Far into the outskirts, a battle between close friends ended. However, events in the center of town were just now getting started.
As Yaga, the witch, had made a shocking announcement.
"My name is Yaga Holland! And Eric is my sweet son!" the witch declared with a proud grin!
The simplicity of the statement was appalling. She just said she was Eric's mom, but the announcement was still surprising for Kent to hear.
Kent had known Eric for about four months as of this moment. Yet, the topic of his actual mother had never come up. In fact, no one talked about their actual families.
It seemed to be a topic they all naturally avoided. So, meeting Eric's mother at a time like this was more than a little shocking.
"Y-You're Eric's mom?" Kent questioned. "Like his real mom?"
"Yes, Eric is my son!" The way Yaga swooned over the idea of being someone's mother pulled a raw ache from Kent's chest.
Yaga sighed thoughtfully. "Oh, my dear boy, it's been so long since I've seen him! I hope that I'll get to see him again!"
Kent gripped the fabric of his coat. Somehow the situation shifted so fast that he didn't even have time to react.
He couldn't save Alisa, and now it seemed like the witch they'd been traveling with had other things planned.
And in the center of it all, he felt like he was at fault. He should've seen this coming. He should've been more cautious.
He failed as a captain. Again…
"This is too much." His body shivered. The realization that he screwed up. And during such an important time! It brought the usually calm and confident Kent Tyrio to his knees. Trapped with the thoughts of his own failure.
Isabelle tossed a disdainful glance in the boy's direction. "How the terrible can fall...how deserved this downfall is."
She spoke loudly enough for Kent to hear. He didn't react to her words. Just stared hopelessly into the shifting barrier heaving from his wasted effort.
"Weakling. To think that soldiers feared you. A young pirate who bested the Levianeer Armada." She scoffed, then moved toward Yaga. Kent's mental breakdown was not her responsibility.
"Now, Witch. What is the ritual that you were talking about? And before you ask, I have no interest in that blood-fueled bastard son of yours."
Yaga gasped. "How could you say that about my son? He's been through so much, you know? He deserves to be cherished and nurtured! What sort of teacher are you? Clearly you have no tact with the youth!"
"As of right now, I am no teacher."
"Really? Then what are you?"
"That information isn't yours to know."
Yaga stood baffled. "Really? So, you can inquire about my business, but I can't do the same to you? Some honor you have, mage?"
"Honor? That's rich coming from someone who practices a forbidden art!" Isabella said.
"My intentions were always clear. I am here for the Amalgamate Mystic and to oversee the expedition of these brats! However, I can not let such a vile spellcaster like you walk around freely!"
Isabelle moved her arms gracefully, dragging her fingers down her forearm. The air grew colder.
It started with the smallest snowflake appearing and landing on her hand. Then the single flake turned to two, two into four. The snowflakes covered her hand until it was covered in a thin layer of fresh fallen snow. In appearance, it looked like the sort of silken glove a noble woman would wear to a party.
Yaga clapped! "Wow! That was quite a show! Magecraft is truly a magic for the attention seekers, as the stories always say!"
"Shut it." Isabelle stomped on the ground and flicked her hand at Yaga. From the hand, a came a thin cloud of cold air that thickened rapidly and launched several icicles toward Yaga. Yaga quickly took off her hat and held out in front of her body.
The hat suddenly expanded, like an open maw, and consumed all the icicles. Isabelle stood shocked at the sight. "Is that hat some sort of artifact? How did you do that?" She interrogated.
"He's not an artifact, he's a spell." Yaga gently stroked her hat with motherly affection. "He's so cute when he's protecting me!"
"He?" The teacher's eyes slowly widened. "Is that a mortal-made construct? A homunculus!?"
Homunculus, form of magic practiced by witches. One of the many reasons that witchcraft is forbidden as a magical art. It is the act of using mortal energy, Lis, and draining it to bring life to an inanimate object by combining it with monster physical attributes.
A physical manifestation of personification. And Yaga's personal specialization in magic.
Yaga sneered. "So you know of them? Wow, I guess despite being so hateful toward witchcraft, you have done your research?"
"Every spellcaster worth their rings knows about the forbidden art of creating homunculi!" Isabelle shouted.
"It's only forbidden because you all refuse to accept the original makers as spellcasters. Demonic arts are just as much magic as your little mana glove there."
Isabelle clenched her fist tightly and swiped across the air with her gloved hand. "Icicle Bombarding!" Several clouds of ice mana surrounded Yaga and launched waves of ice shards at Yaga from every angle.
Yaga dashed forward and used her hat to remove the icicles from the cloud in front of her. The remaining shards shot at the spot she originally stood, harmlessly stabbing into the ground.
She then reached down to her side and grabbed a small stuffed animal. It was a small stuffed wolf. The sort of gift a mother may give their child. Except...
There were bones on it. Real monster bones! The outside of it seemed to be made using part of a wolf's pelt, then covered with its bones on the outside. Yaga tossed the strange creation out and clasped her hands together. From her fingers, thin lines of dark mana took form and dug into the beast.
"Wake up, deary. It's time to protect your master again!" Yaga encouraged. The spell disconnected from her fingers and wrapped fully around the wolf toy.
The toy twitched and jerked. It slowly expanded in size until it was that of an actual wolf! The toy's askew features were more pronounced now that it was bigger.
It's sewn-on button eyes that were lopsided, and its tail was a shade darker than the rest of the body. The only thing that seemed right was the wolf's skull that sat over its face.
"Ugh, that thing is ugly!" Kent said, crinkling his nose. "Did you make that yourself?"
Yaga frowned upon hearing the boy's reaction. "So what if I did? I tried my best with what I had! Besides..." Yaga pointed at Kent, and the wolf turned to him and snarled. "...he still gets the job done! Go, Howler!"
The wolf toy, named Howler, suddenly sank into its shadow. Kent watched the patch of darkness on the ground zoom over to him. When the shadow met his own, the wolf lunged forth.
Kent dodged the wolf's attack narrowly and turned to retaliate, but it'd disappeared back into the shadows. The wolf lunged out again from a separate angle, and Kent barely dodged the attack yet again.
"Why can it do that?! It's a toy?!"
"She imbued it with a mana organ." Isabelle answered. "That's how witches fight. They take monster parts and magic plants, then imbue an item with magic, using a mana organ as the energy source. It's essentially creating artificial life, except this life can be extended and prolonged by imbuing more Lis into the homunculus. Whether it be your own or not."
"Wow, you really do know your stuff!" Yaga mocked.
Isabelle's jaw set. "How many people did you sacrifice? For that hat and that wolf. It takes tens of people to create one of those things and you're using two!" Isabelle slammed her gloved hand to the ground.
The mist rolled across the ground until it covered Yaga's legs. Then, a large pillar of ice shot up from the ground beneath Yaga's feet.
Yaga's eyes widened in shock. She dodged to the side, a move that Isabelle anticipated.
Yaga's feet hadn't even touched the ground before Isabelle's gloved palm was inches away from her face. She was trying to touch her for some reason?
A reason that Yaga wasn't willing to wait to find out. She reached into her robe and threw something at Isabelle.
It was a potion bottle. Isabelle quickly put up her guard. The glass bottle shattered against her, and the liquid inside splashed onto her skin.
"Shit!" Isabelle cursed! She quickly felt her body going numb. "A paralysis potion?"
"Not quite, but still effective." Yaga took off her hat and slowly walked over to Isabelle, standing just out of reach of her. "That numbness should still throw off your rhythm."
Kent watched as Isabelle tried and failed to charge at Yaga. She pathetically stumbled to the ground.
"Now, Rene?" Yaga said to her hat, "Have a magnificent feast of this one!"
Yaga's hat flew out and opened wide to consume the teacher. Isabelle frantically started trying to cast a spell with her limited movement but was a fraction too slow as the hat already enveloped her.
Isabelle Chancy was gone…just like that.