NOVEL NEXT Ch. 99
Chapter 99
Journey and Destination
The stench of blood in the mine was so thick it almost congealed into something tangible.
When Lucifer leapt down from the rock wall, its wings tore through the air with a sound like fabric being ripped apart.
It licked its fingertips like a satiated cat. The flesh and blood of the black hounds were being slowly absorbed through the fissures in its skin.
Old Jack sat slumped beneath the rock wall, the mining lamp having rolled onto the ground.
The dim yellow light cast Lucifer’s shadow upon the wall. It was not even vaguely human—it was a mass of flesh composed of countless struggling hound heads.
Lucy watched this creation she had personally cultivated. Beneath the pallid skin, the outlines of the black hounds writhed faintly. The devoured summoning beast’s magical veins were being forcibly fused into new patterns.
She raised her eyebrows slightly. This flesh construct she had cobbled together from available materials appeared to have evolved an intriguing ability.
Although Lucifer’s efficiency in absorbing the black hounds seemed rather low, it was indeed evolving.
However, this battle had also revealed its fatal flaw: the lack of any powerful offensive means.
If Marco had not been frightened out of his wits, if he had not collapsed the rock wall with a single spell only to be ambushed and killed instantly by Lucy, who wore the Nightwalker robe, Lucifer alone would have struggled to pose any real threat to him.
“You... you truly are a great witch...!”
Ash’s sword had long since fallen to the ground. The knight’s sense of honor had been ground to dust in the face of absolute terror.
Lucy did not answer.
She took Marco’s belongings from the eerie servant’s hands.
A small pouch of magic crystals, two wizard tomes, and several letters.
She broke the wax seals without a thought and skimmed the text at a glance. Her expression gradually grew solemn.
It turned out to be an operational plan targeting the wizard forces of the Kingdom of Cordova, with the Tower of the Four Sages prominently listed among the objectives.
The letter disclosed that while the front line launched a feigned assault, an elite force composed of formal wizards and peak apprentices would drive straight into the rear.
If this plan succeeded, the wizard forces of Cordova would suffer an annihilating blow.
More than that, she learned in the letter the true purpose of this Tower War.
Just as Tower Master Derrick had speculated, the planar war would erupt three years later, and then every region would be allocated expedition quotas.
The Kingdom of Sofit, the Kingdom of Cordova, and two other kingdoms all belonged to the Ninth District of the Western Continent of Wizards, receiving a total of five hundred quotas.
If the wizard forces of the Kingdom of Sofit could win this Tower War, they would inherit those quotas.
Lucy’s gaze flickered as she tucked away the letters.
She turned to look at Ash, whose face was stricken with dread.
The retired knight was trying with all his strength to show courage, but he found that he could not meet her eyes.
“Do you wish to become a Tower Knight?”
Ash jerked his head up.
Lucy said, “I need you to deliver this letter to the Tower of the Four Sages in the Principality of Kolo. If you succeed, I will nominate you as a Tower Knight.”
For any knight, becoming a Tower Knight was the ultimate dream.
Ash, who had lost his parents early and had neither wife nor children, agreed almost immediately.
However, Lucy did not place all her hopes on Ash alone. She planned to hire several more mercenary bands along the way to send copies of the letter back by multiple routes.
……
Seven days later
When the wizards of the Thousand-Eyed Tower realized Marco had vanished and came searching, they found only a field of corpses within the collapsed mine.
They immediately sealed the border and began hunting for the black-haired witch.
But Lucy had long since ridden her Black Cat Broom out of the Kingdom of Sofit, plunging straight into the endless desolation of the Rusted Plains.
On that plain, devoid of human settlements, Lucy flew among tens of thousands of migrating iron-feathered flocks soaring through the sky.
When she grew tired, she entered the Abyss of Nightmares to meditate or conduct experiments.
She had witnessed countless weak spores occupying an entire lake, reproducing in terrifying numbers; she had quietly captured a few and cast them into the Abyss of Nightmares.
She had also encountered, amid a storm, a monstrous weaver whose power rivaled that of a Tier-4 lifeform. Her broom had nearly been torn from her by the thunderstorm. She had curled up beneath the Nightwalker robe and the Fractured Crystal Reverse Scale Shield, trembling, until the Storm Weaver seized its prey and vanished into the clouds. Only then had she dared to continue on her way.
She had even seen the colossal bones of a giant beast towering hundreds of meters high. Though it had been dead for over a thousand years, it still radiated a horrifying contamination value.
Time passed.
Lucy crossed the terrifying Rusted Plains.
In the Crystal Cluster Forest, she traded with wild fairies for seeds of hundreds of thousands of plants.
In the Rotsea Wetlands, she witnessed powerful sea creatures and watched their ritual ceremonies.
After traveling along the endless coastline, she reached the far end of the Western Continent of Wizards.
There, she spent two months living and studying in a true Tower of Potionology as a free witch, becoming acquainted with many potion scholars.
She then visited an Alchemy Tower and witnessed the construction of airships.
She clashed with ill-intentioned free witches, journeyed together with mercenary companies bound for the same destination...
Five months later.
Lucy’s mental strength had increased to 38.6, only half a step away from advancing to a Tier-4 apprentice.
The elven plants transplanted into the Abyss of Nightmares had grown lush and verdant, and more than two hundred specimens of enchanted beasts were shrieking in their cages.
On the hillside, herds of animals grazed peacefully. They would become the enchanted beasts’ daily feed.
But her greatest gain was that pair of eyes, which had shed all immaturity—the silver-haired girl holding her tomes now looked more like a scholar returned from her travels than a witch.
……
“Miss Felicia, just ahead lies the pass into the Dusk Gorge. Once you cross it, you will enter the legendary Old Lands.”
Outside the carriage, Arnos, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Milan, sat astride his horse. His ornate gilded armor shimmered brilliantly in the sunlight.
This prince, renowned for his devotion and valor, had his gaze fixed on the girl’s slightly dazed profile.
“Thank you for escorting me all this way, my friend.”
Lucy closed her tome and leapt down from the carriage. Her silver hair billowed behind her like a banner in the gale sweeping through the pass.
After a journey of five and a half months, she had finally arrived at the meeting place agreed upon with Master Theodosius before the first day of Year 3041 of the Wizard’s Calendar.
A smile she could not suppress appeared on her face, causing the prince, who had been watching her intently, to momentarily lose himself.
Arnos also dismounted, smiling as his golden hair fluttered in the wind. He offered the reins of his beloved steed to Lucy.
“Don’t refuse,” he interrupted before she could speak. “This is a token of the friendship we’ve built over these two weeks together.” He continued, “When you’ve finished your travels, promise me you’ll come to the capital to find me.”
“I promise!”
Lucy reached out to clasp his hand lightly, then mounted the warhorse and rode slowly toward the pass.
……
“Your Highness, we should set out as well.”
Seeing that Prince Arnos seemed not to hear him, the captain of the knights had to raise his voice.
“You must be aware that Miss Felicia is a witch, and you yourself witnessed her dissecting an enchanted beast...”
A faint twitch pulled at the corner of Arnos’s eye.
Even now, he struggled to reconcile the image of the beautiful scholar with that of the blood-soaked dissection maniac he had seen that night.
“I know.” He watched her graceful figure recede into the distance, his voice tinged with a melancholy he could not dispel. “I just want to feel the wind for a little while longer...”