City of Witches Chapter 369

“Kuhahaha!”

Jack felt ecstasy.

The power boiling up throughout his entire body.

The vitality and energy imbued in each and every muscle.

Because an overwhelming power that could never be obtained through exercise or doping was surging forth.

Unexpectedly, the wicked witch Bianca had prepared a very useful gift.

Even if it came at the cost of his subordinates' lives, Jack didn't feel the slightest bit of regret.

“Is this power! Kuhahaha!”

The omnipotent feeling swirling through his entire body restored Jack's long-forgotten confidence.

It seemed like he could kill even a witch, who he used to fear beyond measure.

The time of living like human livestock was over.

He could return to the glory of the past, to the days as a hitman who made a name for himself as 'Jack the Knife'.

The intoxication, as if heavily drugged, and the endless, overflowing thirst for blood were intense.

Even his skin turning dark and purplish.

And for some reason, the bumpy eyes that had sprouted on his arm weren't important issues at all.

He would return the persecution he had suffered to the witches.

Rape, kill, and chew up the Brands of those haughty bitches.

That alone seemed to be the paramount task, swirling in his mind.

“Ah, you're still there?”

After laughing in place for a while, Jack tilted his head and looked at the enemy before him.

The man who had instantly turned his subordinates into cripples moments ago, and the apprentice witch trembling and pale as a sheet.

Though the man's body was now clad in black armor, slightly different from before, it didn't matter.

Even recalling the display the man had shown earlier, he didn't feel like he would lose.

Because now, he was stronger.

To the extent that he felt such conviction, a vigorous vitality surged through his entire body.

“Kukuku, relying on such a pathetic power to act tough.”

“W-we have to run… That's a Homunculus…”

Diana called out to Siwoo with a trembling voice.

Siwoo was much stronger than Diana had anticipated.

His figure, knocking down the thugs in the blink of an eye, looked as effortless as taking a stroll.

“It's alright. I can handle it within my limits.”

But that was different.

She couldn't begin to guess how a perfectly normal human had mutated into a Homunculus, but regardless, it was a Homunculus.

A monster of the Witch of Creation that even ordinary witches wouldn't attempt to hunt unless they were above the 15th Hierarchy.

Moreover, that monster had 17 eyeballs.

He might be able to achieve an unparalleled feat against human criminals and ordinary firearms, but he was not an opponent a mere single witch could handle.

“Ah, no! Absolutely not! We have to run and call for help!”

Diana desperately tried to pull Siwoo's arm to escape this place.

No matter how urgent it was to flee, she couldn't leave him behind.

She couldn't just watch him, who had once saved her from danger, choose a path to his death.

“What a bunch of nonsense.”

At the trivial melodrama, Jack spun the dagger in his hand with a cruel smile.

His gaze, filled with more desire than ever, turned towards Diana.

“Listen well, apprentice witch girl. From now on, I'm going to break that bastard's limbs right in front of you.”

“Hic…!”

“Aren't you already curious about what will happen to you, now that you'll have no one to help you?”

Siwoo blocked the blatant greed and threat with his broad back.

“No, not curious at all.”

Jack looked at Siwoo with a deranged laugh.

“Ah, you look forward to it too. As a parting gift for your journey to the afterlife, I'll show you the sight of that witch bitch you tried to protect being hacked to pieces.”

Jack, who had been jumping in place like a boxer warming up, began leaping around the warehouse like a cat.

It was slightly different from ordinary 'running around'.

As if testing his newly acquired power, he freely bounced off the walls and ceiling, circling around Siwoo and Diana like a black wind.

“Kuhahahaha! Kuhahahaha!”

Jack, who had been letting out deranged laughs while performing three-dimensional movements beyond human limits, instantly charged towards Siwoo.

The moment Diana, who had barely managed to catch the shadow her eyes couldn't properly follow, opened her mouth.

“Watch out…!”

Diana's imagination was painting the image of Siwoo being hacked to pieces, just as Jack had threatened.

However.

-KWANG!

“Kuaaak!!!”

The sound of striking an iron plate.

The moment Siwoo firmly planted his feet on the ground and stepped into a deep stance, the rotten straw scattered around fluttered.

Then, with his knees slightly bent, he thrust out his elbow as if stabbing, timed perfectly with Jack's charge, and the counter successfully drove into Jack's chest.

Jack had charged with speed beyond human limits.

On top of that, a Foot Technique counter reinforced to the utmost with magic power had hit, so it was only natural that Jack flew and slammed into the warehouse wall.

“Uh….”

It wasn't just Diana who was surprised by the development that differed greatly from expectations.

Jack, buried under a pile of boxes, also looked down at his own chest with a dumbfounded expression.

His top, completely torn apart by the shockwave.

Inside, his sternum was visible, sunken in as if struck by a thick hammer.

But the formidable regenerative power granted by the Homunculus's power restored the wound as if rewinding.

Jack got back up.

There was no fear.

His fighting spirit wasn't broken either.

He just hadn't adapted to his newly acquired power yet.

Having gained such power, how could he possibly lose to a mere man who uses a bit of Magic, not even a witch?

“Kuhaha! You've got some skill, I see! Then how about this!”

His melting rationality was no longer inherently human.

In exchange for his body being corrupted, Jack could feel it without anyone teaching him.

What weapon he possessed and how to utilize it.

Getting up, Jack gripped his dagger.

The naturally guided magic power dyed the blade's tip red.

It would push the dagger's cutting power and durability to their limits.

That seemingly thick armor would be useless too.

If it just made contact, it would surely tear apart like paper.

Jack's mind was already unfolding a rainbow of pleasure.

He would finish his revenge by shredding the witches who looked down on and despised him, and by sating his personal desires.

“Bloom.”

Siwoo took out a spear and simultaneously drew forth 10 Ribbons.

He wove shadows to create a long, sturdy spear.

Jack kicked off the ground and charged again.

“Hup!”With both feet planted firmly, Siwoo took a breath and thrust the spear straight forward.

It was a spear technique he had practiced in preparation for the day he could perfectly control the Red Branch.

The Contract of the King of All Maladies inherent within the Brand, combined with the application of Foot Technique, elevated even his recently acquired spear skills to a first-rate level.

"You can't block with that!"

Jack, grinning from ear to ear, easily sliced through the thrust spear.

The spear, hardened by applying elemental system magic to the laws of shadow, boasted strength comparable to cutting-edge new materials.

Yet, the red aura clinging to the dagger cut through the spear shaft like a straw.

The ribbons stretching from all directions, seemingly to restrain him, were also severed with ease.

After all, this was Jack, who had taken countless lives with just a single blade.

His confidence in his skills was second to none.

"Got you...!"

Once inside the long spear's reach, the area beyond became the free domain of his dagger.

With victory half-assured, Jack extended his blade toward the seams of the helmet and armor.

Into the brief gap of consciousness where victory was certain, a breath from within Siwoo's helmet seeped.

"Hoo...."

-Kwaaang!

What corrected his hasty misconception was the flash of light exploding before his eyes.

It was the moment the spear shaft, spinning like a windmill from within Siwoo's embrace, struck his temple.

"Gghheuk...!"

A force that would have instantly crushed a human's skull and snapped their neck, but Jack, now transformed into a Homunculus, barely withstood it.

Tumbling and rolling pathetically across the ground several times, Jack finally realized something was wrong.

"T-this can't be...!"

If he was an Apprentice Witch's attendant, he might be able to handle a little magic.

It was with such a complacent mindset that he hadn't even considered the possibility of 'defeat.'

He had only been pondering what kind of fun party to throw after killing that lowlife.

"Is it all over?"

But something was off.

Strength and physical reflexes surpassing human limits.

Right now, he felt he could slice through even a hail of machine gun fire.

Until the moment he was knocked down, Jack hadn't even realized what had hit him.

"You fucking bastard...."

Staggering to his feet, Jack finally began to regard Siwoo with caution.

He assumed a proper stance and focused his consciousness to decisively cut off his breath, but.

"If you won't come, I'll go."

He's coming.

By the time he sharply focused his nerves, the spear was already being swung right before his eyes.

So fast that an illusion of the spear shaft bending mid-swing.

An impossibly heavy sound of tearing air, unbelievable as the sound of a swung spear, ripped through the atmosphere.

-Booowooong!

Gritting his teeth, Jack bent his waist back to evade.

But there was no room for a counterattack.

The moment the swung spear strike missed, Siwoo's foot traced an arc as it rotated.

-Boo-woong!

"Gghak!"

The relentless second strike precisely pierced Jack's side.

Truth be told, if considering magic alone.

Siwoo isn't particularly strong.

In terms of magical ability alone, he'd probably be on par with a 17th or 18th Hierarchy Witch.

However, if judging solely by personal martial prowess, the story changes.

He received instruction from Eloah Tiferet, revered as a martial god.

Furthermore, he possesses the Contract of the King of All Maladies, which allows him to wield any weapon freely.

If the Homunculus that had parasitized Jack's body had been the type to spew special innate magic like a drowned Witch, it might have been difficult to deal with.

But since Jack chose close-quarters combat as his strategy, an immense gap in fundamentals was created from the start.

The flow of the fight thereafter was one-sided.

Jack wildly swung his dagger, relying on overwhelming regenerative ability and toughness, but Siwoo never gave him any distance.

Using the spear's long reach, he relentlessly pounded Jack's body, and when Jack recklessly charged forward, he knocked him down bare-handed.

-Thwack! Thwack! Thud! Thwack! Thud!

Over ten sincere sweeps of the spear shaft pouring down like a shower per second.

"Gghuk! Kehk! Ggeuk! Kehk!"

Jack screamed incessantly, like a character in a buggy fighting game.

A beating where bones shattered and organs twisted with each blow. After just three minutes of this assault across his entire body, Jack lost his fighting spirit.

Even for Jack, who had lived his life through wickedness and brute force, Siwoo's fierce strikes were too much to bear.

"Kehk... Ggeuk...!"

"Hoo...."

Not long after, Jack flailed on a sea of black blood, his limbs twisted.

If he had done this to an ordinary person, he might have felt a twinge of remorse, but this time there was none at all.

It would be a waste of conscience to use it mourning an attempted murderer, kidnapper, and attempted gang rapist on death row.

On the contrary, he felt incredibly relieved, as if he had relieved stress.

His blackened skin had returned to its original color, and the eyeballs that had sprouted on his arm had probably disappeared.

Looking at Jack writhing face-down on the floor, Siwoo released his armor.

"Shall we go now? Let's report this quickly."

Diana looked at Siwoo with a dazed expression, as if she still hadn't processed reality.

Her slightly agape mouth was an added bonus.