Witch Redemption

The witch Hope raised the gray-white "dying" scythe in her hand, circled it once, and then slammed it heavily into the ground again. "Necromancer!"

Necromancer's Ritual is one of the signature skills of Hope, a necromancer of the Raven Feather Clan. Once activated, this skill can add the "Sacrifice" effect to any undead creature she summons, and is generally used as a prerequisite for summoning the "Lord of Death".

Unbeknownst to many, this skill is actually an unbeatable trump card that can be used in conjunction with other summoning witches. It allows other summoning witches to mutate and evolve by consuming witch Hope's "sacrifice" without consuming summoned creatures, and can be regarded as an independent "life sacrifice".

Subsequently, these summoning witches can use mutated or evolved summons to perform a second, additional "life sacrifice," maximizing the power of the summons.

The massive, greyish-white "dying" scythe, as it fell, unleashed countless jet-black threads the instant its straight handle touched the stone ground. These threads spread outwards like a spiderweb, instantly connecting all the undead creatures within a radius of tens of thousands of meters.

Whether they were novice skeletons or low-level zombies, all the undead creatures summoned by the witch Hope were engulfed in raging black flames.

At the same moment, the sixteen summoning witches in the team activated "Life Sacrifice".

Summoning witches can generally control various low-level elemental spirits, mid-level powerful large beasts, and some high-level humanoid summons with strict quantity limits and ridiculously strong power.

These summoned creatures are all similar to monsters, but unlike monsters, they do not have any magic core or intelligence core. They are simply aggregates of matter, which can be understood as similar to "puppets".

Immediately after they launched the "life sacrifice," the rushing elemental spirits began to tear at the surrounding undead skeletons, their size increasing as they devoured the "offerings."

In the blink of an eye, the Flame Spirit grew to the size of a three-meter-tall giant fireball, the Lightning Spirit trailed a long electromagnetic tail, and the Wind Spirit transformed into a rapidly swirling, sharp hurricane... Meanwhile, numerous large beasts specializing in strength or speed lost most of their flesh and blood during their charge, soon to evolve into even more powerful humanoid summons.

"Not enough!"

The witch Hope was able to grasp the situation on the entire battlefield. She quickly issued one command after another, dispersing the numerous witches in an attempt to divide up this massive monster army.

There was no other way; this massive monster army was far stronger than he had imagined. The best way to deal with this traitorous witch, Karen Elf, was to force her to break free from her numerous summons and enter the Traso Corridor alone. The rest would then be the stage for the two strongest witches in the current empire.

"Evelina, notify the seventh to twentieth witch squads to proceed to the one o'clock direction and intercept the separated portion of the summoned creatures from there."

"Sophie, notify the 21st to 30th witch squads to head towards the 10 o'clock direction and intercept the separated portion of the summoned creatures there."

"Cheriel, notify the Second, Third, and Fourth Magic Battalions to activate a massive isolation spell to divide the battlefield. Make sure to cut off all escape routes for the traitorous witch Karen Elf and eliminate all her allies."

"Cecilius, notify the Fifth and Sixth Archer Battalions to provide reinforcements to their respective battle zones to alleviate the combat pressure on all members!"

Witch Hope did consider going all out to defeat the main witch, Kallen Elf, but according to the intelligence revealed by the Empire, the witch Kallen Elf was extremely special. She possessed resurrection abilities to some extent, and her summons would not stop after her death.

Knowing this, Witch Hope couldn't concentrate her forces on one target at this stage. Instead, she chose to disperse her forces, first eliminating the wings of Witch Karen Elf, forcing her true form into a direct confrontation in the Traso Corridor.

In other words, these 300-plus witches are now facing a large "dungeon". To clear this dungeon, they must first kill all the monsters and then gang up on the single monster leader.

They all have to die!

These numerous summoned creatures must die, and so must the rogue witch Karen Elf!

"The number is roughly ten thousand... twenty thousand... close to thirty thousand! An incredible number, but thankfully, it only goes this far!"

Through the information conveyed by the Soul Sharingan, the witch Hope felt a chill run down her spine and finally understood why the Empire had been in such a hurry to summon so many witches.

Karen Elf, this monstrous existence, is capable of rivaling any witch on her own, unleashing the overwhelming power of nearly thirty summoning witches.

"Nearly 30,000 summoned creatures. Although I don't know how he did it, I'm certain of one thing: after cornering him alone in the Traso Corridor, even if he could be killed successfully, the subsequent summoned creatures would be difficult to deal with. It would have to be dragged out until the arrival of the other two hundred reinforcements."

The moment the witch Hope made this judgment, the many witches who had united began to play their respective roles.

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

Escorted by a large number of humanoid followers, Li Lan sped through the jungle, and in the blink of an eye, she was only a few thousand meters away from the only entrance to the Abyss Rift, the Traso Corridor.

As he expected, the Empire's witches had already laid numerous traps and ambushes in this area, constantly hindering his progress.

Seeing that the large number of humanoid followers scattered around him were fighting against a large number of undead creatures and various strange monsters, unable to break free, he felt an extremely strong sense of foreboding.

“These witches of the empire have two options for dealing with me: one is to concentrate all their efforts and kill me first.”

Among the witches are various mage or archer classes who excel at ranged attacks, with an extremely exaggerated attack range. Li Lan was betting that these witches would be distracted by him, allowing him to concentrate his forces and kill him first.

In any case, Li Lan could be resurrected with the blessing of the two creators, and even if he fell, he would have a large number of berserk humanoid followers as backup to buy him time. In any case, the number of them was extremely large, and all of these humanoid followers were capable of fighting against the Empire's witches. The scales of victory would actually tip in his favor by stalling for time.

However, these witches haven't done that yet; instead, they've chosen a different approach. "They want to eliminate all my followers first, and then turn their attention to me?"

It was obvious that these strange, monster-like creatures were the work of summoning witches. Although it was unknown how many of these summoning witches there were, judging from the ever-increasing aura of these summons, they seemed to be subtly hindering his breakout.

"A necromancer paired with a summoner is practically like having a cheat code!"

If that weren't the case, how could a mere five hundred witches possibly stop him?

Of course, Li Lan wasn't qualified to say that, because in the eyes of the witch from the Empire's side, he was also a cheater, and his cheats were even more powerful.

Suddenly, the area of ​​fierce battle began to shake violently. Countless stones rose from the ground in Li Lan's field of vision, clearly earth-based isolation magic. Seeing this astonishing stone wall, tens of meters high, covering the sky and directly separating the numerous humanoid followers, gradually forcing Li Lan to move forward alone, his anxiety finally reached its peak.

"It's impossible to deal with so many of my powerful creations at the same time. Even if there are five hundred witches in this area now, it would be difficult to withstand nearly thirty thousand. So what they are most likely to do now is..."

I originally thought that what would follow would be various archery-type witches' archery attacks, or magic-type witches' long-range spell attacks, but that didn't happen.

Moreover, these towering rock barriers were not meant to trap him, but to completely divide the battlefield of all creations, leaving only one path leading directly to the Traso Corridor, as if inviting him to a one-on-one duel.

"I see, it seems there's no turning back!"

These witches were very cautious. They knew it would be difficult to withstand 30,000 rampaging humanoid monsters, so while using a large number of summoned creatures to provide some resistance, they also divided the battlefield, intending to defeat all of Li Lan's creations one by one.

Now, Li Lan only has two paths to choose from: one is to continue forward, cater to the other party's ideas, and carry out a "one-on-one fight," and the other is to stay where he is, sit and wait for death, and wait for the other party to clean up all his creations before slowly settling accounts with him, the original owner.

"Can the enemy really defeat me one by one and wipe out all my creations?"

No, you can't be sure!

Li Lan made a careful judgment: today, whichever side it was, they came prepared and would definitely target them to some extent, targeting them relentlessly.

"If I stay here any longer, those witches who have already infiltrated the area will probably not be able to enter the Abyss Rift. And if they really manage to kill all my followers, then what awaits me will definitely not be as simple as I imagine."

Yesterday's battle has already provided the Empire with a wealth of intelligence, and Li Lan is now uncertain about what will happen if he dies.

Li Lan used to have a smooth life because he had all sorts of powerful teammates who could help him out, but now it's different. He's all alone, and the witches who are temporarily on his side are all too weak.

"No time to think! We have to go all out!"

The witches on the Empire's side are by no means weak characters; they are all among the strongest beings below the demigod level, as are Li Lan and all his creations.

In some ways, the witch's potential is far greater, so it's not surprising that she could crush his creations after they had maximized their strength.

While the Domain Skill: Twilight can unleash the greatest potential of creations, its weakness is also obvious. That is, once this trump card is used, the creation will completely lose its mind and fight to the death, making it easy to be targeted by these insidious witches.

"Since they've extended such a warm invitation, then..."

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Lan began to run forward at full speed, and there were no attacks from any direction during this time, indicating that the other party's objective was indeed as Li Lan had expected.

That is, the witches of the empire were already exhausted from dealing with the large number of creations, and they no longer had the strength to fight him. All he needed to do was to attract all attention and pave the way for the infiltration of other witches.

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

"Did they take the bait? No, it's just perfect teamwork!"

In the shared consciousness of the witch Hope, the overall situation of the battle was very favorable to them. The traitorous witch Karen Elf must have sensed his intentions, so she deliberately abandoned her large number of humanoid followers and walked into the trap.

"With such courage, it's no wonder he was able to escape successfully from the empire's wanted list back then."

Hope's first impression of the witch was that this guy was a ruthless person who was not afraid of any life or death. Like a seasoned gambler, he was good at betting everything in desperate situations. If he could not make a fortune, he would rather be crushed to pieces.

"Maria, inform the couple that I have created an opportunity for them to fight one-on-one. The rest depends on their strength. And convey my message: do not disgrace the title of the Empire's strongest witch!"

The final command had been given. Witch Hope once again pulled the gray-white "dying" giant scythe nailed to the ground. "Witch Karen Elf is, in some ways, an existence that is difficult to kill. Her strength is suspected to be at the level of a true demigod. If she cannot be killed, then we can use this method, using a curse, to keep her in a state of half-life. It's just a pity that such a method may require the sacrifice of Witch Wild Hunt and Witch Eris."

To eliminate the empire's greatest traitor, these witches who firmly believe the empire is righteous will fight with all their might today, even at the cost of everything.

Chapter 18 One-on-One Duel

From the time he was old enough to understand, he had lived in the pain of war, losing his parents, becoming an orphan, and becoming a victim of the hatred between two countries.

From the time he was old enough to understand, he had devoted everything to the struggle to survive, constantly trying to escape that quagmire of despair.

Unfortunately, all his efforts throughout his life were in vain. It wasn't until he became a prisoner of the enemy and was led to the guillotine that he realized just how unwilling he was to accept his fate.

I refuse to accept my powerlessness, I refuse to accept this hopeless life...

Suddenly awakened, I saw a somewhat familiar dark fence in my blurry vision.

"Is this... a prison? Am I not dead yet?" he murmured subconsciously, but the voice that came out was a heavenly female voice, not his original hoarse male voice.

"What exactly is this...?"

After a brief moment of surprise, he suddenly realized that outside the prison's iron bars stood a stern-faced old woman who instinctively instilled fear in him.

The old woman had gray hair, and her face was covered with wrinkles that resembled the bark of an old tree, making her look ferocious and ugly. Her clear green eyes were also staring intently at him.

Strangely, he only felt a tranquility from the depths of his soul. It seemed that the old woman had no hostility whatsoever, and even a strange sense of goodwill towards him arose in him.

"Are you awake? The witch whose real name is Hope Smith."

Hope Smith?

He could clearly tell that this language did not belong to his original world, yet he could understand it miraculously, and he could even speak it instinctively without any communication barriers.

"Hope Smith, are you talking about me? Where am I?"

His mind was still blank. He remembered that he should be dead, and the pain of being beheaded before his death still lingered on his neck.

"Yes, congratulations, transmigrator born from the witch's summons. As you can see, this is the witch's prison in Kate City, the capital of the empire. No matter what your past life was like, you will become the savior of our country and even the world in this life, leading this country toward the future."

The stern-faced old woman opened the prison door for him and gestured for him to pick up a dark book beside her.

"Bring your personal magic book and come with me. I will now perform a divine bestowal ceremony for you."

"A divinely ordained ritual?"

Unable to understand the words, he instinctively got up, like a newborn infant, and followed in a daze...

This is him, the witch Hope Smith, on the first day she crossed over into this world, ascending from an endless, despairing purgatory to a true paradise.

Here, he was trusted by the empire and by like-minded friends. Here, he possessed power he had never had in his previous life, and he no longer needed to experience the poverty of barely having enough to eat. Here, there were no petty national feuds or endless wars; he could choose the life he wanted according to his own will.

Even though the British Empire has repeatedly said it could send these witches back to their original world, he would never make such a choice as returning to hell.

This is his paradise, the paradise of the witch Hope Smith. Even though he once suspected that the Empire's "witch summoning" might have other motives, he wanted to repay the country that saved him with his loyalty. This place is full of love and happiness, and even if it is just a fleeting dream, it is worth protecting with everything he has.

He was different from the other witches. The other witches treated this world as a game, taking all the rights and status for granted, and even scheming against each other for it, since they would return to their original world if they died in this world anyway.

But the witch Hope never treated this world as a game, but as a new life. Since the empire had granted her such high rights and status, she was entitled to bear the necessary responsibilities and obligations. Moreover, she would never die in this world; she would do everything in her power to live on and witness the true end of her life!

Right or wrong?

It doesn't matter. Whatever the truth of this world may be, it doesn't matter.

The witch Hope has always had only one simple thought: no matter what happens, she will stand on the side of the Empire without hesitation.

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

"Honey, the call has arrived. Prepare for battle!"