These people were all witches, Theo hadn't lied, Ashes could feel the magic that was being bred in their bodies, and could also roughly distinguish the strength of their magic – this was especially true for the one in front of them, her magic was like a sharp knife, just by concentrating on it she would feel a faint stabbing pain.
"My name is Ashes, it's a pleasure to meet you, sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association." She put the giant sword aside and stepped forward to hug the four witches one by one … no, she thought, it should be five. Ashes raised her head and stared at the black dot hovering in the sky, "Is she not coming down?"
"She will show us the way," the leader said with a smile, "I am Nightingale," then she pointed to the other three witches, "Scroll, Leaf and Echo." Finally she pointed to the sky, "That little girl is Lightning."
Ashes was startled when she looked at Scroll, she could feel that the magic within her body was very weak, like a cloud covering her whole body, this feeling made her very surprised, "Extraordinary?"
Nightingale also looked a little surprised, "You can see magic?"
"It's not seeing, it's feeling," Ashes explained, "Extraordinary people can perceive the shape and flow of magic, this is because every part of the body has been transformed by it, I think this sister must have the same feeling as me."
Scroll smiled and nodded, "Indeed, it allowed me to find a lot of companions in the vast sea of people."
"Are Extraordinary very rare?" Nightingale asked.
The other side's first concern is the number, not 'what is an Extraordinary' … Ashes thought, could it be that the Witch Cooperation Association has also heard of the existence of Extraordinary witches? This was a strictly forbidden secret of the Church, because the ability of an Extraordinary directly affected their own body, and was not restricted by the God's Stone of Retaliation, any exposed Extraordinary would be the Church's top enemy.
"Probably in thousands of witches, there will only be one Extraordinary," thinking so in her heart, her face was still as usual, "So far, among my fellow witches I have seen, including Scroll, there are only three." Ashes paused for a moment, "Right, I remember that the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association was called Cara, is she okay?"
"She's dead." Nightingale shook her head. "She died while searching for the Sacred Mountain."
"… What a pity," Ashes said in a low voice. But what caught her attention was that when they talked about this issue, they did not show too much sadness. "Then who is your new leader now?"
"Let's go back to Border Town first and then we can slowly talk," she smiled. "You'll see him soon."
…
After the group entered the small town, Ashes discovered that something was wrong. These witches of the Witch Cooperation Association were holding torches and openly walking on the street. Moreover, even after nightfall, the town was not completely silent. Many of the houses' paper windows revealed a faint firelight, and if one listened carefully, one could even hear the sound of children reading aloud.
Although candles were not very expensive, the commoners had limited savings. They would not easily use them unless it was absolutely necessary. In a small town at night, there were so many residents lighting candles, it was already an incredible scene. Coupled with the sound of reading word by word, were they teaching their children to read?
But since the other party did not mention it, she was too lazy to ask. In any case, this was not a place to live for long. What she had to do was to take everyone away as soon as possible.
Passing through the crisscrossing streets, the group was getting closer and closer to the castle area. Ashes could already see the dark walls and the guards standing guard in the night. "Where are we going?" She could not help but ask.
"Border Town Castle, we will soon arrive." The one who answered her was Nightingale.
"Wait," she could not help but slow down, "That is the place where the Lord lives."
"Yes, it is also the home of the witches."
"Could it be that you have reached an agreement with the Lord?" Ashes frowned. Even if the local forces of the Witch Cooperation Association were strong, it would still be difficult to compete with the Lord and the Church, who had the God's Stone of Retaliation. Therefore, the only possibility was to cooperate – this was also one of the ways for the witches to survive. Unfortunately, in the face of the weak witches, most of the Lords were unwilling to sit down and talk about the conditions fairly. Instead, they were endlessly squeezing and demanding, so this road was quickly blocked.
"That's right," Nightingale's tone did not show much unwillingness to be oppressed, but instead seemed to be enjoying it. "At least we have signed a contract with His Highness."
But Ashes was unable to feel happy for them. The contract was something written on paper and pen, it was not binding at all. When the Lord was tired of paying or wanted to terminate the equal relationship, he only needed to crumple it into a ball and throw it into the fireplace. No one would stand up for the witches. Their position was like a lonely boat in the middle of the sea, in danger of capsizing at any time.
Fortunately, I came, she thought, I will take them away from here and go to the other side of the sea. There, the witches would build their own home, far away from the Church and the secular world.
After passing through the castle gate, sure enough, the guards were accustomed to the appearance of the witches and even greeted each other.
Compared to the palace in King's City, the Lord's castle was undoubtedly much narrower and darker. There were only a few lonely torches hanging on the walls of the corridor, the flickering light was unable to cover the entire stone floor. Walking through it made people feel somewhat depressed. Only when they entered the living room did the light suddenly brighten.
In the hall, Ashes saw more witches, they seemed to have been waiting here for a long time. When they saw her appear, they all applauded to show their welcome. Nightingale took two steps forward and was about to make a simple introduction, when a witch suddenly rushed over.
"Vendy!" Someone shouted.
Ashes noticed the other's action, but did not take any countermeasures – she could feel the other's surprise and joy, but there was no hostility. Soon, a warm body embraced her.
"You actually survived," the other's voice was full of excitement. "Thank you for saving me."
Ashes was startled, "You are …"
"My name is Vendy." She let go of her hands and looked straight into Ashes's eyes, "The little girl from the choir. Do you still remember me? "
…
In the bedroom on the second floor, only Ashes and Vendy were left.
She did not expect to meet her companions from the monastery here.
Saying that they were companions was a bit of a stretch, if not for that night, she would not have crossed paths with Vendy. In fact, at that time, she did not notice that in the room buried under the ground, there was another unfortunate person like her who had been forcibly taken here. She would never have thought that the other person would eventually become a witch.
"After I escaped from the monastery, I settled down in Sea Wind County." Vendy was silent for a long time before she said, "Later, I heard that the monastery seemed to have caught fire that day, and the children inside were also missing."
"Fire?" Ashes shook her head, "That was the Church's own doing, to cover up the scandal. I killed some of the managers and the Judgement Army who tried to stop me, until … the Church's God's Punishment Army arrived. The scar on my eye was left by them, if I hadn't made a prompt decision to escape, I'm afraid I would have died there when the God's Punishment Army arrived. "
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