"... I used to be like you." Pasha suddenly broke the silence. "Every time my friends went to war, I would wait at the city gate. The Union even built a high tower there for people to rest. They would know immediately if someone came back."
"Are you talking about Taquila?" Tilly asked.
"Yes, but after a few years, nobody but the garrison visited there. Do you know why?"
"..." Tilly did not reply but she already knew the possible answer.
"Because all we got was disappointment and grieve in the end." Pasha put her tentacle on Tilly's shoulder. "Witches are connected through magic power. Our bond is much stronger than blood. Once we get to know each other, everyone would become our sister, no matter if she was an ordinary combat witch or a member of the Blessed Army. However, the intimate relationship also generated negative emotions on the tower. It was frustrating to see bodies be sent back from the front on the day of return. When our outer defensive line gradually shrank and nobody needed to depart for war, the Union ordered the high tower to be torn down."
"Are you trying to say that it's unnecessary to wait for them?"
"Quite the opposite. I want to say that the fact that you're still longing for their return means that you haven't truly lost something," Pasha said in a slow and gentle tone. "I hope you'll never turn into someone like me, who views sacrifice as the new norm."
"I have lost a lot of things. I made many decisions when I left the palace for Sleeping Island. A lot of them were decisions of loss and gain, and I had to abandon some of my closest friends... As long as I choose the right path, I won't hesitate. But there's someone who is different. There's always one or two people that hold a special place in my heart, who always make me restless."Tilly held the stone ring of Lightning in her hand tighter. It was no problem for her to control the two Magic Stones alternatively, but Ashes could not even fly a straight line with the two Stones. Therefore, she had to keep the ring to herself.
Nevertheless, Tilly did not reveal her thoughts but simply nodded slightly. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll go check how the digging of defensive line at the border is going. There's a room with a bed near the entrance to the hall. You can sleep there if you want."
"Got it."
After Pasha headed back the way she had come, Tilly suddenly had a cold feeling around her palm.
She spread out her hand and found one corner of the magic stone fixed by the ring had come off. The fragment sank into her flesh and left a tiny bead of blood on her hand.
"It's been five days. Why haven't we seen the ruins yet?" Lotus grumbled. "It's so boring hiding underground all day."
"How do I know? In any case, I'll go wherever your tunnel is heading." A girl with braided hair shrugged. She threw a piece of dried meat into the air and then opened her mouth. With a flash of blue light, the dried meat disappeared and her cheeks puffed up. "Yum... So it isn't a lie. Life in Neverwinter is indeed luxurious. Even their rations are so delicious."
"T-tunnel? Do you think I'm a mole?"
"Pretty much."
"Um... you'd better go easy on the food." Iffy sighed. "I don't want to return with an empty stomach."
"I don't want to be lectured by a witch from the Bloodfang Association." The girl jerked her head away from Iffy. "I've heard that you once conspired against Princess Tilly. If I were her, I wouldn't even share wheat cakes with you, let alone dried meat."
Iffy rolled her eyes.
"Enough." Ashes cut in with a resigned look. "It wasn't their fault in joining the Bloodfang Association. If Tilly heard you say this, she would definitely give you a good lesson."
"Oh... well." Hearing Princess Tilly's name, the witch finally became quiet.
"This is another witch who is too hyper for her own good." Ashes thought to herself while breathing out a sigh. This witch, who took particular attention to her appearance, was called Orbit. Despite her flamboyant style, she played an indispensable role in this operation.
Orbit's ability was incredible. Before she had become of age, she could create an invisible passage connecting two locations. The passage could not be detected by the naked eye and it covered no distance. In other words, she could transfer herself from one place to another within a blink of an eye. If there was something like a wall or a door in-between the two places, Orbit would act as if it didn't exist. As long as she continuously applied her ability, the passage would remain open.
Nonetheless, her magic power could only affect an area within a radius of 15 meters. If she was the entrance of the passage, this number would drop to around 7.
After she had entered her adulthood, Orbit had obtained a derivative skill called "Magic Mark" that largely increased the practicality and the coverage of the passage. The passage would be visible to a person marked by Orbit, whereas one without a mark could not stop Orbit from moving around even if he knew where the passage was.
There were also certain dangers with this ability. For example, Orbit could withdraw her ability when a marked enemy was just halfway through the passage. The enemy's body would then be snapped in half and appear in two separate locations when the passageway was sealed.
Tilly thus proposed that Lotus and Orbit should work together to open a secret tunnel with an invisible exit so that the enemies could not locate the witches even if they found the hole. By the time the demons realized there were many similar tunnels, the witches would already be several miles away. Hence, the operation plan was, technically, absolutely safe.
Using the stone tower where Agatha had initially been found as their starting point, they left Misty Forest and headed to the northeast. As the forest close to Neverwinter was completely under Leaf's control, they did not need to worry about any threats from hybrid demonic beasts.
However, Ashes soon found a practical problem they had not anticipated during their maneuver and that was navigation. During the trip, they had only needed to cover a distance of a few kilometers. Yet when this number increased by dozens of times, it became very hard to determine which direction they were exactly heading to. Although they would use stars for orientation, nobody knew whether they were on the right track.
"How about checking the map Lorgar brought back?" Lotus turned to Ashes for advice. "Perhaps we can find a couple of landmarks that would help us navigate. Then we would know how far we were from the ruin."
Ashes nodded, although her hopes were not high.
On the map were some bird nests, beehives and bears' caves, which offered them few clues as to where they were. Perhaps only Lightning and Maggie could read the map and find the right direction.
"Shhh!" Iffy suddenly gestured at them to keep quiet.
The three of them instantly fell silent.
Soon, they heard patterings of heavy footsteps overhead. The shuffling sound indicated there were at least four or five people. Since hybrid demonic beasts rarely acted in groups, they were most likely the patrol team of demons.
The footsteps soon faded away. It was obvious that the enemies did not notice someone was hiding beneath the earth.
This was the second time today.
The attack of the wolf girl apparently had alarmed the demons a great deal.
After all the demons scurried off, Iffy let out a sigh of relief. "Well, at least that tells us that we're in the right direction."
"But the problem is that we can't see the ruin of the city and thus can't place the light curtain at the right spot." Lotus shook her head. "In order to use the phantom instrument as an alarming device, we have to put the light curtain five or six miles to the southwest of the ruin. This way, the Taquila witches would see Devilbeasts when they fly toward the Western Region."
After pondering for a while, Ashes made the final decision. "We'll march for another night. I'll go up and check where the Taquila ruins lay at dusk tomorrow."