City of Witches Chapter 172

They often say there are monsters guarding the entrance to hell.

Why wouldn’t there be?

Like the three-headed dog in Greek mythology.

But Siwoo could confidently assert one thing.

If they were going to place a monster to guard hell, putting that fucking bastard now chasing Siwoo and Sharon like mad would be far more effective.

Considering the speed difference between them, it was clear they’d be caught in no time if they ran along the road toward the edge of the Hidden Boundary.

So Siwoo tried to shake it off by weaving through the alleys between buildings.

-Bang! Thud! Crash!

But the Homunculus didn’t stop.

It continued its pursuit, headbutting a parked bus and sending it flying, smashing the sides of commercial buildings, and toppling utility poles and streetlights like breaking twigs.

It was like a rabid dog rampaging through an intricately crafted miniature set for a special effects shoot.

Anyway, while they could maintain distance by circling around obstacles, completely shaking it off or escaping the barrier seemed impossible.

The moment they ran in a straight line, its superior physicality would allow it to catch up.

-Grooooooowl!

“That fucker’s fast as hell!”

“Mmphmmphmmph...!”

The first sound was the roar of the enraged monster.

The second was Siwoo’s frustration at the monster they couldn’t shake off no matter how hard they ran.

The last was the strange sound Sharon made as her cheek kept bumping against the breastplate due to her awkwardly cradled position.

“Sharon! What the hell is that thing!”

“I, I don’t know...! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

Siwoo asked between gasps for breath, but Sharon only shook her head side to side, offering no clear answer.

Couldn’t they just fight it?

Siwoo asked just in case.

“Can’t we somehow fight that thing? I’ll give it a shot!”

“No! No! Absolutely not! The Homunculus that caused the most horrific calamity in history had twenty pairs of eyes! That thing is way beyond our level!”

Forty eyeballs were the worst ever?

Siwoo glanced over his shoulder at the rampaging Homunculus.

“It looks fucking disgusting.”

That alone slightly soured his mood.

Its appearance was as if an elementary schooler had roughly molded it out of black clay.

You could vaguely tell which were the front legs, hind legs, and head, but its shape was a complete mess, like it had been stomped on once.

The foul odor and deafening roar it emitted with each howl sent shivers down his spine.

But the important thing wasn’t that the Homunculus looked as disgusting and creepy as a beast risen from hell.

It was those eyeballs densely packed over every inch of its body.

Their number seemed well into the four digits.

“Then who needs to come to catch that thing?”

“I don’t knoooow!!! Why does this keep happening to me!!”

Sharon, clinging tightly to Siwoo’s embrace, began sniffling and lamenting her life.

“The Brand gets passed on weirdly! Explosions happen during experiments! I just had to blow up the research documents and become a debtor! And... and what the hell is that monster!”

“L-let’s calm down first and hold on tight while we run!”

-Grooooooowl!

Since the distance had narrowed again, he decided to use the building this time.

Using the speed that closed dozens of meters in a single step, he leaped like performing a triple jump, converting it into jumping power to bound forward.

-Crash!

Siwoo instantly leaped into the fourth floor of the building, spreading his shadow to shield Sharon from flying glass shards.

It seemed to have been used as an office space, as Siwoo entered the building’s interior, shattering computers and documents in his wake.

And almost simultaneously, the monster’s maw burrowed into the building like a woodpecker’s beak digging into a worm.

“Holy shit!”

“Kyaaaah!”

There was no time to catch their breath.

Siwoo swiftly scooped up Sharon, who nearly had her ankle bitten, and dashed toward the opposite side of the building.

-Kyaaaaaah

The roar of the beast that narrowly missed its prey grazed his ears.

Simultaneously, an immense gust of wind seeped through, scattering everything in the hallway.

“Got it!”

But this was a good sign.

The fact that the bastard was still behind meant they could put a building wall between them when breaking through the opposite building’s window.

It would create a delay in the pursuit, and using that gap to hide with the music box’s effect or run farther, escaping the Hidden Boundary might not be just a dream.

“Wow... this is seriously fucked up.”

However, Siwoo’s dream crumbled like a soap bubble the moment he turned around upon sensing a sudden presence.

-Grrrrr!

-Woof woof! Woof woof!

Dozens of black dogs, appearing out of nowhere without any warning, were charging down the hallway, kicking off in all directions, racing to present Siwoo and Sharon to their mother.

-Howwwl!

-Awoooo!

Moreover, some among them seemed to be reporting Siwoo’s fleeing location through howling.

With this, even their only hopes—shaking it off or hide-and-seek—were hopeless.

Seeing the situation worsen by the minute was almost impressive.

They’d be caught.

Very soon.

Indeed, the black dogs were small but faster than their mother.

The problem was that getting into a scuffle here would completely snare their ankles.

If the barely maintained distance closed, all that remained was a head-on confrontation.

A black dog that had chased right up behind Siwoo leaped roughly.

Then Sharon, cradled against his chest, fumbled something out of her sleeve, tossed it into her mouth, and aimed her Wand backward.

“Equilibrium!”

Simultaneous with Sharon’s Incantation, Siwoo felt his ears grow hot.

A small ball of fire floated before the Wand, then radiated flames in a fan shape.

It wasn’t like the flamethrowers often seen in movies.

The flames spread like a wave, thoroughly incinerating every corner of the entire building floor.

“That was the last one... I used up all the magic power I gathered while running too!”

“Good job, Sharon! But thanks to you, we survived!”

The opposite side of the building they reached after narrowly shaking off the pack.

They couldn’t just jump down.

Because the mother dog, having pinpointed Siwoo and Sharon’s location right beside the landing spot, swung its massive front paw and smashed the building’s side.

-Thud!

A vibration resonating through the entire building.The black dog's forepaws, densely studded with red eyes, tore into the building's walls as if demolishing a Lego structure.

That sight entered my vision vividly, as if in slow motion.

On its body, unfamiliar bumps and protrusions bulged out, like maggots seething on a corpse.

Each time it moved, tearing through skin and flesh, black dogs would plop out and begin fiercely scaling the building's exterior walls.

What is that?

"Sharon, hold onto me!"

"I already am!"

"Tighter!"

At this rate, even staying still will get us swept up.

Having judged so, Siwoo, firmly gripping Sharon, immediately extended the ribbon upward toward the top of the building.

Using the elasticity of the instantly extended ribbon, they were flung into the air as if thrown and landed on the rooftop.

Glancing down, the mother dog was already slamming its body against the building wall, and the black dogs were clinging to the exterior like cockroaches, crawling up at a speed akin to running.

"Let's split up. I'll draw their attention, so you escape first."

"Sharon, that's not what's important right now."

"Not important?! If we stay like this, we'll both die! I'm the one who dragged you into this hunt, so I'll take responsibility! Hurry! Escape first, you go first!"

"Sharon!"

Siwoo firmly grasped the shoulders of Sharon, who had nearly fallen into a panic.

For the first time, they had a moment for a proper conversation.

Perhaps there was a way to escape this utterly disastrous situation.

"Anyway, with that size, it'll take time for it to get up here. Until then, only the miscellaneous ones will come up."

Just as Siwoo said.

No matter how fast that Homunculus might be relative to its size, its massive body is heavy.

Running on flat ground and climbing a building are entirely different abilities.

"So, listen to me. That thing is weird."

"What about it?"

Siwoo began explaining the clues he discovered while fleeing as quickly as possible.

"Sharon, do you think that thing is really a Homunculus with thousands of eyes?"

"Think? You saw it too. Its whole body is covered in eyeballs."

"But do you really think that thing is dozens of times stronger than the worst Homunculus in history?"

"That's..."

"Look."

At first, I was just terrified.

It demolished an entire department store, and the overwhelming difference in stature, which simply destroyed everything in its path just by walking, made it impossible not to feel instinctive fear.

However, while fleeing frantically, something suspicious arose.

That Homunculus lacked the dignity unique to the strong.

All the formidable opponents Siwoo had faced had an aura befitting them.

For example, Ea Sadalmelik, who exuded a pressure so intense you felt you'd suffocate just from her breathing beside you.

For example, Della Redcliffe, who made you feel you'd completely lose the initiative if you let your guard down even for a moment.

They were all Great Witches of the 20th hierarchy or above.

Among them, Ea was a Witch of the 21st hierarchy, one who wouldn't be out of place receiving a title.

The power to collapse a department store is impressive.

The agility to relentlessly chase while smashing everything in the night streets is also impressive.

But that's all.

Siwoo pictured it in his mind.

What if Ea were there?

Could Siwoo have escaped this far?

Impossible.

No matter how much Siwoo had grown stronger through various incidents, he knew from experience and reason that he wouldn't last even a minute against Ea going all out.

After all, there was a record of him being utterly defeated by an attack where Ea mixed in 'just a bit' of seriousness.

"Up to here is just a hunch. But look. You saw all those black dogs coming from that thing, right?"

"Yeah, I saw it too! Just now while climbing up."

Perhaps Sharon sensed something as well, as the anxiety that made her seem like someone about to die subsided.

Instead, she pricked up her ears and listened intently to Siwoo's words.

"Just a moment ago, I read that Homunculus's magic power with my eyes. It's completely chaotic. It wasn't concentrated in one place but spread out as if scattered."

"Huh...?"

"What if all those eyes on that body don't belong to a single entity? What if that mother dog is merely a 'colony'?"

The thinking of a human in a desperate situation becomes narrow and biased.

Therefore, while fleeing from the mother dog studded with eyeballs all over its body like decorations, Sharon hadn't considered this at all.

The stronger a Homunculus is—that is, the more important the legacy it possesses—the stronger it becomes.

It can use various Magics not unlike a Witch, making hunting it that much more tricky.

But what about that mother dog?

Aside from scattering its pups, it doesn't use any proper Magic.

Even while chasing Sharon and Siwoo, it has relied solely on physical abilities.

Even now, looking utterly pathetic, it only slams against the building's exterior walls or tries to climb and falls.

Is that pitiful sight truly the disgrace a Homunculus with over a thousand 'eyes' would show?

"Thinking about it, you're right...?"

If it had, say, an awkward number like 20 eyeballs, she would have told Siwoo to stop talking nonsense and prepare to escape.

But that number is too unrealistic.

And Siwoo's persuasion is extremely realistic.

The time for contemplation wasn't long.

Because the pup dogs that had already climbed up the exterior walls had surrounded Siwoo and Sharon on the rooftop.

Moreover, below, the mother dog, having realized that a simple jump in place wouldn't work, had backed off for a running start and was clinging to the building's exterior wall.

Each time its bulky body clung to the building, the structure crumbled away and swayed greatly simultaneously.

"So, what's the plan?"

Sharon tightly gripped her Wand, knowing it was meaningless without magic power.

Siwoo, aiming his spear and glaring at the pup dogs, spoke as if chewing his words.

"Thanks to it, we've been running ragged. We should give it a taste of its own medicine."

Author's Note (Author's Afterword)

Seems like fatigue has built up lately ㄷ ㄷ

I slept at 4 AM and woke up at 8 AM.

I will definitely resume serialization tomorrow.