“There was a colossal Devil,” Sylvie said while knitting her brows. “It crouched on the top of one of those black spires, it had a head that was larger than its body. Its head was covered with countless eyes. Even though I merely gazed at it… it immediately turned all of its eyes towards me. And hundreds of Devils came rushing forth from within the ground, it was as if the whole area had started boiling.
“There really exist such a monster?” Soraya gasped in shock.
“There is still more, those two flying mounts were also very strange,” Anna voiced her thoughts, “After getting hit by the bullets, the blood flowing out of them wasn’t black as you would expect, but rather a deep blue — this is entirely different compared to the demonic beasts and mixed species we’d encountered during the Months of Demons.”
“But on the contrary, it is similar to the Devils,” Soraya replied, “I saw that the first Devil Nightingale shot, also had blue blood coming out of its wounds.”
“In the end, aren’t they demonic beasts?” Sylvie asked.
“That I do not know… but it is great that Maggie can change her appearance into theirs,” Wendy exclaimed. “If it hadn’t been for her saving Nightingale, we would all have been in danger.”
“Her ability has evolved,” Nightingale, having stayed silent until now, suddenly opened her mouth. “I saw that the magic source inside her body no longer had the form of turning cyclone, it has turned into a fixed shape instead — a pair of outstretched white wings.”
While holding His Highness’ arm, Lightning’s heart was filled with endless guilt.
The Devil merely has a malevolent appearance, when in the sky, with its large body, it wasn’t able to respond quickly. If I’d just left the basket to block the enemy at the beginning, His Royal Highness wouldn’t have been so seriously injured.
To bravely step forward and protect one’s companion is the unshirkable responsibility of an explorer. Whenever Thunder went on an exploration in the Fjords, he would always take the lead whenever they encountered any danger. Taking everyone along so as to break through all incoming crises, whether it be against pirates or a monster from the deep sea, he never took a step back.
For the first time, Lighting realized that she had still a huge distance to go before she could call herself a great explorer.
But her father had also mentioned that while fear can be fought off by acknowledging and becoming familiar with it, skills could be mastered through repeated training.
She made a firm resolution that she would wait until His Highness’ injury was fully healed. And would then beg him to give her a specialized pistol and request older sister Nightingale to teach her how to shoot and fight.
“How is His Highness, ahool?” Maggie muttered. Compared with the pigeon’s voice, her voice was now rough and muddy, like the wind blowing out of a stone cave. “I felt that his body has become colder, ahool.”
The little girl clenched her fists and turned around to fly back to Maggie.
Only to see that Roland had closed his eyes, his lips were pale, and together with his messy gray hair, he even seemed to be somewhat lifeless. The blood on his clothes had already solidified, while the black burn wound looked like a spectacle which was too horrible to endure. She gently placed her hand on his neck, feeling for a weak beat to prove that His Highness was still alive; only to feel the skin under her fingertips was frightening ice-cold.
“How much magic do you have left?” Lightning estimated the rest of their journey, “We will have to go at full speed.”
“Ahool!”
When the two witches arrived at Border Town, the little girl’s vision already became faint and blurred. Flying at high speed not only quickly deplete her magic, but it also put a great burden on her body. She gritted her teeth, using the last bit of her strength to directly fly into the castle front courtyard, while shouting to the guards, who had come over to investigate the noise, “Quickly call Miss Nana, the Prince has been wounded!”
Chapter 297 A burning hot heart
Roland opened his eyes. He was lying on a soft bed, with the familiar ceiling above his head, matching every crack in his memories.
This is my own… bedroom
He turned his head and at his shoulders on both sides — whether it was the left or right one, they both looked to be in a good condition. And as he tried to move his hands, he also didn’t come across any problem.
It’s as if everything was just a long dream.
He knew however, that it hadn’t been a dream; the investigation of the Devils, and the attacks they had faced was indeed something which had happened! However, the fact that he was lying safely in the bedroom, meant that they had managed to escape the Devil’s pursuit, and had successfully returned to the castle.
However, did all of the witches make it back safely?
Thinking of this, Roland couldn’t stop his heart from becoming heavy. He tried to prop himself up, but from the direction of his injured arm a burst of powerlessness spread throughout his body. Just when he wanted to open his mouth to call someone, he saw a row of witches leaning against the wall next to his bed. They were Anna, Nightingale, Lightning, Maggie and Nana. They leaned against each other’s shoulders, and were breathing steadily, with their eyes slightly closed, looking as if they were fast asleep.
Roland quietly opened the corner of the window curtains, he was greeted by the first rays of the morning sun which came pouring in from the direction of the Redwater River like dazzling golden threads across the earth.
“You… woke up?”
Turning around, he didn’t know when, but Anna, rubbing her tired eyes, had already woken up and step by step had come to stand by his side.
“Yes, I’m up. The other witches…”
“They all safely made it back to Border Town. In fact, you were the only one who was injured.”
“Is that so?” Roland said relieved, “That’s really good — “
“Fool.”
He didn’t even have a chance to refute before the other side was already nervously hugging him with so much force that it felt like she wanted to embed herself into his flesh.
Due to Anna’s commotion, the other witches also started waking up.
“Your Highness!”
They stood up in surprise and then began to circle around him one after another. Lightning was the second to cling to Roland, followed by Nana and Maggie. Nightingale hesitated, but also wrapped her arms around him. In this way, everyone was embracing each other in a group hug, all were reluctant to let go… for a moment it seemed time had come to a stop.
…
After breakfast, Roland went back to his office and listened to details of what had happened after his collapse, trying to understand what had occurred in the end.
The witches, working hand in hand, had been able to defeat their pursuers then had Lightning and Maggie carry him back in advance.
After coming back to the castle, Nana Pine immediately treated his injuries, healed his torn off arm back to its previous state. However, due to his severe blood loss, he’d fallen into a deep sleep for a day afterward. Thus, this was already the fourth day since their departure.
Thinking back to his actions, he had to admit that he had been somewhat careless. He had never expected that the Devils would actually be able to discover a hot air balloon painted in sky camouflage more than ten kilometers away. Listening to Sylvie’s explanation, it seemed that the massive multi-eyed Devil hadn’t detected anything abnormal in the beginning and had been observing all direction with its eyes. However, the moment she moved her focus to the body of the multi-eyed Devil, the other side immediately responded, instantly turning all of its eyes towards her.