Chapter 406: She Might Just Be the Calamity Witch!
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 406: She Might Just Be the Calamity Witch!
After a few words of back-and-forth, the waiter gave me a "good luck, you'll need it" look and moved on to knock on the other doors.
It was a bit archaic for a single person to be responsible for announcing warnings across such a sprawling floor, but it was certainly an effective way to ensure everyone actually headed for the shelters. After all, it was early morning, and many were still deep in their dreams.
Among those already roused by the waiter, some were fleeing without the slightest regard for their appearance. It was clear just how much they feared the Secret Diggers; they ran with curses streaming from their lips. In emergencies like this, one truly got to see the many faces of humanity.
I glanced back at the incense burner. The stick inside was only half-burnt. This was the high-end stuff I’d bought from Senior Sister Gongxi Huanxin—it was quite expensive. Even though there was some left, I couldn't help but feel a pang of annoyance at the waste.
And whose fault was it? Those damned Secret Diggers. I added it to the mental tally of debts they owed me.
With a wave of my hand, I extinguished the incense and stowed the burner into my storage equipment. After confirming the Tears of the Mad Plant was still secure, I went to Qiu Ruxin’s door and knocked.
"Hmm? Sister Xiao Han? Why are you up so early?" Only after confirming it was me did Qiu Ruxin push the door open, rubbing her bleary eyes as she looked at me.
However, she quickly noticed the commotion outside—the sound of people running and the palpable sense of panic.
"Did something happen?" Qiu Ruxin asked, instantly alert.
"Yeah. It seems a lot of Secret Diggers have gathered outside the hotel. The waiters are going door-to-door telling everyone to evacuate to the shelters."
"Secret Diggers! Then... then we should hurry and hide too!" Qiu Ruxin was still in her pajamas, her long hair a tangled mess she hadn't had time to brush.
"Don't be in such a rush. Hide? Hide where? Do you really think the hotel basement is safer than being by my side?" I grabbed the back of Qiu Ruxin’s collar to keep her from bolting.
"That... actually makes sense." Qiu Ruxin calmed down almost immediately. Though she had never seen the full extent of my power, the sense of security my confidence provided was undeniable.
"So, for now, just stay here and relax. Oh, I almost forgot." Having calmed her down, I remembered the pendant. I pulled it out and handed it to her.
"I’ve finished it. Just hold it with both hands and pray to complete the ritual. But don't use it too frequently; it has a limited number of uses in a short period. Also, I won't always have the time to respond to a summon, understand?"
"Mhm!" Qiu Ruxin nodded as she looked at the pendant. Her longing for the function it now provided had finally outweighed her fear of it.
These past few days had taught her that she would be plagued by misfortune whether she had the pendant or not. She had even heard me say yesterday that her connection to this object was so deep that it could likely only be severed by the destruction of the world.
So... rather than resisting it forever, she might as well accept it. That was the conclusion she had reached after a night of soul-searching. There were some things you simply couldn't run from; you had to face them yourself.
As Qiu Ruxin took the pendant with that resolve, a sudden, inexplicable wave of dread washed over her, as if she were sensing an imminent threat.
It was the premonition that only triggered when she was about to encounter danger—the same instinctive vigilance that had kept her safe through countless bouts of extreme misfortune.
But in this moment, that instinct was screaming louder than ever before!
"Watch out!"
The warning had barely left her lips when the sound of shattering glass erupted from the guest room window.
The heavy curtains blocked the initial spray of glass shards, but a figure tore through them, dragging the fabric down. The intruder’s momentum sent him sliding across the floor, wrapped in the curtains, until he came to a halt right in front of us.
One of the hotel's biggest selling points was the floor-to-ceiling scenic windows. Now, that entire wall was gone, and the high-altitude morning wind came howling into the room.
The cold gust whipped my silver hair around my shoulders. Shards of glass lay scattered everywhere across the floor.
The moment it happened, I had already snapped a shield into existence, protecting both myself and Qiu Ruxin.
The figure responsible for the intrusion didn't seem to be seriously injured. With the sound of tearing fabric, he stood up.
He was dressed in a dark, tight-fitting combat suit covered in various clips and mounting points, likely for modular gear. Light armor plating covered his shoulders, joints, and other vital areas.
The man seemed surprised to find two young girls in the room, but he clearly wasn't in the mood for pleasantries. His rage was looking for an outlet, and he began screaming profanities to vent his frustration.
"Motherfcker... you dare mess with me? You must be tired of living! What are you looking at, you two little btches? How about I treat you to some lead!"
It was obvious his primary focus was still on whatever was happening outside, but his pathetic state had left him looking for an easy target to lash out at, and we were it.
"Hmm... Common Language?"
I murmured to myself. If I hadn't used a consciousness communication spell earlier, I might not have understood him, but now I could understand his words perfectly—and I knew exactly how filthy his mouth was.
Moreover... this guy was actually trying to take our lives. He really didn't value human life at all, did he?
What a coincidence. I didn't value the lives of Secret Diggers either.
Bang! Bang!
He leveled a high-tech, sci-fi-looking firearm at us and pulled the trigger.
Two energy bolts streaked toward us in rapid succession, their colorful trails crossing the room in an instant.
Faced with this sudden, unprovoked violence, Qiu Ruxin instinctively tried to dive for cover.
But a moment later, the two bolts slammed into my energy shield. They didn't even make the barrier flicker.
"Don't be afraid. Your Sister Xiao Han is... very strong."
I glanced at Qiu Ruxin, who was cowering in fear, and waved a hand to place a Shield Blessing on her. "Just find a place to hide for a second."
By the time I finished speaking, the man’s eyes were bulging.
"What the f*ck kind of shield is that? Just die already!"
The scene of blood spray he had expected hadn't happened. Without a gory display to release his stress, our resistance only fueled his rage. He fired a volley of shots.
But every energy bolt simply shattered upon impact with the energy shield.
"You like playing with guns? You like shooting?" I extended my right hand, forming a gun gesture with my fingers. A powerful surge of fire element began to coalesce at the tip.
Focusing · Fireball Spell!
"Bang~"
As the spell finished forming, I provided my own sound effect. In the next instant, the blazing fireball was compressed by the focusing technique into a thin, needle-like ray of crimson flame. It punched a hole straight through the man's forehead.
The terrifying heat of the flame ray extended far into the distance. Only after the ray itself dissipated did the air along its trajectory erupt into a violent trail of fire.
It was like a vortex of flame following the path of the focused fireball, the extreme temperature incinerating everything in its wake.
The man in front of me was carbonized instantly by the heat. Then, under the extreme pressure differential and thermal shock, his body crumbled into fine ash.
The cold high-altitude wind was pushed back by a wave of heat, scattering the charred remains. There wasn't even a scrap of him left.
Qiu Ruxin, who hadn't had time to hide, stared at the scene and the wall of heat in a daze. She didn't even notice her hair starting to curl from the temperature.
"So... so scary..." It was the first time she had seen such a method, and the exclamation escaped her lips involuntarily.
The guest room and the space near the window were a total wreck. The floor was charred black, and even the fire-retardant materials couldn't stop the flames from spreading.
Looking at the scene, even I was a bit surprised. Without the suppression of the Main World Great Weakening Spell, I hadn't expected even a Derived Fireball Spell to be this devastating. Of course, it helped that I had put a bit of extra "oomph" into it, but the power and damage didn't lie.
He took a few shots at me, and I took one "shot" back at him. Perfectly fair, right?
It was just a bit louder than I intended.
Regardless, after this incident, there was no way I could keep staying here.
In that case, I might as well do something big. I’d announce my arrival to these pests!
I’d hang a dark cloud over their heads so they’d know the price of crossing me.
Then, once things settled down, I could just use a Disguise Spell, change my appearance, and find a new place to continue "enjoying life." Wouldn't that be grand?
I couldn't be bothered to run around the world causing destruction like those Secret Diggers; it was as pointless as it was boring. I still had plenty of things to do, and they were nothing but a nuisance to my plans for a quiet life!
A little intimidation was definitely in order.
At that moment, the sudden eruption of terrifying flames from a high-floor hotel room naturally drew a massive amount of attention. It wasn't just the Secret Diggers; the ordinary people fleeing below all looked up.
These ordinary people were the most pitiable, but even more tragic was their habit of stopping to watch the spectacle. Curiosity would be their undoing; a single stray bullet from a Secret Digger’s gun was enough to kill them many times over.
Those who held power had no time to worry about the lives of such people. That unlucky guy from a moment ago had been willing to kill just to vent his petty rage; it was clear the Secret Diggers didn't view these people as human at all.
I walked to the edge of the broken window and looked down. It was quite a drop.
Most people would have felt their vertigo kicking in, but for someone who spent as much time on a flying broom as I did, this height was nothing. It was like a swimmer not fearing the water, or a bird not fearing the sky.
I scanned the surroundings. My gaze pierced through the gaps between the skyscrapers and eventually locked onto several figures. They were weaving between the buildings, flying through the air with the help of angular metal armor or exoskeletons that emitted flashy, colorful exhaust trails.
These Secret Diggers could fly?
I was a bit surprised to see that, though flight wasn't exactly a difficult technology to master.
I could feel several gazes locking onto me the moment I stepped into view.
Some stopped on the exterior walls of nearby buildings to watch, clearly waiting to see if some hothead would test me first.
Compared to them, I looked like I belonged to an entirely different art style. I was wearing ordinary, trendy local clothes; the only striking thing about me was my long silver hair.
Having assessed the situation, I manifested a rune on my vocal cords. The spell took effect, and my voice boomed across the entire district.
"All you Secret Diggers, get the hell out of here! It's too early in the morning for this nonsense. Are you all just tired of living?"
The voice echoed in the ears of every Secret Digger. It sounded a bit strange—I had only just learned the language, after all—but that didn't stop it from sparking their defiance and rage.
They couldn't understand why someone would have the audacity to threaten so many of them at once.
Who did she think she was?
Did she really think she could take on all of them?
"What the hell are you yapping about, you little b*tch? Eat a rocket!" A Secret Digger positioned very close to me mocked me instantly. He leveled an oversized, exaggerated shoulder-cannon at my position.
With a roar of ignition, the rocket streaked toward me, trailing a brilliant plume of heat and fire. It moved in a serpentine path that completely defied the laws of physics.
"Brain-dead idiot..." I muttered in disgust as I began to manifest a fireball.
In an instant, a blazing sphere of fire grew to be half the height of a person. This was the true form of a spell from the Fireball Spellbook when not suppressed. Back at the Witch Academy, an ordinary fireball could kill a person; here, it could turn them into less than ash.
Without the enhancements of magic modification or derivation techniques, I felt the damage efficiency of a standard fireball was actually quite low. No wonder not many people liked using it.
But for a situation of pure overwhelming force like this, it was perfect.
The fireball was like a miniature sun, radiating intense heat that warped the light around it. It shot forward with incredible speed, swallowing the incoming rocket whole.
The fireball didn't stop for the rocket; its target from the very beginning had been the man who attacked me.
Under the extreme heat, the rocket detonated prematurely in a violent explosion. Aside from causing the fireball to flicker slightly, the explosion did nothing to stop it.
The fireball slammed into its target. Amidst the man's terrified screams, a second, far more violent explosion erupted, spraying countless motes of fire element in every direction.
When the shockwave passed and the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the man.
The surrounding Secret Diggers stared in stunned silence at the instantaneous reversal. He was gone in a single hit?
They could all see that the man had been wearing armor equipped with an automatic energy shield—the kind that triggered instantly upon detecting an attack!
And yet, even with that, he had been erased by a single strike from this girl?
Cold sweat broke out on the Secret Diggers who were equipped with similar gear. The situation was looking grim; some were already quietly considering making a run for it.
They hadn't forgotten that for her, that last attack looked like a casual toss. That massive pillar of fire that had shot through the buildings earlier—that was her true power!
And... that was a level of power they, as Secret Diggers, couldn't replicate! They hadn't even seen where the weapon capable of such a terrifying attack was hidden.
"It's her! That's the one!"
Suddenly, someone realized something and shouted in shock. The involuntary cry drew the attention of nearly every Secret Digger in the area.
They were all curious to know what he had figured out.
Feeling the weight of so many gazes, the man felt a surge of vain satisfaction. That post had surely been seen by many people anyway; the information was bound to come out sooner or later. He didn't mind being the one to reveal it with a flourish.
"The Witch from the strategy guide! What was it... the Calamity Witch! Yes! She’s very likely that Calamity Witch!"