Release that Witch

In the central hall of the Third Border City.

Roland heard a hysterical shriek as he led his ministers off the underground corridor to the hall.

”What’s that?” Wendy asked in surprise.

”Kabradhabi’s wailing,” Phyllis, who led the way, replied. ”He broke down after hearing Ursrook’s defeat. Not only did he lose his composure but he also made several attempts to commit suicide as well. It took us a while to sedate it.”

”I suddenly feel that it might be a better idea to let it live,” Tilly rejoined coldly.

”He must live,” Phyllis said while nodding vigorously. ”The encrypted letter written by Ursrook provides us an excellent opportunity to get a more profound understanding of our enemy. We could probably even know how they mastered our language, which is something the Union yearned but failed to do.”

”I can’t believe that Kabradhabi would agree to cooperate,” Nightingale remarked.

”No, it didn’t. It’s a little complicated to explain the whole thing. You’ll see when you meet it.”

Roland and his party came to a halt before an interrogation stand, where the Senior Demon, who took the form of a God’s Punishment Warrior, was tethered to a metal post, with a tube inserted into its abdomen. Its eyelids were forced open, before which was a sheet of paper with foreign characters on it.

”So, this is the encrypted letter reconstructed by Summer?” Wendy asked.

”Yes. Maggie spotted it in midair, otherwise we would have probably missed it,” answered Agatha, who looked a little pale and weary. There were dark signs of sleeplessness beneath her eyes.

After the war ended, Roland immediately sent the Neverwinter Detective Group to the front to help the army collect information that was typically hard to obtain by ordinary means. Roland believed that the letter, which accidentally slipped out, would be more reliable than the information the demons deliberately divulged to humans.

Considering that Summer’s magic power was limited, initially they had just planned to reconstruct the battle between the ambush unit and the demons, and how the Magic Slayer had deceived Sylvie and set up his counter ambush.

But in reality, Roland saw more than he had expected.

He did not expect to see Ursrook, perched on the giant skeleton, write this letter in the golden rays of sunset.

Summer had faithfully reconstructed this particular scene.

”Aaaaaargh!” Kabradhabi howled while wriggling, making a desperate attempt to avert its eyes.

Agatha nodded at Breeze who stamped her foot, and the Senior Demon instantly fell silent.

”I see. You’re asking Breeze to manipulate it into reading the encrypted letter,” Nightingale commented with a look of dawning comprehension.

”And then we’ll ask Ms. Camilla to channel it to see how it’ll react to the letter,” Celine added. ”Although it tried to fake its reaction, we could still distinguish real, spontaneous reactions from fake ones by constantly changing the content of the letter. We actually got this idea from Your Majesty.”

”From me?” Roland asked in bewilderment.

”In the intermediate biology textbook, you mentioned that a dog will saliviate when being presented with food. This type of unconditioned response applies to all creatures, including demons.”

”We thus pieced the information in its head together and deciphered the content of the letter using a similar approach. Thanks to Ms. Camilla’s assistance, we were able to obtain the intelligence rather quickly.” With these words, Celine waved her main tentacle at Camilla in gratitude.

”I’m just hoping... hoping that I could help Lady Tilly,” Camilla said while biting her lip, a little embarrassed.

That was the beauty of witches’ abilities. Although every witch had her own limitation, each of them was irreplaceable. Some ability was so rare that it might take more than several hundred years to see a witch awaken with such an ability. Perhaps there had been witches with abilities similar to Camilla Dary’s during the past two Battles of Divine Will, but unfortunately, they had not managed to survive the day when human beings captured a real Senior Demon.

That was probably why Ursrook had been so keen on the elimination of the witches. However, were Ashes, Sylvies and the other witches really more important for the demons than Taquila? The demons, after all, needed God’s Stones to erect the Obelisk. Once they seized Taquila, the Red Mist would pervade the Impassable Mountain Range. By that time, demonic beasts would be able to easily climb over the mountains and invaded the interior of the Four Kingdoms. It would then be almost impossible for human beings to drive the demons out of the Fertile Plains.

Both the General Staff and the ancient witches had believed that Taquila was the demons’ top priority.

Why was the reality so different from their prediction. Perhaps, the letter would give them some clues.

”So, tell me about the content of the letter you have deciphered,” said Roland slowly.

...

As all the sentences had been broken down into short phrases for interpretation, some of the paragraphs did not sound very articulate. Nevertheless, they could still roughly make out what the letter said. As Celine slowly transmitted pieces of information, Roland suddenly had a strange feeling that Celine was whispering to him.

”Dear Sky Lord, the final settlement is around the corner. I’m well prepared, not only for the battle but also for myself.”

”In the past one month, I heard... the summon numerous times. It is such a strong sign that I’m confident that I’ll upgrade in this upcoming battle...”

”I know my action will subject you to critism, but I don’t think it’ll affect your plan for the Western Front.”

”If I succeed, our enemy will lose their only means of... and we’ll, once again, be able to control the pace of the battle.”

”... Send troops ten times what we have now, and human beings won’t stand a chance...”

”Nevertheless, I cannot guarantee our victory at this moment. If I fail...”

”Please treat humans as equal and annihilate them with all our strength. If necessary, we might even have to abandon the Fathomless Abyss.”

”... As long as we could obtain their legacy shard, there will still be a ray of hope to crush the Sky-sea Realm.”

”Finally, please send my regards to the king and the Nightmare Lord.”

Roland felt his back was covered with a sheen of cold sweat after he read Ursrook’s letter.

He now understood why Phyllis looked so anxious.

Ursrook had definitely failed his mission. He had not only failed to annihilate the ambush unit but also got himself killed in the end.

This meant that the demons would probably adopt the second proposal on the letter.

Although there were missing words here and there, Roland could still tell that Ursrook had been advising his kind to abandon their battle against the Sky-sea Realm and put all their efforts into the eradication of the human race.

What the hell?

A leaden feeling suddenly stole through Roland. This was probably the worst news he had ever received since the war.

”We probably have to put aside the development plan for the Fertile Plains now,” Wendy muttered.

”If the demons dedicate themselves to killing us, it’ll be too dangerous to build the residential area outside the defensive line.”

”But what about the Red Mist?”

”The Demons could establish the Obelisk in Starfall City.”

”But then the Red Mist won’t be able to permeate the entire Fertile Plains, and we could still have another 400 years of peace before the next Battle of Divine Will. It won’t be very different than what we proposed earlier, right?”

”The difference is that the demons will go to all lengths to exterminate our kind.”

”No...” Edith interrupted the heated discussion. ”There’s something wrong with this letter.”