Chapter 243: The Witch (11)

Chapter 243: The Witch (11)

Arcanium, Kanadan Academic District.

Rumble!!

Students roaming the streets after school screamed and fell to the ground as the sudden loud noise shook the earth.

"Kyaaah!!"

"Is it an earthquake?!"

"Aaah!"

It was natural for them to think of an earthquake when the ground shook, but this was the floating city of Arcanium. Natural earthquakes didn’t occur here.

"How noisy~"

Watching the scene from the top of a building, Grace whistled.

At the same time, a question arose in her mind.

"Is it really a witch?"

Witches didn’t fight in such noisy ways. Since they manipulated illusions, they rarely touched reality, so they usually fought very quietly without leaving traces.

"And besides, that..."

Grace frowned as she looked at the translucent shards of glass-like fragments rising in the center of Arcanium.

The fragmented space appeared to crack in midair. They formed a sort of shield, preventing the Arcanium's magic defense squad from entering.

"It doesn't seem like illusion magic."

But it was undoubtedly illusion magic.

Grace was more skilled in illusion magic than anyone so she could tell.

That's why it was even more suspicious and strange.

"An illusion that affects reality... Is this what it's like at the pinnacle of a witch's power? It must be incredibly strong."

“No. It's completely different.”

"Huh?"

At that moment, a voice came from somewhere, and Grace and Kaen simultaneously turned their heads to look at the air.

There, a translucent red sparrow was flapping its wings.

"Metra...?"

“Yes, it's me.”

Grace slightly furrowed her brows and looked at the red sparrow illusion.

Its official name was 'Psychometrist,' a special ability to read the memories of objects. He was a mage and operator from the Manwol Tower.

Receiving missions from the tower lord at the headquarters, he would transmit them to agents, plan operations, handle post-processing, and supply provisions. He usually sent illusions to receive situation reports like this.

"You're busy, so what brings you here?"

“The mission seemed to be taking a serious turn, so I came to check the situation myself.”

"What's Oracle doing?"

“They've been working overtime the past few days, monitoring a target that needed close attention. The target has dimensional travel abilities, which has been quite troublesome.”

"Oh, come on..."

Grace scratched her cheek and spoke.

"So what do you mean by different? Are you saying that's not illusion magic?"

“It's illusion magic. But, Grace, you know what happens when you reach the pinnacle of illusion magic, right?”

She nodded and looked at the brilliant glass shard pillar created by the mysterious witch.

"An illusion at the pinnacle of a witch's power is indistinguishable from reality."

Metra spoke quietly.

“So what do you think? Does it seem indistinguishable?”

"Well... It does seem like reality, but when you look closely, an illusion is still an illusion, right?"

“Yes.”

"Right, illusions don't work like that."

Grace mainly used magic that applied illusions to the opponent's body, which was the most basic way witches used their magic.

Making the opponent's body heavy or summoning a giant dinosaur visible only to the target to make them faint.

This way, it didn't affect reality at all but could have an infinite impact on the target. That was illusion magic.

However... The magic of the witch causing the disturbance in Arcanium now had a very different nature.

“That... is illusion magic that affects reality.”

"... No way. That can't be."

Grace shook her head in disbelief.

"That's the ultimate illusion magic. It should have completely disappeared after the Last Witch vanished..."

“That's why I'm astonished too. It's hard to believe something like that can actually exist.”

With a bewildered expression, she recalled the magic she knew.

'An illusion indistinguishable from reality.’

‘One step beyond that.’

'An illusion that affects reality.'

Goodness. She looked again at the scene unfolding before her with a look of incredulity.

"Is that legendary witch... Alive?"

Then Kaen shook his head. "That doesn’t seem quite right. Look more closely. Does that level of magic seem like something that belongs to the last witch?"

"Huh? Oh?"

Grace squinted and examined the illusion shield closely.

While it was indeed impressive that the magic could interfere with reality, the level of skill wasn't exceptionally high.

At best, it was on par with or slightly above her own level. Laughable for the Last Witch.

"She might be a descendant of the Last Witch or a hidden disciple."

"Oh..."

Finally understanding the situation, Grace exhaled excitedly.

Meeting a witch for the first time, and even more, a descendant of the Last Witch.

"This makes me want to meet her even more..."

Unlike the excited Grace, Kaen had a more negative view.

'It's an abnormal ability.’

If an illusion could interfere with reality, how was it different from reality manipulation?

——-

Crash!

The wall crumbled down. It disintegrated like a flower and scattered into the air.

But they were actually blade fragments split into hundreds of pieces. Even a slight touch could cause serious injury.

'This is dangerous...'

[Flash]

Baek Yu-Seol swiftly leapt into the air and swung his sword. The dense invisible wave in the air split, revealing a gap, but Mellie Sher shot a translucent spike of space through it.

Crash!

"Ugh!"

It collided with Baek Yu-Seol’s blade and shattered, but his wrist throbbed painfully from the impact.

Thud! Rumble!!

The ceiling collapsed.

Avoiding the pillars, rubble, and glass fragments, Baek Yu-Seok tried to gain the high ground.

"Hahaha... I get it. Even your teleportation has limits, doesn't it?"

Mellie Sher’s lips curled into a eerie smile.

Her mana had long been exhausted.

Even her concentration had waned, making it difficult to cast proper spells. But she couldn't lose to a student who hadn't even lived for twenty years.

’Flash, huh? It’s certainly unusual.'

Moving through space instantaneously, this was an imperfect magic that no mage had ever fully mastered.

Though she was initially flustered by it, she realized there were limits to controlling flash.

"If you could use it indefinitely, you wouldn't need to dodge or barely block. Right?"

If he could use flash without limits, he could nullify every attack by teleporting and then close in to stab with his blade.

He could have even used other spells.

But perhaps due to the limitations of his unique constitution, he didn't use any magic at all.

Or rather, he couldn't.

'His only means of attack is that sword. I just need to be wary of that.'

As long as she didn't let him get close.

Baek Yu-Seol’s flash range was at most about 10 meters

She kept a distance of at least 15 meters while collapsing the space.

Or more precisely... She was collapsing the illusion that made up the entire space.

'An illusion that affects reality.'

Now she was certain.

Illusions had no effect on Baek Yu-Seol. None of her mental-type spells worked on him at all.

But what about the magic left behind by the Last Witch?

Could he escape from the great Last Witch's magic, which even affected reality?

'Last Witch, you were wrong.’

It was hard to believe that someone with such perfect abilities could fear anyone. Perhaps the Last Witch was just a pioneering genius who discovered new magic, but she wasn't particularly exceptional as a person.

'Or maybe... I'm even better than the Last Witch!'

As she struck the ground with her staff, a tree sprouted from the floor.

Baek Yu-Seol dodged it with a light backstep, but suddenly, human hands grew from the tree branches, spreading in dozens of directions to entangle him.

Slash!

The illusion was easily cut down by his swordsmanship, but from the severed branches, an anaconda's head emerged and bit into Baek Yu-Seol’s shoulder.

Crunch!

Despite the excruciating pain that would make anyone lose consciousness, he showed no change in expression and swung his sword to behead the anaconda, then charged forward.

"Hah. Even if you keep accumulating damage, can you continue with such a brute force method?"

What a fool. He had no strategy at all.

Click! Bang!!

"Ugh!"

Occasionally, he threw strange magical items that erased or scattered the illusions, much like a witch hunter would, causing some danger.

But it wasn't a problem.

She had accounted for all such variables!

"Now die!"

The water in the sewer surged up to form a giant dragon that rushed at Baek Yu-Seol, and trains burst from the walls to crash into him. He dodged or slashed them down with his sword, but he couldn't block all the damage.

"Cough...!"

Her mana was running low.

But it was fine.

Before she reached her mana limit, Baek Yu-Seol would exhaust himself first.

Baek Yu-Seol was injured and exhausted while she had only lost mana.

It was obvious who had the upper hand... wasn't it?

... Wait, what?

Something was strange.

'Where are his wounds?'

Baek Yu-Seol should have had his shoulder crushed by the anaconda's bite earlier.

But there were no wounds.

'No. That can't be.'

Illusions had no direct effect on that boy. So, she changed her combay style and used illusions that affected reality.

And hadn’t he been dodging or blocking the attacks.

If illusions didn’t affect him, there would have been no need for him to bother with such troublesome actions. Why would he do that?

Yet...

Baek Yu-Seol didn’t seem tired at all.

‘What’s going on?’

The witch’s mind was going blank.