Chapter 006
A while ago before the fountain was destroyed, Merlin was watching the group of Witch Hunter struggle from defending the Theatre Hall. The reason for this was about the application of their Magic Artifacts.
Merlin wanted to know how they could use such things to control Mana. The same with the witch on how they could use their Witch Hats.
With his Mana Sight, he immediately knew how, and it surprised, but greatly baffled him which caused another question to arise.
When the Black Witch Mistress visited him, he saw that Mana was slowly gathering in her Witch Hat like a vacuum with small suction force, and it was bound to her own Mana Pool, which made it only exclusive to her use and complete control.
If the Black Witch Mistress wanted, she could recall the Witch Hat even when the distance between them was a million miles. It would still teleport in front of her no matter what.
It also act like an external Mana Pool for her, apart from her own Mana Pool which hadn't had any access.
Merlin tried to probed her and see if she would react as the Mana around her intensified, yet she remained indifferent like she could not saw it, nor sense it, which was quite true according to Merlin's speculations from present evidence.
Although, Merlin could notice that some of her Mana Channels were open due to awakening, but she could only sense her own Mana, from her Witch Hat, but not in her surroundings or other's and couldn't even use a bit of Mana from her own Mana Pool.
Merlin theorized that there was something that refrained her from accessing her own Mana, like the people of Celhiem World which had large Mana Pool than normal person, yet it was inaccessible to them.
Taking note of the information he collected from observing her, Merlin leaved the Witch on her own and looked for the Witch Hunter Group he saw from before. He saw them used their Magic Artifacts as they attack and defend using Mana from the Mana Reserve that the Magic Artifact had, but unlike the Witch Hat, it wasn't accumulating Mana from the air, independently.
If this Magic Artifacts could not gather Mana, then it only meant that it needed assistance from the owner to gather Mana and filled the Mana Reserve it possessed, which could only be done through meditation.
It also meant that this Magic Artifact Holders could likely sensed Mana unlike the Witches which couldn't. This made the existence of people with Magic Artifact and Witches even. The Magicians were numerous, while the Witches were powerful, but their numbers were only quarters of Magicians.
After several minutes, Merlin sense the large concentration of Mana in one place, the City Square exactly at the fountain.
The Mana that gathered there was ominous like a miasma, which harmful to any living creature or simply an unstable kind of energy.
Merlin didn't stopped it as he watched while it summoned ghouls from the souls that was trapped in the city. He was suprised to see such Magic Formation, and thought how a witch knew such thing, even though Magic Formation was an unknown thing in Celhiem, or there might be, but not known. Then, how could she knew something like a Ghoul Summoning Formation?
A smile crept on his face as Merlin realized something. The only thing that to his mind was the Witch Awakening. He was yet to witness an actual Witch Awakening personally, so he refrained from digging to this question further until he saw one in the future.
"This world is really amazing! I'm not regretting I arrived here. Oh looks like that axeman succeeded on destroying the center of Ghoul Summoning Formation. I'll help you as you have a good heart, and a talent as well. You'll be a good seedling." mumbled Merlin with an amused expression.
When the fountain was destroyed, an explosion occurred as the accumulated Mana was suddenly released in an outburst.
Shielding the exhausted axeman from the initial force of the explosion and flying shards, Merlin didn't neglected to stop the ghouls from attacking him.
The axeman was lying on the cold bricked ground, drained with energy to move, he closed his eyes as he saw the ghouls rushed to him like hungry hyenas.
But then, Merlin interfered. Weaving Mana around the air, he made the whole city square into an ice world with ice sculptured ghouls.
"Ice Element Magic Rank 6 - Chilling Breeze!!"
A cold wind blew and all that within the its range of the spell was gradually turned into ice sculptures, even the ground was frozen, as well as the air that caused a small scale snow fall.
However, the whispering wind didn't stopped there. It spread in all directions paving their paths with cold air and ice sculptures.
Seeing the spectacle, the two from afar were shocked to their core as they trembled and hugged each other because of the cold atmosphere. However, they steeled themselves amd jumped down amd rushed to their leader and saw him motionless on the frozen ground.
They thought he had died, but then when they examined him, he still had pulses and in fact living, only extremely exhausted. They sighed in relief, and immediately carried their leader. When they turned around they saw Merlin standing a meters away.
"Who's that?" Plowven asked. Then it hit them, as their faces paled and eventually turned into one filled with gratitude, yet they couldn't helped but questioned him.
"Thank you for saving our leader, but if you can do such thing, why didn't you acted firsthand?! I don't know what is your objective, but you could have saved many lives!" Flint said with bitterness.
Merlin had power, yet he didn't used it. He could have ended everything in an instant the moment it started.
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not here to save you and I don't care if you die. I have a hunch that you were like those WH that I heard, but your leader proved it wrong, so I helped him. That's all. And if you wanted to save this city's citizens, you're already too late. This people will die no matter what you do. They're cursed and tied from the Witch. If the Witch died, so do they. There's nothing you can do, so letting them die early is a mercy, than letting them became a sustenance for the Black Witch Mistress to grow stronger."
The two gritted their teeth when they heard Merlin. "Damn!" Flint roared as he punched the ground. "You mean our efforts to save this people's lives are all for naught?!"
Merlin nodded in his question. "This is reality. Even I can't break the curse. Only the witch can, but with her disposition I doubt she'll do such thing, mentioning her hatred towards humanity, no matter if you are a Magic Artifact Holder."
"Can you please help us leave this place? This whole city is under the witch's domain, and since you helped us, we're your responsibility now..." Plowven requested shamelessly.
"Pfft! Ahahah! I like that kid, your shameless self is in good use! Okay I'll help you." Merlin replied, while Plowven raised his head, not even ashamed instead boasting about shamelessness.
Merlin covered his hand with Mana and took out a piece of Mana Crystal and imbued it with Enchantments Magic Formation. When he was done, Merlin tossed it to Plowven and caught it in the air. They looked at and was clearly clueless of what it was.
"If you wanted to leave and ditched your mission. Group up with your other team members and crushed that Mana Crystal. That will be your doorway to leave this place. And one more thing, all of you must hold hands if you decided to use it."
"Thank you miss..." Plowven said, which Merlin's brows twitched.
With a blink of an eye, Merlin was already nowhere. The two looked at each others and around their surroundings, thought that what they witnessed was just an illusion, but the cold wind within the white scenery around them and the Mana Crystal on their hands said otherwise.
"Let's go. Regroup with the others and leave this place. There's nothing we can do about this now. Report what happened here at the HQ." the leader groaned, while the two nodded as they left towards the Theatre Hall.
The only thing they thought was how they would tell to the citizens that their roads had already reached its end...
Teleporting away, Merlin didn't talked to them as he disappeared. He appeared on the roof of the City Lord Mansion and looked at the four armoured people pursuing the fleeing woman in black dress.
"Damn, that kid. Dared to call me a miss. I'll take revenge when we meet again." he mumbled irritably.
Narrowing his eyes, he focused his attention to the Black Witch Mistress. "What is she doing? Why run, when she can kill those four... Wait, don't tell me she doesn't have any attacking spells? or ability acquired when she awakened..."
Running through the street, she disappeared into the shadow. Thus, when the four inquisitors turned to different direction, they had lost sight of her again, and even the device they were using to track her down could not found her.
"She disappeared again! All she do is run, hide and summon! She didn't have any attacking ability!" said the first inquisitor to notice.
"You're right, Motos. She is qualified as a B-Rank, but she didn't have any attack ability, only the monsters she summoned. This will be easy if we can track her down!"
"Stop blabbering and ready yourself! Her summoned monsters will appear any moment! Once you saw her, kill her!"
At that moment, a their shadows extended and a vicious claw of some monster emerged to strike them from behind. However, they had sensed it, which made it possible for them to evade the incoming attack, but it was too fast, that it insignificantly wounded them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"I'll kill you all!" shouted the Black Witch Mistress as she appeared in the air. She hesitated for a moment as she felt something cold dropped on her back and saw snow falling in the horizon, ad well as the cold wind that painted the whole city white.
An anger flared inside her, as she thought that someone had destroyed the fountain, which was essential to her plans.
"Ahhh! I'll kill you all! Vengeful Hallow Spirits! Appear!" she chanted as killing intent in her eyes flashed and red magic circle behind her appeared and from it, ghastly spirits from hell came out and flew towards the inquisitors.
Five dark ghosts with bloodshot eyes howled and make the air even cold as death. The inquisitors didn't had time to prepare and defend, instead attack the ghosts, but it only passed through them as the Vengeful Hallow Spirits were naturally immaterial creatures.
When they thought that it was only a ghost and would not damaged them even a little, they had mistaken and it led to regret, but it was already too late.
As it passed through their bodies, it drained their life force and gradually make their minds weak, until they lost their minds to the point of insanity. Negative emotions would flooded their minds, emotions that they possessed which they wanted to forget the most.
The inquisitors slashed and pierced the Vengeful Hallow spirits that swarmed them. It flew in and out of their bodies, while they roared and cursed the screaming spirits as the ear-deafening sounds filled their minds with negativity. Until one of them had gone hysteria and started screaming, flailing on the ground holding his head.
They grew frantic that they had forgotten to use their Magic Artifacts to kill the spirits. Fortunately for them, the Vengeful Hallow Spirits were rebellious in nature. They didn't know the meaning of foe nor friend. Simultaneously, summoning them had caused the Black Witch Mistress to pay a huge amount, which disabled her from summoning another being any longer.
One by one, the Vengeful Hallow Spirits dissipated into a thin smoke as their supply of Mana was cut off. An essential need for them to remain in the material world.
When the last of the summoned Ghastly Hallow Spirit returned to hell, the Black Witch Mistress immediately fled. She merged with the shadows and disappeared from the sight of three remaining inquisitors, such as one of them had died from having his life force drained until he was dry.
Groaning and grunting, the three held themselves as they pushed their trembling bodies and ran after her.
"From the looks of it, she doesn't have enough Mana to maintain those evil spirits. This is our chance! Kill her with one strike!" said by one them, the man with a war hammer.
"She fooled us! Summoning hundred thousands of ghouls can be done by any Dark Category Witch, but it needed huge amount of Mana. I bet she didn't have mana any longer, which the reason she's been running away for awhile, to accumulate mana!"
As they ran and turned at another street, they only saw a dead end, and the witch was not there. They could sense her, but only her presence which scattered in the surroundings.
Then, one of them sense the unusual fluctuation of mana behind the wall. Mana was gathering there like something was sucking mana in that direction only.
The war hammer man furrowed his brows as a vicious smile crept on his face. Mana slowy gathered on his war hammer as he use his Magic Artifact. Lifting it above his head and sent it down as he roared.
*Boom!*
"Ahh!" someone bellowed.
The ground tremble like an earthquake occurred in small scale and the wall was turned into smithereens, blasting it apart. The Black Witch Mistress was blown away by the force, though she had defended herself, but the force was too much for her.
The bones at her left leg, arm and rib were broken, as she laid a few meters away on the ground, motionless. A slight movement would make her condition worse as she also had a severe hemorrhage, and blood clots forming around her lungs and other parts of her body.
Her condition was too sever that only a month was needed to wait for her to die. Coughing up blood, she looked at the people before her. Resolutely hanging in the tread of life, she wanted to escape as shadow slowly shroud her body.
However, the time she needed to escape was also enough for the inquisitors to end her life.
As she saw a shadow overcast her vision, she sense that her struggle was pointless. She would die anyway, even if she had possibly escaped due to her injuries.
Gritting her teeth, she resigned to her faith and was about to destroy herself as she didn't wanted to die alone.
"Hehehe, you fooled us and even manage to kill one of us. But your luck ends here. I'll send you to hell here and now!" the war hammer man mocked and sent down his hammer.
Thinking that she would die without fulfilling her revenge, it made her mad of herself for being weak. At the same time, regret and depress as she remembered the people she killed even though they're not part of her revenge.
Only then she realized that she became exactly similar to the person she resented. She became an evil existence they called black witch, although in her heart she wasn't particularly like that.
She thought in her mind that after what she did, just for her selfish objective to kill the person that caused her so much misery, and sadness, to the point of killing innocent people, children and elderly. It was a just punishment for her to die.
Without shedding a single tear, she laughed sadly as she waited the hammer coming towards her. Treating it like an angle sending her to the afterlife, but she doubt if there was one for a person such as her.
Looking at it, she thought it was normal for a dying person to see the world slowing down, to the degree that everything had seemingly stopped.
However, after a seconds, the hammer which could kill her instantly was too slow. Then, a word echoed in her mind. "Your condition look worst. You're on the death's door already, but I can help you."
Looking at the direction of the voice, she saw a figure of a man clad in a blue clothes of common traveler. This man was someone she knew and the one she hunted.
Seeing him walk in the time stopped world, she couldn't help but question how he did it.
"Perverted bastard..." she said full of disgust and hate as she coughed up a mouthful of blood due to the severity of her condition.
"Even on the verge of death, you still can utter those words. What an unbelievable will you have. Do want some help? But it comes with a price. All you need is a nod and I will help you instantly."
She glared at him with her cold purple eyes, while she thought of what he said. Her clothes were tattered revealing her white pinkish skin with bruises that oozed with blood painting the left side of her body and face red, yet it didn't reduced her charm.
Her plan to summon a devil had backfired as the minimum number of lives needed to sacrifice wasn't enough and she hadn't had enough mana to escape and compensate for it.
Pondering deeply about Merlin's offer, she thought of his price. She only thought one thing; life is paid with life.
If she agreed to him, the outcome of her decision would result for her being in servitude for the rest of her life and she didn't want it. She still have people needed to kill and take revenge.
Although her Witch Hat had been damaged, it could still be restored by feeding it with mana, but it would be substantial and could take a long period of time. However, her current situation was not something she could evade, she urgently needed a help.
A person who could stop time like it was a casual thing, he was someone not far from the level of those people she heard of that could flatten mountain with a flip of their hands.
Those legendary figures with enough power to look in disdain over the world. If they wanted, they could enslaved the world solely on their own and no one would dare to object as they would likely die doing so.
She didn't had any attacking ability as she specialized in Summoning Magic. As she was in Dark Category, she could only summon dark affiliated beings. A Dark Category Summoning Type of Witch as they called.
Coupled with her limited Mana Reserve, she was no doubt weak in terms of attack power.
She made up her mind and looked at Merlin with smile of a defeated person, with an eyes of a person giving up as she had enough lives that stained her hands.
"I don't need your help. Maybe, this is the punishment of fate for me to atone for my sins." she said as tears trickled down her face.
Merlin sighed and replied as he turned his back on her. "Okay, then. Good luck on your journey."
Then, at that instant, everything moved again, and time returned to normal. She looked at the incoming hammer and closed her eyes.
The city massacre ended with a booming sound with dust clouding at a certain place, like something had exploded.
While at the same time, the Witch Domain vanished and let the brilliant sun which rising on the east bathed the city as the curse laid on the city and citizens dissipated along with the name, Black Witch Mistress.
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Here's another. I'm taking a breathe for awhile after some days. School exhausted me so much... And another school event is approaching. Need some preparation for this one as participating will get me plus directly on the card.
Anyway, See y'all!