Chapter 10: The Wretched Witch’s Infinite Despair

"Stronger than Nuon? No."



Good. Then she can end this promptly.




"However, we are much stronger than Nuon as a collective. I have a great few adventurers here and not just only the hundreds of task force members, but also hundreds of mages.”




“Why are you so adamant that I must be stopped?” She realized at this point it was impossible to convince them that she was not a demon.



Valkyrie watched her every move, analyzing her and seeing any gaps within her defenses. From the fight with Nuon, he had prepared a completely different way of defeating this undying fiend.



Whenever Nuon had struck a fatal blow, she was immobilized. Thus, the plan was not to kill her, but to subjugate her. Once they deal the single fatal blow, they’d stop her from regenerating by causing further damage, or not allowing the body to regenerate fully.




That was why they had called upon such a great number of forces with their emergency summon. They will take turns destroying her still-recovering body.




“Girl, have you not heard of the incident in East Goumei?”




Goumei was the country directly bordering west of this country, Alzanabia. Some couple months ago, a demon had suddenly arrived at their capital city of Godon.




Less than 30% of the population had survived. Their armies were constantly repealed and all adventurers within the city either fled or died horrible deaths.





The first Hero level adventurer to go there ended up being gravely injured and could no longer partake in being an adventurer.





It wasn’t until two of the adventurers in the top ten, Team Essence of Decay, arrived that the demon was completely subjugated.



Surely they had thought this was the demon Merlin had warned of, but when they faced him, the demon introduced himself as one of the 12 Demon Generals.





For quite a while, the efforts of demon subjugation remained on the southern continent and none of the multitude of hordes on the island were any bit as strong as the demon general that had arrived.




Given that they were bordering the country of Goumei, it was safe to surmise that they would be next should another demon general launch an offensive.




“We wish to avoid another catastrophe such as the one Godon had experienced. It was merely suspicion at first, but now we are certain without a doubt. You are indeed a demonoid.”




Lusha sighed. How much time had she consumed just now talking with this buffoon. “All of you, listen up. I will only repeat this warning once. Abandon this foolishness and no problems shall arise.”




She was met by a storm of attacks by all the magicians and adventurer’s around him. Arrows flew her way marked with exploding inscriptions.





“Elemental Magic [Poisonous Severance]! Elemental Magic [Flames of Rinier]! Elemental Magic [Vacuum Depths]! E-Elemental Magic [Raise Air] !”





The chants from each magician as they casted their spell melded together. She was just hearing a cacophony of spells and feeling the impact of everything colliding against her being.





“Elemental Magic [Deteriorate Snow], Gravitational Magic [Reverse Field]! Spatial Magic [Black Ball]! Illusion Magic [Dance of Chimera]! Elemental Magic [Water Whip]!”




How quaint, this uncoordinated attack was embarrassing. Many of them were utilizing techniques that canceled out their own techniques. He could make out that one of them utilized gravitational magic which lightened the gravity around her area, thus having her become airborne.




Yet, just as the magician had chanted that, another magician had chanted spatial magic [Black Ball]. It was a technique that pulled others to it with its own gravitational field. Should she collide with the black ball, she’d be sucked into a pocket dimension. Since the gravity technique was in effect however, the spatial ball lost all gravitational pull the moment it appeared in the field.




This was a huge headache. She couldn’t stand the noises being chanted out and only wanted nothing more than for the lot to be silent.




With a DOOM! The collisions occurred. The attacks continued for a solid minute afterwards. Nothing could be seen but a cloud of dust and ash. Cinders and smoke covered the visions of everyone.




“Elemental Magic [Tornado of the Sky]!” A blue haired magician chanted. It was one of the twelve in the interrogation room with her. An upside down tornado danced over the area where she should have been, vacuuming up the smoke in an instant.




“Now everyone! Charge! We cannot allow her to regenerate!”



Several of the magicians zoomed in at speeds similar to a slingshot. Then they instantly stopped.




“Huh?.... W- what are you doing still alive!?!”




“WOAAOH-?!” Collective sounds of shock came from the entire group.




Valkyrie’s plan was not a bad plan at all given the lack of knowledge he had about his opponent, but he made one huge miscalculation in the making of this plan.




That was assuming that the opponent had no defensive capabilities. In the fight against Nuon, she had wanted to die, thus she disarmed herself of most of her defenses to give the chance. But in this case, she had no desire to waste her time on unfulfillable hopes.





The aftermath of their attacks had caused quite a lot of damage to the area. The Guild Hall was nothing but a mass of timber and scattered gold.





Their recklessness had even killed the attendant. She found herself sandwiched between the table and rubble which crushed her against the wall. Her face was half burnt from one of the mages fire techniques. If there was any solace, it was that she had died instantly.





The only thing unscathed was of course the woman that stood before them. She held a passive ability skill: Barrier Magic [Absolute Domain]. This was a barrier she constantly had around her body.




So long as she is not moving at the time of an attack, it would automatically activate and repeal most weaker-end techniques.




The eyes that glared back at the group of airborne mages was enough to frighten even the greatest of heroes.




Suddenly a group of the melee type adventurers grew bold enough to launch an offensive. Black tags rested on their necks as they charged with their greatsword and twin blades.




They must have observed the situation and came to the conclusion the attacks had no effect because she was immune to magic. If they thought their blades were going to be the weakness to bring down the witch, they were severely mistaken.




They began their launch of attacks, only for her to remain standing still and watch the damage completely deflect. Their blades were certainly not strong enough to crumple the barrier.




She sighed and slapped one of the adventurers attacking him. His head turned a full 360 and he stumbled back 2 steps before perishing. The next one with the great sword attempted to retreat before her fist slammed into his face, causing his skull to cave in.




There was just utter silence as all of this unfolded. He turned to the other one before the man could run away, pulling his collar and slamming him into the ground. She got on top of his body and moved the man's hands out of the way of his face, before punching him hard enough to collapse his eyes. Another punch followed, then another, and another.




The man had long stopped moving, but she had punched and beat at this squashed skull for several more blows until it was just an undiscernable mush. Everyone just watched in silence.

She got up, blood splattered around her face. “Valkyrie… nevermind my earlier statement. I won’t be killing you after all. You will end up doing that job for me.”





A long time ago a situation like this had happened. Truly history does repeat itself. Thus, Lusha had grown long tired of history.





Nearly 300 years ago a similar small country had gone out of their way to smite her. Though she was lenient, when they went too far with their games she showed them a face much crueler than death.





For what she did to that country, they gave her the name Eidien Levari. Loosely put, it meant infinite demise or dispair. That’s the fate that befell that country. And, like history, with all its repetition and lack of creativity, what had happened to that kingdom was going to happen here once more.







“Elemental Magi-”




A voice spoke and was quickly silenced. One couldn’t even see what happened, just that the man who had spoken had his neck twisted and had fallen onto the ground.




Manipulation Magic [Blessings of the One Being]. She had felt like getting her hands dirty just now. Perhaps Nuon had grown on her a little bit.




One by one magicians started dying out of nowhere. The moment one spoke, they would die. A hole through the chest. Head torn off, a hole in their face.




The ones who attempted to cast magic first were the first to die. The only way one could possibly be alive longer was if they quietly and patiently awaited their turn to face death. She was moving much too quickly for the naked eye to see. One would only begin to realize the events that occured long after they had happened. She zipped towards another mage before tearing through another.




Valkyrie was the first to release his aura, shaking the entire area with the density of it.




“Everyone, Send me your blessings. I will-”




“Don’t bother.”




She interrupted him. She stood right in front of him with a smile, waiting for him to realize.





It wasn’t until he noticed that no energy was coming to him, that he realized. Everyone was already dead.





Barrier Magic [Sealed Fate Prison]. A giant barrier appeared around the terrain, encompassing 100 meters around him.




Extra Magic [Origin of Explosion]. The technique depleted half of his mana and decimated everything within a 300 meter radius. Because he was within the barrier, it kept the explosion limited to just everything within the barrier.



He probably did this to avoid any civilian casualties. As the debris and smoke cleared up, Lusha was still standing in front of him, completely unharmed and unfazed.




Valkyrie screamed upon realizing that this demon was still alive, and backed up several meters.




“You think you’ve won?”




Lusha looked around to her left, then to her right. “I don’t see anyone else aside from you. Or do you mean to tell me there are more oppositions somewhere?”




Panting heavily, Valkyrie swore. “On the name of this city, you will not do as you please. We will fight tooth and nail against you.”




“So long as this city remains, you will not ever have your way.”




“Barrier Magic [Impenetrable Fortress]” she whispered.




A transparent box appeared around the old mage and Lusha descended onto the ground. “You speak proudly of this place. This city this, this city that. If you all could not stop me, I’m surprised you still hold so much faith upon this small heap of trash.”




“You seem to not be one to understand things unless they happen. So I’ll have you watch.”



A huge amount of aura was released from Lusha just now. Valkyrie was not too sure what she was doing, until he realized too late.




“N-no… stop! STOP!” He pummeled against the barrier, attempting to cast various magic techniques to escape its radius, to no avail. He even attempted his strongest spatial technique, a barrier’s natural weakness, only to have it closed up.




This is not fair… beings like her should not exist in this world.




Lusha’s energy continued soaring, covering the span of the entire city. One could see the smoky tips of it towering to the heavens. She had a tremendous amount of aura. She was slowly releasing, not to make a point to Valkyrie about their vast difference.



But rather to end the entire city. Buildings started crumbling and the nearest ones to her were already shattered.




Aura is normally an ethereal construct. But when bigger concentrations of it are released it gets denser. There were rumors that Merlin had to constantly watch his aura lest he kill the ones around him.




What Lusha was doing was akin to suffocating the entire city. As the aura got denser and denser, the pressure increased. Valkyrie could feel the entire city dying. Babies went first, then children, and then finally adults.




Valkyrie found himself slumped down onto the bottom of the barrier, unable to do anything but watch the events unfold.





Suddenly he remembered a story, an old lore from a long time ago. It was about a witch who was too powerful. So strong she even beat death.




The barrier slowly lowered onto the ground as the smiling Lusha walked over to him before dispelling the barrier.




As the tale goes, a nation once saved her from certain death, only for her to turn around and destroy it beyond recognition. To the witch, they dubbed the name… infinite despair.




He had read the tale so long ago in the Mage’s college. He didn’t know why he suddenly thought of this story.



“Oh? Are you okay Valkyrie? I had expected another retort from you.”



“K-...kill me. You Wretched Witch! KILL ME!!!” His eyes pleaded holding a lot of pain behind them.




Lusha could only hope but laugh. “So the stories couldn’t have completely disappeared from time, it seems.” She continued to laugh uncontrollably. Mainly because she was so infuriated.




“Oh but Valkyrie, you are the type of man who seems to only understand things once they happen.”




She patted the defeated Valkyrie on the head. “I’m not going to kill you.”




“Illusion Magic [Infinite Despair]” This was the technique he had casted on the king so long ago.




Valkyrie looked confused as the world around him distorted. His mind was weak enough in this state to have fallen susceptible to illusion magic, but he didn’t even have the strength left to fight it off. In this dream, the hell that awaited him was beyond what he would have thought.




He was sleeping within his dorm in a faraway country. This was not his body however. He was only sleeping when he felt the sharp protrusion of a blade slide down his neck, violently waking up from his sleep to choke on his own blood. His frantic eyes awoke to see that of familiar face, cupping his mouth and watching him choke to death.





He woke up again in the middle of a battle, with arrows riddling his body. The puncture wound through his eye ended up doing the trick. There, he experienced the unusually horrifying feeling of death.




Burned alive in a small village continuously until they were sure he would not recover. Drowned, tortured, beaten to death.





Over and over again. Over and over again. Over and over and over again, he experienced what it meant to die.



Finally, after many generations and many deaths, he became tired of constantly dying. He became tired of living. He had watched all of his comrades, families, and even lovers die multiple times. And when he finally understood, he realized what this was.





Infinite despair.




He was no longer afraid of dying. Rather, he was living his greatest fear. To be alive forever.





Lusha patted him on the head. “See? Now you understand don’t you.” Only a second had passed in this world, but for Valkyrie, it was a millenia.




The crying Valkyrie nodded, unable to make any more audible words. “Good. Then, I’m done here.”




Lusha walked away without looking back. The barrier that the old man had set up had been deactivated willingly by Valkyrie.




Valkyrie walked through the ruins of his city. Everywhere he turned was only dead bodies.





Dead babies sleeping poetically within their dead mother’s arms...





Brothers sharing drinks at home….





He couldn’t wait to eagerly join them….





He could only mutter apologies to each of them. He had dragged them all into this situation. Had he thought about the story long before, this outcome could have been preventable. His mind was utterly broken.




The ending of that book said only one thing that he wished he had taken heed of. “When meeting with the wretched witch, ones who entangle themselves in her affair can only hope to experience despair.”





Shortly after Lusha left the confines of the city, she felt Valkyrie’s aura vanish.