Chapter 138: Could I Do It?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 138: Could I Do It?
Hekaterina was a being who could be called the strongest of witches. At least, until Evangeline—whose shield was invincible, capable of blocking any attack—figured out how to use that shield as a weapon. Until then, Hekaterina was a witch who was incredibly difficult to kill and could wield power greater than that of ancient monsters.
So, when Hekaterina faced the <Ruler of the Deep Sea>, who had been sealed away in ancient times, it was only natural that she fought the monster without batting an eye.
Of course, it wasn't an easy fight. The Ruler of the Deep Sea was a monster on par with, if not greater than, Hekaterina, and the battle between the two behemoths was so fierce that no one could predict the winner.
The tide of the battle turned when a sudden spell flew in and froze the entire section of the sea where the two were fighting.
—Absolute congelation.
The entire sea froze solid, and the two monsters fighting each other were completely encased in ice. Adelheid, unaware that Hekaterina could transform into a monster, had attacked both the Ruler of the Deep Sea and Hekaterina at the same time. Hekaterina, revived by her own magic, reflexively attacked Adelheid.
And this was the result. Adelheid, collapsed just like the fallen monster.
And an ice barrier so solid that even her power couldn't break through it.
‘Fuck, I'm so screwed.’
She swiftly swam through the ice and reached its edge. Just one more step would take her outside, yet she couldn't get out.
The ice wall was reducing all the energy she projected to zero. Since it completely nullified her power, any attempt to move using magic was also thwarted.
‘And that crazy bitch shows no sign of waking up...’
In truth, this whole situation would end the moment Adelheid woke up and dispelled the magic. But Adelheid wasn't waking up, and Hekaterina had been dying over and over inside this ice for hours.
Eventually, Hekaterina gave up and descended to Adelheid's side.
‘This was the one thing I didn't want to do...’
Hekaterina transformed her right hand into that of a monster. Then, she carefully extended it toward Adelheid, who had a hole in her chest.
Her hand, now a parasitic monster, began to fill the hole in Adelheid's chest. Her right arm had become Adelheid's chest.
Afterward, Hekaterina, having returned to her human form, looked down at her completely vanished right arm with a bitter expression.
‘Fucking bitch... Just try not giving it back.’
In that moment, her right arm became completely Adelheid's. If Adelheid didn't later decide to return it to her, the arm would be gone forever.
This was why she had been so reluctant to use this method. Hekaterina didn't trust others. And because she didn't trust others, she couldn't bring herself to believe that someone would return a part of her own body.
If she had been certain she could escape this situation on her own, she would never have sacrificed her arm to wake Adelheid.
“Cough—!”
Soon after, Adelheid’s eyes fluttered open as she let out a ragged breath. Clots of blood that had filled her lungs came pouring from the corners of her mouth.
Hekaterina frowned slightly as she looked down at her.
“You awake?”
“...Who are—.”
“If you’re awake, then stop fucking sleep-talking and get rid of this thing already.”
After blankly assessing the situation for a moment, Adelheid did as Hekaterina said and shattered the Absolute Congelation she had created. The two of them then succeeded in escaping the city.
<Foolish. With such crude tricks, you cannot reach the heavens.>
“I have no idea what you’re blabbering on about.”
Margaret dodged the spear of light flying toward her by moving into the fourth dimension. From the perspective of the fourth dimension, an attack from a three-dimensional being was no different from an attack aimed at a coordinate of zero.
By dodging along the fourth axis, she could easily evade any attack. Returning from the fourth to the third dimension, Margaret smiled leisurely at the angel before her.
“Besides, aren’t you a being who fell from those heavens? Look at the color of your wings. They’re so grimy.”
<...This is not dust. It is punishment for my loyalty, which once wavered and betrayed God.>
“Hey now, could you stop making comments only you can understand? You sound like a loser.”
The Fallen Angel didn't know what a "loser" was, but he succeeded in reading the emotion in her words.
Primal contempt. It was not an emotion that he, an angel, deserved to receive, no matter how fallen he was.
<How dare a lowly being who lives with your feet on the ground!>
“Feet on the ground? I’m flying right now, you know?”
<Silence!>
The Fallen Angel spread his wings wide. The thousands, tens of thousands of feathers on his wings all shot out, transforming into spears of light aimed at Margaret.
A trumpet sounded. Watching the tens of thousands of light spears flying toward her in time with the trumpet's call, Margaret twisted her hand.
“Black Hole.”
A black sphere popped into existence around her body. The light was drawn to the black sphere and began to be sucked in indiscriminately.
While the Fallen Angel groaned at the sight of the sphere sucking in all the spears of light, Margaret threw the black sphere straight at him.
As the Fallen Angel flew up to dodge the black hole hurtling toward him, Margaret grinned and created a white sphere.
“—White Hole.”
It was the twin technique to the Black Hole, spitting out all the attacks it had absorbed. Tens of thousands of spears flew toward the Fallen Angel, who had left himself wide open while dodging the Black Hole.
The Fallen Angel flapped his wings, trying desperately to evade, but even the one who had originally fired them couldn't find a way to escape and plummeted to the ground.
<Kraaaaaaah—!>
Watching the screaming Fallen Angel, Margaret approached him and held out her hand as if offering a final gift.
“Event Horizon.”
The event horizon.
The Fallen Angel fell straight into the crevice of infinitely stretched space. As he felt his body stretching like taffy, he began to see hallucinations to endure the pain.
<Ah, ah, my God— I am returning to that place again...>
Having lost his life, the Fallen Angel turned into a desiccated mummy before crumbling away into nothing.
Watching this, Margaret realized the angel's remains were heading somewhere.
Into some kind of 【Space】 that even she, the Witch of Space, could not observe.
‘That is...’
If a place called the heavens truly existed, as the Fallen Angel had said, then that was surely it.
Margaret thought this as she carefully relaxed her tense body.
She was more tired than she'd expected after fighting for so long in what was supposed to be a preliminary skirmish.
“Ah, I wonder where our dear disciple is—.”
“So you were here.”
Just then, Margaret felt a flicker of magic power in her senses. A familiar sensation. It was the ripple in space that occurred whenever someone jumped through it.
In this world, only two people could create this ripple. Herself, and Yohan, who possessed her spellbook. Just the two of them.
Delighted at the thought that Yohan had come to her, Margaret turned around, only to frown at the sight of Regina and Makina standing before her.
“What are you two doing here?”
“We came to help you, Miss Margaret... but it seems that wasn't necessary.”
“Help? You two were going to help—me?”
Margaret let out a hollow laugh. Those two, with absolutely no combat ability, were going to help her?
It was enough to make a passing dog laugh. And of course, Margaret laughed too.
Seeing Margaret's laughing face, Regina nonchalantly raised her hand.
Magic power immediately began to radiate from her hand—and it was a type of magic that Margaret knew all too well.
“...You, that’s.”
“It will be more helpful than you think.”
Because that was the unique wave that appeared when using her magic, space magic.
Margaret’s eyes widened as she scanned Regina from head to toe. She had only ever created one spellbook. And Yohan had it.
She had thought it was impossible to create a new spellbook without her help...
“How...”
“I have Awakened. Not just you, Miss Margaret... but also Miss Evangeline, Miss Hekaterina, and Miss Linna.”
Regina demonstrated the magic of love, the magic of fear, and the magic of annihilation. Due to the strain of using four types of magic simultaneously, she quickly ran out of power and had to release them, but—.
For a brief moment, she had become a powerhouse capable of using the powers of multiple witches at once.
“As long as it falls within the category of ‘witch,’ I can replicate it all.”
“...That's a cheat.”
“Not necessarily.”
Having witnessed the potential of the magic of records, Margaret carefully looked down at her own palm.
Awakened witches shed a layer of their limitations and obtain even greater power.
Then—what would happen if she were to Awaken? If she, the Witch of Space, were to Awaken...
‘Could I go... to that place?’
Could even a witch like her go to heaven?