Release that Witch

The man who looked like Ellington sneered, ”Monster? Isn’t this body created by you? You made this kind of extraordinary warrior with the witches’ blood and God’s Stones of Retaliation, but unfortunately, they were defective. Because of the lack of key steps, they don’t have souls, but you still placed great hope on them. You believe these soulless semi-finished products can compete with demons on the battlefields, but now when you see a real finished product you call it a ’monster’?”

”A real... finished product?” Tayfun’s heart began to thump, as he found this man seemed to know better than himself the process of creating God’s Punishment Army, a top secret of the church.

”All-out attack, kill them all!” the Praetorian Guard ordered.

The ten God’s Punishment Warriors following him quickly came to the front to protect the Archbishop. They moved incredibly fast, lunging at the invaders.

However, these invaders were also God’s Punishment Warriors and even stronger than them.

They did not outnumber the church’s warriors, but they fought much more skillfully. They lured them close and broke them apart. Every time one of the church’s warriors was fighting against someone in front of him, he would soon get attacked from behind. Under such circumstances, even Tayfun could tell it was better to retreat. However, a church’s warrior would not know how to react unless his controller, the Praetorian Guard, gave him further orders. Controlling 10 warriors at the same time, the guard was unable to take care of every situation in this fight, so the church’s warriors were clearly at a disadvantage to the invaders who were equally strong but could act independently.

These extraordinary warriors of the church soon lost their combat capability when they were separated.

The invaders quickly killed them all without any casualties.

The leader of the invaders, ”Ellington”, easily hacked the Praetorian Guard to death at the end of the fight. After that, he lifted his sword and put it on the old Bishop’s shoulder, who was standing petrified with shock.

The black-blue blood of the church’s God’s Punishment Warriors and the red blood of the Praetorian Guard mixed on the blade and dripped into Tayfun’s collar.

Tayfun said with a trembling voice, ”You... can’t kill me. If I die, the Holy City will collapse... When that happens, who will stop the demonic beasts? If they break through the defense line of Hermes, I’m afraid the four kingdoms will fall into—”

The leader of the invaders interrupted, ”Fall into ruins? Save it. You can deceive ignorant believers with this story, but we know what those demonic beasts are looking for. If it was not you that brought them here, why would those dumb beasts swarm to this trap of ice and snow during Months of Demons when the magic power is at its peak every year?”

”What... I don’t understand what you mean...”

This leader looking like Ellington shrugged and said, ”What? It seems that you’ve not even seen the relic. What a pity.”

The bishop was about to say something, but suddenly he felt cold in his neck. Soon endless torpor and coldness occupied his mind.

***************

Elena kicked the old man’s head up, sending it flying and saw his body slowly fall down to the ground. She took back her sword in satisfaction and said, ”Let’s go. Time to finish our task.”

Someone pulled her back from behind, saying, ”Wait, you’re hurt. Stop the bleeding first, or your body will get out of control.”

”Where’s the wound?”

”In your waist. You’ve got to take off the armors first.”

Elena cursed, ”This damn body. It doesn’t feel a thing at all.” She took off her chest and back armors, revealing a well-built upper body.

”Gee, look at this. It would cost at least fifty gold royals back in Taquila. To be honest, have you ever looked into the mirror and...”

The one who was treating Elena’s wound interrupted, ”Come on, Betty. Isn’t that kind of fantasies like torture for us? I don’t even dare to recall the days in Taquila. As compared to the life in the past, my life now resembles being imprisoned in a cage of endless void.”

Someone immediately agreed with her, saying, ”Carol is right. If someone can make me feel what it’s like to sleep with a man again, I’ll give anything to marry him... No, I’ll even treat him as my lord.”

”A man? Come on. I’ll be satisfied if I can eat delicious fried steak with butter again.”

”I just want to do some sunbathing...”

”Damn it, who brought up this subject?”

”Miss Betty.”

”I just wanted to make some casual conversations. This is the body I wanted to have in the first place...”

Elena got a little upset and shouted, ”Stop it! Don’t forget the purpose of our trip! The others were still waiting for us at the top of the tower. Concentrate your mind!”

She led the team into the secret tunnel after Carol finished treating the wound.

They got up to the library through the tunnel. Another group of witches looking like God’s Punishment Warriors were waiting there.

These witches were the remaining members of the Union.

Elena sighed in her heart,”Lady Natalya, have you seen? We win in the end.”

She asked, ”Have you found the location of the relic?”

Zooey, the leader of the other team, came up and said, ”The old place. Everything is arranged in the same way as that in the Holy City of Taquila. By the way, why did you spend so much time down there? Are you sure that you didn’t let go of a person?

Elena coughed twice and said, ”Of course, everything went well, so by agreement...”

”We’ll touch the relic together.”

She nodded, saying, ”That’s it. Let’s get started.”

This relic, the deities’ legacy, was the origin of Battles of Divine Will and the top secret of the Union. In fact, before the collapse of the witches’ empire, none of them had known about it. When the old order had disintegrated and they had hidden underground, all the survivors like them had finally heard it from the Three Chiefs.

From then on, they had become equals and formed a classless group searching for the way of defeating demons, as they had been clear that each and every survivor of the Union would have been equally important in this process.

Thinking that she was going to touch an object created by deities, Elena felt her heart was beating faster.

However, she knew it was just an illusion, as she could feel nothing in this body.

Following Zooey, she walked through a trapdoor behind a book shelf and got up to the top of the library.

Up there, she saw a narrow room without a window, which had nothing inside except a Magic Stone giving out the dim blue light above her head.

”Is this the Prayer Room mentioned by Pasha?”

”Yes.” Zooey lifted up an iron hammer and smashed it against the wall. With a dull thud, it left only a small white spot on the wall.

”It doesn’t seem to be here,” she said and chose another position to hammer. After several attempts, the wall area opposite to the entrance cracked.

”Find it! Come here to help me,” Zooey said.

Elena drew out her long sword and came up. They struck at the wall together and soon opened a gap which was half their height.

Looking at the gap, they found that the broken wall was almost as thick as half an arm’s length and both sides of the wall were brushed with a thick layer of mortar. Given that, they could never find this section of hollow wall simply by knocking at the walls and listening to the knocking sound. Looking through the gap, they found an even smaller secret chamber instead of another passage leading to the underground.

In this chamber, Elena saw the relic of deities.