Chapter 97: Annihilation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 97: Annihilation
I brought the two witches, who had been tumbling in the snow, inside. The long-haired witch, whose name I didn't know, grunted at my words and tried to lift her blood-soaked twin sister.
But she staggered and collapsed as if she'd never used her strength a day in her life. Unable to watch any longer, I pushed her aside and lifted the fallen witch myself.
"Th-thank you..."
"Get inside. It's cold."
As I brought the two inside, the witches who were already there emerged one by one, wondering what was going on.
When more than twice their number in witches appeared, the conscious one flinched in terror. I forced her onto the sofa and laid her unconscious sister down beside her.
"Cocoa?"
"Y-yes?"
"Okay."
Taking her non-answer as an answer, I went to make cocoa. As I did, I heard my Teacher's grumpy voice from behind me.
"You don't have to be so nice to them..."
"What if I'd just left them out there to die? If they died on my doorstep, would you expect me to clean up the corpses?"
"I'll clean it up with magic!"
"Yeah, right. Don't be ridiculous, Teacher."
My Teacher pouted, dissatisfied. I gave her a light kiss to push her pouting lips back into place, then handed the cocoa to the witch.
Our fingertips brushed for just a moment, but a biting chill transferred to me. She was wearing winter clothes, but it was clear that flimsy gear like that was no match for the cold of a winter mountain.
"Thank you..."
She took the cocoa from me, warmed her hands on the mug, and slowly began to sniffle. As the sweet chocolate and sugar spread through her body, replenishing her energy, she even managed a faint smile.
Watching her, I realized she was quite the airhead. This was basically enemy territory, yet here she was, suddenly smiling?
‘If I can just win this one over, the rest should be easy.’
With that thought, I pulled up a chair and sat down in front of her.
"You know who I am, right?"
"Ah, I do..."
"You saw me at the Adventurer's Guild."
"Y-yes..."
"Name?"
"I-it's Linne... Ah, and she's Linna..."
"Why did you come here?"
"...To meet you."
At those words, I heard the distinct sound of something cracking apart behind me. It had to be my Teacher. I did my best to ignore her anger and spoke carefully.
"And what did you plan to do after meeting me?"
"...I saw... you were traveling with witches..."
"And that made you curious?"
"...Yes."
I couldn't tell if Linne was naturally timid or if she was just incapable of speaking in long sentences, but she kept giving short, one-word answers.
It seemed I wasn't the only one frustrated by her way of speaking. Hekaterina, who had been listening quietly from the side, swiftly approached and kicked the sofa she was sitting on, shouting.
"What's with the way you talk, you fucking retard? Is that the only way you can speak?"
"I-it's... because of magic..."
"What? Stop mumbling and speak clearly!"
"...Hic."
Linne couldn't say anything and just started to cry. She was even intimidated by Hekaterina, who was shorter than her.
Even Beatrice wasn't this bad. She didn't have friends, but that didn't mean she was timid.
I stopped Hekaterina from intimidating Linne and waited quietly for her to speak. After sobbing for a while, she finally seemed to calm down and began to speak in a barely audible voice.
"Because of... magic... speaking..."
"You can't speak because of magic?"
"Y-yes..."
"What kind of magic?"
At my question, instead of speaking, Linne carefully held out her hand. A stream of pure white light burst from her palm, and a new cup, identical to the one she held in her other hand, materialized.
I was tilting my head, wondering if it was some kind of duplication magic, when the new, empty cup began to slowly fill with cocoa.
"...What the."
"The magic... of creation..."
"...So, if you talk too much, things you don't even want get created?"
When I guessed her situation aloud, Linne's eyes widened as if surprised I'd figured it out, and she began to nod her head.
But I was still reeling, dumbfounded by the nature of her magic.
‘What the... They're coming up with all sorts of things now. At this rate, are we going to get a Witch of Cosmic Creation, a Witch of Parallel Worlds, or a Witch of the Big Bang next?’
As I let out a hollow laugh at the absurd 'magic of creation,' the sleeping Linna's eyes snapped open.
Waking from unconsciousness, she assessed the situation in less than a tenth of a second, immediately grabbed me by the collar, and took me hostage.
"Shit— Nobody move! If you move, this bastard's dead, dea—"
Kkiiirik, kkiiririk— Linna's body, which had been trying to grab my neck, began to move with a creaking sound, slowly pulling away from me.
Rubbing the back of my neck where her hand had touched, I looked back. Linna was frozen stiff, her hand still outstretched.
Beatrice, who had moved behind Linna at some point and restrained her, whispered quietly.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Y-you—! You bitches...!"
And in the next moment—magic power erupted from Linna's body. Beatrice's threads, which had been binding her, snapped—ttuduk—and all the various spells pressing down on her were annihilated.
Seeing this, the other witches began to radiate hostility toward her, but I walked up to Linna nonchalantly. Seeing me approach her even as she unleashed her magic, she began to tremble slightly, as if asking what I was doing.
"W-wait— If you come any closer."
"In my house, you behave."
"Wh-what?"
I grabbed the hair of the woman who was spewing magic power and slammed her head straight into the floor.
Whether she was knocked out by the heavy impact or not, she started twitching, blood dribbling from her face. I casually flipped her over and looked back and forth between the trembling Linne and Linna, whose face was now crooked and bleeding.
"You can fix this, right?"
"Y-yes..."
Linne immediately went to the fallen Linna and recreated her nose. The broken bone returned to its original shape, and the bleeding stopped.
I headed straight for the bathroom to wash the blood off my hands.
The moment I left, the witches who had been showing hostility rose in unison and began to surround the two sisters.
Having a rough idea of the pair's fate, I prayed for their souls.
Waking up in a solitary room, Linna realized she had been knocked unconscious.
She recalled the scene from before she passed out.
The image of Yohan, who had not only touched her bare-handed while she was cloaked in the magic of annihilation, but had then slammed her into the ground and knocked her out.
More important than figuring out how that was possible was something else. She immediately looked around, searching for Linne.
"Linne? Linne? Are you here? It's too dark to see. If you're here, please answer..."
She desperately called for her twin sister, but not only was there no reply, she couldn't even hear the sound of breathing that any living person would make.
This fact filled her with immense fear. It wasn't because she had separation anxiety or something like claustrophobia.
It was something far more terrifying. She was afflicted by a witch's curse.
"Linne, please—pleeease...!"
The magic of annihilation. As powerful as its name suggested, this magic demanded a commensurate price. That is, Linna's body was constantly annihilating itself, hour by hour.
This was the reason why, despite being born a world-shaking witch—albeit a half-baked one—she couldn't properly utilize her magic. It was also the reason she could never abandon Linne, whom she often found unbearable, and always kept her close.
She could feel her body disappearing now. And the human body was not so resilient. While it would take a very long time for her entire body to vanish, she didn't need to wait for that—losing just 10% of her body would be enough to kill her.
"I don't want to die, please— Linne, Linneeee—!"
She tried to draw on her magic power. To use a spell. ...She couldn't.
With her magic somehow sealed, the slowly rising terror began to eat away at her. The slow crawl of death stimulated the survival instincts of a witch who had lived for hundreds of years.
Despite having lived for so long, the desire to live even longer encroached upon her. And a fear as great as that desire approached.
If only she could meet Linne right now, she was prepared to offer anything. Praying for that, Linna crawled across the floor to the wall.
She scraped desperately at the wall, made of some unknown material—probably concrete or brick. Her fingernails broke, blood dripped from her fingers, but still, she didn't stop.
Kkiiiiiik—
"Lin-neeee...!"
The door opened. Linna, who had been struggling in the perfect darkness, immediately rushed toward it like a moth to a flame.
Yohan, standing beyond the door, subdued the fiercely charging Linna and spoke to her.
"Be still."
"No, I don't want to die! I don't want to die... Linne, Linneeee!!"
"So noisy."
It wasn't easy to calm down someone in a frenzy. So Yohan simply chose the easiest method.
Thwack— He struck her once in the solar plexus to quiet her down, then laid her on the floor and pulled off her pants.
"Ugh, ughh— You, what are you..."
"I'm not trying to rape you, so stay still."
Yohan then took the long dropper his Teacher had made for him, placed it at her entrance, and began to squeeze.
Inside it was the curse-nullifying potion Evangeline had made.
The ingredient, of course, was his semen.
It was a tool she had made for him instead, to prevent him from forming deeper relationships with other witches.
Feeling the liquid flowing inside her, Linna struggled frantically, but she couldn't overcome Yohan's grip.
After finally injecting all of the semen, Yohan tossed her aside as if he had no personal interest in her whatsoever and left the room. Left alone once again, Linna fumbled with her private parts to figure out what Yohan had done.
"What is this..."
Belatedly, Linna realized that her body had stopped annihilating itself.
The curse was gone.