Cornflower Witch

Chapter 104 The Eclipse of the Black Sun
At the foot of the mountain under the cover of night, several braziers burned in the campsite, illuminating three figures in the open space in the middle.

The witch in the long black dress sat down with a teacup in her hand, talking with Viscount Schevon and Maester Hyde.

"Time flies. It's been fifty years since I last came to Jiaoshi City." Her slender fingers, with their dark purple nail polish resembling snake heads, gripped the teacup.

"Senior Melinda, she's still the same as before, her appearance hasn't changed much," Scholar Hyde remarked.

Although his temperament was completely different, his appearance was still largely the same as before, which is why he could recognize him at a glance.

"Forty years ago, I entered the third tier and officially joined the 'Night Dream Tea Party'. At that time, the organization gave me a bottle of 'Shadow Fixation Potion', which can prevent my body from aging and maintain my appearance for nearly thirty years."

"If we're talking about side effects, it's probably the body's involuntary 'shadowing'," she tapped her fingers.

"If you had successfully reached the third tier back then, you would have also received the benefits of being a full member of Candlecastle. With your years of contributions, you could have exchanged a bottle of 'Elder's Potion' to keep your body age at seventy years old and prevent it from aging any further. Moreover, compared to 'Fixed Image Potion', Elder's Potion has far fewer side effects."

"Hehe, what you say is true, but all of that is in the past. I don't think about it so much now." Scholar Hyde shook his head. Over the years, he had become more open-minded about life and death and did not value it as much as he did in his younger days.

“Since you don’t have many regrets, I won’t try to persuade you anymore.” Melinda’s gaze shifted slightly, looking towards the distant mountains and fields.

"This time, I am here as a representative of the forestry department to assess new students. I have already passed through 29 cities, and among them, only one new student has been able to achieve all three goals with outstanding qualifications."

"I originally thought that Jiaoshicheng would be the same as previous years, without too many surprises, but this time it is different."

"Oh, have some students already completed the third objective?" Scholar Hyde asked in surprise.

Even though Iona and Sylphia are highly talented and have performed well, Maester Hyde still doesn't have much hope that the two will achieve their third goal.

"The good news is that someone has indeed finished it." Melinda seemed to want to tease this junior she hadn't seen in a long time, deliberately keeping him in suspense.

"The bad news is that the two who have achieved their goal will still inevitably fight each other, and a final winner needs to be determined."

"This..." Maester Hyde stroked his beard for a while, then sighed helplessly.

Both were his students, and he couldn't show favoritism to either of them; he could only pray that they would both come out alive.

"Among the trainees, is there anyone who can rival Iona?" Viscount Xue Feng was somewhat surprised. He had previously shown goodwill towards Xilutia purely out of respect for Lady Fran, and had never considered how strong that girl was.

“Yes, Your Excellency.” Melinda tapped her cup lightly with her fingertips, resting her other hand on her chin, a playful smile on her face.

Golden honey blood... that's a bit rare, but such a thin lineage isn't anything special. It's the girl, though, who's quite interesting.

……

In the forest, the two who had been fighting stood facing each other, temporarily ceasing their battle.

Iona covered her eyes with one hand and held her sword by her side with the other, her body trembling slightly, as if she was enduring great pain.

Seeing that Iona was acting strangely not far away, Sylvia stopped what she was doing.

"Are you ok?"

However, instead of a response, what followed was some kind of delirious rambling.

"No, no, I won't give up, I won't give up..." Iona swayed as if talking in her sleep. Unfortunately, no matter how unwilling she was, her body had reached its limit. It was extremely difficult for her to even stand up, let alone launch another attack.

Given her extremely unstable state, Hilti could not approach her rashly and could only watch from a distance of several meters, waiting for her to calm down.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as Hilti had imagined.

Perhaps out of extreme resentment, or perhaps because she was completely unable to accept her future, Iona slowly reached her hand towards her neck, where there was a golden pendant.

Flipping open the pendant, one finds miniature portraits of Iona's family. Iona appears to be only about ten years old, smiling happily, while two well-dressed men and women stand beside her, presumably her parents.

However, Iona's purpose did not seem to be to look through the small portrait and recall memories. She directly crushed the figure in the portrait with her fingernails, tearing the portrait apart and revealing the black and purple gem hidden inside.

When she took out the black-purple gem, Hilti felt a strange yet familiar fluctuation.

That is... the power of [distorted] sexuality.

【Black Calamity Gem】(Tier 2 - Twisted): A special gem formed in the Abyss, containing the 'Twisted' aspect, which can be used for certain rituals and experiments.

As the gem was taken out, the sound of flapping wings came from the forest, and thirteen night birds appeared on the branches, seven of which were owls, and the other five were birds I did not recognize.

The night birds kept their eyes fixed on Iona below, a faint purplish-red glint in their pupils, as if they were monitoring something, but they did not interfere.

Iona picked up the dark purple gem, her chaotic crimson eyes peeking out from between her bangs as she looked at the gem before slowly pressing it into her pupils.

At this moment, the night birds in the forest cried out together, making eerie sounds, and invisible murmurs spread.

The dark purple gemstone slowly melted upon contact with Iona's eyes, scattering strange wisps of smoke that clung together without dispersing, floating like tentacles.

'bang'

Just as Hilti was about to step forward, a strange pulse emanated from Iona, like the heartbeat of an invisible being, twisting the world around her.

She began to hear whispers, as if many people were talking around her, but at that moment there was no one else in the forest besides her and Iona.

The surrounding trees began to twist unnaturally, and her perception of her surroundings became strange. The soil beneath her feet seemed to be churning and surging, but upon closer inspection, nothing had changed.

Although I am in reality, it feels like I am in a nightmare.

At some point, the black and purple wisps that had been fluttering around Iona's pupils disappeared, but her originally bright red pupils were now completely black, and no change in her pupils could be seen.

The originally blazing sun now took on a strange twist in Hilti's eyes.

This is……

Hilti suddenly recalled the history that Maester Hyde had taught her.

[Degenerate Ritual - Erosion of the Black Sun] (Blazing Sun, Twisted, Nightmare)
'In the final years of the Golden Honey Dynasty, facing the Corona Dragon's reclaim of the 'Blazing Sun' throne, the entire dynasty deployed tens of thousands of giant magic arrays across the continent. They communicated with the endless abyss beneath the Sea of ​​Twilight, using 'distortion' as a catalyst, striving to replace the newly born Blazing Sun with the shadows in the abyss, allowing the Blazing Sun to immerse itself in the abyss, and then rise a brand new black sun.'
-
Conditions: This ritual targets individuals with the 'Blazing Sun' attribute. The environment must be of the 'Nightmare' attribute, and there must be a 'Twisted' attribute as a catalyst. The more you know about the history of the end of the 'Golden Honey Dynasty' and the more synchronized the various arrangements are with the historical legends of that time, the stronger the effect will be.
-
Summary: Once the ritual is initiated, it will summon the resentful spirits of the 'Golden Honey Dynasty' from history. They will call upon the unfinished feat of the past and murmur the prayers of the ancient Golden Honey Dynasty. The bloodline of the 'Golden Honey Dynasty' must be involved in the initiation process. The 'Twisted' nature of the catalyst cannot be lower than the 'Blazing Sun' rank of the target. The stronger the 'Nightmare' nature of the surrounding environment, the smoother the ritual will proceed.
-
Effect: Reverses the target's 'blazing sun' nature to 'nightmare', but due to the incomplete legend and the side effects of the distorted nature, the reversal will cause an unknown mutation to the target.

(End of this chapter)