Release That Witch - Chapter 625

Chapter 625: The Decisive Battle

..

“Lady Zero, Margie appears to be worn out.”

Vanilla turned around and said with an anxious look.

“Hold on.”

Zero watched overhead with a grim expression. Although she was underground, she found a beam of light shone on the dome. The God’s Punishment Army was moving forwards along the rampant trenches, encroaching on the enemy’s position gradually. They, obviously, progressed slower and slower.

They could only choose to attack in a roundabout manner as each strategic pass was heavily-guarded. Therefore, they would be inevitably shot down by the snow powder weapons while throwing the spears. The gap between trenches could only be filled with the bodies of the soldiers, and the blue blood overflowed in the pit bottom.

It was even harder to march atop the ground.

Although the God’s Punishment Warriors could leap over the wire entanglements which could not be destroyed, they would be likely exposed to the enemy’s firepower. The flame was blazing all the way, in particular, in four towers in the rear of the defensive lines, which blazed as if it would kill people at any time.

The third trench would probably be the ultimate limit that the God’s Punishment Warriors could march to.

Dame it! She did not ever expect that things would actually come to such a deadlock.

She thought that she had prepared well for the arrival of this day,

Such as locating the accurate position of where Roland Wimbledon was.

The mission of the messengers was nothing more than a pretext to meet Roland, but it did not matter if they did not meet him. The letter written in the name of the pope revealed the secrets of the church and the Battle of Divine Will. People would not take it seriously when hearing such impossible information, but it would be much more convincing if the letter was written in the name of the pope.

Besides, what she wrote was true. Roland could still not make out her real intentions from the letter, even though he had witches skilled at handwriting recognition.

A special powder was daubed on the letter. It was an alchemic product developed by Pivotal Secret Authority that emitted a smell that ordinary people could not detect. Each time a person touched the letter, the smell would accumulate and be imbibed into the skin, making it hard to remove, even with water.

Zero firmly believed that the letter would be delivered to Roland as no rulers would not be interested in these kinds of shocking secrets. Other people had no chances to read the letter and so in this case, Roland would have the strongest smell on his body. Although there were no differences between Roland and other people, Vanilla could easily sniff it out by virtue of the smell.

Vanilla could sniff out various unimaginable smells when she cast her ability. In her opinion, bloodstains after a month would still emit a faint stench and there would be a strange odor on furs when animals were in the rut.

At the moment, Roland was just a thousand steps away from them.

Zero even took all costs to use the God’s Punishment Army and Judgement Army to divert the attention of the Graycastle’s defensive line. Some Pure Witches of less importance even became the sacrificial lambs in consideration that there were witches who might perceive magic power in Roland’s Camp. However, she, the evil backstage, was hiding underground and moving between the rocks by means of Margie’s Magic Ark.

Blackveil was the real game-changer to win this war.

As one of three pure witches of the highest rank in Holy City, valued by His Holiness O’Brien, her ability was extremely terrible for common people who had no defensive abilities. The people that had seen her would feel the inner feeling of dread when she was young. Her power was further strengthened when she was in adulthood. The strong sense of fear would occupy people’s minds as long as they saw her eyes, and thus they would kill themselves or hurt people around due to their maniac surmises.

At the same time, the derivative ability was also powerful after Blackveil’s awakening. The simple eye-to-eye contact could cause not only fear but also unclear illusions. Although her ability could only impact one person at a time, it would also play a vital role at a critical juncture. That was also why Archbishop Tayfun did not doubt the pope’s orders.

At the gaze of the Eyes of Death, Zero took it for granted that Roland’s troops would be defeated instantly.

Everything seemed to go smoothly, and Zero did not realize that she had the wrong idea until the war begun.

She did not expect that she had still underestimated the power of snow powder weapons.

Dense smoke and fire enveloped the mountain pass. With the help of snow powder weapons, Roland launched attacks from 5 kilometers away, and the troops of the church were heavily hit before touching the defensive lines.

She changed the battle tactics at once to attack the position but found that the God’s Punishment Army was also in difficulty.

The seemingly shallow trenches were much harder to seize than the towering walls. The warriors wrested the transverse trenches from the flying bullets. However, they had never expected that the enemies did not care about the loss of the battle line and just retreated in order. They left the pass to the God’s Punishment Army that had suffered a heavy cost and then continued to intercept them, relying on the following passes. During this period of time, Zero even saw an extraordinary witch.

Margie’s Magic Ark could not be operated all the way to her target as her magic power had declined along with the combat capability of the God’s Punishment Army. However, the current situation was still a far cry from her expectation.

Isabella perceived that less than half of enemies were wearing God’s Stones. Under such circumstances, she had to gather them together if she wanted more people to see her. The God’s Punishment Army was now marching forwards to the third entrenchment and the enemies were too sparse in the rest of entrenchments.

Once Blackveil was exposed to the enemies, she could only have a limited time to cast her power. How many enemies would notice her in an instant? She would be hit by the snow powder weapon before they came back to their minds.

“Your Holiness, the ark… will be torn apart soon…” Huge sweat had emerged from Margie’s face, her voice slightly trembling. Obviously, the excessive use of her magic power was a heavy burden on her. At the same time, there were cracks in the walls and the dome became dim. Zero realized that she had to make a choice.

Or rather, she had no other choice at all.

“Go up! Take action as scheduled!”

Margie took a breath and started to operate the ark to draw close to the ground. In a second the ark rushed out of the earth’s surface, her magic power dissipated at once. A pungent smoke taste, boring and continuous roars along with a bloody smell, suddenly filled all around.

Blackveil turned around and glanced at Zero profoundly, and then leaped over the square-shaped pit left by the ark.

Foreseeably, it was the last time that she would serve the church.

The battlefield quietened down unexpectedly as if an invisible giant hand nipped people’s throats.

“Isabella! Start using ‘Infinite’!” Zero ordered.

After several ringing peals, a bunch of bloody flowers appeared on the back of Blackveil, and then she dropped down into the pit like a rootless fallen leaf.

Grinding her teeth, Isabella took the sigil in her hands.

The black and bright magic stone turned dark and gloomy at once as if it absorbed the sunshine around. Under the function of ‘Infinite’, an invisible ripple spread out and extended all over the battlefield. The amplitude of the fluctuation of the ripple was exactly the same as the God’s Stone Roland wore but in an opposite direction. Under the influence of the ripple, the black hole formed by the God’s Stone of premium quality vanished into the air.

Almost at the same time, Zero magically changed into a beam of light and flew towards the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle a thousand steps afar.

In a second flying out of the pit, she overlooked the whole battlefield from the sky.

There were hundreds of soldiers, who were also common people, lying down in the trenches,

Looks of shock and panic on their faces.

The Extraordinary was galloping fast.

While the Judgement Army was charging forward.

Everything seemed to come to a standstill until the lethal fire on the tower appeared again. And the whole battlefield returned to its normality. The yell of fighting, howls and explosive sounds mixed together, forming a thrilling ode.

She saw the prince with gray hair and felt the smiles from God upon her as she got closer and closer to the platform.

…

Nightingale witnessed the quirky change. In the misty world of white and black colors, the magic power of the beam of light was extremely expressive, like a mass of blurry cyclones coming towards the rear of their position at a tremendous speed.

She knew that it was the last and the most critical strike that the pure witch had launched.

“Protect His Majesty!”

Shavi stretched her hands to prop up a wide magic barrier, large enough to cover the whole platform.

Andrea summoned the Magical Longbow to shoot at the beam of light with arrows of light, bright as the sun.

In a bid to withdraw, Nightingale grabbed Roland who had lost the protection of the God’s Stone as she had realized that the beam of light was targeted at His Majesty, Roland.

But it indeed moved too fast.

Instantly, the beam of light passed through the arrow of light and the magic barrier and easily caught up with Nightingale and Roland, even the Mist could not block its tracking.

Nightingale pushed Roland away without any hesitations and turned around to crash straight into the beam of light.

However, all of her efforts did not work. It all happened in a split second. The beam of light pierced through her body and went into the body of Roland.

“No…” Nightingale cried out, heartbroken.

With his eyes widened, Roland’s body shook hopelessly and fell backward feebly.

Chapter 626: Battle of Fate (I)

p>Was everything… a dream?

Roland blinked his eyes as he walked step-by-step to the fence in order to look down at the school’s panorama against the sunset.

No one was in the spacious playground. Under the orange sunset, the goal looked lonely and its very long shadow was reflected on the ground. Far away were the familiar library and dormitory and the sunset painted the luminous windows with a ray of gold.

Roland had studied here for almost seven years so that he had been familiar with everything. He knew that he was standing on the rooftop of a teaching building and that this was his favorite place to spend his spare time.

Roland had many memories here.

Such as that iron gate behind him that was driven by the warm wind to open and close constantly.

This iron gate was billed as a unique view of the teaching building’s rooftop, and its cover looked as ancient as a cultural relic excavated by archaeologists. When he had come to this school, the gate had already been torn and tattered. As long as it was pushed lightly, it would make noise continuously as if it were out of breath. Yet it was extremely quiet after it was opened and then closed. As far as Roland was concerned, the gate would fall apart soon, but still, at the time of his graduation, it stood still on the rooftop.

“But since this was a dream, why did I look the same as Prince Roland?” thought Roland.

Roland lowered his head to see his slender hands, and then touched his gray hair on his shoulders. Apparently, the height and shape were different from what they were when he indulged himself in his studies.

“So… What had happened?” thought Roland.

Roland frowned, after a while he remembered that the last scene he had seen was that Nightingale had pushed him away, and then after a flash, he had only seen her panicking and despairing face.

“Who in the world… are you?”

A tactful and intangible female voice suddenly appeared beside him.

Roland was scared and abruptly turned around only to find that a lady with long white hair was walking toward him. She had a pair of ruby-like eyes and her red and white robe dropped down to the ground with a golden pattern embroidered on its bottom, which obviously did not belong to this era. Besides, the golden throne of her head showed her identity.

“You’re a pure witch of the church?”

“Yes. But I’m also the 15th Pope of Holy City of Hermes.” She paused and continued to say, “I’m Zero, while you’re definitely not Roland Wimbledon.”

Well, Roland frowned and said, “So did you create this place?”

Everything made sense. The flash should be Zero’s ability that Nightingale had wanted to help him to escape from. And the scenery before him should be an illusion or a virtual space, something like that. The moment he opened his eyes, Roland thought that he had come back to the modern world again.

Even though Roland knew that perhaps the church was originally the Union, it never occurred to him that the pope was a pure witch. Therefore, it was so incredible to see that these witches boldly turned other witches into inhumane monsters.

“No, you created this place.” Zero walked toward him step-by-step and said in an exciting tone, “The place is hidden deeply in your memories and appears frequently in most of your daily life. But I’m curious as to where this is. We both know that Prince Roland of the Graycastle would have never lived in such a place.”

“Why should I tell you?” Roland moved to the other side of the fence and kept a distance from her.

What could he do to shake off the illusion? Roland thought of many ideas in his mind. Maybe he could jump off here? Based on his experiences of nightmares, he would instantly wake up from a nightmare if he jumped off of a high place.

Zero smiled and said in a sweet tone, “It’s okay that you won’t tell me. I’ll spend a little of time finally figuring out who you’re, where you’re from and why you’ve become Prince Roland.”

Would she finally find out? “You mean to tell me that you’ll read my memories?” Roland asked in a very cold tone, “Don’t flatter yourself.”

Zero suddenly stopped and said, “You know what? I would explain to each one trapped in the illusion the effects, rules, and the impact of my ability. Everyone except for you.”

“What?”

The moment Roland asked, he found that Zero had appeared in front of him. And a sudden pain made him lose his hearing.

Roland trembled and lowered his head to only find that a knife was inserted into his chest. Roland wanted to shout, but he could not make any sound. His chest was destroyed completely and the opening and closing of his thoracic cavity could not squeeze even a little air into his throat.

Just like an electrical current, the strong pain spread over his body. Roland would rather die immediately than suffer one more second.

“Because I don’t like anything that’s confusing.”

At the other end of the knife was Zero’s calm face. Half of her body was splashed and wet by Roland’s gushing blood. Due to hypoxia and the self-protective syncope of his brain, he quickly became unconscious.

But the next second, Roland stood still beside the fence, his body intact. In addition, Zero also stood far away from him, like she had never left that spot.

“What had happened?” Roland took deep breathes. “Was it just an illusion?” He covered his chest that was moving up and down fiercely, and the wound still hurt. Looking down, he saw the shape of a pool of blood.

“Damn, what had happened just now was true,” thought Roland.

Staring at the knife held by Zero, Roland was quite surprised in his heart because there had been nothing in her hand before.

“Could she create something out of nothing?”

Just at the moment, Zero rushed toward him again. She was so quick that Roland could not see her clearly.

Roland instantly turned around to escape, but just after a step, he felt a pain in his abdomen.

Then, Roland experienced death again. Zero wielded her long knife to cut him into two halves. The pain this time lasted longer than last time and he fell down into his own blood and outflowing guts. The lasting pain made him shout so miserably that even he was frightened by his own voice.

After his second resurrection, Roland had realized something.

This is a nightmare that can’t be broken by jumping off of a high place or from feeling fierce pain. It’s like a cyclical arena.

Damn it. What’re conditions of escaping from this? What about defeating the white-haired witch in front me?

“Zero can create weapons out of nothing, but what about me?” Roland gritted his teeth and started to concentrate his spirit. “If I had had a shield, I would be able to fight against her.”

A blue light flashed.

A transparent anti-explosive shield appeared in Roland’s hand. He had stopped her attack, but there was a deep scar left on the shield. What was worse, Roland was blown away by the huge clash.

“Well, this was what had happened,” Roland said a dirty word in his heart.

When rolling over, Roland dropped the shield and manifested an automatic rifle.

When Roland raised the rifle to shoot, Zero disappeared.

“What was going on?” thought Roland.

“I’m right here.”

Her voice emerged next to his ears.

After a white light flashed, his arms dropped to the ground, so did the rifle.

Chapter 627: The Intertwined Battle of Fate (II)

I must admit that I’m surprised by your ability to comprehend,” Zero walked to him and said while squatting down, “You’re the first one who can comprehend this and counterattack without being given any explanation.”

The Pure Witch picked up the rifle on the ground, carefully explored it for a moment and said, “Rare materials, exquisite processing techniques… Is this a snow powder weapon as well? The items you created are really scary, however, they do not pose much threat to me. I’ve been watching the entire battle closely. Most of the slender tubes in the tunnel and the thick iron tubes behind the camp rely on the operators and you could not even see my movements.” She shook her head and said, “It’s impossible for you to defeat me, I’ve devoured over a thousand warriors and even an Extraordinary over the years.”

Suddenly, a green plastic box appeared between them.

A loud explosion suddenly rang through the roof. The glass in the classroom crunched and even the entire floor of the building was blown up with a hole in it. The air current swept the old iron stairwell door to the ground.

“It’s not because I have a strong ability to comprehend, but your stage setting is too lousy!” Roland reappeared in the corner of the rooftop. He was gasping for air as the sharp pain was still fresh in his memory. He could now understand the feeling of those who were amputated before they died. He ‘made’ an explosive to bomb both Zero and himself into pieces at the same time as he could not tolerate it anymore.

“Lousy?” Zero who was newly born raised her eyebrows and said, “It’s in your memory.”

“However, it’s created through your ability. It’s six o’clock in the evening, the busiest time on the campus! How is it possible that there’s no one on the field? It seems exquisite but it’s just a setting full of loopholes.” He was thinking of a countermeasure while delaying for time. “Is this the way you devour your opponent? Force them into despair so that they’ll give up and obediently dedicate their knowledge and skills to you?”

The skills of the Pure Witch were somewhat similar to the Extraordinary, or at least Roland had only seen such power and speed on Ashes. The Pure Witch could only be hurt by powerful explosives from which he could not escape either as it was difficult to hit her with only a normal firearm.

However, was it really that simple? After three resurrections, Roland could already feel his sweaty back. His heart was pounding faster than before as if he just ran around the field and he was physically weaker.

Perhaps the number of the resurrections was limited.

In this case, it was not a good idea to bomb an entire building with high explosives… The score was already three to one now and he must quickly regain the position.

There was no doubt that what he needed was a weapon that could both attack and defend.

“Although I don’t quite understand what you’re talking about, however, isn’t it good to surrender?” Zero said with her head tilted to one side, “It’s a wise choice even if it means that you have to give up as death is a torture to anyone.”

“You can keep those words to yourself.” Roland loudly shouted. “Ironman!”

A red metal armor suddenly appeared in front of him and he quietly recited “Start the program” in his heart after walking into the armor from behind.

A narrow display screen appeared at the front of the helmet, however, the armor did not close up by itself and no artificial intelligence responded to his command.

The armor fell to the ground straight away, even before he managed to move forward.

Zero’s blade had already cut into Roland’s neck when he got up.

The entire world suddenly turned upside down and he could see his body helplessly kneeling down before he passed out.

“You should at least give it some joints if you’re trying to create a plate armor,” the Pure Witch knocked on the empty armor and said, “However, I don’t think that a hollow and thin iron sheet has much effect.”

Roland’s heart quickly sank after his fourth resurrection.

Although the death was not painful, Roland had realized a harsh truth, the thing he created without understanding its principle was just an empty shell. For example, the display screen on the helmet was simply a camera.

“Damn, I can only use the stupid method now.”

While Zero was still pondering on the metal armor, a few pieces of steel plates as thick as 10 centimeters appeared out of nowhere and fell beside him, forming into a blockhouse that could hide only one person. A protected weapon control station rose on the top of the blockhouse and it was carrying 40 millimeters grenade machine gun. Roland quickly plunged into it and locked the entrance while controlling the weapon station to fire at the Pure Witch.

This attempt had finally worked.

Zero could not avoid the destruction scope of the grenade machine gun even when she approached the blockhouse again. Roland continuously shot the grenades around the blockhouse and the flying fragments had pierced through her body while making a banging noise as they hit the thick steel plate.

Unfortunately, Roland was unable to find Zero’s resurrection position at once and she had quickly retracted to hide in the corner of the stairwell to avoid the explosive grenade that was coming towards her.

A radiant splendor appeared in the darkening sky when he was just about to ‘create’ another weapon. A golden light was swirling above the clouds and the dazzling tassels had replaced the sunset which was cast into the shade.

The scene was familiar to him.

Suddenly, a myriad of golden thunder fell on top of the building and Roland was instantly engulfed!

…

After the fifth death, Roland was drenched in cold sweat as if he just came out of the water and his calves and arms were uncontrollably twitching.

The blockhouse was completely melted by the Sigil of God’s Will. However, it had not caused much damage to the ground other than the ground was charred. The unreasonable magic power was still working in this battle.

“Just give up.” Unexpectedly, Zero did not closely pursue. “Your energy has already reached the limit. Any additional battle is meaningless as you’ll not get anything other than endless pain.”

Roland clenched his teeth and strongly held on to himself. “Why does she keep asking me to surrender when she can obviously win this battle if she continues to pursue and attack? Is the output going to be different for her if I surrender myself instead of being killed after exhaustion?”

“You should now understand that both creation and death consume energy. The exhaustion of energy means failure. Everyone has a different energy level and it’s beyond my expectation that you can last until now.” She stretched out her arms and said, “By the way, I have an over 200 years of experience. That will be doubled if it includes the time I spent in the soul battle. In other words, my energy is enough to endure hundreds of deaths and your efforts will only make you more desperate.”

“Hundreds… Is it a boast or the truth?” However, Roland felt that Zero was not lying as she looked relaxed.

And, Roland did not have much energy left to consume.

Chapter 628: The Intertwined Battle of Fate (III)

oland’s experience from dying five times led him to realize that the biggest difference between the two lies in them themselves. The powerful weapons could easily affect himself and the fixed bunker would become the target of the Sigil of God’s Will. Not to mention, in all likelihood, Zero knew the recipe for snow powder, if she became desperate to perish with him or the roof directly collapsed, he was not confident of the outcome as he did not have many lives to consume.

He would lose this battle for sure if he could not control the Pure Witch.

“What should I do now?” thought Roland.

“A cage? An oriented mine? A power grid? A laser fence?” Roland had rejected all the answers that were constantly appearing in his mind as none of them could really confine Zero. The position after death could not be defined as it could be at the original spot or any corner of the roof. His energy had obviously hit bottom and constantly creating consumables was just wasting his remaining resurrections. The next failure might be his real death.

“I have to deprive her of her mobility.”

“And, I have to also keep the roof intact.”

“I have to also kill her hundreds of time in a shot…”

“Is it… Is it possible?”

Roland took a deep breath and asked, “During these 200 years, how many times have you fought such a battle?”

“Over 1000 times or more, however, only a few that really impressed me,” Zero answered, “They had a stronger will than you do, however, they were still defeated by the endless deaths. There are only a few people who’ll choose to continue being tortured while facing a hopeless ending.” She paused and said, “Are you still going to stick to your previous approach?”

“I indeed don’t have much hope, however, I simply want to fulfill my curiosity before everything comes to an end. You’ve never failed in over 1000 battles?”

“I would not be standing here if I failed.”

“How come?” Roland slowly sat down to save the little energy he had left. “Did no one think of creating lava or a deep sea to defeat you before you attained such great power?”

“This isn’t a new idea, but unfortunately, no one can do it.” Zero walked in front of him. “Just changing the place that we’re standing in consumes no lesser energy than death. Changing the world is just a delusion and only God can do it.”

“There’s no God in my world,” he said lamentably.

“So, have you decided to give up?” The Pure Witch Zero bent down to lift up his chin and she said, “In this case, submit to me and follow me.”

“Sorry.” Roland smiled while holding on to both her shoulders and gently pushed her away. “I still want to try again.”

Zero arose and pulled out her weapon, however, she found that the distance between both of them was constantly growing larger.

Her expression quickly changed as she realized that she was unable to move any closer to Roland. Her body was still sliding backward even when she was running at full speed! Zero looked down and noticed that the floor beneath her feet had become as smooth as a mirror without her knowing.

However, she would not slip even if the ground was so smooth which was contrary to her common sense. Her body remained relatively still as if it was nailed to the ground regardless of what she was doing.

“Your amazing mobility doesn’t seem to work anymore,” Roland said, “Even a monster like you can’t move a step closer without the support of friction.”

“What did you do?” Zero bent down and tried to slow down or change the direction using both her arms and her legs. However, it was futile.

“I simply made a small change to the battlefield.” He changed into a more comfortable sitting position and said, “It seems that the energy consumed for changing the environment won’t be too far off as long as the changes aren’t too big. Have you ever heard of the law of inertia?”

“Inertia…?”

“When an object is not subject to external forces, it will either stay still or be in constant linear motion. Of course, you can also call it Newton’s First Law.” The ground dramatically changed as soon as Roland hit the railing of the roof and stopped!

The steel frame grew out of the ground and continuously extended into the sky followed by the metal sheet cover which was wrapping up the black frames. Soon, a monument with glowing cold light appeared behind Roland. Each layer of the monument was evenly divided into around 10 rectangular units which looked like an elongated Rubik’s cube. There was a black hollow steel tube coming out from the center of each of the rectangular units which were pointing towards Zero who was still sliding at a constant speed.

“It’s my turn now.”

Zero noticed something was wrong. She held up her longsword and the golden light appeared again.

However, this time Roland was faster than her.

The nearly 100 steel tubes roared at the same time. The burning gunpowder instantly heated up the air to over 1,000 degrees and the rapid expansion of the air generated by the high pressure pushed the shells out of the tube towards the Pure Witch, Zero with a speed of 1,900 meters per second. The loud roar was deafening and the campus which had just fallen into the night was instantly lit up as if the sun just rose from the roof.

There were a hundred billion turrets and trillions of starlights!

The night sky was lit up by the fireflies which just flew in. The densely-gathered light spots drew a dazzling track in the night sky and poured onto the ground in a crisscrossing motion one by one. The fireflies were making a shrilling noise while struggling to flap their wings as if they were announcing their arrival to the world.

Then, they crashed to the ground.

The light of the fireflies was magnified by tens of thousands of times at that moment, their bodies turned into broiling broken pieces which splattered all around… A roaring explosion noise was followed by the dazzling light which was combined with the echoes of a whistling sound in the sky. However, Roland was no longer able to hear the sonata formed by the intertwined metal and gunpowder as his eardrums were already broken by the high-pitched sound of the first flame that was emitted by the black monument. The gigantic barrel was roaring below him and the boiling hot air had hurt his cheek. However, he was very happy.

The world had become quite different as he was standing on top of the square monument.

The entire roof was divided into equal parts, like a chessboard. Each block was pouring with cannon. He could see that Zero was being thrown up and down by the explosive air currents, like the falling leaves in a storm. Nothing could live under the coverage of gunfire. The deadly fireflies would follow and devour her again once she was reborn. She was unable to avoid this as she could not even change her direction on the non-friction ground but helplessly she watched the numerous light spots with a long flame tail landed in front of her with a whistle.

“It’s impossible!”

Zero shouted incredulously. “You can’t create things that don’t exist out of nowhere, this… doesn’t exist!”

The ground was still as clean as new without a trace of scratch after the wash of gunfire as if it had nothing to do with the flying fireflies in the sky. “It’s smoother than a mirror and stronger than steel. It’s impossible for such thing to exist!” The Pure Witch Zero hysterically screamed.

Although Roland could not hear her, he could guess what she felt. He could not turn himself into Superman, but he could create a power that was no less than a superman.

He changed the distance between atoms within the ground surface.

Atoms were closely attached to each other with a strong interaction, like the soldiers who neatly lined up. This surface was almost absolutely smooth and incredibly strong. The tetrahedron carbide was as soft as water in front of it.

Zero was completely confined as she could not run or hide and was surging up and down with the gunfire. It was nothing to do with will but the great disparity of knowledge.

She had tried to activate the Sigil of God’s Will several times. However, the continuous gunfire would not give her any respite and she gradually lost the sustainability of her appearance.

“Please, let me go!” Her voice was ringing in Roland’s heart.

“Are you going to kill your sister?” It became Garcia’s plea after a moment.

“Stop, you’re such a monster. You’re killing your family member!” Followed by the reproach of King Wimbledon III.

However, Roland remained unmoved.

“It’s time to end it all,” he answered in his heart, “I’ll defeat the demons on behalf of you. Rest in peace!”

“No, I won’t let you go!”

A dazzling blue light lit up the entire night sky along with Zero’s scream.

After that, the entire world fell apart.

Chapter 629: After the Decisive Battle

here was clamor outside of the tent. Nail, who lay on the ground in a daze, turned his head to see that the thick curtain had been lifted by a corner and that His Excellency Iron Axe was bending down into the tent.

“Co-commander.” He had never expected that the commander of the First Army would come to visit him. He quickly sat up straight and saluted.

“No need for etiquette.” Iron Axe walked to his bedside and sat down, crossing his legs. “How’s your injury?”

“It doesn’t matter. Only two teeth were broken.” Nail touched his swollen cheek. “I’m not that hurt.”

“All right.” Iron Axe then added, “Miss Nana has been so busy these days that, and since your wound wasn’t too severe, you’ll be recovering on your own. When the rescue is over, you can inquire and see Baron Pine to repair your teeth, and the First Army will pay for it.”

“I can fully understand, and there’s no need to bother her with such a little injury. After all, Miss Nana is very tired…” Nail hesitated for a moment before continuing. “How about Hound? He…”

Hound was the one who had grabbed a teammate’s spear and hit Nail to the ground, stunning him with the butt. Nail could still remember the moment that the other side had aimed a gun at Hound.

“Don’t worry. He’s alright,” Iron Axe said to comfort him, “He was pulled down by the guards the moment the other side raised their gun. He attacked you because of the pure witch’s magic. So he won’t be punished and has returned to the team to train.”

“Really?…” Nail was a bit relieved. “I thought I was dead at that moment. What about the other teams?”

According to the arrangement before the war, each bunker had been arranged with two machine gun teams and a five-man guarding platoon. So, even if the enemies approached a bunker, they had the ability to defend on site. In addition to the two or three soldiers in charge of carrying ammunition on the team, all the others wore God’s Stones of Retaliation. The seemingly perfect action appeared flawless.

“These accidents happen,” Iron Axe said with his hands outstretched, “but, it didn’t cause much harm, or we wouldn’t be standing here.”

“Was the church forced back…?” The minute he asked, Nail realized that it was an idiot’s question. “Um, I want to know what happened after.”

“The enemies launched their final charge but failed to cross the fourth trench. Both the God’s Punishment Army and the Judgement Army were completely defeated, leaving more than two thousand bodies at the front of their position. They fled in haste… We won the battle.”

What confused Nail was that Iron Axe was not very excited, and instead, he said all this in a neutral tone. Iron Axe did not offer the reason, and Nail was not bold enough to ask.

Then there was a long silence.

After a long while, Iron Axe sighed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Since you’re alright, have a good rest, and I’ll go visit the other wounded guys.”

Seeing that Iron Axe was about to leave, Nail gathered his courage and stopped him. “Your Excellency…”

“What’s up?”

“I, I want to leave the First Army.” He whispered.

Iron Axe frowned. “Why?”

“Maybe, I can’t be a machine gunner anymore.” Nail lowered his head in shame. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see the scene where that young woman in the red cape was sprayed by a machine gun. “I wasn’t able to immediately shoot at the enemy…”

“Your target was an underaged pure witch, right?” Iron Axe interrupted him. “Your team already reported that to me in their postwar summary. I don’t think that your idea is correct, but it can’t be wrong. So, I’ll just ask you one thing, are you going to betray His Majesty?”

“No! Your Excellency, of course not.” Nail quickly denied. “My life belongs to His Majesty.”

“So, I’m not going to approve your request,” Iron Axe said without hesitation, “This is currently the most critical moment for the First Army and even City of Neverwinter. I demand that everyone in the army abide by his duty and guard His Majesty Roland Wimbledon at all cost. And, we have to spare no effort to do it! You can’t be a gunner. Well, you can be an observer or a protector, but you’re absolutely not allowed to leave the army, understand?”

That last sentence from the commander was in an authoritative tone.

“Ye-yes! Your Excellency!” Nail said, punctuating with a military salute.

“That’s all.” After Iron Axe left, without looking back, Nail felt deeply startled.

“Were we not victorious? Why is the most critical moment now? And, why did His Excellency Iron Axe so solemnly command the First Army to protect His Majesty Roland at all cost…” A terrible thought suddenly occurred to him. “Did his? Did his majesty have an accident during the battle?”

As soon as he thought this, he shuddered.

---

“How’s it going?” Calvin Kant walked into his daughter’s bedroom to see that she was picking up clothes.

“The First Army and the witches have surrounded the castle tightly, and even I can’t get in.” Edith curled her lip. “But, if he gets better, the news will leak, so… I guess, he was the same as before.”

“What about you? Are you ready for a long journey?” Duke Calvin Kant picked up a black veil evening dress from a mountain of dresses on the bed and looked at it carefully. “Is this one too revealing?”

Edith rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say that I was going to pick it, and wasn’t that a gift from you? At the time, you intended to let me wear it to attend Timothy’s dinner party.”

“Ahem… really.” Calvin put down the gown sheepishly. “Do you think that His Majesty’s troops will withdraw to City of Neverwinter?”

“Probably.” Edith stuffed several coats into the open suitcase. “Although the church has been totally defeated, much of the First Army’s supply was consumed. Adviser’s Department will take about a month to regain operational ability. If His Majesty Roland is fine, there’s no reason for him not to stay in the Northern Region for a while. But, if he’s unconscious, no one can guarantee the overall morale. Under this condition, Iron Axe absolutely wouldn’t dare to continue attacking Holy City, so what he’ll do shouldn’t be difficult to guess. ”

“Are you determined to follow them back?” Calvin asked with concern, “If something terrible happens… to His Majesty, the kingdom may fall into civil strife, so it’ll be safer for you to stay in the Northern Region.”

“That’s why I’m going to City of Neverwinter.” Edith stood up and slipped her long hair over her shoulder and onto her back. “It has become the new starting point for the kingdom there—whether Roland is there or not makes no difference. And, his coma presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the Kant family.”

Duke Calvin Kant could not help inhaling a cold breath. “Are you going to…”

“Your thoughts are too simple.” Edith shrugged. “The only one who can replace Roland is his sister Tilly Wimbledon, and I’m afraid that no one can connect the ordinary people with the witches except her. But, there’s the problem that she’s also a witch herself, so when dealing with the affairs of nobles, she needs greater help from the ordinary people.” She paused. “That person will undoubtedly be me. Dad, this is the best shortcut to climb that pinnacle of power and I don’t want to miss it.”

Chapter 630: The Captive Pure Witch

ever before in her life had Nightingale felt so remorseful and regretful.

She thought that as long as she stayed with Roland, no one could hurt him.

However, without any bruises on her body, Nightingale stood in the bedroom of the castle in Deepvalley Town while Roland lay unconscious on the bed.

There was not any magic reaction inside Roland’s body and his internal organs were all intact. Therefore, Roland was neither cursed by a Seed of Peaceful Death or something like that nor hurt by a powerful ability capable of destroying organs. Even though Agatha was knowledgeable, she could not distinguish this ability, let alone its breaking method.

The witches had used all of the regular wake-up means they could think of, but they were all useless. Roland did not respond to any outside stimulus. If he was not breathing, Roland would have been considered dead.

Now, Nightingale finally understood the warning from Agatha.

There was no absolutely safe defense, even in front of the witches’ abilities.

But her understanding was too late.

At this moment, hurried footsteps came from behind the door. Then Lightning opened the door and shouted. “The pure witch has woken up!”

The witches in the room all instantly got excited.

“Everyone stay calm. It’s useless for us all to go and investigate her,” Wendy said, “besides, we’re not clear about her ability. For the sake of safety, Miss Agatha and Nightingale can go and figure this out for us.”

Respected deeply by the other witches, they all quietened at Wendy’s calm tone.

Nightingale took a deep breath and nodded to Wendy. “I’ll handle it.”

Based on her experience from being a runaway for several years, Nightingale was fully aware that her negative mood would not help to change the existing situation. She could not shirk her responsibilities because of a mistake she had made, no matter how big and especially at such a critical juncture.

She must bring His Majesty, Roland back.

“Let’s go,” Agatha sighed and said.

When leaving the room, Nightingale could not help but look back to see that Anna was sat motionless on the bed with her eyes staring at Roland, as if no other things could draw her attention.

Nightingale felt even guiltier in her heart.

…

A servant room on the first floor of the castle that had been altered into a special detention room. Dozens of God’s Stone of Retaliation were embedded behind the four walls forming a black hole, and thus, an anti-ability prison had been readied. Only by standing in the center of the room could a witch cast her ability.

Nightingale was very clear about the target she was about to investigate.

After the battle, the First Army found three pure witches that were still alive in a square-shaped pit within the third trench. One was detached, one was in a coma and the last one was conscious but trembling. According to the last one, there were five pure witches hidden underground, Zero, Isabella, Blackveil, Margie and herself, Vanilla.

According to Vanilla’s intelligence, she and Margie were only responsible for identifying the location of His Majesty, Roland and sneakily escorting the other three to the battle. Thus they knew little about other arrangements. As for Zero, Isabella and Blackveil, they all were directly affiliated with the pope and had the same status as an archbishop. Besides, their abilities were hidden by the Holy Church so that few knew the details. Blackveil was already dead and Zero had disappeared, so they could only get the breaking method from Isabelle.

After an examination, they had found out that the reason that Isabella was in a coma was that she had used all of her magic power. Therefore, Isabella would fully recover in one or two days. In addition, Agatha got a strange sigil on her hand, but she could not identify it because the magic stone was completely ruined.

Unexpectedly, Isabella had been in a coma for five days and so Nightingale had been quite anxious, even wanting to forcibly wake her up with a knife. Lest for Wendy, she would have done so.

“Was she woken up?” Agatha asked Lightning.

Lighting shook her head and said, “She woke up by herself. When it was Ashes’ turn to examine her, Isabella sat on the head of the bed and told us that the prison was useless for her.”

Nightingale’s face became dark, asking, “Is she challenging us now?”

“We’ll find out,” Agatha said calmly.

Having passed through the layers of the strict guards of the First Army, Nightingale and Agatha walked into a narrow room where there were no windows. A rosined torch was hung high above their heads which gave off a dim light. There was nothing in this room other than a vertical wooden bed and a short table.

Isabella sat motionlessly on the head of the bed. Her curled hair dropped naturally on her shoulders and became golden-red under the firelight. She was still dressed in that bloody robe of priests with dust on her face that had solidified into yellow spots.

“It seems that Zero has completely failed,” before Nightingale asked her, Isabella took the initiative to say, “Finally, she isn’t blessed by God.”

“Blessed by God?” Nightingale smiled coldly.

“Don’t worry and I’ll tell you everything I know,” as if she did not hear the sarcasm, Isabella sighed and said, “then, I’ll be at your disposal.”

Nightingale was stunned by Isabella’s attitude because she knew that Isabella was telling the truth.

But it was a little too late to be a lamb. “You’ve claimed that this prison can’t hold you, haven’t you? But now you choose to submit to fate?”

“I’m capable of making the God’s Stone of Retaliation lose effect. As long as I have a platform, God’s Stone would be useless, even if there are as many stones as you have here,” Isabella said slowly, “Except for that, I can neither walk through a wall nor escape away underground, so it’s a waste to arrange such a room for me.”

“You’re capable of influencing the God’s Stone?” Agatha was very surprised and asked.

Isabella said frankly, “They indeed look like bottomless black holes… but I can make them lose effect.”

“You mean that it was you who made the God’s Stone worn by His Majesty, Roland lose effect?” Nightingale clenched her hands into fists.

“I had no other choice at that moment. Zero had become blinded by God. She believed that only one of the two can be blessed by God.”

Agatha covered Nightingale’s hand and calmly asked, “Is it Zero who made His Majesty unconscious? What’s her ability?”

Isabella frowned and said, “Unconscious? There should be a winner and loser instantly when a Soul Battlefield begins. If Roland didn’t become Zero instantly, it means that Zero failed. Is he unconscious because he can’t accept the huge volume of memories?”

Nightingale and Agatha looked at each other. “Soul Battlefield?”

“Yes,” Isabella said with her voice down, “that’s a battle about spirit and will. The winner gets everything, while the loser loses everything. Since Zero was awakened to be a witch, she’s never failed in the Battle of Souls. She’s engulfed numberless commoners and witches and absorbed their memories, knowledge and longevity. So for the time being, Zero has lived for over 200 years.” Speaking of which, Isabella closed her eyes sadly, saying, “I never thought that she would be defeated by a common prince.”

Chapter 631: Promises Then and Now

fter hearing the description of the Soul Battlefield from Isabella, Nightingale began getting depressed. “Do you mean that you also don’t know how to make His Majesty wake up from the coma?”

She shook her head. “This is unprecedented, and I have no idea how to deal with it… But Zero was absentminded for a while when she was devouring Garcia. At that time, she explained that she had found some interesting things in Garcia’s memory and so it took her a long time. Zero has had a more complicated life than anyone else, so if Roland wants to accept these parts of Zero’s memories, it may take some more time. But as long as he’s alive, he’ll wake up naturally.”

Nightingale could not be sure whether this was true or not, but she could tell that Isabella did not lie. At least these conjectures were heartfelt thoughts from Isabella.

But Nightingale also knew that the situation was not at all optimistic.

Would the 200 years of memories from the church or His Majesty’s memories dominate Roland? Or would Roland get lost in these complicated memories and never wake up?

Even if Roland accepted all of Zero’s memories, would he be that Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince of Graycastle that he used to be when he woke up… The one I look forward to seeing?

The many thoughts made were almost impossible for Nightingale to control her mind.

Then Nightingale also understood why Wendy had asked Agatha to come with her.

“Let’s talk about the church,” Agatha said after hesitating for a while, “How much do you know about the Union, the predecessor of the church?”

“I know almost all that Zero has learned.” Isabella responded frankly. “Are you still doubtful about the words in the letter? Since Zero took over the pope’s role, all of the pure witches that have been approved for the Pivotal Secret Authority can enter the library and read the history of 400 years ago. The records about the Witch Empire and the demons in the letter are true.”

“The limited information in the letter isn’t valuable to us.” Agatha smiled. “The Witch Empire is just history for you, but for me, it’s part of my life. I’m a witch in the Union.”

Isabella was surprised at this turn and asked, “What, what did you say?”

“I came from Holy City of Taquila more than 400 years ago and witnessed the destruction of it. The demons aren’t rare and still occupy most of the lands of Dawn Ridge. There are demon battalions at the end of Misty Forest and Redwater River to the west of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Roland has encountered them before.”

Isabella was stunned in place, speechlessly.

“We’ll fight with the demons eventually. We all know that the Battle of Divine Will is coming soon. Roland chose to fight this battle now in order to relieve the oppression of the church.” Agatha paused and continued to say, “What I want to know is, how did the Union transform into the church?”

“This is…” It was a long time before Isabella became calm again. “As mentioned in the history book, during the escape, a civil war broke out in the Union in the northwest of the Impassable Mountain Range. There were no detailed reasons. We just know that the Union was separated into two groups since that time. One group, the Taquila witches, got into the maze remains of the mountains. The other group, led by the witches of Starfall City, inherited Lady Alice’s will to move northward and settled down on Hermes Plateau, which finally became the church.”

“A civil war during the escape?” Agatha frowned and said, “This is undoubtedly suicide.”

“The writer of that history book also thought so. The Union suffered heavy losses in the civil war. Two Transcendents were lost and totally separated from the migration team of the common people. When the group going north arrived at their destination, most of those common people fled.” Isabella sighed. “As for the war of faith later, it was to kill those non-combat witches who didn’t belong to Starfall City. Only in this way could the church completely bury the history of the past.”

“Is burying the past a reason to hunt witches wantonly? Even to go so far as to create the unconscious God’s Punishment Army?” Nightingale said in a cold tone, “You are all crazy.”

“Without this civil war, the four kingdoms would have been controlled by the Union from the beginning. The size of the God’s Punishment Army would have been far larger,” Isabella said peacefully, “Of course, since Roland Wimbledon now has a better way, Holy City of Hermes isn’t necessary any longer.”

“You have no nostalgia for the church!” said the Nightingale sarcastically.

“As long as the demons can be defeated, I don’t care who’ll take charge of the continent. That was also the Union’s original intention,” Isabella closed her eyes and said, “Although Zero was crazy, she had greater faith in fighting against the demons than most people, and that’s why I chose to help her.”

Hearing this, Nightingale could not help pulling out a dagger.

“If killing her can wake Roland up, I won’t stop you.” Agatha whispered.

After a long while, Nightingale indignantly put the dagger back into the sheath.

“By the way, one more thing,” as soon as the two were ready to leave, Isabella suddenly spoke, “although Zero allowed pure witches to enter the Temple to read the books in the library, she prohibited anyone from visiting the prayer room. Even moving close to it. She told me that it was only by standing there that she could meet God directly.”

…

Nightingale smashed the wall vigorously when going out of the captivity room and said, “Damn it! We still can’t find a way to awaken His Majesty!”

“We’ve done what we can, all we can do is to continue to wait,” Agatha said with comfort, “anyway, let’s report what we’ve got to everyone first.”

“I promise that she’ll pay the price!”

“As long as she’s alive, she’s important for us to tackle Holy City and explore the secrets of the God stone.”

Soon, the witches gathered outside the bedroom and began to listen to the intelligence about the pure witches from Agatha. But Nightingale’s mind had already drifted away.

She quietly stepped back to the corner, cast the ability of the Mist, and went into Roland’s bedroom.

Except for her, there was only Anna left in the quiet room.

Nightingale slowly walked to the bed and saw Anna holding Roland’s right hand, whispering something.

Only by holding her breath could Nightingale hear the whispers of Anna.

“Do you remember what I said to you?”

“If you’re dead, I’ll go to Sleeping Island with those who’re willing to follow you and fight against the church to the end.”

“But you’re still alive.”

“You’re just sleeping.”

“So I’ll wait forever.”

“As long as you still can breathe, I’ll always be there for you. For one day, one year or even my whole life.”

“You can sleep soundly.”

“I’ll take care of you.”

Nightingale felt her heart fiercely tightening up. The feeling of heartbroken was even more unbearable than that of being badly hurt. Somehow, she bent over uncontrollably and covered her chest tightly.

A warm river blurred her eyes.

Chapter 632: Out of Deep Sleep

hen the light pierced through the darkness and his blur vision adjusted to the light source, the white ceiling was the first thing that Roland saw. It took him several seconds to get rid of his dizziness and he felt increasingly weird as his vision became clearer.

“Where exactly is this?” thought Roland.

He suddenly sat up and noticed that he was actually sleeping in a modern-looking bedroom. He was sleeping in a soft bed with a table lamp and a box of napkins on one side and a maroon-colored wardrobe on the other side. The dazzling sun shone through the blinds and evenly poured on the mat and his arms, making him feel slightly warm.

“Damn! Is this fight not over yet?” Roland’s sleepiness completely disappeared in a sudden.

He rolled off the bed and stretched out his hand to summon a gun for self-defense but his hand was still empty after several attempts.

His heart sank.

“Can it be… the rules of the battlefield have changed again?”

“It’s too bad. If I have to be unarmed, I would only be beaten up by the pure witch with her skills and speed.”

“And, what about the deal of choosing my most impressive scene as the battle ring? I did not have any impression of this d*mn room!”

Roland quietly walked to the bedroom door and leaned against the door to listen for a moment. He heard an intermittent voice, which seemed that someone was talking outside.

He carefully held onto the door handle and slit the door. It was a more spacious room which was furnished as a living room. The old fan beside the empty couch was rattling and continuously buzzing. There were a tea table and a wall-hanging television with a constantly flashing screen in front of the couch. It was probably where the voice came from.

Except that, no one was in the living room.

Such situation was a little weird.

Roland took a deep breath and slowly walked into the living room.

The red ribbon on the fan cover was dancing along the wind and the gently blowing cool wind refreshed him. He realized that the room was a little stuffy at the moment, and the echoing chirr of the cicadas signified that it was the summer season.

A few magazines were scattered on the couch. Roland picked up one of them and flipped through it. The content was actually extremely childish. They were fashion news, horoscopes, and divination that were only read by immature little girls.

He frowned even more deeply.

This was apparently not his house as he would not buy such magazines at all, be it in the past life or the present life.

The news on the television at this moment attracted Roland’s attention.

“Yesterday evening, an unexplainable explosion happened at a local university. A school building was damaged. The pictures of the scene showed that the entire rooftop had collapsed and there were scattered broken glasses everywhere. What actually happened? Now, let’s contact the reporter at the scene.”

He dropped his jaw as he could hardly believe what he just saw.

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m standing beside the school building where the explosion occurred.” A female reporter appeared on the screen and the background was the building where he battled with Zero! “According to the witnesses, the flame lit up half of the sky with continuous explosions. Fortunately, there were no casualties as not many students stay on campus due to the summer holiday. The entire campus is currently sealed by the police and the students on campus are also transferred to the nearby hostels to be guided by the teachers. However, the cause of the explosion hasn’t yet been clarified so far.”

“What’s your thought about the accident?”

“We can only say that it’s very strange. Everyone knows that it’s impossible to even install a natural gas pipeline in the teaching building, not to mention the center of the explosion was on the top floor,” The female reporter said in one breath, “Some people speculated that it was a plane crash, some thought it was small meteorites or some even say that it could be the alien arrival. Anyway, I’ll immediately return with the message once the police have a definite conclusion.”

“Thanks.” The host nodded. “Then, let’s look at the next news. It’s a hot summer and the heat is unbearable. Students should enjoy the long-lost holiday life at home instead of participating in the extracurricular classes. The Department of Education has issued a notice to prohibit private tutoring. Please call the hotline if you encounter any of such cases…”

Roland was not able to continue listening as the scene of the collapsing campus had filled his mind. “Wasn’t the Battle of Souls a fictional illusion?” “How could it be possible?”

After standing stoned for a while, he quickly ran towards the door of the living room as he had a sudden realization. A hot wave suddenly poured into the house when he opened the security door.

A modern city appeared in front of him!

The high-rise buildings at a distance formed a dense concrete jungle. It was a busy street not far away with endless crossing cars and pedestrians. And, he was standing in the corridor of an apartment building. He turned around and saw a gold plate with number 0825 hanging in the middle of the low-grade door. If he did not misunderstand, it meant Room 25 on the eighth floor.

“Excuse me. Please don’t block the corridor, will you?”

Roland was slightly surprised. He turned around and noticed that the neighbor’s door was opened before he knew and a middle-aged woman was impatiently staring at him. The woman coldly hummed while walking past Roland after he tilted his body to one side. The strong smell of low-quality perfume flowed into his nose at the same time.

“What the heck, having no work and running around with only singlet and underpants. How can an adult be so shameless?” the woman muttered to herself and her voice just happened to float into Roland’s ears. Such technique seemed to come in handy for middle-aged women.

Roland walked back into the house and loudly closed the door.

“Come out! Zero!”

“Don’t waste the time hiding!”

“Is this your newly designed trick? Piecing pieces of my memories together?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s simply an illusion!”

Nothing happened in the room even though Roland shouted for a while.

Roland grabbed a glass cup on the table and smashed it on the wall. The cup was instantly broken into pieces.

“Is this how you defeat me?” He sneered to himself. “Trying to trap me in this consciousness forever? You won’t be able to lock me up, Zero!”

He immediately acted without any hesitation.

“How can I get away if this is another illusion of the Battle of Souls?” thought Roland.

Suicide was definitely the last option, and Roland decided to start with a simple one—to create a fall.

He moved a few chairs over and stacked them from big to small ones with the back of the chair against the couch so that he would not be wounded even if he failed.

When it was completed, he stepped onto the constantly rocking chairs and climbed slowly to the top. His head was almost touching the ceiling at the moment, and falling backward was indeed scary.

However, this psychological barrier was nothing to Roland as he had experienced different ways to die by now.

He could hear someone unlocking the door from the outside when he was on top of the rocking chairs.

“Perhaps the real owner of this house has returned?” Roland thought.

The highly-stacked chairs collapsed before he could balance himself.

Roland struggled to turn around during the frantic fall and saw a young girl who was about 11 or 12 years old walking into the room with a backpack. However, he could instantly recognize her from her white long hair and light red eyes.

“Zero!”

And, she was obviously surprised to see Roland at the same time.

“What’re you doing?! Uncle!”

The picture became twisted in a sudden as if the world was being reversed. Roland quickly bounced up and gasped for air twice. The familiar room reappeared in his eyes.

The gray stone wall with tiny cracks, thick velvet curtains, and the Magic Stone that was silently glowing…

This is… the city of Neverwinter?

“Plunk.”

It was the sound made by the wooden pot dropping on the floor.

Roland followed the sound and found that Anna was blankly standing there. The pot that dropped on the floor was spinning and the spilled hot water had wet a huge area of the map.

And, the girl quickly ran to him.