Walpurga let out a brief laugh. She turned toward him, even though her eyes could not be seen in the darkness...

"If you are truly his disciple, you should know that I should kill you..." she murmured, recalling her past betrayal toward Diavolo. "The memories of my master are a disease that I tried to eradicate from this world..."

Klein took one last drag, letting the smoke curl around his impassive features before replying with provocative calm.

"Go ahead then..."

A heavy silence settled over the tower, disturbed only by the whistling of the wind between the pillars, as the heir of Sulyvhan and the Witch of Curses sized each other up.

...

"I am going to ask you some questions... If you lie to me, I will kill you..." she said in a low voice, whose suave tone masked a deadly threat.

Klein stopped a few meters from her, exhaling a puff of smoke before looking at her with a mocking smile, smoothing his silver hair back in a gesture he made to relax.

"Then I will also ask my questions..." he replied, his cold blue gaze showing no trace of fear in front of the sovereign of Babylon.

A dry laugh, devoid of any joy, escaped the witch’s full lips. The pressure of her mana suddenly increased, cracking the ground beneath Klein’s boots.

"It is not you who decides, little Klein..."

Walpurga knew he was cornered. She dominated this space and, as a mage who had reached the Genesis stage, she could crush the bones of this mortal with a single thought. She wanted to pressure him, savor his distress, but Klein was not offended in the slightest. He was reaching his peak of nonchalance, that attitude which fueled his aura farming and made his movements unpredictable.

"I will also ask my questions and if you lie, I will self-destruct... I doubt you could come out unscathed from the explosion of someone who has reached Genesis..." he continued with casualness.

The silence that followed was heavy. Walpurga narrowed her eyes. At that moment, the two almost simultaneously activated their mystic perception arts: the Spiritual Eye for her, and the Eyes of Predation for him.

They could now see each other’s energy flows, their lies becoming visible distortions in the fabric of their aura.

"You are not faint-hearted..." she murmured, finally intrigued by this kid who claimed he could trigger such a devastating spiritual fission reaction.

Klein stood up and took another step, ignoring the gravitational pressure trying to pin him to the ground.

"Who is this woman of the scarlet night?" he asked, referring to the entity that had reduced Babylon to ashes.

Walpurga took another puff from her pipe, her eyes lost in the greenish flames of the wall torches.

"I think she comes from Alexandria, but I have no other information on her origins. Little advice, you are not at her level at all... My turn now: what the hell are you doing here?"

The witch had used her authority to seal Babylon, creating a dome of mystic energy to prevent the possessed from escaping and, above all, to prevent her disciples, Norah and Nox, from returning to this zone of death. If Klein had managed to cross this barrier, it meant he truly possessed a power that had surpassed mortals... A transcendent power.

"My master told me to train and exorcise the possessed," Klein replied simply, remembering Diavolo’s last words before his disappearance.

"I thought he was dead... Where is he?" she asked, her voice trembling imperceptibly at the mention of Konstantine.

"He is no more..." Klein cut in. "What happened to the other towers?"

Walpurga slowly rose from her throne. Her slender silhouette was highlighted by the fluid movement of her black silk dress. She approached the edge of the platform, pointing her finger at the smoking ruins that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"The woman of the scarlet nights appeared out of nowhere. She killed everyone... even the leaders of the other two towers did not survive her madness. The Tower of the Forge and the Tower of the Alchemists fell in just a few days. Now, she resides at the top of the Tower of the Alchemists, enthroned in the middle of the corpses of my peers.

The Witch of Walpurgis was known for her coldness, considering most beings as mere subjects for experimentation. Yet at that moment, a gleam of pure fury burned in her gaze. The death of those she had known for centuries, despite their rivalries, had plunged her into a cold rage. She had sworn to kill this woman, no matter the cost.

Unconsciously, her mind drifted to the past. She mentally wondered if her master Konstantine had been present, would Morgane be dead?

She felt a piercing pain in her chest, a regret she had stifled for a thousand years. She blamed herself for wanting to kill her master, manipulated by the deceptive promises of the angels during the Millennial War. The damage was done, and she could not go back. But looking at Klein, with his identical aura and familiar arrogance, she saw in him the shadow of the one who had created her. And so the witch had never intended to kill Klein from the start...

She finally broke the silence, her voice resonating with new firmness.

"I need your help to kill the woman of the scarlet night. I could obviously face her alone and crush her, but she is protected by legions of monsters and high-ranking possessed that saturate the area. I would be exhausted even before I could engage her in combat."

Klein remained thoughtful.

"I accept," he declared finally. "But I want to know what I will gain from it. I do not work for free, especially not for a witch who betrayed her own master."

Walpurga gave a small enigmatic smile. She took a few steps toward him, the bewitching scent of her skin floating around Klein. Making him blush despite himself...

’Wow, what the hell is this? Is this a mystic spell?’ 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"In exchange for your help... I will show you my true appearance in all its magnificence..." she said, her face still hidden.

Klein’s face immediately fell, an expression of pure disgust replacing his smile.

"Narcissistic on top of that?"

"What?" she said, offended, her eyes shining with disbelief.

"Even my closest disciples do not know my true appearance. Some would give everything they own, their entire life, just to glimpse me for a moment as I really am!"