Chapter 61: Chapter 58: A New Way Out
"So," I started after entering the spiritual realm once more, "could you please tell me why I'm here?"
I wasn't in the mood to play any more games, so I really wanted that major pain in the as—um, I mean, the first saint—to tell me what she wanted. There was no way she'd called me here just to tell me about her mom...was there? I wouldn't have expected that from anyone else, but I couldn't rule it out when it came to this girl—she was a true idiot. If that was all, I'd leave for real this time.
"Well... There are two reasons actually," she said. "The first is that I wanted to warn you not to turn into the next witch. You're so powerful that the world would be doomed. Though I suppose there's no point worrying about that now..."
Same as Dias, huh?
I still couldn't believe the first saint, of all people, hadn't noticed I was a fake, but if I ignored that part, her fears were perfectly legitimate. As she'd just said, though, it wasn't an actual issue—I wasn't the saint, so I couldn't turn into the witch, period. If anything, letting me—an outsider—kill the witch was for the best.
"The second thing I needed to share with you...is the way to end the cycle that started with my mother."
"The way to end the cycle?" I repeated.
Only the saint could defeat the witch. If she did, though, she'd become the next witch. That cycle had repeated itself over and over again over the past thousand years. The only way to end it—as far as I knew about, at least—was to have someone else besides the saint kill the witch. Well, that's what I'd believed until I saw Alfrea. I was finally noticing I'd overlooked something huge.
The first witch had locked up Alfrea while she was in a state of suspended animation, which had prompted the world to create another saint. We could simply do the same.
I'm so stupid. How did I not think of that?! It has to be the most overused cliché in the history of manga!
"I see... We could very well seal her. If we do that instead of killing her, her grudge won't pass to the saint... It was always so simple..."
"Wait! Why are you beating me to the punch again?!"
Tears had welled up in Alfrea's eyes—again—but I couldn't be bothered with that. I was currently incredibly pissed off at myself for failing to figure out such an obvious solution.
That's right... I just need to seal her. The hell with the cycle! If killing her transfers the grudge, there's no reason to kill her! Damn, it was all so simple! What do you do when you shouldn't do something? Any kid could answer that question: you don't!
I could see why no one had thought of it before, though. First of all, I didn't think anyone knew how to seal someone. Even if they did, magic didn't work on the witch, so they wouldn't think of trying it.
Only a saint had a shot, but they wouldn't have tried it either. Why? Because they were usually kept in the dark to prevent them from running away from their duties. Lilia was the only exception I was aware of, and look where that had gotten her. Not exactly enviable.
A saint who learned the truth was more likely to surrender to despair rather than think of sealing the witch, so no one told them anything. And since no one told them anything, they couldn't figure it out. It was a vicious cycle.
Everything was different in my case. I'd simply been dumb enough to switch my brain off after I'd realized that I could break the cycle by killing the witch.
"Whatever! I don't care anymore!" Alfrea exclaimed. "You're right! Sealing the witch, just like my mother did to me, should do the trick. I called you here to teach you the skill."
She was looking at me like I'd just cheated on her...or worse. What a stroke of luck, though! It'd help a lot if she could teach me the spell that had trapped her. She'd been in that crystal for over a thousand years, so its effectiveness was guaranteed.
I wasn't sure whether I'd use it or not, but there was no harm in learning it. After all, sealing the witch meant leaving a potential calamity to future generations. In that regard, ending everything myself as I'd planned was probably for the best. On the other hand, there was no way to be sure another witch wouldn't appear eventually. The world might decide to birth another proxy, and there was no guarantee she wouldn't go crazy like the first witch. If that happened, everything I'd done would've been for naught.
Regardless of the path I chose, the spell ought to be preserved. If I passed along the sealing spell, the future saints would most likely manage. Even if it took a couple of saints to get it right, it surely wouldn't take a thousand years of pointless fighting.
I had to be careful, though—I was pretty sure some people would jump at the chance to use it for evil, so I needed to think of a way to pass it down as safely as possible.
That left me with one remaining doubt. Alfrea had never used the sealing spell—her mother, the first witch, had. Had this idiot really mastered it?
"Hey! What's with that face?! You don't think I can really cast that spell, do you?"
"I'm skeptical..."
"There's no point denying it! It's literally written on your face and— HUH?!"
"As I was saying, I have my doubts," I repeated.
Alfrea started shivering, and tears gathered in her eyes. The dam was just waiting to break.
She's gonna start bawling her eyes out again. I just know it. Yeah, here it comes. Three, two, one...
"WAAAAAAH!"
...aaand there she goes. Sure enough. There's no way she's any good at magic, is there?
Whatever. It was fine. I'd keep that sealing spell idea in the back of my head and figure out a way to cast it when I went home.
Using ice magic as a base sounds doable... I'll just need to think of a way to keep it from melting.
A normal person would quite literally freeze to death in a heartbeat if you trapped them inside a block of ice, but the witch wouldn't die so easily. If I did go through with that, though, Alexia would be encased in a frigid hellscape without even being able to die for eternity.
That's too mean, isn't it? I'm starting to feel bad for her.
"What's your problem, huh?! I can do it! I can totally do it!" Alfrea cried.
Our glorious first saint was still crying, so I patted her hair to get her to calm down. Doing that to an adult was kind of rude, but Alfrea's mental age being what it was, it seemed appropriate. Alfrea smiled and pressed her head into my hand as if to encourage me to pet her some more.
Are you a puppy or what?
"Lady Alfrea," I said. "Your mother was the one who used the sealing spell, right? How did you learn to use it?"
"My mother explained it all right before she sealed me," she answered.
Seriously?
I'd been racking my brain for an answer to that question, but it turned out the witch had literally told her. I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry.
Had the first witch been the kind of villain who loved to spout off monologues before dealing the finishing blow, or had she told her daughter on purpose to help future generations?
"It's fine if you don't believe me. I'll teach you right now so you can see for yourself that everything I said was true!" Alfrea said before she suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
The method to cast the sealing spell seemed to pass through her hand and flow into me. I assumed this was because we were in a spiritual realm. There was no need for words—Alfrea was teaching my body directly. I felt like I could cast that spell perfectly at any time now. I also learned a few other things, such as the fact that the pile of junk guarding Alfrea's grave was, in fact, a stalker. I hadn't particularly wanted to know that tidbit of info, but here I was.
"So? You'd better be grateful. This is an amazing spell that's kept me trapped here for over a millennium!"
"I get it now... This is quite something, indeed."
It was hard to explain, but the spell Alfrea had taught me was incredibly complex. It felt like some sort of surgical procedure. It essentially stopped the flow of time inside a limited area by using dark magic to entrap that space itself.
Darkness was, by nature, a space that light could not reach. In other words, controlling darkness meant being able to create spaces that not even light could enter. It was all about creating spaces from nothingness. If you created a space that was, in its essence, perfectly still, you could pretty much stop the flow of time itself inside of it. That was what the first witch had done.
I'd finally understood why the saints and witches were invincible. They unconsciously created spaces around themselves that wouldn't let attacks through. Everything made sense now: only someone capable of doing the same could break through their defenses.
There was one issue though—although I'd understood everything to a T, I couldn't use this spell...because I wasn't a saint! I could barely cast any dark magic at all!
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid I can't use this spell," I told Alfrea.
"Huh?"
What do you mean "huh"?! I already told you I wasn't the saint, so it shouldn't even come as a surprise! It'd be a waste to give up on this spell altogether though... Isn't there a way I could use it against the witch?
Teaching Eterna was an option, but the mana cost was pretty damn steep—a whopping two thousand MP, I estimated. Eterna had only just awakened, so I worried this spell would be too much for her to handle.
I, on the other hand, had more than enough MP to cast it. What I didn't have was an affinity with dark magic. Alfrea could've probably pulled it off, but she was out of commission.
Wait a minute... This is a no-brainer! I just need to get Alfrea out of her crystal!
As with most things, destroying something was much easier than creating it. I couldn't seal anyone—the dark powers I'd borrowed from Verner weren't enough—but I was pretty sure I could break through a seal if I put my mind to it.
I'll just bulldoze my way through obstacles, as always!
"Lady Alfrea, you do wish to regain your freedom, do you not?" I asked.
"Hang on! You could free me?! Of course I wanna be free! I've been cooped up alone here for soooooo long! I'm so, so, so bored! If you can free me, do it! Go on! Right this instant!"
I wanted to test the waters, but Alfrea was so desperate that it was almost off-putting. I kinda got it, though—she'd been trapped here for ages with nothing but a set of stalker armor for company. Besides, she was buck naked all day long. Honestly, I was suspecting the armor dude of clinging to life just so that he could get his fill.
Regardless, Alfrea had just given me her consent. There was no need to hesitate anymore. I'd just smash the seal along with the damn crystal.
I left the spiritual realm and stepped away from the crystal. I raised both of my hands and gathered my mana above my head, continuously increasing its output while making sure it was concentrated enough to keep the impact area small. I added my dark power on top of it all so that it could bypass the space's defenses, then aimed for the crystal.
I felt like the crystal was shaking, but that might've been my imagination. Also, Alfrea was screaming right into my brain, but, nah—definitely my imagination.
<NO! WAIT! WAIT!> she most definitely didn't yell. <If you blast that thing at me, I'm gonna die! Hang on... Let me prepare myse—>
Fire!
My light beam went right through the crystal—albeit without piercing a hole in it—and destroyed the large boulder behind it. The recoil forced me to take a few steps back as well. If I hadn't braced myself for the impact, I surely would've been sent flying.
My attack had been effective, though—a crack appeared on the crystal, soon followed by a couple more.
Guess I gotta crank the power up.
I fired a second beam twice as thick as the previous one. The crystal couldn't take any more damage; it finally started crumbling down in earnest.
I canceled my spell on the spot, dispersing the remaining light. I'd been a bit rough, but the seal was officially broken. All that was left in front of me was a naked beauty. Alfrea was on her butt, in a daze. There wasn't a scratch on her body, but she started bawling her eyes out nonetheless. The experience had been a little too intense for her, and she couldn't stand up.
I couldn't drag the poor girl out like this, now, could I? I needed to do something about her state of undress first.
The only issue is...I don't know any spells to create clothes...
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