༺ Play Ball (1) ༻
1.
Seeing Siwoo’s lack of reaction to her sudden proposal, Odile tilted her head in confusion.
Siwoo’s confused voice echoed around the room.
“Ms. Odile, we’re the only ones here, right?”
“Here? What do you mean?”
“In this Latifundium.”
“Yes, there’s no one else here. As I’ve mentioned earlier, everyone’s on break today, so we rented the entire place to ourselves.”
“Then, what is that black thing?”
A black figure could be seen outside the window, staring inside the administration building.
There was one reason why Siwoo described the thing as such.
Its color was the only distinct characteristic it had.
The black silhouette crouched on a branch, as if it was glued to it.
One could feel an ominous feeling when they laid their eyes on it.
This wasn’t a metaphor.
‘Shadow’ covered its body like a cloak.
“What?”
Odile slowly turned her head in the direction Siwoo was looking.
At the same time, the unidentified being started to move.
-Creak.
What appeared to be its neck bent in an abnormal way, as if its joint was corroded with rust.
The dark shadow around it dispersed like mist and Siwoo was finally able to identify its form.
The head of a giant black cat.
It was difficult to imagine that such a massive body belonged to an ordinary beast.
Its tail coiled and wiggled, a massive sickle was attached to its tip as it swayed in the chilly wind.
“That’s…”
Odile’s face stiffened in horror.
-Creak creak!
With a chilling sound, akin to chalk scratching on a blackboard.
It opened its eyes.
Darker than the abyss.
From its head, which lacked even more depths than the flickering shadow.
Three crimson eyes, like flowers blooming in hell.
As it turned its gaze toward their direction, it appeared to be filled with joy.
The amassing shadow began to take shape around the mysterious monster.
When the monster’s shadow became more clear and distinct, Odile immediately started to sing.
Her song was quick and precise.
Despite her humming and skipping parts of the spell, she delivered her flawless chant, completing every aspect of her incantation with precision.
At the same time.
-Creak!
A black spear collided against a transparent barrier that surrounded the entire administrative building, creating a noise similar to an operating steel grinder.
-Boom!
-Rattle!
-Bang!
At that moment, Siwoo, who had been observing the monster, saw something.
The transparent barrier that Odile created was struck by three spears that were made by the shadow that were charging into the administrative building.
He couldn’t understand why this thing happened so suddenly.
All he knew was the monster had casted a spell to attack them and Odile managed to repel it.
“I almost got fucked!”
Odile said with a rough tone.
Siwoo blinked and asked.
“Maybe it’s Lady Gemini?”
“No way that would be the case!”
His question was reasonable, but Odile denied it.
It was fortunate that Lady Gemini seemed to be unaware of the scoundrel who was manipulating and toying with her apprentice witches, therefore she hadn’t been taking any actions to eliminate him.
No, actually, Siwoo wasn’t sure if it was fortunate or not.
“Then, what’s going on?”
Before Odile could answer him, the room trembled violently.
Unlike before, they felt the vibration more clearly than they heard its loud noise.
As a result of that powerful vibration, the air around them grew heavier.
The shadow’s spear once again clashed against Odile’s barrier.
Odile stared at the window, her eyes were shimmering with purple magic reflections.
“It seems like a Homunculus. But, according to my master, there are no more Homunculus left in Gehenna…”
“Are you referring to the Witch of Creation’s Homunculus?”
“Can’t you tell by looking at it?!”
The situation was way more serious than Siwoo had expected.
Homunculus.
An intellectual life form created by the Witch of Creation.
They were created as ‘guardians’ to protect her legacy.
One might find them sleeping, huddled up in some corner of the world or wandering around silently.
The magic obsessed witches would eagerly rush toward any Homunculi they came across with their eyes shining brightly in excitement.
After all, killing those Homunculi meant obtaining the legacy left by the Witch of Creation, including the artifacts she possessed, her research materials, elixirs and magic circle manuals.
To describe it in a way that modern people could understand, they were event mobs.
The legacy of the Witch of Creation was so valuable that it could elevate any witch’s accomplishments.
“This is bad. Mr. Assistant, take care of Odette.”
With a composed look, Odile observed the shadow spears shooting at them from the outside.
Her soft cheeks now looked so stiff.
Upon further reflection, Siwoo realized that the term ‘event mob’ was an overly optimistic description and it didn’t accurately reflect the true nature of the Homunculus.
It was too dangerous to be called an event mob.
Homunculi were monsters created by the Witch of Creation herself.
In terms of their danger level, it was more fitting to call them ‘raid bosses’ due to the diversity of the self-essence magic they had and the high resistance of their bodies due to their duties to protect the treasure within them.
They were dangerous enough that they managed to get into second place in ‘Reasons for Unexpected Disappearances of Witches.’
Siwoo embraced Odette, who was still out cold despite being in the middle of the ruckus and moved further away from the window.
“What should we do?”
“I-I don’t know! I’m thinking about it! Can you wake Odette up first?”
Siwoo could see how bad the situation was by simply looking at Odile’s face.
Odile, who generally laughed off every little incident casually, had a face as pale as a sheet of paper.
According to the witches specialized in hunting the Homunculi, witches below the 15th rank shouldn’t even attempt to hunt any Homunculi.
And so, came the question, what rank were the twins?
“Ms. Odile, we can’t calculate it precisely since you haven’t been branded yet, but can you tell me what level of magic you can cast, approximately?”
Odile’s eyes widened in surprise as she observed Siwoo’s calm demeanor. He was calmer than she expected.
“I’m glad you’re not trembling in fear. With Odette’s help and self-essence magic, we can cast an 8th level spell at best.”
“That means our priority right now is to seek help from the outside.”
“Agree.”
The minimum rank required to hunt was 15.
But the two of them combined could only perform an 8th level spell.
That was far from enough.
There were numerous cases where a witch would invest their entire life on it, but they couldn’t advance even a single rank.
-Bang!
Siwoo gazed outside the window carefully.
The spherical barrier created by Odile enveloped the entire research facility
Every time the Homunculus fired a spear that struck the barrier and scattered, Odile and Siwoo’s vision became more limited.
The reason was because their surroundings were tainted by the shadow that spread like paint being dispersed in water.
Due to this, the Homunculus’ figure gradually became more blurry.
As a result, their anxiety grew because they were unable to track their enemy’s movements.
Suddenly, another loud sound echoed and a burst of flames made of mana flashed outside the window.
Due to that sound and Siwoo vigorously shaking her shoulders, Odette jolted up in surprise.
“Kya! …H-Huh? What’s going on?”
Groggily, Odette glanced around her surroundings while Siwoo briefly summarized the situation to her.
“Then, what should we do?”
However, Odette’s reaction was no different from Odile’s.
The twins had no experience in combat in the first place. Even if they did, hunting the Homunculus while being in the 8th rank was impossible.
What they should do was to flee and look for help from the outside.
“How many more attacks can your barrier repel, Ms. Odile?”
“Its attacks are weaker than I thought, it should hold on for about ten minutes since it only launched 3-4 attacks per minute.”
Luckily, they had plenty of time.
“Ms. Odette, is there any way for us to seek help from Lady Gemini or any other witches?”
Previously, Siwoo used a magic called Skyboard to ask for Sophia’s help back at the inn.
Perhaps the twins would know a much better and more efficient way to seek help.
“Well, there’s a way, but it’s impossible to use it right now. The spell ‘Song of Rest’ that my sister is using right now blocks magic from inside too, not only from outside.”
“So, we need to go outside, then?”
Currently, this building was like an air-raid shelter.
Leaving this place at this moment was equivalent to leaving an air-raid shelter during an attack.
“Music box! I have a music box with me! We should be able to hide from that thing for a while!”
Odette took out a music box from her cloak.
Then…
-Creak! Creak!
“M-Mr. Assistant…”
Odile’s words were interrupted by an unpleasant noise from outside the window. It sounded like metal being torn apart.
Siwoo involuntarily held his breath.
A giant cat, draped in shadows, was clawing and tearing apart Odile’s barrier.
Its sharp, sickle-like tail slammed against the transparent barrier, thrashing it violently.
“Kiik…kiik…kaaak!”
The Homunculus opened its mouth wide, flashing its three crimson eyes.
Sticky oozes of shadows, similar to tar, appeared from within its opened mouth.
Despite seeing it for the first time, Siwoo was able to comprehend the monster’s emotions.
It was laughing.
That thing felt delight over the fact that there were three toys for him to play with.
“Odette!”
“Yes, Sister!”
The twins exchanged signals.
Both of them fully understood each other’s thoughts, there was no need for them to discuss things beforehand.
Odette started chanting with her arms extending toward the window as Odile removed her protective barrier.
‘Give them an eternal rest.’
Odette’s chant was a requiem that she offered to her enemies’ tombstone.
-Bang!
As Odette chanted the spell, a hazy glow emanated from her arm and in the blink of an eye, it struck the Homunculus’ face.
The light emitted such intense heat that it raised the room’s temperature by ten degrees even though it only appeared for a moment.
From a brief contact with that spell, the glass turned red, melting away like a sugar being boiled.
““No way…!””
The twins muttered in unison.
That spell held tremendous power.
They had expected that it could deal some amount of damage considering that it hit the monster dead in the face, however…
“Kiiik?”
It tilted its head, clearly unharmed after receiving that spell.
Siwoo could feel a shiver running down his spine.
“Watch out!”
Reflexively, Siwoo embraced the twins and lowered their heads together with his.
Less than 0.2 seconds afterwards, something passed over their backs.
-Boom!
-Crackle!
It felt like a small storm had swept through the room.
The Homunculus swung its tail like a whip horizontally, messing up the interior of the building.
That swing caused the wall to collapse and shattered the furniture inside.
It created a thick cloud of dust that obscured their vision.
“Run…let’s run away!”
What would have happened to them if they had stood still?
Siwoo turned his body while holding onto Odile and Odette necks, trembling at the sight of the broken wooden pillars.
“Kiii!”
A sound of something being pulled tightly, similar to someone loading an iron crossbow, reached their ears.
When the monster hurled a shadow spear toward the building, it made a grating noise that set their nerves on edge.
There was only one place they could run to.
“Let’s jump!”
“Kyaa!”
Siwoo embraced the twins tightly and jumped off the tall treehouse.
At the same time, two shadow spears flew past them, narrowly missing their backs.
-Thud!
Before their eyes, a towering tree with dozens of meters of height that once held up the Latifundium proudly, crashed down like a shattered styrofoam.
“Aaaa!”
The twin effortlessly cast a levitation spell as it wasn’t even classified as a flight type spell.
Even so, falling from 30 meters of height without any life saving tools was still an extremely terrifying experience.
As he rapidly approached the ground with his clothes fluttering in the wind, Siwoo let out a scream.
The twins managed to land gracefully without any problems, but Siwoo fell directly into the ground.
“Mr. Assistant! Are you alright?”
Odile casted a glance toward the Homunculus they left behind as Odette rushed toward Siwoo.
The giant cat moved with brisk strides, its tail swaying as it looked down below.
It marked the beginning of its hunt.
“Mr. Assistant, run away with Odette, I’ll try to hold it off here.”
Odile stood up straight on the ground. Her eyes were locked to the three glowing crimson pupils.
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