City of Witches Chapter 237

Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

A harpoon protruding abruptly from behind Sharon's back.

Its jagged, saw-like teeth were so bizarrely out of place that both the harpoon and Sharon, impaled upon it, appeared as strange objects.

From the widening crack in his fading sense of reality, a black, viscous emotion welled up.

Fear.

It felt as if his consciousness was trapped inside his body.

Even though Sharon was being subjected to such a thing right before his eyes, he couldn't muster the strength to move a finger.

It seemed even breathing would be impossible unless he consciously performed the act.

-Thud!

Just before Sharon's body collapsed.

Siwoo bit his tongue and snapped back to his senses.

Only after feeling the pain of his tongue being half-severed with a sickening crunch could he barely move his body to catch Sharon.

She'll be fine.

Nothing will happen.

It must be nothing serious.

Sharon, who was just happily chatting moments ago.

And not just an ordinary person, but a Witch—there's no way she could die so easily.

If it's the mischievous Sharon, she's undoubtedly pretending to be mortally wounded just to tease Siwoo.

"Sharon, hey. Answer me."

Siwoo carefully turns over Sharon's motionless body.

Her gruesome wound, previously hidden by her cloak, was fully revealed.

As the harpoon slowly lost its form and dissolved like black seawater, a hole the size of a ping-pong ball could be seen.

A deep wound cleanly piercing from near the solar plexus through to her back.

The gaping, reddened wound bore marks as if gouged by a saw blade.

Pink flesh, muscle, even whitish ribs were laid bare.

"Ugh... Ughh...."

Sharon's body trembled violently from shock.

He remembered hearing that when someone suffers a penetrating wound, the penetrating object should not be removed.

Because it would make it impossible to stop the bleeding.

Each time Sharon's body convulsed, a handful of blood gushed forth.

Like a broken sprinkler, it spewed blood with each heartbeat.

Siwou instinctively tried to stop it, but bright red blood only spurted through the gaps between his fingers.

Siwoo watched the scene as if in a dream.

Sharon is dying?

His body trembled.

Blood from his half-severed tongue filled his mouth, but the air was already so saturated with the scent of blood that he couldn't distinguish whose it was.

"Ah...."

Until now, he had been arrogant.

Because he had defeated a few Homunculi.

Because he had luckily beaten Della once.

Because he had received a single compliment that his skills had improved by leaps and bounds.

He swaggered around, filled with pride as if he were someone great.

And the price of that carelessness was right here in his two hands.

Sharon, vomiting blood as she died, seemed to mock Siwoo.

This was the Mortal Realm you resided in, it said.

The price of complacency is before your eyes.

It clearly showed that the peace he had known was merely a brief respite enjoyed within a fence.

He could do nothing.

Normally, he would have been furious.

He would have stood up with the sole determination to defeat the Homunculus before him and save Sharon, no matter what.

However.

Upon meeting the bulging eyes of the Drowned Witch, all will to fight vanished.

The dark seawater, rising up to the waist of the kneeling Siwoo, shattered the very foundation of his desire to fight.

The shadow armor scattered.

The armor that had always provided a last resort in the worst situations fell away powerlessly.

Siwoo simply hugged the blood-soaked Sharon.

-Clang-clatter!

Various weapons rose to the water's surface.

Anchors and chains, ropes and harpoons.

The blade of a guillotine, widened slightly, filled the expanded cabin.

"You shouldn't stare too deeply into the darkness."

At first, he thought it was an auditory hallucination.

Because he hadn't even considered the idea that a third helper might exist.

A human who has lost both wit and fighting spirit in despair does not newly seek hope.

Moreover, the voice was too leisurely and calm to possibly fit this tragic scene.

"The form of the monster undulating in the black water ultimately originates from human fear. A Homunculus born from fear only grows stronger the more fear it consumes."

A Witch who had revealed herself at some point.

Her navy-blue hair cascaded down to her hips like part of her dress, swaying gently, and her eyes of the same color pierced the enemy's form without a hint of wavering.

An overwhelming figure and an alluring charm emanating from a beauty mark, impossible to conceal even in a bulky bathrobe.

The Witch who had openly flirted with Siwoo at the contact point before.

It was 'Kibele Periwinkle'.

"Therefore, a Witch who has experienced the fear of death many times cannot deal with the Drowned Witch. The imagination of one who knows fear is deeper and darker than that of one who does not."

Periwinkle, holding a pure white rapier in one hand, calmly stepped between them and glanced at Siwoo.

It was neither a look of pity nor sympathy.

A gaze that seemed to calmly analyze looked down at Siwoo with an air of interest.

"You seem to have experienced death too closely."

"Please... help... I'm fine, but... at least Sharon...."

Siwoo desperately pleaded, rolling his painfully swollen, barely movable tongue.

That was the limit of thought possible with his paralyzed mind.

The erosion of drowning had already reached the very end of his will.

"I don't usually get involved in such troubles. But I'm interested in you, so I'll help you specially."

As Periwinkle flicked her hand, a single four-leaf clover fluttered down and landed on Sharon's body with a tap.

"That should prevent it from progressing to a critical worsening."

Having finished the emergency treatment, Periwinkle elegantly pointed her rapier at the Drowned Witch.

But even to Siwoo, who was nearly a beginner in martial arts, her stance was hopelessly sloppy.

Even if she were holding a wooden stick, a properly executed stance would carry more intimidation than that.

Yet Periwinkle smiled with utter leisure.

"Anyway, troublesome matters should be dealt with quickly."

The Drowned Witch, who had hesitated at the sudden appearance of an interloper, also seemed to have no intention of granting further delay.

It opened its mouth wide, making a strange and disgusting expression.

-Kuuuuu

The entire room shook, emitting a bizarre sound.As expected of a Homunculus with abundant combat experience, it knew how to leverage its strengths.

A sinister weapon that defies everyday notions.

An appearance that induces physiological disgust and fear just by looking at it.

The gradually rising seawater and the rusting surrounding landscape.

It was deliberately inducing fear.

It was frankly a rather unimpressive tactic—forcibly tearing open the fear created in the mind, making itself stronger and the opponent weaker.

At least, to Periwinkle.

"How truly hideous. The mere fact that you're placed before my eyes is nauseating."

As if responding to the belittlement, weapons stormed in from all directions.

Six anchors simultaneously tore through the air with sinister sounds, and harpoons fired diagonally from the water's surface aimed at Periwinkle.

What Periwinkle did before that storm of destruction was extremely simple.

She neither drew up magic power nor created a cumbersome Barrier.

She merely took one step forward.

-Crash! Bang! Smash!

That alone caused an anomaly.

The precisely swung anchors and harpoons tangled, snarled, and shattered haphazardly while pursuing their target.

Rusted chains and rotten ropes collided with loud noises in the air, bouncing away uncontrollably as if they had lost all guidance.

Even as the shattered fragments scattered in all directions like fragmentation grenades, not a single scratch appeared on Periwinkle's body.

Quite 'coincidentally,' all accidents and damage missed Periwinkle.

"My fortune today was exceptionally good. Well, it's always a good fortune anyway."

The Homunculus, who seemed momentarily flustered by the unexpected situation, swung a large anchor once more.

"Ah, right."

Periwinkle turned back to Siwoo as if suddenly remembering something.

It was an act of completely turning her back to the enemy.

Yet, the giant anchor, swung anticipating her original movement with uncanny timing, grazed past Periwinkle by a hair's breadth.

"I think I forgot to mention this. If I help you, you'll also do one thing for me, right?"

Siwoo could hardly believe this situation.

An overwhelmingly powerful enemy, whom he thought he couldn't lay a finger on, was being trampled so easily.

That was the power of a 20th Hierarchy Witch.

An overwhelming power on a completely different level from his own strength, which he had overestimated.

"I'll take it as your agreement. You don't look like you have the capacity to answer anyway."

Without waiting for Periwinkle's reply, she turned her body again and looked at the Drowned Witch.

With a leisurely gait, she pursued the faltering, retreating Homunculus.

-Kwooooooo!

The Drowned Witch, who had remained silent until now, let out a cry like something from the depths of hell, a wail of the dead.

"Feeling anxious? What to do, monsters are scarier when they don't speak."

The attacks grew even fiercer.

The movements, which had followed some sort of pattern, became wild, as if swinging randomly.

But the result was the same.

Each time Periwinkle moved her steps leisurely, as if strolling through a garden, things happened that could only be described as luck.

Like playing Russian roulette with an automatic pistol, but the bullet was a dud and didn't fire.

Like a claymore exploding right beside her, but the shrapnel missed and she took no injury.

This level of luck repeated over and over.

-Kwoo... Kwooo...

The Drowned Witch slowly backed away until its back touched the wall.

The bizarre sounds it emitted, like groans, were clearly cowed, as anyone could see.

Its bulging eyeballs spun around as if searching for an escape.

"Are you scared of me?"

The seawater, which had risen up to the thighs, gradually, gradually receded until it barely wet the heels.

The interior furnishings, which had decayed as if ages had passed, began to revert to their original state as if the clock had been turned back.

Believing in her victory.

An overwhelming ego that had never known the fear of death did not tolerate even the slightest erosion.

The Homunculus also possessed faint intelligence.

It couldn't win like this.

The moment the Drowned Witch realized that, it decided to flee.

A fleeting moment to secure an escape route and method.

The instant its consciousness, focused on defense and attack, became distracted, a white rapier extended.

-Guhk!

Thus, the Drowned Witch could not react even to the slowly extending rapier.

It could only look down at the pure white blade that had deeply pierced its chest as if skewered.

It wouldn't be an excessive delusion to think that hideous face was colored with astonishment.

Homunculi generally have high durability.

One with 17 eyes would require something like an anti-materiel rifle to have any effect.

Yet the rapier, merely clad in a bit of magic power, cut through the rotten, bloated flesh like tofu and destroyed the Homunculus's core.

Cold, stern navy-blue eyes reflected the Drowned Witch's final moments.

"You were lucky. Unfortunate for you, though."

The one-sided fight was over.

Author's Note (Afterword)

Something I ate must have disagreed with me; my stomach's in knots lol.