༺ Play Ball (3) ༻
1.
“We’ll hunt him.”
Hearing Siwoo’s calm words, Odette shuddered with fear.
Standing in front of the Homunculus who had just threatened their lives?
She didn’t even dare to imagine it.
“C-Can’t we just keep hiding like this?”
Siwoo knew she would react like this.
He didn’t blame her.
They almost lost their lives, it was only natural that she’d react this way.
“You got a good idea?”
“N-Not you too, Sis! How are we supposed to deal with something like that?”
“Odette, calm down. Let’s hear what he has to say first. It’s better than just sitting here while trembling in fear.”
Odile hugged the frightened Odette and looked straight at Siwoo.
“Yes.”
Siwoo nodded and used the twig he picked up earlier to draw a magic circle on the ground.
“As we fled through the mist, I used the last of my mana to get a sample of the black shadow.”
Three spears were randomly shot into the thick fog, barely missing Siwoo’s body by a hair’s breadth.
Despite the frightening situation, Siwoo managed to analyze the remains of the black shadow the spears left behind in their trajectory.
“That shadow is probably the monster’s self-essence magic. When Odette’s attack magic and rescue signal magic came into contact with the shadow, their formation was disrupted and scattered by it.”
“And then?”
Siwoo explained while showing an analytical formula that depicted the shadow’s structure.
“A single magic circle didn’t make that shadow.
It was made of numerous small magic circles.
If I have to explain how it looks, it’s like a sphere with spikes jutting out from it, each of them has a hook at its tip and each hook is grabbing into other hooks that the other magic circles have.”
Siwoo had only observed it for a short moment, so he couldn’t figure everything in great detail. Nevertheless, he continued his explanation.
“If a complex enough magic came into contact with the shadow, it’ll start eroding it in reverse.
It’ll randomly get into the magic circle and mess up its composition. When this happens, the magic circle will get short circuited.
Now, if the magic circle receives this kind of error numerous times all at once, any kind of feedback becomes useless. That leads to the spell breaking down.”
-Boom!
They could hear another tree fall down.
This time, it was closer than before.
Odile and Odette, who were listening to his explanation, widened their eyes as if they had realized something.
“But, Mr. Assistant, even if you know that the shadow consists of numerous magic circles, how did you figure out the shape?”
“My question exactly! No matter how much of the shadow you sampled, there’s no way you’re able to see its shape…”
“I did it by recalling the shape and order of interference that Odette’s signal magic received when it broke down, then, I reverse calculated it. Unless it’s shaped like this, it won’t be able to break the circle simultaneously.”
“…”
“…”
Despite Siwoo’s confidence, the twins found it difficult to believe.
Inferring the spell’s structure through reverse calculation by observing the order of interference?
It was even more unrealistic than figuring out the precise spot of bombs in a building by observing the shape of the rubbles.
After pondering while pressing her temples for a moment, Odile opened her eyes wide.
“Alright, so, what’s the plan? Since you’re asking us to choose between the two options, I’m guessing that we need to do some preparations beforehand?”
If they could hunt the Homunculus without any preparations, he wouldn’t be offering them any options to choose from.
“Sis, it’s too dangerous!”
“We don’t know how long we’ll have to wait before help arrives. Chances are we’ll get torn into pieces first. Doing this is better than just sitting idly while waiting for our deaths, isn’t it?”
“We can just run away! Leave the Latifundium!”
Hearing Odette’s words, Odile shook her head.
“This is the edge of Latifundium. What if we’re caught while trying to go past that monster?”
It was clear that Siwoo’s proposed hunting method required thorough preparation.
Whether they decided to escape or follow through with the second option, they couldn’t keep on hiding.
“Getting caught while trying to escape is a worse option than staying hidden. Our fate will be completely sealed when that happens.”
“T-Then, we’re really going to hunt it…? That scary monster…?”
Siwoo clasped Odette’s trembling hands.
This was the time when they needed to cooperate.
If they were able to work together, that would increase their chance of success.
“I understand your desire to run away, Ms. Odette, I really do.”
“I-I’m scared… How can everyone else be so calm? If we stay hidden, maybe we can find another way out…”
“Please trust me just this once. If the plan goes awry, I’ll be the bait so Ms. Odette and Ms. Odile can run away.”
Siwoo held onto Odette’s hand tightly with a firm grip.
Her previously cold hand now felt a little warmer.
“U-Uu…”
With tears running down her face, Odette slowly nodded.
Siwoo wanted to comfort her more, but they simply didn’t have the time.
So, he began to tell them his strategy while scrawling a new magic circle on the ground.
2.
The black cat wandered around, shooting shadow spears in all directions.
Its three glowing eyes scanned every nook and cranny of the gorge without missing a beat.
Like a normal animal, it lacked clear intelligence.
Its use of self-essence magic wasn’t driven by rationality, but rather by tapping into the ‘inheritance’ that resided within its own body.
The beast had just woken up from its slumber and it didn’t possess the necessary intelligence to skillfully wield its power.
But the beast came across a rare toy.
After its boring and lengthy sleep, the time for it to play had finally come, thus triggering its instinct for hunting.
For the monster, taking out a witch’s fresh guts and eating it was the most pleasurable activity.
It would increase its strength, giving him the ability to scour through the world with greater freedom.
No one taught the beast about it, but it instinctively felt that way.
“Kekekeke!”
Eager for its very first game of hide and seek, the Homunculus boldly strolled through the gorge, looking for a place where its prey was hiding.
And then.
A beautiful melody began to echo in the distance.
The magical song began to flow through the gorge where no signs of life were felt until now.
While it was unlikely for the beast to possess any kind of aesthetic sense, it was such a beautiful melody that it pricked its ears as it listened to it.
The monster that had been excavating through the roots of the trees raised its head and moved toward the direction of the sound.
With majestic strides, it dashed off swiftly, like a black shadow draped in a cloak.
“♬~ ♪”
As it predicted, the source of the song was the two young witches.
They were in the center of a tiny clearing, surrounded by trees.
The young witches were clasping their hands together as they sang in a beautiful voice with their eyes closed.
A spherical barrier resembling a snow globe encircled them as they floated midair.
Without any interference from the surroundings, perfection was the only thing that remained.
The harmony, resembling more of a musical instrument than a human’s voice, echoed through the space as it spread softly like a music box.
It was a beautiful melody.
The melody by itself didn’t serve any problem whatsoever.
However…
-Clang!
The Homunculus gazed at them with interest for a moment before vigorously swinging its tail.
It was the tail that it always had since its birth.
The beast used the same strike that easily tore apart the strange and thin membrane a while ago, but this time, it bounced off helplessly.
It expected some kind of reaction from the two sisters, but they kept reciting the melody without any sign of wavering, as if they were completely engrossed in their own world.
“Kyu?”
The beast, seemingly perplexed, observed the twins’ reactions by circling them while swaying its tail gently before striking them again.
-Clang!
This time, there was a reaction.
One of the twins seemed slightly shocked as she opened her eyes and gave the monster a quick glance.
After a moment, she closed her eyes tightly.
Fascinated by the interesting toy, the monster couldn’t take its eyes off it.
And that was the opening Siwoo had been waiting for.
3.
From around 50m away, Siwoo was preparing to intercept the Homunculus.
He needed a quite-high concentration of mana.
And an improvised spell to release that mana
After hearing the required amount of mana calculated on the spot by Siwoo, Odile frowned and asked,
‘So, where can you get that highly concentrated mana? Just so you know, Odette and I have already used too much of ours. At best, we can only use two or three more spells.’
‘Mr. Assistant, we haven’t been branded yet, we can’t store that much mana.’
In response to their worries, Siwoo raised his hand, pointing to something.
The mana river stream wasn’t enough.
They needed something that was thicker and more refined.
For example,
Something like a potion that could emit an intense light on its own.
“Phew…”
On his back, there was a bundle of needles that had been used to inject potions into tree roots.
He had already removed all the needles around him and directly connected them to his body through various acupuncture points.
There were twelve needles inserted into his body in total.
This was the most painful shot he had ever received ever since his birth.
And this was also part of the preparation.
After all, it was impossible to flee from the Homunculus with that many needles in his body.
‘What’s next? After raising the mana concentration, what are you going to do?’
‘Firstly, I need Ms. Odile and Ms. Odette to draw the monster’s attention for about thirty– no, fifteen seconds.’
‘And then?’
There were two music boxes operating at Siwoo’s feet.
They were concealment tools to hide his presence during the time the spell was activated.
Because the spell he was about to use was far more erratic and destructive than any other spells so far.
‘As I previously explained, the Homunculus’ black shadow interferes directly with the magic circle and completely collapses it. If the magic circle is around the intermediate level, then it can interfere with it…’
For boss mobs that used complex patterns and abnormal status effects in a game, there was one special method that was highly effective against them.
‘We just need to make it so that it can’t afford to interfere with the magic circle.’
By cheesing them.
Instead of using a precisely designed spell that the monster could disrupt at any time, he could just shoot a burst of pure mana instead.
All he needed to do was to brute force it.
Siwoo quietly took a deep breath.
“Bloom.”
He built this magic circle to open the gate to escape from Gehenna, a large-scale circle that could be activated without wasting a single drop of mana water.
Siwoo couldn’t store any mana.
That was why the most important part of his research was figuring out how to draw in and use external mana.
In other words, this was something that Siwoo, who wasn’t a certified wizard, could do.
As soon as he began his chant, a powerful surge of magical energy started flowing into his body.
This entire process was dangerous.
He had to directly absorb and refine twelve different types of magic of different colors into his body.
“Ugh!”
The massive amount of mana coursed through his body like a wildly galloping horse. The more mana he took, the more pain that he felt.
Siwoo felt his blood vessels bulging roughly throughout his body due to the tremendous overload.
He felt an immense pressure bearing down on his body, making it hard for him to take even a single step.
The sense of danger that a small miscalculation could cost him his life slowly crept up on him.
This was the first time that he had dealt with this amount of highly concentrated mana.
If it was his usual self, Siwoo wouldn’t be able to perform this kind of calculation quickly.
But right now he wasn’t his usual self.
‘This is a White Cap Mushroom. One of the few mushrooms that can be eaten raw. It’s beneficial for the cerebral cortex and it could accelerate your thought process and calculation.’
As Odile explained, the doping of the white cap mushroom was very effective.
It felt like his thought process had been tripled.
His senses were sharply awakened as he felt as if several hectares of blackboards appeared in his mind.
Siwoo calculated the necessary calculations for the spell activation purely by his own improvised mental arithmetic.
His heart raced in excitement, as if he was experiencing arrhythmia. It was because he gained the confidence that he could attempt to fire the spell now.
-Wooong!
The spell was so pure that one could judge it for its simplicity.
The colorless, pure white mana, wriggled like a tentacle all over Siwoo’s body.
Due to him heavily suppressing the flow of mana, the compressed mana was constrained to the point where it could burst out if he were just a little bit careless.
The image of a spear came to his mind.
His concentrating state emanated an overwhelming force.
Siwoo’s eyes flashed with pure white radiance and he turned them toward the Homunculus.
He kept absorbing more mana, causing it to burn fiercely throughout his body.
And as the timing that he had set approached, the music boxes finished playing their songs.
A wave of powerful magic emanated from Siwoo toward the Homunculus.
“Kiik?”
He heard a distant cry as three crimson eyes belatedly turned towards his direction.
Seeing the Homunculus’ bewildered reaction, Siwoo released all his mana.
The monster then tried to protect its crimson eyes using the shadows as its shield.
And Siwoo decided that it was its weak spot, the thing that he had to target using his spear.
“You’re finally looking this way, huh? Motherfucker.”
The magic was condensed to its limit.
Then, it transformed into a huge spear as soon as Siwoo gave his command.
With the determination to pierce through the enemy, the spear was shot, cutting through the air.
Deafening noise shook the surroundings.
A blinding flash tore through the darkness.
And then.
There was an explosion.
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