City of Witches

༺ Festival (2) ༻

1.

-Snap! Crunch! Snap!

That disturbing sound was followed by a brief moment of silence.

The life of the student bitten by the piranha met an abrupt end. His lungs were punctured by its sharp teeth, preventing him from screaming.

Pretty red blood dripped from the corner of its mouth, like the juice flowing from a ripe raspberry.

“E-Eek…!”

“…”

“What the hell…is this…?”

“Is he dead?”

“I-I’m dreaming right now, right?”

“This should be a prank! Where’s the hidden camera?!”

“What the fuck is this?! W-We gotta report this…”

Even after seeing such a sight, people didn’t run away. Instead, they muttered to herself.

If there was a gunshot involved, if someone were to be blown up, or if a robber with a weapon was making a ruckus, their reaction might be different.

But what they saw was a giant fish chewing on a person under the halogen light of the department store.

The whole spectacle felt like a scenario out of a B-Movie. It was too unbelievable for them to the point that their instinct for danger didn’t kick in.

Only when they saw the student’s limbs dangling like seaweed between the teeth of the piranha did it finally sink in.

The foul stench of blood, too strong to be dismissed as hallucination, filled their nasal cavity.

Red blood, too copious to be a dream, streamed down the student’s shin, creating a small pool on the cold artificial marble.

“F-Fuck! What the fuck is this?!”

“Aaahhh!”

“Call 119! 112! Fuck it, call everyone!”

“What the fuck?! Why isn’t my phone working?!”

“Mommy!”

Desperate pleas rang out amid the chaos as people belatedly realized the severity of the situation.

The men’s clothing section of the department store had transformed into a scene of pandemonium, filled with screams, tears, cries and confusion.

Suddenly, a figure clad in black armor swiftly cut through the crowd, vanquishing the piranha that had been the source of the terror.

2.

Leaping from the middle of the escalator, Siwoo swiftly conjured a suit of shadow armor and a longsword.

Leveraging his weight and the force of gravity, he swung the sword toward the piranha with all his might.

As he executed the move, he felt a solid resistance on his hand.

With his blade passing through, cutting the piranha in half, the fish fell to the ground while spewing out blood.

Despite being cut in two, the piranha’s mouth gaped as it thrashed its tail on the ground.

The sight would send shivers down on a normal person’s spine.

“Everyone, gather around here!”

He called out loudly to the people.

However, in that extreme chaos, the crowd, now at the height of their confusion, wouldn’t just listen to a single person’s words, let alone follow his instructions.

It was a complete disaster.

“What the fuck is going on?”

Siwoo took off his eyepatch and scanned the surroundings.

He was almost certain that this piranha was a Homunculus.

But when he examined the mana around him, there weren’t any interdimensional barriers being deployed.

Also, from what Sharon had taught him, Homunculi wouldn’t bring so many humans into their barrier when they were hunting.

But this Homunculus appeared in the modern world without deploying a barrier and started killing people for some reason.

““Mr. Assistant!””

The twins ran down the escalator towards the confused Siwoo.

“Stay behind me. We don’t know what might happen.”

Someone had just died in front of him.

So, he had no idea what kind of threat was waiting for them.

As he entered his combat mode, he realized that he was much calmer than he expected.

Even considering the fact that he had been in quite a few life threatening battles, his eyes, separate from the chaos of his mind, were scanning the battlefield, preparing for any variables, like a seasoned veteran.

“Have you contacted Lady Deneb?”

“I-I can’t!”

“B-Both our artifact and our cell phone can’t reach her!”

“Seriously, what the fuck is going on…?”

Though the piranha was dead, it wasn’t enough to calm anyone down. There was still this tingling sensation on their skin, and the tense air made it clear that this was just the beginning.

The crisis wasn’t over yet.

Hell, this was probably just the appetizer.

There was definitely something worse looming on the horizon.

-Ting, ting!

Just as Siwoo had predicted, all the lights inside the department store began to go out one by one.

They didn’t go out completely.

Instead, their brightness had been suppressed to the limit, as if they had been sunk into the deep sea.

But since there were no windows inside the department store, the whole building turned pitch-black.

“Aaahh!”

“W-What is this?! Is this a terrorist attack?!”

The darkness heightened everyone’s fear, turning the place into a boiling pot of anxiety.

Now the commotion in the department store had reached its peak.

It didn’t only happen on the floor where Siwoo and the others were in, as ruckus also started in the floors above and below them.

“Ah…”

At that moment, Siwoo saw them.

‘Where the hell did they come from?!’

Swimming leisurely as if in an aquarium.

Dozens of piranhas surged forward.

Without missing a beat, the twins jumped out next to the bewildered Siwoo.

Each of them held a finely crafted musket.

They took aim before firing at the same time. With that, two piranhas that had been hovering in the air dropped to the ground.

“We’re here to help, Mr. Assistant!”

“Don’t worry, we can handle ourselves!”

“Ms. Odile! Ms. Odette!”

The twins held ‘Janissary’ styled muskets, with special magic bullets the Countess provided. After the incident with Ea Sadalmelik, the Countess gave them these pairs so that they could at least defend themselves in critical situations such as these.

“We know how to hunt.”

“Actually, we’ve done that a lot!”

Siwoo didn’t waste any time. He swiftly conjured two ribbons and a pair of swords, diving into the swarm of piranhas.

‘Please stay still…’

‘Don’t move around…’

But his plea fell on deaf ears. In no time at all, chaos ensued, followed by cries of many.

Lured by the scent of blood, the dozens of piranhas swam and began to devour the people around them.

A student was bitten and sent soaring through the air.

Then a swarm of other piranhas came to him and tore his body apart.

His limbs were ripped apart, but only hot, viscous liquid dropped to the ground.

“Aaah! Mommy!!”

“Oh my god, what are these things?!”

“Status window! Skills! Inventory! Gamer mode activate! Ow! I got bitten!”

By that time, Siwoo had already cut down five piranhas.

They were weak, but they moved quickly.

To the defenseless civilians, those piranhas were predators flying freely in the air.

And to make things worse, those guys were more focused on their prey than fighting with Siwoo.

Though he fought valiantly, the people around him were dying at an alarming rate.

Even the twins, who were shooting frantically to help him, were powerless. It was like trying to stop a typhoon with a barehand, quite literally an impossible feat.

“Come here! This way!”

Despite Siwoo’s loud calls, his voice was drowned by the screams, cries and horrible sounds of flesh and bone being torn apart.

Only ten quick-witted individuals were huddling next to the twins, who were fervently shooting their guns.

In the blink of an eye, the entire floor turned into a gruesome pool of blood.

No part of the ground that Siwoo stepped on wasn’t tainted with the deep shade of crimson.

The air was filled with a sickening, metallic smell. Organs and limbs were scattered on the ground, making a chilling spectacle.

“Seriously…what the fuck is going on…?”

As the grim reality sank in, Siwoo’s head throbbed in anger.

But there was nothing he could have done.

In a mere twenty seconds, he had subdued ten piranhas using both his ribbons and his swords, but most of the humans on that floor had become the piranhas’ prey.

“Hey, you over there…what the hell is going on?!”

“Is this some kind of staged show…? There’s no way this is real, right…?”

“M-Maybe it’s some kind of special ops mission?”

“M-Mommy…I’m scared…help me…”

The survivors, who previously stayed close to the twins, clung to Siwoo. Each of them displaying their sheer panic as they witnessed him relentlessly slaughtering the monstrous creatures.

‘What do I do next?’

‘Seriously, what is going on?’

‘There’s a chance that this is happening on other floors as well.’

‘How many people are getting caught up in this?’

‘Can I rescue more people?’

‘There must be someone behind this, but who?’

‘Seriously, what the hell is going on?’

‘What are the other witches doing?’

‘Should I send the twins away first?’

‘But, can I solve this case by myself?’

Everything felt so surreal that his brain felt overloaded.

“…Assistant!”

“Mr. Assistant!”

At that moment, he was jolted awake by the loud cries of the twins.

“Snap out of it! Why are you spacing out like that?!”

As the ringing in his ears faded and his vision cleared, he saw the piranhas lining up, focusing their gazes on him and the twins. They seemed to be setting their eyes on their group now.

But, they were hesitating to attack them, as Siwoo and the twins had been resisting them quite fiercely.

Odile, was in a defensive stance, while aiming her musket when she asked that question.

Siwoo shook his head, trying to dispel his confusion and doubts.

‘I’ll worry about it later.’

‘There is this urgent matter to be dealt with.’

“We need to get everyone to evacuate first.”

“How?”

His mind finally cleared up a little.

“I will use Dimension Shift, the same teleportation spell I used to get you two away before this. It will take some time, so can you protect them in the meantime?”

“Of course. Leave it to me.”

Odile replied with confidence.

To Siwoo, these piranhas were weaker than the dogs he encountered before.

But their speed surpassed any other creature he had faced so far.

This speed and their ability to swim freely in the air hindered him a lot as he was specialized in close combat.

On the other hand, the twins had no such struggle as they utilized their excellent marksmanship.

Though they were apprentice witches, he judged that it was safe to trust them as they held quite powerful offensive artifacts.

“Everyone, please gather in front of me.”

“Can you please explain what’s going on? Are you a soldier? Or a knight?”

“We need to know what’s going on!”

In the midst of chaos, the panicked survivors voiced their concerns, looking for answers from Siwoo, who seemed to know something.

“I’m not a soldier or a knight, and there’s no time to explain. Just come over here, I’ll get you all out of this place.”

However, when he brandished his blood-stained sword and voiced his words assertively, they quieted down.

From their perspective, the man who suddenly appeared to kill those monsters while being drenched in blood was equally as terrifying as the monsters themselves.

So, he used that fear to his advantage.

Since it would be easier for him to control them this way.

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, please come over as well.”

Siwoo decided that he’d be staying.

Because there might be survivors hiding in this place, seeking refuge from the disaster.

He wanted to get at least one more person out of this disaster.

However, he couldn’t let the twins stay with him.

No one knew what might happen later, and he wished to evacuate everyone and get them to inform the outside world what was going on here.

But the twins refused to leave.

“No, we’ll fight alongside you, Mr. Assistant!”

“Yes! We will help you save everyone!”

“This is not the time for that! You two need to inform Lady Deneb about this!”

“One of those people can do it. They just need to call her, no?”

“But—”

Odile firmly interrupted his attempt to explain further.

“Mr. Assistant, a noble’s honor doesn’t come from the family name, but from fulfilling their obligations and responsibilities as a noble.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve taught us, Mr. Assistant?”

‘I don’t remember ever teaching you two that…’

In the end, he decided to take up their help for now.

He figured that they’d be of great help with the guns in their hands.

“Alright, let’s evacuate the civilians first. But, if there’s even the slightest hint of danger, I’ll get you two out of here first, got it?”

As soon as he decided on what to do, Siwoo looked around his surroundings.

For some time now, he had been sensing a different flow of mana, but it was different from the interdimensional barrier he was familiar with.

It was much heavier and oppressive, its color was deep and ominous.

This meant he needed to move the civilians further away from the building.

Siwoo handed a mobile phone to one of the survivors.

“As soon as you get out of here, call this number and this number, explain the situation here. This is important, so make sure to do this.”

“W-What should I say?”

“Just tell them that monsters appeared at COEX.”

“O-Okay…”

The black-haired soldier, who seemed to be in on a leave, trembled, but he nodded repeatedly in response.

Siwoo didn’t have the lenience to comfort him though.

“Ms. Odile, Ms. Odette, please cover for them.”

A blue circle began to form beneath the feet of the civilians.

It was Siwoo’s Dimension Shift.

Given the number of people and the distance involved.

He surmised that he’d need a whole minute of calculation.

In the meantime, the twins would be buying time for him.

The piranhas, who had been observing the situation for a while, had become impatient at this point.

Stimulated by the blue light, the predators bared their teeth and prepared themselves to pounce on the survivors.

Siwoo closed his eyes, placing his trust in the twins and entered a state of complete focus.

Unlike back then, the twins were no longer trembling helplessly behind him.

This time, they resolved themselves to protect their Dear Assistant.

Standing in front of Siwoo, they gripped their muskets.

“Are you ready, Odette?”

“Anytime, Sis.”

They took aim with their guns and pulled the trigger, releasing a barrage of magic bullets upon the creatures.