Chapter 186: Meeting(1)
Lina’s party began their pursuit of the Black Witch.
They had no idea where she was, but they decided to head in the direction the man had flown while carrying her.
Fortunately, they had the Goddess's Ring, which they had received from Elena early in their journey.
The very ring that glowed brightly whenever demonic energy was near.
It would surely react if the Black Witch was nearby.
Inside the carriage, the party discussed how to track her down.
All except for one person.
Natasha, meanwhile, was simply staring out the window.
More precisely, she was looking at her own reflection.
The Natasha in the window spoke with a mischievous face.
[How was it yesterday? Amazing, right? Isn't Kerry's cock incredible?]
Natasha nodded at her reflection.
[Felt like you were going straight to heaven, didn't it?]
To that, she nodded even more vigorously.
[See how much better it would have been if you'd just listened to me when I suggested it sooner?]
Natasha felt a pang of regret. She wished she had been honest with herself earlier.
The pleasure of last night was not something she could easily forget.
Natasha glanced over at Kerry. He was deep in discussion with the others about their future plans.
My husband is so wonderful...
That wonderful man was now hers. He had promised to love her no matter what.
His words were sweeter than chocolate.
It was a shame about the time she'd wasted, but what did it matter? She would just have to make up for it from now on.
Natasha licked her lips as she watched Kerry, her eyes full of playful lust.
At that moment, Kerry, sitting in the same carriage, felt a slight chill.
Last night, he'd been absolutely worn out by Victoria and Natasha.
Natasha had been a force of nature, like someone who had just awakened to her sexuality.
Her fervor hadn't died down even when night turned to morning.
This morning, Natasha had secretly groped his cock right in front of Lina, and he couldn't describe how startled he'd been.
Of course, the thrill had been just as great as the pleasure.
Judging by Natasha's expression, she's still simmering.
It seemed the saying about late bloomers being the most passionate wasn't just for show.
And it wasn't just Natasha.
Arwen was also gazing at Kerry with the eyes of someone in love.
The moment their eyes met, she whipped her head away, her face beet red.
She looked like an innocent maiden in love, but Kerry knew the true self hidden behind that facade.
The proof was in Arwen's ears, which twitched every time she looked at him.
And Victoria went without saying.
She was the one who had orchestrated yesterday's threesome, after all.
Should I ask the Witch if she has any more stamina potions?
He was starting to worry about his future, in a way that had nothing to do with the Black Witch.
Just then, Lina asked him a question.
"Sir Kerry? Is something troubling you?"
Lina, please do something about these women.
"No. My apologies. I was just lost in thought for a moment. Where were we?"
"We finished discussing how to track the Black Witch, and you had just asked how she might be resurrected."
"Right, I did."
Kerry nodded.
As he met her eyes, signaling he was ready to focus, Lina gave him a bright smile. Why does she keep doing that? It makes my heart flutter.
"I believe we've overcome the biggest hurdle. We destroyed the last Black Monolith there, and the ones who seemed to be the leaders are likely all dead."
Kerry nodded. He agreed with Lina.
"But we can't let our guard down yet. The Black Witch will surely... want to reclaim her full power. Though she can no longer use the power of the Dragon Veins through the Black Monoliths."
Lina had seen it in her life before regressing.
She had witnessed the Black Witch achieve full resurrection, using the power of the Dragon Veins and the fallen soldiers of the war as sacrifices.
The endless horde of undead that had poured out afterward had been terrifying beyond words.
But now, that particular hell was less of a concern. Still, they couldn't be complacent.
"The Black Witch will try to use people as sacrifices again to recover her power. Men and women... the elderly and children... she won't discriminate. She'll try to use them all as offerings."
"..."
Lina's hostility was immense.
To be honest, Kerry couldn't quite sympathize with it.
The Black Witch's light pink eyes as she cried and looked at him from inside the glass coffin...
From what he'd seen, she hadn't seemed so wicked.
But he supposed that was something he could only know for sure after dealing with her directly.
They decided to use the power of Arwen's spirits and the Goddess's Ring to track the Black Witch.
Just then, the moving carriage began to slow to a stop.
He was about to ask the driver what was wrong through the small window when he heard the man's sorrowful voice.
"Oh, dear. What do we do? That poor thing."
"What's going on?"
"You all seem like good folk, so I'll tell you... there's an injured child blocking the road."
At the driver's words, Lina immediately disembarked from the carriage.
A small child was collapsed in the middle of the road.
Judging by the blood caked all over their body, they had been through something terrible.
"Saintess!"
Lina called for the Saintess, who climbed out of the carriage slowly with an indifferent expression.
Only when Kerry shot her a glare did she start to run.
"I need your help."
The Saintess immediately used Heal.
It wasn't long before the child, being treated in Lina's arms, began to open their eyes.
The driver smiled warmly at the sight.
"They're wonderful women, aren't they?"
"Yes, sir. I'm quite envious. My wife was just as pretty and kind at that age."
"..."
Talk about looking through rose-tinted glasses.
Where were his eyes?
Does he think peerless beauties like the ones in our party are a dime a dozen? Ignoring the driver's nostalgia trip, Kerry approached Lina.
The effects of a 100-point Divine Power heal were clear, as the child's eyes fluttered open.
"Ugh..."
"Are you okay?"
Lina gently held the child, who was covered in dirt and bloodstains.
In that moment, she looked more like a saintess than the real one standing beside her. Watch and learn.
"Wow... you're so pretty... Who... are you, miss?"
"I am..."
The party introduced themselves to the child.
They were in a hurry, but with Lina's personality, abandoning the child seemed next to impossible.
Though still dirty, the child's condition had improved, and their eyes sparkled.
"You're the Hero? Are you really... no. Are you the Hero?"
They had to calm the child down, who was jumping for joy despite not being fully healed. Then again, it was the perfect age to be obsessed with heroes.
After the child had settled down, Lina asked.
"What happened to you? Where is your family?"
"Ah..."
At that, the child seemed to recall a bad memory and began to cry.
Their pitiful sobs held a great deal of meaning.
Their family probably hadn't made it.
The story the child told was, as expected, of that nature.
A terrible event that occurs in this unjust other world.
The village had been massacred. By a single man.
"A man in a mask... appeared... from the sky... hic... sob..."
Lina clenched her fists.
"...What did the man's mask look like?"
Lina looked as if she was denying reality itself, as if to say, There's no way it was him.
"It was a white... sniffle... mask... with an inverted cross drawn on the forehead... sob..."
The description was identical to the mask the party had seen together not long ago.
Lina couldn't believe it.
Her memories weren't perfectly clear, but she had no recollection of him being so cruel.
Her head whispered that there might be a hidden side to him in her incomplete memories, but her heart vehemently denied it.
Besides, that man had protected the continent from the Black Witch.
Even if it was only a temporary reprieve, he was a man who had accomplished something that even she, the Hero, could not.
"...That can't be right. Little one, that can't be... Think... think again! Try to remember."
Lina said, shaking the child's shoulders.
Lina's eyes wavered like waves in a storm. She's going to break the kid at this rate.
"Lady Lina. It was him."
Kerry spoke up for Lina, who was denying reality.
He didn't know the identity of that doppelgänger.
But if this child hadn't seen it with their own eyes, there was no way they could have described the features of a mask they'd never known in such detail.
"Let's go to the village for now. There might be other survivors besides this child."
More importantly, there might be traces of the doppelgänger left behind. Lina nodded.
As if feeling sorry for her outburst, Lina held the child tightly in her arms.
It seemed Lina liked children. The sight suited her.
The party followed the child's directions to the village.
The child was brave; though terrified of seeing that man again, they wanted the party to save the villagers.
But reality was so brutal it made the child's courage seem meaningless.
The village was, in a word, a ruin. It was clear there were no living people left, at least not here.
Lina covered the child's eyes to shield them from the sight.
"Ma'am, please look after this child."
"Leave her to me. Besides, it feels like I've finally got some presence again after a long time. Hoholhol."
The old woman and the child remained in the carriage. The rest of the party looked around the village.
Walking through the center of the ruined village, Victoria spoke.
"Truly... this place gives me the chills."
"..."
The party stared at the village in silence.
The village, which must have been built of wood and brick... had been reduced to a pile of rubble, its original form unrecognizable.
Patches of the debris were stained red. The meaning was obvious.
They had been crushed to death inside their own homes. The entire village.
Lina bit her lip.
"No... there's no way he would do something like this..."
Lina denied it, but everyone knew.
Even without questioning the child further, the evidence alone made it certain. But Lina still couldn't accept it.
That this was all that man's doing.
Kerry searched for any traces the doppelgänger might have left in the village.
He approached the spot that seemed to have been crushed with the most force—a ruin, no, a place that could barely be called a trace.
As he reached out his hand, he felt the faint remnants of mana.
The more powerful the magic, the longer its traces lingered.
That doppelgänger's power... it was incredible.
Faced with a power that simply crushed with overwhelming force, even the hero's party could do nothing but watch from within their barrier.
Though he didn't know what would have happened if they had charged in, accepting the damage.
It was a primal, yet powerful force.
The power Kerry had used before Lina regressed.
Kerry recalled the magic the doppelgänger had used when they met.
He recalled the flow of mana he had felt around the doppelgänger.
For some reason, he felt as if he could imitate that magic.
'No. I'm the real one, so it's not copying.'
Though it felt embarrassing, he reached a hand out toward a distant stone.
In Kerry's common sense, it was an impossible superpower, but in this world, it was a real force.
Under the name of magic.
Focus... focus... I'll deduce the method by recalling the flow of mana I felt from the doppelgänger back then.
First, let's try to crush the small stone in front of me with mana.
He didn't know how. He was just going by feel.
He was just trying to mimic it, moving the mana this way and that according to his intuition.
But if any other mages had seen him, moving merely by instinct, they would have been utterly horrified.
They would have felt the insurmountable wall of talent.
The stone Kerry was trying to crush with mana trembled slightly.
Success?
No. He was mistaken.
The small stone had only moved because of the foot of an unexpected visitor.
A crow had appeared before him, hopping on its feet. It looks familiar.
The crow landed on the stone Kerry had been staring at.
And then, the crow spoke, in the same beautiful woman's voice.
"So you were here... I've been looking... for you all this time."
The Black Witch they had been searching for had come to them of her own accord.