Chapter 520
Chapter 520
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 520
Chapter Title: Disappearance (7)
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1.
Clech Asmode hung from iron chains bolted to the ceiling, her arms wrenched behind her back.
She gritted her teeth, head bowed, enduring the cold sweat pouring down like rain and the pounding headache as she assessed her own condition.
This seemed to be a prison sealed with some kind of ritual that outright prevented the manifestation of magic itself.
It suppressed her circuits at the root, blocking the activation of mana entirely.
For any other witch, it would be the perfect containment method.
But not for Clech.
Unlike typical witches, she stored her mana distributed through her bloodstream.
Just a little recovery from her wounds, and her transcendent physical prowess would return in full.
If she could buy even a bit of time, these chains and stone walls would shatter like rotten twine and a gingerbread house.
Clack, clack.
She lifted her head at the approaching sound of high heels.
There stood the perfume witch who had just been bombarding her with questions.
"Guhk!"
The moment the woman's finger flicked against Clech's forehead without a word...
Clech felt all the circuits she had painstakingly rebuilt twist into knots.
The feedback surge brought up a bowlful of blood, which she vomited out.
"Don't even think about escaping."
This underground prison nullified all mana use except for that of the Jemernai Count.
But before heading upstairs, Albireo Count had handed over the 'key' to facilitate the interrogation.
It was an artifact that relaxed the prison's restrictions for its possessor alone.
"......"
Clech glared fiercely at Amelia, lips pressed tight.
The realization that her plan had gone awry stirred fear and dread for the future, but she judged not everything was lost yet.
"From now on, I'm going to torture you."
"......"
At Amelia's gesture, fine white particles began seeping into Clech's body.
"The particles I've injected are seeds. They resonate with vibrations and sprout into flowers. Last time, I only knocked you out..."
Snap!
The instant Amelia snapped her fingers, Clech squeezed her eyes shut.
As a grand witch versed in magic, Clech could guess what was coming from experience alone.
Thud!
But the flower bloomed not on Clech's body, but on the chains binding her.
Half-suspended, she confirmed the shackles squeezing her wrists had turned into a pile of flowers.
"That won't happen from now on."
A blatant threat.
Clech felt her breath quicken.
"Honestly, this is my first time torturing someone."
Amelia stepped closer, one foot at a time, while Clech looked up at her in fear and shuffled back.
"I don't expect to be perfect right away. Controlling my strength won't be easy. So, please answer honestly while you still can speak."
As Clech awkwardly retreated, she realized her back was now against the cold stone wall.
And that cowering further in this inescapable situation would only get her devoured faster.
"You seem really worried?"
"......"
This was Gehenna, after all. Clech was a captured public enemy.
She understood her fate.
With the public enemy title, she had to abandon any thoughts of returning alive.
Better to claw back at them than snivel in terror.
With that resolve, Clech bared her sharp fangs and sneered at Amelia.
"Too bad. That Shin Si-woo guy's probably already dead."
A provocation that implicitly admitted his involvement in the incident.
Amelia's response was simple.
"Kuh...!!!!"
Clech watched her own pinky finger crumble in an instant.
As the flower bloomed, a cluster of petals pierced her flesh, scattering it like dust.
There was no pain.
And thanks to her constitution, it would heal quickly.
But witnessing part of her body vanish was horrifying.
Amelia, unflinching in her brutality, spoke calmly.
"He's still alive."
Alive even after entering the fishbowl?
Clech tried to parse the meaning.
Amelia had no need to bluff.
Was Deneb Jemernai the issue, then, for entering with him?
But if they hadn't emerged yet, they hadn't found an escape.
Unlike a monster with near-infinite regeneration, a witch's mana was finite.
So, it was only a matter of time.
With that judgment, Clech felt her mind ease.
Though her plan was only half-complete at best, the satisfaction of landing a blow on those haughty 'noble' witches lingered.
"So what? He's gonna die soon anyway."
Clech sneered still.
"No. You'd better pray he's safe."
Amelia gladly took the bait.
She leaned down to meet Clech's eyes.
"If anything happens to him, you'll die in torments worse than anything you can imagine."
Clech swallowed hard at Amelia's words, spoken as if she vowed to make it so.
As if defying the terror gripping her heart, she shoved at Amelia's chest with all her might.
"What did I do so wrong? I just gave back what was taken from me! To that damned Tiphereth Duke...!"
She tried to lunge at Amelia, but was effortlessly subdued.
Thrashing, Clech cried out with a grotesque expression between laughter and tears.
"She stole Bianca from me, so I wanted her to feel the same loss...! Bianca was my everything!"
Whether Bianca had plotted to kidnap Shin Si-woo first, or Tiphereth Duke had merely responded justly...
None of that mattered.
Just a glance back from Bianca, who had coldly turned away after deeming her ever so slightly more useful.
That was the purpose of Clech's life.
But now, it was irreversible.
Only blazing vengeance sustained her existence.
"You think I'm scared of dying now? Where's Tiphereth? I want to see that bitch sobbing in grief."
Seeing Clech laugh maniacally, Amelia realized she was under some delusion.
Clech believed the Tiphereth Duke—close to Si-woo—had killed the Witch of Desire.
Si-woo had brought down the Witch of Desire, but Amelia had delivered the final blow to Bianca as she attempted mutual destruction.
Even Si-woo suspected Bianca might have faked her death to flee.
Though her inaction as their business burned suggested otherwise...
No need to correct the details now.
This wasn't about exchanging information; it was interrogation pure and simple.
Amelia said,
"I killed Bianca Bellirili."
"......"
At those words, Clech fell utterly silent, as if muted.
No—frozen like a paused video, barely breathing, staring up at Amelia in shock.
"...Lies... no, uh..."
A shocking revelation overturning her core assumption.
Stammered words spilling out.
Bianca, prouder, more willful, stronger than anyone.
The buoy of her life, the conqueror she yearned to submit to.
Clech had long refused to accept Bianca's death.
She would have scoffed at such a claim from any ordinary witch.
She believed no one but the supreme Kether or Tiphereth Duke could defeat her.
"The Witch of Desire died by my hand."
But...
This witch before her could do it.
The one who subdued a resisting Clech as easily as snapping a child's wrist.
Amelia Merigold, unflinching in her torture.
In that moment, Clech glimpsed the halo.
The fateful blaze she had seen in Bianca during her wandering days after losing everything for freedom.
Beautifully burning like a bonfire drawing suicidal moths, even knowing it meant death.
2.
About two days after entering the fishbowl.
The Kraken was vanquished.
Deneb's refined magic, honed through relentless research, succeeded in bringing the beast—casting spells from the depths—to the brink of death.
Si-woo drove in the final nail.
Manifesting not a spear or sword, but a massive axe, he charged the Kraken, drained of both stamina and regeneration.
It was less a fight than a demolition job, ending with its skull smashed.
It sounded simple in words, but all tales simplify to a few lines.
The World War II could be crudely summed as a failed art student's suicide note.
Anyway, the Kraken's tenacious final throes left both Si-woo and Deneb utterly exhausted.
"We... finally did it."
"Yeah..."
Even their voices celebrating victory lacked energy.
They looked ready to collapse into bed at any moment.
The pier was unrecognizable rubble, the black sea seemingly receded, bearing sole witness to the brutal battle.
The Kraken's corpse crumbled away.
From the center of its half-dragged onshore head, a blue orb rolled out with a clatter.
Resembling the citizen passes for entering Boder Town's 'gate,' this seemed to be the fishbowl's 'pass.'
At the same moment, the ever-clanging bell tower regenerated, forming a perfect ring.
Anyone could see it screamed, 'This is the exit~.'
Deneb's theory that this world was a pocket space like Gehenna was confirmed.
"It's really over now."
"What an adventure. This in my old age... Well, not all bad, I suppose."
Realizing the true end, the two met eyes and shared an awkward smile.
After that one proper lovers' coupling where restraint vanished, Deneb had grown surprisingly considerate.
No longer aggressively insatiable, and Si-woo no longer feared her.
"You've been through a lot, Si-woo."
"You too, Count."
"You haven't forgotten our promise?"
"Of course. My lips are sealed."
Just that one full time, and they'd kept boundaries since...
He'd gladly honor her request.
"After you. Shall we?"
Si-woo extended his hand; Deneb hesitated, then nodded slowly.
"Gonna crash hard the second we're back."
"Same. Can't recharge mana with your help outside anymore."
As they chatted amiably, reaching for the pass...
Si-woo and Deneb's hearts nearly stopped in shock.
This was the fishbowl.
A world that should hold only them and the Kraken.
Yet where the Kraken's corpse lay, a witch stood with chin raised, as if she'd been there all along.
Her long hair flowed like the ink-black night sea.
Her eyes, deep and dark as ocean trenches.
Beautiful like any witch, nothing particularly distinctive.
"...You lot?"
Yet both Si-woo and Deneb felt it simultaneously.
The fury in her expression, mana surging like a flood, the heavy tremor like facing a natural disaster.
"To think filthy insects dare harm my subject..."
Her voice cracked with rage as they both recalled one name.
"You'll pay for that sin with your lives."
The former witch, owner of this fishbowl, said purged by Kether Duke.
The Witch of the Deep Sea.