City of Witches Chapter 276

“Ahahahaha!”

In the massive cavern that once served as both a pump room and engine room, back when the stormwater tunnel still functioned properly.

Within the dark space where the ‘Altar’ originally stood.

Paola Sochtil, the Cowardly Witch, laughed. And also wept.

A maddened smile rose on her grotesquely twisted half-face, and maddened tears welled up.

All preparations were perfect.

No, they should have been perfect.

She had seized the Red Branch, taking advantage of the Enemy Knight’s weakness after successive defeats.

What Paola coveted was the Red Branch’s ‘Distortion’ function.

She extracted and borrowed the concept of Distortion to create an Artifact capable of warping causality and even the already-flowed past.

For that, she used ‘Dagon’s Flute’ to obtain human ‘Connections,’ numerous corpses, and hearts.

She erected an Altar that maintained the nervous systems and brain functions of 1,440 people, offering ceaseless prayers.

Countless people died, but it didn’t matter.

Because she wanted to undo it, no matter the cost.

Because she wanted to wash away and atone for the days stained with regret.

The fruit of that labor was here.

Paola, laughing and crying insanely, embraced a single large flower that had bloomed, swallowing the altar.

Its shape resembled an elegant lotus blooming in a pond.

It was an Artifact that emanated a sacred and mysterious aura, belying the fact it was born after countless sacrifices and devouring life.

“Ahahaha!”

To any Witches who might cause trouble, she sent the Homunculi she had been raising to kill or intimidate them.

There was no need to worry about a gap in Combat Power.

The fully bloomed Red Branch-wielding Enemy Knight and its 1,200 White Knight replicas were ready.

As expected, the Witches, preoccupied with their own safety, fled, feeling threatened by the troublesome disturbance.

The fact that only three of the Witches remaining in Seoul entered this stormwater tunnel was proof.

In the course of these events, Paola had clearly crossed the line many times.

But just as the Witch of Whispers had told her, Duke Keter did not move.

Everything was proceeding according to plan, as if it were all a lie.

Only one step remained on the staircase she had to climb to fulfill the long-cherished wish she had prepared for decades.

Deploy the knight order en masse to gather human lives.

Offer the lives, Connections, and magic power to this lotus to resurrect… the Apprentice Witch.

She planned to tell the resurrected girl, while properly transferring the Brand to her.

That she was sorry.

That she had been so terribly afraid.

That she hadn’t known stopping her consciousness could take the Apprentice Witch’s life.

That it was all a mistake, and that she truly loved her so much.

She wanted to hold her and apologize.

In Witch society, a master’s crimes extend to their disciple.

The descendant of an Exile Witch becomes an Exile, and an Apprentice Witch who inherits the Brand of a public enemy becomes a public enemy.

Very rarely, it is discussed in the Tree of Sephirot to sever the chain of implication, but for a public enemy who caused a disaster on Paola’s scale, it was nearly impossible.

But to Paola, that wasn’t important.

Resurrecting her Apprentice Witch, whose voice and face had grown faint and whose name she had even forgotten at some point.

That was all she had left.

If she had just one more day, no, even 12 more hours, everything would have become reality.

She could have spent her final moments with her resurrected from this lotus.

But that wish was shattered by one woman and one man.

Eloah Tiferet.

The Duke of the 23rd Hierarchy, famed as a hunter of public enemies.

Paola was aware of her existence.

But she believed she could overcome her, given the exhaustive preparations, and she was indeed close to victory.

The White Knights deployed in waves steadily forced Tiferet’s depletion.

After sufficiently draining her strength, the Enemy Knight and White Knights launched a full assault and seized victory against that fearsome Duke.

Just one more step forward.

If the Enemy Knight had taken her life, this battle would have been Paola’s victory.

Up to that point, the Red Branch remained intact.

The Enemy Knight was also severely damaged, but if she could recover the Witch’s Brand of the 23rd Hierarchy Witch, she could rebuild both the White and Enemy Knights in a short time.

Then, the man who intervened overturned the entire board.

He was by no means a powerful foe.

Nor was he threatening.

He was a feeble existence Paola hadn’t even registered as Combat Power.

Yet, at the most critical juncture, he forced his way into the fight and severed the Enemy Knight’s life.

Absurdly, at that moment, Paola’s defeat was sealed.

“Ahahaha….”

Paola found it so ludicrous she couldn’t bear it.

To have driven off and defeated formidable adversaries, only to trip over a stone right before the destination.

She felt no hatred, no anger.

Only emptiness and futility swirled with a ghostly wail in her hollow chest.

Now she must flee.

Her reason told her so.

The fact that they entered the stormwater tunnel immediately without hesitation likely meant Della had revealed the location.

They would soon come here to execute Paola for committing such atrocities.

Paola wasn’t the type to stand on the front lines to begin with, and her opponent was that Tiferet.

There was not the slightest chance of winning.

“…….”

Paola gazed at the lotus with an inscrutable look.

The culmination of longing, madness, obsession, regret, attachment, atonement, sacrifice, resentment, and self-loathing.

The lotus, shedding a faint light that illuminated its surroundings, merely bloomed elegantly, unmoving even in this situation, proudly displaying its form.

There was no way she could flee.

The Altar could not be moved.

The lotus bloomed by the Altar was no different.

Originally, warping the irreversibility of causality, altering the past—was a feat no Witch had ever accomplished.

That Paola, a mere 19th Hierarchy, could complete the ‘lotus’ with life-restoring functions was possible only because the element of ‘luck’ favored her, separate from her madness and obsession.

Living her life as a Witch, achieving a feat of this magnitude a second time would probably never happen in her lifetime.

Abandoning this and fleeing would be like giving up the final goal she had staked her life on.

Thus, even hearing the footsteps of the reaper coming to behead her, she couldn’t move an inch.

-Thud thud thud

Indifferent footsteps.

Along with the quiet sound echoing within the cavern, the Witch of the Contract, Eloah Tiferet, revealed herself.

The magic power received from Siwoo was indeed astonishingly pure.

So transparent that one might forget its very existence if not consciously aware.Assimilating that pure magic power and storing it in her Brand took less than a minute.

While the trait of being a male witch was astonishing in itself, the act of magic power charging through intercourse was bizarre enough to warrant research.

Regardless, thanks to Siwoo's devotion, Eloa was able to obtain a sufficient amount of magic power.

Having deferred the payment for the Contract's price, she strengthened her body with six Contracts, kept four Contracts available for immediate use, and stood before the cavern.

This was the pump room Della had told her about.

Even after surveying the surrounding terrain, it closely resembled the map Branch Chief Sua had provided.

"Would you wait here for a moment?"

"Is it really alright if I don't help with anything?"

Siwoo had already done his part.

The fact that no dangers appeared on the way here likely meant Paola had no strength left either.

From Eloa's perspective, it was more reassuring to have him wait nearby, ready to assist at any moment, while she acted freely.

"Do you not trust me?"

Eloa smiled as she looked at Siwoo.

For a moment, Siwoo seemed entranced as he gazed at her face, then slowly nodded.

"Of course not. I'll wait here."

Eloa stroked Siwoo's head once and headed toward the battlefield.

With a clanking, twisted groan, the iron door opened, and the Cowardly Witch, the beginning and end of all this conflict, greeted her.

This was the first time they had met face to face.

A public enemy who had caused a terrible disaster and planned to cause more in the future.

Yet, the Cowardly Witch looked utterly exhausted.

Her distorted face and the face that once boasted beautiful features.

Both sides were visibly emaciated.

Supporting herself as if embracing a large lotus, the Cowardly Witch descended from the altar and stood facing Eloa.

"......"

"......"

The two stood still, gazing at each other.

Without a word, an indescribably complex gaze tangled in the air between them.

No conversation was needed.

There was a mission to kill here.

There was a delusion of surviving here.

Both intuitively knew a battle was inevitable.

"I offer myself."

Paola moved first.

Her opponent was the Witch of Contracts.

She knew she couldn't win, but she pinned her last hope on the fact that the other was not at her full strength.

Her plan was to exert her full power here to defeat the Witch of Contracts and find a way to move the lotus.

With no offerings left, the only thing Paola could offer to strengthen her Homunculus was her own wretched body.

Turbid magic power spread around her, and her legs began to rot away.

Simultaneously, a subspace opened behind Paola.

Thick, octopus-like tentacles shot out and coiled around Paola's decaying, crumbling legs.

Instead of suckers, they were covered with thousands of small mouths.

The Homunculus, which had consumed insufficient prey for its size, became one with Paola's body in return.

To bridge the gap in combat power, Paola had thrown her own flesh as bait to the last Homunculus she controlled and fused with it.

"I contract."

With Eloa's Incantation, a clear wave of magical power surged through the cavern.

Excluding the six Contracts already expended on Body Enhancement, she had four usable Contracts remaining.

Her physical condition was still not normal.

While she had forcibly deferred the collection of the price and had sufficient magic power, she felt no sensation in the extremities of her body, like her fingertips or toes.

She was merely forcibly patching and supplementing that void with magic power.

"I will cut you down."

The moment Eloa's lips moved, the seventh character shone.

A Contract was established.

"I will cut you down."

Eloa's Contracts are not merely 'words.'

Her Contracts are self-suggestion and reality manipulation based on Word Spirits.

Once established, a Contract possesses the characteristic of striving for fulfillment, even twisting causality if necessary.

"I will cut you down."

For instance, the moment she designates a single target and declares, 'I will cut [you] down.'

Eloa's entire being functions to execute that declaration.

Her eyes, her heart, every fragment of her muscles and blood vessels, even a single piece of her cells, all begin to strengthen solely for the fulfillment of the Contract.

"I will cut you down."

The tenth and final Contract concluded.

This is why Eloah Tiferet exhibits near-invincible power against a single opponent.

Her body was pressing down on the surrounding air with a previously unfelt heaviness of magic power.

"Die!"

Tentacles stretched out from all directions.

An Aberrant creature that could not exist under this world's laws, fused with Paola, swung its death-dealing tentacles.

However.

"......"

The flood of tentacles, easily numbering in the hundreds, could not even chew a single strand of Eloa's hair.

Eloa's gracefully swung sword was cutting down every tentacle fused with Paola the moment they entered her Sword Domain.

The disparity between the two was originally so overwhelming that Paola could hardly dare to oppose it.

Eloa's body shot forward.

Ignoring the tentacles belatedly pursuing her, she drove her sword deep into the heart of Paola.

"Guh-hack!"

Crimson blood gushed from Paola's mouth.

The Homunculus that had become one with Paola also flailed its tentacles aimlessly and met its end.

Eloa pulled out her sword with an impassive expression.