The Queen of Scrolls never admits defeat

Just because the witches are vigilant and have Lady Carmela's contract magic to help them at any time doesn't mean others are.

Judging from the reactions of the Dawn Society members to the disguised demons around them, it is clear that many people have unknowingly signed their names on the items handed to them by the demons.

While most people are currently safe and sound, this is not because the devil has shown mercy, but because they are not the primary target.

The demons meticulously maintain these superficial relationships only to deepen their disguise and more easily approach their true prey—the witches.

Even if these people are not the primary targets, the demons will never let go of the souls that are within their grasp.

Nine times out of ten, they have already secretly marked these people's souls, like an invisible fishing net cast by a patient fisherman among a school of fish, waiting only for the moment when the prey's life ends—when the soul is about to leave the body, these marks will silently carry the soul back to the hands of the demon.

Now that their true identities have been fully exposed, their carefully constructed social networks have collapsed, making it impossible for them to approach the witches using their previous disguises.

These marked humans, elves, and dwarves thus lost their usefulness to the demons.

In this situation, would demons still patiently wait for their prey to die naturally before harvesting their souls? The answer is probably not optimistic.

The only saving grace is that none of the marked names are witches.

At this moment, Moran couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

If the friendliness system hadn't been allowed to automatically set the racial friendliness of demons to "-100" according to the rules, and if they hadn't all been kicked out of the Dawn Academy, we might still be able to locate the hiding places of demons on the surface world by using the traces of card magic left by these people.

Gathering intelligence by scavenging the memories of these demons is far safer than venturing deeper into the abyss inhabited by demons later.

After all, no one knows what these harvested souls were actually used for.

Moran had conducted numerous experiments. The Book of Cards could use corpses as materials to create complete {Corpse Cards}, even human corpses, but it could never create living {Bio Cards} from living organisms.

At first, she thought this was a restriction on all living things, until she later discovered that plants without spirits could be an exception. She could create {living plant cards} that could continue to grow after being materialized, such as {a daisy in bloom}.

This discovery made her realize that the Book of Cards could not deal with "life" itself, but with the existence of "soul".

All sentient plants, beasts, magical creatures, elemental beings, and even intelligent races, as long as they possess a soul, cannot be completely copied.

Spirituality is the sign that a soul has been born.

In fact, the Book of Cards can only create a handful of soul-related cards, such as {Material Card - Soul Essence} and {Material Card - Heart of the Ghost Ship}, but these are just materials derived from soul energy, not the soul itself.

Of all the races on the continent of Valen, only demons possess the forbidden art of manipulating living souls.

How exactly did they do this? And how did they use the soul to enhance themselves? These key questions remain unanswered mysteries.

Each race's understanding of demons is based on painful historical lessons, which can be summarized in three points.

First, demons are proficient in dark magic, which is even more insidious and vicious than dark magic.

Secondly, their contracts are a key tool for harvesting souls.

Third, the true name is the demon's fatal weakness.

Apart from this, other races know almost nothing about demons. This may also be because they always operate under disguise, and every word they utter is difficult to discern as true or false.

Such a treacherous and cunning race has lurked in the shadows like a venomous snake for thousands of years, never giving up its covetousness for the souls of witches. Just thinking about it is enough to send chills down your spine!
"Fortunately, they must follow certain rules when harvesting souls, and Lady Carmela's contract magic is perfectly able to counter demonic contracts."

Vasita gently touched her chest, her voice tinged with lingering fear: "Otherwise, with so many witches surrounded by demons, trouble would have ensued sooner or later."

Moran's brow furrowed even more deeply, her thoughts lingering on the intricate web of relationships woven by the demons, as if some crucial clue had been overlooked.

Lilith's words were like a lightning bolt, cleaving through the fog in her mind:

"Wait! Why are there so many witches surrounded by demons?"

She immediately retrieved the data and rechecked it.

Sure enough, almost every witch who had left the wilderness and spent a long time traveling around the continent of Valen over the past ten years had demons disguised as various identities appearing in her life!
This discovery sent chills down her spine.

"You all say..." Moran's voice suddenly turned serious: "When you travel, do you directly reveal your witch identity, or do you disguise yourself like we did?"

“When I was in the Chaotic Realm, I disguised myself as a research mage, collecting the blood of magical races, and I never stopped using top-tier transformation potions.” Lilith said, her eyes suddenly widening. “Wait… if even that could get me targeted?”

One demon targeting her might be a coincidence, but three? That's definitely a premeditated targeting.

Even more strangely, for more than a decade after Lady Anita's attack, the witches have been acting with extreme caution.

Newly emerged witches from the wilderness would carefully disguise themselves before embarking on their journeys, so it was impossible for every one of them to be exposed.

Moran's fingers tapped unconsciously on the table, and a terrifying hypothesis gradually took shape:

"Unless demons can see through the flesh and directly perceive the essence of the soul, how could they possibly lock onto their targets so precisely?"

This conjecture made the temperature in the room seem to drop suddenly.

If demons truly possess such abilities, then the witches' disguises will be rendered useless in their presence.

Every witch who leaves the wilderness is quickly targeted by demons.

Even more terrifying is that this means the demons' desire for the witches' souls may be far more obsessive and dangerous than they imagine.
Verifying the truth of this conjecture is not difficult; we can simply use divination magic.

Predicting the entire demon race's abilities is difficult to achieve, but predicting a few of these disguised demons is not difficult for Moran at all.

Several prophetic images flashed through Moran's mind, and she opened her eyes with a grim expression.

"How is it?" Lilith asked quickly.

“There’s a slight discrepancy, but not by much,” Moran said. “They can smell the scent emanating from a soul. To them, the stronger the soul, the more pronounced the fragrance; the purer the soul, the more alluring the scent.”

No race possesses a purer soul than witches; no wonder demons relentlessly target them. (End of Chapter)