City of Witches

If someone were to mention the ‘North Pole’, a particular scene would come to their mind.

That exact scene unfolded as Amelia stepped onto the snowy field, blindingly white, stretching endlessly to all the directions surrounding her.

Seeing it directly like this, it was hard to believe that this solid, never-ending surface was a massive block of ice drifting slowly over the sea.

The wind that stung her skin all day long.

And the sky that would turn dark for days without the sun.

It was truly a wonder that some life forms could thrive in such harsh conditions.

Everything about this was a new experience to her.

Holding a travel bag and the kill list that Duchess Keter handed her in her hands, she abruptly halted her footsteps on the frozen snow path.

In that vast, snowy wilderness where it stretched endlessly, trying to find a Homunculus hiding in their pocket dimension was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.

The locations stated on the kill list were just a vague estimation of the Homunculus’ whereabouts, so she couldn’t be certain where they were actually at.

Her fingertips quivered.

Not only that, her whole body also gave out signals that it was time for her to take a break.

While people with spirit bodies like her didn’t need sleep or food…

And they could endure the biting cold to some extent by deploying their magic…

They weren’t perpetual-motion machines, they still needed to rest.

Yet, Amelia still tirelessly tracked the Homunculus she was looking for, never allowing herself to take even a moment of rest.

It was only natural that her body started feeling the strain by now.

“…”

However, she still persisted.

She didn’t get disheartened, neither did she throw a tantrum.

‘I have lost everything already, why am I doing this now?’ such questions had long been discarded by her.

Right now, she only wished to carry out her given task without thinking about anything else.

“Wail.”

When she uttered that word, a wave of mana rippled outward, spreading throughout the area.

Billions of tiny particles responded to her call, becoming extensions to her sensory organs that scattered to every direction.

They were painted by the color of the polar night, a sight to behold, but she only stared at them with indifferent eyes.

Doubts, emotions and feelings would only bring pain.

So she exposed her heart to the bitter wind.

If she could freeze her heart and let it mortify until it turned black and purple, maybe she wouldn’t feel the pain of loneliness.

This was the thing she was confident in, and had done for the longest time.

Burying herself in duties and responsibilities, leaving no room to project her emotion.

All while wishing it would go on endlessly.

The particles that had spread around her returned to her even faster than when they scattered around.

Their movements were so beautiful, even comparable to a constellation following its own orbit without anyone telling it to.

At that moment, Amelia’s azure eyes opened wide.

-Koo-gung! Koo-goo-goo-gung!

A vibration echoed through the air.

The barrier behind her snapped open, the pristine ice of the Arctic that was untouched for millennia now bore its first scars.

Amidst the unfolding event, she stayed calm.

She figured that she didn’t need to locate the Homunculus.

Rather, it would be easier for her to alert it, to let it know that there was a witch wandering around near its nest.

An invitation to make them come out and eat the tasty witch nearby.

And predictably, it responded to her call.

-Koooooooo!

The Homunculus, driven by instinct, emerged with a roar, aiming to devour the witch nearby and protect the legacy it held.

Its outward appearance resembled that of a whale.

Of course Amelia was familiar with a whale, as she had seen some of them, upturning their white bellies, spraying a bunch of water, when she wandered near the sea after arriving in the modern world.

Their immense size and grandeur actually struck her speechless.

But, this monstrous creature in front of her defied simple comparisons like ‘resembling a whale’.

While its streamlined body, short neck, almost indistinguishable tail, wingspan-like pectoral fins and white whiskers were not much different from a whale…

It was staggeringly massive.

If measured, it could reach around nine hundred— no, a thousand meters in length alone.

With a simple twist of its body along with a deep roar, the whole scenery shifted. Shockwaves that resulted from its actions sent all the frozen snowflakes into the sky.

But it didn’t end there.

Next to its blunt head, the massive whale with twelve pairs of eyes appeared to be carrying a wreckage of a broken battleship.

The first page of the kill list had a description of this strange creature.

A living-calamity that swam the deep sea for three hundred years, sinking numerous warships and using them as weapons.

Its name was Dagon, the King of the Abyss.

-Koooooo!!!!

The whale’s roar echoed past Amelia.

Mixed with the scent of the deep sea and the oily smell of petroleum, it shattered the ice around it and cleaved through it.

Its roar was loud enough to cause an ordinary person’s internal organ to burst when they heard it, but it wasn’t strong enough to make Amelia change her expression.

This was her first encounter with a Homunculus.

But, despite the impending life-or-death battle, she found herself strangely devoid of thought.

In her head, this was a simple matter; If her skill fell short, then she’d die.

She had nothing else to lose other than her life.

What she once held dear had already slipped through her fingers twice due to her mistakes, after all.

-Giiiiiiiiing!

She continued to be lost in her thoughts until she felt the mana tingling on her skin.

All those mana was getting sucked into the hundreds of cannons that were attached to Dagon’s body,

The tremendous mana output and reflections from the massive creature disrupted the polar night’s stillness.

Even the sky was brightened, as if the sun had risen, as the cannons that were aimed directly at her unleashed a fiery barrage alongside echoing explosions.

-Boom boom boom!!!

No matter how powerful a warship’s cannons were, facing a witch of a certain rank, they would be useless.

But those cannons that were clinging to Dagon’s body were practically a part of it.

This attack alone managed to kill three witches, so its threat level was quite significant.

The massive explosions managed to send Amelia’s petite body flying.

It was so intense that there was no modern technology that could halt its destructive force. Even the massive icebergs around them were reduced to pathetic shards.

The concentrated attack managed to turn water vapor from solid to gas, instantly froze in the extremely cold climate.

A bluish light emerged from the resulting artificial diamond dust.

There, amidst the aftermath, Amelia stood, completely unscathed.

The landscape around her had been altered so drastically that the government would need to redraw the map they had, but the attack couldn’t even wrinkle her clothes.

She had long surpassed the 15th rank, where a witch could already control mana by instinct, and even the 20th rank where a witch could bend even the laws of physics.

Less than ten witches in the entire history had ever reached her current rank, the 23rd rank.

Once a witch reached that realm, even if she didn’t possess any battle experience, could dominate everything that was weaker than her with her sheer presence.

-Kuuuuuu!!!

Once more, Dagon twisted its body after the attack.

This was the first time in its three hundred years of existence that a witch had stayed so composed after it launched that attack.

However, it was aware that it only needed to repeat its bombardment relentlessly to overwhelm her.

So, it gathered its mana once more and unleashed another torrent of attacks.

In the midst of the artillery barrage that rushed towards Amelia like a meteor shower.

Amidst the storm of destruction which was akin to a natural disaster.

“Wail.”

Amelia uttered that single word.

Accompanied by a puff of white breath that escaped her lips.

Everything froze.

Hundreds, thousands of beams stopped, as if time itself had frozen.

Her ‘Particles’ filled everything within her sight to the point that it was pointless to count them all.

This was her self-essence magic that was awakened when she fought against Ea Sadalmelik, allowing her to seize control of all mana within her surroundings.

The frozen beams gradually lost their forms and dissipated into the air.

All those dispersed mana transformed into her particles, serving as the wellspring of her power.

-Kuuuuuu!

The giant whale, bewildered by this incomprehensible outcome, let out a strange cry.

However, it had no way of understanding how it unfolded in the first place.

The only thing it could do was to fire its mana beams desperately.

Yet…

-Swoosh, swoosh swoosh!

All those beams couldn’t hit their target.

Those bunker-buster-level beams stopped and disappeared before even reaching their target.

Amelia flicked her fingertips.

Along with a dense scent of flowers, the gigantic whale that had been gracefully swimming through the air, lost its buoyancy and fell.

Then, her particles started penetrating every nook and cranny of its now stiffening body.

-Kugugugung!!!

Unable to fight back, Dagon’s body crashed into a glacier, splitting it in half.

Accompanied by a deafening roar and swirling snow, it seemed as if a flying island had fallen from the sky.

Amelia then took a step forward.

With each step she took, wildflowers that would never have bloomed in the polar region blossomed.

However, those piles of flowers were devoid of any colors, as if their colors were stolen by a curse.

The flower path made of colorless threads stretched along Amelia’s heels.

After a few steps, she reached Dagon’s head.

Normally, if a creature of its weight fell from hundreds of meters above the ground, it would’ve definitely ended up with a fatal wound at the very least.

And that was probably what happened here as black, oil-like blood oozed from its gaping mouth.

-Coo…coo…

It tried to make a final struggle, but it was way too late.

Before it could even move, Amelia already stuck her particles inside its mouth and skin.

To Homunculi, which practically breathed on mana, those particles were the equivalent of a colorless and odorless poisonous gas.

“…”

Amelia looked into its eyes with an intent stare.

Its glittering eyes, each larger than her own body, rolled their pupils at her.

After this, the particles would go out of their way and end Dagon’s life.

Flowers would bloom wherever the particles spread, sealing its fate.

She knew of this, but she didn’t hold any particular emotion about it.

If she hadn’t taken it down, she’d be the one in trouble here.

She would’ve been the one lying down there.

Therefore, she didn’t feel even the slightest trace of guilt for her actions.

At that moment, she suddenly recalled a certain dead man in a fairytale that her Master had read to her a long time ago,

A wretched soul, wandering aimlessly in the netherworld, with a rotting body that had lost its meaning and reason for living.

‘Yeah…’

‘My current life is no different from that…’

As she saw the wounded beast lying down there, waiting for its time to go, she couldn’t deny that she saw a little bit of herself in it.

She reached out her hand over the whale’s large snout.

“…You’re just like me.”

Mana wave from her hand turned the particles inside its body into blooming flowers.

Starting from its snout, the flowers went down like waves, taking the beast’s life unceremoniously.

Its body then crumbled, leaving a sprinkle of colorless petals.

Amelia then turned the next page of her kill list.