City of Witches Chapter 398

What is a Witch?

One who has chosen to walk the Magic Path to achieve the feat of creation.

A chosen existence, deserving of sacred praise beyond the mundane.

Their flesh evades even the storms of time,

The twitch of their lips twists even the natural order of cause and effect.

To those special ones who shoulder their own duty, a special right commensurate with it is granted.

Just as one does not apply human moral standards to beasts, nor the reverse.

To impose mundane standards upon a Witch is blasphemy beyond absurdity.

A Witch who casts off the yoke and advances into mystery must be 'different' from mundane humans.

In that sense, Shin Siwoo.

The first male witch in history.

What of him?

From one to ten, he is peerlessly mundane.

The fact that he played along with this trivial hostage situation, using humans as pawns, was proof of his vulgarity from the start.

The life of a Witch who shoulders a long-cherished wish should be far heavier than that of a mere human.

Walking into mortal danger for the sake of a friend who was already as good as dead was to be expected,

And thus, I felt a pang of disappointment inwardly.

Then what about now?

Disregarding even his own life.

A strike thrusting a sword while tearing through the storm of a Distortion Field that would snatch away life at a mere glance.

Even the resolve imbued in this blade,

Even the spirit that tore her cheek open by a span and scattered Bianca's blood,

Is it all just mundanity?

A wavering vision, like looking beneath a rain-lashed water surface.

The sword swung while overcoming extreme dizziness ultimately failed to sever Bianca's life.

"Hah... Hah... Ugh..."

After vomiting repeatedly in a daze and raising his head, he saw Bianca looking at the blood staining her own hand.

The blade that had narrowly missed had gouged deep into her cheek.

He had inflicted a sword wound upon a Witch of the 22nd hierarchy.

It could be considered a success of an impromptu stratagem and an unbelievable feat.

However, Siwoo could not smile.

The fact that she was standing there unharmed meant the gambit had failed.

He should have ended her life here.

Using the rampage of the Red Branch to induce a temporary functional shutdown, and crossing through it to deliver a surprise attack was Siwoo's trump card.

If the wavering blade had grazed her neck instead of her cheek, the outcome of this match would have been reversed.

Bianca, who seemed like she would rage furiously, shouting "How dare a mere male witch!", looked at Siwoo with terrifying calmness.

And then she looked at him with a pure gaze, devoid of even a hint of malice or hostility.

"You're amazing."

Engaging in conversation during a fight is her bad habit.

It was tantamount to giving Siwoo time to catch his breath.

He immediately checked his consumption.

Two Clovers had withered and vanished.

Thus, only one extra life remained.

The Cloak was almost reduced to tatters.

He could feel its sturdy protective performance had fallen below 20%.

But even combining all these adverse factors, nothing was worse than Siwoo's physical condition.

His joints felt like they would melt from the excessive magic power enhancement.

Of the magical circuits mangled and torn apart by the Distortion Field and the red barrier, less than half were still mobilizable.

Agnizing pain coursing through his entire body warned that pushing further might lead to an irreversible state.

"...Ugh!"

He barely swallowed back the blood rising in his throat.

"I will acknowledge you as my enemy."

In contrast, Bianca's injury was merely a small scratch.

The shield of Vitège, the Divine Thread, and the Observational Eye of Ideation, all temporarily caught in the Distortion Field and losing control, regained their functions in an instant.

In other words, the opponent's consumption was zero.

He was on the verge of bankruptcy.

No matter how much he racked his brain, the outcome was clear.

But he must not give up.

The fight was not over yet.

Even if a hopeless gap had opened, even if it was a pessimistic situation where nothing could be done, struggling ugly until the very end.

Respect for the life he had lived until now.

A requiem for a friend who kept faith even in suffering.

The will to return to the side of the lover who showed him unreserved trust.

A leap toward the future.

-Flutter!

Bianca disappeared.

No.

She had merely flown up into the night sky in the brief moment Siwoo lifted his heavy eyelids.

He barely raised his head to look at Bianca.

The relaxed smile that had played at the corners of her mouth while treating the fight like a game was gone.

A serious gaze for facing a worthy opponent replaced it.

In the dark sky where the moon did not rise, pure white wings floated up like a graceful crescent moon in its stead.

Fluttering feathers white as an angel's wings were the fourth Ceremonial Artifact recorded in the public enemy dossier.

'Icarus's Wings'.

Spreading wide left and right, the massive wings spanning dozens of meters, unlike the myth from which their name originated, knew not how to fall.

Maximum speed: Mach 30.

Wings that cast off the chains of gravity, inertia, and all physical laws could maintain hypersonic speed while performing all manner of evasive maneuvers and acrobatic flights, it was said.

Simply by flying, they could evade most Magic.

"I will pay my respects to you. I didn't think I'd have to bring this out."

Having secured sufficient distance, Bianca, with her back to the pitch-black night sky, drew out a massive bow.

Unlike other Ceremonial Artifacts, it had been 'Belili's' Ceremonial Artifact from the beginning, and also her most powerful weapon.

'Archart's Bow'.

However, no detailed explanation of it was recorded.

Only a vague description existed: 'a bow that shoots the sky'.

The reason was likely one of two.

Either it had rarely been used that much, or all enemies who saw it used in detail died.

-Creeeak

At first, he thought it was just an irritating vibration.

Or he attributed it to his Epithet not being fully recovered yet.

-Creeeeeak

But as her fingertips slowly drew the bowstring, Siwoo could see it.

The sky he looked up at warped.

The sky was curling inward.

It was a strange description, but there was no other way to explain it.

Like grabbing the center of a flat-spread handkerchief to form a rose shape.

The densely shining stars and even the light flowing from them condensed toward the pole.

The air, forcibly torn and pulled, screamed as if being ripped apart.

-CREEEEEAK!!!

Siwoo understood.

The bow that shoots the sky described in the dossier.

It was not the vague metaphor Siwoo had thought it was.

It was a very intuitive explanation: folding the sky itself to make an arrow.

-CREEEEEEEEEAK!!!!

Bianca thought.

His current state was no different from being completely battered.

Nevertheless, Bianca gave up on capturing Siwoo alive.

The Observational Eye of Ideation, which had been watching his struggles, told her so.If you attempt to capture him with half-hearted restraint, he will surely bare his sharp fangs.

That man, who is beyond ordinary restraint, possesses something that transcends the usual means of confinement.

What Bianca must do is pay her respects to her rival and face him with her best move.

"......"

Siwoo thought.

What should he do?

There was no time for prolonged deliberation.

After arranging the Ribbons into a ring tunnel shape and generating a barrier field, he altered the trajectory of the arrow.

"That alone isn't enough."

He wove a shield to cover his entire body, crouched down, and made the remaining defensive power of his Cloak and the Clover his final bastion.

"That still isn't enough."

It was impossible.

The deep, heavy tremor of magic power, as if corroding the world, was proof.

That arrow woven into the night sky was not something that could be blocked by such means.

What entered Siwoo's sight was the Red Branch, having ended its rampage and now shimmering with an ominous red glow.

It hadn't fully calmed down yet.

The Red Branch, which had been radiating a Distortion Field in all directions, was merely compressing that power and taking a brief pause.

The Ribbons equipped with the control formulas he had handled until now were insufficient to control it.

Quickly removing his Cloak, he wrapped it around his right arm, far from his heart, and gripped the Red Branch.

"——-!!!!!!"

Siwoo gritted his teeth against the excruciating pain as if his entire arm were burning away.

The Deluge of the Distortion Field, unceasing even after the initial shockwave was mitigated by the Cloak's defense.

The intense impact of the distortion, churning through his body as if it were its own, trying to break it apart at will.

Uncontrollable.

Muscles seethed. Bones bent. Blood flowed backward through veins. His heart beat out of rhythm. Lungs shrank. Organs twisted. Sparks beyond noise crackled through his magic circuits.

Perhaps it was just the intense pain making him feel that way, or perhaps such things were truly happening.

The more he tried to control it, the more he tried to resist it.

The violent resistance felt as if it were tearing his body apart from within.

"Hoo..."

Back in his rookie days at Latifundium, without a Brand.

Siwoo had taken seven types of magic elixirs into his body to capture a shadow cat.

Just like then.

He didn't resist but guided it.

He used his body as a conduit.

If he let a Distortion Field of this magnitude run rampant inside his body, there was no telling what would happen.

If he was going to sit still and die anyway.

He would burn his own body to deliver one blow.

The Red Branch recklessly churned and stirred the body of its master, who had arrogantly tried to control it.

"Good, good, that's it..."

He guided it, guided it, and made it circulate within his body.

Avoiding vital organs to evade fatal interference, he offered the less critical parts of his body as a playground.

When he came to his senses, he was slumped against a shattered steel structure.

In an instant, sensation vanished from his legs and lower body.

Siwoo gathered his last remaining magic power and wove it into the form of Ribbons.

Not a formula for 'control,' but a control formula for 'rampage.'

To launch this, mere shoulder strength alone was insufficient.

He interwove a total of twelve strands of Ribbons, spiraling them around the surrounding steel structures.

Using the ship's steel frame as a bow and the Red Branch as an arrow, he drew the Ribbons like a bowstring.

Its shape resembled a black flower extending a red pistil.

-Kuuuuung!

The immense tension generated by the Ribbons and the bending steel frame.

He contained, and contained, and contained even more the Distortion Field and the red barrier that began to rage even more wildly within his body.

When he regained his senses, the Clover had already vanished.

-Giiiiik!

The night sky, having fully taken the form of a bow, completed its preparations for Launch.

The Arc Heart bow drawn to its limit.

The strongest Ceremonial Artifact that Bianca used and had never once failed to deliver a finishing blow.

"Shoot."

Bianca Bellili, gazing at the black flower blooming toward the sky, softly recited the Incantation.

"Bloom."

Shin Siwoo, looking at the cascading night sky, released the Red Branch that raged like madness.

The light of the night sky vanished.

The sea shattered as if sobbing.

In the collapsing world, what existed was a single line of black.

And intersecting it, a crimson flash.