Release That Witch

This was the first time for Garcia to witness what an Extraordinary could do.     

The weapon in her hand was just an ordinary sword, but its strikes were unbelievably heavy and powerful. After resisting several such strikes with her shield in hand, Garcia was unable to lift up her arm anymore. At this moment, Zero poked the sword from the ground to the sky to break her chin.     

When she recovered this time, she decisively abandoned this strategy of passive defense and conjured a ballista in front of her. She pulled the trigger to shoot several jars of black water of the Styx's River instead of iron spears. Zero struck to break the earthen jars and got soaked in the black water downpour. The fire crystals immersed in the jars fell out and covered all over her body. They started to fume and burn as soon as they contacted with the air, turning the pure witch into a pillar of fire.     

When Zero came back to life again and begun to move at a super-human speed around the flowerbed, Garcia's trick could not work anymore. Now that she was unable to aim her ballista at the fast-moving witch, she tried to hinder her movement by rising a stone wall and steel bars covered with sharp thorns in the garden. She changed all the flowerpots into explosives filled with snow powder and sometimes created sinkholes in the ground to trap the witch.     

By doing all these things, Garcia had killed Zero for several times. Gradually, her breath was getting labored and heavy and beads of sweat were sliding down from her forehead. Suffering from frequent dizzy spells, she felt as if she were standing on a shaky ground.     

"Well done." Zero recovered and clapped her hands, instead of taking this chance to launch an attack. "You've really impressed me a lot by fighting till now. but I forgot to tell you something. In this world of consciousness, you can change your world according to your will as you did just now, but it consumes much more energy than conjuring things out of the air... It feels like recovering from a death. You must feel weak and tired now, and the next time, you may fall asleep forever."     

"Huh, it's better than stretching out my neck for your sword." Garcia panted and continued, "You seem to forget about the screams you made when you were burnt by the fire crystals. How many times have you died? Three or four? I don't think you'll hold on any longer than I do."     

"..." Zero remained speechless for a while and said, "Since I became a pure witch of the church, I've been well trained in literacy, basic knowledge and combat skills. To enhance my ability, the church even fed Judgement Warriors to me. Knowing that they would sacrifice themselves, those warriors still came into Soul Battlefield without hesitation. In this world of consciousness, they fought till death just to improve my skills, and then were absorbed by me voluntarily, giving me all their feelings and experiences."     

Garcia guessed that Zero might be trying to delay the time, but she did not interrupt the witch, as she also needed some rest now.     

"I've swallowed an Extraordinary. Her power filled me with awe. I nearly lost in that Battle of Souls, but in the end I managed to defeat her with the demons' weapon and got all the things she had. Due to the differences in magic types, I can't change into an Extraordinary, or get the ability of any other witch I absorbed, but it's not a problem for me in this world of consciousness. By absorbing countless people in the past 200 years, I've become so strong that no one can threaten me now, and in this way, I've experienced all kinds of pains, happiness, sorrows and pleasures of this world..." Zero paused for a while. "And all kinds of deaths."     

"What... is your point?" Garcia asked with a frown.     

Zero calmly replied, "To show you the gap between you and me. With all the souls in me, I've got extraordinary willpower. To make it more clear, if you judge one's willpower by the death times she can bear, you'll see that I can bear at least 100 times of death."     

Garcia sneered. "Well, I'll help you verifying it." Meanwhile, however, her heart sank... She could tell that Zero was not bluffing about it. Having witnessed the witch easily kill the guards at the dock, the queen had to admit that she did demonstrate combat skills that were not consistent with her age. "Given that, I've got to use a more powerful weapon to fight against her... Come on, I have to be quick! What weapon can easily kill an experienced Extraordinary?"     

Zero seemed to be able to read through Garcia's mind and said, "The Battle of Souls isn't about imagination. You can't make yourself impervious to blades and spears or summon some legendary weapon of destructive power out of the air... In this world, you create weapons to fight with based on your own knowledge and experiences instead of imagination. You can't summon those things that you don't understand."     

Garcia sneered. "I'll spread snow powder all over the garden. When that happens, you can't escape any more, and I may end up dead, too. However, at least, in this way, I can destroy you along with myself!"     

Zero looked at the queen with pity, saying, "What a meaningless result you strive for. In this case, I'll show you the real strength of the church."     

Several beams of red light shone behind Zero and then cohered as ferocious-looking chariots. The giant chariots even crushed the wall of the garden. On the top of each chariot, two sharp iron spears stuck out, reminding Garcia of what a guard of the King of Wolfheart had reported. He had said that the church had been using some strange spear throwers to attack the city wall and that those weapons which he had had never seen before had turned to be far stronger and shot much farther than the other weapons of their type. Garcia wondered whether these giant weapons in front of her were the strange spear throwers mentioned by the guard.     

At this moment, she heard a "Zoom" noise.     

A thick spear broke through the barriers raised by Garcia and easily tore her in half, sending her body parts flying backward. Before she lost consciousness this time, she could even see her own inner organs and blood spill all over the ground.     

She died and recovered again and again, while the chariots kept shooting long spears at her. In this process, she could hardly get a chance to create snow powder to kill both her enemy and herself. Constant tearing pains started to make her out of consciousness. Right at the moment, the ground began to tremble and the sky started to crack. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled and a large fire broke out in the garden.     

"A strong will will only delay your failure. It won't change the result." Zero closed her eyes. "You've struggled for long enough. Now, rest in peace."     

After these words, the whole world collapsed.     

…     

"Is it over?" Isabella twitched her mouth. "Should not it be completed instantly? I saw you change back into yourself a long time ago, but you've not said even a word... I thought you failed."     

Zero opened her eyes and said, "In her memory, I found something interesting. Some of her ideas... amazed me."     

Isabella asked with a casual air, "Oh? Is there anything in the world still able to surprise you? What about that strange alchemy powder? Did you find it?"     

"Yes, the alchemists call it snow powder, made from common raw materials in their workshops. Its composition is quite simple."     

"Good, let's hurry back to Holy City to report to His Holiness O'Brien." Isabella heaved a sigh of relief. "The battle here will last for at least three or four days, but without the leaders and the witch, the remaining troops can't stop God's Punishment Army now."     

"Let's go," Zero nodded and said.     

"Wait ..." Isabella stopped her.     

"What?"     

Isabella looked at Zero carefully and then shook her head, saying, "No... nothing." However, she could not help but think, "Is it an illusion? She looks the same as before, but why did I feel that there was something different in her light red eyes?"     

Perhaps I'm just thinking too much.