Millennium Witch.

Chapter 31 - War
It's gone? How did it leave?
Gripping the knife hilt, Rosalyn looked in that direction with suspicion and uncertainty, almost doubting that it was all just her imagination.

Then, after looking around, she turned and walked toward the magical skateboard, not intending to stay there for even a moment longer.

But at that very moment, some extremely slight movements behind her triggered a strong alarm in her heart. She turned around and swung her sword horizontally. The bone sword coming towards her struck the blade of the alloy battle blade hard, bursting out a piercing metallic explosion and a series of sparks!
As expected, this creature's departure was just a ruse! It had actually hidden itself in the shadows of the rooftop below, taking advantage of its prey's anxiety to escape in order to launch a deadly sneak attack!
"Buzz—Zzz!" The effects of high-frequency oscillation and high-voltage current were activated instantly. Rosalyn took advantage of the momentum and stepped forward sharply, pushing the blade forward fiercely in an attempt to counterattack.

However, the attacker showed no intention of continuing to fight the girl. It retreated immediately upon contact, creating a distance of several dozen meters, and used its two pairs of thin, dragonfly-like wings to hover outside the rooftop.

Then it lowered its head and looked at the bone blades on its arms. These grayish-white bones were clearly not as sturdy as the alloy blades; after a brief contact, they had already cracked and broken into pieces.

But strangely, it still wore that contemptuous and malicious smile, as if it didn't care at all about the shards on the bone blade.

The next second, under Rosalind's wary gaze, it transformed into a barely perceptible black afterimage, vanishing in an instant and disappearing into the shadows of the high-rise ruins.

……

"Double-edged demon..."

As evening fell, Yvette learned of this peculiar humanoid mutant from her apprentice's exploration report of Grey Harbor City. She put down her teacup, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the warm, smooth surface of the cup, her brow furrowing slightly.

The Double-Edged Demon was the name Rosalind gave to the humanoid deformity; given its uniqueness, it wouldn't hurt to give it a proper name.

She had long suspected that the aberrations on this island were breeding a kind of high-level aberration that even she would fear, and today it had finally appeared—although this was also related to her preference for staying in Ish City and her almost complete avoidance of the neighboring Grey Harbor City and the northernmost Luya City. If she patrolled the island regularly, she would still have a chance to nip the threat in the bud.

What a troublesome guy… she thought to herself.

If it were a direct confrontation, it wouldn't be a problem, but that dual-bladed demon was clearly an assassin skilled in stealth and ambush, and with such speed, it posed a significant threat to a fragile mage. She could maintain her "Crimson Armor" at a low mana cost while sleeping to guard against ambushes, but Rosalind couldn't.

Fortunately, on her way back, Rosalind had considered counter-surveillance measures. Instead of returning directly, she took the city's sewers, which had been transformed into underground rivers with a natural ecosystem. Otherwise, if her address had been exposed, it wouldn't have been impossible for her to be attacked while sleeping in the middle of the night.

"Teacher, I think that mutant might have intelligence similar to humans. It attacks me, and it laughs... It's completely different from the ones I've seen before," Rosalin said worriedly. Just thinking about the anthropomorphic laugh she saw during the day made her feel like she was going to have nightmares tonight.

I don't know if the teacher will allow her to temporarily move to the teacher's room to sleep...

“Then let’s separate it out and call it the third level, which is higher than ‘evolutionary’. Let’s call it ‘elite’. Its most obvious characteristic is that it has high intelligence and may also be good at scheming.”

Yvette pondered for a moment, then said in a somewhat serious tone, "Tomorrow I'll go to Grey Harbor with you to see if we can get rid of it and investigate the root cause of the isow bug's unusual activity."

……

The next morning, the summer sun shone brightly and the sky was cloudless on Ish Island.

But when they thought about the aberrations and anomalies in Grey Harbor, Yvette and Rosalyn looked rather serious as they set off.

Incidentally, along the way, Yvette also provided information about the two locations, "Ish Mountains" and "Luya City".

“Those are the two largest aberration nests on Ish Island,” Yvette said.

“A nest?” Rosalyn chewed on the word.

“I’ve never been inside, and I don’t know much about it,” Yvette said, shaking her head as she drove. “But if the mutants can really reproduce and increase, then the source should be in those two places.” Many years ago, after escaping from the abyss base in the crater lake, Yvette took a trip around the island. Besides collecting books that contained important knowledge and had not yet been corrupted, she mainly explored the island’s situation, confirming whether there were any human survivors, as well as the ecological details of various plants, animals, and mutants.

She discovered that the intensity and density of aberrations in the interior of the Ish Mountains and in Luya City at the northernmost point of the island were far higher than in Ish City, Grey Harbor City in the south, and various town ruins along the way. Therefore, she determined that these two major clusters were the most dangerous places on the island. Putting aside everything else, the sheer number of aberrations alone was enough to inspire fear.

The anomalies happening in Grey Harbor City gave her a vague feeling that the mutated ecosystem of Ish Island was undergoing some kind of subtle change. But she didn't know why it was changing or in what direction it would change.

……

Compared to Rosalind's previous exploration experience, Grey Harbor City was much quieter today. There were very few aberrations encountered along the way, but many wild animals had the opportunity to come out and breathe, frolicking and running freely in the forest-like streets.

A moment later, after driving the hovercar to the vicinity of the port area, Yvette followed the route indicated by Rosalind and gradually approached the depths of Grey Harbor City. Then she heard a commotion coming from the direction of the city center.

They continued driving forward and sure enough, they saw a vast army of deformed woodlice passing by the intersection ahead. Each of them was over a meter long, and there were hundreds or even thousands of them.

What's particularly strange is that, despite the fact that the floating magic vehicle, which was suspended about five meters in the air, should have been within their aggro range, the woodlice seemed not to see it at all. They allowed the two of them to observe them from the vehicle, and then continued to move forward without stopping, heading straight for their destination.

"Teacher, what should we do?" Rosalyn was a little confused. She was prepared to use her poorly learned ranged spells to help cover the retreat, but the mutants were completely unmoved. It was truly unbelievable.

“Let’s see what their purpose is,” Yvette said, then followed from the side at a distance of about 100 meters.

"Won't we be attacked suddenly?" Rosalyn asked nervously.

“I will handle it,” Yvette said calmly.

Hearing the teacher's calm tone, Rosalyn immediately felt relieved.

In fact, after three years of training with the Alloy Blade, she has developed considerable individual combat ability. Even when sparring with her teacher one-on-one, she can often hold her own. However, her weakness is always clearing mobs. She immediately feels uneasy when she sees a group of monsters. After all, no matter how high the Alloy Blade's attack power is, you still have to cut it one by one. How can she kill a large number of monsters? She would be overwhelmed in a few minutes.

The image of a mage she admires—the one who can sweep away a sea of ​​monsters with a snap of his fingers—is the most elegant and fundamentalist one.

……

After flying over several city blocks, the hovercar landed on top of a skyscraper that was now just a skeleton, entangled and wrapped by giant tree roots.

As they stepped out of the car, a bizarre war scene unfolded before the master and apprentice in the distance below.

On the streets, a large number of mutated isow worms formed a constantly writhing red tide, advancing towards the city center.

At the same intersection in the city center, there were also several hundred of these strange and deformed creatures, forming a "ragtag army," roaring deafeningly as they fought back against the onslaught of the woodlice army—rotting worms spewing acid, multi-armed giants swinging their fists, and multi-headed birds swooping down like dark clouds to tear and bite...

Yvette's eyes narrowed as she gazed at the chaotic, bloody, and inhuman scene.

Without a doubt, this is a war between aberrations.

(End of this chapter)