Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

[Conceptual Reconstruction—Gathering Place, Residents, Soldiers, Legion.]

The concept of a town was transformed into a settlement, which was then broken down into residents and buildings. Residents were defined as soldiers and then constructed into legions, while buildings were further broken down into earth and stone, and then returned to be transformed into battlegrounds.

When a legion and a position are combined, that becomes a fortress.

The raging storm abruptly dissipated just as it was about to subside, and the dispersed winds swept into every corner of the town. The civilians who had been running around stopped in their tracks. Not only people, but even animals, insects, and even smaller microbial communities stopped. The civilians became soldiers, they became them, and then they moved into the nearest houses in an orderly and rapid manner, like machines.

The houses began to change; the stones turned into flowing mud, and the mud turned into solidified stone. In an instant, the entire town of Clear Spring was transformed into a sturdy rock fortress. Weapons began to be made, magic arrays began to be laid, and free energy within a hundred miles converged and concentrated on the land beneath Alice's feet.

She sensed the flames stirring, but they were immediately repelled by her fortress. Rows of turrets, capable of spewing plasma and cursed energy, were rapidly constructed along the edge of the fortress, though she didn't know their principles or structure, but seemed to know how to build them instinctively. They then opened fire fiercely outwards.

Artillery fire, lasers, explosions, flames.

The flames quickly grew weaker, and after a short while, they couldn't even stay weak any longer, soon turning into extinguished embers.

They were defeated, and Alice didn't even notice their defeat. Their efforts were not in Alice's eyes, their battle cries were not in Alice's ears; everything was as natural as a wheel crushing ants, or a farmer harvesting wheat, as natural as the rising and setting of the sun.

The battle was over, and the fortress retracted its fangs. Magic continued to gather within the ley lines, but the buildings on the surface remained unchanged.

Alice blinked.

—'This is the knowledge of a witch, this is the vision of a witch.'

A thought suddenly popped into her mind.

But I am a nun now, and I used to be a priest. How could I possibly be a witch?

This is a question, and questions represent active thinking.

Those mundane emotions that had been forcibly stopped due to the overload of information began to function again. Alice jolted awake, her mind returning to its state as Alice Friede.

"What happened?" She instinctively looked around. The bizarre fortress that came into view left her speechless. She could still sense the living beings in the fortress that had once been mortals or livestock, and she could feel that she could command or order them at will.

Their lives hung in the balance in Alice's hands, and this eerie realization made her hesitant to even consider it. She could still recall everything she had done, yet even knowing every action and step she had taken, she still felt like a stranger to herself just seconds before.

"Did I do this?" She rubbed her eyes hard. Just then, she sensed the change in the space around her once again.

—That exceptionally blazing flame has not yet been extinguished.

Alice raised an eyebrow, instinctively returning to her previous strange state. Within her vision, a spatial rift suddenly opened about a hundred meters in front of her. She raised her hand, drawing upon the concepts of 'wind,' 'heat,' and 'speed' from the surrounding atmosphere to construct a plasma sphere the size of a water tank. Then, as the rift opened, she forcefully launched it towards its location.

'Om—'

With a soft hum, the unfolding spatial rift expanded outwards, transforming into a complex net that easily disrupted and destroyed the stability of the plasma sphere. The dissipating wind and heat washed over the ground, which had now become a rocky fortress, and then a clear human figure took shape amidst the surrounding hot air.

It was a woman, not very tall, with a good figure. She wore the Fire Keeper's blindfold on her head, but a gorgeous white robe that made her look like a goddess—Alice couldn't see her face, but she subtly sensed that her features were somewhat distorted. It was like planning to smear cake on the birthday person's face at a birthday party, only to find that the birthday person was having a drunken rampage.

Conflicted, confused, or perhaps depressed?

Alice ignored her and simply pointed to the sky, where more newly formed plasma spheres were visible.

There were one hundred of them, each capable of creating a massive explosion powerful enough to cover a football field and completely vaporize a 21st-century armored company. They all hovered silently above Alice's head, awaiting only a command to instantly transform from stillness to operation.

A powerful force.

But it's not enough.

"These alone won't kill her." — The girl lowered her hand; she had sensed a sudden surge in the other's aura before she made her move.

[We need to buy some time.] — The hundred plasma spheres then dissipated.

"You are...the Fire Keeper?" Alice's beautiful face, stripped of all superfluous emotions, suddenly displayed a standard expression of confusion mixed with bewilderment. The muscles in her face, the contraction and dilation of her pupils, and the changes in her overall posture were all perfectly coordinated, so much so that even the most skilled psychologist could not detect any flaws in her movements.

"Why is the Fire Keeper here? You shouldn't be here. I don't recall you having a tradition of working with White Cult priests." The fortress beneath her feet was still gathering magic.

Fire Keepers are priestesses who belong to the White Order but are not subordinate to it. They were initially trained by the White Order, chosen from among the most devout and learned nuns. To respect the First Flame and protect its secrets, these qualified Fire Keepers blind themselves, sealing their eyes with wax and undergoing various trials. The most outstanding among them then becomes the Fire Keeper.

The White Priestess has no authority over the Fire Keepers, because they are only responsible for the First Flame. They are responsible for preventing the flame from going out, guiding the hero who links the fire, and, in emergencies, for the ashes used to link the flame. Typically, a Fire Keeper goes to the Firelink Shrine after birth and waits there for the bells to ring and for her hero to arrive. Or she waits for her own aging and death.

Fire Keepers should not leave the sacrificial site, as that is not their duty.

however……

The Fire Keeper in front of Alice gave her a slight bow.

“For the bells have already rung, Lord Cinder,” the Fire Keeper with her elegant curves said softly, though for some reason Alice sensed a strange undertone in her words. “Though the flames have not been extinguished, the King, awakened by the bells, should still return to his throne.”

"You are the king of painting. And I..."

She moved her fingers, which were wrapped in cloth.

"...I will take you back to the throne."

........................

My family kept urging me to go to bed early, so I only had one session today.

Transformation, Chapter Twenty-One: Reality and Illusion

There are two ways to bring the Lord of Cinder back to the throne: the first is to bring him back intact, and the second is to bring him back with his head intact. Judging from the current situation, the Fire Keeper who doesn't seem like a Fire Keeper at all is probably more inclined to choose the second option.

Alice sensed her magical energy levels; beneath the stable fortress, numerous magical engineering projects were rapidly and quietly taking shape. Many operational mechanisms, the reasons for which she had no idea how they were constructed, were gradually taking shape, though completion would still take some time.

“I am not a king,” Alice said in a deep voice. “Your judgment is wrong; I am not qualified to be a king.”

“But you have linked the fire before, even if it wasn’t voluntary—the former leader of the Black Church, Lady Irisfried. A Lord of Cinder is someone who can link the fire once and then link it again. And you, at this moment, perfectly meet this simple requirement.” The Fire Keeper smiled, seemingly oblivious to the many changes beneath the earth. “You don’t need to possess the qualifications of a king, because you are already a king. Just as only things that are not human need to prove they are human, only those who are not kings need to prove they are worthy of being kings.”

"Just because you're already a Fire Keeper doesn't mean you don't need to prove you are?"

“Yes,” the Fire Keeper, her eyes veiled, nodded slightly. “I am now a Fire Keeper, so I no longer need to prove myself to anyone. All I need to do is fulfill my duty at this moment, and your duty is to return to Firelink Shrine with me—or for me to bring you, or a part of you, back to Firelink Shrine.”

Is there no room for discussion?

“There used to be. But now—” The Fire Keeper shook her head and sighed softly.

"—You've used all the room for discussion to buy time."

Alice blinked.

The Fire Keeper in her vision suddenly disintegrated into shattered fragments—remnants, optical effects left behind only by ultra-high-speed movement, even short-distance space jumps. The surrounding air currents churned violently as a result, and a chilling gust of wind rose behind the back of her head!

The wind, the swirling wind, formed a wall. It had seeped into the fortress minutes earlier through Alice's will, and it reappeared when Alice needed it, becoming a solid wall.

A sturdy wall, a fragile wall, a vigilant wall.

A slender, pale hand easily pierced through the wall formed by the wind. The dozen or so layers of magical shields behind the wall shattered simultaneously. The Fire Keeper appeared behind Alice like a shadow, and her outstretched hand pierced Alice's vest almost without resistance.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Bare?"

The pierced shell transformed into a different kind of shackle, from which several runic chains suddenly burst forth and wrapped around the Fire Keeper's body. Before they could even touch her, they were easily resisted by a thin membrane of light that appeared on the Fire Keeper's body. And then, the trap within the bait was unleashed!

'Om—'

A black shadow flickered, and the area where the witch had stood vanished completely from the material world as if scooped out by a giant ladle. The entire spatial structure was utterly destroyed by the triggered trap, and the storm caused by the spatial collapse swept outwards!

“You’ve chosen the wrong power. Space is as easy for me to control as my own fingers,” the Fire Keeper said softly. She lightly tapped the ground with her toes, and the spatial storm that had just begun to simmer completely subsided in an instant. The corrective force generated by the subsided space then gathered around her, forming a diamond-shaped barrier that firmly protected her.

She raised an eyebrow and looked at Alice, who had suddenly appeared on the other side of the fortress—both of them instinctively considered the courtyard where Shinki was outside their attack range. Then, she raised her hand and slammed it down.

'Gah—'

As if a mirror were shattering, a crisp, continuous cracking sound erupted from the area where her palm landed! Dark fissures, like the roots of a giant tree, emerged from the void and extended in all directions, instantly covering an area of ​​nearly one cubic kilometer. Then, a faint light burst forth from the black cracks.

The cracks were spatial fissures, and the light was highly concentrated energy. When the immense power emanating from within space was detonated by the Fire Keeper in an unknown manner, spraying chaotically in all directions, the vast fortifications Alice had previously constructed were instantly rendered useless. The ground was cleaved into pieces of varying sizes, and these fragments further fractured into even smaller structures. At least a third of the town ruins were completely engulfed by this attack, and then all the newly established, yet unused, magical institutions in those areas were reduced to ashes!

The plasma-spraying cannon shattered.

The idol that created the shield broke.

The rituals and anchors of fixed spaces are now fragmented.

The magical energy stored inside the fortress, ready to be released at any time for combat or to activate traps, has all been lost.

With just this one move, nearly a fifth of Alice's previous battle preparations were rendered useless. The remaining four-fifths were also in a precarious state. The opponent's strength far exceeded her expectations, but exceeding expectations did not mean she was helpless.

She raised her hand, and a multitude of concepts flashed through her mind.

Space, order, stability, shield

An invisible shield unfolded around her, and the spreading black cracks stopped abruptly the moment they touched the thin shield. Her five fingers spread, and the giant scythe she had been holding was now shrouded in a chilling mist. The Fire Keeper's form appeared before her the instant she raised her weapon!

[Scythe, Harvest, Sever, Chop]

She swung her scythe forward with a sudden burst of speed, the razor-sharp blade wrapping around the Fire Keeper's wrist like threads of light. The diamond-shaped protective barrier shattered instantly, and the Fire Keeper's fist abruptly stopped. But in that moment of pause, her kick broke through Alice's defenses!

It was a...not very pleasant impact.

Alice's eyes widened in shock, her already pale face turning deathly white. The heavy kick had broken at least a third of her ribs and half of her internal organs, and before she could mount any effective counterattack, her massive scythe, which had collided with the Fire Keeper's fist, was torn into pieces of varying sizes like a cheap plastic toy.

The Fire Keeper's punches continued forward, piercing the girl's heart from the front!

She is dead.

....................................

Alice opened her eyes.

She found herself back at the moment when the magic that kept her hidden was about to step out the door, and the auras of those flames had already begun to move away from the edge of the town before she even stepped out. They seemed to be just passing through, and this town was not their target.

She turned her head to look at Shenqi, who sat innocently beside her in the chair—Shenqi was holding a freshly drawn sketch, its moisture still lingering. The sketch, like panels in a comic book, used several interconnected shots to depict a future that no longer existed!

"So, this is what will happen to you if you walk out here and collide head-on with the Fire Keeper. You can't beat her, and I don't mind if you try a second time." Shinki put away her pen and drawing board and shrugged at Alice. "Although you displayed great power in that future, you can't beat her, and I feel that even if you repeat it again, it won't end well."

"Of course, if you insist, then I won't stop you... after all, I have no right to stop you from going to your death."

She said this in a flat tone. Alice then fell into deep thought.

A strange feeling, a wonderful feeling.

She could still recall the state she was in in the 'future,' manipulating concepts and using various powers she couldn't understand to fight against enemies. She remembered every detail of her actions, knew the meaning behind every concept she mobilized and every wisp of magical energy, and also knew how to gather and combine these concepts and magical energy to achieve specific effects.

Why was she able to wield this power? She didn't know, nor did she intend to delve into it—though she herself actually longed to explore the underlying meaning. But reason told her that now was not the time for such things. However, not delving into it didn't mean she couldn't use it. When she raised her hand, she was surprised to find that she could still sense the concepts and energies in the atmosphere, and controlling them seemed not difficult.

—She didn't do that right away.

"Kamiki, do you know what's going on?" Alice asked softly.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know.” Shinki held up one finger and waved it from side to side. “I just predicted your future by drawing a picture before you were about to leave, and then handed this future over to you. As for that bunch of inexplicable skills and powers within you, I have absolutely no idea what they are. Perhaps they are one of the powers you mastered through training in the past, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to explain why they appear in your memories, right?”

“Then I was really strange in the past.” Alice shook her head slightly, her gaze turning to the kitchen beside her—the large pot of ingredients that was not yet fully processed was still emitting a kind of curse-like black mist. It hadn’t increased or decreased. Although it had a subtle difference in texture from normal food, it was clear that the dish was the one she had cooked earlier.

That's the real deal, and since it's genuine, our next course of action needs to be slightly modified.

Alice raised her hand, intending to erase the plate of 'food' from the world with a single burst of magic. However, she immediately realized that the returning aura of flame in her memory was very likely due to this, because her release of magic had caused this area, which should have been safe, to be searched a second time.