Millennium Witch

In addition to the breakthrough in magic power, Yvette also spent her spare time over the past 20 years iterating and developing the final forms of three magic formulas: "Frost Bullet," "Flame Dance," and "Wind Walk."

Among them, the mana cost of "Frost Bullet" has been reduced to the terrifying number of "1", truly achieving the goal of "how many points of mana equals how many bullets". Furthermore, the attack method has been adjusted, allowing multiple virtual launch points to be created when necessary, enabling the Frost Bullets to be unleashed like a Gatling gun, creating a frost storm.

"Flame Dance" not only optimizes the handling and mana consumption, but also allows for specifying the launch location. Through the "Dual Rune Set" technology, each additional fire pillar only requires an extra 10 mana points, and a maximum of four fire pillars can be released simultaneously, forming a "Full Power Mode" with 50 mana points.

As for "Wind Walk," it has been renamed "Wind Chaser." It consumes 8 mana points per second and can be used to create strong winds. Whether it's to accelerate oneself, briefly float in the air, or blow away enemies, it is highly functional.

Unfortunately, Yvette did not possess advanced theoretical knowledge, nor did she have sophisticated equipment to assist her.

Otherwise, she might have been able to create magic more suitable for flight, bypassing the snake king's threat directly and escaping easily.

……

For the next hundred years, apart from an offensive spell called "Wrath of Thunder," Yvette did not attempt to design any new magical spells.

After all, instant-cast magic requires two conditions: memorization and a lot of practice.

Her current memory, plus the "Wrath of Thunder" spell with 500 runes, is at its limit. Forcing herself to memorize the fifth and sixth spells would easily lead to confusion and cause her to misunderstand the spells she already knew.

Therefore, she repeated the same routine every day: "meditation," "magic practice," "going to the water platform to gather inspiration and rest," "watching the mutants fight," and "spying on the snake king." Her routine was calm and regular, and she almost lost control of the passage of time.

Only during the coldest part of winter each year would she be startled to realize that another year had passed so quickly that she could hardly recall any memories.

At this moment, her magic power was approaching 400 points.

That morning, as she squatted at the entrance of the facility, watching the snow fall again, she thought that perhaps she could finally try to experience the power of the giant serpent in the lake.

……

Through long observation, Yvette has gained a considerable understanding of the Cyclops King, discovering that this creature has no concept of day and night, as if it doesn't need to sleep and can emerge from the water at any time.

So she was quite decisive and went straight to the edge of the water platform, throwing some magic vines into it to see if she could lure it out.

The seduction took a long time, but Yvette was not discouraged because she knew the giant snake must be down there, otherwise the other mutated creatures would not have been so far away.

As dusk approached, the enormous, pale, pupil-less snake eye, resembling a nightmare, suddenly emerged from the water. Though only a small part of it was revealed, it was enough to send shivers down one's spine.

"Roar--"

Without waiting for an opportunity or hesitating, the giant snake burst out of the water in an instant, creating a splash dozens of meters high!

Yvette was prepared. With a tug of her wind, she dragged herself dozens of meters behind the platform, dodging the attack and looking ahead.

On the lake at dusk, a giant snake, more than ten meters above the water, looked down at her, like a god looking down on an ant.

Then, the giant snake's snout split open from the middle of its lower jaw, revealing a bright red forked tongue. But upon closer inspection, it became clear that this was not its tongue, but rather a dozen or so slippery tentacles intertwined together.

After they separated, they darted towards where Yvette was standing with lightning speed, seemingly intending to snatch the small, delicious prey right in front of them and swallow it whole.

Yvette was on edge, using Wind Rider to pull herself back again. This was her first time fighting this king of the lake, and given her susceptibility to thalassophobia and megalophobia, she dared not be careless. After dodging the tentacles' attack, she immediately used her half-control, half-output magic.

Frostfire, but Gatling gun mode!

Blue projectiles rained down from multiple angles, firing forty or fifty shots in just a few seconds, freezing the snake's head and tentacles into an ice sculpture. The unbalanced snake head slammed heavily onto the platform, causing the entire structure to tremble.

Then, seeing the giant snake struggling, Yvette did not choose Fire Dance to avoid helping it escape quickly. Instead, she used another spell, which was also her only new achievement in the field of runes in the past hundred years—Wrath of Thunder!

This is a magic that is completely different from the past. It no longer pursues the ultimate mana cost ratio, but instead maximizes the single-target damage to the maximum. At least within the 500 rune limit, this is the highest damage she can achieve, and it also brings the highest mana cost.

A full 240 magic points!

One use and most of the blue solution is gone!

As the spell was activated, a runic ring with a diameter of over ten meters appeared in the air. A thick, dazzling bolt of lightning fell from it, striking the still struggling frozen serpent's head. The strike caused its body to stiffen and convulse. Even though its ice shell had shattered, it remained in a state of paralysis, trembling incessantly.

Yvette held her breath, her heart pounding. She had less than 100 mana points left, making it impossible to cast Thunder Fury a second time. Therefore, she summoned the rune ring representing "Flame Dance" beside her, preparing to unleash Pillar of Flame.

but……

Before she could launch another attack, the giant snake stopped moving. It ceased convulsing, its massive head hanging stiffly on the metal mesh floor of the platform, its eyes and tongue tentacles turned black, and a foul, acrid smell permeated the air.

Is this...dead?

Yvette was filled with doubt and uncertainty, but she did not stop moving at all. She immediately used Flame Dance to wash the half of the giant snake's body that was stuck to the platform with flames, doing her best to scorch every inch of its skin.

Only when the giant snake's half-body, which had collapsed on the platform, was completely charred and lifeless, and she used Wind Chaser to throw it into the lake, could she finally be sure that this guy was probably, perhaps really, dead.

Chapter 10 Escape

As the snake king's corpse sank into the water and disappeared, Yvette let out a long breath, feeling as if a great weight had finally been lifted from her heart.

While killing the Serpent King wouldn't drop any equipment, she still considered it the biggest obstacle to leaving Crater Lake.

Now that the obstacles are gone, her path to leaving has become completely smooth.

Moreover, decades ago, her magical pressure reached the rated standard for charging magical devices, and she repaired a still-usable flight board from the rubble.

So if she wanted, she could set off right now and leave this lake prison that had confined her for nearly 200 years.

but……

After thinking for a moment, Yvette turned around and went back into the facility.

One reason is that she wants to summarize the gains from this operation and make improvements to Thunder's Fury.

On the other hand, since one can leave at any time, why rush?

It would be good to do a little more preparation!

……

In the decades following the serpent's fall, the lake area centered around the ruined platform became noticeably quieter. Whenever Yvette appeared in the sunlight, whether meditating or practicing magic, the mutated creatures in the shallow waters would wisely keep their distance.

These low-intelligence creatures seemed to believe, through some primal instinct, that the slender figure had replaced the giant snake and become the new king of this place.

Of course, challengers will occasionally appear.

These challengers have far less exposed flesh compared to ordinary aberrations, and possess unique attack organs such as chitinous carapaces or electric tentacles, making a strong sense of biodiversity.

However, for Yvette, it was all a matter of thunderous wrath.

—The current improved version of Thunder Fury has reduced its mana cost from 240 to 100, but retains 60% of its power. It is an optimization and upgrade that she is quite proud of.

It's worth mentioning that recently, her magic power has been approaching the 500 mark.

In the era of the Origin Civilization, the energy storage core used by a two-meter-tall fully automated magical mech was only of this size.

Therefore, from this perspective, after more than two hundred years of solitary cultivation, Yvette's magical power is quite abundant, and her strongest original spell, "Wrath of Thunder," is indeed of military-grade quality.

"With my current combat strength, I could be considered a top expert even before the apocalypse. In the post-apocalyptic era, resources and weapons will definitely be scarce... Hmm, it seems that this suggests that once I escape this predicament, I can immediately become a top asset to humanity..."

With this small expectation, Yvette became even more motivated to cultivate, as if she could already see herself descending like a divine warrior, saving the collapsing building, turning the tide, and then being admired by thousands and pursued by beautiful women.

Until that day finally arrived.

……

On a misty morning, Yvette stood silently for a long time in front of the closed metal door leading to the eleventh basement level, then shook her head helplessly.

After breaking through the 500-point magic power mark last night, she decided to set off. She had no luggage to take and nothing particularly to miss. The only regret was that she still couldn't open the sturdy alloy door made of some unknown material before leaving.

"Fine, drive it or don't, it's up to you."

With those words, Yvette walked up the stairs, the sound of her heels echoing on the metal steps in the empty shaft.

Over the course of more than two hundred years, she had walked up and down the ruins of the Abyss Base countless times, as if every single bolt was etched into her memory. Although she once regarded this place as an endless prison, sometimes she felt that it could be considered a safe haven, allowing her a moment of peace and tranquility in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by mutated monsters.

Now, she is finally going to personally put an end to this long period of imprisonment.

……

Standing on the water platform, Yvette activated the flight board.

As a simple magical vehicle, this thing's energy storage plate is surprisingly powerful, capable of storing 100 points of magic power and supporting a range of about 50 kilometers.

In contrast, Yvette, who has 500 magic points, can only fly one kilometer no matter how much she uses her proud "Wind Chaser," making the difference immediately clear.

However, Yvette was not surprised, because she knew very well that as one of the technological achievements of the Origin Civilization, this thing, though seemingly ordinary, actually contained at least a million runes in its magic circuit.

Comparing the effects of Wind Chaser to this thing is like trying to use an abacus against a quantum computer.

She stretched out her hand, and a transparent handle made of magic took shape in her palm. With a slight forward tilt, the flight board immediately carried her forward, carving a fleeting trail across the deep blue water.

Wherever it passed, the mutated creatures in the lake and shallow water retreated in fear, making way for this aerial visitor.

So, in less than three minutes, she flew across the less than three-kilometer waterway and arrived at the smooth rock face she had gazed at when she first arrived more than two hundred years ago.

Due to altitude restrictions, the flight board could no longer be used here. Yvette lightly leaped onto a protruding rock and retracted the flight board to her waist. Pale blue air currents swirled around her, carrying her soaring upwards along the rock face.

When my fingertips finally touched the highest point of the crater, the whole world suddenly opened up before my eyes.

The azure sea merges with the clouds on the horizon, and the skyscrapers entwined with vines along the coastline have become one with the forest, resembling towering trees. On the nearby foothills, the sea of ​​trees sways, its emerald waves rippling in the mountain breeze.

She subconsciously looked back in the direction she had come from. From this perspective, the once vast crater lake was nothing more than a clear pool of water, with the central metal platform looking as small as a toy floating in a bathtub.

This is the world after the apocalypse… she thought, and then stood there quietly for a long time, until the strong wind on the mountaintop blew her silver hair, making it shimmer with iridescent light in the sunlight.

……

What should you do after you get out of trouble?

Two hundred years ago, Yvette had pondered this question, but couldn't find an answer, as she didn't know what she would see upon emerging. Would it be a desolate wasteland, a purgatory teeming with mutants?

Could there be a group of human survivors who are fighting for survival and rebuilding their homes, and are singing a hymn of courage?

Currently, the answer is no.

……

Following a road whose original traces are still visible, Yvette entered Ish City, the capital of Ish Island.

Compared to the other two human cities on the island that have been reduced to ruins, the scenery here is much more magnificent. After all, it is the location of an important branch of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals. Even from dozens of kilometers away, she can still see the dark tower in the city center that reaches into the sky.

It is painted with a verdant hue, like an ancient sword entwined with branches. Even though its master has been dead for many years, it still stands tall, pointing straight to the sky.

This is humanity's sword, and also the tombstone of human civilization... Yvette looked at the ruins before her, as if she had traveled through time and seen the former prosperity and glory of Ish City—centered on the Black Tower Building, surrounded by towering skyscrapers, holographic advertisements flowing on the glass curtain walls, aircraft shuttling like swarms of bees, and neon lights dyeing the night sky into a dream. Now, all of that has vanished.

Leaping over a clear, dark river formed by collapsed sewers and crossing streets blooming with wisteria, Yvette moved like a ghost through the alleyways.

A butterfly landed on her shoulder and flew away, while a fawn warily looked up from the collapsed shop window. Occasionally, mutated creatures would leap out of the shadows, only to be reduced to charred remains in the blazing inferno.

In this way, she strolled leisurely through countless treacherous streets and arrived at the city center, finding no trace of smoke, footprints, or any human activity along the way.

Then, in the square, she looked up at the mottled exterior of the Black Tower and finally realized one thing: at least on this island, there was no other living human being besides her.

In fact, even setting aside Ish Island and focusing on the three main continents on Origin Star called "Black Tide Continent," "Emerald Continent," and "Silver Mirror Continent," it would be difficult to find any other survivors.

Otherwise, it is inexplicable that, with human technology and wisdom, we have not been able to rebuild our civilization in nearly six hundred years.

After being struck by this realization, she sighed softly. As a visitor from another world, she had thought that stepping out of her cage would open up a whole new world, where she could see all sorts of people and experience completely different customs and cultures. But she never imagined that the long road ahead would still be accompanied only by loneliness, until billions of years later, until the very end when the stars were extinguished.

That being the case...

Then!

How about we start by planting a field?

Chapter 11 Night of the Aurora

A few days later, in the heart of Ish, through a curtain of steel and weeds, Yvette found a woodland and decided to transform it into her own estate.

This place used to be a park or something similar, so there are relatively few remaining architectural ruins, but there's also a pretty little lake. If you could build a house here, it could at least be considered a lakeside property.

Of course, building a manor is a massive undertaking, involving many fields such as architectural planning. Even as a master of magic, Yvette would still need a long time and a wealth of knowledge to realize this idea. Therefore, her primary focus in her farming life remains collecting all sorts of finely bound books and absorbing the technological legacy left by the ancient civilization.

Yvette often thought that her appearance had nothing to do with Black Tower Pharmaceuticals—after all, Black Tower Pharmaceuticals itself had been destroyed—in fact, the gods needed someone to witness and record the existence of the origin civilization, which is why she traveled through time and was immortal (and never starved).

And so, more than a decade passed by as they lived a life of collecting knowledge, building manors, and cultivating fields.

During this time, Yvette traveled to all three cities on Ish Island, from the capital "Ish City" to "Grey Harbor City" in the southwest, and then to "Luya City" in the far north. She marked some dangerous areas that were suspected to be aberration nests that could not be approached, and visited the ruins of many towns and villages, but as expected, she did not see any living people.

But she didn't care, and was even somewhat numb. She simply enjoyed the scenery along the way in solitude, and only occasionally, when she received a finely bound book that carried the technological heritage of the origin of civilization, would her heart be stirred.

Sometimes she would think that maybe it was just that Ish Island was too remote, which was why she couldn't see anyone. Perhaps there was a human settlement on one of the three continents that had already sounded the horn of counterattack against the mutated creatures.

This gave her some motivation, prompting her to begin studying magical engineering and pondering whether she could repair some magical equipment herself, or even handcraft some rough and primitive magical circuits. If she succeeded, she would be able to use some medium to large-scale spells with higher rune specifications, such as those with tens of thousands of runes, or even hundreds of thousands of runes.

but……

The thought of the terrifying sheer number and strength of the mutants in the sea made Yvette feel her hope suddenly fade away.

"It's impossible to cross the sea," she thought to herself, shaking her head. "There's no way I could ever cross the sea in my lifetime."

This wasn't because she was cowardly, but because she had personally witnessed a serpentine sea monster swimming on the distant horizon. Its terrifying form, several kilometers long, was still incredibly awe-inspiring even from tens of kilometers away, as if a myth had descended upon the world.