City of Witches

༺ Redcliffe (5) ༻

1.

‘What is a magic battle?’

A common question that apprentice witches would bring up during their lessons.

To answer that, many witches would refer to a certain game.

A board game, depicting a small war unfolding on a narrow board consisting of sixty four squares; chess.

Like chess, magic battles involved two sides trying to discern each other’s intentions, strategic thinking and calculations.

However, there was obviously more to a magic battle than that.

In the first place, a magic battle wasn’t a fair game where both participants held the same pieces, time and followed the same rules. And more importantly, it wasn’t a turn based game.

The stage for magic battles wasn’t just a sixty four square chessboard, rather, thousands times bigger than that. Each player held a different number of pieces, possessed different kinds of movements and followed different sets of rules.

‘Number of pieces a player can have’ represented how much mana they possessed.

Meanwhile, ‘the number of pieces a player can move in a turn’ represented by how skilled they were in using mana.

There was also ‘the movement pattern of these pieces,’ which varied depending on how skilled the person was in magic.

In this mind game, every factor was put on display as each side competed to see whose magic was more refined than the other.

And in those regards, Della completely overshadowed Siwoo.

As a highly experienced witch, ranked 20th in the hierarchy, Della had dedicated countless years to perfecting her mastery over magic.

Meanwhile Siwoo was a self-taught novice who had only gained his power not too long ago.

The vast difference in their abilities made the thought of comparing those two laughable.

With that much difference in skill, there was a clearly significant gap between the two. And this gap would heavily affect the outcome of the battle they currently were having.

However…

“Ugh!”

At first, Della expected that the battle would end within a minute, but it dragged on.

-Clang!

Siwoo’s powerful sword swing was met by her formidable defense, the ‘Solid Flame.’

The strike that could easily split a huge rock in two still wasn’t enough to penetrate it.

He swung his longsword forcefully against the wall of flames shielding Della’s body, all while deflecting and dissipating the erupting flames around him with his shield.

-Clang!

“How could… Such a thing…!”

Initially, when she saw him charging at her, she had praised him quite highly.

Still, that praise was something that came out from a lofty perspective, a praise a higher being would give to a lower lifeform, filled with confidence in their overwhelming superiority.

If there was one weakness that Della’s magic had, it was the interval between her magic manifestations due to her reliance on repeaters.

The more powerful spell she tried to use, the more repeaters that she required, leading to the inevitably longer delays.

That was why, considering the disparities in mana, skill and level of their magic, the best thing Siwoo could do to fight her was to relentlessly press forward, leaving her with no room to even breathe.

-Clang! Clang!

Sticking closely to Della, Siwoo launched continuous attacks to prevent her from counterattacking.

A simple strategy that even a child could come up with.

To execute it, however, was a different story.

Della’s ‘Solid Flame’ possessed an automatic counterattacking system, similar to that of a witch’s autonomous defense.

Whenever she was attacked, fiery flames would pour out in response.

Faced with such powerful flames, any intelligent being would feel apprehensive whether they liked it or not.

Even if one managed to block out the flames, the heat would still obscure their vision, and scorch their skin, prompting them to retreat due to fear.

-Clang!

Yet, despite all that, the sword made of shadow clashed against the wall of flames once more.

Sparks flew as scorching flames grazed Siwoo’s cheek.

Amidst the sparks and the grazing heat, his face, exposed beneath the helmet, was reddened, several burn marks had already formed there.

In that fleeting moment, amidst the brilliant flames, Della’s gaze locked with Siwoo’s.

The odd-eyed figure, each bearing black and gold irises, held an unwavering gaze.

Despite the situation where one small mistake could severely injure him, he relentlessly pursued her like a hunting dog locking on its target.

This made Della convinced.

The man was no stranger to such battles.

He had experienced similar situations before.

“Are you maybe… Countess Gemini’s secret weapon…?”

Such doubts arose within her, but Siwoo didn’t answer her.

It wasn’t like he was ignoring her question, though.

He was just too focused on swinging his sword to the point that her voice couldn’t reach his ears.

But there was no way for Della to know this, so she could only grit her teeth in frustration.

If only she could stall him for five or even three seconds, she could easily turn him into ashes.

But she couldn’t. He clung to her persistently, and she was unable to shake him off for even a second.

-Ping! Ping! Ping!

Suddenly, a peculiar sound echoed, and Della quickly glanced to see what was causing it.

There was a single black ribbon, coming out of Siwoo’s lower back, moving freely while piercing through the air.

Each time it moved, it pierced through the core of a magic formula, shattering her repeater like glass fragments.

“Eek!”

As stated before, those repeaters were important for Della to cast her spells.

She needed a certain number of them to cast large-scale spells that were incomparable to the weak and shoddy spells like her ‘Solid Flame.’

But, the man in front of her seemed to not only know of their existence, he also knew about their significance to her. As such, he had been deliberately disrupting and dismantling the repeaters that she had deployed.

Ever since his first strike, she had been unable to deploy more than forty repeaters at once.

This kept going on, cracking the composed expression on her face.

Scattering those repeaters around wasn’t an easy task.

At the end of the day, those were still part of a spell, so it required her to use her mana.

Since he kept on dismantling those repeaters, she ended up wasting her mana for nothing, depleting her own reserves over time.

“You persistent cur!”

She involuntarily blurted out.

‘This isn’t a proper magic battle anymore!’

Della believed that a magic battle should involve both sides using their honed self-essence magic as weapons, and strategized to outsmart and outperform each other. To put it simply, for her, a magic battle should be a high-level showdown.

That was why she felt greatly insulted that Siwoo dragged it into a dogfight like this.

“Fine, do you think this is all I got?”

While upholding the wall of flames, she began to rework her magic formula.

She knew that if she continued on like this, she’d end up playing right into her opponent’s hands.

The word ‘defeat,’ that she never even considered in the beginning, had been looming ominously in her mind for a while now.

There was a certain spell in mind that she wanted to cast, ‘Dancing Flames.’

A rather simple spell that would wrap around the enemy’s arms and legs to burn them into crisp.

It wasn’t the most impressive magic, but she could definitely use it to at least hinder Siwoo’s movements.

To cast it though, she had to reduce the output, so that she could use it with less mana.

“Ignite!”

Della shouted as she swung her arm, causing several scattered repeaters to start vibrating.

For this modified version of ‘Dancing Flames’ to activate, she needed at least five of these repeaters. Just now, she had summoned and dispersed sixteen repeaters to strategic places.

Additionally, there were thirty eight of them that she had deployed prior to this.

Even if his ribbon managed to demolish more than half of the total of her repeaters, as long as five or more of them remained intact, she’d still be able to cast the spell.

In that brief moment, not only did she manage to modify her spell, but she also implemented some safeguards and countermeasures.

This was the prowess of the one who held the esteemed title of ‘Grand Witch,’ someone who managed to reach the 20th rank of the hierarchy.

She wouldn’t let herself lose to the opponent in front of her without being able to do anything.

‘Alright.’

‘This damn deadlock is finally coming to an end.’

-Ping! Ping! Ping!

She thought, feeling a glimmer of hope.

That was, until the black ribbon that had been randomly dismantling the repeaters, moved to dismantle the sixteen repeaters that she specifically set up to cast the ‘Dancing Flames.’

“…But, how?”

In an instant, the counterattack she had mustered with all her remaining mana dissipated.

‘Such accuracy… There’s no way this is a coincidence!’

‘Could it be? He hadn’t randomly destroyed the repeaters? But, he targeted the most important ones?’

At that moment, Della realized something.

This man seemed weaker than a high-rank Homunculus at a first glance.

He hovered in a position far below from her own, and it seemed like he never intended to engage in direct confrontation from the beginning.

And so, if he were to show even just a slight hesitation during their deadlock, the Goddess of Victory would have been showering Della with kisses.

However, reality unfolded quite differently.

As soon as the battle began, he leaped into the flames without a shred of hesitation.

He went in, knowing exactly where her weak spots were and refused to give her any space.

Despite his struggle in the beginning, he eventually managed to overturn the situation.

The decisive factor in this showdown wasn’t something grandiose.

While Della was treating this battle as a game, the man was fighting for his life.

‘This isn’t something that someone who hadn’t received any training could pull off!’

The ring he wore indicated he was a guest of the Gemini Household.

A man who bore a brand and possessed a good instinct during a fight.

The shadow he deployed had the property to disrupt the magic, and this also applied to the weapons that were made from it.

Not only that, his eyes probably could even see the flow of mana.

And there was also that ribbon, which could cover any weaknesses that he might have.

‘There’s no mistaking it…’

‘He’s the secret weapon of the Gemini Household, made to be deployed when there aren’t enough witches to hunt down Homunculi or wicked Exiles.’

‘Otherwise, there’s no way I’d be in this situation.’

‘This isn’t merely about superiority or such either.’

‘He is simply a formidable opponent, as if he’s made to fight against witches far more powerful than he is…’

Thus, Della finally acknowledged Siwoo’s prowess.

Since he displayed his skills without holding anything back.

She decided to do it in kind to keep up with him.

‘He looks like an ordinary man, but he actually conceals this kind of truth deep within, huh…?’

“Alright, since it’s a fight you want, I’ll oblige.”

Della didn’t have much mana left to fight.

She was well aware that this might be her last chance to make a move.

Seizing the opportunity when Siwoo raised his shield, she dismantled the wall made of her Solid Flame.

At the same time, she redirected the mana she had been deploying there to strengthen her body.

As her mana flowed through the circuits spread throughout her entire body, she increased her durability to its maximum level.

The most effective way to utilize mana was undoubtedly through a witch’s own body.

And so, she used up all her remaining mana to make herself stronger and strengthened her autonomous defense to its strongest state.

She swiftly advanced, taking advantage of Siwoo’s unguarded state when he was about to swing his sword.

Turning the whole battle into a close combat.

Normally, Della wouldn’t even attempt such a move, but her priority was to win this fight.

She believed that exploiting the gap in Siwoo’s monotonous assault would be enough to earn her victory.

Besides, he was the one who started the close combat trend in their fight, so it was only right that she answered his challenge.

Using her autonomous defense, she planned to withstand any counterattacks that he might unleash.

Its resilience could create distance between them, buying herself time to deliver her final blow using the scattered repeaters.

Fully determined now, she threw herself into action.

Perhaps, it was a mere coincidence.

At that moment, their eyes locked.

From his partially destroyed helmet, she faced his intense gaze, and instinctively understood.

The man could perceive her determination, her desperate final stand as she threw away her own pride.

“Go… Down…!”

As she surged forward, trying to evade his relentless pursuit, her opponent suddenly ceased his attacks, creating distance between them.

While this was something that Della had hoped for, the battle still didn’t turn to her favor.

In that critical moment, she had focused all her mana into enhancing her physical abilities and autonomous defense.

After all, she expected an incoming strike that would trigger her autonomous defense to buy herself precious seconds needed to reactivate her repeaters.

But that didn’t happen and if she were to keep this up, her mana expenditure would turn meaningless.

And so, she redirected the flow of mana that she had invested in her body.

She realized that her last opportunity was slipping away by the seconds and hurriedly activated the dormant repeaters to set up her attack.

-Bang!

But it was too late. A black ribbon hit her side.

The ribbon, which had never directly intervened in a battle prior to this, suddenly launched an attack, as if it had been waiting for this moment.

This was something that she had neglected to consider.

“Gah!”

With a strange cry, saliva sprayed from her mouth as her body folded sideways in the air, tumbling helplessly to the ground.