NOVEL NEXT Chapter 47 Van
Seris stepped forward, putting herself between Serapha and Asthia. Her eyes were hard.
"Say what you want, witch. You won't take her."
The Witch of Silence didn't react. She raised her hand slowly, pale and steady. The air broke apart around them.
Sound vanished. The fire went still. Even breathing felt impossible.
Reth's chest tightened. Elenya's grip on his arm weakened. His vision swam.
Seris's sword wavered. Her body shook, as if pressed down by something she couldn't fight.
Serapha spoke quietly:
"Die without a sound."
The silence gathered into a blade, closing in.
Then—
Laughter.
Rough, mocking, cutting through the quiet.
"Well now," a voice said, "what kind of gathering have I stumbled into?"
Out of the smoke stepped an old man in black robes lined with silver. His clothes were worn, his hair and beard wild and white. His eyes were half-shut, calm, almost bored.
Seris's eyes flared, anger igniting. "Old man— you did decide to show yourself? Now that we're going to die?"
The man sneered, head cocked, completely unmoved by the pressure of Serapha's silence bearing down on the ruin. "Tch. Don't play so hard to get, girl. If I hadn't been keeping your irresponsible hide out of sight all this while, you'd be skeleton dust three times over." His tone grew sharp, then mollified into mockery. "You're welcome, by the way."
Reth studied him. Beneath the lazy posture, he could feel something vast and dangerous, barely restrained.
For the first time, Serapha's expression shifted. Surprise flickered across her calm face.
"You…"
The old man stroked his beard, cackling wheezily.
"Oh, for goodness' sake, don't look so serious, dear witch. You'll wrinkle me. Well—more wrinkles, anyway." His staff rapped on the stone, cutting and ringing. "But since you're so set on murdering my brat… He tilted his chin towards Seris. "guess I'll drop the act of being the benevolent senile hermit, eh?"
The air trembled. Shadows wrapped around his feet, rolling up like smoke, spreading over him in dark, ghostly designs. His half-shut eyes blazed, irises burning with starlight, every speck a moving sigil.
"Now, don't think I'm giving you the wrong impression. Up against the actual one—the true Witch of Silence—I wouldn't last a second. But you…"
His mouth twisted into a snarl, teeth glinting through the shadows.
"You're merely a pale little imitation. And that, I can shatter."
The words slipped out before he could stop them, his throat dry.
"Wait—clone??!"
Serapha's hand went up once more, her peaceful face splintering with a hint of anger. "So the shadow dog shows its teeth."
The earth cleft between them. Pressure met—her quietude against his silences. Rocks shattered, ash erupted in a storm, the ruins of the watchtower shaking as if stricken by an earthquake.
And then the world burst into movement.
Shadow spears met unseen blades of silence. Sound distorted, air howled, earth collapsed into dust as two forces met, every blow tearing the destruction further apart.
The old man was giggling, gasping between the mayhem. "Ahh, it's been years since I've had a workout like this! Seris—watch well, brat! This is what a true mage looks like!"
"Stop flaunting it and kill her already!" Seris snarled back, baring her teeth, pulling Asthia away.
"Kill her?" The old man's voice thundered, loaded with false irony. "What do you imagine I am—effective?"
Serapha's serenity at last snapped, robes in tumult as silence rolled outward in a tide of wrath. The old man's shadows ran to meet it, black and silver engulfing the devastation in clashing waves of destruction.
The battlefield itself was transformed.
Her perfect tranquility trembled. The silence tidal wave stumbled, broke, and dissipated into shards of nothing. Her silhouette wavered—solid for an instant, then transparent.
"No…" She whispered, not quite audible against her own territory. "This vessel… is not enough."
Shadows ripped through her crumbling form, and the Witch's form started to disintegrate. The peaceful mask shattered like porcelain, pieces of her figure shattering into bits of pale light that dispersed into the air.
A heavy thud hammered in his chest, faster with every second.
"She's—she's disappearing…."
Seris sheathed her blade, frozen, sweat streaming down her face. "What… what was that thing?"
The old man wheezed hard, dropping his staff, his wheeze close to a cough. "Hah. A replica. A shadow of something considerably uglier." His eyes slitted, his voice changing, colder. "Pray you never encounter the real one, girl."
The final of the Witch's guise trembled, eyes empty now and no longer locked. Her lips moved in stillness—maybe a curse, maybe goodbye. And she was no more. There was nothing left but floating ash, devoured by the night breeze.
Then Reth swallowed hard, his voice shattering the silence:
"Wait—if that was only a copy… then how powerfull would be the real one?!"
There was silence, heavier than before. Seris said nothing. The old man merely scratched his beard,
And none of them had an answer.
A sharp chime shattered the silence.
Not from the battlefield. Not from Van's staff.
From inside Reth's skull.
Scarlet alerts flashed away, replaced by blinding gold text in his field of vision:
[System Notice: Catastrophic Entity — Subdued]
[Reward Awarded]
[EXP +800]
[800/900]
[Threat Perception → Advanced Lv. 4]
[New Trait Unlocked — Calamity Survivor I]
Survive encounter with a world-class entity.
".what?" he grated.
The system wasn't finished.
[Note: Entity is 'Witch of Silence — Fragment']
[Outcome: Recorded as 'Defeated' because of User's party survival]
Heat rushed to his ears, drowning out everything else. "No. no, no, that's not right. I didn't. I didn't do anything."
Seris looked at him quickly. "What are you saying?"
But he hardly registered her words.
[Congratulations, User. Catastrophic threat neutralized.]
Seris stood close. Sweat ran down her soot-streaked face. She gazed icily at Van.
Asthia leaned upon a shattered pillar, pale and wobbly. Her silver hair was knotted up with blood and dust, her cloak in shreds. Her golden sword refused to die in its place at her side, glowing softly. She raised her head, her blurred but fixed eyes on Reth.
"Reth…" Her words were low, almost drowned out by the last crackle of the fire. She leaned forward off the pillar, her movements slow, each one paying for her.
"Keep your distance," Seris snapped. "You're not well enough to—"
Asthia disregarded her. She took another step, her puffy ankle collapsing. Her knees gave way. She stretched forward, hand half-reached out toward Reth.
Before she could fall, Reth shifted Elenya to one arm and caught her with the other. His injured shoulder howled, but he did not let go. He pulled her against him, holding her steady.
Her head was against his chest, her breath warm and ragged. She shook, holding weakly to his sleeve.
Her eyes, half-closed, met his, clouded but clear with one thing
[System Notice: Loyalty Sync Increased]
[Asthia: 31% → 44%]
Mutual survival and defensive action have forged greater trust.
Asthia's eyelids fluttered shut once more, her body relaxing in his arms. Still alive—.
[Mission Update: Mana Crystal Conspiracy]
Evidence collected. Objective revised: Make safehouse and interpret results.
[Reward pending: +60 EXP, +4% Loyalty Sync]