High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2985: Chapter 29: Nikita (Part 2)

”——Life is like wearing clothes, buttoning. Most people button up their clothes step by step. But there are always some people who accidentally button them incorrectly. Just like making mistakes in life. And once the first button is wrong, the subsequent ones will follow suit.”

”——The only difference is that if buttons are wrong, you can undo and rebutton them. But life is hard to live over again.”

Zhang Yu stood at the tip of a Return Soul Poplar, looking at the distant area shrouded in black clouds, filled with intense magic fluctuations, sighed with emotion.

Violet stood not far away on another poplar’s tree tip. Peter, Ani, and Joan, three students participating in graduation practice, were also scattered on several other tall trees nearby, so they clearly heard the leader of the First University Assistant Corps’ words. They knew that these words weren’t meaningless sentiment, but a reminder to them.

In contrast to the solemnity of the classmates at the moment.

Violet cared more about Zhang Yu’s phrasing—he used ’life is hard to live over again’ instead of ’life cannot be lived over again’—this subtle difference might only be truly appreciated by Wizards from the First University.

Buzz!

Silent tremors spread from afar.

Five radiant stars were lit one by one in sunlight, they were the magical glories of five ’Edge Type One’, distributed around the area covered by black clouds, serving as nodes for the magic circle, connected by slender, materialized magic channels.

A thin light film extended from underground upwards and finally closed in the sky.

With the cooperation of Edge Type One and the assistants, the birdcage-like Heaven Luo Ground Net truly formed, encompassing both the witch undergoing Dao and the Alliance’s A-level warrant of arrest.

”Why not continue with the initial plan?”

Violet couldn’t help but glance at Zhang Yu—she referred to the plan she had come into contact with in the Assistant Corps for encircling Nikita—rather than the current passive containment strategy.

Zhang Yu glanced at the purple-haired witch, seemingly guessing her thoughts.

”Every task has a backup plan, akin to a Hunting Ground, the team must adapt to the actual situation on the field.” After speaking patiently, the leader of the Assistant Corps turned to another topic: ”——I know you seem to hold a shred of hope for a certain legendary possibility. But in fact, relying solely on us can’t stop Teacher Zhou’s Dao process. Instead, we may be inadvertently harmed by her indiscriminate Dao concept. Fortunately, her main target is Nikita, saving us much trouble... from a more utilitarian and cold viewpoint, this is even better than the best scenario we anticipated.”

Without paying a single bit of cost, they could obtain a dead trophy.

Indeed, very profitable.

Violet sighed softly in her heart, lowered her eyes to the black-cloud-covered place, clasped her hands on her chest, and uttered a prayer quietly, seeking inner peace:

”——Let us pray together to commemorate the warriors who sacrificed in battles hunting demons. Reciting their names is the greatest blessing to their souls. We are wizards, death is not the end of existence, those sacrificed warriors haven’t truly disappeared. They are eternally with magic. We pray for the hunters fighting with hope and belief, also for those warriors who have died.”

...

...

”——Zhou Zhou?”

In the forest clearing, the witch undergoing Dao stared hard at the Little Witch before her, extending her hand seemingly about to touch her face, yet trembling, not daring to reach out the final distance.

”It’s me, Mom.”

The Little Witch however had no such hesitation, smiling, leaned her face over, brushing against her fingertip. Like a kitten seeking owner’s affection.

The warm touch felt just like memories, the witch undergoing Dao grasped desperately like a drowning person grabbing onto a straw, held tight, drawing her into her embrace, stroked greedily, kissed, murmured: ”——You, how is your life? No, I mean, are you okay... No, how could you be okay?”

She babbled incoherently, black tears streaming down her face.

The tears appeared to wash away some of her indifference in her eyes, a trace of humanity returned.

The Little Witch consoled by patting her shoulder.

Gently wiped away the black tear stains on her face.

”Actually, it’s not that bad.”

She sighed like a little adult, rambled: ”Instead of struggling on the brink of transformation every day, becoming like this is quite good. Sometimes it’s hard to discern if I’m alive or dead... But how many people in this world can distinguish such things? Just like Zhuzhu said, don’t keep clinging to your obsessions, it makes life exhausting... Zhuzhu, is this what you meant?”

She turned to look at the Little Female Demon with Zhu Si’s face, exquisite in appearance, beside her.

The Faceless Demon shrank back in fear, shook his head quickly, trying hard to distance himself from this dialogue.

The Little Witch pouted, continued saying: ”——Moreover, living alone is very hard, living together with someone is much easier, not only can we watch the sun, watch the moon, watch the stars together, but also share toys, pets, and jewelry...”

Saying so, she lifted her wrist proudly, showing her mother the big black bracelet.

The chopstick-thick bracelet was a three-headed Black Flood Dragon biting its own tail.

”——Um, delete the last point.” The Little Witch shook her head slightly: ”This bracelet is too ugly, give it all to Nikita, I don’t want it. Over all these years, her taste hasn’t improved at all.”

The three words ’Nikita’ snapped Teacher Zhou back from the moment of warmth.

She reluctantly gazed at the giggling Little Witch in her arms.

Held her tightly.

”Yes, living alone is too hard, I won’t let you continue to suffer.”

She murmured, looking up at the sky where the black clouds suddenly churned crazily, the black robe she wore spread out like spilled ink, extending outward, like a slowly opening big mouth, swallowing the girl in her arms bit by bit: ”——You came from my belly, should go back...”

The Little Witch felt herself sinking into a huge swamp, instinctively reaching out to the only companion.

Zhuzhu hesitated for a second, then decisively jumped beside Zhou Zhou, grabbing her small arm, pulling hard outward, seemingly trying to pull her out of the blackness.

No surprises.

He too sank along.

The churning black clouds finally descended onto the forest clearing, merged with the prostrate black robe, they entangled, wriggled, eventually became a huge black bird.

The Big Bird spread its wings, smoothed the feathers on its back.

Its head raised, glanced at the pale gold light film overhead, opened its mouth, emitting a hoarse screech, then, spread its wings, just lightly pecked, shattered the binding Array, and with another flap, transformed into a stream of light, disappearing from everyone’s sight. A few Edge Type Ones were caught off guard, after reacting, they all got up, chased, but visibly, the distance kept widening.

Peter watched this scene blankly, secretly nudged Ani Black beside him.

”——Is Dao like this?” He felt the scene before him seemed different from the ’dissipating into heavens and earth’ kind of Dao he knew.

Coming from a noble clan, Black was similarly puzzled: ”——No! Why did a big bird appear? That’s a crow right? Are those the crows we know?”

Professor Montreya’s Black Magic organization, with those A-level warrants suddenly surfaced, was known by more and more people, Crow’s name became more widespread.

Violet hesitated looking at Zhang Yu.

The leader of the First University Assistant Corps frowned, shook his head slightly: ”Nearly law-level shifting speed, can’t catch up... Dao’s ultimate end is void, Teacher Zhou was indeed undergoing Dao no doubt... Moreover, just now there was no sign of life on it, just a loose mass of magic, likely to slowly disperse during the escape, rare but can’t deny this possibility, theoretically, we can conclude the task succeeded... Record site data from various dimensions, gather and sort related materials, this would make a great graduation dissertation.”

He said the last sentence to the three young hunters about to graduate.