Chapter 155
Chapter 155
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 155
Chapter Title: The False Tureina
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A mirage rippled with seductive brilliance across the night sky. Indigo light, the veil of the abyss—and beneath it, the Crimson Mountains trembled as if sobbing mournfully.
The head of the <Aurelinopl> Witch Association watched the spectacle from the terrace, buffeted by fierce gusts, before turning around as her guests arrived.
Her snow-white hair trailed down to the ground, and her wrinkled, sagging face was covered in countless age spots and moles. She leaned on a gnarled broomstick for support.
"Welcome. I am Allene. My body may be frail, but I lead the <Aurelinopl> Witch Association."
The <Aurelinopl> Witch Association was a five-story building at the heart of the city. The head used the top floor.
The unease Rain had felt upon meeting the witches at Fride's birthplace—and the prickling anxiety that had haunted his spine since entering the building—had now become stark reality.
Once the guide witch closed the door and left, Rain let out a sigh as he regarded the head.
"My disappointment knows no bounds. How did someone as esteemed as the head of a noble witch association fall into such depravity?"
His voice was not loud, but the contempt laced within it came through crystal clear. Miria’s eyes flashed with shock.
"No way..."
Allene let out a hum, lifting her head with a kindly smile.
"I merely glimpsed new possibilities through black magic, young one."
"There are no 'possibilities' in the power of the abyss. Only deception and death. The Crimson Mountains are in chaos right now because of black magic."
"We've sent as many witches and soldiers as possible to stop it."
"So you start the fire and then sell the water to put it out. What kind of 'possibility' is this?"
The head's office featured an intricate scale model of the <Aurelinopl> territory and the Crimson Mountains' terrain. She pointed at it with her broomstick.
"I've lived 120 years. At my age, much is forgotten—but what my master and grandmother used to say still lingers in my mind."
"……?"
"She said the era when Lady Fride and Lady Tureina led the Republic from the front lines was when the Republic was truly beautiful. Everyone equal under one order, trusting one another."
Allene peered at the map, her gaze soft with distant memories.
At the mention of Tureina, Rain felt Pipi twitch beneath his clothes. Perhaps his own body trembled too.
"I've worked a century to bring back that era. But it all failed, and now I'm this wretched state—shaking with the same sentiments as you."
"So you need black magic. To dominate by force. Those black mages—"
"—You're wrong. Completely wrong, young one. It's not me who needs black magic. It's Lady Tureina, disciple of the greatest shrine maiden this land ever knew."
At those words, Rain felt the blood drain from his face.
"What the Republic needs now—what can unite it again—isn't some old crone like me. It's a hero like her."
"That... that can't be. Tureina died. About ten years ago."
"The Pontifical Court had no choice but to announce it that way to control the panic of the times. She lives."
"Impossible."
"She's simply focused on awakening the frozen grand mage... If her wish is granted, I believe she'll watch over this land once more."
It couldn't be true.
Blood pounded in Rain's head.
Even if it was Tureina, it had to be an imposter like Jernix. It had to be.
"The ritual is nearly complete. All that's needed now is one thing: the core containing infinite power—the true dragon's amniotic fluid you're carrying."
"……!"
"With that power, concentrating all the divine ki flowing through the Crimson Mountains in one place would melt that ice without issue."
Rain's breathing grew ragged.
Then the raid on the Pontifical Court, stealing Lin's body—it was that fake Tureina? This fool had been duped by her?
What did they plan to do with it once awakened? No soul remained in that body.
"So what happens to this hatchling once your ritual starts?"
"The dragon will understand. Just as it has sacrificed for us until now."
"How much more sacrifice? Over a century for humanity?"
Alakish's final smile flashed through his mind. The true dragon who had illuminated this land alone since the Age of Genesis... and Akirea, entrusted to him.
"In great causes, sacrifice is inevitable. We have no more leeway."
"And who exactly is this grand 'we' of yours?"
"Humanity. I'm simply facing the world's plight realistically. You're too young to see it yet."
No sooner had she finished than an ominous aura stirred, and the office door burst open. Thirty or so witches and territorial spearmen flooded in.
In an instant, they surrounded Rain's group, lining up along all four walls. Miria couldn't even reach for her sword hilt, unable to believe the situation.
The witches of a great city wielded immense influence not just in religion, but politics too... That they endorsed black magic and threatened a hatchling—it was unbelievable.
"Miria, stay by my side."
As the witches thrust out both hands and chanted runes in unison, waves of sorcery spread with long tails.
The widely cast ability formed layered beams of light, creating a square binding formation that should have enveloped the foes... but it didn't.
The nearly complete formation froze in midair as if time had stopped, then shredded apart in a fierce vortex of flames the next instant.
"What...?!"
The battle-hardened witches immediately began their next chants... but the vibrations of power in their throats exploded into eerie heat within their mouths.
"────?!"
Since they weren't fully formed spells yet, interfering with Bell Quirius only produced faint flames—but the pain was enough to turn chants into screams.
Still, intercepting incantation-type altigma wasn't Rain's specialty; it took considerable time.
The sorceries that activated before he could nullify them vaporized in blinding flashes that scorched their corneas.
While Rain countered the witches, Miria dodged a dozen spearmen, slashed their polearms, and kicked their legs out from under them, then shouted.
"We have to get out of here."
By then, commotion echoed throughout the building... and countless footsteps converged on them.
No time.
Rain wiped cold sweat from his brow and lunged, grabbing Allene by the collar.
"What the hell are you plotting? Duped by imposters posing as Tureina—what do you think you're doing?!"
The old witch didn't chant a spell; she merely sighed softly.
"Everything I told you was true. I'm just trying to light the beacon of hope. If I die here, so be it."
"Please listen! You're being deceived. Completely—"
"—And my orders were to hold you here as long as possible. You'll meet her soon."
In that brief moment, Rain knew.
From experience dealing with black mages in his past and present lives, interrogating this old woman further would yield nothing.
As he clenched his fist to smash her toothless, sagging face, a strange scent stung his nose, freezing his body.
The acrid irritation to eyes and nose, the creepy skin tingle from <Landkeep>... faint spasms twitched in his fingertips.
"You're here."
He considered smashing her before fleeing, but Aki stirred awake, so he held back.
The corridor already brimmed with writhing fog up to ankle height, and witches and chained spearmen charged through it.
Trapped—the situation was dire... If he could combine multiple attributes, escape would be easy.
"Hold on tight!"
Suddenly, Miria gripped his waist fiercely and charged at the lead-lined window.
Is she insane...?
No time to think—weightlessness engulfed him, then gravity yanked him down. His clothes whipped in the wind, and Aki let out a cry.
"Awoo-!"
Miria hurled a hooked rope at a fourth-floor window, disrupting their momentum.
The rope lodged in the leaded glass frame, barely saving them from slamming into the ground. They tumbled across the lawn several times instead.
Seressia turned cushion-soft, absorbing most of the fall's impact for Rain and Aki. Miria urgently offered her hand.
"Fog's already blanketing the whole city."
"Fog, fog, fog."
By the time he grabbed it and stood, ritual alarms wailed across the city, torches and blades glinting in the mist.
"Those witches—you said the ones who hired you were...?"
"No, they said direct from the shrine maiden."
Then...
Should they head to another metropolis like <Aristapo> or <Terbenopl> to find the shrine maiden?
"Upstream. We need to head back to <Oltaris>. Those witches—ask them. Somehow wake her."
Not sure if they could wake her...
Unbelievable, but with <Aurelinopl>'s witches all bewitched by black magic, it was the best option now.
Coming down to <Aurelinopl> without waiting had been the worst choice.
"Get Aki out of the city no matter what. Got it? Miria, whatever happens, don't let them—"
The moment he handed Aki to Miria for easier spellcasting might have been the fateful fork. He remembered an indigo flash from the fog.
Huh?
The next instant, his body flew through the air. Amid searing pain and blurred vision, he bounced along the boulevard several times, slammed back-first into a roadside tree, and vomited blood.
'Instantly deployed a defensive spell—a 3-star one at that—and it punched right through?'
Ugh—miraculous intervention flickered in his darkening vision.
The abyssal flames blazing fiercely on Seressia's surface twisted wildly as it gleamed coldly in dawn light, sucked into a formless vortex and vanished.
At the same time, Seressia's mantle of mana thinned gradually. Had its legendary power activated—hurling the ability enveloping the caster into subspace?
'A 4-star spell concentrating all power into a single point like an archer... Without Seressia mitigating the damage, I'd be 100% dead right now...'
Trying to rise, blood surged from his ruptured organs, forcing him back down. Several ribs felt broken.
"Hey!"
"A-wooo!"
Miria's desperate call to the boy flung beyond the fog rang in ears pierced by ominous high-heel clicks on marble.
Click...
...Click... Click...
Click... Click... Click...
No, not the footsteps themselves. The overwhelming presence chilling his spine to the bone was inexplicably ominous.
How long since he'd felt this helplessness, body rigid like cornered prey, only fingertips twitching?
Breath caught. Mind blanked white. Back soaked in cold sweat.
"Hold tight, Aki!"
But he'd overcome crises like this many times. Forcing his frozen body to move, he clutched Aki with his left hand and bolted north.
"Ah, ahh, awa-!"
Behind, witches from the headquarters spewed flames and ability vines, but Miria zigzagged, dodging hits.
The witches' sorcery was avoidable... The problem was the unheralded strikes—like the one that sent Rain flying—that came without warning.
Those blasts splintered roadside trees, toppled them onto sleeping citizens on the ground, blocking paths. Miria abandoned the boulevard and leaped under a culvert.
"Pipi, tell her! We'll wait at <Oltaris>!"
"Oltar, Oltar, Oltar."
Pipi nodded, veering off toward the direction Rain had been flung.
Moments later, a conical hat silhouette emerged from the fog, and a woman stepped out with seductively voluptuous grace, pipe in mouth.
<Aurelinopl>'s red witches immediately prostrated before her, showing utmost reverence.
"Lady Tureina."
Tureina's eyes fixed on Miria dashing through the forcibly subdued city center—specifically, the hatchling wailing in her arms. She exhaled a long plume of smoke, thickening the dragon poison fog.
"I'll secure the true dragon's amniotic fluid. You lot make sure to deal with the guardian. She took a direct 4-star sorcery hit—she must be on death's door."