Witch Redemption

A deafening wail rose into the sky as the serpentine monster, over a thousand meters long, began to expand wildly, exploding into corrosive minced meat. Both its body and soul were instantly destroyed by an unusual and bizarre power. Even the divine essence that should have belonged to the "blood of the creator" was corrupted by this power and dissolved into the seawater.

Death is only a matter of a moment, the key is to find the right method, whether you are a human, a demigod, a false god, or even an avatar of the creator.

Death has always been so fair.

However, the god of the present world, "Oz the Trembling Wind," did not know the cause of his death until the very last moment, and he never expected that this cunning fellow had been hiding behind his massive body all along, suppressing his vision.

The final attack and killing intent were aimed at the Creator's true form, in order to avoid arousing his suspicion.

With the two forces combined, just as "Oz the Trembling Wind" blasted open the upper body of "Hulk," his death was imminent, arriving so suddenly that there was no time for regret...

Chapter 31 Convergence

As dusk approached, a girl with long, dark green hair and a high forehead, looking somewhat tired, pushed open the door, her overall appearance a little disheveled.

"nailed it?"

As soon as he stepped into the room, the black-haired Yu Hui and Leviathan, who had been waiting for a long time, came to greet him with solemn expressions.

"You can rest assured that I'll handle things!"

In one-on-one combat, there aren't many false gods in this world who can rival her. Even if she can't kill them, she can hold them off for a long time. For example, back in the Elf Kingdom, she could single-handedly hold off ten false gods, though she had to pay a price.

However, it was thanks to the kind people of the Elf Kingdom who gave her the equipment; otherwise, it would have taken her quite a bit of effort to defeat this false god today.

Perhaps it was because the spine of this creator's avatar was so powerful that even she, named "Cthulhu," rarely had such thoughts about her own kind. "I had only heard that witches were treasures from head to toe, but now it seems that the corpse of the creator's avatar is the same. I think I can understand why the creator's avatars in ancient times killed each other."

To put it bluntly, it's a "collecting fetish." If the corpses of their own kind could be made into powerful weapons, then perhaps it would be worth playing with. In any case, their true forms would never fight each other, so letting these clones fight each other within predetermined rules is one of the fun aspects of this "true god game."

"This false god was taken down, but there was a slight accident," he explained briefly. Essentially, a weapon was too powerful, causing the false god to turn into pus and die, thus preventing the acquisition of any other valuable items. "That's it. What are your plans now? What are you going to do?"

"With the biggest threat eliminated, things will be much easier from here on out. Hoping the servants can escape is unlikely; they'll be lucky to survive. We plan to find his trail, launch a preemptive strike, and rendezvous with him. The reason we hesitated to leave earlier was that this false god still controls this barrier, and we were afraid of alerting him if we approached certain areas..."

Actually, they were worried about being caught by this false god and killed, but they had to cover up such an embarrassing thing.

"Yes, when I came back, I also took control of quite a few military personnel and gathered a lot of valuable intelligence. For example, my two retinue members and the three witches were sent to the Snowy Mountains, which is the location of 'Destroyer of Kingdoms'. I also heard that in recent days, many allied forces from other major powers around the world have arrived and are heading to that place. The allied forces from the United Duchy of Ries are rather strange. When I encountered them, this false god was sniping at the allied forces of the Orc Duchy."

"The coalition? Who knows what this desolate ancient country is up to? Anyway, once we get the people, we'll blow them all up and be done with it."

These three ancient creators were utterly inept at intrigue and scheming, let alone how to deal with such situations. Their favorite approach was simple and brutal: if they couldn't handle something, they'd resort to "explosive art"—they were practically terrorists.

“Alright, I’m not familiar with this world anyway, so I’ll leave everything else to you. By the way, just a reminder, I can only suppress the cause and effect of this false god for about three days. After three days, his death will be known to this world, and our existence may be exposed, especially mine.”

"It's alright, we'll talk about that later."

Black-haired Yu Hui chuckled, his smile still a little mischievous.

"Wait, you promised me..."

"Relax, buddy, we're best buddies now, why would we do anything to betray you? Right, Leviathan?"

"Mmm!" Leviathan nodded heavily, thinking to himself, "A top-tier enforcer! We must squeeze every last drop of value out of her! Don't stop!"

"Hmph, I'll assume you're trusting for now."

After a long silence, the girl finally understood. After all, friendship was impossible between ancient creators; only interests mattered. Their current cooperation was simply a matter of mutual exploitation, requiring no further complexity.

“Then we’ll set off immediately tonight. Leviathan, you take Juliet and the others to that place.”

Under the command of the black-haired Yu Hui, Leviathan immediately took out her "detachable and portable fish tail". As one of her unique talents, her fish tail is a unique alternate dimension that can store anything, including living people.

After all, they were going to travel through the night, and the areas they would be traversing would inevitably include monster-infested regions. If Juliet, Fu, and Natalie, the three little elf girls, didn't find a way to deal with them, things would get quite complicated.

"Come on! Get inside!"

Leviathan opened its fishtail, revealing a dark opening that led to some terrifying otherworld. "Don't worry, it's safe inside!"

"Ugh, it looks suspicious no matter how you look at it!"

Juliet and the others hesitated for a few seconds, but when they thought about how the three witches who had saved them from their suffering had been missing for a long time and that they were ultimately powerless to help them, they decided to trust the three "elders" whose expressions were a bit off and went inside on their own.

"By the way, Baldy, about your three little rascals..."

"Don't call me Baldy! Call me CEO K!"

"Oh, bald guy, I mean, do they want to go in too?"

"......" Never mind, she just has a high forehead, what does that make her bald? "No need, they're special, just let them follow behind. Anyway, their true forms are those things, they might actually be able to protect us later."

"Very well, then let's pack our things and get ready to leave."

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

On March 22, 10008 (Gregorian calendar), three days had passed since Luo Lina was rescued. During these three days, Li Lan had been leading Luo Lina towards the eastern region.

Finally, after a long and arduous journey, Li Lan successfully reunited with the Twin Witches who had come to meet her.

"Karen?"

The twin witches, Bai Ling and Xue Ling, exclaimed in surprise. At the same time, they did not expect that Li Lan would bring back an unexpected witch.

It seems the trip was a complete success!

"Thank goodness, everyone's alright," Li Lan noticed two unfamiliar and seemingly extremely dangerous figures in the group and asked, "Who are these two?"

"My name is Arno, it's an honor to meet you, Miss Roman Hydra the Witch." The tall banshee, who appeared to be a lady of high society, took the initiative to introduce herself.

"Hello, Miss Witch, my name is Ako," the short banshee, not to be outdone, immediately introduced herself, adding a few words of sales pitch-like rhetoric, "May I have a moment, Miss Witch? I'd like to tell you about our Heavenly Father and the High Priest..."

Feeling like she'd heard that somewhere before, Li Lan nodded. "Oh, next time. I need to turn back to normal first—Yu Hui, thank you for your help!"

Half an hour later, Li Lan, who had finally returned to normal, ate a lot while starving. After regaining her strength, she then inquired about the situation of the past few days.

It turned out that due to a series of unusual events a while ago, their team set off ahead of schedule, intending to meet up with Li Lan as soon as possible.

Basically, the Imperial warships appeared, but shortly after their appearance, they were all shot down by an unknown attack.

According to the investigation by the two female demons who brought bad news, the army that entered the Snowy Mountains was a coalition of several major powers. They did not know what had happened and directly clashed with the army of the Desolate Ancient Kingdom. After that, they were engaged in endless fighting.

It was a real battle.

This world isn't much different from the world Li Lan lived in before she transmigrated. Human life is incredibly fragile; death can happen in an instant. Just strike at vital points, fight to the death, and if the two sides fight for a few hours, countless people will die.

When there are many people at the beginning, the fighting is a chaotic free-for-all, and one-for-one exchanges are normal.

The army of the Desolate Ancient Kingdom was significantly larger and of higher quality, so the fighting, which began at noon that day and continued until evening, was essentially one-sided. The Desolate Ancient Kingdom achieved an overwhelming victory, wiping out the vast majority of the Imperial soldiers and the allied forces of the three major powers of the Western Continent. When the remaining soldiers realized that something was wrong, their strategy gradually shifted to covert assassination warfare, which continues to this day.

Furthermore, it is said that after the allied forces of the western continent revealed their trump card, the battle situation took a terrible turn, and the army of the desolate ancient kingdom began to suffer massive casualties. The reasons for this are perhaps only known to these unfortunate souls who once served in the elven kingdom.

"Ghost," the most powerful trump card of the Elf Kingdom, which Li Lan and his group were once helpless against, it seems that the army of the Desolate Ancient Kingdom also cannot find a way to counter it.

"So, they've started fighting like dogs?" Li Lan was surprised and felt it was somewhat illogical.

Previously, I had only heard that the world's superpowers would send out certain troops to test the waters, and that the first wave would be to test the "Dead Tide." But now they've even revealed their trump cards? And to make matters worse, these allied forces have already started fighting amongst themselves before they've even faced the "Dead Tide" head-on.

"That's not the most crucial point. The crucial point is that all the allied forces who died here were transformed into undead creatures and immediately headed north, which seems to be the central area of ​​this region. I find this a bit hard to understand."

Arno, the tall banshee, reminded her.

“By the way,” the human adventurer Franklin added, “I heard that Miss Roman went to rescue ‘The Destroyer of Kingdoms,’ and she is this…”

Franklin's idea was that if this vast dead land was controlled by the Destroyer of Kingdoms, then perhaps she could intervene to help them out of their predicament.

“No, she is not the Youji who destroyed the kingdom; that person was someone else,” Li Lan pondered for a moment, then, without holding back, explained the general situation of the area. “The story begins about four days ago…”

The snow-covered mountain range was actually the testing ground for the ancient, desolate kingdom. The so-called "Destroyer of the Kingdom" was actually a demigod from the ancient kingdom who possessed the body of the witch Lorina Yuffie. This was related to a daring plan by the ancient kingdom: they intended to use the witch's body to create a "Creator of Death."

The ancient creator was originally an existence above this world, even if it was just a small avatar.

Because of the existence of the "Prophecy Day," a day of destruction, the desolate ancient kingdom is going to extremes to save itself, attempting to analyze the power of the ancient creator and then create an existence that can rival the ancient creator. The most convenient way to do this is to use the blood and flesh sacrifice passed down from ancient times, sacrificing it to witches of a specific race and a specific magic book profession through special methods, thus promoting the "deification" of those witches.

Li Lan didn't understand the principles at all, but he could guess the true purpose of the desolate ancient kingdom.

Like other major powers, even the actions of desolate ancient kingdoms are considered "just" from their perspective, and are genuine acts of self-preservation.

But what did this have to do with Li Lan? All he wanted was for himself and his teammates to survive. He never belonged to this world and would never consider saving it. Whether it was the British Empire, the Elven Kingdom, or the current desolate ancient kingdom, any grudges would be settled in the future!

"A god-making plan? That's impossible, isn't it? Can an ancient creator really be created?"

Not only the three human adventurers, but even the two demigod-level banshees were stunned and completely incredulous.

"I don't know. Actually, I probably know more about the ancient creator than any of you, so I know very well that such a terrifying being could not have been created. However, this being in the heart of the snow-capped mountains gives me a strong intuition that her power probably surpasses any living god in this world! She is a true creator!"

Li Lan had two avatars of an ancient creator by her side. Facing these two supreme beings with absolute power, Li Lan always maintained her trust in them.

Whether it's Shub-Niggurath or Abkhos, these two ancient creators with true names are unique, yet they also possess thousands upon thousands of avatars. Their true forms represent the most powerful and invincible force in the universe, an existence that cannot be replicated. The highest level these superpowers can achieve is likely only at the level of an avatar of an ancient creator; even at that level, saving the world is probably impossible.

Li Lan recalled jokingly mentioning to Hei Fa Yu Hui and Leviathan that she had once asked if she could pray for their true forms to appear and save them, these suffering witches.

The two creatures then said something that seemed like a joke, "Sure, my servant, this is a gamble, really. You know, our true forms are in eternal slumber, and both Leviathan and I will return to our true forms upon death. If our deaths are too dramatic, perhaps they might provoke our true forms to act. If it's you, as a favor, we can indeed let you gamble once, as long as you have the courage to attack us. Of course, we won't resist, because it's quite interesting."

Their words may have contained a lot of joking, but Li Lan never took it as a joke and never brought it up again afterward.

He's had enough of having to sacrifice something in order to save it.

So be it. Since the witch's return to her homeland has become an impossible dream, let it remain a dream forever. Li Lan will hold on in this world in his own way until the very end, until he succeeds in his revenge in the future. Until then, no matter what happens, he will cling tightly to the legs of these two ancient creator avatars.

It was a case of mutual exploitation.

"It's obvious that the ancient kingdom's god-making plan has succeeded. I don't know when that girl in the central area will wake up. Once she wakes up, it could very well be our doom."

When Li Lan mentioned this point, her heart was filled with worry.

Before rescuing Lolina, he had already discussed the matter with Skull Fifteen. The conclusion was that Skull Fifteen couldn't completely kill this girl either; at most, they could severely injure her to buy time for their escape. As for how long this escape would take, the initiative didn't lie with Li Lan and his group, but with this "Destroyer of Kingdoms," the Ghostly Consort.

At this point, after several hours of negotiations, everything that had happened so far had become clear.

The desolate ancient kingdom has launched a "god-making project." All the adventurers sent into the snow-capped mountains, the allied forces of various great powers, and even the desolate ancient kingdom's own army are likely sacrifices. Their deaths will trigger a highly mutated "Destroyer of Kingdoms." Furthermore, this vast territory can already be considered the domain of the Destroyer of Kingdoms. All intelligent beings who die here will not only be transformed into undead creatures, but will also be absorbed by the Destroyer of Kingdoms, becoming part of her core power.

In other words, this place is now a bottomless pit; the more people die, the stronger the power of the destroyer Youji becomes.

"I have no way to break this deadlock," Li Lan said honestly. At this point, the situation was beyond the control of a mere witch like him. Moreover, intelligence was a huge problem; Li Lan and his group lacked sufficient information. Therefore, all he could think of now was to consult everyone present to see what the next step was. Another option was to wait for Lorina to awaken and see if they could find a way to break the deadlock from her.

The three legendary adventurers, who were also the weakest human men present—Franklin, Ruda, and Nig—exchanged bewildered glances. They still felt like they'd been through a nightmare. They had initially been searching for a way to "awaken their origins," never imagining they'd be caught up in this current turmoil. And it seemed that without the witches' help, they would have died countless times already.

“We’re sorry, we…we don’t have any other options either,” they said, their information was pitifully limited. “But please believe us, we will absolutely not hold you back. If necessary, you can abandon us at any time.”

Those who drag the team down must be prepared to accept it. Although these three human adventurers are afraid of death, their dignity will not allow them to live a life that is too pathetic or too repressed.

"You can rest assured about that. My motto has always been to see things through to the end, to help someone to the very end."

As a transmigrator from Earth, Li Lan believed that his ideological awareness and morality were many levels higher than those of most people in this world.

"Um, we'll listen to you. The Banshee's brain isn't working very well, hehe."

The two banshees immediately spoke up. As intuitively directionally challenged individuals, they had always followed the commands of Cthulhu, the creator's avatar, without much independent thought. This remained true now; although they possessed the strongest power in the group, they were essentially just super fighters—excellent in combat, but too simple-minded and direct, lacking any talent for scheming or trickery.

"..."