City of Witches

༺ Night of Homunculi (2) ༻

1.

“M-M-Masssterrrrr…”

Siwoo’s body started contorting.

His skin and muscles seemed to melt away as if they were being soaked in strong acid.

Simultaneously, the room shattered into countless fragmented pieces like the constantly shifting shapes of a kaleidoscope.

Gripping her sword tightly until the end, Eloa watched the scene unfold.

The scene that was rippling like a stormy lake shattered to pieces, revealing the true identity of ‘Siwoo’.

-Grrrr—!.

A Homunculus.

She didn’t need to see its three flickering eyes to recognize it.

Because there was no way such a creature would exist in reality otherwise.

Floating in the air were three eyeballs buried in an unidentified mass of flesh.

Below it, black tentacle-like things dangled limply, similar to the arteries of a rotting animal corpse.

Drool-like liquid oozed from its slightly parted mouth. To Eloa’s surprise, her body was also covered in the same viscous substance.

She had encountered numerous Homunculi in her journey.

Combining her experience and the information she got from the Witch Point, she managed to identify it with a glance.

Incubus.

-Gooo…!

As Eloa tried to regain her composure, the monster desperately writhed its tentacles.

There was no need for her to dwell on revulsion of disgust after seeing it.

Because it was a Homunculus, so there was only one course of action she needed to take.

Hunt it down.

The battle didn’t take long and she never intended to drag it either.

It was way too weak to block her sword strikes.

-Whooosh!

She firmly gripped her Sword of Covenant and swung it diagonally.

Her perfectly refined swordsmanship cut through the Homunculus’ torso without even making any sound.

-Kiiiieeek!

With a strange scream, similar to a crow’s neck being twisted, the Incubus writhed on the bed.

Naturally, the interdimensional barrier that it deployed gradually faded away.

“…”

Eloa looked down, seeing her own naked body and the Homunculus’ body that was dissolving into thin air.

The battle itself was uneventful, but it was an extremely perilous moment.

One really couldn’t rely on appearances to judge this thing’s danger level.

Though the Incubus only had three eyeballs, it had a history of assassinating two witches before.

Under normal circumstances, to assassinate a witch ranked above 15 was nearly impossible.

Even when she was asleep or unconscious, a witch’s autonomous defense was always active.

When it sensed hostility, physical contact or unexpected attacks…

The autonomous defense would defend, intercept and even counter the attacks.

And the Incubus was a Homunculus that was specialized in breaking down witches’ autonomous defenses.

It would crawl into their dreams, delve into their mental world and neutralize their autonomous defenses by merging itself with their mana.

With that, the witch would turn defenseless and all it needed to do next was to take her life.

If Eloa had noticed it just a moment later, her throat would have probably been slit open without her being able to retaliate.

Using her spell, she instantly dissolved the unidentified liquid clinging uncomfortably to her body.

And that was when it hit her.

If even she got into such a perilous situation, what about Siwoo?

“Siwoo—!”

She cried out before rushing towards the balcony as if her body was being carried by the wind.

The reason why Incubus was infamous among the witches wasn’t just because its feat of assassinating witches.

It was also because it was closely related to the ‘Cowardly Witch’.

A series of recent incidents and events played through Eloa’s mind.

Ms. Sua’s report of a Homunculus that could clone itself, the human heart modified as an offering from within its body…

The White Knights she encountered on the rooftop that bore an uncanny resemblance to the Red Knight.

Back in the COEX, the mass slaughter incident.

And lastly, the ‘Dream Demon’ that attacked her today.

From the very beginning, Ms. Sua had linked the incident to the Cowardly Witch, Paola Xochtil.

Though they couldn’t locate her whereabouts because she was quite adept in hiding herself…

With the haunting whispers and all the pieces fitting together, everything became clear.

The recent incidents in Seoul were something that the Cowardly Witch had orchestrated herself.

Eloa didn’t know why she was doing all this.

What she knew was the fact that Xochitl was once known as the Witch of Thousand Beasts, she could control numerous Homunculi all at once.

The important points here were ‘numerous’ and ‘at once’.

There was a big chance that while she was busy dealing with the Incubus, Siwoo and Evergreen were in grave danger themselves.

“Siwoo!”

Eloa broke through the locked living room window and entered the house.

But, after checking through Siwoo’s room, Evergreen’s room, the whole house even, she couldn’t find any sign of them.

Though there were no traces of battle she could find, it still didn’t ease her mind.

Homunculi would typically deploy their interdimensional barriers during their hunts, so chances were they had already taken care of both of them before retracting their barriers.

“No…”

As soon as she was certain that they weren’t here, Elao felt as if a heavy weight dropped into her chest.

At the same time, waves of nauseating fear and dread overwhelmed her.

The room, shrouded in darkness, was eerily silent.

Memories from the past came rushing back forcefully.

The agonizing memory of the day when she lost Ravi.

“No…no, no, nonono…”

Her mind went blank, her face drained of color, her limbs turned icy and she started to tremble uncontrollably.

Not again, she couldn’t bear to lose another person again.

She couldn’t let anyone die because of her moment of carelessness again.

Eloa hurriedly took out her phone.

It was a device she never really got used to even though she had been using it for years now.

She dialed a number.

At first, she tried to call Siwoo, but…

She received no response.

No matter how many times it rang, he didn’t answer her call.

“W-What should I do— R-Right! M-Ms. Sua!”

Next, she called Ms. Sua, the Branch Manager of the Witch Point.

But the result was the same.

No matter how many times she tried, her call was immediately thrown into voicemail.

The sudden attack by Xochitl’s minions.

Siwoo and Evergreen went missing.

And Ms. Sua who wasn’t answering her calls.

The situation was anything but ordinary.

Something incredibly ominous was going on.

Eloa gripped her chest tightly, as if she was having a panic attack, and sank to the floor.

“This can’t be…this can’t be happening…”

Struggling to support her collapsing body, she gripped her sword tightly before standing up.

Her eyes reflected a menacing resolve.

She forcefully suppressed the resurfacing trauma, worries and fears.

‘I will find him and protect him.’

‘This time, I will not repeat my past mistakes.’

“Hereby, I declare a covenant.”

The twelve letters etched on the Sword of Covenant began to shine brightly.

A storm of mana erupted, causing chaos in the surroundings.

It was the storm of mana unleashed by a 23rd ranked witch, something that could make a weak witch faint by just coming into contact with it.

Eloa was different from normal witches, all her magic was geared towards fighting.

That was why she couldn’t use any spells for tracking or searching.

But that wasn’t a problem for her, as she could just search through the entire area by herself.

Her body shot through the window.

At a speed faster than the wind, she dashed through various parts of Seoul.

2.

Their Homunculus hunt tonight hadn’t been very fruitful.

So, after wrapping up their two hours of hunt, Siwoo and Sharon checked into a hotel.

After they finished Sharon’s ‘treatment’, the two of them were lying on the hotel bed, rolling around, ‘hot and sweaty’ if one were to use Sharon’s words.

Since she was the one who booked the place, the hotel wasn’t a fancy one.

It was better than a motel out on the outskirts of Hongdae, but calling it a proper hotel was debatable.

Nowadays, they’d only have sex once in three days, which wasn’t much compared back when they used to do it the moment they exchanged glances.

Though, every time they did it, they’d roll around until dawn break to make up for it.

“Ah…it felt good today too~”

After a quick shower, Sharon, who was naked, clung to Siwoo’s chest.

Her breasts, which Siwoo had been eagerly sucking on while he was fucking her a while ago, were now softly pressed against his bare skin.

Smiling happily, she gently planted a kiss on his cheek.

“I can’t believe you made that kind of sound.”

“Because it feels good! Also, you don’t seem to get tired lately.”

“Hm, maybe because I’ve been training?”

“Maybe~”

Sharon let out soft chuckles before nestling even closer.

Despite their bodies already tightly intertwined, she still moved in even closer.

Sometimes, these kinds of moments made him feel that he was really lucky.

He was living with Sharon, a woman even more beautiful than his dream woman, and he didn’t need to worry about money or his future.

Thinking that this all started from his life as a slave in Gehenna, he thought of the phenomenon called the snowball effect.

While he had been warned about getting attacked by Homunculi or Criminal Exiles…

He never felt the case at all.

The fact that he was especially careful was one thing, but the constant peace in his daily life made it hard for him to think that such a crisis would ever approach him.

It was just like how Koreans never felt the danger of war even though they were living in a divided country.

“Too bad that the Duchess lived nearby. Before she came, we could have sex whenever we wanted…”

“Well, I get your feeling, but I need to get stronger. Who knows when trouble might come to us, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s still frustrating…”

Sharon pouted in dissatisfaction.

She glanced at him, her lips were still pursed.

“Hmm~?”

She then lightly tapped her lips, but Siwoo pretended not to notice.”

“Hmm! Mmmm! Hurry up…”

As expected, it was a hint for a kiss.

‘Still not satisfied, huh?’

‘Then again, today was shorter than usual.’

Whenever they stayed in a hotel like this, Sharon would always pounce on him relentlessly with an insatiable hunger, trying to devour every inch of his throbbing rod.

Just as they were about to continue their passionate love-making…

A faint mana began to spread around them.

“What’s happening?”

Siwoo quickly got up and scanned his surroundings.

He felt a strange sensation on his skin and saw distinct mana patterns emerging in the air.

This wasn’t the first time he experienced such a thing, so he managed to sense the trouble even before an interdimensional barrier was formed completely.

Said barrier engulfed the entire hotel.

“W-What is this? What’s going on?!”

“Homunculus, most likely.”

As Siwoo began cautiously scanning their surroundings, Sharon, even though she saw him being on edge and all that, only managed to realize the gravity of the situation once the barrier solidified.

Dark shadows emerged from his body, covering him up completely.

The shapeless mass of shadow quickly turned into a full-body armor, a shield and a long spear.

Even after weeks of training with the Duchess, Siwoo wasn’t foolish enough to confront a Homunculus without wearing proper gear.

Sharon, too, donned her witch’s robes over her naked body, readying herself for battle.

She tightly gripped her wand that was adorned with a large emerald, surveying the area.

Their surroundings were filled with a sudden, palpable tension.

“It’s been a while since we became the ones who are hunted like this.”

“And they never show up whenever we’re looking for them…”

Clearly annoyed by the disturbance, Sharon clenched her wand tightly as she glanced around.

-Splash!

“Huh?”

While still maintaining his defensive stance Siwoo tried to approach the window to look outside.

But the sound of splashing water from beneath their feet surprised him.

They were currently inside a hotel room.

Yet beneath their feet, water was flowing abundantly just like a swimming pool.

Except that the water was pitch black, as if it came from the depths of the abyss.

Because of that, the floor also turned black, they couldn’t even make out its original color.

“I’ve been practicing so hard lately, let’s see if it pays off or not. If not, well, we will make a run for it.”

Siwoo wasn’t too alarmed.

After all, it was just water, not blood, so he reckoned that this was the work of some Homunculus nearby.

To lighten up the mood, he cracked a joke, meanwhile Sharon placed her hand on his shoulder alarmingly.

She had been regularly browsing the Homunculus database at the Witch Point.

So, she could immediately tell which Homunculus was able to do something like this.

“Let’s not do that, Siwoo… We need to get out of here… Quickly!”

‘The Drowned Witch’.

A powerful Homunculus, the familiar of the Cowardly Witch who managed to kill three witches so far.

No matter how hard she tried to be optimistic, this thing wasn’t something they could handle.

“Huh? Why?”

-Splash, splash!

Siwoo asked, trying to get some context, but the sound of rapid footsteps approaching from outside grew closer and closer.

They were accompanied by heavy splashing sounds, as if they were stepping on a puddle of blood.

-Creak!

And then.

Even with the lock still on, the hotel door was swung open effortlessly.