Chapter 236
Chapter 236
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 236
Chapter Title: Night of the Homunculus (3)
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The door of the hotel—which had just boasted about finishing its remodeling—let out a creak.
Ridiculous.
Siu and Sharon quickly realized why such a sound was coming from it.
The changes brought by the homunculus's arrival weren't limited to the mysterious liquid pooling beneath the floorboards.
Everything inside the room was rotting away.
The lamp that had been gleaming moments ago, the freshly wallpapered walls, every piece of furniture barely touched by human hands...
All of it was crumbling into dust, as if ages had passed.
A thick, cloying fishy stench assaulted their noses, carrying the briny tang of the deep ocean.
"...Huh?"
But as the door swung open...
Even with the corridor beyond now looking as desolate and decayed as the room itself...
No enemy in sight.
Just that painting in poor taste hanging on the opposite wall.
"Don't let your guard down! Balance!"
Sharon barked at Siu as he lowered his sword, then swung her wand.
In her hand was a stone-sized topaz.
With her body as the altar and the topaz as the sacrifice offered to the fire element, Sharon swept her wand through the air. Flames erupted like a flamethrower, engulfing the entire area.
-Whoosh!
These weren't ordinary flames that just sucked in the surrounding oxygen and spat fire. Anyone who thought that would be gravely mistaken.
Using a sacrifice of this quality generated heat intense enough to make the furnace of any steel mill look laughable.
Not knowing the enemy's position, she'd eliminated all blind spots by scorching everything around them.
The licking blaze reduced everything in sight to ash.
It wasn't the kind of scene the word "combustion" typically evoked.
The bed, still warm from their recent passion, burst into flames the instant the fire touched it—then vanished like evaporating mist.
Sharon was already panting hard, though she hadn't even glimpsed the enemy.
It wasn't the magic draining her.
Her body had frozen solid from sheer tension and terror.
"Siu, no time for details—listen up."
"That dangerous?"
"The Drowned Witch. Most dangerous foe we've ever faced. Even among the homunculi reared by the Coward Witch, this one's notorious."
Coward Witch.
A witch's power was generally dictated by her hierarchy.
Higher rank meant a wider array of spells and greater proficiency. A gap of two hierarchies or more decided the fight before experience or luck even came into play.
But exceptions always existed.
The Coward Witch, Sochitl, was merely 19th hierarchy.
Yet after becoming a public enemy, she'd slain one 21st-hierarchy witch, one 20th, and two of 19th.
How?
Her Nature Magic specialized in "controlling homunculi."
Enhancing and dominating an arsenal of powerful homunculi vastly expanded her tactical options.
She could force one-against-many brawls.
Engineer favorable matchups using their diverse traits.
Or stay hidden, forcing a war of attrition.
In her own way—distinct from Siu—the Coward Witch was a master of great witch battles.
-Wooooo...
A ghostly wail echoed through the room.
The scattered flames crackling around them snuffed out like candles in a gust.
The water pooling on the floor now reached their ankles. Rust-colored liquid oozed down the walls and ceiling.
It felt like being trapped in a Titanic cabin, sunk into the abyss—doomed to drown at any moment.
Siu scanned his surroundings.
This was all some kind of magic, no matter what.
So his left eye should pierce right through it... or so he'd thought. That blind faith shattered instantly.
"No way..."
"What?"
"Can't see the mana flow. I'm looking right at it, but..."
Nothing.
Like peering through thick fog—no mana flows, no enemy, no matter where he looked.
For Siu, who'd always seized the high ground in battle thanks to his left eye, it felt like sudden blindness. Utter disorientation.
Now they were truly sealed in darkness.
-Splash!
It burst from the water pooling on the floor.
Siu and Sharon could only freeze at the horrific sight.
Fundamentally female... or so one might assume.
She had long, sodden hair like seaweed and wore a dress.
But her form was no longer remotely human.
Her body had bloated beyond human proportions, like a pufferfish swollen in water.
Her arms and legs protruded absurdly, writhing unnaturally.
Only her pale face's eyes—bulging from sockets, half-popped out—glowed with an eerie blue light, fixed on Siu and Sharon.
"Fuck..."
"Urp..."
Siu spat a curse at the Drowned Witch's true form; Sharon gagged.
But this wasn't the time to wrinkle their noses at the grotesque display.
Siu gripped the spear he'd conjured and lunged forward.
Startled as he'd been by the sudden emergence, seeing it up close sparked inner confidence.
That drowned-corpse homunculus had only two eyes.
He'd survived countless battlefields.
Unlike his old slapdash style, Siu now wielded systematic combat techniques.
No longer dependent on shadow armor—he reinforced his body directly with mana and maximized output through footwork mastery.
Even the famously mighty Tiphereth Duke had lavishly praised his progress.
Against a mere two-eyed "homunculus," he figured he could take it.
Tiphereth had said weapons were mere extensions of limbs.
Same spear-thrusting motion—but Siu's honed strike flawlessly mirrored the instinctive imagery woven into the Contract of the King of All Diseases.
Stronger. Faster. More precise.
Even to Siu, who'd swung spears aplenty, this was his cleanest thrust yet.
-Whoosh!
The air-cutting fatal strike pierced toward the homunculus's plump body—
then snapped apart limply.
"...What the..."
Siu stared at the shadow spear he'd thrust with full force.
It was sliced clean like a sugarcane stalk under a scythe.
More baffling: he had no idea why.
He'd felt the tip connect, glimpsed a white flash—then suddenly, the spear was severed.
Siu looked up at the monster.
A chill raced down his spine.
Its expression was twisted.
Lips curled upward, huge eyes rolling wildly, a trickle of black seawater leaking from its slightly parted mouth.
Inconceivable—but that was a smile.
It was laughing. Silently.
As they stood frozen in a toxic brew of revulsion and fear—
-Boom!
A sudden explosion roared right in front of them.
"What do you think you're doing, charging in like that?! I told you to run!"
Sharon clutched her wand.
Before her floated a spinning magic circle etched with a diamond pattern.
With a shriek that tore at their eardrums, the homunculus's weapon slammed into it—stopping inches from their faces.
The weapon: a massive anchor on a chain.
But clearly not just for halting ships.
For all its visible heft, the flukes were harpoon-sharp, and the stock gleamed like a honed blade.
-Rumble...
Too late, everything in the anchor's swing path collapsed.
The strike had been so blindingly fast that the destruction lagged half a beat behind.
At least three room walls crumbled at once. Iron doors and furniture caught in between shattered like fine glasswork.
-Splash!
The chain retracted with a rattle, the anchor plunging into the water underfoot.
Flustered by the unforeseen chain of events, Siu had no time to confer with Sharon.
The second attack was already incoming.
At peak concentration, he barely spotted two heads surging from the water like dolphins—no warning, no wind-up.
Much faster than Siu's full-force sword swing. Undoubtedly far stronger.
"Kuh!"
Sharon burned two corals to raise twin defensive circles, thrusting them forward like shields to block the anchor.
Her mana circuits screamed under the overload.
With her usual cheap tap-water spells from a plastic bottle, her body would've been ripped apart.
The Drowned Witch lived up to her infamy—and she'd only grow stronger from here.
No immediate follow-up attack.
The grotesque homunculus silently cocked its head.
Siu caught his hasty judgment in the half-melted mirror behind it.
Slanted oddly, it reflected the homunculus's back.
Seventeen red eyes studded there like angry boils.
The core hadn't been in the face—it protruded from the back all along.
Last time, squeezing every ounce of strength to topple a building and catch that mother hound—how many eyes? Eight?
A bit unusual, but the White Knight he'd barely beaten after agony? Four eyes.
And now... seventeen.
Siu had always faced stronger foes.
Each time, he'd acknowledged his weakness and the enemy's might.
Thus, even against overwhelming odds, he'd thrashed without surrender.
But overconfidence born of shallow pride? That shattered instantly under unforeseen menace.
"Siu. Listen to me."
In that fleeting moment, Sharon intoned calmly.
Details on the Drowned Witch raced through her mind.
She wielded devastating physical water magic, like Ea Sadalmelik.
Nothing too threatening on its own.
The real peril lay in the seawater lapping their ankles.
Proof the homunculus had scattered mana, eroding the space itself.
This "erosion" was no different from a wide-area debuff—it sapped magic efficiency, spiritual function, and even the will and courage to fight.
Like a human caught in rapids, flailing until exhaustion dragged them under.
The mind succumbed to fear.
Magic weakened despite resistance, until the victim grew too frail to even breathe—and died.
Dragging foes to the swamp's depths. That was why this homunculus was called the Drowned Witch.
"You run."
"This is my mess. I'll clean it up."
Siu barely shook off the swelling dread, gripped a fresh conjured spear, and stepped forward again.
Sharon didn't turn. She thumped his breastplate, voice quivering.
Desperate. Trembling.
"Run. Please, I'm begging you. Buy time from me—call the Duke for help. It's our only shot at surviving."
Even as she pleaded, Sharon deployed magic.
Sparing no expense on premium sacrifices, she invoked a grand ritual.
Water, fire, wind, earth—all annihilated and harmonized into the element of void.
A spherical orb, her 18th-hierarchy max output, spun lazily in midair.
Anything natural touching it would cease to exist.
Would it work?
No guarantees.
Magic that eroded even the mind.
She'd shrugged it off in reports.
Facing it now? A whole new league of terror.
Like shoving your hand into a shrieking industrial grinder.
Just standing before the Drowned Witch sapped the strength from her legs.
Scary.
Terrifying.
Her mind, taut as a bowstring about to snap, hummed with precarious tension.
"Siu."
But Sharon didn't flee.
Don't back down.
Siu's right there.
The city, discarded empty after its colossal failure, always felt drenched in cold rain.
Pretending to be bold, unyielding...
Deep down, she'd been lonely.
Miserable. Sometimes desperate to quit.
Then I met you.
In my solitary rainy world, your outstretched hand felt so good.
I still remember the warmth of your fingertips, offered without hesitation.
That warmth.
Sharon Evergreen's most precious treasure.
Sharon crushed the urge to bolt backward and spoke.
Maybe her last words.
She had to say them.
The words she'd vowed to tell him someday, standing side by side.
"I really... you..."
Sharon's words never finished.
Despite the rust, the harpoon pierced her slender body effortlessly.
A crimson flower bloomed from her back.