Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Festival (2)
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1.
“Gack! Cough! Gurk!”
A brief silence fell.
The student who had gone into the piranha's mouth had his lungs shredded by sharp teeth, unable to even scream properly before dying.
Pretty blood trickled from the corners of the piranha's mouth, just like the juice spilling from a ripe mountain strawberry popped into one's mouth.
“Eek!”
“........”
“What the hell is this...?”
“Is he dead?”
“This is real?”
“Not a hidden camera, right?”
“Bullshit, what hidden camera? We gotta sue over this.”
Even witnessing such a scene right before their eyes, people just gossiped in place instead of fleeing.
If there had been gunshots, or someone flung by an explosion, or a maniac wielding a blade rampaging...
There would have been a clear reaction.
But a massive fish chomping away at a person under the department store's halogen lights.
That thick B-grade horror movie vibe kept their brains from registering the crisis.
Only after seeing the student's limbs dangling between the piranha's teeth like bits of spinach.
Only after that brutal fishy stench filled their nostrils, impossible to dismiss as an illusion.
Only after the unnaturally copious blood trickled down jaws to pool on the faux marble floor.
“F-F-Fuck, what the hell!!!”
“Kyaaaaah!”
“119! 112! Call them all!”
“What?! Why won't the phone connect!?”
“Mom! Mommy!”
They finally grasped the situation, too late.
The men's clothing section of the department store descended into hell with screams, tears, wails, and chaos.
Amid the people scattering like baby spiders, black armor cleaved through the piranha that had caused the terror.
2.
Siwoo leaped from the middle of the escalator, instantly forming a suit of shadow armor and a longsword.
Adding his body weight and falling momentum, he poured all his strength into a single strike that cleaved the piranha in two.
A heavy, satisfying handfeel.
As Siwoo's blade passed, the piranha split cleanly into three parts and vomited blood as it crashed to the floor.
Even halved and fallen, the piranha's mouth flapped open and shut, its tail thrashing.
Even that sight sent chills down the spine.
“Everyone, gather here!”
Siwoo bellowed to call the people over.
But a crowd at the peak of utter chaos wasn't about to follow one man's orders in perfect unison.
This was a problem.
“What the actual fuck is going on here?”
Siwoo removed his eyepatch and scanned the surroundings.
This piranha was almost certainly a homunculus.
However, judging by the mana flows around him, this place wasn't a Reverse Boundary.
He already knew from Sharon that homunculi didn't drag crowds of prey into a boundary when hunting.
In other words, a homunculus had manifested in the real world without a Reverse Boundary and was massacring people.
““Assistant!!!””
To the bewildered Siwoo, the twins came dashing up against the flow of the escalator.
“Stick behind me for now. No telling what might happen.”
A person had just died right in front of them.
Who knew what threats awaited.
As he shifted into combat readiness, Siwoo realized he was far calmer than he'd imagined.
Even accounting for the many life-or-death battles he'd fought lately, his mind stayed detached from the chaos, his eyes scanning the battlefield like a seasoned veteran, preparing for variables.
“Can you reach Lady Deneb?”
“No... it won't connect!”
“I-I tried my artifact and phone, but nothing works.”
“What the fucking hell...”
The one piranha that sparked this chaos was dead, but the air brushing his skin, the ominous atmosphere, told him otherwise.
It wasn't over.
Not even begun.
Something else was coming.
-Ting ting ting ting ting
As if answering Siwoo's prediction, the department store's lights began winking out one by one.
No, not completely gone.
Just suppressed to the limit, like sinking into the deep sea.
With no other windows, the entire building plunged into gloom in an instant.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“What's happening? Terrorism?”
Darkness breeds fear.
The department store's clamor reached a fever pitch.
Not just this floor—the escalators above and below erupted in uproar too.
“Ah.....”
And Siwoo saw them.
From who knows where.
Lazily waving fins and tails as if patrolling an aquarium.
Dozens of piranhas.
Before Siwoo, frozen stiff, could stop them, the twins shot forward.
Each held a finely crafted musket rifle.
Aim and fire—two piranhas wheeling in the air thudded down in puffs of feathers? No, scales? Wait, plummeted.
“Assistant, we'll help too!”
“We can protect ourselves!”
“Lady Odile, Lady Odette.”
Ever since the Ea Sadal Melik raid, the earl had prepared these muskets called 'Janissaries' that fired artifact mana bullets, so the twins could at least defend themselves.
“We're confident in hunting.”
“We've done it plenty!”
Siwoo didn't hesitate any longer. He conjured two ribbons and dual swords, then leaped into the piranhas.
Please just stay put.
Please don't move.
Siwoo's hopes crumbled futilely amid collective gasps of “Wack!”—blood sprayed in an instant.
Just like piranhas swarming to bite prey that smelled blood, dozens lunged at once to devour the humans around them.
One student was snatched up by teeth into the air.
Piranhas swarmed the airborne student like flies on a corpse, tearing into him.
Limbs ripped apart, only hot, murky fluids splattered down.
“Kyaaaaah! Mommmmy!!!”
“Uwaaaah, what are these things?!”
“Status window! Stats! Inventory! I awaken to Player Life—aaaargh! Gyah! It bit me!”
By then, Siwoo had already sliced five piranhas and pierced others with ribbons.
The piranhas were pathetically weak but lightning-fast.
To civilians without countermeasures, they were no different from freely flying predators.
And devilishly cunning to boot—they ignored Siwoo entirely, too busy feasting on the easy banquet laid out.
Even as Siwoo dashed around slashing some, people died far faster.
The twins fired supportively, but it was like blocking a typhoon with one's palm.
“Over here! Come here!”
No matter how loudly Siwoo shouted to gather people, his voice drowned in screams, wails, and the rending of flesh and bone.
Only about ten quick-witted survivors huddled by the diligently shooting twins, trembling.
In moments, the entire floor was soaked in crimson.
Every step squelched dark red.
The acrid stench pierced the nose amid iron tang; chunks of innards and severed limbs lay cold on display racks.
“This... fucking bullshit...”
Siwoo felt the blood drain from his head.
Too late.
In the 20 seconds it took him to take down ten piranhas with ribbons and blade, most humans on this floor became piranha chow.
“U-Um, excuse me. What the hell is going on?”
“This is some broadcast shoot, right? Not real?”
“Sp-Special forces or something?”
“Mom... Mommy... Scary... Save me...”
The survivors by the twins clung to Siwoo—who wore armor and massacred monsters—in their panic.
What to do?
Is this really reality?
Probably not just this floor.
How many people caught up?
Way to save more?
Scale too huge without a mastermind.
Whose orders?
What are the other witches doing?
Send twins first?
Can I handle alone?
Too unreal.
“...sir!”
“Assistant!!!”
Siwoo gasped at the twins' sudden shout in his ear.
“Snap out of it! What good is spacing out?”
Ears ringing, blurred vision clearing, all he saw were piranhas staring them down side-by-side, finishing off remaining easy prey.
Unlike the easy meals, they eyed Siwoo and the twins warily, not charging recklessly.
Odile asked while aiming her musket in the standoff.
Siwoo shook his head.
Think later.
Handle the urgent first.
“First, I'll evacuate you.”
“Evacuate? How?”
His mind cleared a bit.
“I'll use the Coordinate Transfer spell. The one I used to get you two out before. It'll take time—can you cover me?”
“Of course. Leave it to us.”
Odile replied boldly.
By Siwoo's feel, these piranhas were weaker than the stray dogs he'd fought before.
But their speed outpaced anything he'd faced.
Fast and airborne meant trouble for melee specialists like him.
Conversely, the twins' marksmanship was excellent even amid his frenzy.
Even as apprentice witches, with those high-firepower offensive artifacts, he could trust them.
“Everyone, gather in front of me.”
“At least explain what this is! You military?”
“You could tell us what's going on!”
In their panicked chaos, the survivors raised voices at Siwoo, who seemed to know something.
“Not some old guy or soldier—just gather. No time to explain. I'm getting you out.”
But as Siwoo shook blood from his blade and roared, complaints vanished.
To them, the sudden man-eating monsters and the blood-soaked man butchering them were equally terrifying.
He knew that, so he used it.
Easier to control this way.
“Ladies Odile, Odette, stand nearby too.”
Siwoo planned to stay.
Probably survivors hiding from the disaster.
Goal: get one more out of this slaughterhouse.
But the twins couldn't stay.
No telling what comes next—evacuate them to report outside.
But Odile and Odette didn't budge.
“No, we'll fight with you, Assistant.”
“Right! We'll save people!”
“Not the time! Tell Lady Deneb!”
“Have whoever gets out make the call. One phone does it, right?”
“But...”
Odile cut off Siwoo's further explanation firmly.
“Assistant, noble honor doesn't come from family names. It comes from fulfilling duties and responsibilities as nobility.”
“You taught us that, right?”
I don't remember teaching that...
But right now, every bit of help counted.
Especially those guns—prime firepower against the horrific piranhas.
“Understood. Civilians first then. But if it looks even a little dangerous, I'll evac you two first.”
With priorities set, Siwoo glanced around.
For a while now, he'd sensed mana flows utterly unlike a Reverse Boundary.
Much heavier, dark as pressure from ocean depths, convecting across the area.
So, teleport far—outside the building.
Siwoo handed a phone to one survivor.
“As soon as you're out, call these numbers and explain the situation. You have to.”
“Wh-What do I say?”
“Just say monsters appeared at Coex.”
“O-Okay...”
The buzzcut guy, apparently on leave from military, nodded frantically despite shaking.
No time for calm reassurance.
“Ladies Odile, Odette—cover fire, please.”
A blue circle began drawing under their feet.
Siwoo's Self-Generating Magic: Coordinate Transfer activating.
This many people, that distance.
Rough calc: over a minute.
Twins' job: buy that time.
The piranhas, who'd watched so far, lost patience.
Provoked by the blue glow, fangs clacking, predators prepared to pounce on survivors.
Trusting the twins, Siwoo closed his eyes and dove into perfect focus.
Odile and Odette didn't tremble like before.
Back then, just protected—now, time to protect the Assistant.
They stood blocking Siwoo's front, gripping muskets tight.
“Ready, Odette?”
“Of course, sis.”
In sync, the twins aimed and pulled triggers, unleashing mana buckshot.