novelraw Chapter 53 : City of Fanatics (14)
Chapter 53 : City of Fanatics (14)
Chapter 53: City of Fanatics (14)
‘…This lunatic.’
Rowen’s breath hitched when she saw Nike, body broken and barely clinging to life, drag himself in front of her to protect her.
On the verge of losing all light, Nike still managed a faint smile.
He said nothing, but his meaning was clear.
Now was the time to strike.
The plan Nike had spoken of, the one where he’d be killed right in front of their enemies.
Everything was collapsing. The hunters had given up even on struggling to survive.
Magis was drunk on victory, her elation was at its peak.
This was the exact moment to hand the enemy the worst possible gift.
Nike’s red eyes gave a casual permission for his own death.
He had reached his limit.
If he was killed now, he wouldn’t recover. If his throat was cut, the flesh would split, vessels would sever, and the bleeding wouldn’t stop.
‘Is he relying on something?’
When Nike sent that will to her, he had definitely smiled. Who could smile when there was a possibility of dying?
She didn’t know.
No one could truly understand Nike’s mind.
All she could do now was believe in him.
Or honor his noble sacrifice.
Tears came down on their own.
Rowen drew her blade across Nike’s throat.
Hunters always had to be cold after all.
Even if powerless, they had to do what had to be done.
Spurt.
Hot blood spilled across the back of Rowen’s hand holding him. She couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes fully and look at Nike.
“Ugh, kugh…”
The sound of Nike’s life guttering away overlapped with Magis’s shrieking scream.
The whole space shook.
Proof that something had started to waver.
It was the moment Nike’s prediction came true.
“What have you done! Are you insane?! The sacrifice! The sacrifice! What have you done to the sacrifice, you c r a z y b i t c h!!!”
“…If it’s what you guys want so badly, then it doesn’t need to be protected.”
Rowen sneered, mocking Magis.
“It’s fine if it doesn’t exist in this world.”
“You… you vulgar wench…!”
“And who’s the one cursing crudely? Not very noble, are you, madam?”
Magis’s eyes rippled.
She was agitated.
Her reason was slipping.
A gap, appeared.
“Diiiiieeeeee!!!”
She screamed, unable to control her exploding emotions. Power gathered at her fingertips at once.
Magic whipped and swirled.
Rage boiled.
Right before a scene more dangerous than anything she’d shown so far could unfold—
Slash!
Magis’s right arm, which had been gathering power to the limit, was severed. Even though she could have killed them in that instant, the reasoning paralyzed by fury had opened a hole in her guard.
“Rowen! Finish her!”
With his last breath, Vigo had poured everything into one strike. His remaining strength had only been enough to sever an arm. Now it all rested on Rowen.
She was already right in Magis’s face.
“Die!”
She drove in to end the witch’s sinful life with a single thrust.
No matter how great a witch, her body itself was that of an ordinary woman. Strike a vital point and she would die.
Rip!
“…!”
Magis grabbed at her throat in shock. Something was wrong. She wasn’t regenerating. With her magic, the wound should have healed the instant it was cut.
“No way—”
Instead of kindly explaining that the blade had been laced with magic-suppressing poison, Rowen rammed a sword-stick into Magis’s heart.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Rowen’s eyes blazed with frenzy as she ruthlessly shredded the witch’s heart with everything she had.
Head and heart, both had to be destroyed for a witch’s regeneration to stop.
Even that wasn’t enough to be sure. Rowen didn’t care that her knees cracked on the floor. She crawled, grabbed a piece of debris, and smashed it down on Magis’s head.
Thud.
Her skull was crushed. Brain matter spilled.
The end of the woman called history's worst witch, the Witch of Sin, was pathetically anticlimactic.
“…”
“…”
Vigo and Rowen both sweated cold.
They stood still, watching the witch’s corpse. Every second felt like an eternity as they waited, holding their breath to see if she would revive.
“Ha.”
After what felt too long a time, Vigo finally exhaled and eased his guard.
She wasn’t coming back.
Her body not healing meant she was truly dead. At the cost of Nike’s sacrifice, the most abominable existence, the Witch of Sin, had been destroyed.
With a torn voice, Vigo gave the order.
“…Rowen. Finish it cleanly.”
Rowen, blood still dripping from both hands, jolted as she came to her senses, stammering.
“Huh? Oh…”
She fumbled to find a fire-starter. The clean end to witch hunts was burning the body.
“…”
Her hands shook as she pulled out a matchstick.
Then her head snapped up. At the same time, Vigo summoned his great scythe again. He had no strength left, clutching at his heart from the strain.
“—”
The witch, whose head had been caved in, rose. Like some supernatural nightmare, Magis stood again and spoke.
They were words humans couldn’t comprehend, the language of magic.
In less than a second, a wide curse poured out as death.
Ba-dump.
Vision inverted to black and white.
Hearts stopped and clenched.
“Urgh…!”
“Kh, kuk—”
Vigo and Rowen clutched their chests and writhed on the floor. The agony was unbearable. Even their breaths couldn’t escape.
While the two hunters were dying, Magis staggered upright.
Even after Nike’s noble sacrifice and the brutal retribution of two hunters, the Witch of Sin revived and struck back.
Nothing had worked.
With their failure, humanity had no means to oppose Sin.
They now faced the despair they’d always known but refused to acknowledge.
Humans couldn’t defeat witches.
Today, that truth has been confirmed once more.
“You lowly creatures dare to—”
It was that moment.
“Mm? Ugh…!”
A hand shot out and clamped Magis’s throat. A silver-haired boy, red eyes blazing, twisted her neck.
“You… how?”
Grin.
Nike who had revived, or rather who had never died in the first place, smiled. His throat was clean. From the start, he had warped space to fake being decapitated.
“Trickery.”
Crack—
Nike snapped her neck. Magis gagged and vomited blood.
“The sacrifice…!”
As she grimaced, one of Magis’s eyes burst in a spray of blood.
She spat blood, her right arm turned ashen and began to rot. Cold chills gripped her, a headache threatened to split her skull.
“Argh…!”
Soon the mark of the Golden Dawn Order etched on her bare flesh grew hot, as if burning. It wasn’t just a feeling. It really was burning.
Red lines traced along the mark, melting her flesh, blood spilling.
The pain deepened. Nike breaking her neck didn’t matter. A greater terror had arrived.
Magis sweated coldly.
There was only one reason the mark would react like this.
“Wait…?”
Her face went pale in an instant. She sensed something and lifted her head. Nike, hand still at his throat, raised his gaze too.
Crack—
The ceiling of the workshop and its barriers split in countless cracks, light streaming through.
Magis stared skyward, unable to open her eyes against the glare. Still, she saw enough.
Something descended through the ceiling. It burned golden, and was unbearable to look at.
Rumble…
The air and earth shook.
The being descended like an angel, crushing everything with spiritual pressure alone.
Before the overwhelming presence, Magis dropped to her knees, clasped her hands, and shut her eyes.
“…I-I greet the great Limitless One.”
Her voice trembled. She was filled with terror at meeting an absolute she didn’t even dare look at.
Beeeeep—
The Limitless One’s foot touched the ground, and everyone felt crushing vertigo. Just enduring its presence strained their minds. Blood ran from their noses.
She mustn’t collapse here. Magis grit her teeth and endured. The hunters did the same. They had to witness this moment with open eyes.
“…”
“…”
“…”
There was no answer. No hunter dared to speak first. Everyone was overwhelmed. The silence stretched unbearably.
Magis clasped her hands tighter and began chanting the Golden Dawn Order’s creed.
“In darkness there was light— Sing the hymn of the three sages who beheld the moment of dawn…”
Sweat ran down her chin. She quavered as she muttered the creed. The spiritual pressure was so crushing she wanted to give up on life itself.
“O almighty God of the pale moon—”
Her murmur went on and on.
The fanatic prayed. It looked more like begging for her life.
“…And the last among them bore all the sins of the world and was reborn… His name, the Only Begotten.”
As she finished nearly reciting the “Gospel of Dawn,” Chapter of Creation—
“Shut your mouth.”
Magis fell silent after hearing a voice that sounded impossible to come from a human.
The descending being asked,
“Why did you harbor a desire so far beyond your station?”
“…!”
Her expression froze.
Her lips quivered. She couldn’t answer.
Nike had already let go and stepped slightly away from her. Magis had no chance to heal her broken neck.
The one she had called the Limitless brought a blade twice as long as her body to her. From her shoulder, it carved down diagonally across the chest, belly, and flank.
Srrrip.
Her dress split along the cut, baring her flesh beneath.
Her body held a hideous secret.
Her severed right arm had been fused into her chest and abdomen. Blue magic glowed beneath the skin around it, and the area was warped and diseased as a side effect.
The Limitless’s face showed no change.
Only a calm fury rippled in the air.
“Answer. Why did you implant the fragment of the great Ascendant into your body?”
“P-Please kill me!”
“Why did you ape a witch with a lowly body like yours?”
Magis prostrated and begged.
Her body convulsed on its own. At some point both arms had been lopped off and rolled on the ground. With eyes shut, she didn’t even realize.
“Answer.”
Her nostrils flared. Her heart thundered, fit to burst, her brain burned.
The Limitless who descended here was the Witch of the Sword, who had lived four hundred and three years.
The devoted servant who had served Sin closer than anyone among the first three witches, and by all accounts unmatched by anyone but those three.
Magis’s crime wouldn’t end in death.
“Kill—”
Slash.
As she begged again, her skin was all flayed off. The marks were clearly from a blade.
The Witch of the Sword had swung. It looked like she swung only after stripping off all the skin.
At the peak of the sword, she overturned cause and effect.
“Urgh…”
With her skin gone, Magis lost her magical mark. She withered. The old hag of Third Order, who had lived who knew how long, began to die.
“Answer.”
Magis raised the white flag and replied.
Slash.
“I only… wanted to… become a witch too.”
Her head slipped free in the middle of her answer. Magis never even realized she’d died.
“It was a foolish desire.”
The Limitless withdrew her blade and turned.
Two insects.
One peculiar human.
The Limitless looked at the insects with a blank face.
“…”
She said nothing.
After all, when you stumble across bugs on a walk, only the rare lunatic talks to them.
Whether to kill them, observe them, or ignore them and pass on depended only on the whim of the human. So too now.
Vigo and Rowen’s lives depended solely on the witch’s whim. From the start she hadn’t cared about the two insects.
“Come forth.”
Only one mattered.
Nike.
“No!”
“Impudent. You dare refuse my command.”
Rustle.
The quiet menace laced with spiritual pressure made Nike sense death as he spoke.
“Dangerous meat.”
Of course, with his honest impression.