaneously stir up numerous corpses with telekinesis.

Unlike Siwoo, whose results turned chaotic whenever he used slightly complex telekinesis, Sharon, with her solid fundamentals, manipulated over a hundred objects without any disruption.

And the cores she extracted were as clean as if surgically removed by a doctor.

Sharon placed the cores flying toward her one by one into her pocket as she spoke.

"Siwoo, have you ever learned martial arts?"

"No, never."

A somewhat ambiguous atmosphere flowed between the two.

It wasn't certain if the crisis was entirely over, and there was a lingering unease that today's events might be a precursor to some future incident.

But for Sharon, it was a rare proper hunt that yielded a large haul of cores, and for Siwoo, it was an opportunity to confirm the newly established Law of Shadows was highly effective, so neither was entirely unsettled.

"But how did you fight so well? I thought I was watching a movie."

"Not sure. I was surprised too—my body moved on its own."

Sharon raised her voice, seemingly excited, but the most bewildered one was Siwoo.

He had taken down so many Homunculi, yet there wasn't the slightest strain on his body.

Subjectively, his breathing was only as rough as after a mid-distance run.

Unlike before, when he had used his body recklessly, this was proof he had moved with great efficiency.

"Oh right, you must've served in the military too? You learned it there, right?"

"No, that's not the kind of place it is."

Sharon continued her strange speculation in a slightly buoyant tone.

Dimples of irrepressible joy bloomed on both her cheeks.

Well, with this quantity, it would surely ease her debt worries for a while.

And so, a total of 103 cores ended up in Sharon's hands.

Sharon gazed happily at the pocket now heavy and full of Homunculus cores.

With this amount, she could easily get 100 million, no, 150 million won.

"Siwoo."

"Yeah?"

"I've been thinking..."

Sharon approached Siwoo, who was resting by sitting on a nearby shattered display counter.

She paused, looking at him as he removed only his helmet from his armor and swept back his sweat-dampened hair.

Honestly, Siwoo looked kinda cool today.

"After exchanging these, I'll give you 80%. Since you did it."

"Where does that make sense? Our original Contract was that you'd keep what we hunt and in return teach me Magic."

"Still, this doesn't feel right. It's not just a small amount."

That condition was something Sharon had offered expecting he'd hardly participate in the hunts.

But wasn't today's abundant spoils purely the result of his power?

Bringing up their old verbal contract and saying, 'This is all Sharon's!' felt utterly unreasonable.

Siwoo grinned and plopped down onto the floor.

Then he gently patted Sharon's head.

No matter how tough her situation, seeing her navigate honestly without resorting to shortcuts always looked good.

"It's fine, a promise is a promise. Changing it now would be weirder. Besides, I'm not in urgent need of money right now."

"Uh..."

"You take it all. I'm satisfied just having tried out what I learned from you in today's hunt."

Sharon watched with dazed eyes as Siwoo's hand stroked her head.

Even though it was just her head being patted, her heart pounded more wildly than when she had exposed her chest, more than when her chest had been touched.

Why were her heels fidgeting like this?

Why was an inappropriately silly smile trying to break out?

Worried she might show a foolish, unbecomingly relaxed face, Sharon hastily covered her mouth and fidgeted restlessly.

Seeing her flustered reaction, Siwoo quickly withdrew his hand, thinking 'Oops.'

Come to think of it, Odil also disliked having her head touched without permission.

"Let's head back."

Sharon turned around sharply with a calm—or rather, a desperately trying-to-appear-calm—attitude.

The danger seemed gone, and the cores were collected, so there was no need to linger in this desolate place.

Time to go home, have some late-night snacks, and leisurely watch a movie.

Sharon inwardly resolved to pay for tonight's snacks herself.

"Really, thank you, Siwoo."

"What's there to thank?"

"For always being considerate and helping me."

"Don't say such distant things. We're in a symbiotic relationship. It's a win-win, what else?"

Sharon expressing her gratitude without even properly looking at his face, and Siwoo trudging along behind her.

Even Siwoo felt slightly awkward in the unusually warm atmosphere they had created.

Especially since he had mindlessly enjoyed Sharon's 'Wanna touch my chest? event' earlier in the day, making it difficult to know how to act around her upon their return.

But thanks to the consecutive events, it seemed it would be buried naturally as if it never happened.

They descended via the escalator toward the underground shopping mall connecting the department store basement and Sinchon Station.

They were wary of monsters possibly jumping out, but fortunately, there was no sign of that.

Though the inside of the darkened mall was dreary indeed.

"Huh?"

Then Sharon stopped dead in her tracks.

And looked at Siwoo with a flustered gaze.

"What's wrong?"

"Didn't you hear something?"

"What sound?"

"Just now, I felt like there was a big, heavy thud, a thump thud."

"No? I was..."

He was about to say he hadn't heard it.

But simultaneously, a dull, heavy noise reverberated loudly through the building interior.

-Thump!

Siwoo and Sharon looked around, trying to locate where the sound was coming from.

-Kuh-kuk... Thump....The earrings and rings displayed on the shelves clattered and rolled across the glass display cases.

The emergency exit signs flickered as if in a desperate struggle.

A vibration rising from the ground through the soles of his feet made his body tremble.

"This is..."

The ceiling cracked like drought-stricken fields.

He could feel the concrete and steel reinforcing the building screaming as they split and bent.

And amid the continuous vibrations and noise, he realized.

"Wh-what's happening?"

Yes.

This noise wasn't a matter of which direction it was coming from.

It was the terrible scream of the entire building.

"Come here!"

Sensing the crisis, Siwoo grabbed Sharon's wrist.

"Huh?!"

Pulled swiftly, Sharon gently fell into Siwoo's embrace.

This isn't normal.

It wasn't that he didn't think they were pushing too far, but wasn't this clearly a sign of collapse to anyone who saw it?

Holding her, Siwoo immediately amplified his magic power and activated coordinate movement.

"Si...Siwoo...!"

"Just stay still!"

"This isn't the time, we need to run!"

"That's what I'm trying to do, so trust me and stay quiet!"

The two shouted their conversation over the growing roar as if yelling across a street.

Sharon, who didn't know much about Siwoo's coordinate movement formula, urged him anxiously.

Coordinate movement is an extremely tricky Magic.

There were countless variables to input, and the magic power consumption increased tremendously in proportion to distance and the number of passengers.

The best option would be to move directly home in one go, but there likely wasn't time for such leisurely calculations.

Therefore, he set the destination near the department store.

-KWAGWAGWAGWAGWAGWANG!

A sound he had never heard in his life.

No, rather than a sound, it was a blast that had already reached the level of a Shockwave, and he could see the distant end of the corridor collapsing.

Like falling dominoes, the wave of destruction rushed toward Siwoo and Sharon.

No matter how efficient the Law of Shadows was as Magic, he honestly didn't have the confidence to withstand that Impact Force.

Though hard to hear clearly, amid the noise that made his ears feel muffled, Sharon seemed to be screaming.

And when a huge concrete chunk fell right in front of Siwoo's toes.

Siwoo barely succeeded in coordinate movement.

The 12-story department store collapses.

What Siwoo saw after successfully moving outside the department store was the sight of a huge building, so tall you had to tilt your head back to see the top, collapsing helplessly.

-KUGUGUGUNG

Mass and position are energy.

With a stone mass weighing tens of thousands of tons falling from dozens of meters in the air, the department store released energy close to that of a mass weapon in all directions just by collapsing.

As sound, as impact, as vibration.

Perhaps because it was about five floors underground, it looked as if it were being sucked into the ground.

Glass fragments scattering in all directions, concrete chunks larger than people poured down like hail.

Those heavy objects didn't reach where Siwoo and Sharon were, but dust and debris spread across the area like a desert sandstorm, engulfing Siwoo who was holding Sharon.

He didn't know how long it took to build that building.

But it took less than 20 seconds for the department store, usually bustling with Chinese people, to turn into a pile of construction waste.

"Ugh...ugh...ugh...hue... Tha...that was close..."

Sharon burrowed into Siwoo's embrace as if terrified.

And rightfully so—it was truly a close call.

The corridor collapsing like a sandcastle swept away by the tide, the blast that temporarily deafened him, and the collapse that came right up to his nose.

Sharon was certain she would have been crushed to death.

And if it weren't for Siwoo, that's exactly what would have happened.

No matter how much of a Witch she was, it would have been impossible to offset the impact of a building collapsing without magic power.

"Are you okay?"

"Okay? Sca...scared out of my mind... I thought I was gonna die. Seriously..."

"I had a feeling today was going smoothly. My fate's a bit rough... But considering, this is a decent defense, right?"

He lightly tossed out a joke mixed with truth to lighten the mood, but Sharon was still trembling slightly.

Truthfully, Siwoo wasn't unaffected either.

If he hadn't timed it right, Siwoo would have been flattened inside the building too.

But was it experience?

Perhaps because of the rough times he'd been through recently, it didn't feel as stressful as he expected.

Besides, with Sharon trembling like this, what would happen if he showed weakness too?

"Look, are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm not hurt... bu...but wait... my body's stiff... won't move..."

Sharon was frozen stiff, tightly clutching Siwoo's collar.

Wondering how to comfort her, he gently patted her back, and Sharon exhaled heavily as if a blocked breath had been released.

Looking at her face, pitiful tears welled up at the corners of her eyes.

"I feel like I shouldn't have suggested going underground. This must be the Homunculus's doing too, right?"

Otherwise, it was too coincidental.

A building collapsing as if waiting for them the moment they entered the underground shopping mall.

"I don't know if it has that level of intelligence. Ah, I don't know either... My legs feel weak... Let's rest, let's go back and definitely rest."

Sharon groaned, barely letting go of Siwoo's clothes, and crouched down on the spot.

But unfortunately, there was no time left for the two to rest peacefully.

"........"

"........"

When humans see an astonishing sight, a scene beyond common sense that leaves them bewildered, they naturally fall silent.

That's how Sharon and Siwoo were now.

Far away.

Probably where the department store entrance 'used' to be.

As soon as the summer wind cleared the dust and the debris settled, it became visible.

The sight of a gigantic beast, the size of a decent building, staring directly at Sharon and Siwoo.

And it immediately began charging toward them, kicking off the ground.

Sharon's face turned pale and stiff.

"Si...Siwoo, we need to run. That... that's not right."

The earth shook with each roll on the ground.

Despite being quadrupedal, its massive frame, easily 30 meters tall, was incredibly similar to what might be considered the mother of the Homunculus they had worked hard to defeat today.

But if it were just about size, Siwoo, who had gained some confidence in his abilities, and Sharon, who had witnessed his performance, wouldn't be terrified.

Above all, what made them sense danger were the countless, densely packed,

crimson red eyes covering its entire body.Siwoo was so astonished that he let out a hollow laugh instead.

"No wonder my luck felt too good... How many of those are there, for heaven's sake?"

Siwoo's fate, which had been dragging him through such an absurd mess, was once again diligently leading him down a thorny path today.

Coordinate teleportation wasn't something that could be used so frequently.

Moreover, it required a considerable amount of time for calculations.

Even including Sharon, escaping would take at least 30 seconds, but judging by the way the mother dog was charging, it was obvious they'd be trampled underfoot in less than 10.

Siwoo swiftly scooped Sharon up in a princess carry.

Sharon wasn't particularly heavy to begin with, and with the added strength of the armor, her weight felt almost negligible.

"Wh-what are you doing!"

"You don't have any magic power right now! This is faster!"

Then, he immediately turned around and began fleeing toward the distant boundary surface of the Hidden Boundary stretching far ahead.

Author's Note (Afterword)

Having trouble finding the right angle to write the steamy scenes, lol.