Volume 3, Chapter 50 – The Second Sun!

The apprentice witches’ formation quickly dispersed. Although they had lost Latania’s command, they still unanimously chose the most efficient spell, [Falling Rocks]. This First Rank spell consumed very little mana but was very effective against the monsters climbing the city wall. Even a rock the size of a wooden basin could instantly kill three or four Fire-striped Frogs. The rocks used by some of the more capable apprentices could even knock a two-meter-tall lava sea urchin off the wall.

As for the official witches, like Latania and the others, they had already dispersed to more distant parts of the wall to relieve the pressure on the defenders.

It was worth noting that not far from the apprentice witches, some men in the same standard equipment had also arrived. These men were not all magic casters; nearly half of them were warriors. They dealt with the monsters on the wall while approaching the apprentice witches, wearing emblems with a witch’s pattern on their lapels.

Warlocks…

This term appeared in Lianne’s mind. When Friede had entered Byrne City, Lianne had heard that she had allowed men of good character to join the reformist faction and had taught them magic. Now it seemed that the two sides were still in the process of integrating.

It was a truly fine sight.

Lianne couldn’t help but marvel inwardly. No wonder the Guided One had been so insistent about the matter of the apprentice witches. The gap between the two groups of apprentices was already too large to be ignored.

The ones Lianne had seen in the past were always humble, quiet, timid, and indecisive girls. But now, the apprentice witches around Friede were completely different. Not only could they judge the appropriate magic based on the battle situation on their own, but their every move was also full of vitality. Even just standing there, they exuded a youthful energy. They were like people from a different world compared to the apprentices in the Witch Hall.

Whether from the perspective of an apprentice witch or from her own, if she had to choose which side to live on, she would not hesitate to choose Friede’s. That was a world filled with hope and light.

The Witch Hall has already fallen behind the times.

Even if Lianne was unwilling to admit it, this thought uncontrollably appeared in her mind. Friede and the others were on the right path, and the scene before her was the most powerful evidence.

The reason witches became witches was because they were not accepted by the world and were ostracized, thus becoming pessimistic and reclusive, even to the point of having twisted personalities.

All this time, the Witch Hall had only provided witches with knowledge and power, letting them do as they pleased, such as taking revenge. But if the Witch Hall were to become a positive place that could provide a sanctuary for these pitiful people who were not accepted by the world, and let them experience the life that normal people should have, perhaps they would not act so wantonly, even to the point of committing such horrifying acts as slaughtering a city.

To let the witches with tragic pasts feel warmth, to change their pessimistic, reclusive, and extremely twisted personalities from the root…

Lianne’s heart began to waver. If she had lived among witches like Friede back then, perhaps she would not be in this neither-human-nor-ghost state today. It wouldn’t have been so bad to live as an apprentice witch for the rest of her life.

She was already standing at a turning point in history. As the leader of the Witch Hall, she had to make a choice for the entire group. And as for which side to choose, Lianne faintly had an answer.

“The Lava Earth Dragon is here again!”

“Not good, the skin of the elite Fire Bats is too thick! [Shatter Ice Lance] can’t break through!”

The young cries of the apprentice witches brought Lianne back to her senses. In her vision, five elite Fire Bats, each as tall as a person, were flying over, carrying a Lava Earth Dragon identical to the previous one. No matter what kind of magic the apprentices used, they could not shoot them down.

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In desperation, an apprentice witch near Lianne requested in a voice that was about to cry.

“Lady Lianne, help us!”

If it had been an apprentice from the Witch Hall, not only would she not have the courage to ask her to do something, but she also wouldn’t have such a cute expression.

This is how a junior apprentice witch should be, not a “slave” who is so servile and doesn’t even dare to speak.

A smile appeared on her non-existent face. Lianne couldn’t help but smile.

“Leave it to me. With me here, no monster can get near you.”

It was time for her to show her strength as a senior. She couldn’t lose face in front of these juniors she had just met.

Under the expectant gazes of the apprentice witches, Lianne flew straight towards the elite Fire Bats and the Lava Earth Dragon in the air.

◇

“Whoa, there are way too many.”

Looking at the dense mass of monsters in the desert below, Fia couldn’t help but feel a headache. Three to four hundred thousand was just a number on paper, but when converted to reality, the scene was extremely shocking. She would probably have to use [Spatial Rift] dozens of times.

That would be too troublesome.

Subconsciously, Fia looked further into the desert. Although it was night, because she was using a maximized [Light], her vision was not bad. She could see more monsters slowly making their way over from the distance.

This place was only three or four kilometers from Byrne City; it was not the right condition to use orbital bombardment.

“But I have to clean up this group of beasts…”

If she didn’t deal with these creatures, they would go and attack the city.

With this thought, Fia, who was in the air, lowered her altitude to a hundred meters and targeted a large lava sea urchin that was moving in the group below. This one had the strength of the Fourth Rank and was the highest-ranked of all the lava sea urchins.

“Scree, scree!”

Discovering Fia, the Fire Bats quickly attacked her. Previously, because they couldn’t fly that high, they could only stare at Fia, who was shining like the sun. Now that she had lowered her altitude, they gathered like vultures that had seen their prey.

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Fia, however, acted before they could get close, using the spell she had prepared on the ground beneath the large lava sea urchin.

[Corrosive Attraction]

A spell that attached an attractive force to a designated object.

Because it couldn’t target living beings, Fia could only choose the ground beneath the lava sea urchin as the target.

Of course, this was the version of [Corrosive Attraction] that had been enhanced by [Hyper-computation].

A dark magic light flashed from Fia’s hand, and then, a “crack” that seemed to sound in the bottom of her heart flashed past.

Creeaak—

Like metal being bent under immense pressure, a terrifying, creepy sound echoed from the earth.

Almost instantly, the lava sea urchin’s massive, five-meter-tall body was rapidly twisted and deformed as if sucked into a whirlpool. Not only that, but the monsters near it were also affected.

As if there were a huge magnet underground where the lava sea urchin was, whether it was the Fire-striped Frogs or the flaming anglerfish, their bodies were all uncontrollably pulled towards the lava sea urchin. Even the Lava Earth Dragons were not spared.

Although their heavy bodies, comparable to a light truck, were not pulled directly off the ground and sent flying like the Fire-striped Frogs, they were still gathered towards the lava sea urchin, tumbling like tumbleweeds.

The powerful suction force even made the Fire Bats that were flying towards Fia in the sky plummet straight to the ground, as if an invisible giant hand were dragging them down. Apart from letting out terrified screams and desperately flapping their wings, they could only watch helplessly as they made intimate contact with the lava sea urchin.

Of course, it was not just the monsters that were attracted. Gravel, rubble, and grass all flew up from the ground. It was like a sandstorm had kicked up within a fifty-meter radius, instantly raising a large amount of dust, making it impossible to see one’s hand in front of one’s face, and even breathing became difficult.

Even Fia was affected.

Feeling her body sink slightly, Fia quickly pulled up to avoid getting dust on her. Although she couldn’t see what was happening in the sandstorm below, the rising and falling roars of the monsters and the sound of sharp objects piercing flesh were enough to explain a lot.

In less than half a minute, the sounds in the sandstorm gradually dissipated.

Fia scanned the area with [Wind of Exploration].

—All the monsters were squeezed together with the lava sea urchin in a disorderly manner.

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The lava sea urchin’s spikes, which were over two meters long, had easily pierced through the bodies of the Fire-striped Frogs and Fire Bats like a phalanx of spears. One spike even had six Fire-striped Frogs skewered on it. To make matters worse, there was not just one lava sea urchin in this group; there were also many smaller, ordinary ones around.

This created an extremely terrifying picture, as if burdocks ¹ spiky plants the size of a person had been mixed together and thrown into a blender. Even though [Wind of Exploration] could not display blood, Fia could “see” the bloody, mangled scene below from the rough outlines of the mana reactions.

The lava sea urchins were crushed to death, while the smaller monsters like the Fire-striped Frogs and Fire Bats had become souls under their spikes. As for the thick-skinned Lava Earth Dragons, although they did not die immediately, with holes all over their bodies, they would face the test of massive blood loss even if they struggled free.

This spell is too bloody.

Until she could perfectly control its force, it was better not to use [Corrosive Attraction] on people. Not everyone was like her, with a strong resistance to gory scenes.

If not for the limited time, Fia would have wanted to use the Flame King’s attendants as test subjects to explore the weight that [Corrosive Attraction] could attract with different mana outputs. But now, time was of the essence. Fia threw a [Firestorm] at the ground and then flew straight into the depths of the great desert.

Flying at supersonic speed, Fia soon arrived at her destination.

—At least fifty kilometers from Byrne City. At this distance, as long as she controlled the power and did not use her full output, it would not have a great impact on the city.

“Have they all gone to the front line?”

Fia glanced at the desert below. Unlike the dense scene she had just seen, the monsters here were already very sparse. Instead, there were sand holes one after another on the ground. Fia could still see some well-equipped and relatively strong monsters emerging from them. It seemed that the monsters on the front line were mostly of a very low status, while the stronger ones were holding the rear.

Even monsters understood the principle of consuming cannon fodder first.

But this had actually helped her. The strong monsters were at the center of the explosion, while the weaker ones were swept away by the shockwave. A clear division of labor.

Then—

The target was the earth one kilometer away.

Fia took a deep breath, placed her left hand on the mana surge on her right wrist, and silently chanted the name of the spell she had classified as forbidden.

“[Orbital Beacon Bombardment].”

There was neither a chant nor a premonitory magic light. The moment Fia thought of the name of the spell, it had already formed.

A silver nebula with a diameter of a hundred meters appeared out of thin air in the center of the desert, one kilometer away.

A familiar yet strange humming sound, like that of a tuning fork, emanated from the silver nebula. Even though they were a kilometer apart, the sound was as clear as if it were right next to Fia’s ear. The first time she had used it, Fia had mistaken this silver nebula for a “disc,” but now, with the night as a background, the features of the disc that emitted a faint silver light were extremely obvious. This was clearly a miniature of a large galaxy.

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So beautiful.

Fia marveled inwardly.

In the past, she had thought that if the silver nebula were placed in the night, it would surely become a magnificent sight. Now that it had truly been realized, the past scenery made Fia feel nostalgic—which galaxy was this a miniature of? If she had a star chart, she could compare them one by one. Unfortunately, this was the World Tree Continent. She could only stare at the nebula.

If there’s a chance to go back, I really want to show Claire, Anastasia, and the others the sights of the Shining Era. That seemingly endless peace and prosperity, a dream that makes one linger and forget to return. The researchers of that time would surely be very interested in the curse on Claire. They would try every means to understand its principles. No, just the existence of magic would be enough to drive the entire universe crazy.

But then again, what would Claire be doing now? Would she be holding a lock of her hair, imagining what she looked like? Or would she be speeding across the wilderness on her way to Silvar? Claire had said that it would take at most two months for a round trip, and if she was fast, she could arrive in a month. Now that she had spent nearly a month to reach the border of Silvar, Claire should be arriving soon, right?

Fia’s thoughts flew to the ninth heaven.

Claire had said she was going to bring back something from her hometown. Should she understand it as a dowry or a betrothal gift? This question was both important and not. Just thinking about it made her heart pound.

Realizing this, Fia couldn’t help but reach out to touch the ruby pendant inside her collar. When they parted, Claire had said that besides forming a Fifth Rank defensive spell, the pendant had something else that could be used when she was thinking of her. She had never used it. It wasn’t that she didn’t miss Claire, but that she was worried that there would be no second time after using it. Now that the appointed day was approaching, she could probably use it with confidence, right?

Her current self would not be as embarrassed as she had been that night.

Hummm—

The increasingly loud humming pulled Fia back from her thoughts to reality. She suppressed the longing in her mind and looked at the earth where the distant nebula was.

Now, the humming sound had attracted the monsters that had burrowed out of the ground. They took the silver nebula as an enemy and charged towards it in groups, a scene reminiscent of moths flying towards a flame.

Less than ten seconds had passed.

The tuning-fork-like humming grew louder, and the pitch also rapidly increased. Along with it came the scorching air and the gradually enlarging, faster-spinning silver nebula. The high-rank monsters that had rushed to the front of the nebula had already sensed that something was wrong and began to cry out strangely and turn to flee. But the nebula did not give them the chance. The speed at which it enlarged was faster than their escape speed. Flames ignited on their bodies, and like ants on a red-hot iron plate, they shouted and scurried around in a panic.

Soon, even Fia felt the air temperature was so high that it seemed to burn her trachea and alveoli. A howling storm swept through the desert. The earth where the nebula was turned bright red, and the corners of the black formal dress that clung to her body ignited with a red glow like embers. Everything heralded the coming of a disaster.

It’s about time.

Let the flames end it all.

As if in response to Fia’s wish, the world fell silent for a moment. Then, a blazing white fireball that burst with intense light and heat suddenly shot out from under the ground. A second sun that painted the world in daylight tore all darkness to shreds in the blink of an eye!

—Tenth Rank Magic, [Orbital Beacon Bombardment].