Release that Witch

BOOM!

Tendrils of lightning pierced through the whirlwind, and they slowly began to gather at the center as heavy rain poured on the ground, obscuring the forest. The evolved Magic Slayer and the new Transcendent stood transfixed like two austere statues. Their faces were within an inch from each other.

The wild magic power had completely covered Ashes, whose body was now emanating a dazzling golden glow.

She was the concentration point of all the divine power.

She transformed herself into a weapon of destruction.

”Is this your last resort?” Ursrook bellowed. ”You want to kill me by sacrificing yourself. That’s beyond stupidity!”

”I won’t... let you walk away,” Ashes said, panting. Every breath was painful. Blood flooded into her windpipe, and she could taste the nasty tang of blood in her mouth.

Five minutes... Ashes kept telling herself… She only needed another five minutes.

They were basically equal in power right now. As long as she did not let him go, it was impossible for the Magic Slayer to break away from her.

”Do you think I’ll fight only with brute force?” Usrook snarled, his water-streaked face contorted in a rage. ”It seems that I’m now rooted, but you are forging a cage for yourself!”

Several flashes of black light wriggled out of the Magic Slayer’s chest and dived into Ashes’ body like some sinister tentacles.

Ashes could not help but groan in agony.

She had thought nothing could be worse than a power rebound, but the black light tortured her in an even more callous and cruel way. She felt as though numerous tiny needles were attacking her veins in the brain, and she had to force herself to not pass out.

To her horror, in addition to the excruciating pain, those black tentacles started to creep up her body and spread out. The place that the black light had passed bulged as though some squirmy bugs were moving underneath her skin.

Blood spurted out from Ashes mouth. Ashes asked, ”What... what did you do?”

”A little present for you that will make you understand the difference between our understanding and control of magic power,” Ursrook whispered into Ashes’ ear. ”To tell you the truth, I should thank you. Thanks to this battle, I’ve finally evolved. Now, you are even offering yourself to me. I’m looking forward to how far I could grow after I destroy you.”

Ashes suddenly realized that this was another form of corruption. The part covered in black light felt oddly disconnected as if it had been detached from her body. Ashes bit her lip, exercising all her efforts to summon her power to fend off the corruption.

”Don’t. You. Dare. Possess me!”

As the two powers clashed, Ursrook’s face twisted, and his new body suddenly expanded into a distorted and grotesque blob that grew larger than his original size. He was misshapen, with half of the Senior Demon’s body and half of his own.

The corruption, however, continued to expand after a momentary pause, and black lines continued to creep up to Ashes’ neck.

”Great perseverance,” Ursrook commented with a callous and indecent pleasure in his voice. ”But that won’t work.” His appearance had now completely changed after the horrific transformation, and he looked like a genuine monster of lore.

”I... won’t...”

”Won’t give up? Diligence, faith, perseverance, and relentlessness are merely excuses of the weak. Nobody wants to die. However, those slogans won’t change anything, nor will they help your race to live on!”

Searing pain exploded in Ashes’s head. Her mouth opened wide like a dumb person, but there was no voice coming out.

Golden flecks shined through the swirl above, but Ashes found her power slowly abandon her.

”We have a much greater power capacity and a longer lifespan than you human beings. You’re fighting against overwhelming odds. That’s the difference that determines our fates! Both the past two Battles of Divine Will have shown that you’ll never beat us!” Ursrook lifted Ashes slowly off the ground and claimed his final judgment, ”So, rest in peace. Blame your fate for being human — ”

”Don’t you — look down upon — humankind!”

Suddenly, a familiar silvery voice came through the pouring rain, which jerked Ashes out of the unconsciousness for a moment.

She turned around with great difficulty and saw a shadow dart out from the woods.

”Is that... Lightning?”

Lightning cleaved the milky curtain of rain, passed the blackened trees and dashed towards Ursrook.

It appeared that she was also carrying something.

Ashes blinked.

”Are those... grenades?”

”Get lost, you low-life!” Ursrook immediately generated the anti-magic area.

When the black light brushed past Lightning, Lightning released the grenades and changed her course abruptly.

The grenades fell.

They sped on under the momentum toward Ursrook and sprouted their empennages.

”You — ” the demon growled, his eyes strained, and with all his remaining strength, he created the blue shield.

The next moment, explosions bloomed outside the shield, yet it was only a prelude to even more destruction. The cone-shaped bullets seething with energies created a dazzling trajectory in the air and shattered the shield with a loud crash. They slashed Ursrook’s disfigured body as if hot knives through butter, thus reducing the blob attached to him to a pulp.

The Magic Stone Ursrook had obtained from the Senior Demon crumbled under the fierce onslaught of the shrapnel.

Ursrook let out a bone-chilling shriek!

The black tentacles immediately shrank; the burning pain Ashes was feeling ceased, and she regained her consciousness.

Without slightest of hesitation, Ashes released the accumulated divine power.

The Magic Slayer realized the danger and tried to wrench the witch away, but Ashes refused to slacken her grip.

”You’re right. Human beings are weak, but nothing could stop us from moving forward. We’ll never back off,” she broke off with a tenuous smile on her face. ”Because someone is already standing ahead, pointing to us the way forward.”

Then golden thunderbolts overspread the black light and filled the entire sky.

Struck by the blinding, white-hot rays, Ursrook was evaporated without even the slightest trace of his existence left behind.

The roar of thunder spread through the Fertile Plains, leaving a long murmur of echoes.

Soon, the divine power diminished, and Ashes was alone on the vast land.

Lightning slowly rose from the ground and clenched her teeth. When she had collided into the anti-magic area, she had swayed sideways and had been thrown out before crashing into the ground. Luckily, the Magic Slayer had directed the majority of his power to the shield, which had afforded her time to synchronize her power after a narrow escape from the anti-magic area.

As a consequence, she broke one arm and scraped one side of her body.

Lightning limped to Ashes and managed a smile. ”We finally... won.”

”Yes, thank you. To be honest, I didn’t expect that you would come back.”

”That’s an explorer’s instinct. A great explorer always comes for those in need — ” Lightning stopped dead, realizing something was wrong. ”Hey, what... is happening to you?”

Ashes looked down at her hands. They were turning snow-white and became more and more transparent. She replied, ”Perhaps, this is the price I have to pay for burning myself.”

”Burning yourself... What do you mean?” Lightning pursued, stunned. Ashes gradually disintegrated into nothingness, and her long hair splintered into numerous tiny white flecks, as though she ceased to exist as a solid entity and became a misty image comprised of fireflies.

”If we want to use magic power to achieve something, it’ll lead us to what we desire, but I asked for something more than I could bear...” Ashes said softly. ”So that’s what I will turn into after merging with magic power... It’s better than becoming a monster.”

”What, what are you talking about?” Lightning asked, panic-stricken, attempting to grab Ashes’ hand, which immediately pulverized. ”Ashes, tell me. What should I do?”

”Tell Tilly that I like her.”

The dark clouds were eventually dispersed by the lazy sunbeams that spilled across the earthy land. In the slanting sun rays, Ashes closed her eyes and dissolved into the wind.

Lightning attempted to hold her back but to no vail. With her one good hand still trying to hug the air in front of her, the little girl broke into tears.

...

Lan heaved a deep sigh as she gazed at the dark sky, her eyes downcast.

After a long, melancholic silence, she closed the window and muttered as if she was asking an imaginary figure, or just talking to herself.

”What are you waiting for?”

”There’s nothing to hesitate about anymore.”

”We need to act faster. Time... is running out.”

Her last comment gave way to an inaudible sigh that dispersed into the stillness of time.