“Aw man, if this was a normal game I’d have resetted a long time ago…” Kukis shook her head upon hearing what happened to Wendy. The girls were all gathered up in the village square, and were talking on top of the upside-down fountain.
“I know right?” Q let out a depressed sigh. “There’s nothing we can really do about it though. Unless this game has some sort of ‘cure everything potion’.”
“Actually, this game just so happens to have something like that.” Cinnamon casually tossed out some ridiculous information.
“Hey, say that earlier! Where can we find that potion?”
“I’m sorry for getting your hopes up Q, but this potion doesn’t do what you’re thinking of. It cures all status conditions, and what Wendy’s going through isn’t considered a status condition. Besides, it isn’t available in the game yet anyway.”
“Hmm… and how do you know about such a potion?” Phanos asked with interest.
“Insider information.” Cinnamon smiled mysteriously. Phanos tried to get more information out of her, but Cinnamon ignored her attempts.
The girls continued to talk with each other, until Q suddenly remembered something very important. “Ah, I’ll be back in a second guys. I have to get Alrune’s diary from the Grand Witches.” Q flew towards the town hall and asked for some directions to whichever Grand Witch was nearest. She was eventually directed to Caryll, the Grand Witch of the Void, who was actually reading the diary on a table filled with stacks of paper.
“Oh, hello Q. I presume you’ve come for this?” She pointed at the diary.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. Apparently there’s a lot of stuff written about runes in it, and it completely slipped my mind until Morrigan reminded me.”
“Morrigan?” Caryll tilted her head in confusion.
“The Guardian of Wisdom.”
“My, to think you’ve become friendly with those large beasts. Well go ahead and take his diary. It is your right as his only apprentice after all.”
“Thanks, though I’m not sure if I was ever officially appointed as his apprentice… By the way are you sure you don’t need it anymore?”
“Yes, we’ve already copied the contents and have it somewhere else for safekeeping. I must say though, the powers of these runes are really something.” Caryll extended a finger and it began glowing brightly. Slowly moving her hand, she made a rune for void which quickly faded away.
“You guys can also use rune magic?” Q widened her eyes in surprise.
“Haha, not quite. Gathering magic power and forming them into runes is quite a difficult task. Because I’ve constantly been researching runes, i’m the only one out of the Grand Witches who can even get as far as creating a simple rune. You’re quite amazing to be able to do this consistently.”
“You think? It’s not like it takes a lot of effort on my part.” Q drew the same rune except it was done more quickly and glowed brighter than the one that Caryll made. “Though that might just be because my class is Runemaster.”
“That could be a factor… Hmm…” Caryll turned around and began writing furiously on the papers on the desk. Not wanting to interrupt her, Q left quietly and exited the town hall.
Just as she jumped onto her staff, she felt a shiver go down her spine and looked around for the cause of it. There was nothing in sight so she flew up like normal, but when she got into the sky she noticed that a lot of the witches who were flying around started to lose control and fell from the skies. “Is their magic going haywire? What in the world…?” A message notice shook her out of her stupor, and she began to read it.
Hold up.
Q looked to the south and what she saw that the trees were snapped and bending inwards to the village, as if something from the outside had knocked them down. She focused on the point where the trees were broken, and saw that there were people jumping out.
“Q! I felt the barrier break! What’s going on?” Pamerun and a few other witches unsteadily flew up beside Q.
“I… think we’re being invaded.”
“What!?”
“They’re wearing bright golden armor with the symbol of… a star? Or a sun.” When Q fully concentrated she was able to barely make out the details on the people.
“The Holy Church of Luxus…” Pamerun’s face paled. “How did they find this place?”
“Who cares!” One of the witches following Pamerun spoke up. “Our enemy has appeared, so let’s get rid of them!”
““Yeah!”” The other witches got riled up, but Pamerun extinguished their passion with her next words.
“Fools! Our spells have weakened and they’ve probably brought an army to kill us all! Now’s not the time to think of fighting, but how to reduce casualties and escape!” Just as she finished saying this, the trees in all the directions of the village began to crack and bend.
We’re being invaded by the Church of Luxus.
They’re moving to kill
Warn everyone!
“I asked my friends to spread the word but… I’m not sure we can reach everyone in time.”
“Don’t underestimate us witches! We can still form a message relay even with this spell weakening.” Pamerun concentrated and let out a wave of wind mana which managed to travel for 500 meters before dissipating. “Q, would you and your friends help us with this?”
“Of course!”
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[New Quest!] - Defeat the Invaders
[Objective] - Defeat the Church of Luxus -OR- make them retreat
[Failure Condition] - 75% of The Church’s forces get into the village -OR- 50% of the Witches are dead.
[Rewards] - Varies
I’m moving to the northwest area.
Can you all take care of the other places?
No. Protect as many as you can.
No, runes are working fine for some reason.
Anyway, we try to repel them as best we can.
Remember we can’t communicate once we start fighting.
Meet back up in the square in 30 minutes if nothing changes.
“Pfft.” Q snickered reading that last comment. She’s probably saying something like ‘how dare she order milady to go into a dangerous area!’ Well enough screwing around. Time to beat back these invaders!
*****
(Players POV)
Finally, some action! I glanced back at the large amounts of soldiers and players waiting to get in through the south treeline. Honestly, I can’t believe we had to wait for the church to gather such a large army. Us players can handle this place perfectly fine. In fact, quite a lot of us bought items with high magic resistance just for this fight. There’s sure to be a lot of loot after we raid the place, so the money we paid can easily be gained back. Well, that’s what I thought when we first signed up for this quest, and yet…
“...What the hell is going on here?”
I watched, wide-eyed as ridiculously powerful magic attacks were shot at us. Luckily I was to the far left of the first wave so I wasn’t targeted, but the soldiers and players in the middle began taking heavy damage. Aren’t they supposed to be weakened!? I screamed in my mind.
There were multiple things set up by the church when they learned the existence of the Witch Village. First and foremost was a weakening barrier which they spent almost half a day setting up. It was pretty hard doing that without getting spotted by the witches, but according to the priests, it was necessary to fight them, and now I can see why. If this is their magic attacks when weakened, what the heck are they at normal strength?
Their magical attacks weren’t just doing a lot of damage to us, but also to the surroundings. The earth shook, the wind howled, and the entire forest seemed to be mocking us for our trespassing. Then I began to hear voices in my head. I crouched down and tried to shut them out, but they just kept coming! For a second I thought I’d lose my mind, when all of a sudden a glow of light appeared around me and my mind was cleared.
“Aw man, if our vanguard is affected this strongly, then we’re in for a load of hurt.” The familiar voice of my friend came from behind me.
“T-thanks Coal.” I gave him a nod and grabbed my shield which had dropped at some point.
“No problem. The soldiers broke some traps the witches set up which weakened us. Pretty crafty but… they’re no match for my buffs! [Raging Aura]!”
I felt power swell in my body, and the weakened state I was in earlier all but disappeared. Instead, I let out a hearty roar from my throat and ran into the fray, blocking the spells which were suddenly much weaker. Since the center line was weakened, I ended up at the front of the charge and felt a strange sense of unity with the other soldiers. At this point archers began showing up, causing the witches to quickly give up their assault and flee. A few got caught by some arrows and then dropped from the sky, unmoving.
“Hey, they have no defenses! Ignore the magic attacks and press on!” I yelled back to my comrades. They responded in kind, and we charged forth with new vigor. Just as we made it halfway towards the village, someone appeared in front of us. Is that… a maid? Seeing such an odd figure on a battlefield made me temporarily halt my steps. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the fallen witches get dragged away by some people, but the maid gathered most of my attention.
“Good evening to you fine fellows.” The maid smiled. “This may be presumptuous of me, but may I request you to peacefully leave? Honestly, it would-”
“Shut up you witch!” One of the soldiers behind me yelled.
“...Witch? Do I look like a witch to you?” The maid tilted her head.
“Anything living in this village is evil! Prepare to be smited with Luxus’ light!” The soldier responded, then readied his weapon. The others behind him did the same and were about to charge, but the maid simply sighed upon seeing this.
“...and here I was thinking I could show milady that conflicts can be solved with words alone…” Since I was closest to her, I could just barely make out her words. “Oh well.” Her smile vanished, and then her figure disappeared. I, as well as the rest of the soldiers were shocked, but that shock doubled when the maid suddenly appeared in front of me.
“That’s one.” She vanished again, and before I could even turn to look for her I felt a sharp pain in my neck. My eyes gradually looked down, and I saw a knife sticking out of my throat! I tried to grab and pull it out, but all strength in my body was lost. A look at my status screen showed I was [Weakened], [Poisoned], [Bleeding] and [Paralyzed]. My body fell to the ground in a position where I could see what was happening behind me, and the last thing I saw was dozens of soldiers falling over, just like I was…
*****
(Head Priest’s POV)
Hahaha! All of our preparation is paying off! At last, we can finally destroy those vile witches once and for all! At first I thought that hiring adventurers was pointless, but they turned out to be an unexpected boon. First, they found the Witch’s village, which we thought to be near impossible to find. Then they began contributing heavily to our cause, for just a few coins and random items we had accumulated over the years. They almost seem like mercenaries in a sense, but it’s even better since they can’t die and keep coming back, eager to help again.
The adventurers weren’t our only expenses, as we also had to pay a hefty sum for soldiers, their equipment and supplies. It’s worth it though, as no price is too high to get a chance to destroy these spawns of evil. I have had dreams of destroying them ever since I heard my predecessor speak of the atrocities they have committed. My predecessor, and his, and even further back have all constantly been passing down warnings and hate-filled words for the vile witches, and I had made it my personal quest to exterminate them from this world.
Of course, everything had to be perfect. Everything was personally managed by me. Well, except for the unit tactics and positions which were taken over by some upstart adventurer, but even I have to admit their tactics are better than mine… Slightly. After the barrier was activated we immediately began breaking down their defenses and the treeline. The adventurers were particularly useful here, as they had quite a few techniques that allowed them to easily take down the trees. Once we broke in we were assaulted by a few witches, but of course they couldn’t even put a scratch on our defenses.
Hmm? What...? Our soldiers are dying you say? How odd. Though, no matter how much the witches struggle it’s useless. There are at least 1500 soldiers I hired -not including the adventurers- who have all surrounded the village. Our prided Sunlight Warriors were also ready and waiting. The witches don’t stand a chance! At least, that’s what I thought…
“...What in the world is this?”
A single witch was floating in the air above us, looking down with a frown. My surprise didn’t come from her presence, but from what she’d done. The moment we were about to finish off the witches who fell to the ground, she appeared and single handedly beat back all of the soldiers. At the same time she even managed to heal those witches, and sent them off, leaving herself alone. This strength and power… it must be a Grand Witch, I thought. Wonderful, I’ve always wanted to kill one!
The surprises weren’t over yet though. Despite all spells being weakened she still sent out devastating attacks and even more shockingly, nullified ours. Her agile movements in the air allowed her to easily dodge any arrows shot at her, and in exchange she would bombard us with spells of all elements. She only stopped attacking when we stopped advancing, and now we were at a standstill.
“So… how are you all doing this morning? Or is it night? I can’t tell with all the fog around us...” She said nonchalantly. I was about to order my soldiers to continue, when one of the adventurers spoke up.
“Hey… aren’t you the player Q? I recognize those fox ears and tail! Especially that tail…”
“Yeah, I am. Though I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on, I figured I’d ask. What are you doing?”
“Obviously we’re here to destroy you witches!” I yelled. Although the adventurers were useful, I had to remember that they were also very dangerous. To think that one of them had fallen to the evils of the witches… the very thought disgusts me.
“Oooh, a sparkly priest dude.” The witch formed an irritating grin on her face. “Alright, let me rephrase my question. Why are you doing this?”
“Hmph. We’re only wiping out the evi-”
“I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to the players.” Since I was interrupted, I impulsively let out one of my stronger spells, wanting to eviscerate her in a second. Ridiculously enough, my spell dissipated before even reaching her! “Huh. So I had more magic power than a priest? Or is it just the rune… Anyway, you guys answer me. Why are you attacking the witches who have remained peaceful for centuries?”
“Uhh… It’s a quest?” One of the adventurers answered uncertainly.
“I see… so for a quest you’d invade a peaceful village of incredibly nice people.”
“Your village is filled with monsters, and evil!” One of the soldiers yelled. Yes, I thought, expose them for what they really are!
“Oh? So you’re just assuming that the people in this village are bad, despite never meeting them, talking to them, or even attempting to understand them a little?” The witch’s demeanour became more threatening.
“I…” The adventurer she was speaking to looked back at his comrades for an answer, but they shrugged their shoulders.
How troublesome. To think these adventurers were so weak-willed. No matter. In times like this it’s up to the leader to reassure his subordinates. “Listen up you all! For every witch you kill, I’ll give you a handsome reward! Whoever kills the most will get to pick out any item from our own vault!” The adventurers looked like they needed one last push. “Turning your back now will have you branded as a traitor!” For a moment they seemed conflicted, but then their eyes began to cloud with greed.
“Sorry Q.” The adventurer said. “It’s a quest after all, and I don’t want to get on the bad side of the Church.”
“Haa…” The witch sighed and looked up to the sky. Apparently she made her resolve, as when she looked back down her eyes were filled with determination. “I guess we’re doing things the hard way, huh?” Her fingertips glowed with magical energy and my soldiers responded in kind.
“Attack!” I yelled to my soldiers.
“Heh. Bring it on!”