Volume 2, Chapter 18 – Holy Sons, Divine Messengers, Witches, and Absolute Evil

However, one thing could be confirmed: the Despair Demon General knew the Witch of Hope. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have said her name. As for why he mentioned the Witch of Hope right before he died, it was probably because he saw the dagger tucked into her waist.

The Despair Demon General had no facial features, making it impossible to guess his emotions at the time.

“Where did you go last night, sister?” As Fia was thinking, Liti, with her long purple hair fluttering, leaned in beside Fia. She asked with suspicion, while also pulling at Fia’s clothes and sniffing. “You smell like another woman.”

The carriage was being driven by Estelle’s soldiers. With only Liti and Anastasia in the carriage, it was fine to be a little casual. Fia yawned again.

“I slept in the tent Estelle slept in. It’s only natural that I would have the scent of her perfume. I was in a huge battle with a Darkborn last night, and I just collapsed into bed when I got back.”

The World Tree Continent had a magic called [Cleanse], which eliminated the need to shower. It was very convenient.

Incidentally, when Estelle moved out, she didn’t take the blanket or bedsheets, which meant that Fia’s nose was filled with the softness and scent of Estelle all night. Although Estelle had no habit of using perfume, she did use fragrant things when bathing, and these things became Estelle’s scent, clinging to the bedsheets and pillow.

It wasn’t bad, but it was also hard to say it was wonderful. It just made her feel a little embarrassed.

“Really?”

Liti’s face moved even closer, her lips pouting into a dissatisfied “へ.”

What’s with that expression, as if you’re looking at a husband who didn’t come home last night.

Fia had no choice but to push Liti’s head away. She took out a silver brooch from her storage pouch, opened her palm, and showed it to Liti.

“Look, this is what I got last night. It’s a magical item that a god gave to the founding emperor of the Bart Duchy. It’s called the [Siren’s Mirror] and is one of a kind.”

“Ooh! It’s indeed very exquisite. You can tell it’s expensive just by looking at it. Are you going to give it to me, sister? I’m so happy!”

With her beautiful purplish-red eyes wide open, Liti looked at Fia with a face full of hope.

It made Fia feel guilty.

Fia quickly closed her hand over the [Siren’s Mirror] and cleared her throat.

“Ahem, this is for Claire. As long as you inject mana into it, it can sever the user’s connection with the outside elements. Maybe we can use it to suppress the curse on Claire.”

Fia wasn’t sure if she had misheard, but she felt like Liti had mumbled something under her breath like, “That damned big-chested woman.”

“Speaking of which, Liti, Anastasia, do you still remember Claire?”

“Hmph! That woman who stole my sister from me when I wasn’t looking! I was here first! I was here decades earlier! Damn her!”

“Although her identity is mysterious, she is a strong person who can be trusted.”

Liti’s loud protest and Anastasia’s fair assessment reassured Fia.

If Anastasia and Liti had forgotten Claire, she would have been sad.

This was not meant to blame the two of them, but to feel sad about Claire’s fate.

“Sister, you said you fought a Darkborn last night. What kind of Darkborn? Where?”

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Before answering, Fia gestured for Liti, who was trying to sit on her lap, to stop. Liti pouted in displeasure.

“At first, I heard Estelle say there was a [Siren’s Mirror] in the castle, so I went to look for it. While I was searching, I ran into a guy who called himself the Despair Demon General, and I just took care of him.”

“The Despair Demon General?!”

Anastasia, who was wearing a green hood and listening in, suddenly looked concerned and anxious.

“Your Highness, how could you deal with an enemy of that level alone?! The Despair Demon General is known as the mage killer. Even if the current you can contend with a Moon Dragon, his abilities are too much of a counter to you!”

“Eh, no need to worry so much, Anastasia.”

The Despair Demon General did cause her some trouble, but that was entirely because of her lack of magical variety. If she had known that [Mental Shock] would work on a creature that was neither a carbon-based lifeform, a silicon-based lifeform, nor even an energy body, the battle would have ended right from the start.

Of course, to avoid being in the same predicament in the future, Fia had just looked up some easy-to-learn and useful spells for combat from her “Introduction to Elementary Magic” book, which she was preparing to learn.

To reassure Anastasia, Fia raised her hands and added.

“I didn’t get hurt, did I? An enemy on the level of a Moon Dragon is no match for me. A single Despair Demon General is nothing.”

“‘A single Despair Demon General’… Your Highness, you don’t have your old memories, so you don’t know the Despair Demon General’s past feats. The strength of the Despair Demon General, as one of the seven demon generals under Absolute Evil, cannot be judged by their tier alone. The number of Seventh-Tier powerhouses he has killed is more than can be counted on two hands. Even seven Eighth-Tier magic casters have died at his hands. The amount of mana plays an indirect role in battle. It is not impossible for a person to be killed by someone of a much lower tier if their combat experience and vigilance are lacking.”

“For a country with great power like us elves, that’s one thing. But for some smaller nations, to deal with the seven demon generals, they must enlist the help of beings like Holy Sons, Divine Messengers, and Witches. Any one of the seven demon generals can bring catastrophic disaster to a city. And because of the unique nature of their abilities, they cannot be simply compared to an existence like a giant dragon. Your Highness just said ‘took care of him on the side.’ Did you mean you drove him away?”

Anastasia’s intense gaze made Fia feel a little guilty.

She averted her eyes and stammered.

“K… killed him…”

“Hah?! What?!”

With her mouth wide enough to fit an egg, Anastasia’s expression became extremely exaggerated.

“Y-You solved him in just one night? Did I hear that right? The Despair Demon General has a record of fighting a Holy Son for three days and three nights, eventually gravely injuring the Holy Son and leaving. And you killed him in just one night?!”

To be precise, it was less than ten minutes.

It’s all because [Mental Shock] is too overpowered.

Anastasia’s excited look made Fia feel a little embarrassed. Anastasia wasn’t a stranger, and she felt that admitting it here would feel like she was showing off to a friend, which was poor taste.

“Solved… is not the right word, I guess. The Despair Demon General has a doppelganger ability. I just burned the doppelganger I saw. I don’t know if he has any other doppelgangers hiding elsewhere.”

She thought this would calm Anastasia down, but Anastasia’s emotional fluctuations became even more intense.

“He has a doppelganger ability too?! In a hundred years, the Despair Demon General has gained a doppelganger ability!”

“C-calm down, Sister Ana. Sister is an elf who has beaten a Moon Dragon with her fists. Defeating a Despair Demon General is not that unbelievable, is it?”

Liti, who had willingly stepped between Fia and Anastasia, waved her hands, gesturing for Anastasia to calm down.

Her expression gradually became complicated, Anastasia said earnestly.

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“Your Highness Liti, that’s because you don’t know how terrifying the Despair Demon General is. Their strength cannot be simply summed up by their tier. The ability of the Despair Demon General to cast high-tier mental magic with just a short incantation is a huge threat to any magic caster. This is a talent that no other creature on the continent could possess. Not to mention, the seven demon generals can sense each other. When they are in danger, they can summon each other. One demon general can turn into two, or three. The previous generation’s Beastman Holy Son was killed by three demon generals who appeared at the same time and worked together.”

“Your Highness is not a Holy Son, and you cannot be resurrected by a god’s blessing after receiving a fatal injury. If you have to go out, you must at least inform me. That way, if there are low-level enemies or a critical situation, I can also help you out. I am your bodyguard. You must trust me.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Anastasia…”

I really didn’t expect the Despair Demon General to be in the castle.

My initial plan was just to clear some chaos, get the [Siren’s Mirror], and leave.

“This is all because my sister sleeps alone! If someone were to watch over her, she wouldn’t run off by herself. So from now on, Sister Ana and I will take turns guarding sister—mmph!”

Before Liti could say something shocking like, “sleeping together,” Fia quickly pulled Liti to her side and covered her mouth, saying with a wry smile.

“…Next time, I will tell Anastasia before I act.”

“Even if I’m doing something else, Your Highness cannot use ‘I didn’t want to bother Anastasia’ as an excuse to leave alone. Your Highness is a gentle person, so I must make this clear beforehand, or you will definitely use that as an excuse later.”

Anastasia stared at Fia, her lively blue eyes filled with an unyielding resolve.

So this is what it feels like to be cared for.

It’s a real hassle.

In addition to improving my own strength, I should also try to make Anastasia and Liti stronger.

Thinking this, Fia nodded.

“I promise you.”

Getting Fia’s confirmation, Anastasia’s imposing aura gradually weakened, and a look of joy and gratitude appeared on her mature face.

Sensing the atmosphere between the two, Liti immediately turned her head, her face serious.

“What about me! I want to be in on it too!”

“Informing Liti is fine, but on the condition that you become a little stronger first.”

“That’s discrimination! Discrimination! If I try hard, I can reach the Third Tier quickly!”

After dealing with Liti’s protest perfunctorily, Fia opened her magic book and began to learn new spells. Before that, Fia suddenly remembered a question. She looked up at Anastasia, who was sitting upright.

“Anastasia, what are the Holy Sons and Divine Messengers you mentioned just now? Also, do you know about the Witch of Hope?”

So far, Fia only knew about the existence of witches, but she knew nothing about Holy Sons and Divine Messengers.

The “Secret History of the Witches” described in detail that witches were individuals who, through a ritual in the Witch’s Hall, exchanged a part of themselves for great potential for growth. The things they lost were uncontrollable and random—limbs, organs, or even intangible things like thoughts, desires, emotions, humanity, or even life itself.

Things like an eye, an arm, or the ability to procreate were obvious. The price could also be memory, desire, emotion, humanity, or even life itself. The reason witches were feared by ordinary people was that some witches, after losing their humanity and sanity, would turn into demon-like beings and cause disasters everywhere.

In addition, because witches always lost something and their lifespan was much shorter than others of their race, their personalities were particularly eccentric, and it was difficult for ordinary people to understand their thoughts. This was one of the reasons they were given the title of “Witch.”

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It was worth mentioning that because the price was uncontrollable, less than one in ten witches survived the ritual. For example, if they lost their heart or brain, they would die instantly. Combined with the Witch’s Hall, the organization that housed witches, having extremely strict conditions for becoming a witch, the number of witches has always been extremely rare. Today, the total number of official witches on the entire World Tree Continent is only in the double digits.

“As for the Witch of Hope, I know very little. I only know that she was the last Miracle Witch of the Witch’s Hall and that she disappeared a hundred years ago. After the Witch of Hope, the World Tree Continent has not had a Miracle Witch for nearly a hundred years. The fact that the Witch of Hope mysteriously disappeared a hundred years ago is still a topic people love to talk about. I remember what she lost seemed to be… selfishness? In any case, she was known as the most un-witch-like witch, and the most respected one of all.”

“She lost her selfishness, huh…”

That sounds very approachable, but I also feel like it would be tiring to be friends with someone like that.

Next, Anastasia explained the origins of Holy Sons and Divine Messengers to Fia.

A Holy Son was a lucky person chosen by a god at birth. Holy Sons generally had a growth potential that far exceeded that of ordinary people. The reason they were the most powerful and were given the name “Holy” was their ability to communicate with gods and receive their blessing.

For example, all Holy Sons, after being killed, could sacrifice something and be resurrected at the place of their birth. Although the number of resurrections was at most two, this kind of regenerating charm was still envied by ordinary people.

In addition to the ability to resurrect, Holy Sons could also receive other blessings. Things like everything they did going smoothly, being able to sense danger in advance, or even receiving divine weapons and items had all happened to Holy Sons. However, Holy Sons could usually only get one or two of these traits; no Holy Son had ever received all the blessings.

As for whether they had to pay a price like witches, the answer was yes. There were many restrictions on Holy Sons. For example, some Holy Sons could not use their blessed power on their own kind, and some Holy Sons would have their blessings taken away if they did not regularly kill Darkborns. What the specific restrictions were depended on the god’s mood—this was Anastasia’s playful way of putting it.

Interestingly, the founding emperor of the Bart Duchy was one of the Holy Sons. There was not just one Holy Son at a time. Sometimes there was no Holy Son on the continent, while at other times there were several at once. But in any era, their numbers could be counted on one hand.

In Fia’s eyes, Holy Sons were somewhat like tools created by the gods to deal with Darkborns. While they gained great power, they also lost their freedom.

And this great power had to be in quotation marks.

As far as Anastasia knew, all Holy Sons who had challenged Absolute Evil had died, and they couldn’t even be resurrected. It was more appropriate to see them as beings on the same level as the demon generals.

As for Divine Messengers, they were more like heroes described in legends than historical figures who had actually appeared.

In the World Tree Continent’s history of over ten thousand years, a Divine Messenger had only appeared once, more than six thousand years ago. That time, Absolute Evil had persuaded the giant dragons in the Dragonfall Land to attack the World Tree Continent together.

Under the combined forces of Absolute Evil and the giant dragons, the resistance on the World Tree Continent was crushed. All the Holy Sons died while resisting the Darkborns. The people had no choice but to pray to the branches of the World Tree, hoping the gods would save them. After that, an angel with six wings descended.

The Divine Messenger fought the Darkborns led by Absolute Evil all alone. The battle between the two sides lasted for a full month, until more than half of the giant dragons had died at the hands of the Divine Messenger, and Absolute Evil killed the Divine Messenger at the cost of being gravely injured and unable to fight anymore. The prolonged war finally came to an end.

Although the Divine Messenger was ultimately defeated, fighting an entire faction of Darkborns by himself still impressed Fia. At the same time, Fia’s understanding of Absolute Evil’s power also went up a notch. Absolute Evil was truly worthy of being called a dangerous existence by even the Witch of Hope.

However, Anastasia also explained that these things were too far in the past, and the church’s description of the cruelty of the war was an exaggeration. So she couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the legend. Everything would have to wait until Fia returned to the elf kingdom and used her princess’s authority to check the forbidden library for more accurate information.

“The things you’re talking about, Sister Ana, are too far in the past. To be honest, I’ve lived for so long, and besides the Moon Dragon, I’ve never even seen what a Darkborn looks like.”

“That’s true. Even I rarely see Darkborns. Since that great war six thousand years ago, Darkborns have rarely started large-scale wars on the World Tree Continent. It’s more often magical disasters like the one that happened in Oro City. Thanks to the efforts of generations of Holy Sons, Darkborns are no longer a major threat. Speaking of which, at the very beginning, Your Highness was mistaken for a Holy Son born to our elf race, and the entire nation was in a celebratory mood for a long time.”

“And it turned out I’m not a Holy Son.”

Fia’s expression was subtle. The scene Anastasia described was embarrassing just to think about. It was a good thing she hadn’t transmigrated into the elf princess at that time.

“But even if you’re not a Holy Son, your strength far exceeds that of a Holy Son. We elves have a much longer lifespan than humans, but in exchange, the process of accumulating mana is also much slower than for humans. For you to have reached the Seventh Tier before you even came of age is an unprecedented achievement, even among Holy Sons. They are just mediocre people granted power by a god. Only you deserve to be called a genius.”

As she said this, Anastasia’s eyes began to sparkle, and she was just short of applauding in celebration.

Fia couldn’t help but scratch her head in embarrassment.

“No, no… they also have things I don’t have, like resurrection.”

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This was just Fia’s humble way of speaking; she actually had no interest in Holy Sons.

If she were to be burdened with a restriction of having to eliminate Darkborns every day, she would have to find a way to make the god be the Holy Son and become the god herself.

Fia couldn’t help but imagine a scene of waving at a god and saying, “Hey, let me have a turn.”

—That’s too rude, or rather, too arrogant.

The struggle between the Darkborns and the gods should be resolved by the people who should be resolving it. I just want to be all lovey-dovey with Claire.

Love is truly something that corrupts one’s mind.

At the thought of Claire, Fia was instantly filled with motivation and began to study the spells in the magic book.

The spells Fia was focusing on this time were mostly to make up for the shortcomings she had displayed last night.

The battle with the Despair Demon General had made Fia keenly aware that she was extremely lacking in effective defensive abilities. It wasn’t that her body wasn’t sturdy enough, but that she needed to be able to neutralize an attack before it hit her body. For example, the Moon Dragon’s magic shield was a very good defensive ability.

For this reason, Fia learned a magic shield called [Bee Shield].

In addition, there were three spells that multiplied her strength: [Strength Boost I], [Strength Boost II], and [Strength Boost III]. Although the names were the same, they increased her strength by different amounts and could be stacked. So Fia learned all of them.

And after the [Strength Boost] spells, Fia also learned a new earth-based spell called [Dragon Fang]. With a chanted incantation, [Dragon Fang] would only make a half-meter-long cone-shaped spike protrude from the ground. Limited by the space, Fia had no chance to test how powerful the [Dragon Fang] would be after being enhanced by [Hypercomputation].

As for [Strength Boost I], [Strength Boost II], [Strength Boost III], and [Bee Shield], Fia easily finished trying them out in the carriage.

With a chanted incantation, the three [Strength Boost] spells corresponded to a 1.1x, 1.2x, and 1.3x increase in strength, respectively. Although stacking the three of them wouldn’t even double her original strength, for an ordinary person, this was an extremely high level of enhancement. The only drawback was that the mana consumption to maintain them was on the high side, so they could only be used all at once in a life-or-death duel.

But after being enhanced by [Hypercomputation], their values became 200%, 300%, and 400%, respectively. With this level of enhancement, Fia even felt that she no longer needed to stack them. Just using [Strength Boost III] alone, she could grab a giant dragon by the tail and swing it around like a rag doll.

Seeing this level of enhancement, Fia found it hard to imagine what she would get if she used the high-tier magic crystal that the elf princess had from the beginning and enhanced it with [Hypercomputation].

I have a feeling that’s not a spell you can just show to people. What if, like [Orbital Beacon Bombardment], the explosion range is farther than the spell’s range? I’d have to fly the audience away—and they don’t have the physique to withstand a sonic boom.

It sounds like she learned quickly, but in reality, Fia still spent some time learning these spells. However, unlike before when Fia was on the roof of the carriage, this time, Anastasia and Liti witnessed the entire process of Fia learning magic up close.

For an ordinary person to master these spells, even a First-Tier spell, just remembering the difficult incantations and reciting them fluently with a specific rhythm would take one or two days. Not to mention, during the incantation process, one had to do two things at once: use the mana in their body and make it cooperate with the incantation. A beginner would find it difficult to master them without ten to fifteen days of practice. But Fia could use the spells after just glancing at them a few times. This learning speed made Anastasia and Liti wonder if they were even the same species as Fia.

It was certain that after losing her memory, Fia’s speed in learning magic had become much faster than before.

Just as Fia was about to try combining the [Bee Shield] enhanced by [Hypercomputation], a commotion came from outside the carriage. They could hear the soldiers shouting, “I see it,” and “It’s right ahead.”

They had probably seen Oro City standing on the plain.

Estelle will come to find me soon.

As the thought crossed Fia’s mind, a golden-haired vampire with a large black ribbon on her head appeared at the carriage door. Estelle was holding the sides of her red dress. Compared to her initial appearance, her expression was much more cheerful.

Sitting beside Anastasia in a very polite manner, Estelle glanced at Liti, who was clinging tightly to Fia, then subtly looked away and said playfully.

“I hope I’m not interrupting you two? Oro City is just ahead. Do you want to get out and take a look?”