City of Witches

Though Siwoo wasn’t sure who exactly came up with the term ‘tropical night,’ he just knew that they must have been someone who was really good with words.

One would definitely picture something cool when they combined the two words ‘tropical’ and ‘night.’

He went to buy cigarettes at two in the morning since he had nothing better to do than sucking on his fingers. After that, he went outside.

There wasn’t any particular reason for him to do so, he just wanted to take a stroll.

Nowadays, he could freely go out at night just to relax or for a change of mood. This was something he couldn’t do back when he was a slave since he’d be suffering in exhaustion at night.

Since he wore an eyepatch, people couldn’t tell that he possessed a brand in his eye just by looking at him. Coupled that with the fact that not many people knew that he was able to use magic, as long as he didn’t cause any troubles outside, even if he were to run into an Exile by accident, it wouldn’t cause any issues.

He went down the street in a more carefree mood than back when he first arrived in the modern world, partly because he didn’t have much going on in his life at the moment.

The bustling district where his apartment was located buzzed with the cries of cicadas under the lively illuminations of the night. But, as soon as he ventured away from that area, his surroundings became eerily silent.

There, he saw things that weren’t commonly seen in a newly developed part of the city; tall poles holding up power lines and sodium lamps that lit up the ground.

“It’s so hot…”

In the middle of his search for a vending machine beneath the streetlight, he muttered those words begrudgingly as he adjusted the collar of his shirt.

To make his strolls more enjoyable, he developed a regular routine.

Like everyone knew, a plot of land in Seoul was extraordinarily expensive.

Since that was the case, to make use of the expensive, yet narrow land, they had to be creative. That was why they carved out the hills and built those tiny apartments there. You could make a whole village out of those studio apartments.

As he climbed one of the hills, he found a park at the top of it.

This park, or rather, the old vending machine at its entrance, served as his regular checkpoint.

Whenever he reached this point, he’d buy a cola and drink it while smoking his cigar. Afterwards, he’d try to come up with a direction where he should drag his feet to.

“Where’s my cola?”

Without any hesitation, he grabbed a can of cola from the vending machine and lit his cigarette.

Since his body felt slightly dehydrated at this point, the bubbly and refreshing carbonated drink helped him catch his breath a little.

“Ah, this is so uncomfortable!”

While he climbed the steep path, parts of his body naturally let out sweat, including the area underneath his eyepatch.

“Fuck, can’t I just place it in my balls instead? Witches got theirs in their womb, why am I the only one who has it in the open like this?”

Truth to be told, it was quite inconvenient for him to live his daily life while having one of his eyes closed.

Of course, just because he was using a single eye most of the time wouldn’t make his eyesight worse, he had a spirit body, after all. However, using only one eye did make judging distances more difficult.

He had no intention of removing his eyepatch in his daily life. His shining golden eyes would definitely attract unwanted attention, not to mention that it had magic formulas written on it.

While he didn’t care if regular people were to see it, an Exile was a different story. Well, it was easy to imagine how things would develop if that were to happen.

As he chugged his cola, he noticed something.

If he had taken off his eyepatch and looked around, he’d probably noticed it a little sooner.

The disturbance in the surroundings.

It was akin to treads, or rather, a whole fine cotton, floating on water.

To put it simply, the mana in the vicinity had come to a standstill.

In its nature, mana was like an invisible ‘flow,’ it lacked physical substance.

However, that didn’t mean it was completely unaffected by external influences. Under normal circumstances, it would flow gracefully through the atmosphere like a calm river.

But at the moment, it wasn’t the case.

It was in a state similar to when one mixed several liquids with different-temperature in one cup.

“…”

Siwoo tucked his eyepatch into his pocket and immediately stood up, flicking away the cigarette butt while he was at it.

It might already be too late, but he moved to raise the range and intensity of his music box to its maximum capabilities.

His heart was beating quickly.

This wasn’t the first time he experienced this kind of phenomenon.

Ea Sadalmelik’s water bottle, the ‘Interdimensional Barrier.’

The barrier spell that separated part of the world from the rest of it.

In Gehenna, since the place was already separated from the rest of the world by Duchess Keter, the barrier only served to reduce the presence of mana. But in the modern world, it worked in a different way.

It completely isolated everything that happened inside the barrier from the rest of the world. Basically, the space inside the barrier had turned into a different world.

To elaborate, imagine there was a space called A. The Interdimensional Barrier was able to separate a part of space A and create a whole new space called B.

That was roughly how it worked.

In any case, the details of how it worked wasn’t important to Siwoo at the moment. How to handle the situation was.

“Bloom.”

Quietly, he chanted.

He pushed his mana to its limits before transforming it into a pitch-black shadow.

This was his most powerful magic and the magic he was the most confident in; Law of Shadow Version 2, the magic that he perfected recently.

Then, he extracted part of the shadow and wrapped it around his body.

A sleek looking plate armor made of shadow appeared.

From the outside, it didn’t seem that it had an extraordinary defensive power, but in reality, it was arguably stronger than any other protective gear in the world.

In an instant, he finished arming himself, except that he didn’t create a helmet this time since it would only obstruct his vision.

“Haah…haah…”

Perhaps it was because of the adrenaline rushing through him in this intense situation.

His heart, which had grown accustomed to the monotonous and repetitive every day life, now pumped hot blood to the edges of his body.

It was in a similar state as back when he faced the smugglers at the inn, dealt with the Homunculus at the Latifundium and confronted Ea Sadalmelik.

He knew two possible reasons why the Interdimensional Barrier appeared in the modern world.

“Is there an Exile here?”

The first one was obviously the witches.

Interdimensional Barrier was one of the magic that Duchess Keter researched and spread widely before Gehenna came into existence.

Back then, witches were stronger than even natural disasters. Whenever they clashed with each other, they’d leave a very noticeable aftermath.

For example, the Black Death that happened in the 14th century. The plague that spread all across Europe which killed a third of the world population. It was said to be the aftermath of the fight between a witch called the ‘Witch of Plague’ and Duchess Keter, a curse that the former casted during the battle itself.

Of course because the information itself came from an ancient document, one could doubt its authenticity. Nevertheless the witches who came to the modern world would always cast the Interdimensional Barrier before going on a hunt or starting a fight.

“Or maybe… Homunculus?”

The other reason was Homunculus.

Duchess Keter created the barrier through research towards the Homunculi. Back then, she noticed that their ‘core’ contained a spell that would activate the Interdimensional Barrier constantly.

That was why they could freely wander the modern world without being noticed by humans. And also why the witches were having trouble hunting them.

Siwoo carefully looked at the side of the barrier, which was shaped like a large dome, while keeping a close watch to his surroundings.

He estimated that it was around a hundred meters wide.

It didn’t cover the park only, but also some parts of the neighborhood.

When he looked at its structure, he noticed that it didn’t seem to be as complicated as Ea’s Water Bottle.

It also didn’t seem to possess a dangerous spell that would melt anyone trying to escape from the inside.

And so, he deduced that the best option for him would be to cautiously leave the boundary.

“No, that won’t work.”

Siwoo shook his head.

This place wasn’t Gehenna.

No one in this world could help him, so he had to take care of the problem he came across by himself.

It wouldn’t be wise if he were to leave without even confirming the potentially dangerous entity around,

Sure, he could probably leave the place without any repercussions for the moment.

But, the future might be different. His present inaction might bite him in the rear later.

After making sure that the music box had been winded up to its limit, Siwoo climbed the stairs of the city park.

Looking at it again, he realized how amazing the music box was.

Not only could it block mana waves, it could also hide his presence. The other person would only see him as a part of the surroundings.

It was like wearing a special camouflage suit.

He carefully moved one step at a time, fully prepared to escape or fight at any moment.

Perhaps because of its age, the park wasn’t in great shape.

The exercise equipment installed along the steep path was so rusty that it was impossible to tell when they were last used. Not only that, the wooden stair itself also showed signs of decaying in various places.

As he continued to climb, a faint crackling sound reached his ears.

Well, that wasn’t actually an accurate term to describe the sound.

Because that sound came from a human.

An orange sodium lamp illuminated the area.

At the place, there was an observatory where one could see the famous street area, the university campus and hospital across the street.

Above it, there was a crouching beast.

Its size was about as big as a huge dog.

If it stretched out its crouched body and raised its legs, it could easily touch Siwoo’s face with its front paw.

“…”

Sinchon wasn’t a rural area or a mountain village. A wild animal of that size roaming around the place wasn’t a common sight.

Coupled that with the fact that an Interdimensional Barrier appeared in the area, Siwoo was even more certain…

That the thing in front of him was a Homunculus.

He crouched down and carefully observed it.

The thing covering its skin didn’t seem to be fur.

It glistened like a melted tar on thick rubber.

Between his eyebrows, there was a red glowing eye.

Thanks to its dark-colored body, he couldn’t really see the details of its shape.

“…”

Siwoo held his breath, trying to stay quiet.

Only witches of the 15th rank or higher were recommended to hunt the Homunculi. Mainly because at this point, they already gained autonomous defense.

Since Siwoo officially didn’t possess any brand, he had no way to accurately measure his rank. He also didn’t have autonomous defense.

But based on the knowledge he gathered by comparing himself to other witches, he estimated that his own level was roughly around the 14th to 15th rank.

It was a precarious level where he could barely manage to hunt a Homunculus but at the same time he could also become a prey to one.

At the moment, it still hadn’t noticed his presence.

If he were to quietly leave, he should be able to go back home without problems.

He had hunted a Homunculus before in Gehenna, but he knew that it only happened due to luck.

Firstly, the twins were there, acting as a bait to buy some time for him. Then, there was also the fact that the Homunculus was especially weak to a highly compressed mana due to its usage of Law of Shadows. Lastly, there was mana water around him back then, so he could replenish his mana whenever he needed it.

But what about now?

At the moment, he was all alone.

While he was way better at handling magic than back then, it wasn’t a certainty that the Homunculus in front of him was any weaker than the one he previously faced.

If he were to charge in and fight without a plan, there was a good chance that he’d end up getting his ass handed to him.

So, he decided to run away.

At least until he could figure out what the scary monster was doing, that was the plan he decided to follow.

-Crunch crunch crunch

Siwoo furrowed his brow.

He hadn’t confirmed what exactly that sound was, but he found it creepy.

It was as if something was tearing through chunks of meat.

A strong feeling of disgust and unease appeared in his heart, prompting him to look back.

-Crunch crunch crunch

At that moment, he saw it.

The trees around the place where the monster was sitting were painted in a creepy dark red color.

What he thought were scattered ropes turned out to be intestines.

That was when he realized what was going on.

The monster was eating a ‘person.’

His mind went blank.

While he literally had become half a corpse himself, he had never seen an actual corpse before.

When he regained his senses, he realized that he was already standing up.

Thanks to that, his vision became even clearer.

That person was most likely someone who went outside to work out.

His cheap clothes were all torn up, shredded to pieces.

Behind the monster, there was a nearly hollowed-out abdomen, stretched out like a tattered curtain.

The scene made the feelings that Siwoo had been suppressing suddenly ignited like sparks flying off a stone.

Not only was he filled with fear and terror at seeing a fellow human being torn apart by the beast, but he was also filled with a nauseating sense of disgust and anger.

“You…son of a bitch…”

“Grr…”

The beast, which had been happily eating its meal just a moment ago, turned its head around in a weird way.

Its neck movement wasn’t something that a living being should be able to do; turning its head 180 degrees to look at him.

Within its growl, there were two different emotions that it expressed.

One was annoyance, his meal was interrupted by Siwoo, after all.

And the other one was joy, since a new prey had appeared in its sight.

“Bloom.”

Siwoo clenched the spear in his hand tightly.