City of Witches - Chapter 1160
**Episode 1160 #276_Prologue (8)**
**#1154**
1.
Duke Erelim walked through the dark corridor.
Aritawn, the architectural marvel that Keter was said to have put the most effort into, was delicately crafted even on the inside.
However, there was not a single candle in the candle holders that lined the corridor at regular intervals, and the moonlight streaming in through the window on one side was the only light that illuminated the view.
In the desolate and miserable space, Erelim felt his heart pounding slightly.
There were many things he wanted to ask.
There were many things he wanted to know.
Why had she betrayed the witches and created an order for humans?
Why had she chosen Shinsiu as her successor, not himself, who had silently guarded the city for her ideals, swallowing his affection and resentment?
And what should he do from now on?
“…….”
It had been a long time since he had visited.
But even without any thought, there was a familiarity in his footsteps as they flowed like water.
His steps were headed towards Keter’s workshop.
-Click
As soon as his fingertips touched it after a deep breath, the door opened.
At the end of his gaze was a familiar figure.
There was Keter, whom he had both resented and loved so much.
But her appearance was much different from the one in his memory.
No, even the appearance of this workshop was unfamiliar to Erelim in the first place.
A huge magic circle was spread out over the entire room.
Like a giant tree, bottles and packs containing medicine hung from the magic circle like fruit.
Judging by the amount being infused, there were more drugs than Keter’s body fluids flowing through the thin hoses to Keter, who was sitting on the throne.
Erelim, who was also well-versed in alchemy, figured out their roles.
All of them were narcotic-grade drugs that had a strong analgesic effect on the astral body, suppressants that minimized metabolic activity, and the structure of the magic circle.
That wasn’t a measure for treatment.
It was a measure for life support.
Keter was no longer a witch far superior to Erelim.
The only power left in her, as far as Erelim could observe, was barely enough to reach the level of a great witch.
If the past Keter reminded him of an exhausted ancient dragon.
Keter, who was dangling dozens of hoses, looked like a puppet dancing on strings, and at the same time, like a white butterfly caught in a spider’s web.
It was a miserable fall.
“Blanche.”
Keter lifted her heavy eyelids a long time after the door opened and looked at Erelim.
The golden eyes that had once shone brilliantly with intelligence and spirituality were now clouded with weakness.
“It’s been a long time.”
“…….”
Erelim couldn’t speak easily.
He knew she was sick, but he didn’t know it was this serious.
At the same time, he realized.
This invitation was not from Keter.
Even with her clouded reason and worn-out emotions, Keter briefly showed her question, ‘Why are you here?’
“Where did I put the black tea? Oh, here it is. It’s not much, but drink a lot. So, what’s up?”
Keter used telekinesis to prepare something clumsily.
It was not the unique way of speaking that she had begun to use because she had to appear dignified.
It was not the unique way of speaking that she had started using because she felt it was dignified.
In the process, Kether’s hierarchy had greatly diminished, but she had become a being closer to ‘order’, and the ‘chaos’ that had been in her had become the whispering witch, ‘Lilith Kether’.
“……..”
However, Erelim was taken aback.
What was on the table that Kether had brought out for tea time was not a teapot and teacups.
It was just a mishmash of odds and ends piled up as if she were playing a child’s game.
What was Kether looking at now?
“Did something bad happen? Your expression is strange. Sit down for now.”
She felt dizzy, as if she had been hit on the head.
She had always dreamed of their reunion.
She had also known that Kether was suffering from an illness.
But she had not expected such a miserable state.
Erelim bit her trembling lips tightly and sat down in the seat she had offered.
“I prepared this with tea leaves that you especially like.”
Saying so, Kether held out what seemed to be dried mushrooms, but whose purpose was unknown.
“…Thank you.”
“What’s there to thank me for?”
A playful tone of voice came out of an expression and atmosphere that made it impossible to know what she was looking at or thinking about.
She was like a broken record player.
A record player that only played back her past memories and personality in a jumbled manner.
But Erelim soon pulled herself together from her confusion.
She had experienced farewells to the point of being sick of them.
It was just that the farewell she had always been used to, the farewell she had always anticipated, had come in a slightly different form.
“I have something I want to ask you.”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you know what the current state of the world is?”
Kether remained silent for a moment before slowly nodding her head.
“I know.”
“I found out that you created order for the humans. Even exiling numerous witches and killing many of your friends.”
“……..”
“I want to ask you why. I have the right to know. Don’t avoid it this time.”
As if a channel had changed, the atmosphere around Kether changed.
Kether, who had been smiling bitterly, caressed the teacup (or what she thought was a teacup) and opened her mouth.
“Yes, I remember your devoted service. You put your doubts aside and repaid me with unwavering trust. I am grateful.”
“You don’t need to thank me. What I want to know is what you were thinking.”
Erelim was sure of it.
Kether’s mind was not sound now, not an act or a pretense.
That was why, ironically, she might be able to get closer to the truth.
“Mother always said that we are beings who cannot find the correct answer. That all we can do is struggle endlessly and get infinitely closer to the correct answer. I followed Mother’s words and tried to make the witches prosper, and in the process, I prevented humans and witches from fighting each other. At the same time, I also had to move towards transcendence.”
This was what Erelim had guessed so far.
Then, she could also guess that the order that Kether had insisted on in the past, and still insisted on now, was not the result of reason and logic, but of morality and belief.
“But I soon felt the limits. Although I received Mother’s stigma, it was a stigma that was flawed in many places, just like me now, because I had exerted my strength in so many places. In order to stand on the rainbow, I felt the need to cast off my shackles.”
And so, Kether had cast off the impurities and dregs of her body.
In the process, Keter’s hierarchy had fallen greatly, but she had become a being closer to ‘order’, and the ‘chaos’ within her had become the whisper witch ‘Lilis Keter’.
“Looking back, it was something I shouldn’t have done. It was all for nothing. Ever since that day. I’ve changed over time.”
This was also what Erelim had guessed.
Keter had given up even the hierarchy she had been striving for in order to achieve a higher realm, leaving only the order within her.
Perhaps chaos was also a part that completed the order?
What was left for Keter was not just an incomplete order?
That’s what I’ve been thinking for a long time.
She had worked for order, even killing her colleagues and her own kind who were caught in the net, like a machine obsessed with order.
The conversation up to this point explains why Keter continued to pursue order for humans, even if it meant betraying her.
But that’s all.
Why did she pass on her legacy to Shinsiu, not Erelim?
Why did it become such a scribble that it would collapse without the power of medicine and magic?
Now, Erelim doesn’t have an answer to what to do.
“That’s…”
“Don’t rush. I’ll tell you everything. I wanted to tell you someday.”
The intimate tone of voice breaks down the distance.
Surely it had been hundreds of years since the two had talked so affectionately.
“Yes, I continued to study magic after that. It wasn’t difficult because it was a path I had already walked once. But I soon realized it. My mother’s grave mistake.”
“Mistake?”
“Yes, it must have been my mother’s first time. To go beyond dimensions and write a new destiny. No matter how much you are a witch of creation, there is no way you can’t make mistakes.”
The gentle tone of voice rings a bell in Erelim’s heart.
It was a warning of instinct rather than reason, born from the years of life she had lived.
I shouldn’t hear this.
It’s a truth that’s better left buried, and that’s why Keter has hidden it until now.
Since Keter has become a broken machine, there is a truth before her eyes that she can speak lightly.
“All witches who originated from my mother are failures. None of us can stand on the rainbow.”
Stand on the rainbow.
This is a tolerant expression used in witch society.
To be a complete and perfect being, that is, to reach the 32nd hierarchy, the feat of the witch of creation.
“Even I, who received my mother’s vessel directly, was limited to the 30th hierarchy. For witches other than that, the 25th hierarchy is the end point. What should I call this…? Yes, there is no other way to explain it than as a defect. What do you think? Isn’t it funny?”
Keter laughed.
It was a distorted and broken laugh, close to resignation.
A distant despair clouds her eyes.
The essence and destiny of a witch is the footsteps of a pilgrim that ends in death.
Feeding on my master, and giving the promised despair to my disciple who is like my own child.
What turns a blind eye to that cruelty is the self-awareness as a seeker who continues the feat of the witch of creation, and the pride of a witch.
Keter says that all of that was destined to fail.
What Erelim, who sought out Keter to find answers, learned was nothing but the boundless despair that completely negated the pride he had held onto.