City of Witches Chapter 399

The collision of forces that had shaken heaven and earth came to an end.

Bianca looked down at the shipyard while floating weightlessly in the sky.

To be more precise, perhaps it was 'what used to be a shipyard.'

The container ship, which had boasted immense grandeur, lay shattered as if a meticulously crafted miniature had been violently dashed to pieces.

Below it, the dock itself was riddled with gaping holes and was slowly being submerged by seawater.

The Arc Heart's bow, folding space to shoot.

Its destructive power transcends the laws of mass conservation and other ordinary measures of physics.

Under normal circumstances, the ship itself should have been annihilated.

Not just the ship, but it would have been normal for this entire area to be swept away and disappear in a storm.

“…….”

There was one reason that didn't happen.

The rampage state of the Red Branch, launched like a slingshot using the Ribbon, and the powerful Distortion Field originating from it, caused a cancellation reaction resulting in magical neutralization.

But the difference in power was stark.

The night sky Bianca had shot forth pressed down on the crimson flash, forcing it to plummet.

It was impossible from the start for a hastily improvised thrown spear to overcome a magically perfect, lethal Ceremonial Artifact.

Within the observational field of her thoughts, she saw a man leaning his back against a steel structure, his head deeply bowed.

With a light flap of her wings, Bianca found herself standing on the slowly sinking ship's interior, which had already split into two pieces.

"What a pity."

There was no reaction from him, who hung his head like a corpse.

He had been magnificent until the very end.

For he had intercepted a lethal strike that no Witch had ever blocked before.

However, even Bianca, who had no particular aptitude for Barrier Magic, could recognize the danger level.

He had been exposed to a powerful Distortion Field for too long.

His breathing had nearly ceased, and even now, in this moment, she could see his heart slowly dying.

Bianca possessed an elixir capable of instantly healing even considerable injuries.

She momentarily took out an ampoule to feed it to him, but then put it back into her bosom.

Even the elixir would be useless against those injuries.

While he might appear intact outwardly, magically speaking, his Spirit Body's interior had turned into something like crushed soft tofu.

Soon after, the sound of his heartbeat stopped.

She would have to at least retrieve the Red Branch, as a consolation.

"Huh?"

Something unbelievable happened before Bianca's eyes as she reached for the Red Branch, discarded in the distance.

• Twitch

A finger moving ever so slightly.

At first, she thought it was residual electrical signals in the muscles, lingering due to intense excitement.

His heart had definitely stopped.

She had observed through her observational field that his pupils, vaguely directed at the ground, had completely relaxed.

He was already dead.

Then.

"Why is it moving?"

Bianca looked at Shin Siwoo.

Shin Siwoo also looked at Bianca.

Sinking endlessly.

A vast, dark space.

Yet, the darkness caressing his cheek and wrapping around his waist bestowed a comfort akin to returning to the womb.

Ain.

The first gate of the three realms that does not manifest.

On its horizon, the history of Magic that Siwoo had written down shone like a massive structure.

His drifting thoughts, floating like his body, returned.

Ah…

The reason he let out a despondent sigh was that he recalled the night sky pouring forth as he swallowed the Red Branch in his final moment.

The sound of magical shattering that had torn heaven and earth still seemed to linger in his ears, yet it was so quiet here.

The dissonance was eerily ominous, sending shivers down his spine.

Is this death?

In the distance, the magical structure was seen gradually fading toward the horizon.

It had grown so far away.

"Ah…"

Only now did his voice escape his lips.

Simultaneously, he became aware.

The fight was over.

The result was defeat.

The price was his life.

It's a pity.

If only he had thought to shoot the Red Branch a little sooner.

If only he had preserved his magic power a little more.

If only he had put more effort into his studies and achieved greater magical accomplishments.

Regrets and sorrows linked one after another in an endless chain.

His consciousness sank and submerged once more.

Then.

Siwoo noticed something unusual.

This place was Ain, a conceptual world that does not exist.

There was no reason for it to have an end.

And yet.

He could see a floor.

The floor, which Siwoo had never perceived until now, was black like the calm surface of oil and spread wide as if bisecting this vast Ain.

His feet submerged.

His calves submerged.

As he passed beyond that floor which swallowed him up to his waist, chest, and neck.

An inverted world was revealed.

Another Ain, existing as if flipped upside down across the boundary of the black surface.

Dark shadows ceaselessly repeating transformations.

The fierce clanging sound of a loom operating like a massive machine.

Elemental particles endlessly fluttering, blooming and withering in repetition.

The Palace of Memories, composed of finite stairs and Gates spread within the infinite Ain.

The strings of the Contract clearly engraved in the sky above.

The massive moon governing the barrier field.

And a massive tree-shaped fractal stretching from the sky to the ground, harmoniously encompassing all of it.

Within a structure achieving a harmony so beautiful it was incomparable to Siwoo's own, a man hung upside down.

He was Shin Siwoo.

15th Hierarchy.

The state where instinct and Magic become one.

The survival instinct to stay alive manifests as Autonomous Defense, preventing self-harm by Magic unless the caster intends it.

Shin Siwoo's level had long since surpassed the 15th Hierarchy.

The reason Autonomous Defense did not activate for him.

His instinct had not recognized the crises until now as crises.

The moment Siwoo's heart stopped.

He finally realizes he must move.

With a roar, the Ain flipped.

The world, tilted from horizontal symmetry to vertical symmetry like a sinking ship.

Flips once more to achieve horizontal symmetry.

God is cruel and does not gift Miracles.

Therefore, all Miracles.

Must be inevitabilities born from the intersection of cause and effect.

A Witch is a being who wields mystery.

A dead person coming back to life is not particularly noteworthy.

But his case was a little different.

The observational field of her thoughts was undoubtedly announcing Shin Siwoo's demise.

It was also thoroughly investigating that there were no other Artifacts or devices for resurrection.

A mystery occurring without reliance on Magic.

No matter how much Bianca pondered, she could not fathom how he was getting back up, or how he could look this way.

"Surprising. You got up? Did you still have something hidden?"

Black pupils, utterly common among East Asians, and a magical eye shimmering gold.

That heterochromatic gaze met her eyes.

The emotionless, mineral-like pupils were akin to a deep abyss.

Bianca's eyes narrowed.

"You… Who are you?"

A gaze from which all emotion had been cleanly excised.

Different.

This was not an atmosphere that could change merely on the level of a shift in mindset.A chill ran down my spine without me even realizing it.

By the time the armor, which had been torn to shreds, had reconstructed its original form, Bianca had already flapped her wings and soared into the night sky.

Dozens, no, hundreds of ribbons surged toward Bianca, submerged in the sky.

Her combat experience, her observational eye, and an instinct beyond words warned her.

Something is dangerous.

Until now, the Shin Siwoo Bianca had faced gave off a strong feeling of someone just barely managing.

If you considered each innate magic individually, it would be generously rated around the 18th Hierarchy.

He supplemented his innate magic, which would be insufficient on its own, with other innate magics.

For instance, he utilized shadows, which have a structure prone to disruption, as ribbons through weaving or enhanced their strength with Elemental Magic to use them as weapons.

Furthermore, since a proper magic battle wouldn't be a straightforward contest of power, he adopted the unorthodox method of Close Combat to balance things out.

In other words, he was an ambiguous, in-between opponent, not quite deserving the title of a proper Witch.

But this is different.

The structure of each ribbon is incomparably more intricate and solid than before.

Though the number is fewer, the power itself is not much inferior to that of Ea Sadalmelik in her prime.

An awakening after overcoming a crisis of death?

A new enlightenment that arrived at the final moment?

Impossible.

The world is not designed to be that gentle and kind.

Then, how should one interpret this overwhelming difference in power, as if he has become a different person?

-Swish! Swish! SWOOOSH!

The ribbons, each strand seemingly possessing its own will, rushed toward Bianca.

They weren't merely pursuing her; they guided and cornered her as if casting a net in the air.

However, no matter how numerous they were, the observational eye of thought did not miss them.

The wings of Icarus, flying faster than the incoming ribbons without a single hair out of place, effortlessly shook off the pursuit.

No need to panic.

There's still plenty of magic power to spare.

Mach 30.

A world of extreme speed where, in the blink of an eye, objects 10km ahead pass behind you.

In a velocity where, normally, the G-force generated during a sharp turn could crush a human body, Bianca drew the bow of Arc Heart.

The bow of Arc Heart could unleash more firepower than any weapon Bianca possessed.

It consumed so much magic power that even Bianca could only fire it without burden up to three times.

Meaning, at least two shots remained.

The bow drawn to its limit and the sky bending once more.

The target was Shin Siwoo below, manipulating the ribbons.

The moment the night sky was about to be pierced once again.

-Wheeeeeeeeng!

As if waiting for it, the ribbons tearing through the void all simultaneously drew a circle hundreds of meters in diameter.

Linked one after another, they formed a massive ring tunnel that grew progressively narrower.

The densely packed golden Magic Formulas inscribed on each ribbon were all for controlling the barrier field.

The ribbons coiled like layers of a coil and the barrier field emitted from them were audaciously attempting to block Bianca Bellili's ultimate strike.

"Fire!"

Though it was the second Launch, there was no change in its power.

-Greeeeeeek!

A black arrow carving through space as it raced.

As if waiting for it, the ribbons resonated in unison, and the black arrow hesitated as if caught in a net.

"What...?"

The arrow, which even the wings of Icarus couldn't outrun in speed, flew so slowly it was visible to the eye.

That alone was unbelievable to Bianca.

Because it meant the arrow was being interfered with by a barrier field.

Not by an out-of-spec Ceremonial Artifact, nor by the Distortion Field of the Red Branch.

But by an unidentified Spell Formula deployed with brute-force simplicity.

The barrier field trying to block and the arrow trying to pierce through.

With each advance of the arrow, the surrounding ribbons burned crimson red like filaments exposed to high-voltage current.

The arrow, which had seemed to hesitate as if to stop, regained its speed and was smoothly sucked into the ring tunnel.

She realized then.

His goal from the start wasn't to perfectly block the attack.

-KWAHAAAAANG!

A roar so loud it made her insides throb.

A pure white spray of seawater spewed forth by the ocean surged hundreds of meters high.

Bianca clearly saw the entire process.

Her lethal strike being guided by the ring tunnel created by the ribbons and, deviating from its target, being buried deep in the sea.

"......"

How many times will I have the same thought?

Unbelievable.

The idea itself is something anyone could have.

Guiding a linear attack as if placing a slide against it.

It's a strategy often used even on mere Witchboards to block Magic Cannons.

But Bianca's attack was no simple Magic Cannon.

It was a strike that could utterly annihilate even a 1km cube made of special alloy if one were placed before it.

And he simply diverted it by combining ribbons and Barrier Magic?

A precarious tightrope act where the slightest miscalculation in Computation could cost him his life?

It's the act of a madman.

Something impossible for someone in their right mind.

Unable to contain her astonishment, Bianca tried to locate Siwoo.

Even amidst the scattering spray and the noise of magic power, her observational eye instantly pinpointed his location.

Shin Siwoo, tearing through space and emerging right behind Bianca, swinging the Red Branch.

Author's Note (Afterword)

This is also the semi-climax of Part 3, and I wanted to write more...

It's frustrating that circumstances aren't allowing it.