Release that Witch

One night passed quickly, and Phyllis stayed up for almost the entire night.

She shut herself up in the room and silently waited for the result. Calm as she appeared, she made countless conjectures about the reasons for the disappearance of the Chosen One; she even suspected that Roland secretly imprisoned the witch as a plaything and concealed the truth from the Witch Union.

When Wendy and Agatha came to the Foreign Affairs Building the next morning, Phyllis showed a rare tiredness—mental consumption was overwhelming for the soul and she knew that her control of the body was declining. Even her hands and feet had lost their usual flexibility.

However, she knew that she would not be able to close her eyes anyway until she heard the result.

Through cutting off consciousness, she could temporarily get rid of the shackles of the body, but her soul would still remain awake. Unless her soul could be transferred to the magic container, otherwise hiding within the consciousness would just be a way of deceiving herself. Phyllis even faintly missed the ”long sleep” now. ”The result is…”

”We found the beams of light that you mentioned.”

She did not expect the first words of Agatha to crush the burden in her heart. Phyllis blinked her eyes and whispered again for fear of missing the words, ”like a light wall?”

”That’s right, like a light wall. It does exist in the castle,” Wendy said. ”But we can’t be sure whether he’s the Chosen One you said.”

In other words, she was not mistaken.

They found the owner of the orange light!

”No... it can’t be wrong,” said Phyllis, hearing a voice in her heart cheer. ”Praise the deities! Praise the Holy City of Taquila!” ”If she can emit such a beam of light, then she must be the Chosen One we’re looking for! Is she a Senior Witch? What’s her name?”

Instead of answering her, Wendy gave her an odd expression—it seemed that she was withholding her laughter and also feeling sorry for her.

”Well, this... I’m afraid that I’ll have to disappoint you.” Wendy covered her mouth and gently coughed.

”Could something be wrong with the Five-Colors Stone?” Agatha returned the ring to her and said, ”I think you’d better contact Pasha quickly.”

Something was wrong? What on earth happened?

”Hold on...” Phyllis suddenly felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

What did Wendy say before?

[”But we can’t be sure whether he’s the Chosen One you said.”]

He?

Phyllis could not believe what she had heard and gasped. ”Is that orange light...”

”It’s from His Majesty Roland Wimbledon,” Agatha said with a shrug. ”Besides me, Nightingale, Anna, Wendy... all the witches living on the second floor of the castle saw it. I also tested him with the Stone of Measuring and he had no magic power as usual.”

”The weapon you mentioned to defeat the demons... must its manipulator be a witch?” Wendy finally could not resist chuckling. ”It would sound good if His Majesty could become a hero who defeats the demons.”

Phyllis’s heart suddenly sank. ”Although the instrument of Divine retribution doesn’t require much magic power of the Chosen One, it doesn’t mean that it can be activated without magic power. After all, it’s a type of magic core, and the total amount of magic power of its manipulator determines how many times it can be used.”

It’s impossible... maybe something is wrong.

”But yesterday I didn’t see the orange light above his head...”

”It’s strange indeed. The beam of light disappeared after Roland woke up,” said Agatha, stroking her chin, ”and that’s why you could only see it at night. Of course, we also asked His Majesty about it. His answer was that Zero’s Soul Battlefield led him to another fictional world in his dream, just like an extra part of his memory.”

”Zero? Soul Battlefield?” Phyllis asked hastily, ”What’s that?”

”The last Pope of the Church of Hermes,” Wendy briefly explained the battle in which Roland defeated the church, ”perhaps this caused the misjudgment of the magic stone ring. His Majesty was also quite surprised by the result. He also said that if you wanted to verify it, you could do so again at noon.”

After a long silence, she gritted her teeth and said, ”Yes, I want to see it again.”

…

Agatha and Wendy did not deceive her. Under the supervision of the witches and guards, Phyllis once again saw the beam of orange light as wide as a city wall, and its source was the sleeping king of Graycastle.

At that moment, she felt all her energy was drained and a strong dizziness hit her. She trembled and fell on the floor, leaning against the door frame. She had already been mentally exhausted, and in an instant, the boundless darkness engulfed her.

When Phyllis regained consciousness, she found herself lying in bed. She saw darkness outside the window but did not see any stars or moonlight. The north wind hit the glass rhythmically and caused intermittent tremors of the window frame.

”Are you awake?”

A familiar voice emerged next to her ears.

She turned her head and found that Agatha was sitting at her bedside.

”How long was I in a coma?”

”For about half a day or so,” said the Ice Witch, reaching out to smooth down her hair on her forehead, ”your reaction really shocked Nightingale.”

”Sorry, I’m fine now...” Phyllis whispered.

Though she tried to comfort herself, she did not feel better at all. She had finally found the so-called Chosen One, who turned out to be a common person. It was no less shocking than the fall of both Natalia and Alice.

The belief of Lady Natalya, the persistence of Taquila survivors... and plan of the Chosen One, were the reason all of them had been preparing for hundreds of years, yet it all finished in such a dramatic manner. Even though there were hundreds of witches on the Sleeping Island and Leaf’s quality was close to the requirements of the Chosen One, she could predict that it would still be an insurmountable gap.

Perhaps their choice was not much better than that of the Starfall City.

”I don’t quite understand how you view the Chosen One, but... even without such a witch, we have fought the demons for hundreds of years, haven’t we? I thought witches who have survived such disasters would be able to handle any situation,” Agatha said slowly.

”But we have failed twice, and we were forced to retreat from the Land of Dawn to the corner of the Wild. If we lose again...”

”Then let’s defeat the demons,” Agatha interrupted her. ”I don’t know what you have found in the maze ruins and why you devoted all your hope to it. However, I think if it’s really effective, it shouldn’t be a part of the ’ruins’. During these 400 years, the common people outside haven’t stopped making progress, and there is more than one way to defeat the demons. Just like Roland said, common people could also defeat the demons by reasonably using the hidden forces of the world.”

Phyllis looked at Agatha with tangled feelings. She was about to present her doubts but could not bring herself to do so in front of Agatha’s confident demeanor.

”By the way, he added that there was more than one key to the deities, and that he had one as well. Maybe you should have a look before you contact the witches of Taquila.”

”His... key?” Phyllis was shocked.

”Well, the key of ’art’,” Agatha replied.

…