City of Witches Chapter 265

The vertical shaft with its dark, gaping maw was much closer than expected.

A construction site less than 5km from the Gwanghwamun branch of Witch Point.

The vacant lot, surrounded by high, rusty barriers due to a halted construction project for some reason, held a solitary hole yawning open.

Next to it was a maintenance vertical shaft with an elevator, now completely sealed shut with poured concrete, hardened solid.

It was likely the Cowardly Witch had hidden the entrance through various physical and magical procedures to use it as her workshop.

Perhaps because of this, not a single human shadow was visible in the vicinity, creating a void zone in the bustling, fluid-populated Seoul.

Perhaps because it was midday, the bottom was visible despite the considerable depth.

The height was roughly between 40 to 50 meters.

Rainwater flowing from the entire area would fill this vertical shaft, which also served as a ventilation duct. When the floodgates opened, it would store the water in underground rainwater tunnels.

The accumulated rainwater would then flow through a 5km-long tunnel and be discharged into the Han River.

"...It's deep."

Siwoo, already clad in his armor, looked down the tunnel.

Even his faint mutter echoed back, reverberating.

"Indeed."

Eloa replied in a soulless voice.

Even after resolving to take Siwoo along, a thorny discomfort remained lodged in a corner of her heart.

She highly valued and respected his spirit and courage.

But if strong will alone could solve everything, the world wouldn't be filled with so much absurdity.

Waiting for Teacher Sua's signal, Eloa reaffirmed her determination to protect Siwoo at all costs.

-Whoosh!

And then the planned signal came.

The operation's progression wasn't that complex.

Branch Chief Sua would deploy the Hidden Boundary, prepare for the White Knight's counterattack, and protect the barrier's axis.

Tiferet and Siwoo, as the main combat force, would defeat the Cowardly Witch and the Enemy Knights hiding inside the workshop.

Meanwhile, the Witch of Agriculture and the Witch of Glass would divert attention and simultaneously lure the White Knight.

The end.

It was a simple, clear strategy, almost embarrassingly so to call it an 'operation'.

"Siwoo, remember. If it seems dangerous, you must retreat without hesitation."

"I will remember."

Eloa, who used the vague term 'retreat' instead of 'run away', looked up at the sky.

The massive Hidden Boundary covering all of Seoul was slowly gathering upwards.

The moment that barrier completed would be the entry timing.

Siwoo also tilted his helmet back and watched the barrier being constructed on a grand scale.

The moment the dome-shaped barrier, shining with an azure light like the East Sea, completed, he simultaneously leaped into the vertical shaft.

Siwoo's body had already surpassed human limits.

If he willed it, he could focus his strength to achieve subsonic speeds, and when swinging his polearm, its tip could easily break the sound barrier without special effort.

Even without going that far, the combined weight of his current armaments easily exceeded that of an average motorcycle.

Yet, even though he could use the Shadow Armor as an exoskeleton suit and strengthen his body with magic power, he sometimes found himself trapped in memories of 'when he was fully human'.

For example, when faced with a vertical shaft where, with luck, one might end up paraplegic, but normally it meant death by falling, and he had to free-fall into it with his bare body.

-Thud!

But contrary to Siwoo's worries, his knees easily absorbed the impact from the jump, and he landed successfully.

Although the cement floor, which had been struck by a freely falling lump of metal, cracked with a crack, sending up a cloud of dust.

Beside him, Eloa descended with hair fluttering, her movements light and weightless.

"Stick close to me, Siwoo."

"......"

The tunnel stretching wide east and west showed no trace of any enemy.

But Siwoo realized immediately.

This place was 'different'.

Like two sides of a coin, having descended only about the height of a 13-story apartment building, the air clinging to his skin felt different.

Was this the feeling one got when stepping into the mouth of hell?

A sticky, oppressive atmosphere settled; within the dry mold smell filling his lungs, he seemed to detect a faint, fishy scent of blood.

"We'll need light."

Originally, mercury lamps were embedded along the walls, but now, over 20 years since closure, they couldn't possibly function.

As Eloa snapped her fingers, several ornamental flames shot into the inner tunnel like flares.

Thanks to that, they could examine in detail even the inner parts of the tunnel where the light from the shaft didn't reach.

"It's larger than I thought."

Diameter 10 meters.

Width and height sufficient for two dump trucks to pass comfortably.

The passage, resembling a massive cylinder laid on its side at a gentle angle, looked almost exactly as expected for a tunnel.

The slight difference was that unlike typical tunnels, which take a semicircular shape to distribute load, this drainage tunnel's passage formed an almost perfect circle.

That was also why the height and width were nearly identical.

"No, it's terribly narrow."

Eloa scanned the surroundings with a sharp gaze already honed for battle.

At first glance, it seemed wide, but it was extremely narrow for Eloa, who could unleash jet-engine level output with simple activation alone.

The White Knights would likely use this narrow tunnel to demonstrate their ricocheting movements in all directions.

"Which way should we go?"

"This way."

Eloa turned towards the eastern tunnel.

From Teacher Sua's briefing, they were already familiar with the battlefield's terrain.

Cylindrical passages with diameters ranging from 5 to 10 meters stretched throughout the Seoul underground like an ant colony.

Vertical shafts existed at roughly 800-meter intervals, and Eloa's target was the engine room located about 2km to the east.

It was said the Cowardly Witch had taken over the chamber that originally housed the engine room, which also managed the system, and the pump room.

-Ooo—— ooo—- oooo——-

Not long after the two began walking, a strange sound reached them.

No, calling it a sound wasn't quite right; the source was too distant, and refracted this way and that by the complex tunnel walls, it was more accurate to describe it as a faint vibration.

His brow furrowed.

Looking beside him, he saw Eloa wearing a nearly identical expression.

"What is that sound?"

-Ooo—- oooo—— ooooo——-

Stopping to listen carefully, the vibrational sound came through more clearly.

If one scooped up pitiful souls suffering in hellfire, melted into a thick sludge, with a large ladle, would it make such a sound?

It was a chorus of screams that sent shivers down the spine and induced nausea just from hearing it.As if that chorus served as some kind of signal, a sound echoed from the far end of the curved tunnel.

-Clank! Clank! Clank!

The sound of iron boots striking the dry ground.

The clattering of weapons and armor.

"They've already come out to greet us. Better than facing them all at once."

"I'll prepare."

Eloa estimated the enemy's numbers just from the reverberation of the footsteps.

A total of 32 White Knights.

To leverage numerical superiority, it would be wiser to swarm her all at once in a slightly wider place like a fork or a cavern, rather than in a tunnel like this.

It was probably a probing jab to gauge Eloa's Combat Power.

"Step back for now. I need to gauge their strength."

As Eloa extended her arm, space tore open and the summoned Contract Sword revealed its brilliant form.

The six characters remaining on the blade's surface shone, and a crimson reflection of magic power gathered at the corner of Eloa's eyes.

"I Contract."

Through a total of six Contracts—two each—Eloa enhanced her leg strength, back strength, and arm strength.

This was the maximum she could allocate to Body Enhancement.

Any further forced enhancement would be more than her Spirit Body could withstand.

There were still over a thousand enemies remaining.

The most crucial aspect of this extermination battle was how efficiently she could handle the White Knights and confront the Enemy Knight and Sochiteul.

The White Knights revealed themselves next.

-Clankclankclankclank

Grasping white spears in one hand, they began stamping the ground with increasing speed the moment they spotted Eloa.

Like a well-trained army, they moved in unison, their white armor gleaming in the dim lighting as they charged forward all at once.

"Watch closely."

Eloa stood at a slant, twisting her waist until the tip of her sword touched the ground to her right.

It looked less like a preparatory stance for a sword strike and more like the stance for a full baseball bat swing.

"...Huuup...!"

Eloa drew in a breath.

The spear tip of the lead White Knight had already closed the distance, shimmering just an inch before Eloa.

Yet, Eloa merely closed her eyes, not making even the slightest movement.

As if meditating, she simply stopped the quietly drawn breath.

Finally, at the moment the White Knight's spear tip was about to pierce Eloa's brow.

Just as Siwoo couldn't bear it and tried to extend his Ribbon.

Eloa opened her eyes.

Her planted foot dug into the cement floor as if shoved...

——————!!!!

A tremendous roar, as if hundreds of tons of dynamite had exploded, erupted within the narrow tunnel.

A torrent of energy so alien it was hard to believe it was created by a swung sword.

Based on Eloa's changed posture from before, one could only guess 'she swung her sword,' but all Siwoo could actually see was a flash of light on par with a flare blooming and vanishing.

And then...

-Kugugugugung!

The thirty-two White Knights that had charged at Eloa—some through the air, some running along the tunnel ceiling, some even throwing their spears.

The White Knights had taken the Initiative, but Eloa's attack, swung much later, was far swifter.

A torrent of destruction, unable to keep up with the sword's swing speed, came rushing in belatedly like a storm.

A bell-shaped wave pattern spread from Eloa's center, and all the White Knights began to distort.

As if pressed by an invisible press, their entire armor shattered, scattering iron fragments like fish scales.

About twenty White Knights overlapped by the sword's trajectory were cleanly severed.

The wreckage of that destruction tumbled forward with a clatter, sounding like empty cans being kicked.

Yet, perhaps out of concern for collapse, there was no damage whatsoever to the tunnel's outer walls.

Only the non-woven fabric attached to the side fell off in tatters.

This meant she hadn't wielded her power indiscriminately, but had swung it with a firm grip on the reins, controlling it to its very edge.

"...Hoo..."

Eloa lowered her sword and regulated her breathing through residual focus.

Behind her, Siwoo watched the scene from start to finish, his mouth half agape.

He had guessed that Eloa, a 23rd Hierarchy Witch, would be strong.

But witnessing her fight with her full power for the first time, Siwoo felt an immense, yawning gap in their levels.

An overwhelming martial prowess that seemed capable of breaking through any obstacle single-handedly.

"This is what it means to strike with one's full Combat Power."

Eloa looked at Siwoo.

Gazing at her precious disciple, whom she was determined to protect, she spoke.

Siwoo nearly forgot the seriousness of the situation and almost broke into applause.

"That's amazing..."

"Don't. It's not the time to let our guard down."

"Yes, understood."

Eloa hastily stopped Siwoo.

It wasn't for practical reasons, like the enemy pinpointing their location from the sound or activating a trigger installed in the workshop to spring a trap.

It was because hearing Siwoo's praise would make her lips curl up on their own accord.

She didn't want to needlessly disrupt this tense atmosphere and state of combat readiness.

"Let's go. We still have a long way ahead."

Watching Eloa, who had already turned her back and started moving ahead, Siwoo wondered if there would really be a timing for him to step in.

Author's Note (Afterword)

I will do continuous updates!

But I'm not sure if I can make it exactly at 12 o'clock midnight!