Release that Witch

”Recording”

On the 12th, Day 1 of the experiment.

According to His Majesty’s instructions, I conducted a dangerous experiment.

I put 30 roosters on the work station, one of which was placed under the direct radiation of the red light.

The roosters were subject to the radiation for five minutes.

The rooster subject that took direct radiation reacted violently. It threw itself against the cage fiercely, whereas the others did not show any visible response.

I smelled a whiff of burned flesh in the laboratory.

After the experiment, I found that the feathers that came off the subject rooster were slightly burned. As the burn was fairly minor, I judged the cause of the feather loss to be from the struggle and not the radiation.

As for the subject rooster itself, it seemed normal except for being a little crestfallen.

”From my point of view, a torch is even more lethal than the radiation.”

Recorder: Celine.

...

The 13th, Day 2 of the experiment.

Something happened.

The subject rooster started to have symptoms of diarrhea and also began to wail as if it was infected by the demonic plague.

The other roosters acted normal.

His Majesty looked grave and sober (delete this sentence in the official report).

No new experiment today.

...

The 14th, Day 3 of the experiment.

The subject rooster died.

The autopsy showed that there was fluid accumulation and internal bleeding in the rooster’s body. Signs of decomposition had also been found in its hypodermis, which would normally take place one day after an animal has died.

In other words, the red light killed the rooster’s skin when it was still alive.

Things are becoming a little interesting now.

Considering what had happened in the Temple of the Cursed and Thorn Town as well as the drawings on the murals, the findings did explain some things.

The cursed ones seemed to be enduring excruciating pain, although they looked fine physically, until every inch of their skins peeled off and festered. It must be awful to watch yourself die little by little and be unable to do anything to stop it.

I take back my previous remark. The radiation was more lethal than a torch, and it killed in a more subtle and sinister way.

However, His Majesty had his own opinion on this matter.

He believed the red light had a detrimental effect on the self-renewal process of living beings.

Our body was constantly growing and dying on a microscopic level to make sure these two process were balanced. The termination of cell growth would immediately result in massive acute necrosis of skins and organs. That was probably what the curse really was.

I agreed with him given that no other evidence proved otherwise (please delete the following paragraph in the official report).

Microscopes are fascinating.

The materials collected from the Dream World also corroborated my research findings and showed that living beings were made of numerous tiny growing cells.

The reason that the light could penetrate a body was that our cells are not tightly packed in our body but instead in a loose formation.

I feel like I have entered a new realm.

It is a pity that I can’t visit the Dream World.

I have learned that it would normally take nine years to complete the ”high school” curriculum and have a thorough understanding of the human body.

So it will probably be a little hard for Phyllis, Elena, and the other witches to learn all the courses in such a short period of time.

...

The 16th, Day 5 of the experiment.

All the roosters, both alive and dead, were buried deep underground.

The laboratory was thoroughly cleansed.

I continued with the experiment the following day.

This time, I used three cows as my research subject. The purpose of the research was to see whether the Magic Ceremony Cube could be used as a weapon and how well the cows could hold up when exposed to the red light.

...

The 20th, Day 9 of the experiment.

The result was frustrating.

The three cows were each exposed to the red light for 10, 15, and 30 minutes respectively.

However, even the cow with the highest exposure lived for four days.

Whether this red light would cause harm to the demons remains unknown, but one thing was certain: the demons would never stand transfixed to one spot waiting for the light. Even if the ”curse” did affect the demons, the demons would only be exposed to the red light for a fraction of a second on the battlefield.

The murals in the temple, which depicted that the Magic Ceremony Cube had defeated giant monsters, were indeed exaggerating.

Or another possibility is that... those monsters were particularly vunlerable to the ”curse”.

...

The 21st, Day 10 of the experiment.

Testing the radiation range.

King Roland agreed to conduct the experiment outdoors after I assured him that the radiation would not travel to the surrounding areas.

The test site was still in the valley at the base of the Impassable Mountain Range.

The outcome was very disappointing.

The red light could not travel more than 100 meters, and basically anything could more or less block it.

For some metals, the red light could not penetrate them at all.

For example, a stack of ten gold royals.

Even water could somewhat block it.

I thus concluded that the light could not be used as a weapon.

...

The 26th, Day 15 of the experiment.

Since Nana has returned from the front, we conducted a healing test.

The damage caused by the radiation was curable, but not completely.

For instance, Nana could not repair the damaged skin or heal the contaminated organs of the subject cows. Their conditions would continue to deteriorate, and the parts that had been healed would be contaminated again later.

However, if we implanted a healed organ to another healthy cow, the health of the subject cow’s organ would cease to decline.

In other words, the ”curse” could potentially be removed provided that we reconstruct the infected body.

However, such a task was beyond Nana’s ability.

To do so, we had to utilize Spear Passi’s channeling ability, so we had to set this idea aside for the time being.

I put it as ”incurable” for now just in case.

By the way, the first cow died 10 days after being exposed to the red light.

...

The 28th, Day 17 of the experiment.

The Magic Ceremony Cube emanated the blue light again.

The coin was gone.

Fortunately, His Majesty had another coin that was exactly the same as the previous one.

However, as this was the source material to produce ”the Glory of the Sun” and it was extremely hard to collect, I felt I was wasting the most precious resource in the world.

Furthermore, the Magic Cube had exhausted its magic power, but, like a Sigil, it could be recharged.

Considering the test was resource-consuming, I did not think it a good idea to continue with the experiment.

I hope that we can dismantle it after we finished the resistance test.

...

Roland closed the ”Official Research Journal” and heaved a sigh.

”You’re reading it again,” Nightingale said while snacking on dried fish on a recliner. ”Isn’t it obvious? The ancient treasure is merely an instrument to torture captives. It doesn’t possess any incredible powers whatsoever.”

As the murals had suggested, the only reason for this invention was to torture enemies.

The mechanism of this Cube was probably very similar to that of ionizing radiation. Its source material was the uranium coin. Although what activated the Cube remained a mystery, the result was pretty much the same as only the Magic Ceremony Cube could direct energetic particles to a certain spot.

Roland suspected that the red light was just an indicator, similar to a laser beam, rather than the actual radioactive ray. It was highly unlikely that human beings could detect neutron beams or high energy electrons with the naked eye.

Now, he unveiled the truth pertaining to the Temple of the Cursed and the mysterious death of the Thorn Town residents.

A civilization who had heavily relied on radioactive elements had created the Cube with magic power. The device could release energetic particles after being activated by enriched radioactive materials. As to why the beam could only travel 100 meters, it might have something do with magic power.

Roland was a little discouraged by this conclusion.

He expected to find something more extraordinary than this since the nature of this device concerned knowledge of advanced physics. Perhaps, the original owner of this treasure had never taken it seriously, but simply used it as another instrument of torture just as they used a whip and a guillotine.

This was probably the difference between civilizations.

Just then, Sean came in and reported to him, ”Your Majesty, the Taquila witches sent in another experiment report.”

”Give it to me.”

According to the schedule, this was the last test.

They subjected different animals to the radiation for the same amount of time to determine the relationship between the body type of the animal and its radiation tolerance.

After that, they would terminate all the tests with respect to the Magic Cube.

Since uranium was a rare element, he should make the best use of it.

Roland opened the journal that was handed to him by Sean and took a sip of the tea.

It was in Celine’s handwriting again.

The 30th, Day 19 of the experiment.

The experiment was finally drawing to its end.

The result indicated that the larger the animal was, the higher tolerance it had to the red light. However, at this point, I was not able to develop a specific formula to address this relationship. It might take some time for me to do so.

Also, I had experienced a little hiccup during the experiment.

The incident was actually kind of amusing. I planned to use the remnant of the materials to see if it was fatal, so I directed the beam at a fish tank.

Five minutes later, I noticed wisps of steam that escaped from the surface of the water, although the fish were still alive.

That meant that the light was not even as deadly as boiling water. If I had continued with the experiment, the water would have been boiled and the fish cooked.

Perhaps we could use it to make soup?

”Haha!” Roland choked in his mug.

”What’s so funny?” Nightingale asked in surprise.

”I almost forgot about that...” Roland mumbled. He had been too focused on the potential military application of the red light to realize that it was also a form of energy. Any form of energy could heat up water.

The history of the human civilization was, essentially, a process where men continuously developed different methods to boil water.