Chapter 32: Battle
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 32: Battle
For the first time in a long while, Evangeline donned her battle attire. She stepped into the living room wearing a robe and hat made from the hide of a rare magic beast, and holding a staff crafted from a thousand-year-old tree struck by lightning.
“Yohan, you and Margaret should go to a city somewhere.”
“Master, but…”
“No ‘buts.’ I can’t fight properly if you’re here. Margaret, you’re there, right? Take Yohan to another city. This will be settled by tomorrow, sooner or later. Come back then.”
At her words, Margaret immediately took Yohan and vanished from the cabin. After confirming her beloved disciple was gone, Evangeline left the cabin.
Fenrir, who had been waiting for her outside, immediately bowed his body toward her.
Climbing atop Fenrir, Evangeline pointed in the direction where she could feel a distant surge of magic power.
“Let’s go, Fenrir.”
[…It has been a long time.]
“Yes, decades.”
Since I’ve fought another witch.
However, she could not back down, even if it were her first time rather than just decades. Because this forest was where she first met her precious disciple.
“I’ll have to show her exactly what happens when you invade another witch’s territory.”
The moment she finished speaking, Fenrir shot off in the direction Evangeline had pointed.
“Mast—!”
Just as I was about to shout for her to stop, I realized I had already been transported to a city. I immediately turned to Margaret and yelled.
“Margaret, I have to go help my master…!”
“And what are you going to do to help?”
“What do you mean? It’s better than doing nothing here—.”
“Let me be clear. You can’t do anything. Just hiding here is helping. Got it?”
I couldn’t offer any rebuttal and clamped my mouth shut. She was right. Blood had rushed to my head and I'd rashly said I would help, but in truth, I had no way of helping my master.
Even my master had said my magic nullification wouldn’t be of much use. She’d also told me that even Holy Knights, who possessed superhuman strength from years of training, had died helplessly before that witch.
I can’t do anything. The realization left me feeling powerless.
“…Master.”
“Don’t worry. Evangeline, was it? As far as I know, she’s the strongest witch there is. Your master won’t lose.”
“What if—what if she does lose?”
“Then… she’s not the one you should be worried about.”
Imagining her master’s defeat, Margaret gave a bitter smile and spoke.
“The entire human race would die.”
Fwoosh!
The forest was burning. The dense, green forest was nothing more than fuel for the Fire Demon that devoured it, growing ever larger.
Watching the forest burn, the Witch of Fire smiled. Fire was good. Things burning was the best. The warmth of the dancing flames was second to none.
As the witch blankly watched the flames swallow the forest, she suddenly saw the fire begin to flee from the trees.
‘What the…’
It was as if the flames themselves were shunning the wood. The witch frowned, seeing the fire move completely beyond her control, as if reluctant to even touch it.
“If you’re going to visit someone’s home, you should greet them first.”
Step, step. Someone approached from a distance, speaking those words. The Witch of Fire turned her head and, upon seeing the other’s face, realized she too was a witch.
An utterly lovely face, yet there was something about her that made one’s skin crawl.
Eventually, even that cute face began to feel as repulsive as some crawling insect.
“…A witch.”
“Hello? I’m Evangeline, the owner of this forest. And you are?”
“To think there was a witch in a place like this.”
“Hey, when someone asks you something, you should answer. How old are you? Old enough to have such terrible manners?”
“So close by—.”
There was no getting through to her. Realizing this, Evangeline let out a light sigh and tapped Fenrir’s leg. Receiving the signal, Fenrir obeyed his master’s command.
With a speed that defied his house-sized frame, Fenrir shot forward like an arrow, reaching the Witch of Fire in an instant and swiping with his paw.
The Witch of Fire reacted late, shooting out a burst of flame, but it never reached Fenrir’s body, scattering in all directions instead.
“Huh?”
By the time she sensed something was wrong and tried to use her magic again, Fenrir’s paw had already struck her.
Hit by the paw of a monster weighing well over several tons, the witch was sent flying into the air. Watching the Witch of Fire soar into the distance, shattering several trees along the way, Evangeline hoped it would end just like this.
‘It would be nice if she died from that…’
Unfortunately, she did not. The witch who had been struck and sent flying erupted in dancing flames, and soon reappeared, perfectly fine, glaring at Evangeline and Fenrir.
Like she’s some kind of phoenix—does it make any sense for her to heal just because she’s on fire? Evangeline thought, glaring back at the Witch of Fire.
“Why… why didn’t you come save me?”
“Hm? What was that?”
“Why… when you were so close…”
As the witch muttered, Evangeline belatedly realized what she was talking about.
This witch had burned down an entire city. It wasn’t easy for a witch to do something like that. Witches were, at the end of the day, still human, so they didn’t just suddenly decide to massacre countless people.
There had to be a proper reason. And naturally, being captured and tortured by Holy Knights was reason enough.
“Aha, so you’re the one who was captured by the Holy Knights?”
“Yes. And even though you knew—you didn’t come to save me.”
“I see. That must have been hard. To be captured by Holy Knights…”
Having clashed with the church several times in the past, Evangeline knew all too well what kind of fate awaited witches captured by Holy Knights, so she could easily deduce what the witch before her had endured.
A fear, a terror, that she could empathize with as a fellow witch. Feeling that emotion, Evangeline opened her mouth.
“—But why would I go and save you?”
“…What?”
“You were captured by Holy Knights because you were stupid, weren’t you? Why should another witch have to clean up a mess you made by being stupid?”
Hearing Evangeline’s words, the Witch of Fire’s eyes shot open in disbelief, even in her half-mad state. Could those—could those words truly come from the mouth of a fellow witch?
But regardless of her expression, Evangeline continued to speak her mind.
“That’s what it means to be a witch. A creature that suffers for its entire life.”
“…You.”
“You were captured and tortured by Holy Knights? That must have been agonizing. But so what? For me, the very act of being born a witch is painful. Every single day is hell. But did you ever come to save me?”
The Witch of Fire clamped her mouth shut and glared at the witch before her. Just looking at her induced a sense of revulsion, from which she could infer the nature of this witch’s curse.
And how she must have been treated because of that curse.
However, as Evangeline had said—that was a pain that was none of her business.
“—You are a creature that should not exist.”
Seeing that Evangeline offered no sympathy, the Witch of Fire erupted in flames. Fenrir charged forward as he had before, but this time, he couldn’t approach so easily.
A wolf made of flames, identical to Fenrir, appeared and engaged him. The fire still couldn’t touch Fenrir directly, but it didn’t matter.
The flames pulled away from Fenrir, condensing into a single point. The concentrated heat was lethal even without direct contact, and the tips of Fenrir’s fur began to singe.
[Kuaaaang—!]
Watching Fenrir bark loudly as he fought the flame wolf, Evangeline realized she would have to step in and face her herself.
‘This is a problem…’
She had put on a grand show of confidence, but in truth, Evangeline wasn’t a particularly strong witch. To be precise, she lacked any decent means of attack.
The magic of the Witch of Love, which manipulated the affinities of all things in the world. It wasn’t very effective against another witch. It was impossible to use magic directly on a witch who knew how to protect herself with her own magic power.
Of course, her defense was the strongest of all, capable of blocking any witch’s attack, and she would eventually win… but a prolonged battle would result in the entire forest burning down.
‘If it’s going to burn anyway…’
Evangeline thought of the beaker in her pocket. The method of using magic her disciple, Yohan, had taught her. She still didn’t understand the principle behind it… but it was what would allow her to unleash her ultimate power.
“Burn to death!”
She made all the flames flying toward her swerve away as she slowly walked forward. The flames that missed her struck the surrounding trees, setting them ablaze.
The fire didn’t immediately spread to other trees, but it was only a matter of time. She had to make a decision. She had to defeat that witch in a very short amount of time.
“Die—! I said, die!”
As if she never tired, the Witch of Fire relentlessly shot flames at her. Evangeline walked toward her, and upon arriving, she took a single beaker from her pocket.
The Witch of Fire, who had expected Evangeline to do something, let out a sneer when she saw her take out a beaker no bigger than her palm.
“What do you plan to do with just that?”
“I know. That’s what I thought, too.”
The beaker contained seawater. Her disciple, Yohan, had explained that this seawater held immense potential. And it was true.
She used her power on the seawater. She didn’t know the principle behind it, but she made the constituent components of the seawater hate each other.
And so, the seawater instantly split into oxygen and hydrogen. The water vanished, and only the separate elements filled the beaker.
And here, once more—she used her power. The scattered hydrogen (H) atoms rushed toward each other, sticking together.
Heavy hydrogen became light helium, releasing an amount of energy equivalent to the lost mass. An energy of E=mc².
“Wha—.”
In that instant, a sun rose upon the earth.
All the oxygen that existed in this place was incinerated, and a giant mushroom cloud took its place.
The God of Death, the Destroyer of the World, had arrived.
The Holy Knights and their army, who had been tracking the witch’s trail, stared in horror at the massive mushroom cloud rising in the distance.
The minds of the uncivilized residents of this medieval fantasy world could not possibly comprehend what it was. But they knew one thing for certain.
“G-God is angry!”
“He is wroth!”
Not just the Holy Knights, but the soldiers too, immediately fell to the ground and prostrated themselves in the direction of the mushroom cloud.
In the next moment, as if in response to their actions, a great storm descended and swept through the army.
“Aaaaargh—!”
“H-Hold on! Grab onto anything and hold on!”
Soldiers who couldn’t hold on were sent flying in all directions, and even those who managed to endure were not left unscathed.
Only then did the shockwave pass, and the soldiers looked up at the mushroom cloud, still blooming majestically.
“…O, Lord.”
On this day, the army that had been pursuing the witch immediately turned back.
Only a few rookie Holy Knights, who didn’t value their lives—or rather, were pushed forward by their lack of seniority—headed toward the site.