CA – Chapter 33
Chapter 33
While Tang Qiu was luring the white-robed witch into revealing herself, Erin seized the opportunity to put some distance between them. After dealing with the demonic beasts harassing her, she followed a small summoned mouse that led her out of the dense fog in no time.
As a witch herself, she was very familiar with a witch’s Dark Domain. She made a rough guess as to the white-robed witch’s location, gave it a wide berth, and headed straight for the dark formation Laurel had left behind.
After bypassing the white-robed witch’s Dark Domain, she encountered Laurel’s. The sound of Laurel’s furious voice mingled with the shrieks of demonic beasts, making Erin shake her head. She was clearly more familiar with Laurel’s Dark Domain; she barely needed the little mouse to guide her as she avoided the area where Lucille was fighting the demonic beasts. Without alerting Laurel, she passed straight through the Dark Domain and arrived at the high platform behind it.
On the far right of the platform, Laurel was waving her staff, summoning demonic beasts to deal with Lucille inside the Dark Domain. A shadow flickered in her peripheral vision, and she turned her head alertly, but saw nothing.
Lucille’s combat prowess was clearly much greater than it had been back in Edry. Laurel was shocked and a little panicked. Coupled with the fact that none of the witches she had sent out had returned, a terrible premonition began to rise in her heart.
Because she had to direct the demonic beasts against Lucille, Laurel couldn’t spare the attention to check if anyone was nearby.
Erin leaped nimbly from the platform, staring blankly at the dark formation before her, her expression a complex mix of emotions. She knelt and gently traced the lines carved for the formation, her fingertips becoming stained with faint traces of blood.
The little mouse came to Erin’s side, flicked its short, thin tailbone, and stepped into the formation. A red light flashed, and the palm-sized mouse suddenly began to expand. Within seconds, a skeletal mouse over two meters tall stood in its place.
Erin paused for a moment, but she wasn’t particularly surprised by this unusual event, as if she had already guessed it would happen.
The skeletal mouse ran out of the formation and stood guard behind Erin.
The commotion caught Laurel’s attention. She glanced over, and the now-ineffective illusion spell revealed Erin’s true appearance. She frowned, muttering to herself, “Erin…” Then she saw the little mouse’s transformation. After a moment of shock, a flash of ecstasy appeared in her eyes. “So the formation has this effect as well.”
Her distraction allowed Lucille to eliminate two more demonic beasts, but Laurel no longer cared. A smirk played on her lips as she raised her staff in Erin’s direction and began chanting an incantation.
A fluctuation in the dark aura around her caught Erin’s attention. Snapping out of her daze, she took out a large number of materials and tools from her space gem, intending to destroy the formation before her.
The primary purpose of the dark formation was to awaken the Dark God; its ability to amplify demonic beasts was merely a side effect. Judging by the little mouse’s successful transformation, the formation had been carved perfectly.
Laurel saw Erin’s actions and snorted coldly, calling out, “Give up, Erin. Vera already activated the formation long ago.”
Erin paused for a second but didn’t stop.
A look of contempt flashed across Laurel’s face. She was halfway through preparing a dark spell to summon demonic beasts when she raised her staff, intending to summon them into the formation. Suddenly, a chill ran down her spine. Before she could react, a cold, powerful hand clamped around her neck.
With a thud, Laurel was thrown from the high platform into the formation below, landing right in front of Erin. Lucille snapped her staff in two and threw it, the sharp end plunging into Laurel’s abdomen.
Laurel let out a piercing scream, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Her face went deathly pale from the pain, her forehead beaded with cold sweat.
Lucille jumped down and said expressionlessly, “I left her body intact for you.”
Erin coughed and said in a low voice, “Thanks.”
Clutching her wound, Laurel, who was in agony, looked at Erin in disbelief and gritted out, “You traitor…”
Now she understood why this vampire and priest knew who she was.
Erin kept her head down, focused on destroying the formation.
Lucille walked toward Laurel, looking as if she intended to finish her off personally. As she passed Erin, Erin suddenly stopped her work, looked up in a certain direction, and exclaimed, “Grace…”
Lucille’s steps halted. With the Dark Domains gone, everyone’s position was clearly visible. Though they were far apart, Lucille caught sight of the priest raising a hand to her forehead, her body swaying unsteadily.
She abandoned Laurel, and with a flash, she was by the priest’s side, catching the unconscious woman in her arms.
Seeing that Tang Qiu was fine, Erin lowered her head again and continued with her task.
Laurel stared at her with hatred, her voice low. “Traitor. I should have known you’d come to cause trouble.”
Erin didn’t look up. “This is the formation I researched. Did you ask my permission to use it?”
Laurel enunciated each word, “Vera researched it with you.”
“…Well, half of it is mine.”
Laurel coughed up a mouthful of blood. She pounded a fist on the ground and said resentfully, “Wasn’t bringing the Dark God to the continent our shared dream?”
Erin’s hands never stopped moving. “Not mine.”
Laurel spat out more blood, this time from anger. She said coldly, “You little madman from the Anderson family.”
Erin glanced up at her with a strange expression. “Clearly, I’m the most normal one in the Anderson family.”
The formation was successfully destroyed. Erin let out a small sigh of relief. Seeing that Laurel was losing consciousness from blood loss, she walked over, took out a pill, and stuffed it into her mouth, muttering, “You’d better pray that vampires don’t have a habit of tearing up corpses.”
Laurel fought to hold onto her fading consciousness, glaring at her. “What are you doing?”
Erin was pulling off her white robe.
“You have no idea how broke I’ve been lately.” Erin stripped the white robe off Laurel, took her space gem, and after a careful inspection, her expression changed slightly. “…Where’s the Dark Key?”
She glared at Laurel, grabbing her by the collar. “The formation can’t be activated without the Dark Key. Where did you hide it?”
“What do you want the Dark Key for?”
“…To take it and destroy it.”
The Dark Key was the crucial element for awakening the Dark God. Without it, the formation couldn’t be activated. Therefore, as long as the Dark Key was dealt with, no disaster would befall the continent.
Laurel was weak from blood loss, but her smile was triumphant. “I don’t have the Dark Key.”
Erin’s face darkened.
Laurel enjoyed seeing her frustrated expression and added, “Vera has it. Go ask her for it.”
“If you can reach her alive.”
Tang Qiu had lost consciousness abruptly. One moment she was disgusted by being sprayed with blood, the next her eyelids grew heavy and she passed out. Fortunately, Lucille appeared just in time to keep her from collapsing to the ground.
Lucille held Tang Qiu by the waist and lifted her hood slightly. Seeing the blonde hair that tumbled out, she knew the transformation time was over.
“…What happened?” Tang Qiu opened her eyes and looked down at her blood-soaked self, asking with relative calm.
Lucille helped Tang Qiu stand straight, then took a few steps back and said coolly, “Change your clothes first.”
The scent of the witch’s blood covering the blonde priest was very displeasing to her.
Tang Qiu remembered Lucille’s obsession with cleanliness and first cast a purification spell on herself. Although her body and clothes were clean and dry again, the memory of being covered in blood still made her uncomfortable, so she simply took out a new priest’s uniform and changed into it.
Lucille stood to the side, quietly watching the blonde priest change. As Tang Qiu bent over to fasten the buttons, Lucille caught a glimpse of a small, faint mole on the side of her elegant, pale neck.
She reached out and lightly touched it, only to see the blonde priest straighten up warily, covering her neck and frowning at her.
Lucille said in a low voice, “There’s a mole.”
Tang Qiu: “…I know.” After transmigrating, she had carefully examined this body and had, of course, noticed the mole on her neck.
It was worth mentioning, however, that her own body before transmigration had a mole in the exact same spot.
“This spot is very sensitive.” Lucille pointed to the side of her neck and said thoughtfully, “Is that why you won’t let me drink your blood from there?” Although Tang Qiu had dodged quickly, Lucille hadn’t missed the slight tremor that ran through her for an instant.
That reaction was just like the time in Fallen Crow Forest when she had almost succeeded.
Tang Qiu carefully fastened the buttons on her collar. Hearing Lucille’s words, she calmly raised an eyebrow, glanced at her, and said with a half-smile, “You guessed wrong. I simply don’t want to be so intimate with you.”
Lucille frowned, her dark red eyes turning heavy. Her tightly pressed lips betrayed her displeasure.
Tang Qiu straightened her priest’s uniform, sensing the slight drop in pressure around Lucille. She smiled sweetly. “I was joking.”
She walked over, tilted her chin up slightly, and said with a playful smirk, “If you don’t believe me, you can try.”
Lucille let out a cold snort. Although she didn’t take Tang Qiu up on her offer, her expression softened slightly.
Teasing Lucille for a bit helped Tang Qiu, who had suddenly lost a portion of her memory, to slowly calm down. She surveyed her surroundings and asked with a frown, “What all happened?”
Lucille glanced at her and briefly recounted the events that had occurred after she had transformed into a werewolf.
Tang Qiu grasped the key points, her expression grave. “You’re saying the swordsmen Erin found are two werewolves?”
“And Erin saw me transform into a werewolf?”
Tang Qiu felt a headache coming on. What kind of luck did Erin have, to randomly find two swordsmen who were both werewolves?
Seeing her press a hand to her forehead, Lucille said calmly, “I don’t think you have time to worry about that. We still don’t know where the people from the Church were teleported.”
If the Black Witches had wiped out the Church members, Tang Qiu wouldn’t just have a headache; she’d have to start planning another escape.
The blonde priest lowered her hand, her composure restored. She smiled and said, “You’re right. Let’s find Erin first. Maybe she can find where Monica is trapped.”
Lucille remained noncommittal. After staring at the blonde priest’s back for a moment, she started walking to catch up.
When Tang Qiu found Erin, the dark formation had already been destroyed, and Laurel was no longer breathing.
She walked over and checked Laurel’s body. Erin stood by quietly, saying nothing.
It seemed she was truly dead. Tang Qiu removed her hand from Laurel’s neck. She stood up and was about to ask Erin about Monica’s whereabouts when she felt a tug on the hem of her robe.
She looked down in confusion, pushing aside the fabric of her skirt. A small, gray ball of fur appeared at her feet.
It looked like a kitten, but it had a mane around its neck.
Based on Tang Qiu’s general knowledge of the continent, she had no idea what this furball was.
She looked up at the other two. One was indifferent, the other bewildered, but both their eyes conveyed the same message: they didn’t recognize it either.
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