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1.

Ruining the life of an apprentice witch to show their anger at the unfairness of the witches.

And of course, releasing their lust while they were at it.

If they were to give a name to this small operation of theirs…

It would probably be something like Operation Water Ghost1.

Jack never thought that this operation’s success rate would be high.

Even if the witches in Border Town were particularly weaker compared to the rest of Gehenna, they were still witches at the end of the day.

And they couldn’t be so sure if the apprentice witches they approached would be armed or not, or if they were even walking on their own to begin with.

That was why when he noticed that an apprentice witch was wandering around near their hideout alone, he immediately made his move.

He thought that the heavens were helping him to make this operation a success.

But, when he was about to finally leave his mark on the captured apprentice and write the first page of his grand revenge story, the door to the warehouse was ripped open.

He thought that the operation was doomed to fail for sure, and let out a sigh. And then, the intruder’s voice entered his ears.

“What are you guys doing?”

At that, he cheered inwardly.

If his idiotic underling actually locked the warehouse, it meant that unless one was using proper equipment, they wouldn’t be able to open the warehouse door.

Since the intruder broke through the door easily, he naturally assumed that the intruder was a witch.

But when he heard their voice, it was clear that the intruder was a man.

There were nine people in total on their side.

Since he was a retard who barged in without knowing what was good for him, they could just kill him.

“Mmh—! Mmh!”

“Look who it is. The eyepatched fucker from back then, huh?”

When Jack looked back, he noticed that the intruder was a familiar face.

Well, to be exact, he didn’t really remember the intruder’s face, but his eyepatch was definitely something that left an impression on him.

He was the guy that bumped into him a while back, the same guy that dared to challenge him.

“What? You’re here to film a movie or something, huh, jackass?”

Jack nodded towards his subordinates.

He remembered how the man in front of him didn’t even flinch when he tried to intimidate him during their first encounter, which meant he was pretty confident in his fighting skills.

If this was any other time, he’d send the other guys in to surround him and teach him who exactly was in charge here, but it wasn’t the time for that. He had to eliminate every variable that came up as quickly as possible so that their operation could go smoothly.

And he had already thoroughly planned on how to do that.

The three thugs who received his signal immediately took out their Beretta M9s, complete with silencers from their bosoms.

These were the weapons that were normally used by their overseers, and they managed to obtain them for themselves, albeit with difficulties.

While these guns were useless against witches, they were more than effective against humans.

“See you later, dumbass.”

-Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The moment they pulled the triggers, the 9mm parabellum bullets that were faster than the speed of sound, and were strong enough to pierce through a mortal’s flesh and organs, flew out of the guns’ muzzles.

He had already stepped into their range.

Though the thugs were idiots who probably couldn’t even aim their guns properly, if the three of them fired four or five bullets at once, one of the bullets was bound to hit the man no matter what.

Every time a gunshot noise that was failed to be killed by the silencer echoed through the warehouse, Diana’s body trembled.

“So, what are you gonna do, Missy? Your knight in shining armor just died right in front of you! Hahaha!”

Hearing Jack’s babble, Diana’s face turned even more pale.

In Diana’s eyes, even if Siwoo was a male witch, it was doubtful that he could dodge all those bullets at once.

After all, he was someone who had just become a witch, and he hadn’t inherited a brand from anyone.

“A-Aah…!”

Diana screamed in despair, but…

Something unexpected happened.

“What?”

“Fucker, you shot it properly, right?!”

“Did we miss every shot?”

The man who should have fallen down onto a pool of his own blood stood tall there.

No action-movie-like scene—such as the man reading the guns’ movements and using it to dodge the incoming bullets before coming in close to snatch the guns out of the hugs hands—happened.

Instead, he just stood there unfazed, as if the bullets just went past him unceremoniously.

“You dumb idiots! How could you miss all your shots from that distance?!”

“Shoot again, shoot again!”

-Bang, bang bang, bang!

After that, the three thugs quickly aimed their muzzles at the man again, but the result was the same.

None of them managed to land their shots no matter what.

Except this time, Jack saw what exactly happened.

The moment the bullets were shot, a strand of ribbon sprouted from the man’s waist.

It floated gently like seaweed under the water as it deflected all the incoming bullets.

The other thugs who also managed to see the ribbon instantly panicked.

“I-Is that magic?!”

“What the fuck?! H-How can a guy use magic—?!

Then suddenly, the black ribbon that had been fluttering smoothly turned stiff like a poisonous snake about to attack.

Jack immediately shouted towards the other thugs.

“Get the fuck away!”

“W-What—?! Keeuk—!”

The ribbon launched itself toward one of the thugs who had drawn his gun.

Almost immediately, that same thug was launched into the air.

-Crack!

Then, his body crashed into one of the iron pillars, breaking his back instantly.

“A-A

Looking at the foamy blood that flowed out of his mouth and his convulsing limbs, it was clear that even if he were lucky to survive this whole ordeal, he wouldn’t be able to walk for the rest of his life anymore.

-Wooosh! Crack!

-Wooosh! Crack!

Then, the same thing happened again.

The ribbon moved at such a high speed that no one was able to follow with their eyes, and sent the two other thugs flying.

“You guys are next.”

After turning the thugs attacking him into ragdolls, this time the man made his move first.

“Huh? Huuh?”

He then let out a fierce low kick towards the nearby pig-like guy as the pig was about to pull out his knife to retaliate.

“Keeeuukkk—!”

That kick was enough to make the 140kg pig fall headfirst, half spinning mid-air before his knee joints were snapped to the side.

“Ugh!”

But the man wasn’t done. He unleashed a backhand slap towards the bald thug’s face, shattering his teeth and making him fall down unceremoniously.

Meanwhile, Jack simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Ever since he was a little, he was as familiar with fights as he was with eating.

Not the kind of fistfights that the back-alley thugs regularly had with each other, but the kind of bloody fights where someone would definitely end up dying.

That was why he became pretty good with his knives, to the point that all those guys who were stated to be masters in martial arts, or the higher-ups of the mafia became nothing but his bitch when they faced him. But…

This man was different. It was the first time that he had ever seen someone fight like this.

The man’s strength wasn’t something that a human should have.

Then again, that should be something he had already realized the moment the man managed to casually deflect the bullets that were coming towards him before crippling one of his subordinates in an instant.

Before he realized it, eight successive screams echoed in the warehouse, and after that, the whole place was filled with their pathetic groans.

“Let her go.”

After pulling that kind of stunt so effortlessly, Siwoo called out to Jack while sending him a glare.

Before Jack himself realized it, he was already holding his knife to the apprentice witch’s neck.

It seemed like his body moved instinctively to hold her hostage since it was obvious that the man was here to save her.

But, even after he did that, he still didn’t feel like he had the upper hand at all.

If the stunt that the man in front of him had pulled was produced with normal weapons…

The moment he took the apprentice hostage, he could instantly make the man place his weapons on the ground and surrender.

Then, he could immediately stab him with the knife in his hand.

But, the man pulled that stunt barehanded.

Taking the apprentice witch hostage wouldn’t get him out of the situation, it would just delay the inevitable.

“Just you watch! Take a single step from where you are, this girl’s going to get it!”

“H-Hic…”

“Don’t worry, Ms. Diana. Nothing’s gonna happen to you.”

After hearing his calm voice, Diana stopped struggling and nodded obediently.

And that relit the anger in Jack’s heart.

I am this close…

This fucking close to my revenge…!

Finally, I could get revenge for all the time I had to live like a dog in this wretched place…! But this fucking piece of shit—!

“Hey, you fuck—”

“Put down that knife.”

“Fuck you! Braindead motherfucker—!”

And so, Jack decided to do the only thing he could do in this situation.

A final struggle.

Even if his revenge wouldn’t be complete, as long as he could kill this apprentice witch, it would be at least halfway complete.

Without hesitation, he moved his knife and tried to pierce Diana’s neck with it.

This was something that he had done more than dozens of times.

He could probably do it while he was asleep.

The place where the carotid artery passed…

A vital point in a human’s body that he could utilize to damage someone’s cervical spine, while tearing through their trachea and esophagus at the same time.

But, even though he had performed the action properly…

He couldn’t feel the apprentice’s warm blood flowing down his arm.

And he couldn’t hear her sad scream that was mixed with the sound of her gurgling her own blood.

When he looked down, he saw something like a thin piece of ink blocking the space between his knife and Diana’s neck.

He then stared at Siwoo in confusion.

The man’s voice was contorted in anger.

“Thank you for being such a predictable piece of trash.”

After that…

In a blink of an eye, a black ribbon shot out from Siwoo’s direction, evaded Diana’s body and pierced through Jack’s chest.

2.

“H-Hic…! Sniff…!”

“Are you okay? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have let you wander off on your own…”

The moment after he flung Jack’s body away, Siwoo ran towards Diana and wrapped his hands around her.

Diana immediately clung to his embrace like a baby lamb looking for its mother.

Seeing how her body trembled greatly like cottonwood…

And how her whole body was stained with dirt as she had been rolled around the dirty floor…

Siwoo gritted his teeth in anger again.

When Diana ran out, he actually had tied a small strand of his ribbon secretly, just in case that she got into trouble. And his prediction was right. Too bad he was too late in preventing this thing from happening in the first place.

“H-H

Meanwhile, Diana was unable to speak properly. She could only grab Siwoo’s collar while pouring her tears out.

“It’s okay. I’ve taken care of all of them.”

Thanks to his gentle and warm voice, she quickly regained her senses.

Finally, she could be sure that she was safe now.

“I’m sorry, this is all my fault…”

“

Diana sniffled before shaking her head.

It was a clear accident, something that neither of them could ever predict, so she had no intention of blaming him.

Besides, even though something that she could never have imagined was about to happen to her, he was the one who prevented it from actually happening.

At that moment, Jack’s body squirmed as he forcefully tried to stand up.

Seeing how he kept coughing up blood—he probably had spit out a whole bowl of blood at this point—it was a miracle that he was still alive.

“T-This…mother…fucker…”

No matter how much Siwoo tried to hold back, he had zero intention of sparing those guys. After all, they were death row inmates who tried to kidnap and rape an apprentice witch.

He had crippled most of those guys, and just straight up pierced through the chest of the obvious leader of those thugs.

Unfortunately, Jack managed to avoid a fatal wound by twisting his body at the very last moment.

Instead of dying, he just lost his consciousness for a moment as the ribbon just left an obvious gash near his armpit.

Siwoo could just leave this place and report everything to the city hall, and everyone here would either be hanged or used as a material for the witches’ research.

However, from the glare that Siwoo had in his eyes, it was clear that he had no intention of doing that.

He refused to show him any mercy, he wanted the fucker to die in his hands.

“You…dirty witch’s lackey…”

The thug’s words didn’t even register in his ears.

Whatever it was that came out of his mouth, it wasn’t anything worth hearing.

Instead, he turned his back on the thug to face Diana and opened his mouth.

“Let’s go outside first. After that, I’ll properly finish them off.”

“…”

Diana nodded slightly, and Siwoo proceeded to princess carry her.

“Keheuk—!”

Jack followed their departing backs with his eyes.

At that moment, he took out an orb from his pocket.

This was an artifact that the Witch of Desires had given him along with the katyusha.

She had specifically told him that he shouldn’t use it unless he had no other choice.

Of course, Jack wasn’t stupid.

He knew that an Exile wouldn’t just give out artifacts to a filthy group of slaves like them for free.

The moment he broke this ominous-looking orb, something horrible would befall him, that outcome was already certain.

But…

He’d rather take that desperate attempt instead of letting himself die so pathetically like this.

“I’ll…take you…together with me…!”

Resolving himself like a terrorist carrying a suicide bomb, Jack threw the black orb towards the floor with all his might.

-Swoooosh!

At that moment, black smoke rose up from the shards of the orb.

As if it was a ghost, it jumped around the warehouse, attacking the crippled thugs.

It seeped through the nose and mouth of the pig-like man who was pretending to be dead.

“W-What—?! N-No! G-Go away—!”

And those were his last words.

The smoke then came out of the pig’s mouth again—the sight made it look like the smoke he inhaled was sarin gas.

In a blink of an eye, the smoke had killed all the crippled thugs. Then, it headed towards the only surviving thug, Jack.

As he was forced to inhale the smoke…

Jack’s body trembled.

Am I…dying…?

…No…

After some time passed, Jack realized that he was still alive, unlike his subordinates.

His wounds healed up.

A burning fighting spirit filled his heart as an overwhelming power enveloped his body.

Seventeen red-eyes in total grew on the thug’s arm.

Coincidentally, that was the same number of eyes as the ‘Drowned Witch’ who had driven Siwoo to the brink of death in the past.

Except that the current Siwoo was different from back then.

“A-A Homunculus…”

“Ms. Diana, stay back.”

Without delay, he hid Diana behind his back.

“Bloom.”

As he finished his chant, a black armor made of shadow enveloped his body.

1. Water ghosts or water sprites are the ghosts of people who had drown in the water. It would haunt certain bodies of water and drag anyone to the depths together with itself. In this instance, the operation meant that they're dragging the apprentice witch that they caught to the depth of hell with them