The witch might make her way through the sewer to target the Magic Circle at the Center of the City.
Honestly, it was just a baseless speculation on my part.
My only evidence was Rion’s drawing and my instinct.
In this critical situation, every person to protect the citizens from the demonic beasts was valuable, so I wondered if it was right to leave my post for that slim chance.
Still, if my thought was true, and the witch really was targeting the barrier, then allowing that to happen without any response would lead to the worst-case scenario I could imagine.
I rushed to the nearby shelter and left a message through the emergency contact system for Ms. Eve, saying that I would check the sewer in case such an event occurred.
I hoped my suspicions were unfounded and threw myself into the long sewer running beneath the city.
*
Of course, the sewer sprawled throughout the city’s underground like the roots of a plant, crisscrossing in complex ways.
However, there wasn’t much thought needed to decide where to guard.
If the witch had entered the city and headed straight for the center through the sewer, the routes available to her would be limited.
Thus, I was convinced that this place was crucial. I took my position and kept an eye on the far side of the long sewer.
The reason I was sure of this place was obvious.
While there were many other nearby passages like side roads, most were so low and narrow that one would have to bend over to pass through.
On the other hand, the passage I was standing in was wide enough for a person to stand and walk comfortably.
Of course, someone determined to achieve their goal might choose some unexpected passage instead of this one, but I knew better than anyone.
When it came to witches, that would never be the case.
Witches are strong.
Being strong means they have no reason to bow down.
Someone with such a strong sense of pride would not choose a narrow and uncomfortable passage when a wide one was available.
Then, from the far side of the long sewer, I heard footsteps echoing.
For a moment, I thought it might be a citizen fleeing from the demonic beasts, but quickly, I sensed that the speed of the approaching sound was unusual, and I completely discarded that possibility.
Soon, in this dark sewer, illuminated only by faint magical lights that were installed sparingly, a chilling light flashed.
It shone like a beast in the dark.
With that light, I realized, unfortunately, that my prediction had come true.
“…I guess this place was the correct answer after all.”
As I muttered that, I caught sight of a figure coming at high speed, hair blowing like a lion’s mane, smiling wickedly.
A chill passed over my nape.
An attack was coming.
Just as I sensed that and raised my arm in an attempt to deflect the attack, the image of Marin’s father, half his neck severed, flashed through my mind.
In that instant, I held down the arm I was about to raise against the attack and leaned back with all my might.
At that moment, a dangerously sharp strike whooshed past the exact spot where my neck had just been.
Cold sweat trickled down my forehead.
For some reason, I could tell.
Had I attempted to deflect that strike, my arm would have been severed.
Remembering that Marin’s father, known as humanity’s strongest shield, had fallen to that witch, in that moment, I abandoned defense and chose to evade, which ultimately saved my life.
As my body trembled slightly, I frowned at the faint pain on my forehead.
I had thought I had completely dodged it, but the aftermath had torn my forehead, and I could once again feel the enemy’s strength.
At the very least, they were on a different level than me.
Could I stop her?
Just then, while I was nervously raising my body, I noticed the witch turning her back to me, attempting to pass by where I was guarding.
In that moment, something flickered in my mind.
It wasn’t whether I could stop her but rather the firm thought that I must stop her at all costs.
Determined, I opened my mouth.
“…Strange, isn’t it? I heard that a witch had invaded.”
“…What’s so strange about it?”
I racked my brain, trying to think of a way to prevent the witch from ignoring me as she attempted to pass.
I needed a way to keep her focused on me.
“I’ve seen other witches a few times. So I know well how terrifying they are.”
After a brief moment of thought, I concluded that it wasn’t anything special.
“If you’re a witch, you seem too weak.”
It was a simple conclusion that a being with as much pride as power would not be able to dismiss the provocation.
I provoked her as best I could, mocking her.
“…Weak? Me?”
In that moment, the murderous intent that burst forth from the witch told me my provocation had succeeded.
The only problem was that,
“You little bug… are you looking down on me?!”
“Guh…!”
That provocation had stirred up her rage beyond imagination.
With a gaze that seemed full of thoughts to tear me apart on the spot, the witch lunged at me, and I barely managed to dodge by throwing my body.
I escaped by a hair’s breadth.
Due to the shock of the attack, droplets of blood scattered from the injuries torn by the impact.
However, the bleeding stopped in no time at all.
Since becoming this kind of body, there were a few things I liked about it.
One was that shallow wounds that wouldn’t hinder fighting didn’t need much attention.
Nonetheless, the witch’s enraged attack didn’t stop with just one strike.
“I am Freede, the Witch of Arrogance! I am not something to be judged by a bug like you!”
The witch, resembling a beast from a storybook, Freede, brandished her long nails and charged at me once more.
Her nails carried a lethal intent that didn’t allow for the option of blocking the attack at all.
Thus, my only option was to evade.
No matter how you look at it, if they were just fingernails, the threat wouldn’t be so great.
That was her ability, claiming to be the Witch of Arrogance.
If her rage was flame and her gluttony was regeneration, then the power of arrogance was cutting.
Whether it was magic or any shield made with superpowers, against that ability, they would be as fragile as paper.
Simple, yet strong for that very reason.
I had to concentrate on evading, twisting my body to avoid the relentless attacks filled with that terrifying power.
However, while realizing the gap in strength that made it impossible to counterattack easily, I was still confident.
At the moment the red light indicating a buffer flashed from the prosthetic arm I manipulated beforehand, I raised my left arm in front of me.
And then, boom.
“Ha! Do you really think I’d get hit by such a slow flame?”
As she naturally distanced herself to evade the exploding flame, I took a moment to catch my breath and reaffirmed my conviction.
At the very least, this woman, Freede, was definitely not a witch.
She couldn’t be a witch.
So I had to be able to block her somehow, echoing a soothing suggestion to myself.
The reality was, however, that I was desperately evading her attacks. Yet, I had several reasons to be certain she was not a witch.
One was that I had a good understanding of a witch’s true strength.
“What’s with that body? You’re not an ordinary human, are you?”
“Well, I don’t know, maybe.”
As I feigned calmness, shrugging my shoulders, I continued to think about the earlier thought.
Yeah, I’m not an ordinary human.
The reason I know well about the strength of witches is not just because I’ve seen it with my own eyes, but because I’ve experienced it firsthand.
The reason I’ve ended up with the ability to heal my wounds was because I had been kidnapped by a witch and became something close to a witch.
But recently, I had begun to realize something.
This body, now closer to a witch and much stronger than before, was actually much weaker than my original self.
The barrier spread throughout the city weakens any entity with miasma as soon as they pass through it.
If that’s the case, it follows that I would also be weakened when entering the city after passing through the barrier.
That realization came rushing back to me, recalling the vague memories of the day I had been kidnapped by a witch and rescued by Yoon Si-woo.
Even though I hadn’t completely become a witch, the feeling of power flowing through me at that time was on a level that I could not even compare to now.
I must have been weakened without knowing it after passing through the barrier while being unconscious.
Looking back, it made me suspect that the reason I felt particularly unwell the day after I was taken by Silvia’s uncle, Sator, and rescued to return to the city was probably due to crossing the barrier.
Anyway, I was someone who had directly experienced the power of witches.
If Freede were as strong as I was before I was weakened, I wouldn’t have been able to mess around in front of her like this.
Yet, even though she had crossed the barrier and not weakened, she still couldn’t match even half the power of the half-witch that I was now, leaving me with no choice but to be confident she was not a witch.
There were a few more reasons to be certain of that, but…
“It doesn’t matter. Either way, whatever you are, I’ll kill you!”
As I concentrated on my breathing, Freede, in front of me raised her voice and charged again.
My face cracked, pretending to be calm as I dodged her incoming attack.
Even knowing that she wasn’t a witch wouldn’t change the fact that there was a gap in our strength.
No matter what, at this moment, the reality was that I couldn’t match her power.
Power, stamina, speed—she surpassed me in physical ability.
With this simple disadvantage stemming from the gap in physical strength, all I could do was to evade with all my might and buy some time.
“Pathetic bug!”
With every successive attack, more cuts appeared all over my body.
Bit by bit, wounds larger than mere cuts began to appear due to the more threatening attacks than I expected.
The speed at which new injuries formed was outpacing my healing.
I felt my breath becoming faster, as blood flowing from my body was causing me to grow increasingly dizzy.
I instinctively realized something.
If I continued like this, I was fated to just buy some time, then perish under her hands.
Just then,
“Gah…?!”
Focusing too much on dodging her nails, I got hit by a kick and rolled on the ground, expelling my breath.
When I finally managed to focus my gaze again, I saw Freede advancing towards me, looking down at me with a cold glare.
“Tch, annoying bug.”
With those words, her attack came crashing down.
In a situation where it wouldn’t be strange to give up in despair, my body was rolling on its own to evade the attack.
Watching me roll on the floor, Freede murmured with disgust.
“Really pathetic. Just give up that meaningless struggle and die gracefully.”
“……Who decided it was a meaningless struggle?”
With that retort, I mustered all my strength to rise to my feet.
It seemed my insides were damaged from the earlier attack, and I wiped the blood flowing from my lips and glared at her.
Surely, what I was doing now might be a meaningless struggle, just as she said.
Even if I delayed things any longer, I had no confidence someone would come to help, and the odds of me defeating her were even slimmer.
However, that didn’t mean I had to give up here.
I had to do my best in whatever role I could fulfill.
Muttering that to myself, I raised my fists once more, reigniting my fighting spirit.
“Ha, if you still don’t understand, I’ll personally show you that struggling will be meaningless!”
I felt Freede’s attacks approaching, and quietly stepped forward.
Think.
I recalled the memories of my training up until now.
“Always keeping your senses open is important.”
“Like a rat, just evading!”
As I dodged one strike, another came flying from the opposite side.
“Always think ahead when you move. If you can minimize the gap between thought and action, that will be even better.”
I didn’t stop and moved my body, anticipating the next incoming attack.
I let the attack glide just past me while capturing the enemy’s next move with my eyes.
Fortunately, my opponent was currently quite emotional.
Their lack of experience in one-on-one combat as well as emotional actions allowed me to read their movements.
“You weak human!”
“……If I risk a little, I can dodge it by the skin of my teeth.”
As I evaded by the skin of my teeth, it began to buy me a little more time.
Despite my opponent being more agile, I slowly started to catch up through swift predictions and evasions.
Even though they excelled in physical abilities over me, my insights gained through training allowed me to achieve that.
There used to be someone who was afraid of fighting and hated pain.
But they trained, enduring that fear and pain.
They put in the effort.
And I asked myself,
What were you working that hard for?
The answer was simple.
So that when the time came when I had to do something, I could.
And right now, that moment had arrived.
“Y-you damned…!”
The longer time passed, the deeper my focus became.
On the other hand, my opponent’s increasingly impatient attacks became simpler.
I sensed my stamina nearing its limit, but instead of panicking, I simply endured.
Only,
“Don’t underestimate me!!!”
As I screamed in both excitement and anxiety, their movements began to grow larger.
In that moment.
I crossed my hands, and the fingers of sharp nails swung towards me.
“Guh?!”
“Their gaze is too straightforward. Their attacks are too linear.”
Focusing on the enemy attacking with a frenzied look, I splattered the blood flowing from my injuries to distract her.
Then, I turned to the stream of water flowing beside the sewer, exhaling fire to create steam and block her vision.
“You think such petty tricks will work?!”
Disoriented by the blinding steam, my opponent swung her nails around aimlessly.
Though the steam quickly dissipated,
I wasn’t in front of her anymore.
To avoid their indiscriminate attacks, my only choice was to—
“Ugh, up!!”
Jump upwards.
I looked up late and saw my opponent swinging her attacks at me.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have been able to escape at the moment I jumped.
But this was the sewer.
Of course, the passage had a ceiling, and the place I leapt from was—
The unguarded rear of my opponent, who couldn’t respond to my movements.
In that brief moment, I overtook the opponent who had been desperately chasing me.
And at the moment I landed, my fist was charged with all the flames I had gathered for this single blow.
Boom—
With a loud blast, my flame-encased fist struck Freede’s back.
It should have.
Had it not been for the winged beasts that suddenly appeared behind her.
“……Ah.”
In Freede’s hand, with an arrogant expression, was the black orb from which she could summon those beasts.
A sigh escaped my lips involuntarily.
Was it a failure? I thought, just as a vicious strike came from past the demonic beast, severing my right arm.
Thud, the sound of my severed arm dropping echoed loudly like thunder.
No screams from me could be heard; the pain of losing my arm was overshadowed by the overwhelming disappointment of not finishing what I had started in a perfect opportunity.
Even if I wanted to brace for the next attack, my body was trembling from the shock of losing my arm and completely drained from the last attack.
“As things turned out, I left a few behind, but I never expected to have to rely on that damned little bug in a fight like this… how dare you make me feel such humiliation…”
With an air of humiliation, Freede trembled as she swung her arm towards my now helpless form.
Thud, my vision went dark.
As I raised my head from the ground, I saw my legs that had been supporting my body rolling on the floor.
In the depths of this hopeless situation, only a hollow laugh escaped me.
“……I’ll make you feel as humiliated as I do. After I cut off your limbs, I’ll drag you around by your hair until you die, crawling on the ground in misery.”
Freede slowly walked towards me, seemingly intent on cutting off the remaining arm.
With the last vestiges of my strength, I squirmed to distance myself from her.
I wanted to at least protect my left arm, the precious item my friend had made for me.
But squirming wouldn’t get me away from the strides of Freede, who was whole and strong.
Her merciless nails were aimed to sever my left arm, and I closed my eyes one last time.
At that moment,
“What…?!”
A loud crash echoed, as if something had shattered.
“Skallet!!!”
With the cry of someone following, light poured into the dark sewer.
With that familiar voice, I realized that my awaited one had arrived and felt a mix of relief and laughter.
Damn it, no matter how much a protagonist you are, you come in too close a call.
I felt someone lifting my collapsed body.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Yoon Si-woo, with sunlight pouring in from the ceiling, casting a distorted expression like never before.
Yoon Si-woo looked down at me with a voice barely holding back tears.
“Why… why did you push yourself so much… if I had been late, you would have died…”
I answered him with effort.
“……You said you’d come if things got dangerous.”
“……Huh?”
“……I believed in you. Even if I was in danger, I knew you would definitely come. You’re someone who keeps your word… well, at least, you came without being too late…”
From those words, Yoon Si-woo scolded me, his face contorting.
Yet, I still smiled as I replied.
My belief that Yoon Si-woo would come, no matter what, as long as I was facing an enemy, was the reason I had risked myself to buy time.
In truth, I had never anticipated this turn of events, but it was genuinely a relief that he arrived in time.
If things had gone wrong, and the barrier had been shattered, it would be far worse than me being in a bad spot.
And as I smiled, Yoon Si-woo let out a pained expression before slowly leaning my body against one side of the tunnel and muttered,
“……Just hang in there a little longer. I’ll finish this quickly.”
Having said that, Yoon Si-woo turned towards Freede, who was eyeing us, now with an expression of pure anger I had never seen on him before.
Freede asked Yoon Si-woo,
“……What are you? Suddenly breaking the ceiling and appearing.”
“You don’t need to know. Either way, you’re going to die at my hands.”
The voice of Yoon Si-woo was razor-sharp enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.
However, Freede simply scoffed at his answer.
“Ha, you think you can kill me? Do you think an insignificant human can kill the Witch of Arrogance, Freede? I was just a bit careless a moment ago, but if I go all out…”
“……The Witch of Arrogance, you say?”
And to Freede’s words, Yoon Si-woo again laughed.
“How pathetic.”
I felt a shiver at the look in Yoon Si-woo’s eye as he called her pathetic.
Yoon Si-woo slowly drew out a sword that was radiating pure white light from the air.
Gripping that sword, the Sword of Humility, Yoon Si-woo pointed it towards her and spoke.
“Lucy, lend me your strength.”
[Understood, my master.]
With a woman’s voice echoing in the air that I had never heard before, Yoon Si-woo whispered.
A command to awaken the true form of the sword.
“Holy Sword—”
And just as those lips quivered again,
The sword, which had been painted pure white, and the boy, who had also been painted pure white,
“Reversal.”
Became dark, dark.
Spread like ink on white paper.
The instant transformation was swift.
In a blink, the now darkened boy stood holding the darkened sword, looking down upon the world with an arrogant gaze.
So natural was the appearance that anyone could tell it wasn’t merely dyed but that he had returned to his true form.
And the ominous aura surrounding the boy, dark as pitch, was an overpowering strength not allowed to mere humans.
This was yet another reason I couldn’t think of Freede as a witch.
This was another witch not appearing as a human enemy that I had known from the original text.
It was not the Sword of Humility, Lucy.
It was the dark sword, Lucifer, in which the Witch of Arrogance was sealed.
[It has been a long time. The outside air feels nice.]
At that moment, she emerged from her long seal, revealing her form to this world.
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