“Give me one good reason why I should believe and follow you, especially when you snuck up behind me?” Fallen Witch Elvira replied with distrust.
She could vaguely confirm that Claudette De Vile was a Fallen Witch, but that didn’t mean everything she said was true.
Furthermore, just because they were both Fallen Witches, it didn’t automatically make them friends either.
[0)ᴠʟ Fallen Witch Claudette slightly smiled before she coolly replied, “You don’t have a choice.”
“Are you threatening me?” Elvira narrowed her eyes dangerously.
However, Claudette shook her head with a smile and said, “Not at all. I am speaking with your best interest in mind. If you don’t follow me back quickly, you will start feeling ‘good’ in a bit.”
“What the hell are you talking about—Arghhh!”
When the magic airship flew out of a large group of clouds, exposing her to the setting sun’s light, Elvira suddenly felt like her entire body was lit on fire.
The burning sensation reached her soul directly, causing her immeasurable pain. It was as if her soul itself was being burned.
“Ah… It seems like it has already started,” Claudette nonchalantly uttered as she watched Elvira writhe in agony..
“Arghhh—! What the hell did you do to me!?” Elvira painfully cried as she glared at Claudette with hostilities.
However, Claudette remained indifferent to her threatening look.
“I didn’t do anything,” Claudette shrugged.
“What you are experiencing is something every Fallen Witch also has to deal with; Soul Burn. To be rejected by this world is the price of our inversion. Seeing how you don’t know anything, it must be your first time being outside for a while.”
“Swallow this directly. It will help you negate the world’s rejection for some time,” Claudette offered a red stone to Elvira.
“This is… a pure mana stone from Gehenna?” Elvira determined with some doubt.
Pure mana stones from Gehenna are red.
However, it shouldn’t be possible for red mana stones to stay red outside of Gehenna; they should have turned blue.
Without specific manipulations, nothing from the Gehenna Realm could thrive in the human world. That said, the red mana stone didn’t seem to be enchanted for it to stay red either.
Perhaps it had something to do with her being a Fallen Witch.
Nevertheless, Elvira swallowed the red mana stone as instructed before the mana supplemented her body and weakened the world’s rejection power on her.
“What did you mean by inversion?” Elvira asked, becoming more approachable after she determined Claudette meant her well.
“You don’t know about inversion despite being a Fallen Witch?” Claudette glanced at Elvira for a moment before she recalled, “Oh right. It’s called soul corruption over here, wasn’t it? Yeah, well, we call it an Inversion in our Black Witch Society.”
“Look here; I’m sure you have a lot of questions to ask. However, I didn’t come here to answer your questions. Someone else will do that when I bring you over. I am just the guide.”
“Are you willing to follow me to our Black Witch Society now?” Claudette asked.
“Just one more question,” Elvira insisted before she asked, “Where is your Black Witch Society located?”
“Inside of a pocket realm hidden in the Principality of Dainsleif that is a part of the Freedom Federation. My spatial portal will take us there directly,” Claudette casually answered.
“Freedom Federation…”
Elvira muttered with furrowed brows before her eyes widened with astonishment and shock at Claudette.
The Freedom Federation was located further south of the Holy Knight Empire that neighboured the Black Rose Kingdom.
A normal carriage trip straight through the Holy Knight Empire would take at least a month—or so she had heard.
‘To think this Fallen Witch has the power to cross such a large distance…’ Elvira thought as she glanced at Claudette.
The young lady had the appearance of a sixteen-year-old girl but most likely hadn’t even lived half a century. It was unbelievable that such a young witch was already so capable.
Elvira suspected Claudette was at least a Late-stage High Witch.
‘I don’t have anywhere else to go, and this Black Witch Society seems to have all the knowledge and answers I am looking for,’ Elvira considered before nodding. “Alright, I’ll go.”
“Great. Step inside, and we’ll be on our way,” Claudette instructed.
Shortly after, the two Fallen Witches entered the spatial portal and disappeared, leaving behind the unmanned magic airship to continue on its flight path until it ran out of power.
…
Within mere moments, Elvira and Claudette reached their destination on the other side of the spatial portal.
The familiar purple glow of glowworms, purple moss, and other Gehenna plants entered Elvira’s vision, almost making her mistake it for the same pocket realm as hers.
However, her pocket realm was already gone; she destroyed it herself.
On the other hand, the pocket realm in front of her had countless structures, big and small, high and low, and mostly just black witch towers.
Hundreds of witches roamed about, tending to Gehenna plants in their gardens, consulting each other on magic theories and research, or entering rift portals leading to…
“Are those…?”
“Portals leading to the Gehenna Realm? Why yes, it is. As Fallen Witches with inverted souls, we are no longer considered denizens of the Human Realm. We mainly draw our powers from Gehenna and thrive off its products. So, it’s natural for us to have some means to access the Gehenna Realm.”
Claudette informed after tracing the trajectory of Elvira’s gaze to the red spatial cracks in the distance.
“Incredible… If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed there were so many other Fallen Witches like me,” Elvira commented.
“The seven witch kingdoms are holy lands for witches, thanks to the seven Transcendent Witches. As for outside of it? It’s hell. We get several new members every week,” Claudette replied.
At the same time, her eyes glinted with coldness as she recalled some unpleasant memories.
Nevertheless, she quickly shoved her thoughts aside.
“Come with me. I will take you to see our Queen, the one who created this haven from nothing and opened the rifts to Gehenna for us Fallen Witches.”
“F-from nothing…?”
Elvira’s heart shook with shock.
‘Just how powerful was their Queen?’ she wondered.