Release that Witch

...

The Farsight carried Wendy and Sylvie to the Swirling Sea, while Lightning and Maggie hovered on each side of the basket, waiting to fetch them whenever needed.

Since their mission was not to investigate the Devil’s Town, they did not fly too high. As soon as they flew over the snowcap, Sylvie could look straight through the rocks and cliffs along the bank and catch sight of the Eye Demon on the top of the Blackstone Pagoda.

According to Agatha, Eye Demons did not need to really ”see” people, because they could sense and locate their enemies upon being noticed. Nobody could possibly escape their scrutiny, neither the invisible nor the ones descending from the sky unless blindfolded. Because of this, eye demons had caused a great number of casualties among the commando of the Blessed Army.

Another option was to restrain from looking at eye demons. However, this was fairly hard to achieve due to the fact that eye demons normally stood at the highest point of the campgrounds.

”How did things go? Did you see it?” Lightning flew over to ask Sylvie.

”I need to get a bit closer, otherwise I can’t hold up well,” Sylvie answered while rubbing her eyes. It took her a lot of magic power to look through obstacles with the Eye of Magic. Her sight was largely restricted, too. Although she had cautiously managed to reduce her vision to a straight line of sight, she still felt quite dizzy when she captured the details of the fractured precipice.

”I see.” Wendy summoned a gust of wind. ”Hold on.”

As the rocks gradually got clearer, the thin red mist slowly entered their sights. Although it was a clear day, a cloud of mist still lingered around the cliff, except that it was a lighter color than the last time they had seen it.

Sylvie fixed her eyes once again on the mist. This time, she was finally able to see some earth through the dense mist. A few edifices shaped like towers loomed against the red mist, and the whole scene was like a deserted land.

She soon spotted the biggest black stone spire.

Compared with the random intrusion last time, the operation this time was carefully planned. They would first startle demons and then induce them to launch an attack. Unlike Lightning who was always airy and energetic, Sylvie just wanted to live an ordinary life. By no means, she wanted to be an explorer. However, as she was destined to fight the Battle of Divine Will, there was no way for her to stand by no matter how much she hated wars. Just like she had promised Tilly to come to Border Town for the purpose of checking whether Roland was manipulated by witches, she obeyed the order in the same way when Roland disclosed his attacking plan without much hesitation.

She had come to check upon Roland for the benefits of all the witches on Sleeping Island. Now she fought for the Witch Union and the entire Kingdom of His Majesty’s.

Sylvie took a deep breath and moved her sight upward.

In an instant, hundreds of eyeballs came into her view. The black jelly-like monster was still sitting at its usual spot. Its body had fused with the tower top as if it had grown out of the stone. All of its eyeballs turned to Sylvie simultaneously. She could even catch a glimpse of her own face in those black gleamy eyeballs!

For a second, all her hair stood up on its end, and a chill went down her spine.

”They’re coming!” She withdrew her power and shouted aloud.

”Let’s go!”

”Aw!” Maggie immediately turned into a gigantic devilbeast and paused below the basket. Sylvie jumped off the basket and landed firmly on Maggie’s broad back, while Lightning carried Wendy on her back and flew toward the Misty Forest. Unlike the last trip where they had been panicked and frightened, this time they were fully prepared. According to the plan, Lightning would return to where the empty hydrogen balloon was alone and further lure the demons into their traps.

Meanwhile, Sylvie turned around and looked back.

Five black dots emerged on the cliff. This number was higher than what Agatha had predicted, but it was still within the safe limit.

Nevertheless, she noticed something unusual with the help of the Eye of Magic.

Out of the five enemies, only four rode devilbeasts, and two of them were very different from regular mad demons. They did not have a big body build, nor did they have strong arms. They were not wearing animal skins or armors as mad demons usually did either, but were in a colorful cope that glowed like a rainbow. Sylvie could not figure out what the cope was made of at first glance. However, she could see something swarming and wriggling underneath the cope like numerous vipers.

The heads of the two demons were bigger than those of regular mad demons. Yet, their eyes and noses were not distinctive. Their faces were the creepiest kinds she had ever seen. They looked like two big scars, with red furrows and ridges extending from the center.

When she rested her eyes on the last demon, Sylvie was stunned.

The demon was wearing a weighty but delicate armor, with a giant heavy sword on his back. Nonetheless, he was not slow in the slightest but flew right after the four devilbeasts.

His face was totally covered by a helmet. Unlike the skull helmet mad demons normally wore, this particular helmet was made of metal, in perfect match with his armor. On both sides of the helmet engraved sophisticated patterns. Several sharp horns, which looked like Blackstone Pagodas at first sight, stuck out from the top. The part where his eyes should be was gleaming with red light, making the demon look vicious and aggressive.

”What kind of demon is he?” thought Sylvie.

Sylvie was taken by fright and horror. As Agatha had never told her how to cope with this situation, she wondered whether she should still follow the original plan.

Sylvie felt terribly uneasy.

She followed Wendy to the deep forest. When she descended from Maggie’s back, she saw a golden figure sprang up into the air and flew toward the balloon at a tremendous speed.

It was impossible for her to stop Lightning.

After some hesitation, Sylvie felt necessary to inform Agatha of the news. She patted Maggie on her wings and said, ”Take me to the ambush area!”

”What’s wrong?” Wendy trotted to her. ”Don’t we need to meet with the First Army next?”

They had been instructed during the maneuver to leave the main battlefield and meet with the First Army as soon as possible after successfully luring demons into the ambush, given that they two were not strong enough to compete against demons.

”I saw some strange demons.” Sylvie shook her head. ”The enemies are not only mad demons. I’ve got to tell everybody!”

”But the ambush area is pretty large, aw!” Maggie threw herself flat on her face. ”It may take you a while to find them even if you go.”

”That’s fine. Just take me there.” She returned to the beast’s back and turned to Wendy. ”You go meet with the Army at the riverbank. I’ll be right back.”

...

Lightning flew as fast as she could. The wind whistled in her ears. She saw the earth, woods, rivers and beaches below quickly shrink and obscure, turning into various color blocks and distorted lines.

She must get back to where the hydrogen balloon was before the demons did so. In order to attract the enemies’ attention, she had to pretend to be fleeing in a hurry.

When the vast ocean gradually came into her view, she finally caught sight of the Farsight, as well as the demons.