20demayo Page 225
Page 225
Del Marie looked at the massive stone gate before her, which was carved with the story of the first witch of Fran.
A giant fire raven, carrying a piece of wood in its beak, stares menacingly at the woman on the cross. Strangely, the woman is not bound by ropes; instead, she has deliberately wrapped a rope around her neck on the cross, as if she were hanging herself.
Even more strangely, seawater appeared out of nowhere and reached the woman's throat, preventing her from successfully hanging herself.
But the woman eventually passed away peacefully. There was a bloody hole on her forehead, as if left by a bullet. In the corner of the stone gate, there was a figure holding a gun and laughing.
"The saint was not killed by herself, nor by natural disasters or monsters, but by the beneficiaries cheering below."
"But people at that time did not know that even if the saintess was just a little witch, she could not be shot. She sacrificed herself voluntarily for the so-called peace."
The maid standing beside Del Marie began to speak, her eyes lowered as she recounted the story of the saintess to Del Marie, the earliest and most profound honor of Fran, an honor etched in the hearts of all Fran witches.
The Temple was a follower of this saint, dedicated solely to protecting Fran and generally not interfering in its internal affairs.
In fact, Del Marie knew more about the background of this story than the maid.
She placed her hand on the stone door and gently applied pressure, while looking up at the carving of the saint's sacrifice, but the image of Theresa appeared in her mind.
The witches were truly born in the Age of Starfall. At that time, only little witches appeared, and their numbers were extremely small. They couldn't even figure out what magic was.
But it is said that only women with noble hearts can become witches, even though this planet has long been inhabited only by women.
The Saintess was the first witch in Fran to reveal her identity. She led the people to conquer the war and brought about a brief period of peace.
But in the end, she chose to die alone. Some say she was just tired, while others say she wanted to prove something.
But both Del Marie and Theresa knew what the saint was really thinking.
With her death, she fueled the hatred of all witches, hastened the demise of the old era, and ushered in a better one.
"The fire crow sees only vulgarity; it is proud and unwilling to lower its head, like a god."
"The deep sea harbors the sorrow of witches hidden in the corners, who do not wish to witness their sisters step into death."
"But only the saintess and the beneficiary were laughing. One saw the future wave that would engulf the old world and create a new one, while the other was immersed in his own foolishness."
"So, you also want to become a saint of this era, Theresa..."
Del Marie gave a wry smile and waved for the maid to leave.
She murmured, then lowered her hand from the stone door and asked, "And who will I play here?"
Perhaps, Del Marie already had the answer in her heart.
Chapter 326 War Lord Theresa
Pushing open the door, Del Marie strode inside, showing no trace of her earlier wry smile or the solitary worries she had endured.
She looked directly into the reception hall, where Theresa also conducted her business.
The place is very spacious, with only a round table that can accommodate twelve witches, apart from the exquisite stone pillars that support it.
Theresa seems to have a fondness for using gray-black stone as decoration; even the relief thrones that blend seamlessly with the ground are made of stone.
At this moment, only a witch was sketching something with a dragon feather pen on the main seat, which was carved with the image of the smiling saint.
Seemingly noticing Del Marie's gaze, the other person smiled, looked up, casually put down the pen, and spoke.
“You’ve come, Dale Marie.”
"Ah."
Del Marie spoke with a somewhat silent expression. After stepping into the reception hall, the smile that she usually wore in front of Jiang Kehan disappeared, replaced by solemnity.
Theresa gave a wry smile, stepped down from her throne, and slowly walked towards Del Marie, asking as she did so.
"What's the matter with you?"
Deir Marie looked at her Lord Theresa. Theresa wasn't actually that tall, only about 165cm, but her face was cold and stern, and even when she tried to show gentleness, she couldn't hide her sharpness.
Moreover, she seemed to know this as well, the corners of her mouth always curling up in a cold, mocking smile that never faded.
Today, Theresa was still wearing her all-black, simplified vine patterned dress with gold thread, completely concealing her petite figure and ample bosom.
She didn't like the witch's hat; her hair cascaded freely down her back, past her knees, but then gathered slightly inwards, giving her an air of nobility.
Instead of stating her purpose directly, Del Marie frowned and began to speak.
"You're not wearing shoes."
Yes, Theresa was barefoot, walking on the cold ground, but for a witch who never gets dirty, it might not be considered a bad habit.
Theresa shrugged, clearly unconcerned, and then moved closer to Del Marie before speaking.
"I guessed you came because of the dragon calamity, right? Did something unexpected happen?"
Del Marie sighed softly. She knew she couldn't hide it from the other party, but her sigh was mostly for Theresa's solitary journey.
Despite their seemingly friendly demeanor towards their subordinates, they will never actually listen to anyone else's advice.
“Blake is here too, so I’m planning to take you along to hunt this Skyfall Dragon.”
Theresa and Del Marie were well aware of the situation of this Meteor Dragon, after all, its race was rare enough.
Not to mention that its level is at the peak of level 7, but its combat power can actually go toe-to-toe with a normal level 8 dragon, which is obviously an extremely rare individual.
Therefore, Theresa and Del Marie usually don't provoke each other, since the Annihilation of the Skyfall Dragon is one of the most difficult characteristics to counter, and its ability to alter is also particularly troublesome.
But that's different now.
“You’re eyeing its talent, aren’t you?” Theresa’s brows furrowed slightly, but quickly turned into a smile. “After all, such high talent, combined with my magical properties, could allow me to reach the limits of the Great Witch much sooner.”
Theresa's magical property is called "Devour," which allows her to temporarily gain the power of others by devouring them, or to permanently acquire their talents and other ethereal things, or even rare things like luck and the world's favor.
However, this characteristic also has other limitations, such as the target of the devoured must be dead, but not dead for too long, and it cannot devour other witches.
Moreover, it takes some time to digest each target after it has been devoured.
Theresa found the digestion process troublesome and hadn't used this magical property in a long time. After all, all witches originally believed that the peak of the middle witch was the limit.
“Well, hasn’t the opportunity you’ve been waiting for arrived?” Del Marie asked coldly.
Her expression was not good, and she looked very worried.
There is no strict hierarchy among the witches. Even if the King wants to recruit villages, he can only do so if they share the same ideals.
But Del Marie knew perfectly well that she and Theresa only shared the same goal, but their approaches were completely different. She remained under Theresa's wing simply because Theresa's methods offered greater hope.
"Oh?" Theresa smiled at Del Marie, but upon seeing the other's worry, she laughed confidently.
"What opportunity? This is hardly an opportunity. The real opportunity is the Great Witch's greed."
She chuckled, her gaze deep.
"You know just how crazy our goals are; we could never achieve them by becoming great witches on our own."
"But if we can provoke the wrath of the other witches, some things can be accomplished without us."
Del Marie did not refute, knowing full well how ridiculous her unrealistic ideas were.
She and Theresa wanted to completely eradicate these immigrants from this empire that had long been open to immigration, no...
In other words, it's about getting these immigrants to see themselves as part of the French honor, rather than as individuals.
They're practically going against the times!
In this era that reveres individual power, they attempt to bind all the Fran witches together with honor and iron will, in the name of the empire.
Between collective will and individual will, this era has long since made its choice and firmly favors the latter.
But some things require foolish yet bold people to accomplish, don't they?
Thinking this, Dee Marie then said, "I can't guess what you're up to, but I've always been able to make my own judgments."
“Ha, you don’t understand,” Theresa chuckled dismissively before giving her reply.
"I will go. The sooner I become the Great Witch, the more profound the chaos I can stir up, enough for everyone to experience."
Her gaze passed over Del Marie's figure and fell upon the stone door that was not yet closed, and the carving of a saint's sacrifice on it.
Theresa actually saw further than Del Marie and touched upon the essence of the Great Witch much earlier.
She knew that her and Del Marie's goal would never be achieved, because the Great Witch was far more insane than they imagined.
But does being destined to fail mean you have to give up?
Theresa's sneer deepened, as if she was amused by the idea.
"Sometimes, failure is more worth remembering than success, and who says failure can't change something?"
"I never thought I would be as obsessive as you; I have my own answers."
Theresa spoke softly.
She didn't care whether she would die or how the chaos she stirred up would evolve.
All she knew was that some things had to be done by someone, and it had to be her.
Yes, Theresa always knew that she had gone completely insane, but unlike Del Marie, she was not pedantic. She could be destroyed, she could be despised, but she could not regret pursuing an unattainable goal.
Her goals and those of Del Marie seem to be the same, but in reality, they are already quite different.
Therefore, she is the Warlord, and Del Marie is the sinner.
Chapter 327 Seizing the Opportunity
Jiang Kehan walked aimlessly on the road to the village. Looking at the familiar village gate in the distance, she felt tears welling up in her eyes.
Finally, finally we're free...
Blake, his teeth don't even look human!
Jiang Kehan looked up at Blake, who was riding a broomstick in the sky, drinking and even humming a tune. He was clearly in a good mood. Suddenly, she felt her tired body surge with energy again.
She gritted her teeth, secretly eyeing Blake's backside, planning to find an opportunity to give him a good kick to settle the score from the past few days.
The other party's actions successfully refreshed Jiang Kehan's understanding of the depths of a witch's depravity.
If Black had only blown up the gods' homes, or gone to the mother dragon's lair to feed the cubs aphrodisiacs, she wouldn't have harbored such resentment.
But the other party is completely unreasonable when it comes to cheating people, and they don't even spare their own people.
For example, when Blake was so pleased with himself while feeding the aphrodisiac, he licked his fingers, which still had some aphrodisiac residue, and suddenly the way he looked at the female cubs changed.
If Jiang Kehan hadn't acted quickly and grabbed Blake beforehand, using her mind-clearing spells like they were free, it would have been a different story.
Blake is probably really going to turn these cubs into alien girls in front of the mother dragon and start a silver-themed free-for-all. Hmm, Jiang Kehan has a feeling that the mother dragon won't let them off the hook either.