Miss Witch Doesn't Want to Become a Songstress-Chapter 213

After Thilan leaped into the underground core area, the rest of the group gradually arrived at the scene. From a distance, they could see the monstrous creature resembling a small mountain. Its cold, chaotic aura made everyone feel nauseous and dizzy even before getting close.

"Fall back!" N, who was usually carefree, now shouted with a serious tone, halting the students’ advance.

"Everyone, fall back to the entrance. Alen, Dolores, prepare to connect with satellite communications and inform the academy’s higher-ups about the situation underground. The rest of you, be ready to evacuate at any moment. Do not come into contact with the special substances here."

"Yes, teacher."

Seeing him so serious, the others immediately grew tense and began to follow his instructions.

"But what about Thilan? She’s still up ahead," someone asked as they were about to turn back.

N looked at the girl who was still fighting unaffected in the distance and shook his head.

"I don’t know how she’s managing to resist the influence, but this ability isn’t something everyone has. Don’t worry about her; focus on taking care of yourselves first. As for Thilan, I’ll help her get out."

"Understood, Teacher N."

The group glanced once more at the girl battling through the gray, viscous magical energy before retreating. The captives they had taken earlier also followed them back.

...

Ahead.

The towering monster opened its mouth to an exaggerated width, releasing an invisible roar. The shockwave shattered nearby structures, and even from hundreds of meters away, the retreating group felt dizzy, as if an earthquake had struck. Their ears rang, and they momentarily lost their hearing.

With this roar, the faint gray mist around the monster began to spread, gradually infecting the fallen gang members and elderly, twisting their bodies and causing them to mutate.

Thilan knew she couldn’t let this continue. She quickly retreated, avoiding the area where the shockwave was strongest. Then, she clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and began to chant an ancient incantation.

Incantations, aside from standardizing the complex steps of spellcasting, also served as a powerful form of self-suggestion, immersing the caster’s consciousness deeper into the spell and aligning their emotions and spirit with the required state for the ritual. Aijeka’s transcendent effects were achieved by the mind influencing reality, and emotions, spirit, and concepts all played a role in the process.

"...Traversing the stars and earth’s paths, seeking the hidden and profound, ascending to the highest heavens, descending to the darkest rivers, plucking stars and moons, witnessing the fleeting beauty of life and death."

Her eyelashes fluttered slightly as she slowly opened her eyes, which now glowed with a deep blue light. Her clasped hands gradually parted, revealing a dazzling azure sword. The blade, seemingly forged from translucent blue crystal, bore the pattern of a butterfly. As she swung it, countless azure butterflies emerged from the sword and fluttered into the air.

These shimmering, icy-blue butterflies, though breathtakingly beautiful, carried an aura of extreme cold. Just flying past someone was enough to send a shiver through their soul.

The product of annihilation, these butterflies destroyed consciousness and spirit, erasing matter. This was a unique secret art of the Decay Sequence and a signature ability of the Butterfly Witch of old. Later, it was modified by a successor, allowing it to be channeled through a sword. While this reduced the difficulty of casting, the range of the spell was no longer as vast as the original sea of butterflies.

To perform this secret art in its original form required at least Sequence 8 of the Necromancy Sequence. Even after modification, it still required Sequence 7 of the Decay Sequence. Thilan’s current ability to barely cast it relied on Themisia’s innate talent. As two sides of the same coin, Thilan possessed the Crystal of Convergence, while Themisia wielded the Sand of Annihilation.

Thanks to the enhancement in the field of annihilation, Thilan could now barely perform this secret art. However, merely holding the sword drained her magical energy at an alarming rate. She estimated she could only maintain the blade for another half minute.

Unlike her experience in Lebion, where the full moon in the sky provided endless Aijeka particles to convert into magical energy, she now had to rely solely on her own reserves, quickly hitting the ceiling of her Sequence 4 capabilities.

"Decay Secret Art: Annihilation Butterfly Sword."

Holding the azure crystal sword, she slowly descended from the sky. Her hair fluttered behind her, illuminated by the sword’s glow, each strand tinged with blue light. With every foot she descended, the sword in her hand grew more refined.

Layer after layer of magical energy flowed through the intricate patterns on the blade, lighting them up. One by one, azure butterflies emerged from the sword and followed her.

One kilometer...

One hundred meters... ƒreewebɳovel.com

Ten meters...

As she drew closer to the roaring monster below, the light from the sword gradually filled her vision, becoming blindingly bright.

Finally, with a flick of her wrist, she swung the sword. It cut through the monster like mist, encountering no resistance. The blade arced back, and in an instant, three more slashes cleaved the remaining body into pieces. The severed sections were covered in blue crystal, which then transformed into azure butterflies.

The shattered remains were washed away by the fluttering butterflies, gradually vanishing until nothing remained. Even the ground was left spotless.

Watching this scene from a distance, N, who had been ready to fight, slowly released his grip on the sword at his waist. He saw the girl land back on the ground, the crystal sword in her hand disappearing.

"You keep surprising me. How many more wonders do you have hidden?"

...

In the following hours, he joined Thilan in handling the aftermath, rounding up the escaped gang members and rescuing the elderly who had been captured during the attack. They offered comfort and reassurance.

"Miss, you’ve come back to save us," the elderly knelt on the ground, kowtowing in gratitude. The scene made Thilan uncomfortable, and she quickly helped them up.

"Don’t kneel. I don’t like these old customs."

Seeing more and more people joining in the kneeling, she stopped helping them up and her tone turned cold.

Perhaps the lingering awe from her earlier display made the elderly hesitate. After exchanging glances, they slowly stood up, though they seemed unsure of what to do next, only repeatedly expressing their thanks.

Understanding the plight of these impoverished elderly, Thilan shook her head and spoke.

"Listening to my commands is the best way to thank me. Now, I want to know what has happened around Thousand Towers City since the relocation, how this gang found you, and what they demanded from you."

"Yes, Miss. We’ll tell you everything."

Relieved by her command, the elderly began to explain what had happened recently.

Although Thousand Towers City had not abandoned its people, some elderly chose to stay behind. They were too old to adapt to a new environment and believed they had only a few years left to live.

"At first, things were fine. There were plenty of leftover supplies in the city, enough to last us for many years. But soon, wandering groups began to show up, scavenging through the ruins of Thousand Towers City, hoping to find something valuable."

The old man shook his head, lamenting their greed.

"The city had autonomous units for defense, but without enough transcendents or young people to maintain and patrol, they were eventually destroyed by the gang members."

"So we retreated deeper underground, using the city’s original defense facilities. This allowed us to regain some balance, and for a while, things were peaceful. After all, the wandering groups eventually realized there was nothing of value here."

"Later, we heard that these wanderers had started fighting among themselves, forming gangs and taking over the area. While we were worried, we didn’t pay much attention, as we didn’t have many years left to live anyway."

"However, just this month, a particularly aggressive gang came looking for us. They captured us and demanded we help them decipher some ancient secret texts."

"What kind of secret texts?" Thilan asked curiously.

"It’s hard to explain. It’s better to show you directly."

The elderly rummaged through the chaotic battlefield and retrieved a brown-black box. It was engraved with a long string of letters and numbers, and there were several ports on the side.

"This is likely a memory storage device from the Fifth Epoch. However, the port types and decoding methods have been lost to time. According to documents and other materials found alongside it, this appears to be part of a secret research project from the late Fifth Epoch, conducted by a certain nation."

Unlike the vast star-spanning civilization of today, human civilization during the Fifth Epoch was fragmented, with hundreds of nations often in conflict.

"Using illegal AI assistance, they managed to extract some data from this storage device. However, the original authors had encrypted the data a second time, using specialized terminology to replace common technical terms. This made it difficult for hackers to understand the details, even if they stole the data."

"An ancient yet straightforward method," Thilan remarked.

"Since much of this terminology originated from the early Eastern Continent—our ancestral homeland—they thought we might be able to decipher some of it. That’s why they came to us."

"Did you help them decode it?" Thilan asked again.

"We couldn’t. Even though we’re descendants of Easterners, this convoluted language is beyond us. We could only guess at the general meaning. It seems that during the late Fifth Epoch, as the Aijeka Sea began to freeze, the number of transcendents across the galaxy drastically declined. To overcome this, some nations sought ways to break through the limitations."

"From the results, it appears they may have used remnants of Chaos Phantoms to corrode the frozen Aijeka Sea, loosening certain restrictions and allowing transcendents to advance."

"That’s undoubtedly drinking poison to quench thirst," Thilan thought.

Allowing Chaos Phantoms to spread would only repeat past tragedies.

"Let’s stop here for now."

Thilan raised her hand, instructing the elderly to gather the materials and set them aside. She then turned to N.

"When will the academy or federal government forces arrive?"

She knew the academy’s surveillance would have detected the events here.

"You’re quite sharp, Thilan. Don’t worry, they’ll be here in about half an hour. They’ve probably already landed by now."

N pointed upward.

Above the surface, three massive shuttles roared as they descended. White mechs emerged, far more advanced than the outdated models from Lebion. Their surfaces shimmered with blue indicator lights, scanning and assessing the surroundings before swiftly heading toward the underground entrance.