Release that Witch

...

When Roland stepped into the living room, his attention was suddenly drawn by the light curtain that sheltered half a wall.

The edges of the light curtain exuded a flickering purple light as if a passageway connecting with different planes was dug through the wall. On the other side, the scene was quite dark, which looked like a huge hollow cavity under the ground. The reflections of the red river which flew in thin streams like cobwebs, lightened the rocky walls and the dome, vaguely showing the ancient ruin and its silhouette. Judging from the vivid visual effect, it should not be a built-up illusion, but a live broadcast transmitted from tens of hundreds of kilometers away.

A giant sarcomatoid monster with its tentacles spreading was facing Roland. A strange voice sounded in Roland’s head.

”I’m sorry for keeping you waiting, my respected king of Graycastle, Your Majesty Roland Wimbledon. I’m Pasha, one of the survivors of Taquila. I think you must’ve heard of us from Phyllis.”

”Ah, this is what direct communication means.” Roland sat down facing the light curtain while being joined by Nightingale, Tilly, Agatha, Wendy and Scroll. ”It’s good that you’ve talked to each other, I don’t have to introduce myself.”

”You don’t seem to be surprised by my appearance at all.” Pasha was a little surprised. ”I thought it would take quite some time before you could accept the idea that I am indeed a witch.”

”Because I’m really not a stranger to the sort of concepts such as appendages and prosthesis,” Roland thought to himself, but he said in a peaceful voice, ”With the Bloody Moon drawing near, time is precious for both of our sides. Rather than concealing from each other and suspecting each other, it’s better that we just be honest with each other from the very beginning. Since you’ve been the rulers of the continent, I guess you all agree with me?”

Pasha was startled for a moment, then burst into a light laughter. ”Phyllis was right. You’re indeed a rare and extraordinary person.”

”Only because I stand on the predecessors’ shoulders,” Roland said with his hands laid out. ”Let’s get to business. We have a common goal, and that is to fight against the demons. The purposes you sent Phyllis out with were, to search for the Chosen One and to communicate with the worldly kingdom, am I right?”

”Totally,” Pasha admitted frankly. ”At first we wanted to infiltrate secretly, then gradually recruit or control some common people to search for the Chosen One. But the failure of the church made us realize another way to success, which is to show ourselves above board and gather all the witches.”

”So you chose Graycastle as your destination?”

”According to the information that we collected, the Sleeping Island in Fjords possesses the hugest witch organization, the leader of which is your younger sister. Moreover, Graycastle is a big country which defeated the church, so choosing it as our first destination in search of the Chosen One was quite plausible. But I didn’t expect that Phyllis would connect with you so soon and bring us an astonishing message. To be honest, I thought it’d take us two to three years to achieve this.”

”Great. It seems we’ve saved two to three years of precious time. Our meeting is worthy of being written into history for this accomplishment alone,” Roland said, smiling.

”It seems so,” Pasha also smiled and said, ”but the premises are that we defeat the demons and then live and prosper in the Land of Dawn.”

”Sure, as long as the commoners and witches could drop the misunderstandings and cooperate hand in hand, demons aren’t an indestructible enemy.” Roland paused and said, ”I could also help you in your search for the Chosen One. After all, it’s not a bad thing to have one more powerful weapon to compete with the demons, but our cooperation must rest on mutual understandings. What do you think?”

”Agreed.” The tentacles on Pasha’s body waved tidily. ”If there is anything you want to know, please just ask, Your Majesty.”

Roland turned around, looked at Tilly and all the other witches, then said slowly, ”After hearing about the buried history, my biggest confusion is, what on earth did you find in the ruin? For that, Taquila took on the huge cost of breaking with Starfall City, which then led to the collapse of the Union.”

This was also one of the key reasons why Roland decided to actively contact the survivors. The technique of Soul Transfer was something that even modern science and technology could not tackle. The Instrument of Divine Retribution which the witches believed could replace the God’s Punishment Army plan and thoroughly destruct the demons, must be extraordinary. He would not blindly believe the scientific and technological knowledge he possessed was perfect. Drawing on each other’s merits and raising the level together was common sense to modern people.

As a matter of fact, he had always wanted to combine this seemingly omnipotent magic power with science and technology. When he saw the witch precisely transmit live images onto the western region castle with the aid of the objects taken from the ancient ruin, he was determined that this meeting was absolutely necessary.

There was no doubt that this must be beyond the witches ability limit.

”Pasha!”

”Are you sure you want to tell him all about it?”

”That’s God’s secret!”

”We made a big sacrifice to...”

Instantly, several voices full of worries or dissatisfaction rushed through his mind. Roland then realized that many other Taquila witches were also witnessing this meeting.

”It’s exactly because we’ve made a big sacrifice... We shouldn’t do that in vain.” Pasha interrupted the crowd’s discussion. ”If we can’t withstand the demons massive invasion, do you wish for us to bring this secret to the grave, like those tombstones we found?”

Her loud retort quietened the crowd. It was probably because she made a crucial point, nobody else stood out to object to her anymore.

This reaction drew Roland’s attention. ”It seems that what Phyllis said about the survivors was mostly true. They have, to some extent, eliminated the influence of class and status, otherwise, they wouldn’t have argued about such a major issue on the spot. But generally speaking, Pasha remains of relatively high prestige among them.”

”Sorry, this information is indeed of vital importance...” Pasha’s tentacles drooped toward the living room as though they were expressing an apology. ”Under these circumstances, it can’t remain a secret anymore. At least not between each other.” After a moment’s silence, she added, ”To be precise, it wasn’t that we found the ruin, but it was the ruin which reached out to us.”

Roland frowned, ”It reached out to Taquila?”

”Not Taquila, but a time prior to ours... approximately not long after the beginning of the first Battle of Divine Will.”

”By ’us’, does Pasha mean the entire human race?” Somehow, Roland felt a chill spreading from under his feet. ”That was almost 800 years ago.”

”That’s true. Unfortunately, we didn’t get its meaning then.” Pasha sighed. ”What reached out to us was a civilization. One that had disappeared underground.”