Side Story: The Tale of the One Left Behind
On a barren wasteland, a single girl trudged forward. Her black hair and red eyes gleamed darkly as she pressed on relentlessly. Behind her floated a single corpse, levitated by magic, trailing in her wake. It was the body of a beautiful girl with long silver hair draped down—but blood dripped from her mouth.
"The world... is so black..."
Utterly black. Inescapably so. The sun, symbol of peace, had risen, yet the ground remained carpeted in unrecognizable corpses.
"The threat to the world is gone, so why is all that's left to me just this one husk of a body?"
Tears had long since ceased flowing; her tear glands had dried up ages ago. Her slender legs had stopped obeying her commands long before that. And yet she walked. And walked some more. All to deliver a pyrrhic victory report to whatever scant few survivors remained.
After what felt like an eternity of this, a kingdom finally came into view. Travel Kingdom. The last refuge for those who had somehow clung to life.
"The Empire burned to ashes, and all the brave warriors who fought valiantly are dead."
"Why do you lot cling to life so desperately?"
The girl's eyes had been dead for ages. Humanity had long faded from her heart.
"...Should I just kill you all?"
Asella's eyes began to lose their faint light entirely. Her ravaged mind and body were severing her emotions one by one. One by one.
"...Still, I have to do what must be done."
She headed toward the kingdom.
"Lady Asella..! The Demon King...!"
Just two. Only two knights had come out to guard the kingdom's gates.
"The Demon King... is dead."
As Asella murmured softly, hope flickered in their eyes.
"Finally...!"
"It's all over... Sob... It's finally over..!"
Watching their faces light up with desperate hope only accelerated the erosion of Asella's sanity.
"You... wanted to survive that badly?"
"...Pardon?"
In an instant, the light vanished completely from Asella's eyes, and tears—tears she thought would never come again—began to spill forth.
"The heroes who fought so bravely are all dead, lying collapsed on some battlefield, waiting for someone to even retrieve their bodies."
"And here you are, rejoicing just because you survived?"
A dark crimson, viscous mana laced with murderous intent began to surge from Asella, Threatening the knights.
"Eek... Sob... F-Forgive us..."
"We're s-sorry... Please, have mercy..."
Asella slowly reined in her killing intent, brushing past the knights to push open the gate.
"I can't sully the world that child died to protect... with my own hands."
Her dead eyes fixed ahead, she walked—and walked—toward the Witch Tower within the kingdom.
The Witch Tower held one special chamber. A place only for the bodies of Great Witches and witches. Known as the Moon Tomb—Woelyo—it was the burial ground for countless witches.
Asella slowly circled the Moon Tomb, passing graves of witches long dead and those freshly fallen.
Their number was truly beyond counting, yet Asella always remembered it exactly.
"132,703."
Soon, one more would be added.
Crunch—Crunch—
Asella made her way to the deepest part of the Moon Tomb, toward the site where the remains of the first Great Witch, Priscilla, lay interred.
[Resting Place of the Moons]
Asella opened the door marked as such and gently set down Noel's corpse for a moment.
The room resembled an office Priscilla had once frequented. Shelves overflowed with tomes on magic, and countless unorganized spell formulas cluttered the space. Dominating the view upon entry was a framed portrait of the inaugural Great Witch, Priscilla.
"Lady Priscilla..."
Asella knelt before the portrait and began to sob. No tears came. She'd already wept a lifetime's worth today.
"It was so hard. To uphold and protect your legacy, I fought with everything I had..."
"But in the end... I couldn't protect it. Or did I? The Demon King is dead, after all."
"Hic... But... but..."
"Nothing's left for me now."
"Shouldn't I be happy after saving the world?"
"As a Great Witch, I was supposed to lead by example, but instead I got help from a little witch."
"That damn goddess was so useless... I stubbornly refused her aid..."
"And because of me... that young, more talented girl than me... died. For my sake."
This story begins at the moment Priscilla lay dying to the Demon King.
"Curse Goddess Nemira, your closest servant requests a pact with you."
Then, as now, she had stood before Asella—requesting a deal with the goddess.
Sacred pacts were veiled from prying eyes, so the details remained unknown. But for some reason, the Curse Goddess granted Priscilla scant power, and in the end, Priscilla fell to the Demon King.
"Why..?"
Asella watched the scene in hollow despair, tears streaming down her face.
"Why? ...Why? Is that it..? Lady Nemira...?"
Expecting no reply, she kept questioning anyway.
"Why? Why..? Why...?"
At last, Asella broke into sobs, cursing the absent voice.
"This should've been enough..."
"Cast out by the world, finally starting to live like a person... and this is what happens?"
"How cruel can the world be to one person?"
"Answer me."
"Pardon?"
"Why did you do it? Why? WHY!!!"
Asella collapsed into despairing wails.
"Sob... Waaah... Hic... I don't... need... gods anymore..."
After crying herself out, she stopped abruptly, glaring at the sky with feral red eyes full of malice.
"...Someday, I'll have revenge on you cursed gods who ruined my life. You bastards."
Words unfit for a young girl's mouth, but her resolve burned fiercer than ever, her hatred vast as the world's.
After that, Asella never sought the Curse Goddess again. To commit god-slaying, she turned the heavens into her enemy.
But perhaps she could never truly defy them. The gods offered no answers, and as her spark of hope flickered out, she began losing everything.
In the end, demons invaded the continent, burning over half of it—then she met one witch. Noel. An unfamiliar name, yet strangely familiar.
Silver hair opposite Priscilla's dark locks, but those purple eyes were eerily similar, sending chills down her spine. Noel possessed innate genius in magic and curses; Asella even wondered if she was Priscilla reincarnated.
Fighting alongside her reignited hope's embers. They crushed Kasea's 100,000-strong army, and Asella felt they could challenge the heavens themselves.
But she recalled the saying: where there's meeting, there's parting. She regretted knowing it now, in this moment.
"Curse Goddess Nemira, your humble servant requests a pact with you."
Asella tried to teleport and stop her, but her body wouldn't respond.
"P-Please... stop... not from me..."
Asella dragged her short legs toward Noel. But was it too late?
The sky split open, and a spear of immense power descended. It pierced Kasea's torso, and the witch named Noel began to fade away.
To save a nearly burned world, to steer this tale of despair toward even a slightly better end—she traded her life for peace.
"Asel... Cough, Lady Asella understands, right...?"
Even in sacrifice, seeking acknowledgment from her—it was so endearing, yet filled Asella with horrific self-loathing. I could've done it too... Screw revenge. I lost her the same way... Because of me.
"Lady Nemira said she's sorry to you."
Sorry? If you're sorry, don't take everything from me. Lend Priscilla real power. At least... spare this child's life.
Rage boiled over; Asella tried communing with the faceless goddess she'd long ignored. But—
Thud—
"I'm... not from this world..."
Her mind went blank. Multiverse theory. Priscilla's old tales.
'The universe has many versions. There's a Bellanova at peace, one already destroyed... probably ones at war too.'
"...Ha... Haha..."
I see. You're from another world.
"Your world... must still be okay."
"...That's why I'm here now."
"Funny, right? Couldn't show a dignified Great Witch side, just got saved by my successor."
"...Sorry. Even I know it's no laughing matter."
Asella spoke to the portrait, expecting no reply.
"...What should I do?"
"There's nothing left in this world for me to protect."
"No disciple, no fellow heroes, just a few hundred nameless survivors. That's all this world has left."
"Please... answer me... Right? Lady Priscilla...?"
Thud—Plop—
Several books tumbled from the shelf. Asella approached and examined them.
Quantum Tunneling: Realizing Travel Between Multiverses — by Priscilla
Foundational Theory of Multidimensional Travel and Exploration — by Priscilla
Conditions and Limitations of Interdimensional Teleportation — by Priscilla
"Ha. Haha..."
"Thank you. For answering."
Asella's dead eyes slowly reignited.
After that, she didn't leave the room for a long while. Whatever she was doing, only she knew.
"My child... I hope you're happy. I'm always... thinking 'I'm sorry'..."
Nemira—or rather, Priscilla—with her dark silver hair and glowing purple eyes, kept offering unheard apologies to Asella.