How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives – Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Witch Hunt (4)

Witches are quite tricky individuals, adept at deceiving perception.

However, if you grasp their essence, they’re not that difficult to deal with. Of course, that’s from my perspective.

Inside the darkness-filled cabin.

Except for the faint light emanating from the Requiem Rod held in Brother Jerit’s hand, the surroundings were pitch black.

This isn’t simply a phenomenon resulting from the absence of light. It’s artificial darkness stemming from a deliberately cast spell, with a clear intention.

But amidst it, a faint light flickered.

“I, Inquisitor-nim……!”

The small light flowing from the rod held by Brother Jerit, who called me with a trembling voice.

I looked at Rokellan’s Requiem Rod, emitting light even in the darkness created by the witch’s spell, and nodded slightly.

It lives up to its name.

But that’s all. It won’t be of much help in battle.

Not that I expected it to be anyway.

-Heeheeheehee.

A sudden burst of laughter.

It was hard to pinpoint its source. The laughter, seemingly coming from all directions, soon transformed into a soft humming.

「A bit of black thorn and sticky birch sap, then a handful of dry sand from the death-filled cliff……」

A faint chanting began from beyond the darkness that filled the narrow space.

「A sip of a newborn’s fresh blood…… No, two sips?」

The witch’s singing voice, murmuring from somewhere within the endless darkness. Quite classic.

Somewhat nostalgic.

「And again, a handful of finely crushed black thorns……」

Simultaneously, a faint light bloomed from the front.

It wasn’t from Brother Jerit’s Requiem Rod. Not a warm, white light imbued with holiness, but a cool flame flickering gloomily in the darkness.

In front, I saw the figure of a woman, her back to us, humming a song and stirring a bubbling pot.

An old fireplace roughly built with red bricks. A large cast iron pot hanging from a hook above it. And the cool, blue smoke rising from it.

I chuckled softly as I watched her take a small sip of the liquid with a long ladle.

Witches.

“I, I, I, Inquisitor-nim……!”

Brother Jerit, belatedly noticing the scene, gasped for breath and clung tightly behind me. Quite timid for an Esquire of the Holy See.

And sentimental.

I had already seen the clear pity in his eyes as he looked at the burning woman at the stake earlier that afternoon.

“Th, then what was that earlier……!”

That earlier. He was probably referring to the woman named Laila.

I slowly extended my hand towards the hilt of my sword and answered his question.

“A fake. An illusion mimicking a human form, a witch’s doppelganger. Judging from the remaining traces of energy after it burned, it seems to have been the carcass of an animal.”

“Th, then……!”

“Yes. She switched herself with her doppelganger before being captured. Or maybe we captured the doppelganger from the start.”

I turned my head slightly and tossed a word to the witch in front of the faintly glowing fireplace.

“Your acting was quite decent. You must have been watching, so I don’t need to introduce myself, right?”

“Oh my.”

As if she had just noticed the presence of myself and Brother Jerit, the witch turned around with an exaggerated gesture.

An unblemished, plain appearance and red eyes.

“……!”

She looked exactly like the woman named Laila from before. It’s only natural, since it’s a doppelganger she created.

I could feel Brother Jerit behind me gasp in surprise.

“Yes, Lord Inquisitor. Did you really come all the way to this humble abode to capture me?”

The witch, holding the ladle filled with an unidentified viscous liquid, looked at me and giggled. I looked at her and replied curtly.

“Yes.”

“Heehee. What an honor!”

She continued, with a wicked smile.

“You’re overly confident, Inquisitor. Are you sure you have the skills?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

Shing.

I drew my sword as I finished my sentence. As I gripped the sword with my hand overflowing with holy power, it seemed as if the sword itself was flashing with light.

Seeing this, Laila, no, the witch narrowed her eyes and muttered softly.

“Then let’s see if you have the skills to enter my house knowing it belongs to a witch, Lord Inquisitor?”

The witch, moving her body in a bizarre manner, murmured in the darkness. Only her red eyes floated in the black void, staring at me.

Swoosh!

As she swung her arm in a dance-like motion, the blue smoke rising from the boiling pot in front of her instantly spread in all directions. At the same time, the feeling of solid ground beneath my feet disappeared.

Whoosh!

The dark surroundings.

And the blue lights twinkling like stars everywhere.

It felt like being suspended in the night sky. I could even feel a cool breeze blowing from somewhere.

“Uh, uhh……!”

Brother Jerit’s scream, as if he felt the sensation of his body falling from the sky to the ground, faintly reached my ears amidst the swirling wind.

Grab.

I reached out and grabbed the back of Brother Jerit’s neck, who was struggling. As if we were truly falling somewhere, I could feel the weight of his body in my grasp.

In the middle of the night sky. The strong wind.

Whoosh.

A scenery that could even induce dizziness. Within it, I calmly muttered.

“Such petty tricks won’t work on me, witch.”

Step!

The moment I stepped forward firmly, without paying any mind to the fact that I was floating in the air.

“……”

All my senses returned to normal.

“Ha! You’ve got the basics down!”

Clang!

As she finished her words, something sharp flew towards me from the darkness.

Clang.

Sharply honed bone fragments were blocked by the silver shield that instantly appeared in front of me and fell to the floor. Some were embedded in the shield, indicating that they possessed enough power to easily pierce through ordinary iron armor.

As the bone fragments were blocked by the shield, I clenched my hand.

Sizzle.

The holy power that formed the silver shield began to disintegrate and change its shape. The shield, clumping together as if it possessed viscosity, transformed into the shape of a spear.

Whoosh!

The spear of light instantly shot towards the witch.

It was an attack that followed almost simultaneously with the end of my defense.

Boom!

The fireplace where the witch stood and the pot containing the unidentified liquid shattered, extinguishing the blue flame.

“Not bad, young Inquisitor!”

The witch, seeing me completely unfazed, shouted and waved her hand. No, to be precise, I felt a surge of magical power emanating from the front.

Bang!

With a sound like exploding air, a mass of compressed air flickered in the darkness and began to fly towards me. At the same time, several beasts in the form of shadows rose from somewhere, growling.

Spells cast almost simultaneously.

As expected, a witch fully prepared within her own domain is quite a formidable opponent. Even if dozens of ordinary soldiers were to attack, they wouldn’t be able to inflict any significant damage on her.

Without looking back, I moved my hand and flung Brother Jerit towards the wall. His presence would only hinder my movements. With Rokellan’s Requiem Rod, he wouldn’t die in the darkness, at least.

“Uwaaaah─!”

Brother Jerit, screaming once more, flew to the side.

Fortunately for him, the witch didn’t see any value in him as bait. She knew that even if she killed him, I wouldn’t stop.

Rumble!

The light that emanated from my left hand formed a net-like shape, blocking the shockwaves flying from all directions, and at the same time, the light I swung split the darkness.

Not in a figurative sense, but in a literal, simple fact.

Kyaaaaaaaa!

My holy silver-plated sword, imbued with the light emanating from me, sliced vertically through the head of the beast made of wriggling shadows.

I felt a heavy sensation from my fingertips as I sliced through the large monster made of shadows, with its red eyes gleaming from the other side. It felt like I had actually cut down a beast with real flesh and bones.

Although a dull pain accumulated in my arms as I cut down the monsters rushing at me from all directions, I didn’t stop moving.

‘Sericria’s Spear’

A spell meticulously cast, despite the vigorous movements of my body. A spear, radiating sharp light, appeared in the air.

One, two, three, four, five……

“……Ha.”

Six and seven.

A small gasp escaped the witch’s lips as she saw the seven spears that had instantly appeared in the air.

Sericria’s Spear isn’t considered a high-level spell. However, casting multiple spears simultaneously is a different matter.

One or two could be considered the realm of a talented individual. But seven?

For the first time, shock flickered in her fiercely burning red eyes.

“……A monster has emerged from damned Hesterica.”

Whoosh!

I didn’t miss that brief opening.

As the seven spears pierced through the darkness and flew towards the witch simultaneously, I closed the distance between us in an instant.

She can’t block them all.

“Kyaaaak!”

The witch chose my sword. She directed all her strength towards the seven spears, each possessing enough power to nearly obliterate her body, shooting black energy and shadow beasts towards them. My sword surged towards her arm as she did so.

Whoosh!

At the same time, the witch’s fingernails, with their joints bent at bizarre angles, flew towards me. Perhaps she had applied poison to their tips, as an ominous, dark green light gleamed from the sharp, needle-like ends.

It would probably lead to quite troublesome consequences if I were even slightly grazed.

Crack!

But just before the witch’s fingernails could scratch my face, the sword I swung bent at a strange angle and sliced off her arm as it flew towards me.

Grab!

Instead of red blood, a blackish liquid splattered from the witch’s arm. Simultaneously, the arm that had been severed from her withered like a piece of wood and fell to the floor.

That was a bit close. The resistance is quite strong.

As I made a simple assessment, which might be quite unfair to the witch, I heard her shout in a furious tone.

“Damn hunting dog─!”

Red light gleamed in her eyes as she glared at me, clutching her remaining arm to her severed shoulder. She’s not a high-ranking witch capable of facing me in my current state. If she were, I wouldn’t have entered this place alone in the first place.

I didn’t bother responding and simply walked towards her with my sword raised. The witch, staring at me with a furious expression as I approached her with a calm demeanor, pulled something out with her remaining arm.

What the witch pulled out was a small sphere made of intricately intertwined bone fragments of various kinds. That small object crumbled in her hand with a snap.

She gritted her teeth as she looked at me.

“Well then, try and catch me if you can, Inquisitor.”

Swoosh.

As soon as she finished her words, the darkness within the cabin vanished. As if we had just entered, there was no sign of any presence around us.

Did she choose to flee?

“Th, the witch has disappeared!”

Brother Jerit’s panicked cry.

I stared intently at the empty space within the cabin. She’s being troublesome until the very end.

But she’s met the wrong opponent. Black Mages, no, Inquisitors don’t simply turn back when faced with an enemy.

I raised my hand. Simultaneously, a radiance began to slowly form above my head.

Soon, a transparent eye, radiating holy light, began to scan the inside of the cabin.

A witch’s spell doesn’t simply create a visual illusion.

Their spells, which distort the very phenomenon itself, create a subtle gap between reality and reality, forming their own space.

It’s a space that no one can easily enter unless the witch herself allows it.

Perhaps the reason why Brother Jerit and I were able to simply open the door and enter this cabin was because the witch allowed us in.

She must have been confident within her own territory.

But unfortunately for the witch, the opponent she encountered wasn’t an ordinary Inquisitor.

Swoosh.

The eye, casting shimmering light throughout the cabin where the darkness had lifted, focused on one spot.

There it is.

The entrance to the witch’s space, overlaid on reality. The exit from this place.

I raised my hand.

Unless she’s a Grand Witch or something. This much is easy, even with my current power.

“……!”

Suddenly, my chest throbbed due to the somewhat excessive use of holy spells. The amount of holy power I possessed couldn’t keep up with the magic I was wielding.

……Still a long way to go.

Despite the slight pain, the spell was soon completed.

I coughed up the blood that had risen to my throat and spat it onto the floor. The white radiance that bloomed from my hand forcibly pried open the entrance to the space created by the witch’s spell.

Although I felt momentarily dizzy as a significant amount of holy power drained from me, I succeeded in opening the entrance through which the witch had escaped.

“I, Inquisitor-nim!”

Leaving behind Brother Jerit’s urgent voice, I stepped into the space. The scenery around me instantly shifted as my vision reversed.

🔹🔹🔹

I looked around.

It was still inside the cabin. Although it was somewhat messy due to the soldiers who had searched the house, it wasn’t the cozy and rustic appearance it once had.

Walls roughly constructed with decaying wood. Skulls scattered everywhere and stagnant, rotten water pooling throughout the house.

It was a gruesome sight, hardly recognizable as the same place. Well, it suited the name”witch’s house”better this way.

I caught sight of the witch’s back as she hurriedly gathered something with her remaining arm.

“Your house is quite messy.”

“……!”

Shock filled her eyes as she saw me calmly appear, having forcibly broken into her space.

“How in the world……!”

It’s a speed that’s impossible to achieve without having thoroughly familiarized oneself with the specific characteristics of witches and their countermeasures. Even among Inquisitors, there are few who possess such extensive knowledge of evil.

No, it would be safe to say that there are almost none.

I glanced at the objects she was collecting. Most were useless trinkets or cursed junk, but there were some decent items as well.

The witch’s face, sitting in the dilapidated, haunted house, was wrinkled. She looked to be at least a hundred years old.

“This is, this is preposterous! How could a servant of God be so fast……!”

So she’s finally showing her true form. I looked at the witch, who had finally revealed her true appearance, and slowly opened my mouth.

“If this is a witch’s house.”

Shing.

A bright radiance flowed from the sword I raised. To be precise, it wasn’t emanating from the sword itself, but at least outwardly, it appeared so.

“I am the Inquisitor who has come to hunt you.”

“No─!”

I swung the shining sword towards the witch’s neck as she raised her grotesquely twisted arm and let out a shrill scream.

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