< Witch and the Hunter (Part 1) >
—Pffffffff—
Dark smoke rose from the armored vehicles and tanks, and there were dead bodies laying around all over the place.
"Hmm… It looks like our work is done here."
Charlotte looked around the area. Everywhere she looked, there were armored vehicles and tanks. All of them were motionless.
Wargrave had established a line of defense near the Ap-rock River and the Doo-man River area. The area was the only way out of the Korean Peninsula into the continent. There were a massive amount of armored vehicles deployed to halt the advancement of the White Witch.
Officially, the White Witch was the target. But there was another target. They were stationed in order to kill the spy, lieutenant Charl. If Charlotte were to return to the headquarters behind the Central Asia Division forces, a war would start between the two forces.
Therefore, the Central Asia Division established a defense line.
They knew about lieutenant Charl, but they did not know about Charlotte De Kaltz. The forces at the defense line were decimated by her. It was not hard for Charlotte to slip past the defense line, but she chose to exterminate all the forces.
Charlotte thought that if a war was going to be inevitable, it would be better to weaken the enemy's forces. So Charlotte went down the defense line, and destroyed all the forces of the Central Asia Division.
Charlotte was a gigaframe cyborg with some body parts replaced with megaframe parts. She frowned and started stretching as she felt something uncomfortable.
[Teraframe protocol deactivated. Total output reduced by 86.54%]
This didn't work against the White Witch…
Charlotte had the powerful software that would boost the Gigaframe's capability temporarily. She was able to boost output by overclocking the gigaframe operating system.
Charlotte had the software even before she received the cyborg procedure. As soon as she received the procedure, she gained power well beyond that of an ordinary executor.
She would be getting the teraframe procedure when she returned to headquarters, and she would be the only Wargrave soldier with a teraframe.
At that point, she would be placed in the front of the war against the Central Asia Division.
Charlotte was able to weaken the forces of the fortresses nearby. As soon as Charlotte accomplished her goals, she started heading north.
When Charlotte returned to Central Headquarters, bloodshed would happen in the continent. This was a fact.
I wonder how the devil hunter is doing…
Charlotte was unaware of the battle of the SMCP.
Zin was not able to carry all the items that he earned as part of the psychic reading gig. Zin took a certain amount of food with him, and sold all the items, including the fabrics, to the residents of Jule. He earned 800 chips for his hunter's reward, an additional 100 chips as bonus, and 139 chips while working as a psychic. Zin was able to earn a total of 1039 chips at the castle of Jule!
It was a pretty good profit!
The lord of Jule had to spend a big sum of chips, but she was happy that the cave ants were exterminated, and that she had solidified her authority at Jule. She got a lot of bang for the buck.
She was extra nice to Zin and Leona. Besides washing their clothes, she gifted them leather pants and cotton clothes to them. And she specially gifted Leona a sturdy brown backpack reinforced with ghoul leather. And she even added two bars of soap in the bag! Leona was extremely excited.
Leona moved around with her new clothes. "It's very comfortable!"
"There must have been a person with great sewing skills," Zin observed.
All the people at Jule had great looking clothes.
Leona had received leather shorts and long pants, and was wearing the brown leather shorts, because they were easier to move around in.
She was ecstatic about gaining daily necessities, and she felt great about receiving the bars of soap. It was the first time that Leona had visited a clean village, and worn clean clothes.
But as she was walking farther away from the Jule castle, she smiled bitterly.
"It was a good experience at first, but things went south pretty quick."
"Well… It's your first time visiting a castle."
A lord was a dictator who ruled a castle, and would do anything to maintain control of the castle. The lord of the Jule castle was pretty good and better than average lord.
However, Leona could not forget the scene where the lord lashed a man to death with a scary facial expression. The lord did not look happy at all, and she looked very tired in the middle. But she didn't stop the whipping.
Young Leona couldn't easily understand why the lord had to act in such a way, and it was quite scary.
But Leona was an odd one as well, as she didn't think too much about the whole ordeal. Many kids were trembling in fear and covered their eyes and ears during the execution.
But Leona had watched the whole execution from the beginning to the end. And she didn't dwell too much on it.
Leona looked at the wilderness and shook her head as if she had already forgotten about Jule. "So, did all the cave ants die?"
"It's probably happening as we speak."
Although Zin and Leona were not able to see, the epidemic was probably killing the ants underground.
Zin also stopped thinking about Jule. "It's a pity I couldn't extract the chips from the queen ant, but oh well."
There was no point worrying about something that couldn't be done, so Zin decided to be happy that he was able to take revenge on the cave ants.
During his stay at Jule, Zin was able to extend his lifetime by more than 1000 hours. He didn't have to use any ammunition. It was a perfect hunt for Zin.
The weather was getting hotter, but it was not to a point where it hampered their trip.
However, it was not easy passing the mountainous area where the castle of Jule was located. The new clothes got dirty pretty quickly, and although Leona complained at first about the clothes getting dirty, she didn't care about it after a while.
Time went by quickly as the two walked over a couple of mountains. They had to set up a camp soon because they left Jule late in the afternoon. While Zin was preparing a meal using the food obtained from Jule, Leona asked, "Why is Wargrave looking for you, mister?"
"I don't know."
"Charl was a nice person, but maybe Charl is a weird person? Anyways I don't really trust the Wargrave."
Leona was right about Wargrave. But it didn't mean that Charl was a trustworthy person either.
I'm sure he is on his way to hunt the devil. And he probably needs my help.
Ramphil was not able to take down the White Witch using the three connected photon disruptor swords. But Zin was able to almost kill the White Witch with the power of the Phantomvein.
If Ramphil's mission was to exterminate the Witch, he would need the knowledge of a devil hunter. But Ramphil was probably further north than Zin and Leona, and it was likely that they would not come across each other. Based on the conflict within the Wargrave organization, Ramphil was part of the Central Asia Division, and Charlotte who had hired Zin for help was part of the Central headquarters. After seeing Ramphil on the battlefield, he did not want to fight against him.
Zin had never seen someone with such great battle skills.
I don't want to get tangled with him.
Zin did not want to ever meet him again. Ramphil was so powerful that Zin was extremely cautious. Zin had to head north to get out of the Korean peninsula, and once he got out to the continent, it would be nearly impossible for Ramphil to track Zin down.
"But if Wargrave has no intention of killing us, isn't that a good thing?" Leona asked Zin.
"Why do you think so?"
"If he needed to hunt the Witch, he could have gotten help from the Wargrave fortresses."
"Hmm…" Leona provided a different perspective, and Zin nodded after thinking about it.
"You may be right. If there was a tank, we could get to the Heavenly Power castle much faster…"
They were not even halfway to the Heavenly Power castle yet. It would take much longer to get to the castle as Zin would need to earn more chips to prolong his life. It was similar to how he spent extra days at the Jule castle.
Is Ramphil under the command of the Central Asia Division?
Is he searching for me to hunt the Witch?
It was unclear, but if Ramphil had good intentions, it would not be a bad idea to get help from him. Zin and Leona would be able to utilize a tank to move quicker.
If I don't talk about the fact that I'm helping the Central Headquarters, he wouldn't know that I'm helping out Charlotte.
Maybe it's okay.
Zin could decide from two options. He could move up north slowly with minimal risk, or he could move up quicker with some risk. As Leona spoke, Zin thought that it was not a bad idea to collaborate with the Central Asia Division.
But if he can't find us, we won't be able to find him, either.
It was not going to be easy to meet each other in the vast land of the continent.
"Let's think about it later when we meet him."
"Okay."
There was no point of thinking about it until they met him.
Zin was ready to go to sleep. Although the cave ants were most likely wiped out by the epidemics, he did not want to take chances by sleeping on the ground and getting attacked by the cave ants. He stood up and created a temporary hammock using some ropes.
Leona was amazed when Zin created a hammock between the trees in a short period of time.
"You look so much cooler when you do such things. Much cooler than when you try to show off on purpose."
"… You are really good at complimenting and criticizing at the same moment."
"And that's what makes me charming!" Zin shook his head as Leona mimicked how Zin joked around.
The temporary hammock was sturdy and comfortable, and Leona layed down to go to sleep.
"This is so nice. Can you make this every night?"
"Nope. It's too annoying." Zin did not make a hammock unless it was urgent because making a hammock were tiring. Zin fell asleep shortly, and Leona who was enjoying the new bed, fell asleep as well.
That night, Leona had a nightmare.
Leona woke up in extreme pain, she felt as if she was getting butchered.
"Ack! Ah! Hoob…"
Leona stood up from the hammock, and she started feeling nauseated as she remembered the unexplainable nightmare.
"Argh! Bwarrgh!"
As soon as Leona fell from the hammock, she started to throw up. Zin immediately woke up and stood up as well.
"What's wrong? Are you sick?"
"Ah, Aahck!"
Leona started to shiver after throwing up. Her eyes were ready, her mouth was open. She was not able look straight as she was still out of her mind. Zin looked at Leona, and lifted his right hand.
—SLAP! —
"Owww!"
Leona finally woke up, and came back to her senses after the slap. She covered her cheeks and murmured, "Ow. Ow… that hurts…"
"Snap out of it."
Leona became extremely angry, and she shouted at Zin, "How can you slap one's cheek so hard? I almost lost my tooth!"
Zin shrugged. "You looked so out of your mind, so I got your mind back in you. You should be thanking me, but you are getting angry?"
And then Zin suddenly stopped rebuking her. Leona wiped her cheeks as she felt something and said, "Blood…"
"I think you are mistaken."
"No, it is actually blood." Leona was bleeding from inside her mouth because she had gashed her cheeks.
< Witch and the Hunter (Part 2) >
Devil's blood!
The words echoed in Zin's head. Drinking a devil's blood meant that the hunter had to kill the devil. By consuming the blood, Zin would be draining the life of the devil as well. Absorbing a devil's blood had much more effect than simply drinking the blood.
Drinking the blood of Leona would cause the life of Leona to shorten as the source of her life would be drained. And it mattered even if a single drop of blood was consumed.
Zin held on to his trembling hands and tried to remain calm. But Leona noticed that Zin was not normal.
"M… mister, what's wrong…?"
"No, it's nothing. Tell me what's going on." Zin was barely able to remain composed, and asked a different question.
I can't believe it. I am not even a vampire, and I'm getting excited over blood.
Zin felt horrible about himself. Leona started to think about the nightmare that she dreamt, and frowned. And she started talking after she realized what it was about.
"I dreamt a nightmare… but now that I think about it… it's not a nightmare."
"It's not a nightmare?"
She thought she was having a nightmare at first, but after waking up, she was certain that what she saw was not part of a dream. Leona pointed down below.
"I was watching the cave ants dying underneath us…"
Leona's dream was about thousands of cave ants struggling and dying because of the epidemic. It was a horrible scene to watch as the monsters were dying in agony.
Leona was thinking that what she saw was not a dream, but something that was happening right now.
Leona murmured, "I think I can still see it now."
She was not able to sense it as exactly as before, but she was feeling that the monsters nearby were in pain. It was not something that could be easily explained, but Leona was surely getting feedback.
Is her empathic power awakening?
Zin was not sure if Leona was starting to realize her power because of the many cave ants dying, or because she maturing as a witch. But it was certain that Leona would become a true witch through these events.
"Why am I seeing things that I don't want to see…" Leona frowned and talked to herself while grabbing her head. Leona still acted like Leona even though she was gaining power as a witch. She was extremely upset that she was sensing the pain of the monsters that she did not care for. She was getting a headache, and she continued to curse and shout.
And then she realized something.
Leona started to concentrate on the painful feeling she was able to pick up, and focused on the subject that was in pain.
She was able to do something that she couldn't do before.
Leona was able to sense a monster that was much bigger than the other cave ants.
And Leona had a good memory.
It's a pity I couldn't extract the chips from the queen ant, but oh well.
As soon as she remembered what Zin said, Leona lifted her head.
"Mister."
"… What's up."
"I think I found the queen."
Zin was very surprised at her words. "No way." He cut her off even before she started to speak.
"You are thinking about extracting chips from the queen ant, but the tunnels are too complicated for me to navigate easily."
But Leona also remembered the other comment that Zin had made.
The tunnels that the cave ants go through are not wide enough for me to crawl through.
"I can go through the tunnels."
"What?"
"I can go. The tunnel should be wide enough for me to walk through, right? And I can sense what the tunnels look like."
Leona was able to figure out how the tunnels looked like by detecting the dead bodies of the ants, and feeling the emotions of the ants. The power of a witch was unexplainable. It wasn't just a simple mind-controlling power.
Zin shook his head, as he was not going to allow Leona go through the tunnels.
"You can't go through the tunnels. There is an epidemic all under the ground." The cave ant tunnels were contaminated with the disease, and if a person were to enter the tunnel, he would get exposed to the epidemic and die.
"You are not immune to the epide…" Zin did not finish his sentence. The current epidemic was caused by sorcery, and such an epidemic would have no effect if one carried an anti-curse item. The epidemic itself was not going to be an issue for Leona. But Zin shook his head one more time.
"No, no. The cave ants that are still alive might attack…"
"Did you forget?" Leona smiled. "Monsters don't attack me."
Leona was a witch. She was a witch who was trying to extract chips from the dead monsters. As Zin watched the confident Leona, he thought that things were getting weird.
"Something doesn't feel right."
Zin started to dig up the location that Leona point out. Although Zin wasn't feeling easy about it, nevertheless he was digging into the ground at great speed. Zin was immune to the epidemic in the first place, and was not affected by it.
—Rumble! —
As Zin dug up the hole, a cave ant tunnel was revealed. The heat inside the tunnel blew out into his face. Zin was surprised at how Leona was able to point out the location where the tunnel would be, and he came up out of the hole and looked at Leona.
"You know, I want to become a hunter as well, so I need to prove my worth so that you could start teaching me the skills. Don't worry. As long as the tunnels don't collapse, I can pick up the chips easily."
She was right about that. It was going to a simple mission, where Leona needed to retrieve chips from the dead ants.
Zin was still worried, and Leona nudged Zin in the waist.
"Do you really want to become a hunter?" Zin asked.
Leona was slightly upset. "What. You thought I was joking about it?"
"I am really going to become a hunter. It's such an easy job. The monsters will come to me and die willingly."
Zin had never heard of a hunter who had the power of a witch, and he had never seen such a witch.
In the end, Zin gave Leona a chipbox, chip extractor, lantern, spellstone, and a shotgun. Leona picked up the shotgun and frowned.
"This is stinking heavy…"
"Alright, let's be clear. If something happens, you are coming back up right away. If the tunnel is about to collapse, if you have trouble breathing, or if your body doesn't feel right, you need to come back out. If a monster attacks you, you can shoot this shotgun. The shotgun will recoil and you might hurt your chin or face, so don't aim and shoot. Just hold it to your side and shoot."
"Wow, you are really worried, aren't you?"
Leona shook her head as Zin gave her a long sermon. As she was ready to go down the tunnel, she looked up at Zin.
"Well, it feels great that you care about me."
Leona was still carrying the shotgun, but it was too dangerous for a kid to carry around and use. However, Leona jumped into the tunnel without worrying too much.
—Whoosh! —
As a witch, she did not have to worry about the monsters, and she did not have to worry about the epidemic because she was carrying the spellstone. The tunnel was wide enough for oxygen to flow through, and it had a low risk of collapsing.
But Zin could not take off his eyes from the tunnel that Leona had jumped into.
—Ah, smells like crap. —
As soon as Leona went under the tunnel, she was grumbling without much fear.
Leona had a clear memory of how the cave ant's tunnel looked. It was a very strange experience. She was not a monster, but a human, but the monsters' knowledge was transferred to her and became part of her knowledge.
At first, she wasn't exactly sure what she had to do, but after feeling the pain of the cave ants, she was able to gain their knowledge.
She was aware where the eggs, food, and the queen were. Leona checked the surroundings with her flashlight and kept going down the tunnels.
Leona spotted many cave ants that were lying dead in the tunnels because of the epidemic. The cave ants looked like giant moles, and they were covered in blood. The dead bodies of the ants looked horrible, and some were still spasmodically shaking their legs.
At times, the tunnel widened or narrowed down, but it was high enough for Leona to walk through it.
Real sorceries require this type of ceremony, but you will not remember these forever.
It's because the outcome of the sorcery is far more horrible than the ceremony itself. The outcome is something that people will remember for a long time.
As Leona passed through the tunnels and looked at the ants that were killed horribly, she realized what Zin had meant earlier.
The sight of the dead bodies of the ants was gruesome and nauseating. Initially, Leona thought that offering a cow as part of the ceremony was a waste.
But after witnessing what the sacrifice of a single cow could cause, she thought that it was crazy that the ants were decimated by it. Leona's nose was getting numb after inhaling the stench for too long, and she was soaked with sweat because of the heat and humidity inside the tunnel.
She was able to breathe fine, but travelling down through the tunnels was physically demanding for her. The ant tunnels were very steep, and it was tough for Leona to get through the steeper sections.
Fortunately, the queen was not too far from Leona's current location.
"Oh, aaaah!"
—Frrrrrr! —
Leona slipped up, and fell down and rolled down the steep slope. She stood up in pain, muttering, "Crap… why did I volunteer to come here?"
Leona regretted that she decided to come inside the tunnel. Leona looked up where she rolled down from, and she wondered how she could get back up.
Leona passed through the sleeping areas of the ants, areas where the ants were dead in groups, areas where the eggs were turned black, and food storage where the food was spoiled with a nauseating stench.
Ordinary people would have run away from such a horrendous place, or freaked out in terror.
Leona occasionally cursed, but she was not frightened at all.
Leona's mother used to be a coward, and Leona despised cowards. She believed that fear and terror was a stumbling block to survive. Leona wanted to exclude such emotions from her completely.
It was not that she was without fear.
She did not stop moving on, because there were things scarier than gruesomeness and terror. And as she approached the area the queen was at, she wasn't surprised looking at the gigantic ant.
—Sheeeeeeck… Shhheeeeck…—
The giant queen ant was a hundred times bigger than a regular cave ant, but it didn't look like a boss monster. It looked like a bug that had a huge abdomen. It was so incredibly big, but it didn't seem dangerous.
"It's not dead yet."
The queen ant was barely breathing and wasn't dead yet. Contrasting its gigantic abdomen, its head was very tiny.
Eggs were laid from the tip of the abdomen, and cave ants that hatched from the eggs built the huge colony.
The queen ant had very thin legs, and was immobile. The queen ant was fed by the worker cave ants that brought food for her. If all the cave ants died, the queen would die as well, because there would be no cave ants to take care of the queen. Leona thought that the queen ant was merely an egg laying machine, not the ruler of the ant colony.
The queen laid eggs like a machine, and the eggs became worker cave ants that assisted the queen and gathered food.
The queen ant was looking at Leona. The insect monster did not have any facial expression, and Leona did not know what the queen ant was thinking.
But, she was able to feel something.
Leona felt bits of emotions here and there. The monster was relaying emotions, and Leona was decoding the emotions in her mind.
I want to live.
My babies
My colony is destroyed.
It hurts.
O great one.
I don't want to die.
Save me.
O great one.
Leona felt waves of emotions flow into her mind just by watching the queen ant. Leona felt the sadness of the monster fill up her heart.
"What, what… shut up. Stop talking to me…"
As Leona had a strange feeling when the emotion was relayed to her, Leona felt sorry for the queen ant. She felt compassion for the queen, and sorry for the pain.
A skilled witch was able to empathize with the monster completely. A witch would become the ruler of the colony of the monsters and control them. It was the same as the monsters becoming part of her.
As Leona who did not know how to fully control the monsters, she felt helpless at the fact that she was forced to empathize with the queen ant.
O great one.
Save me.
Did they have to die? Did they do anything wrong? Monster is just a monster. Should the whole colony be eradicated to earn couple of chips? Why…"
As Leona was thinking about the reasons behind the whole series of events, she shouted out to snap out of it.
"SHUT UP! It's annoying!"
—Clack. —
With her eyes swelled up, she loaded the shotgun and aimed it at the queen ant. Leona yelled like a mad person and pulled the trigger.
"I! am! Not! A monster!"
—Bang! —
—Boom! —
A shot was fired off the shotgun, and the queen ant's abdomen got a hole blasted into it.
"Ack!"
Leona was stunned as the gun recoiled, but she held her position and continued to pull the trigger. The automatic shotgun continued to fire one shot at a time.
—Bang! —
—Bang! —
—Bang! —
As the shotgun blazed with gunshots, body parts of the ant splattered and the abdomen busted open.
Leona fired the last shot at the head of the queen that was struggling in pain, and blasted it into pieces.
"Don't you ever get into my head."
Leona swung the shotgun and smacked the smashed head of queen off the body. The queen ant was dead.
Leona walked up to the queen, and stuck the chip extractor into the body of the queen. Leona breathed hard as she gazed at the chips getting extracted from the queen.
She was not going to empathize with the monster. She thought that a monster should die to have its chips extracted.
Leona looked at the dead queen ant, and spoke as if she was declaring something. "I decide what I want to be."
She kept on looking at the pile of chips that were getting extracted.
As if she was brainwashing herself, she added one more sentence.
Similarly to how Zin struggled with dealing with Leona, Leona struggled and promised to herself as she watched the monster, "I am a human."
There was no reason for Leona to remain as a human.
Leona did not care about it much before.
But she was different now. She needed to be a human so that she wouldn't be alone.
Although, Leona was a small kid, she acted like a hunter as she extracted chips from the corpse of the queen ant.
And even her serious facial expression resembled that of Zin.