The sudden explosion mixed with the shattering sound of glass broke the unnatural tension.
Elena looked over to find that the glass jar containing the black blob had shattered. Not only that, but the countless lifeless bodies that littered the prison cells had all begun to move.
A roar came from an unknown direction.
"Defend yourselves!"
Throughout the prison, thousands of people all readied themselves for battle. Warriors drew their swords, mages readied their wands, and various other professions all prepared in different ways.
The 'presumed' dead all rose in unison, like marionettes whose strings had just been pulled tot. The vaguely humanoid figures all launched against their cell doors, easily breaking out and rushing at the nearest person.
A moment later, the slumbering prison exploded awake, filled with battle and bloodshed. The eerie silence was replaced with the sound of blades cutting through flesh, magic exploding, falling screams, and anxious commands.
Elena frowned while looking around.
These monsters all had varying degrees of mutation. From an initial glance, Elena discovered that these 'people' were being controlled by the black substance. It's not that they were alive, instead they were preserved, functioning as food or energy for the black blobs.
Elena suspected that the reason that this was a forbidden area was because whatever these things were, they were meant to be sealed away. Not because they should be kept, but because they could not be killed. The information was wrong.
As if to support her theory, the surrounding torrent of voices quickly made this discovery. No matter how many times you cut them down, these monsters would just stand back up, more ferocious than before.
To make things worse, Elena discovered that whatever little sunlight had managed to reach the first floor of the prison had been cut off. Elena had no doubt that the prison had sealed itself, leaving them no way out.
Aron remained calm, orderly cutting down one monster after another.
Unlike Aron, Bell and Rachel were both panicking. They fought with magic, only to be repeatedly disappointed when their targets would either ignore their spells, or rise up again after being knocked down. It was clear that these things had an unusually high resistance to magic.
Rachel yelled at Aron, "I thought your master divined that this trip would go smoothly! What the hell is this!"
"This place is very strange! It feels less like a prison and more like a sealed lab! I feel like we may have come to the wrong place!" Roared Owen from the side.
Rachel Witch. "How many massive towering stone spires can there be in this stupid forest! Damn it, Miss. Heavens Chosen, do something!"
Elena frowned, ignoring the complaints of a certain entitled brat.
She turned to the pale woman and asked, "Do all of these things have a heartbeat?"
The pale woman shook her head while freezing an oncoming monster with her ice sword. "No, it's only the more 'complete' ones."
This made Elena frown even deeper.
She felt like the reason these things had a heartbeat wasn't necessarily related to the monsters. Was it possible for some of them to still be alive?
Elena was unsure.
"Can you contact the outside?" She asked Bell.
The flustered girl shook her head. "No! We're completely cut off."
In these short moments, many lives had been lost.
Elena had to make a decision…
Unfortunately, before Elena could make that decision, someone else had made it for her.
In the corner of the room, Owen was cursing to himself, clearly annoyed by this outcome. He couldn't let so many people die, he needed them to scour the forest later!
He resolutely crushed a small stone that swelled with chaotic energy.
He was forced to make his move early.
He tossed the crushed stone to the center of the room.
The moment he crushed the stone, the world seemed to freeze for a moment. Time and Space had a quick hiccup, before returning and beginning to 'cough violently.' Waves of unstable space rippled out from the center of the stone. The world was caught in a distorted storm of bending light and blackening space.
Elena turned around in shock. "Space Stone!" Her voice was drowned out by the domineering sound of crumpling space. Low vibrations mixed with a heavy atmosphere. Purple light leaked out from the gaps in reality.
This light wrapped around the surrounding people and stuck to their skin like morning dew.
The surrounding space compressed uncontrollably, eventually reaching a limit. An explosion, one so great that it devoured the surrounding landscape, engulfed the prison in a blinding flash of spiritual might and a deafening roar.
-
When the light receded, all that remained was a large crater where the prison should have been.
The exploration team was gone.
In the depths of the crater, a wriggling lump of black flesh slowly crawled out of the ground.
Its formless body looked around, only to blindly explode towards a random direction, attempting to escape 'something'.
The moment before it could leave the crater, a large hand materialized out of thin air and pressed down on the black blob with a single finger. The black blob was compressed into a single grain of sand before the hand tossed it away, allowing it to dissipate into the wind.
There was a pair of eyes hiding in the unseen world, looking towards an unknown direction…
* * *
Green Wind Forest, Unknown Location…
After the blinding light, the first thing Bell saw was a snow covered landscape.
Her head pulsated with deep waves of pain, mimicking the worst headache she had ever had. Her body was cold, falling victim to the freezing rain and falling snow. She could only see a few meters ahead, leaving her completely disoriented and confused.
Her spinning little mind took only a moment before realizing what had happened.
Her face turned pale as she quickly pushed herself up, escaping the snow and ice that was seeping into her clothes, then took a look around.
There were no people or supplies. She didn't know where she was and didn't know where to go. The sun hid behind the storm, and the forest was unlike any map she had ever seen. Aside from her staff, she had nothing except the clothes on her back.
Bell was lost, completely alone in the snowstorm!
As far as she could see, only a sea of white remained.
"Hello!" The young mage called out. "Can anyone hear me!"
Her voice was drowned out by the snowstorm.
Her brow wrinkled as she realised her situation. The expedition team was caught up in a mass teleport. Whether it was the mages, the adventurers or the others, all of them had been separated.
Bell pushed through the snow, slowly moving forward.
She knew that she needed to find shelter first and foremost.
She was the weakest of the four Tower Mages sent by the Sky Tower.
Bell was unsure as to how long she had walked.
As the day passed, she could feel her body weakening.
The darkening sky only told her that night was slowly approaching.
Time passed, and the frail girl continued moving.
She felt her mind slipping, slowly falling victim to the Icy embrace of death. It wasn't until she heard the sound of magic in the distance that she suddenly came back to her senses.
Bell ran through the snow, desperately pushing it away and moving towards the sound.
When she reached the source of the magic, she was shocked by what she saw.
Rachel was standing over a pale skinned young girl. In her hand was a bloody wand, clearly having just been used as a makeshift dagger. Her eyes were bloodshot, with a hint of mania. Her black hair was messy, sticking to her skin with the help of her sweat. She looked more like a lunatic than the fun-loving bitchy girl she had always been.
"Stupid bitch, how dare you refuse a request from a Tower Mage!"
Rachel twisted the heel of her shoe into the bloody wound on the girl's back.
"You just had to hand over your supplies! That's all, now look at you, Kahahaha!"
Bell was shocked.
She knew that Rachel wasn't a good person, but this...
Rachel seemed to suddenly feel a 'gaze' and looked over.
"Ah, ah ah ah, you shouldn't have seen that. What a pity, what a pity, Aron liked you~."
Rachel raised her free hand and shot out a bolt of fire.
Bell's eyes shot open. She reacted by raising her staff and summoning a wall of earth from the ground. "Rachel, what are you doing!"
"Tsk, I never really liked you. Even back when we were apprentices, I always felt like you were too pretentious! Seriously! Whose buying that bullshit shy girl act!"
Bell jumped back, dodging a pillar of flames that sprouted from the side of the earth shield.
"Rachel! Stop!"
"Stop? Stop what! Do you know what kind of situation you're in? Who knows where we are! There's not enough food and water for all of us!"
Rachel raised her wand and conjured five small stones that were pulsating with red light.
"Did you see it! It was Owen who teleported us! Do you understand!?"
Rachel lowered her hand, shooting the five flaming stones towards Bell like magic missiles.
Bell swept her staff in a circle, scraping up the earth and condensing it into five shields that blocked the paths of the five flaming meteors.
Boom boom boom boom!
A violent explosion swept out from each impact.
Swoosh!
One of the mini meteorites shot through the smoke.
Bell gritted her teeth.
She knew she was weaker than Rachel.
Bell slammed her staff on the ground, summoning a shell of earth that closed around her.
Boom!
Bell felt the impact on the other side of the earth shell.
"Rachel! Stop!"
"Shut up! Just die!"
Rachel waved her hand in a circle, leaving a trail of flames behind her finger. When the circle was complete, Rachel slammed her hand forward, launching it like a spinning disk.
The flaming ring hit the stone shell and cut through it like paper.
Bell felt the flaming blade slice through her arm, almost cutting it off. Her focus was lost, and the earth shell collapsed.
Bell chose to drop her staff, grasped her bleeding arm, and gritted her teeth.
Although she was a shy girl, that didn't mean she couldn't be serious when it came to a life or death battle. Although she didn't know what was wrong with Rachel, she felt like this was the phenomenon called 'Spatial Madness'.
When teleporting, if your mind was too weak, then you could be affected by the 'unknown'. This most commonly materializes as an undiluted display of the hidden feelings hidden deep within one's heart.
"You don't need to do this! I won't say anything!"
Rachel approached with red eyes.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't even have anything to do with what you saw!"
"You won't survive anyway! Don't think I don't know about your little secret!"
Bell's brows wrinkled. For some reason, she suddenly felt a chill. "What are you talking about? How could there be any secrets between us!"
Rachel's face cracked with a malicious grin. "Don't think you can hide it! I know you're one of those monsters! The Witch Bloodline, that's what they call it in the Church of Light!"
Bell's face fell. "H-How!"
"Heh, we four have known each other for so long, it would be strange if I didn't know! When I told Aron about it, do you know what he did? He said we can use you, he said that there was no need to report you!"
Bell felt like something cracked.
They knew? All along!
Tears quietly fell from Bell's eyes.
"H-how long, how long have you known?!"
Rachel raised her hand one last time. A compressed fireball slowly formed in her palm.
"I learned about it back in Moonan. You couldn't hide your filthy bloodline in that place blessed by the moonlight, right? Right! I saw it! I saw what was hidden beneath your skin, freaking monster!!"
Bell's face paled.
"You mean!"
"That's right, that night, I saw you transform!"
Bell fell to her knees, despair on her face.
"The Witches are all monsters, that's what they taught us! I didn't understand it at first, but after seeing you, I understood! You're all just beasts! I won't hide it from you. The tower has already contacted an envoy from the Church of Light and sent a team of Demon Hunters to catch you! You were never meant to leave the forest alive! Hahahah!"
Rachel grinned.
"But I'm lucky! I'm lucky, I'm lucky, I'm lucky!! I get to claim the credit for killing you! Killing one of you taboo existences and helping the world, helping us keep it clean, and free of your filth!"
"Die die die die!! Hahahahaha!"
Rachel, ever energetic, whipped her body as if she were about to throw a javelin.
Boom!
Rachel stood there, a face full of excitement.
Blood leaked from the corner of her mouth, then she looked down.
Rachel touched the massive gaping hole in her chest.
She struggled to turn her head.
Behind her stood the pale skinned girl, ice magic still flickering in her hand.
"Ah, damn."
She fell over, dead.
Bell looked at the pale skinned girl with shock, confusion, and some apprehension.
She lowered her head, falling silent.
Although just a few words were said, Bell felt like her life had been torn apart in an instant.
The pale skinned girl, Soryn, struggled over. She had frozen the wound on her back, giving her just enough time to recover and make a single attack. She frowned, looking down at the dispirited tower mage.
"First, let's find a place to stay."
-
After an unknown amount of time, the two seriously injured girls managed to find an abandoned cave.
They struggled to seal off the entrance and start a fire. When the cave warmed up, they stripped down naked and began the long process of drying their clothes. They used their weak bodies to share some of the heat, huddling together to stay warm.
Although Bell was still in a broken mood, she hadn't thrown away her dignity. Her little face was beet red, as she shared skin with the white haired big sister.
Soryn was a seasoned adventurer, so she had a lot fewer reservations when given a choice between survival and awkwardness.
Thinking back to before…
After everything that Soryn had heard, she couldn't just ignore it. "What did she mean by 'Witch' and 'Monsters in human skin'?"
Bell remained silent for a long time.
Soryn didn't rush her.
Bell looked down at the snow, hugging her knees against her chest tightly.
Bells' usually lively face had become a lot more desolate as she explained. "'The Witches are an old bloodline that has almost disappeared from the continent. When you read about them, it's either as a nameless person that was chased down by the righteous, or ancient legends tracing all the way back to the Age of Chaos."
Bell paused.
"The real Witch bloodline is very different from what most people imagine. It's not even supposed to be called the Witch Bloodline. They usually relate it to monstrous individuals that only bring disaster. Before my mother died, she told me that the 'Witch Bloodline' was only a small fraction that had split away from the whole, like an incomplete race. It's actually a very large family, just very divided."
The pale skinned girl listened.
"After my 18th birthday, because I hadn't properly 'awakened' my bloodline, once a year, I undergo something called the 'Awakening'. This is when our bloodline tries to self awaken. We turn into chaotic monsters, and if we survive, then we can use a little bit more of the true power hidden within our bloodline. If we fail, we will return to human form, awaiting next year's awakening. Without a proper teacher, we're doomed to just degenerate into monsters. The transformation will start lasting longer and longer each time."
"You said that you can just find a teacher, why didn't you do that?" Soryn asked.
Bell let out a dry chuckle.
"Most of us were hunted down a long time ago. I don't know how many are left, but they might as well not exist."
"What makes an 'Unawakened Witch' different from an 'Awakened Witch'?"
Bell buried her head in her knees. "Mm, that's not easy to explain. Mom didn't tell me much. I think it's related to the specific family. My mother once told me that there was a very complicated family tree that made up the true form of the bloodline... so, it's complicated. Aside from a longer life and a more youthful appearance, there should be unique traits related to each 'House'. Mm, I don't know about this. Mom died before I could learn."
Soryn nodded.
"What's a Demon Hunter?"
Bell shook her head.
"I don't know the details, but my mother said that I absolutely cannot appear before a Demon Hunter. There's something about them that draws out and seals a witch's power. If one finds me, it's a death sentence."
Soryn frowned. "Then why did you choose to become a disciple of the Sky Tower? From the sounds of it, these 'Demon Hunters' come from the Church of Light, and the Church of Light seems to have connections with the four towers?"
"Demon Hunters almost never come to the continent. Even if they did, they wouldn't go directly to the Sky Tower. I thought it was the perfect place to hide after my mother died. Unfortunately, I was caught last year when traveling outside…"
Soryn asked. "Then, what are you going to do now?"
Bell just shook her head.
She gave off a bleak aura.
In the dark cave, under the crackling of firewood and the dulled sound of wind, Bell spoke a wish that would unknowingly pull her into an unknown future, one that deviated from her tragic destiny.
"Unless I find a miracle, then the Green Wind Forest will be my grave."