Chapter 233 – Witch Hunt (8)Team: HH, thursdays, Yahiko
I still didn’t know.
Why did Vieira leave me?
Vieira Dune was the enemy who poisoned Jeong-woo and planted a knife in his heart. She had used his emotions up to the very end.
Because of that, his brother had been lost for a long time after she had left.
Leonte and Bahal had earned something by leaving him. They both sat in high positions within the Cheonghwado and Red Dragon, respectively, and received more honor and wealth than when they were in Arthia.
But Vieira Dune didn’t have anything to gain.
She had become the leader of the Walpusgisnacht, but his brother had been fine with her leaving Arthia to go someplace else.
That was how much he trusted his lover, and she knew this more than anyone else.
She didn’t have any reason to betray him.
They hadn’t had any misunderstandings, and they never fought.
Right before she poisoned him and stabbed him, they had been smiling at each other. They whispered sweet nothings to each other, and promised to be together until the end. His brother had confirmed this with his Draconic Eyes.
Just what had made her that twisted?
Or had she always been putting on an act to hide who she really was? Then, were all her sweet words towards his brother fake?
No one knew the truth except Vieira.
And Yeon-woo thought, ‘It’s not my business.’
Whatever the reason was, she had turned her back on his brother.
He didn’t have any reason to think about why the person who made his brother suffer until the very end would have done such a thing.
However, as he cut the neck of his enemy, there weren’t any emotions in his eyes.
Checheche—
Vieira’s separated head and body suddenly turned to smoke.
‘As I thought.’
Vieira Dune’s signature skill, <Body Transfer>.
It was a power that she received from the one whom the witches called their ‘Great Mother.’
Vieira Dune had an outstanding talent for Mind Control and mental-type magic.
The Great Mother liked this, and she gave her the power to move the Ego Data of ‘Vieira Dune’ to another body.
In other words, it was possible for her to switch bodies.
Of course, there were limits to this, but it was still a skill that Yeon-woo was after.
‘I have to take it no matter what. It means that I can have extra lives.’
Yeon-woo shouted at his shadow.
“Boo!”
[I’ve found. Her. Location.]
Boo sent the coordinates through the connection.
Hwaak!
Yeon-woo spread his wings of fire apart. Probably because of the limits of the skill, the coordinates weren’t too far. He threw his body in that direction with Blink.
Kwang!
The ceiling collapsed where Yeon-woo and Vieira Dune had been.
* * *
“Huff, huff! Haa!”
As soon as Vieira Dune opened her eyes, she gasped and fell to the floor. The beads of sweat on her forehead dripped to the ground.
She had only lost one of her many bodies in the castle, but it wasn’t like the pain of having her neck cut went away. She could still clearly feel the sword on her throat.
‘Those eyes…..definitely…..!’
They were eyes that shouldn’t be in this world anymore. But why were they there? Why? What happened?
“Dune!”
“What’s the matter, Dune? Are you alright?”
The witches ran frantically to her because of her sudden Body Transfer, not knowing what was going on inside her head.
This was a chimera storage room inside the fortress.
They had been planning on releasing additional chimeras to fend off the intruders, but they were surprised at her sudden Body Transfer.
It meant that the base was already in ruins because of the enemies.
“…..Dune?”
Once they saw her shaking eyes, they realized.
She was someone who was always calm, never showing her emotions.
But for the first time ever, Vieira Dune had flustered eyes. And she continued to say words that they couldn’t understand.
“No way. There’s no way. That guy is dead. Dead! I definitely checked…..!”
“Dune?”
Just then, one of the first witches carefully touched her shoulders. Vieira Dune’s head instantly twisted towards her.
Gulak flinched and took a step back.
The moment she saw Vieira Dune’s white eyes, she got shivers down her back. It seemed like Vieira was going to swallow her up any minute.
But Vieira Dune grabbed Gulak’s collards and pulled her towards her. Her eyes were bloodshot.
“He’s dead, right? I definitely killed him with my hands! Right?”
“I don’t know what…..!”
“Say yes!”
“Yes! Y, You’re correct!”
“…..”
After Vieira Dune glared at Gulak for some time, she was able to settle down.
“…..Sorry. I was too into it.”
She released Gulak and swept her damp hair back.
‘It doesn’t matter who he is. I’ll find that out when I take his mask off. But. The Philosopher’s Stone didn’t work. Definitely.’
Even if it was a sudden attack, she wouldn’t have lost so easily like this.
The Philosopher’s Stone she had was the best one they had created. It was connected to her soul, so if she was in danger, it would be triggered automatically.
Because of this, Vieira Dune was confident that even if Allforone or the Summer Queen came, they wouldn’t be able to break the Philosopher’s Stone.
However, when her head was cut off, the Philosopher’s Stone hadn’t worked at all, like it was a broken watch.
‘The masked man. He’s behind all this. The one who released the tablet and caused all this commotion…..”
And it was clear that he was further along with the research of the stone, since that was how he was able to stop it from triggering.
‘Did the other witches…..?’
Vieira Dune clenched her teeth. She felt like she knew how their defense had fallen so futilely. Since the Philosopher’s Stones were useless now, they couldn’t fight against the Large Clans.
‘I have to catch him first.’
Her mind became disoriented.
She didn’t know who he was or why he was after them.
But one thing was for sure. She had to find a way to deal with him.
Ananta was necessary to wake the Great Mother, but it seemed like Ananta was with the masked man right now.
Whatever they did, they had to catch him.
‘If this fact is revealed to the other Large Clans…..!’
She could end up waking a tiger to chase out a wolf, but this was not the time to weigh such things.
Vieira Dune looked around at the witches in the chimera storage room and was about to tell them to get into a defensive formation.
Just then—
“Dune! Be careful!”
Gulak shouted with wide eyes.
Vieira Dune was about to ask what the matter was, but—
Puuk!
She felt something hot behind her back, and a sharp blade pierced through her left chest.
Instead of screaming, Vieira Dune coughed up blood. Her lungs were boiling. She couldn’t breathe. Her chest felt uncomfortable.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Vieira Dune stiffened her back subconsciously after hearing the voice in her ear.
It was a tone like he knew where she was going. He knew about Body Transfer? There weren’t many who knew about this even in the Walpurgisnacht. But seeing how he knew, it was definitely…..!
Swipe!
However, Vieira Dune wasn’t able to continue her thoughts. A new blade landed in her head.
Just before her consciousness faded away, she saw the witches and chimeras being swept away from the Aura of the blackfire.
Kwang!
“Cough!”
Vieira Dune let out the scream that she hadn’t been able to when she opened her eyes again. The pain of having your neck cut twice was just so painful.
The Ego Data must’ve not settled properly yet, because her vision was still blurry. She was in a dark room.
But before she could get herself together, he grabbed her neck again.
A sword cut through her jugular this time.
Puuk!
“Krrk!”
The last thing she saw before her vision cut off was a pair of will o’ the wisps burning in the darkness.
Kwang!
Vieira Dune’s deaths continued after that.
Swipe—
In a defense facility deep underground.
“No….!”
Puuk!
When she opened her eyes in the body of a young witch on the battlefield.
“No!”
Kwakwakwang!
Even in the forest in the most outer sections of the Endless World of Night.
“Please!”
Krrr—
Even when she woke up near the gate and tried to escape.
“Please stoppp!”
Every time Vieira Dune attempted Body Transfer, Yeon-woo was hot on her heels, cutting her neck, stabbing her heart, and crushing her head.
And in the furthermost area of the Brocken Castle, Vieira Dune flapped around like a fish out of water after being stabbed by Vigrid.
“Please…..! Please…..!”
Vieira Dune panted.
Her firm mind was half-destroyed.
Even if she came back alive, she couldn’t completely escape from the shock of death.
Her continued deaths, combined with the fact that someone was one step behind her, amplified her fear.
On top of that, Vieira Dune failed to use her mind control multiple times.
Her specialty, mental-type magic, was powerful enough to push all her rivals to death.
[Due to an unknown reason, ‘Curse: Hypnosis’ has failed.]
[Due to an unknown reason, ‘Curse: Mind Wash’ has failed.]
[Side effects from the repeated failed skill attempts are occurring.]
Mind Control didn’t work on Yeon-woo.
Cold-blooded.
Cold-blooded, the greatest enemy of all mental-type magic, made all her skills fail.
Because of this, Vieira Dune suffered from the Reflects and penalties from her failed attempts.
The damage to her Ego Data became greater, and her mind and body began to separate. Her soul had started to come apart.
The indifferent leader of the witches was completely trapped in fear.
“Ahhh…..Ahhhhhh!”
But the more tired she became, the more dissatisfied Yeon-woo felt. He was frowning behind his mask.
Puk—
Vigrid passed through her into the ground. Vieira Dune wasn’t able to move, like she was a butterfly that was pinned down.
“Stop overreacting.”
Yeon-woo growled looking at her.
“Ananta suffered more than you. Even Sesha, and ‘that guy.’ You shouldn’t scream at this much pain if you want to pay for all of their suffering, right?”
There were two different choices that people would make when they were pushed to the extremes of fear. Bear it, or give everything up.
She was the former.
“You! Who are you?!”
She knew that she couldn’t escape from Yeon-woo, so she shouted in fury.
Yeon-woo couldn’t understand what she was saying for a moment. Then, he rubbed his face and smirked.
“Oh. I had this on this whole time. It’s no fun this way.”
He slowly took his mask off.
Click—
And when she saw his face, she paled. Her eyes widened.
“……!”
She froze and wasn’t able to say anything. This was another type of fear.
The fear that a dead person had come back to life.
She wasn’t mistaken when she saw the eyes in the mask.
Yeon-woo faced Vieira with the same face as Jeong-woo and spoke coldly.
“I hope you come back to life again and again. I’ll kill you everytime. Vieira.”
And with those words, Yeon-woo pulled out the Magic Bayonet around his waist and swung it at Vieira.
Chwak!