City of Witches Chapter 368

To utterly ruin an Apprentice Witch and vent the anger accumulated towards Witches.

And while at it, to also satisfy one's lust.

If one were to give a codename that captures the essence of this plan.

It would be Operation Drowning Ghost.

Jack did not rate the success probability of this operation highly.

No matter how much Border Town was a gathering place for Minor Witches, they were still Witches.

Furthermore, no one knew to what extent the Apprentice Witch would resist or whether she would move as planned.

Therefore, when the targeted Apprentice Witch wandered alone near a sparsely populated hideout, Jack felt the moment was opportune.

He believed without a doubt that heaven was helping him succeed in this plan today.

But just as he had subdued the Apprentice Witch and was about to write the first page of a grand revenge drama, the warehouse door suddenly opened.

The moment he lamented that everything had turned to naught, a voice reached his ears...

"What are you guys doing?"

Jack let out a triumphant cry.

If that idiot had properly locked the door, it was a padlock that couldn't be broken without considerable equipment.

Since he easily broke it and forced open the heavy warehouse door alone, Jack naturally thought he was a Witch.

But it was a man.

And on this side, they numbered nine.

If he was just some fool who wandered in cluelessly, they could just kill him.

"Ugh...! Ugh...!"

"Who's this? It's that eye-patch bastard from before."

Turning around, Jack suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.

The pretty face wasn't worth remembering, but that eye-patch was definitely memorable.

There had been an incident before where they bumped shoulders and got into an argument.

"Did you come alone to shoot a movie or something?"

Jack immediately signaled to his subordinates around him.

Judging by how he hadn't flinched at all during the previous argument, he seemed confident in a fight.

Normally, he would have stepped on him lightly to make him understand his place, but now was a situation where variables needed to be eliminated as much as possible.

There was already a manual for such unexpected situations.

Receiving the signal, three slaves each pulled out Beretta M9s equipped with silencers from their jackets.

They were originally used by mid-level managers and had been obtained with great difficulty.

They were weapons useless against Witches, but for humans, they were supremely effective killing tools.

"Goodbye, bastard."

-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The moment the triggers were pulled, the fired 9mm Parabellum rounds would fly faster than sound, piercing fragile skin and organs.

They were already well within engagement range.

Firing three or four shots each, even idiots would land at least one hit.

Each time the gunshots, not fully suppressed by the silencers, echoed through the warehouse, Diana's body flinched and trembled.

"What now? The knight who came to save you just bit the dust."

As Jack taunted, Diana's face grew even paler.

Even if he was a male witch, could he block all those suddenly drawn bullets?

He was a novice who had just become a Witch, and hadn't even received a Brand yet.

"Ah... Aah...!"

When Diana let out a scream bordering on despair.

Something no one expected happened.

"What?"

"We shot, right?"

"Did we miss...?"

The man who should have fallen spurting blood was still standing.

There was no action-movie scene of him reading the gun muzzles with dazzling movements and twisting his body, or instantly closing the distance to snatch the guns.

He stood there without moving a finger, appearing completely unfazed as if the bullets had passed right through him.

"You idiots can't even hit him from that distance?"

"Shoot again!"

-Bang! Bangbang! Bang! Badabang!

The three men frantically emptied the remaining rounds in their magazines, but the result was the same.

As if they were bewitched by a fox.

Only Jack vaguely saw what had happened.

The Ribbon that had sprouted from his waist at some point.

The Ribbon drifting around like seaweed swaying underwater, deflecting the bullets.

The slaves, noticing the Ribbon belatedly, panicked.

"Th-that's Magic, isn't it?"

"What the hell? How can a man use Magic...!"

When the endlessly swaying Black Ribbon stiffened like a venomous snake with its poison fully risen.

Jack shouted.

"Evade!"

"Wh-what... Gah...!"

A Ribbon surging towards one of the men who had drawn a gun.

Simultaneously, the slave, flung into the air like a stuntman on a wire.

-Crunch!

His waist bent backwards as he hit a solid steel pillar and fell limply.

"Guh... guh... guh..."

Seeing the bloody foam flowing from his mouth and his convulsing limbs, even if he survived by luck, walking on two legs seemed unlikely.

-Whoosh! Thud!

-Whoosh! Thud!

A similar event unfolded once more.

The Black Ribbon swung at a speed impossible to follow with the naked eye, and two slaves struck by it flying away.

"You guys should get hit too."

The moment they were flung aside like paper dolls, this time the man charged first.

"Huh? Huh?"

A fierce low kick landed on the pig-like man who, in a panic, drew a knife against the man charging with wind-like speed.

"Gweck!"

His knee joint bent sideways, and his massive frame, likely over 140kg, did a half-turn before tumbling head over heels.

"Gah!"

A rough backhand strike shattered the jawbone of a burly, muscular bald man, sending broken teeth flying.

Jack couldn't believe his eyes even as he saw it.

Since childhood, fighting had been his after-meal activity.

Most weren't simple bare-handed scuffles, but brutal knife fights fought with the feeling that if you didn't kill, you'd be killed.

Guys who boasted about learning martial arts or being mafia enforcers were useless before Jack's knife thrusts.

But he was seeing this kind of fight for the first time.

How could a mere human wield such power?

Well, from the moment he deflected bullets, he didn't seem like an ordinary human. But he would flash and disappear before his eyes, and just when he thought he could see him a little, another subordinate was already maimed.

Precisely after eight screams, only low moans could be heard from inside the warehouse.

"Let her go."

Siwoo, who had disposed of the rabble without his breathing even faltering, glared at Jack.

Coming to his senses at his words, Jack realized he had already brought a knife to the Apprentice Witch's neck.

Instinctively realizing this man was trying to save the Apprentice Witch, he had taken her hostage.

Simultaneously, he felt a profound sense of helplessness.

If only the results the opponent had produced had been achieved through weapons, at the very least.If he had been holding a gun or a knife, I would have made him drop his weapon under the pretext of negotiation.

Then I would have stabbed him in the gut with a knife.

But that man achieved this result with his bare hands.

A hostage situation is nothing more than a delay tactic.

"If you move even a little, I'll stab you right through."

"Hic... Hic..."

"Miss Diana, it's alright. Absolutely nothing will happen. Please trust me."

Diana, seemingly calmed by his composed voice, stops struggling and nods meekly.

Jack felt anger at the sight.

Just when I could finally get my revenge.

Just when I could finally pay back for being dragged into this damn Gehenna and treated like a dog.

To be held back by this damn bastard when I was just one step away.

"You... fucker..."

"Drop the knife and let her go."

"Fuck you, you piece of shit."

There's only one thing I can do here.

A final desperate struggle.

Even if I can't pay him back thoroughly, killing the Apprentice Witch would complete at least half of my revenge.

Without hesitation, Jack stabbed the knife he was holding to Diana's throat.

I've done this dozens of times before.

I know it even without looking.

The exact location passing through the carotid artery.

It's a human's vital point that can tear through the trachea and esophagus simultaneously and shatter the cervical vertebrae.

But.

No hot, fresh blood flowed over the arm holding her tightly.

No pitiful scream mixed with bloody froth reached my ears.

A thin, ink-like substance was blocking the space between the blade and Diana's neck.

Jack looked at Siwoo in confusion.

At the face contorted with anger.

"Thanks. For being trash just as I thought you were."

And then.

A black ribbon that shot out in an instant curved around Diana and pierced Jack's chest with ease.

"Ugh...! Ughk...! Ughk...!"

"Are you alright? I'm sorry... It's because I let my guard down for a moment..."

From the moment Jack was sent flying, Siwoo ran to Diana and wrapped his arms around her, shielding her body.

Diana clung to Siwoo like a lamb searching for milk, desperately trying to bury herself in his embrace.

A body trembling like an aspen leaf.

Stains from rolling on the dirty floor.

Siwoo felt his teeth grinding once again.

It was only because he had secretly attached a single thread of the ribbon to her when she ran out that he managed in time; if he had been even a little later, it would have been a disaster.

"Sob... Hic...sob...sob..."

Unable to speak properly, Diana grabbed Siwoo's collar, hanging onto him, and shed tears as if the whole world had wronged her.

"It's alright now. I've taken care of all those bastards."

Diana, who had been trembling and clinging to Siwoo, regained some of her senses from his gentle voice and warmth.

The certainty that she was now safe had taken hold.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault..."

"Uu... Uu..."

Diana sniffled and shook her head.

It was true that something she couldn't have imagined had almost happened, but it was also Siwoo who appeared like the wind and saved her.

Though her thoughts were as opaque as frost on her head, she didn't feel like blaming him.

Jack, who had been writhing, rose to his feet before Siwoo, who had been comforting Diana for quite a while.

Even though he was spilling over a bowlful of blood from his mouth, it was simply astonishing that he could move.

"You... fucking... bastard..."

No matter how lenient Siwoo might be, he wasn't merciful enough to go easy on a death row inmate who had kidnapped and tried to rape an Apprentice Witch.

He had crippled the accomplices in one place each, and for the skinhead bastard who was clearly the ringleader of this affair, he had driven a ribbon into his chest.

However, Jack had twisted his body at the critical moment to avoid a fatal wound.

He had only lost consciousness briefly from the blood loss near his armpit.

If they left this place now and reported it to the city hall, they would all be hanged or used as materials for Magic experiments.

But Siwoo looked at Jack with eyes devoid of any mercy.

It was a gaze of contempt, without a penny's worth of sympathy mixed in.

"You dirty Witch's lackey of a bastard..."

Therefore, he didn't even lend an ear to the words Jack muttered as if talking to himself.

He wasn't worth paying attention to.

Turning his back on Jack writhing on the floor, he spoke to Diana.

"I'll take you outside first. I'll handle the situation."

"......"

He scooped up Diana, who nodded slightly, in a princess carry.

"Ghk...!"

Jack, with bloodshot eyes, watched his retreating back.

And he clenched the round bead he had taken from his pocket earlier.

This, along with that headband, was an Artifact left by the Witch of Desire.

An object for which she gave no explanation of any usage, saying to break it as a last resort.

Jack wasn't a fool.

There was no way the public enemy would give such a significant Magical Item to mere slaves without any cost.

He didn't think for a second that breaking this ominous black bead would result in anything beneficial for him.

But.

Rather than dying alone like this, unable to do anything, I'll make one last desperate struggle.

"Let's all... go down together..."

With the mindset of a terrorist committing terror, Jack threw the black glass bead onto the floor with all his might.

-Whoosh!

From among the glass fragments scattered mercilessly, a black smoke billowed forth.

Like a ghost, it instantly darted around the warehouse, covering the crippled subordinates.

The smoke that seeped into the nose and mouth of the pig-faced man, who had been pretending to be dead first.

"Wh-what is this...! Get away!"

That was the only death rattle he could leave behind.

As if he had inhaled sarin gas, the pig-faced man, who had been vomiting and convulsing in his limbs, had smoke seeping from his mouth again.

Afterwards, in the blink of an eye, the smoke that had taken the lives of all the underlings headed for its final destination: Jack.

Simultaneously with the choking sensation as if inhaling exhaust fumes.

Jack's body trembled violently.

Is this death?

No.

Jack realized he was still alive even as time passed.

His wounds were healing.

A burning fighting spirit filled his heart, and an overwhelming power, not of a human, enveloped his entire body.

The total number of eyes on the delinquent whose eyes had turned red and the new eyes that had sprouted on his arms was 17.

Coincidentally, it was the same number of eyes as the 'Drowned Witch' who had once driven Siwoo to the brink of death.

But now was different from then.

"A Ho, Homunculus..."

"Step back, Miss."

Siwoo hid Diana behind him.

"Bloom."

Along with the Incantation, black armor woven from shadows enveloped Siwoo's entire body.