Release that Witch

”Gems? Coo!” Maggie parted the white hair covering her forehead to reveal her curious eyes.

”They’re Magic Stones,” said Agatha. She picked the stones up to take a closer look and added, ”I’ve no idea what kinds of Magic Stones they are, but judging from their color, they must be high-quality God’s Stones of Retaliation before being changed into Magic Stones by the Chaos Beast.”

”The trophy we get from a Senior Demon must be something good,” Leaf said while smiling. ”I’m just surprised that it hid the box inside its body.”

”Oh, you remind me. Are there boxes like this one in the other dead demons’ bodies? Coo! I’ll go and check!” Maggie said excitedly.

”Watch out for the tanks restoring the Red Mist!” Agatha warned.

In less than ten minutes, Maggie came back with two black boxes in her hands and said, ”I found them in the demons wearing colorful clothes.”

Nightingale pulled some Magic Stones out from the two boxes though they were dimmer and smaller than the stones of the first box.

Agatha gathered all the Magic Stones together and then could not help but frown.

”Is there anything wrong?” asked Nightingale.

”It seems that there are too many Magic Stones,” Agatha answered.

”Isn’t it a happy thing for you to get so many of them?” asked Nightingale.

Agatha shook her head slightly and explained, ”The Union killed thousands of Fearsome Demons, but it was still hard to collect Magic Stones. That’s why the Quest Society did everything to capture and raise Chaos Beasts. Why do they carry so many Magic Stones?”

”Maybe that’s their savings, accumulated in over 400 years? It’s just like an unlucky guy who pooled all his savings, hoping to start a peaceful life in his hometown, but got killed and robbed by us on the way.” Nightingale suggested with a strained smile.

However, no one laughed. All of them knew clearly that if the numerous demons had been producing Magic Stones in the past 400 years, they now must have an incredible amount of war resources.

To break the dead silence, Agatha said, ”Well, it’s no use thinking too much. After all, we have to fight against them anyway. There’re no two ways about it.”

...

Guided by Lightning, the First Army finally arrived at the woods.

”Are you alright?” Wendy hurriedly jumped off Lightning’s back to check the witches one by one. ”Anna...”

”Don’t worry. She just fainted because of magic power exhaustion.” Nightingale comforted Wendy. ”Everybody is alright.”

”I’ve told her, but she just kept rushing me,” said Lightning. Her head had been wrapped up, and only several wisps of hair could be seen on her forehead.

”Wh-What are these? Are they demons?” Brian asked in shock, looking at the bodies put in a row on the ground.

”Yes, dead demons. You have to tell your soldiers to bring them back, including their remains, armors, clothes and weapons. None of those things should be left behind. That’s His Majesty’s order.” Nightingale shrugged and said.

”Yes! I’ll take care of this.” Brian’s face suddenly hardened, hearing the order.

”What a pity! We didn’t catch a demon alive. The plan to make Sigils has to be postponed again.” Agatha said with a sigh.

”A living demon? There’s probably one.” Lightning tilted her head and said.

”What? Where?” All the people simultaneously turned to look at Lightning.

”I’m not sure, but if the demon can swim, maybe it’s still alive,” she said while blinking.

...

In the afternoon, the paddle steamers left the harbor and turned back to sail towards the City of Neverwinter.

The curious and surprised soldiers of the First Army crowded on the deck of a steamer.

”This is the enemy that we’re going to fight against in the future?”

”It looks just so-so, except the huge, intimidating figure.”

”Hush! What did you say? Haven’t you seen that even His Majesty’s powerful witches were heavily injured. Don’t you know how powerful they are?” Someone interrupted.

”Yes, those dead demons must be fierce, at least, much tougher than the demonic beasts. Even the powerful lady Anna fainted.” Another one added, ”Yeah, she was the one who sealed the breach in the city wall and blocked a large group of demonic beasts on her own.”

The other soldiers agreed.

”Yeah... I was there too. Lady Anna saved my life!”

”If it wasn’t her, I’d already be stomped to death by the demonic boars.”

”Unfortunately, Miss Angel isn’t here. Otherwise, they would have been cured right now.”

Hearing what the soldiers said, Nightingale and Agatha standing at the stern of the steamer looked at each other and then shook their heads with a smile.

Both of them found what they heard very incredible. Since she came from the time when the witches had ruled the human world and enslaved the common people, Agatha had a brand new feeling towards the ordinary people when she heard that they considered witches comrades-in-arms. Nightingale who had had to hide from the ordinary people for a very long time and had suffered from the coercion of the church also felt for the first time that the ordinary people were able to accept the witches and even willing to fight side by side with them.

”What do you think about it?” Nightingale asked.

”You mean the test target? I think we were so lucky to capture it alive when we believed that we were going back empty-handed.” Agatha said with a smile.

The test target, the living Mad Demon locked in an iron cage attracted the soldiers to flock to have a look at it.

According to Lightning, the flames from the explosion of the hydrogen balloon hurt and battered this unlucky demon unconscious causing it to fall into the water. After it regained consciousness, it had struggled for half a day, trying to swim to the bank but had failed since it had been so badly injured. In the end, it was caught by Maggie who said that the Mad Demon must have mistaken her for a Devilbeast thinking that it had come to its rescue and had cried out loudly to catch her attention. It never expected that it would become the witches’ captive.

As Iffy was pushed to the limit of her magic power and physical strength, she probably could not trap the demon for a very long time. After discussion, the witches decided to cut all its limbs and let Agatha freeze the wounds. By doing so, the demon could neither kill itself nor die before it used up the Red Mist.

”It’s hard to believe that we can still complete the task after the sudden, terrible accident. We’re so lucky.” Nightingale twitched her mouth and said.

”Oh, don’t you need some rest?” Agatha asked, pointing at her waist.

”It’s fine after the herbal treatment. Before we met His Majesty Roland, Leaf took care of the wounds for all the sisters in the Witch Cooperation Association.” Nightingale said lightly while throwing up her hands.

”I’m not prudent enough in this action. Fortunately, everyone is fine.” Agatha said and heaved a sigh.

”You mean the Senior Demons? That’s not your fault. No one could predict that they would appear in this remote place.” Nightingale consoled her.

”And that’s what makes me confused... The Senior Demons have never acted alone. They usually hid behind a huge army of demons and they were a few in number. During the decades of the battle, the Union had recorded all of the Senior Demons that appeared. There were less than 20 of them, including those killed in the battle.” Agatha paused for a while and continued. ”I thought I had to wait until the Bloody Moon came to see them, but now I’m not sure, after seeing the Magic Stones.”

Nightingale soon got what she meant and that idea sent a chill to her heart.

”The demons’ lifespan, growth limit, evolution way and reproduction way still remain unknown to us. What did they do in the past 400 years? Assuming they’ve accumulated so many Magic Stones, is it possible that they may also have many more Senior Demons now?”

...