Millennium Witch

"We can talk later, let's leave here first." Yvette looked into the distance. Nothing was approaching from the direction of the city center, but from another direction, a huge figure was already faintly visible.

She knew that it was the Mountain Whale Lord, one of the three Mother Nest Guardians, whose territory was the closest, so he would be the first to come to her aid if anything happened.

She had already used up about 4500 units of aberrant magic to capture the Spider Witch, and by extension, hunting other lords would likely consume about the same amount of magic.

Of course, unless there are special circumstances, she would choose to use her mage abilities to fight a war of attrition with the opponent first, and then use her Black Eye ability to finish them off when the opponent is low on health.

But at the center of the Kux is a mysterious sixth-stage ruler. What level of strength does it possess? If I were to face it, would I definitely be able to win?

Even if we can win, are we guaranteed to kill them?

Even if we can kill them, are we guaranteed to recoup our costs?

Moreover, who knows what secrets are hidden in the center of Cux? Otherwise, why would the highest-ranking monarch among the aberrations, the "King of the Sea and Sky," send a sixth-stage commander to guard this remote area?

Therefore, from both a safety and cost-benefit perspective, it's best to leave now.

……

Leaving the snow-covered, ice-like city of Cooks, and approaching the area where the mountains are located, the gentle spring rain fell on Yvette's face again, which she blocked with wind magic.

Instead of returning directly to the Puppet Kingdom, at Yvette's instruction, Dugrabi carried the two to a ruined ancient site.

Entering one of the black buildings constructed of metal, after the rainwater was blocked by the broken metal panels and only a small portion seeped into the room, Yvette turned to look at the Spider Witch.

At this moment, the Spider Witch was soaking wet, her long, dark hair clinging to her face, making her look rather disheveled. She was bending over, rolling up her skirt to drain the water, and through the chest of her black dress, Yvette could see a detail beneath her clothing: several black insect armor covering her skin, completely concealing her vital private parts.

Yvette was somewhat disappointed, but she also felt that it should be so, since the Spider Witch was a mutant, and she had to retain something to show that she was not human.

Although she felt that the original purpose of these shells was to be used as underwear, otherwise why not just cover the whole body with them...

Noticing Yvette's gaze, Abella looked up and blinked in confusion. Yvette casually looked away and asked calmly, "If you... if you disappeared, what would your superior's 'commander's' reaction be?"

“Commander Zi? I…I don’t know.” Abella answered somewhat fearfully.

"Don't know?" Yvette was a little puzzled, thinking, "Don't you even know whether your boss will take care of you or not?"

Meanwhile, Dugrabi immediately shouted, seizing the opportunity, "Teacher, she's not being honest! I'll interrogate her for you! I guarantee she'll behave and tell you everything!"

"Get out... I'm not lying! I really don't know!" Abella was furious. This wretched dragon was so annoying. She hurriedly added, "You...you..."

“My name is Yvette Losivia,” Yvette said.

“Lady Loshivia, you were able to subdue me so easily, you must also be a commander in the vicinity, right? If you are both commanders, Commander Zi might not necessarily go to war with you, and Cux’s situation is rather special.”

"special?"

“Yes, it involves a little secret… but you are also the commander, so you should be able to guess it,” Abella said hesitantly.

“Go on,” Yvette thought to herself, “You overestimate me.”

"You know, the monarch of Black Tide Continent has not yet been born... the monarch's position here is vacant."

"Hmm." Yvette nodded expressionlessly, but was inwardly taken aback.

What do you mean the monarch's position is vacant...? Isn't the monarch a rank that can be evolved once enough mutation factors are accumulated?

Is there a fixed limit? Are there special evolutionary conditions?

Or is it just a certain position?

"What do you mean? The monarch's position is vacant? Didn't you earn that position through your own efforts?" Dugrabi asked on behalf of Yvette. It didn't know if its teacher needed to know this information, which might sound a bit basic, but it didn't care, as it was very curious itself.

Abella glanced disdainfully at the black dragon, thinking to herself that elites are indeed elites; even this was unknown to them. She herself had learned a great deal of important information long ago during her own advancement. This, too, was a manifestation of the difference in rank among the divine offspring.

Then, swallowing her anger, she explained to Dugrabi, "The goddess has bestowed nine monarchical positions upon her children."

"Goddess? You mean the Witch of the End? And what are the Nine Monarchs?" Dugrabi asked.

"The Witch of the End? How could you call her a goddess?" Abella looked at it in surprise. Judging from her tone, it seemed that this title was quite disrespectful to the goddess.

"So what? I'm not one of you evil demons created by the evil gods. I'm a noble dragon, you understand?" Dugrabi said, feeling that the image of the dragon race was still very distinct, and it could be quickly distinguished from the ugly and disgusting appearance of the evil demons.

Before, when the situation was unclear, it was understandable that it pretended to be a demon, but now that the spider witch has been captured, it finally doesn't want to pretend anymore—as long as the teacher's disguise doesn't give itself away.

"Dragons? You're from the New World?!" Abella exclaimed in astonishment.

The New World? This must be the human realm, right? Dugrabi thought for a moment, then said proudly, "Yes, so what?"

“Heh…hehehe…” Abella didn’t answer immediately, but suddenly laughed a few times before coldly saying, “So you came from the New World. No wonder you look different from the average elite…but don’t be too happy yet.”

She paused, then gave a somewhat terrifying look, staring at Dugrabi, and said, word by word, "The goddess has awakened, the gates to a new world are about to open... Prepare to face the coming of the end, you pathetic ants!"

Chapter 83 Intelligence

A brief silence fell over the cold, damp air. Yvette and Dugraby both fell silent as they watched Abella deliberately put on a fierce expression.

The Witch of the End has awakened, and the day of the end is about to arrive... Chewing on this information, Yvette felt somewhat bewildered, wondering if the Witch of the End really existed.

Is the answer to the apocalypse really that simple?

The evil god descended, bringing with him an army of aberrant beings. According to messages from beneath the abyss base, it may have started in the ocean, then the original civilization was destroyed, and the evil god slumbered, preparing to destroy the next world...

that's all?

That's all?

"What a terrible story," she thought. "If this is a story, then it must be a terrible story. No matter what, the Origin Civilization is a human civilization that has developed for thousands of years and has achieved brilliant success, yet it suddenly dies in such a mechanical deus ex machina. Isn't that too boring?"

No... it's not necessarily that simple.

Perhaps the End Witch did not exist initially; she later became the "goddess" among the aberrations, just as the sixth stage is called the "ruler" and the seventh stage is the nine "monarchs".

"God" may only be one of the later stages.

However, what connection lies behind her appearance in the mainstream mythology of the Radiant Continent?

Furthermore, the Spider Witch claims that the gate to a new world is about to open. What is this so-called "gate"? Could it be the aurora borealis?

……

Unlike Yvette, who was expressionless but actually deep in thought, Dugrabi's feelings were much purer. After all, in its understanding, the Witch of the End was the king of evil gods who threatened the entire human world, so it didn't have many doubts.

After a moment of shock, it asked urgently, "The Day of the End? What do you mean? You mean the Witch of the End is going to wage war against the human world? Wasn't she sealed away?"

Abella gave a cold laugh, intending to keep everyone in suspense, but seeing the black dragon raise its claws, seemingly about to strike her, she immediately became obedient and shrank back, saying, "I... I only know that the day of reckoning is coming, I don't know anything else! But that's probably what it means, which is why the King of the Sea is working so hard to plunder resources everywhere and desperately cultivate high-ranking subordinates..."

After the black dragon lowered its claws, she breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but steal a glance at Lady Loshivia, wondering what this commander was up to. Why didn't she convert the black dragon that had smuggled itself from this new world into a divine offspring?

Wait, could she be a spy for the Divine Heir?

Abella swallowed hard after considering this possibility, but after a while, she felt that the probability was not high.

Although no one knows what the consequences of disobeying the goddess's will will be, for the divine offspring, disobeying their superiors is absolutely unacceptable.

Through the special existence of the "Mother Nest," the hierarchy within the Divine Heirs is extremely strict. For example, in Cux, if the Purple Commander asks the Spider Witch to do something but she refuses, the Purple Commander can use the control of the Pale Mother Nest to make her commit suicide on the spot, turning her into nutrients to reward other Divine Heirs.

If the Mother Nest can do this, then the power of the Goddess is even more undeniable, so an internal traitor... uh, that's probably impossible, right?

Am I overthinking it?

In any case, this Lady Loshivia is definitely the leader of the gods, there is no doubt about that. Just look at her strange hair and her terrifying ability to devour evolution factors, it is impossible for those ants in the new world to do that. The ants occasionally wander into the Origin World, but they are terrified of evolution factors, how could they dare to devour them on their own?

At this moment, Yvette, who was standing to the side, had finally finished processing this information. Suppressing her doubts, she asked again, "What secret were you talking about just now?"

Putting aside her wild thoughts, Abella said, "...I don't know how many vacancies there are among the nine monarchs, but there is no monarch in Black Tide Continent...The day of the end is approaching, and it is an opportunity to perform meritorious service for the goddess, so the King of the Sea sent Commander Zi to secretly come to this place on the edge of the North Sea and Black Tide Continent to establish a stronghold and plunder the nearby resources...That's why I said this place is special."

Dugrabi suddenly realized: "So you guys came here to steal things after all."

“…That’s about it.” Abella glanced at it.

"Are the nine monarchs forbidden from plundering each other's territories for resources?" Yvette asked.

"I...I don't know...It might be because the monarch hasn't been born yet." Abella thought to herself, "If even a commander doesn't know, how could I possibly know?"

The probability that plundering is prohibited since no monarch has been born is higher... Otherwise, this rule of prohibiting plundering feels very inconsistent with the style of raising mutated creatures to kill and devour each other and evolve... Yvette made a judgment in her heart.

This also means that secretly coming to Black Tide Continent to plunder nutrients is a violation of the rules, which explains why Abella couldn't judge the Purple Commander's actions. From the other side's perspective, since they've come to Black Tide Continent to steal, they should definitely keep a low profile; how could they possibly clash with the other local commanders?

Dugrabi continued, "How many of the nine monarchs are there now? Where are they located?"

Abella shook her head: "I only know two. One is the King of the Sea whom Commander Zi is loyal to, and the other is the King of the Abyss, who is the King of the Sea's mortal enemy... Commander Zi should know more, right? He is qualified to challenge for the position of monarch. Hmm, so is Lady Loshivia."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Furthermore, the nine monarchs rule over the sea, land, and sky, but I only know that the King of the Heavenly Sea is the ruler of the Northern Sea of ​​Abyss Flow; I don't know anything else..."

Upon hearing this, Yvette's heart stirred slightly.

As far as she knew, there were three continents and four oceans on the Origin Star, or the Land of the End.

The former are Black Tide Island, Emerald Island, and Silver Mirror Island.

The oceans are represented by the "Northern Ocean of Abyss Flow" and the "Southern Ocean of Abyss Flow" at the top and bottom of the world map, the "Rune Ocean" in the middle left, and the vast "Ocean of Consciousness" on the right.

Does the fact that the King of the Seas rules over the North Sea mean that each of the four oceans has a monarch?

The fact that a monarch has not yet been born in Kuroshio Continent does mean that each of the three continents also has a monarch.

In this way, there are two monarchs left out of the nine monarchs, who are the monarchs who rule the sky.

……

With Dugrabi acting as her mouth double, Yvette was able to remain silent for most of the subsequent interrogations, maintaining her persona as the leader of the Aberrations, while Dugrabi, posing as the "New World Dragon," extracted more information from her.

She learned that the internal hierarchy of the aberrations was extremely strict, and that from the third stage onwards, advancement was impossible without the help of the hive. There were only three paths: become the hive master, become a subordinate of the hive master, or be both.

She also learned that the Spider Witch Abella was actually a local elite from Black Tide Continent. After the Purple Commander arrived in Kux, she was chosen by the Purple Commander due to her high intelligence, and received a promotion and an enhancement, which made her one of the three guardians of the Kux Mother Nest—which is why she is the only one without the characteristics of a marine creature.

As for the mountain whale hordes that continuously fly out of Cooks, they are elite-level combatants produced by the Pale Mother Nest using the nutrients it has plundered. They will travel along the route through the mountains and into the North Sea beyond the snow-capped mountains, with the aim of expanding the mutated legion under the King of the Sky and Sea in preparation for the coming of the end.

"Any... other questions?" After rattling off a whole bunch of things, almost emptying her head of knowledge, Abella asked, feeling dizzy as the two fell silent. At the same time, her dislike for Dugrabi reached its peak.

She was getting annoyed to death by this black dragon that had come from the new world! The commander next to her hadn't even asked a few questions yet, and it was just whining and asking a bunch of stupid questions!

If I had known this would happen, I should have kicked it a few more times! She thought bitterly.

"Well, there's one last question." After digesting this new information, Yvette looked at her and suddenly asked, "What do you know about the 'God of Machines'?"

Chapter 84 Changing Families

"The God of Machines? What is that? Is it from the New World?" Contrary to Yvette's expectations, Abella's reaction was somewhat bewildered, as if she really didn't know about the existence of the God of Machines.

"Do you know about the Machine Race?" Yvette asked again.

"The Machine Race? Oh, those junkies." This time Abella understood. She blinked her beautiful eyes and said uncertainly, "Uh... this 'God of Machines' you're talking about, is it the god of those puppets?"

Yvette nodded slightly.

“Well, I really don’t know much about them.” Abella looked at her innocently. “Commander Purple’s instructions to me were to avoid conflicts with those puppets as much as possible… After all, they don’t provide any nutrients, so even if we win, we won’t gain anything, which is a huge loss! That’s all. As for that ‘God of Machines,’ I’ve never heard of it before.”

This is the first time I've heard of this?

Yvette frowned slightly. According to her guess, the mutants and the machine race should be old acquaintances. After all, they had lived in the same world for a long time. How could they know so little about each other?

But then she thought again. Abella's previous faction was the King of the Heavenly Sea, the monarch of the Northern Sea. The mechanical race, on the other hand, had long been active on land, so there was really little opportunity for the two sides to come into contact.

Especially since Abella herself only recently became a lord, previously only at stage four, it's unrealistic to expect her to know anything too advanced. All those questions she just asked have almost drained her dry…

Dugrabi asked in confusion, "Can't your 'Mother Nest' turn those alchemical creations into Unholy Demons? I clearly remember there being such Unholy Demons."

"Those semi-mechanical divine offspring were all transformed by the goddess herself on the day of the end a long time ago... There should be some Mother Nests that can do that, but the Pale Mother Nest of the Purple Commander definitely doesn't have that ability."

Abella glanced at it, thinking, "Why are you asking again? This last question isn't for you. Are you the commander?" But being under someone else's roof, she could only suppress her complaints and decided to work hard to win the new commander's favor later, and then teach this stinky black dragon a lesson: "...I once captured a magical mech that broke into Kux, but the commander didn't take it in on his own."

Yvette immediately thought of the mission report she had seen in the air-raid shelter's data room. The author was a Divine Grace named "Corbert Ironblade," who had a combat partner named "Thunder Wolf," who was probably the one Abella had captured.

"What happened to that magical mech soldier later?" Yvette asked.

“It… I don’t know.” Abella’s tone was tinged with doubt. “The commander seemed interested in it and took it away. I haven’t seen it since, and I don’t know what the commander did with it…”

Yvette pondered for a moment.

They took it with them?

Is this just out of simple interest, or is there a special reason?

Given the power struggles within the Aberration faction, could it be that the Pale Mother Nest lacks the ability to nurture cyborg Aberrations, and the Purple Commander is using it as a bargaining chip to trade with other Aberration factions?

Of course, there are many other possibilities. For example, the Purple Commander might have coveted the magical mech's combat power and wanted to directly replace its original owner, becoming the new pilot of the Thunder Wolf; or the Purple Commander might be a magical mech enthusiast who wanted to dismantle the mech for research; or it might be that it was worried about angering the Machine Race, so it secretly spared the Thunder Wolf's life...

Her mind raced for a while, feeling there were too many possibilities, so she stopped thinking about it.

But one thing is certain: the relationship between the Machine Race and the Aberrations is very delicate, which makes her curious. She wonders what the relationship is between the God of Machines and the Witch of the End.

Allies? Enemies? Unilateral domination? Or absolute neutrality and non-interference?