Chapter 26
Chapter 026. The Witch (3)
When Spanich drove his spear into the ground, the mud grabbing their ankles collapsed, and the fog cleared.
Thanks to that, they could see the surroundings—the ruins of buildings and half-sunken stone pillars.
The remnants of a destroyed city.
Among those remnants, the only thing that retained its full shape was the lone, desolate tower standing by itself.
‘Is that where the Witch lives? This close… Did we just wander around for nothing?’
Looking at the tower not far away, Anagin reconsidered the concept of magic.
When the Witch’s disciple pulled her strange trick earlier, he’d just thought it was some amusing little sleight-of-hand. But after wandering endlessly through the fog, his thoughts had changed.
It wasn’t a fun little trick—depending on the case, it could become a very annoying trick.
Especially since they had wasted so much strength wandering despite it being this close.
Naturally, his attention shifted to Spanich.
He wondered what the spear he had slammed down earlier actually was, and how it managed to dispel the magic all at once.
“Hhugh…!”
Spanich, still holding the spear planted in the ground, froze for a moment in that position, then abruptly let out a breath and slumped sideways.
Tak.
Anagin grabbed his arm before he could fall.
“What was that just now?”
“…A Divine Weapon.”
“Divine Weapon?”
“A god’s weapon. Something our Dolos Family received as a gift from the god.”
Oh… Anagin looked at the white spear with interest.
He’d already thought it was no ordinary object—white as bone and unsettling—but for it to be something given by a god? That was a bit fascinating.
Seeing Anagin impressed, Spanich brightened and, despite his exhaustion, explained the spear.
“Each Divine Weapon has its own unique power. Our Dolos Spear has the ability to amplify Energy. Would you like to touch it?”
There was no reason to refuse, so Anagin touched the Divine Weapon.
But what was this?
The moment it touched his hand, an indescribable unpleasantness ran through him.
“Uh… so it doesn’t nullify magic?”
Anagin quickly returned the artifact as he asked.
Spanich sensed something odd but answered anyway.
“? No, it doesn’t need that kind of function. If you can handle Energy properly, you can smash magic to pieces, can’t you?”
Apparently, if you struck with enough Energy, magic could be nullified.
Anagin cursed his master from afar. What kind of guy doesn’t teach something that basic? Or… had he taught it?
‘There’s a chance I wasn’t listening properly. Or I forgot… Still, he should’ve taught me correctly!’
Instead of reflecting on his past attitude, Anagin decided to just blame his master. It was easier, and the old man deserved it anyway.
Looking at Spanich, Anagin asked,
“Then why are you so wobbly?”
“I used too much Energy at once. I figured half-hearted Energy wouldn’t work, so I dumped everything in.”
Spanich explained the reason for his staggering.
He had used up all his Energy just to dispel the magic. The efficiency didn’t seem very good.
“Hm… Should I set you down somewhere?”
Since he owed him help, Anagin tried to be considerate.
Spanich refused.
“No, I won’t collapse from just this. I can—”
Contrary to his bold words, Spanich staggered with a choked “Urgh.” It seemed his stamina was weaker than expected.
After seating Spanich somewhere appropriate, Anagin examined the tower.
The Witch’s lonely dwelling…
Weathered by time, the tower’s exterior was stained and slightly tilted, looking dangerously unstable.
Yet strangely, it did not look easy.
It felt like the trap of a seasoned hunter.
“Think there’s magic inside the tower like the stuff out here?”
Anagin asked the robed woman.
Whoever set up the fog and moving mud outside surely wouldn’t leave the inside untouched.
His guess was correct.
“Probably? It looks tiny from the outside, but the inside is huge. The Witch can even change the structure of the space. So she could set traps if she wanted. Even more dangerous than before.”
“That’s possible?”
Anagin was more shocked by the inside being larger than it looked than by the traps.
At the same time, he remembered the house he once lived in—the house he burned down before leaving.
Back then, Anagin had found life in the cramped house uncomfortable and suggested to his father that they expand it with the help of the villagers.
‘Dad, Mom, let’s enlarge our house.’
‘What nonsense are you spouting, you little rascal?’
‘It’s too cramped. Ask the people to expand it a bit.’
‘It’s fine as it is. Don’t do things like that carelessly.’
‘I protect the village, at least do that much for me.’
‘I said stop!’
He had given up after his father’s thunderous refusal…
A shame—this kind of magic would’ve been great to know.
The robed woman, drifting in thought, explained to Anagin.
“It’s not an easy magic, mister. Manipulating space is hard. It takes not just technique but a lot of Yeom. It’s only possible because there’s so much Yeom in this place… I am literally explaining right now—where are you going?”
Like a fish in water, the robed woman was happily explaining magic when she noticed Anagin walking toward a giant stone pillar.
Anagin pulled out the “Infinite-Length Magic Rope” from the Interspatial Bag at his waist and grabbed both ends, stretching it out.
Crrrk…!
The rope, strengthened with tension, made a dangerous creaking sound as it stretched, and once it reached a certain length, Anagin began tightening it shorter again.
Crrrk…!
He repeated this several times.
The short rope, originally the length of his forearm, grew long enough to wrap around the massive stone pillar.
Yes. The stone pillar.
Swish…! Swish…! Tak-!!
Swish…! Swish…! Tak-!!
Anagin skillfully maneuvered the elongated rope and bound the pillar tightly.
“Ehh… no way…”
Seeing this, the robed woman denied it, even though she already suspected what was coming. Spanich, too, stared in disbelief.
‘Ehh… no way… He wouldn’t… right…?’
But their expectations did not betray them.
Gripping both ends of the multiple layers of rope with a firm hold, Anagin gave a powerful heave and hurled the stone pillar toward the tower.
“Urratsha!”
* * *
“Hehehe…”
The Witch, watching the intruders through her crystal orb, let out a laugh.
After sending out zombies to slow them down just enough, the fools thought they were doing well and marched right in without hesitation. And before long, they fell straight into the trap she had laid.
Blinded by the dense fog, their stamina slowly drained by the soggy ground.
When the Witch stirred the fog, they gradually lost their sense of direction and began wandering in circles—just like the other invaders who had trespassed here over the years.
Soon enough, they realized something was wrong.
That was when the Witch decided to hammer in the final nail.
She activated a spell through the totem beneath the marshland. By animating the mud, she intended to drag them underground and finish them.
Casting a spell over an entire stretch of land wasn’t easy even for a Witch, but the land was filled with the Yeom of countless dead, and that changed everything.
Once she invoked the spell using the lingering Yeom of those who had died here, the muddy ground formed human shapes that seized the intruders.
The rookie from the Dolos Family, the one who defeated the Monster Merchant, and the crazy woman who claimed she’d explore the world in a monster’s body—all had their ankles seized.
They struggled to break free, but it was pointless.
The Yeom that permeated the land was old, and therefore stubborn.
No matter how they resisted, it only stopped for a moment before recovering immediately.
‘Just look at that!’
The one who defeated the Monster Merchant tried pounding the mud, only to give up right away, didn’t he?
He must’ve realized it was useless and fallen into despair.
The Witch fluttered her winged arms and smiled.
Things were going far better than she expected. If they just got captured like this, she couldn’t ask for more.
Even a Gigant was still, in the end, a person. If they were dragged under the marsh and couldn’t breathe, they would eventually die.
Then she could simply pull them out, clean them, and boil them thoroughly before eating.
Not only those two practitioners, but also that damn girl.
‘Good riddance!’
The phrase “blessing in disguise” popped into the Witch’s mind.
A fortune disguised as misfortune. When that damn girl first escaped, she had thought it a great misfortune.
Though it was a powerful monster, it couldn’t fight because of a spell it cast on itself, so she had kept it close just in case, observing it. Then it had run away, after reading only the books she had carefully collected.
Losing her chance and getting stabbed in the back. For a greedy harpy, it had been an unbearable humiliation.
But now she saw she had been wrong. That damn girl had brought her delicious prey and walked straight into the trap.
If it really had placed a restriction on itself that kept it in human form and unable to fight, that seemed to be true.
Considering it couldn’t even resist a trap of this magnitude.
Now she just needed to boil and eat it.
A pure monster born from “Her,” it could surely reverse her aging!
“I didn’t want to use this yet… but it can’t be helped! Please wait a moment!!”
Spanich’s voice boomed from the crystal orb.
As he spoke, he yanked the spear from his back and infused it with Energy.
“Divine Weapon?!”
Sensing the abnormal surge, the Witch shouted.
And her suspicions proved true.
The moment Spanich infused the spear, his Energy exploded upward, amplified massively, and he smashed the spell apart with brute force.
“You brutish—!”
The Witch cursed as the prey she had nearly secured slipped away.
But she immediately calmed herself.
Although the spell outside the tower had been broken, the spells inside the tower were still untouched.
So it was still fine. The real trap began only once they entered the tower.
Compared to the outside, the spells inside were layered like cobwebs, waiting for intruders.
Thinking that, she felt much better.
Look at Spanich, after forcing the Divine Weapon, he was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.
It would be impossible for him to use it again soon—fortunate, in a way.
‘No, wait. He’s a Gigant, so he might be able to use it… but even then, one or two more times at most… Yes, it’s manageable.’
After calculating, the Witch felt certain.
The spells she had woven inside the tower over the years could withstand even something like this.
Yes, there was no problem at all.
Once they were drawn inside, she would capture and devour them with countless trap spells and illusion spells.
“Uh…?”
The Witch let out a sound as she watched Anagin—who did not enter the tower—instead walk off somewhere else.
Was he seriously going to run away after coming all the way here?
Fortunately, he wasn’t fleeing.
He stood before a massive, broken stone pillar and pulled out a rope from his Interspatial Bag.
Seeing the rope stretch, it seemed to be a magic tool. But that wasn’t the important part.
Without saying a word, he kept extending the rope and soon began tying it around the pillar.
[Swiish…!Swiish…!Tak−!!Swiish…!Swiish…!Tak−!!]
Once the rope was fully secured, he gripped both ends tightly and turned his body.
“No way…”
The Witch muttered without realizing it.
Ironically, the one who set the trap and the one who fell into a trap reacted the same way at the same moment.
Rrrrrrrr… PAAANG!!
The stone pillar, which had been making ominous sounds, ripped out of the ground and flew through the air with a tremendous crash.
Anagin had actually torn out the pillar and hurled it.
“Master!!”
One of the Witch’s disciples, who had been watching from below the tower, burst through the door.
He had come to ask what they should do.
But instead of an answer, he found his master attempting to escape alone through the window.
…That damn hag was trying to escape through the window by herself!
“You damn—!”
KRRRRRRRBOOM!!
Before the disciple could finish his sentence, the pillar collided with the tower and brought it down. His final words were buried under the rubble.
* * *
“Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!”
The Witch, who barely escaped just before the tower collapsed under the stone pillar, cursed repeatedly as she shot up into the sky.
By flapping her winged arms vigorously, she was able to soar high.
She was a harpy capable of flying through the open sky, after all.
But perhaps due to age, she was already running out of breath.
Even the bracelets wrapped around her wing-arms rattled annoyingly.
But none of that mattered right now.
What mattered was that the home she had cultivated over countless years had been destroyed in an instant. And by some brute who threw a giant rock.
‘How could a human…’
While watching the collapsing tower, the Witch searched for the culprit.
Swiish—!
As she turned her head left and right, a massive club came flying straight at her skull. At incredible speed.
With astonishing reflexes, the Witch twisted her head and narrowly avoided a direct hit, but it grazed her forehead, drawing blood.
Staggering, she regained her balance—only to lock eyes with Anagin in the distance.
He clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“Damn, that was close…”