Mystery: The Witch of Desire

According to Edwina, the white feathers symbolize the authority of death. So, is this old giant the Grim Reaper? And who is that eight-legged wolf?

Dire wolves, dire wolves… Liviel tried to recall the knowledge about dire wolves in her mind, but it was all rather lacking. She could only look to Edwina for help.

Edwina seemed to have guessed what she was thinking and said:

"The history of the Dire Wolf is quite ancient, mainly dating back to the 'Age of the First Flame' in the Second Age. At that time, the Dire Wolf King, known as the 'Dark Night Dire Wolf,' was one of the ancient gods of the Second Age. He and the other ancient gods divided the authority left by the Creator. The Dire Wolf coexisted with humans, giants, elves, and others in that era. However, at that time, humans seemed to be vassals of other powerful races."

"I see……"

Livre murmured thoughtfully, then realized with a touch of embarrassment that she had said "I see" a bit too many times today.

To appear less ignorant, she took the initiative to speak:

"So, the ancient giant in the mural is Death, and the demonic wolf is the Night Demon Wolf?"

Night Wolf... What a strange name, both containing the word "night" in the name of the Goddess of Night... Could it be that the King of the Night wields power related to the night?

Livre spoke with a hint of doubt in her voice.

However, Edwina shook her head:

I don't think so.

She shared her guess:

"In the Third Age, the great ancient sun god destroyed other alien races, making humans the masters of the world, and the wolf race perished as a result. Therefore, the wolf king could only have been active in the Second Age, and in the Second Age, the Phoenix race possessed the power of death. So, if that wolf was the Night Wolf, then it should have been facing a giant bird, not an ancient giant."

Edwina continued:

"This ancient giant should symbolize the god of death who fell in the Pale Calamity: the Underworld Emperor. His time of becoming a god was much later than the time of the Night Wolf. Therefore, the wolf he faced should not be the wolf king of the Second Era."

Livre was a little confused by Edwina's explanation, and after thinking about it for a while, she finally understood. Then a new question arose:

"According to you, all the demon wolves perished in the Second Era, so there wouldn't have been a situation where the 'Emperor of the Underworld' faced off against the demon wolves. Therefore, this mural is fundamentally invalid?"

She couldn't help but ponder: perhaps some being, in their leisure time, painted a work like "Guan Yu vs. Qin Qiong," causing two true gods from different times and spaces to collide. However, someone capable of creating such a spiritually powerful mural was definitely not an ordinary person.

Edwina thought quietly for a moment, then slowly said:

"This mural may not be a historical record, but has other functions."

"What is its function?"

"Liviel asked curiously."

"prophecy."

Edwina uttered a few syllables in Lenburg, then repeated them in Rune.

A prophecy? Livre was startled, then asked in confusion:

"But the demon wolves no longer exist in the world, and Death has fallen. Has the prophecy of this mural failed to come true?"

"I don't know. I lack sufficient knowledge about similar things."

It's unusual for Edwina to encounter a blind spot in her knowledge, which is understandable given the high caliber of this mural.

However, after a moment of contemplation, she muttered to herself in an inquiring tone:

"Perhaps, not all the Dire Wolves perished. Like dragons and giants, some individuals remain in the world. After all, they were a race that once ruled the world..."

Are the demon wolves still alive?

Liviel was intrigued by this, after all, eight-legged wolves must be quite interesting, and she wondered what they would look like when they ran.

The two studied the murals for a while, then continued walking forward.

Livre keenly noticed that there was more and more black feces in the corridor.

Then, on one side of the wall, she saw a new mural:

It was a colossal, humanoid tree covered in chaotic scales, its surface adorned with glistening, alluring fruits, dewy, seductive flowers, various metal badges, a black heart, naked tumors, and metal coins from different civilizations.

Two long, white arms stretched out from the side of that giant tree, cradling a dark, shadowy object.

The pitch-black object was extremely blurry, yet incredibly eerie, possessing a sense of both antiquity and youth, both sacred and sinister, its meaning deeply contradictory. Within it seemed to contain a vibrant, multicolored ocean, yet also seemed to harbor a multitude of turbulent shadows…

What's this……

Livre looked at Edwina with a hint of eagerness in her eyes, waiting for this knowledgeable lady to explain things to her.

Edwina pondered for a moment, about to speak, when suddenly a pained expression appeared on her beautiful face.

She squatted down on the ground and covered her temples.

"What’s wrong with you……"

Livre reached out to help Edwina, but suddenly sensed a whooshing sound coming from the darkness in the distance of the corridor.

The flying objects weren't moving fast, and Livre could dodge them without much effort. But Edwina was stuck in place and couldn't move, so she had to stop the objects.

Liviel took a deep breath, raised her ritual staff, and quickly found the ritual magic corresponding to the defensive ability. She stretched the staff forward, and a nearly transparent blue barrier appeared before her eyes.

Whizzing!

Several sharp spikes struck the barrier, causing large cracks to appear in the not-so-sturdy blue barrier, which quickly shattered into specks of light and dissipated.

After all, the ritual staff is only a Sequence 7 magical item, and Livre cannot expect it to perform too powerfully.

However, having assessed the strength of those spikes from that attack, she confidently conjured a shield of frost and placed it in front of herself and Edwina.

Whoosh whoosh!

Several more spikes rammed into her, piercing the ice but failing to shatter the shield. A buzzing sound suddenly exploded in her mind, engulfing her entire skull.

With just that one moment, Livr felt tears and snot about to flow from her nose. The immense pain made her want to curl up on the ground immediately and use all her strength to resist the agony.

At that moment, a series of sharp pains came from her lower body. Liviel realized that this was Xiaobai stimulating her, trying to help her get rid of this abnormal state. However, the pain in her cranial cavity was too intense, and the stimulation from Xiaobai was completely ineffective.

Just as Livia was about to kneel down, the black patterns on her lower abdomen suddenly tingled, and a cool sensation arose from within, surging up her blood vessels and into her skull, dispelling the deadly pain.

Liviel straightened her bent legs instantly, her left hand condensed frost into a spear, and with vengeful fury, hurled it towards the direction from which the spikes were flying.

puff!

The sound of gushing blood rang out. Immediately afterward, the intense pain disappeared, and Edwina stood up from the ground.

She quickly made hand gestures, condensing a ball of white light, and threw it into the corridor ahead. With a bang, it dispelled a large area of ​​darkness.

By the light, Livre could see the scene in front of her: a bat with a wingspan of about half a meter, completely black except for its face which was composed of multiple colors, was lying on the ground, its abdomen pierced by an ice spear that gleamed with a cold light.

"Three, no, at least four..."

Edwina rubbed her still-aching temples and said, slightly out of breath.

"At least four masked bats launched a mental attack simultaneously, triggering the pain within my body. If it had only been one, I wouldn't have been able to withstand it. I didn't expect the masked bats here to have reached this scale..."

Recalling the pain she had just experienced, Livre felt a lingering fear. She quickly stepped forward, dragged up the carcass of the flower-faced bat, and said in a low voice:

"Let's hurry up and leave, it will be bad if they come back."

Edwina, on the other hand, wasn't that nervous:

"The masked bats are cautious by nature. Since you have killed their companions, they will most likely never appear again."

As she spoke, she gazed longingly at the mural in front of her, her beautiful eyes filled with a look of inquiry.

Livr grabbed her hand:

"Let's leave now. Once I've improved my strength, I'll come back and explore deeper with you."

Edwina nodded slightly; she knew it wasn't the right time to move forward.

She picked up a talisman from her side and chanted an incantation, but after a while, the talisman did not react at all.

"The teleportation has malfunctioned; there seems to be some kind of restriction..."

Edwina glanced at the end of the corridor and said cautiously:

"Let's go up first."

Back at the bottom of the cave, Edwina summoned the vortex again, and the two of them rushed into the air along the vortex, but the force of the vortex did not seem to be enough for them to fly the remaining dozen or so meters.

Livre quickly used her spider silk to grab the rock wall above the cave, then wrapped her arms around Edwina's waist and, amidst Edwina's gasp, flew up with her.

"It's a good thing you're slim, otherwise we might have fallen out of the air."

Seeing Edwina quickly break free from her embrace, her cheeks slightly flushed, Livre made a joke to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"I have other ritual magic I can..."

Edwina muttered something under her breath, but swallowed it back down before starting to set up a cross on the open ground.

Looking at the two huge logs stacked on the ground, Livre suddenly felt a little nervous:

Is it right here?

Edwina glanced at her and said without any emotion:

"We should try to save time in case of any unexpected events."

Could we please not mention "accident"? Just mentioning that word makes me a bit nervous...

Liviel silently muttered something to herself, then shook her head and, as if to shift her attention, remarked:

"When I became a witch, I wondered if I would be burned at the stake one day. Who knew that I would have to tie myself up without anyone else doing it."

“No.” Edwina shook her head seriously. “It wasn’t you who tied yourself up there, it was me who tied you up there.”

As she spoke, she took out a sturdy bundle of hemp rope, which looked extremely rough.

"This is a fireproof rope, of very high quality. It can guarantee that you will stay on the pyre for a full fifteen minutes without falling off due to the intense struggle in pain."

Where did you get all this stuff, handcuffs and rope...?

Liviel muttered to herself. She had originally intended to tie herself to the stake with spider silk, but fireproof rope was undoubtedly a better choice than the fire-sensitive spider silk.

Livre took out the various materials she carried with her and Dorothy's extraordinary properties, while Edwina gripped a dagger and slashed open the flower-faced bat's carotid artery, causing dark red blood to gush out. Just looking at the sticky, foul-smelling blood, Livre felt a wave of pain wash over her.

Next, Edwina materialized a large goblet. Livre poured her extraordinary ability, the blood of the flower-faced bat, the tip of the tail of the two-tailed black snake, the blood of a seriously ill human, and Blue Essence Eucalyptus Oil into the goblet. They were all dark red, and when they were mixed together, they showed signs of turning black.

As these ingredients were added, the dark red to almost black blood in the cup quickly turned pitch black, with disgusting green foam occasionally rising to the surface.

The more Liviel looked at the Witch of Pain's potion, the more disgusted she became. Of all the potions she had ever drunk, this was definitely the number one 'dark cuisine'.

However, her desire to become stronger made her suppress her inner aversion. She handed the potion over to Edwina for safekeeping and prepared to accept Edwina's 'fire prevention manual'.

Edwina took out a large bottle of a viscous liquid, like essential oil, looked at Livre, and calmly said:

"Take off your clothes, all of them."

Chapter 179 Sequence 5: Pain

"what?!"

Livre instinctively pulled her clothes tighter around herself.

Edwina held up the liquid in her hand and explained:

"This is a fire-retardant coating that will prevent too much damage to your body while you feel pain. It must be applied evenly to your skin."

After she finished speaking, she thought for a moment and then said:

"Even if you refuse, your clothes will still be burned by the flames, so will you choose to be proactive or reactive?"

Livre paused for a few seconds, then sighed helplessly.

At this moment, Little White appeared and asked in surprise:

"Livia, what happened to you? You were out in the wild..."

Immediately, it caught sight of Edwina standing to the side, and instantly showed a human-like expression of astonishment, wanting to hide.

Livre grabbed her and threw her toward Edwina:

"This is my extraordinary pet. Could you please look after it for a while?"

Little White nestled in Edwina's palm, accepting the reality of temporarily living under someone else's roof, and obediently said:

"Madam, please take care of me."

Edwina was stunned for a few seconds before she came to her senses.

She walked slowly to Edwina, took the bottle of essential oil, and began applying it to her body.

Although she had long arms and a slender waist, enough to reach her own back, her movements were still rather slow.

Perhaps fearing that the potion would lose its potion effect if too much time was wasted, Edwina poured some essential oil directly onto her hand.