Witch Hunt returns!
Since I was asked, yes, I might release a Spanish version. Someone actually is/was translating it into Spanish but 1) I don't know where is it being posted, 2)I rather don't promote other translator's work without knowing for certain if they know what they're doing.
In any case, the rest of chapter 5. This is a loooong one, in comparison to previous instalments. Rather climactic one, as well.
(Part 6)
Even though from the outside the church seemed to be a three-story building, its interior gave me an impression of a vastness that exceeded my expectations. I became utterly convinced of this by the time I had to climb five flights of pursuit of the faerie, only to descend eight more afterwards.
Space is twisted inside this building. Can a normal person really be capable of such a feat? This seemed just like… What in the world are the witch hunters and the Society Against Witches?
Perhaps us witches were far too ignorant about the nature of our enemies. Besides, late in the day as it may be, there were supposed to be nuns inside the church, and the fact that I hadn’t run into any of them nor guards made me understandably uncomfortable. Considering they had a witch under arrest, their defenses were overly weak.
Still distrusting the eerie space, I reached a stairway that reeked of old books and dust, and then finally made it to a floor so deep inside the structure that not even moonlight touched it. The darkness there was so profound that if you weren’t a witch with magical night vision or a human with a torch, you’d soon be bumping against the walls in front of your eyes.
I realized that at some point I had lost track of the sylph, but since their bodies gave off a faint shine, it wasn’t cause for concern since it would undoubtedly stand out in the dark. Besides, the magical essence in that spot was very faint. There was no doubt in my mind that Meyrin’s holding cell was just right ahead. My instincts were saying so. I advanced through the only path cautiously and soon reached an unobstructed space.
Contrary to the passage I had just traversed, it was bathed in pale light. That place, similar in atmosphere to a chapel, was a room completely spherical in shape; there was a skylight in the middle of the ceiling. Looking up to it from below, I could see beyond the glass a starlit sky that seemed to have nothing to do with a subterranean room. From it, a mysterious light spread across the room.
When I looked around, I noticed several iron-barred prison cells along the walls. My eyes and head moved without pause as I examined every cell. Most of them were empty, but there were traces of blood in the shackles and walls. Obviously, the cells didn’t have furnishings like beds or carpeting; it would’ve been an unconvincing flattery to say that they were comfortable at all…
While I was thinking that, I got the sense that something was squirming at the edge of my vision.
“W-who’s there?!”
Beyond the bars, a figure was moving in the depths beyond the reach of the light. I turned and focused my attention towards it and approached the cell slowly. I tried my hardest to walk quieting the sounds of my footsteps, but the sound echoed cavernously with each step, making me sweat. Even the sound when I swallowed my saliva felt too loud.
From inside the cell came the faint sound of chains moving. When I peeked inside its ominous interior to make sure it was-
“Meyrin!”
It was my friend. Her arms were bound in chains connected to the walls. Her pose was not unlike the one of someone being crucified. Her body was covered in wounds and her hair was in disarray. The torn rags that used to be her fashionable outfit were covered in blood and dirt.
“Meyrin! Can you hear me!? I’ve come to rescue you!” I called out to her in as soft a whisper as I could, quelling down my exhilaration with all my power.
I waited for Meyrin’s response amid a stillness so complete that even air vibrations would’ve been noticeable. The bars I unconsciously grasped with both hands were cold as ice, as if they had forgotten that the current season was spring.
“Lu…cca?” Her voice sounded awful, as if her throat had been afflicted with a cold for the last thousand years. However, it was without question the voice of my friend Meyrin. She made an attempt to face me, but even that seemed to be beyond her remaining strength, so she kept staring at the ground.
“Lucca, run away… Th-this place…” She seemed to be desperately trying to tell me something, but due to the disjointedness of her speech it was difficult for me to grasp her thoughts.
However, at that moment the pressing issue for me was to escape the headquarters of the witch hunters. After all, I didn’t know when and from what direction the guards could come. “Meyrin, wait. I’ll open this right away…” Just when I was about to use magic to open the cell I realized that something was odd. Meyrin was such a powerful witch that even if she was in a pitiful condition, she should’ve been able to effortlessly deal with any shackles or locks using her magic. Wasn’t that the case?
With a start, I examined the bars I was grasping and saw tiny letters engraved in them. When I released them in surprise, I was struck by a sensation of depowering, as if the magic inside my body had been sucked out by them. They were unmistakably occult symbols, of the type used to combat magic, and powerful to boot. As I feared, there was something odd about the church. If they were capable of such a feat…
“It would be a problem for us if you opened that cell,” a voice spoke.
Before I could determine who was the owner of the voice, my body reflexively moved.
“Michelle…” When I turned around, my other precious friend stood in the middle of the room. She pulled down the hood of the white robes shrouding her figure and stared at me.
This doesn’t make sense.
I hadn’t been able to detect her presence, even though she had reached a spot so close to me. That subterranean room was so tranquil and silent that I should’ve noticed if anyone came near, but Michelle had appeared there without the sound of even one single footstep.
She had nothing in her hands. It struck me as strange, and I wondered how someone that wasn’t carrying a light and didn’t have night vision reached that place through the pitch-black darkness.
“Lucca, I was expecting you. However, it would’ve been preferable if you didn’t come.” I couldn’t decipher her emotions in her voice at all. She spun her words as if she was reading them from a script, indifferently.
“Michelle, is it true that you’re a witch hunter?” Given how late it was, it was probably the day after that discovery. Indeed, the previous afternoon I had discovered my friend’s true self. Faced with such an abrupt, shocking scene, I still had trouble accepting it was true. If possible, I wanted confirmation from her own mouth of the reality of the Michelle hidden from me for half a year.
“Yes, it’s true… I’m sorry I hid the truth from you until now.” She casted her eyes downwards, as if unwilling to meet my eyes.
“I see…”
I didn’t feel anything regarding the fact that Michelle had kept quiet about being a witch hunter, not anymore. At that moment, more than thinking about the past, I had another matter to consider: the future.
“Michelle, please save Meyrin. She’s such a precious friend to me.”
“Friend? Friend, you say?” Michelle’s eyes seemed to pass right through me and she examined Meyrin in the cell. She directed her icy gaze towards my old friend, looking as if she was staring at something disgusting.
“Lucca, that woman is a witch.”
“I know that.”
“You know it and still want to rescue her. That cold-hearted witch, enemy to us humans…”
Michelle approached me slowly. The faint sound of her footsteps echoed inside the chamber, disrupting the stillness. I noticed then that Meyrin was whispering behind me, telling me to escape, but I no longer had a place to run.
“I’m sorry, Lucca. I have no choice but to do this now.” Suddenly, I felt an intense pain travel down my left arm. When I looked down, I saw that Michelle’s chain was snaked around it before continuing towards her arm.
“Michelle, please stop this!”
“A person that tries to rescue a witch is no better than a witch herself. You must be judged like one of them.” Her voice was shaking. No, it wasn’t merely her voice. Through the chain, I noticed how her entire body was shaking. “Besides, I have to do this for him…”
It didn’t seem likely that Michelle would listen to my pleas. My only option was the use of magic to release Meyrin and escape this situation. But Michelle the witch hunter still thought I was human. If I used magic in front of them, we wouldn’t be able to go back to being friends. And without doubt, I wouldn’t be able to live in the city any longer.
I thought back to the day I met Michelle, and the good times we had alongside Cougar, chatting without a care in the world. Those dazzling days weren’t going to come back. But I had no other choice at that point…
“Lucca, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” Michelle was crying copiously. In contrast to the stoic face from before, the girl before had a swollen face with trembling lips and she was sniffling.
That’s right, this is as painful to her as it is to me.
It was hardly the time for it, but when I saw her crying face a feeling began to rise inside of me. I was so glad I could become friends with her.
Without wiping her tears, Michelle pulled out a silver rod-like object from the folds of her clothing. I had no doubt that it was a tool to restrain or injure me. I didn’t put up any opposition and just watched her. Now that I had seen her tears, I had no desire to use magic to attack her. All that remained concealed in a corner of my heart was the feeling I had at least Meyrin should go free, even if the price was my own life. However, there was little I could do with my left arm sealed.
If Meyrin was to escape, the skylight was likely the way out. As I looked up to that strange glass window thinking it was the only way to see the view outside, I noticed there was a dark shadow moving up there. At that moment-
*Crash!*
-there was a loud sound like thunder, and suddenly the skylight broke.
“What the…?!” Michelle let out something close to a scream.
The sound of an explosion abruptly came from somewhere up high. Perhaps because the jolt was greater for Michelle than it was for me, the chain binding my arm loosened. At the same time, the glass shards rained down like a star shower, reflecting the moonlight.
At once, Michelle shielded herself using her robes; fortunately, she wasn’t right under the skylight, so she seemed to escape the direct impact of the shards. After I made sure she was unharmed, something else caught my attention: there was a conspicuously big star mixed in with the many others that fell from the skies and were decorating the floor.
“Lucca, Michelle, I was looking for you.”
A slender and tall frame. Deep purple hair that tumbled down his broad shoulders and shone like an amethyst when touched by the light of the night sky. He gazed at me, looking like an angel arrived from the heavens to take me away with him.
“Cougar? Why are you here?!” The first one to speak was Michelle. Every word reflected my feelings, so I was left without any words to say to him.
“The only way for a hero to appear is from the skies, right?”
“That’s not what I was asking! And we aren’t children anymore!”
“…I was sure Lucca would to come here to rescue her friend. I was worried, so I came.”
“But why go as far as to break the window?! I can’t believe this!”
“I saw you doing something horrible to Lucca. This building is huge, I couldn’t think of a better way to rush in right away!”
Startled by Cougar’s words, Michelle turned to me. I had slip out of the chains, perhaps she meant to check the state of my arm. After that, she quickly hid her hands inside her robes.
“Stop it, Michelle!” While I readied myself for her attack, Cougar’s voice completely stopped her movements. “Lucca is no witch! You two are friends, why do you need to fight her?!”
“Th-that’s…” Michelle’s hands were fidgeting inside her robes. I thought at first that she was deliberating whether to release her chains again, but I was proven wrong when she took out a worn-down piece of paper from her pocket and showed it to Cougar. “Lucca might be a minion of that witch! It says so in this wanted poster!”
“That’s…That’s ridiculous!” For a moment, Cougar hesitated, then he swiftly snatched the wanted poster out of Michelle’s hands and tore it to pieces.
“What are you doing?!”
“Hahaha, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But it doesn’t make any sense…” Cougar nonchalantly threw the torn scraps away.
When Michelle saw the swirling rain of confetti, she grew indignant.
At the same time, I felt something land on my head. It was a couple of keys dangling from an iron ring. I gasped and turned to look at Cougar. He winked at me.
“There’s no way our Lucca is in league with a witch. Don’t you know that? Lucca is a kind girl, that’s all.”
“I know! But I’m doing this for you…”
The keys Cougar had given me without Michelle noticing anything were probably the ones I needed to unlock Meyrin’s prison and the chains binding her. So, the prince had managed somehow to predict this whole situation when he snuck into the church and managed to nab them for me. I couldn’t have felt more thankful. I decided I had to thank him properly if we managed to get out of there safely. This was a golden opportunity to accomplish my goals.
Michelle tried her hardest when it came to Cougar. Since I didn’t have any childhood friends, I couldn’t even begin to picture how that felt, but I was certain the prince was very dear to her. I had to take the opportunity to silently release Meyrin while Michelle facing him. I had no idea how to escape that place afterwards, but I didn’t see any other course of action at that moment.
“I’m doing this because you said you’ll marry Lucca!”
“I’m happy you worry about me. But even I should have the right to choose my future!”
“Although that may end up making everyone unhappy?!”
Slowly, oh so slowly, I entered the big key into the keyhole and turned it. It made a noticeable sound, but Michelle’s angry voice disguised it, and the jail door opened without problem. I crept inside and examined the chains restraining Meyrin.
Just like with the bars of the cell, there were magical inscriptions carved into the restraints. it was an anti-magic arrangement like the one I had seen minutes before. I wouldn’t be able to unlock those restraints with my powers, and if I touched them my magic would be stolen. Therefore, that method of rescue was out.
Since I used one of the keys to open the door, presumably the smaller one would allow me to free Meyrin from her chains. I silently inserted a key into the lock of one of the chains coiled around Meyrin’s arms-
It wouldn’t turn.
The key wouldn’t unlock it. When I examined the key more closely, I realized it was far too small for the lock.
I can’t free Meyrin with this!
“What are you doing? Even if it’s just you… Run away quickly…,” she whispered. My anxiety had likely made everything clear to Meyrin.
No, there’s no way I can do that! Not after I came all the way here, not when I’m so close!
Cougar and Michelle were still arguing, but I didn’t know how long it would last. Michelle was bound to look in our direction at any moment and her chains would fly once more. But the keys were useless, and I couldn’t use magic either. It was a complete stalemate.
“I’m so sorry, Meyrin. I really can’t do anything on my own, can I?” I whispered an apology into her ear between sobs.
Meyrin laughed weakly at my sorrowful state. “Ha ha! You’re not on your own. That prince, he’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?” She said while looking in his direction.
She’s right. I’m not on my own.
That fine prince wasn’t truly my boyfriend, and yet he had snuck into the church in the dead of night for my sake. And surely Cougar had gone through great trouble to obtain those keys for me. So, I definitely wasn’t on my own. The lonely girl I was before meeting Michelle, Meyrin and the other people in my life was no more.
I want to be together with him, from now on and forevermore.
“I wonder…” My hand moved almost on its own. Maybe the trifling amount of witch’s blood coursing through my veins, my very instinct, was guiding it. I jammed both keys, big and small, at the same time into the lock. The shackle on Meyrin’s wrist came off with a click.
I did it!
I carefully laid the chain against the ground and wall of the cell to keep it from making a huge racket. Then, the other lock opened as well!
“Can you stand?”
“That might be a bit… difficult.”
“Got it. Hold on tight.”
With that, Meyrin became a free woman. Now, it wouldn’t matter if I pushed myself a bit too far. If we wanted to escape, the only way was through the skylight destroyed by Cougar.
“Pactum et ritus (Covenant and Ritual)!”
Using the blood coursing through Meyrin body as an intermediary, I reduced both our weight.
“Oh, no!” When Michelle sensed the surge of magic, she turned around and released her holy weapons. At the same time, we jumped forward intending to go past Michelle.
“Damned witches!” I heard her shout angrily from behind. Right then, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and the ground exploded a few paces ahead of me. A cylindrical object emanating silver light was lodged there in the middle of the savagely destroyed floor, but I leapt resolutely into the skies since I had no time to figure out what it was.
The stars above me shone without any consideration for our plight. My lungs joyfully felt the fresh air outside reaching down to me. Somehow, the destruction of the skylight had disrupted the warped space inside the church, so it was possible to truly go outside of the hideout and not towards another fabricated chamber.
My desire to leave quickly meant that my impatience was going into overdrive, but as we rose, time seemed to slow down all around me. Slowly, very slowly, we gained altitude. How many seconds had passed since I took that big leap while carrying Meyrin?
Precisely when my head reached the ceiling of the basement, I felt an intense sensation of discomfort in my right foot. “Ugh!” Something was wrapped around my foot, and it pulled me back towards the basement.
If this continues, we are both going to end back into that cell.
Meyrin had entrusted her weight on me so I could carry her on my back; I swiftly pushed her off me and used the impulse to launch her towards the surface. At least she’d be able to escape.
In contrast to my falling form, Meyrin flew away towards the heavens.
“Idiot,” I thought I heard her say as I slammed against the floor of the basement; given the circumstances, I had no room to argue.
“Lucca!” I noticed Cougar’s voice gradually coming closer. Even though I experienced the warmth of his arms around me the day before, at that moment I felt a strange longing for it. Every time I moved my hands or feet there a jingling sound likely due to the pieces of the broken skylight that were strewn about. My body tingled all over. Since I couldn’t focus my gaze, it meant I couldn’t check directly, but maybe I was bleeding copiously.
“Michelle, your target is that witch, right? Why are you also attacking Lucca?”
“It’s because…I was desperate…the witch can still use magic...”
My consciousness wavered. Their voices bounced inside my head, reverberating. Had Meyrin managed to go outside safely? She’d be able to make her escape if she wasn’t discovered by the other witch hunters.
“Lucca, are you alright? Let’s go to the castle’s infirmary right now.”
“No! Lucca is guilty of aiding a witch!”
“What are you saying? She’s your friend?”
“Lucca can’t be yours! She’ll bring you misfortune one day!”
“Cut the nonsense!”
I can still hear her voice so tinged with despair that she seemed about to crumble; it all became simple to understand, even for an obtuse girl like me.
I see, that’s what it was. Please Cougar, stop. Poor Michelle, she’s in love with you.
“Don’t look at me like that…,” Michelle begged.
“Stay away from Lucca!” Out of the corner of my fuzzy vision, I saw Michelle trying to approach me, but she stopped, startled by Cougar’s furious voice. Because of Cougar’s rejection, Michelle at first stood frozen, but gradually her face turned sallow.
“…Everything is the witch’s fault.” I heard her softly muttering to herself. Even my heart seemed to freeze in response to her sorrowful tone.
Cougar, it’s fine. Please forgive her.
“Everything, everything is the witch’s fault! If that witch didn’t exist…!”
“Michelle, that’s enough!”
“NO!!” Michelle let a long, half-crazed scream as she hid her hands inside her robes. “The witch will bring you misfortune! If only she didn’t exist…!!”
A dreadful crashing sound assaulted my ears. I felt huge pressure as wind hit my body alongside a silver afterglow. Everything before me turned black. A lukewarm liquid splashed on my face. I couldn’t see anything, it was all so dark. My limbs trembled. I couldn’t make heads or tails of what had just happened. Then, the big shape shielding me dropped down from view, and light returned to the world.
“Ah…Ah…”
Michelle was standing in front of me, staring down at something crumpled on the floor. Her anguished face was white. I followed the direction of her gaze to understand what was happening.
“Cougar…?”
The prince of this land was laying there, a silver arrow deeply embedded in his chest.
(End Chapter 5)