Release that Witch

“What is it? Is there a problem?” Roland turned his head.

“It looks somewhat similar to the thing that I’ve killed before.” Nightingale spread her hands out. “But the one I killed was much smaller and did not have such a ridiculous figure…”

“Wait a minute, you’re talking about your investigation at Great Snow Mountain?”

Nightingale nodded her head. “An earlier case was when searching for the Ice Witch. Based on its ability to turn invisible, it explains why the humans treated it as a ghost.”

“Are you able to pinpoint the differences between this and the monster you’ve killed in more detail?” Roland asked.

“Erm… let me think about it. It was a few years ago.” Nightingale took the drawing. “The one that I met was, at most, half the height of the monster in the drawing. Its front claws were also in the form of scythes, but much smaller; the belly was only used for climbing, unlike this, which has so many claws. For the head… Right, the demonic beast that I fought did not have such an obvious mouth and razor sharp teeth. The drawing depicts it more like a predator. If not for its front claws and ability to turn invisible, I would not have linked the two together. At that time, I figured that they were one of those hybrid demonic beasts.”

Roland’s expression turned solemn. “But in the end, we discovered that they belong to the Sky-sea Realm.”

If we were to say that the demonic beasts posed a certain level of threat, the Sky-sea Realm was on a whole other level. As a participant of the Battle of Divine Will, they were capable of suppressing the demons from an unknown location, so they couldn’t be underestimated. For them to appear in the Western Region was definitely not good news.

But the northern part of the Fertile Plains had been occupied by the demons after the Battle of Divine Will, so how did the Sky-sea Realm infiltrate into the belly of the continent?

Could it be…

A horrific and exaggerated thought vaguely appeared in his head.

“Right, talking about the demonic beasts… The First Army encountered them in the snow mountain remains.” Nightingale frowned. “You can call it a coincidence or luck, but are the demonic beasts and Sky-sea Realm in cahoots?”

Roland and Isabella turned and looked at Nightingale at the same time.

The latter immediately covered her mouth.” I was just making a passing remark, you don’t have to take it too seriously.”

“In all, I’m afraid that this problem is even thornier than what I had anticipated.” Roland gently rapped on the table. Regardless, Neverwinter is the core of the human industry, and nothing should ever happen there. If the attack is related to the Sky-sea Realm, it’ll be difficult to get through it even with the most prudent countermeasures. “Isabella, the information you’ve provided is very useful… Go and have a rest first; I will have a member of the General Staff contact you soon.”

However, Isabella remained in her spot. “Your Majesty, I have a matter to inform you.”

“What is it? Tell me.”

“While I was here in Hermes, I continued to experiment with God’s Stones.” She retrieved a draft paper from her clothes and placed it on the table. “Do you remember Agatha’s conclusion the last time? That they are obstructed and unusable not by dense magic power but by other factors. I performed repeated experiments here and discovered a factor that might possible be related to frequency.”

“Frequency?” Roland exclaimed.

“I referenced it to the Natural Science Theoretical Foundation that you compiled, and maybe what I said isn’t too accurate, but I can’t think of a better description.” Isabella then described her discovery succinctly. “In fact… after learning about this, my magic power actually condensed.”

Nightingale blinked in surprise and observed Isabella for a moment before blurting out, it’s true… I didn’t notice that.”

Roland laughed. “That means that the Witch Union has a new Extraordinary? Congratulations on the breakthrough.”

Isabella shook her head. “Everything was possible because you gave me a chance.”

“But persisting in the research was your choice.” He insisted. “Did you feel anything new after having your magic power evolve?”

Isabella extended her palm out, revealing a ring donned on her middle finger. The gem in the middle gradually lit up.

Any other person would be surprised and interested in what seemed to be a magic stone capable of releasing light, but Roland only had suspicions towards it. There was something different about it

“This stone… isn’t from the demons!” Nightingale exclaimed.

Roland immediately realized what was happening. Magic stones were the source of power for the demons, and their appearance was never a factor; thus, the majority of them were oval. But this stone had distinct cuts on them like precious stone polished to a polyhedron, something only humans would do.

But humans did not wield the ability to create magic stones so far, and all of them came as spoils of war or were excavated from ruins. Cutting and polishing affected the composition of a magic stone and, in other words, they had to be cut before the transformation.

“This was my first experiment after evolving.” Isabella became slightly wistful. “It was originally a God’s Locket of Retribution used by the Church that are no longer used to restrain any Witch.”

Roland turned agape in surprise. “You turned a God’s Stone into glowing magic stone?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Isabella nodded her head. “If for example, my past ability was to completely repel the waves emitted from a God Stone, I am now able to weaken a specific frequency, and the result is this magic stone. But at present, only a few magic stones are affected in this manner, it might be related to my insufficient understanding of the subject.”

Roland took about a half hour with questions and experiment manuscripts to grasp Isabella’s point. To put it simply, Isabella had established a link between her ability and her knowledge and grasp over God Stones. To her, the undulating waves from the stones were extremely powerful to the extent of her being unable to grasp their fluctuations, only to resemble a deathly still field at one glance. Upon locating the waves, all other fluctuations were no longer able to present themselves, that was the reason for the God’s Stone ability to isolate powers.

But regardless of it being ‘waves’ or ‘frequency’, they were both described as conversion of energy. Isabella had faintly grasped the difference between the two, yet was unable to accurately express herself due to her limited knowledge. After all, waves spoke for themselves and were a relatively simple term to understand, but not magic power. She was only able to describe it with relatively similar terms from her vocabulary.

This caused Rolan to recall that Lan had said something similar before.

If the knowledge gap between two involved parties were too big, even descriptions would be difficult, much less comprehension.

But Isabella’s newly developed ability proved that Magic Stones were not proprietary products of the demons.

If magic power could one day be hailed as a new branch of education, her tests and experiments would most probably be the starting point.

“No one can help you on this path, but it is because of that, that it is worth the try.” Roland encouraged.

“I will do my best,” Isabella replied. “One more thing. I discovered a fascinating phenomenon. Agatha’s guess might not be wrong. God’s stones might actually be living things.”