Release That Witch

The world seemed to shrink in her eyes. All the details had become obscure in her sight, with only various color blocks left. The brown one was earth, gray the mountains, green the forests and blue the rivers.     

Green, however, occupied most of the landscape she saw.     

Unlike the bright, vibrant green color of the fields in Border Town, the green color here was dark and intense, mingled with some gray and black shades. The endless dark green landscape extended from the west all the way to the north. If Lightning gazed at it for a long time, she would feel like going to crash to the ground. Therefore, she had to divert her attention to the azure of the sky every now and then to dispel the increasing sense of constraint.     

The low, thick clouds behind her, meanwhile, overspread the peaks of the Impassable Mountain Range and enveloped Border Town with a thin film of mists and rain.     

Lightning was currently looking for a relic of 450 years old in Misty Forest. There was no doubt that this was a great exploration. Half a month ago when Roland had given her the task, she had promised to find the relic with great confidence. Unlike Supervisor Cara, the Snake of Magic, who strictly followed the hints in the ancient book with incredible obstinacy, Prince Roland stressed over and over again that the map was no more than a reference. He told Lightning to stay safe and that she did not need to feel sorry for failing to keep her promise. These words made the little girl quite happy.     

Lightning knew His Highness was right. Even if it used to be a grand castle, it would be ultimately swallowed by bushes and shrubs and reduced to ashes in the elapsed 400 years. But she still wanted to find that place. By locating the Star of David, she could thereby spot where Holy City of Taquila was. After hearing the full account, Lightning had instantly known what Taquila stood for.     

Down the relic, it was very likely that she could help the prince uncover the real reason behind the battle between the church and demons, which the church strenuously tried to conceal.     

This was going to be much more fun than exploring new routes with her father!     

Using the method of making nautical charts, Lightning first drew some grids on a square parchment and then filled each grid out based on the distance she covered in a certain period of time. When all the grids were filled out, her task was done.     

She had filled out half of the grids already.     

The rain clouds behind approached her faster than she had anticipated. The little girl could even hear muted thunders when layers of clouds rolled by. She lowered the height and flew toward the forest below at a tremendous speed.     

Just then, she caught a glimpse of a transient white gray shadow from the corner of the eye.     

For a second, Lightning was not sure what exactly she had seen. So, she stopped flying, hovered in the air and turned around to glance about the area she had just passed by.     

Nothing particular was found.     

Lightning wondered if that was an illusion. She decided to examine the area once again.     

This time, she flew even lower, low enough to make out peeling tree trunks, splitting twigs and leaves in various shapes out of the entire green forest. She again saw the details of the color block.     

A few minutes later, Lightning suddenly discovered a small part of a white stone tower sticking out from layers of branches. As the top of the tower was chopped off and its lower part was hidden in the forest, it was pretty hard for her to see it from the sky. If it was not because of the rain clouds, she probably would have missed it.     

Lightning's heart was pounding in her chest. [Could that be the relic marked on the map?]     

She flew around the stone tower but did not perceive anything unusual. Therefore, she decided to take a closer look.     

After landing, the little girl noticed it was not technically a white stone tower.     

Instead, it was covered with vines and mosses and turned out to be a grayish green color when she drew closer. The tower was slightly tilted as if it had been struck by some great forces. Stones of the same material and color as the tower littered on the ground, which appeared to have fallen off the top. Some bigger ones were still visible, while other smaller ones had been buried in the grass and soil. The tower was colossal, whose base was almost as big as Prince Roland's castle. For this kind of edifice, there was usually a basement beneath the ground.     

Lightning should have recorded the location of the relic and returned to Border Town immediately.     

A sensible voice in her head was telling her it was not a good idea to enter a relic of hundreds of years old, for the toxic underground gases were sufficient to kill her.     

But Lightning was rooted to the ground and was burned with curiosity. Another dauntless voice was urging her to take a peek, to take just one peek. She looked up at the sky. The cloudless sky now appeared sullen. Apparently, a heavy rain was on the way.     

Lightning finally found a justification for herself to enter the tower: since it was not comfortable to fly in the rain, she had to get into the tower to keep herself from getting wet. If she found the basement, she would absolutely not go down there alone.     

After making up her mind, Lightning, driven by her great curiosity, went up to the entrance covered with vines. She pulled out her dagger from the waist and managed to drill a small hole for her to creep in. The wooden door frames had been rotten long before, and she went into the tower without any difficulties.     

As the top of the tower had been chopped off, Lightning could clearly see everything without a torch. She searched the first floor of the tower but found nothing. Evidently, anything exposed to sunlight had been wiped out by the sands of time without leaving the slightest traces behind. There was nothing left on the ground floor of the tower other than the ruins of the wall. Lightning also found some holes for staircases that started from the floor to the ceiling, but no staircases were ever found.     

It was fairly easy for her to locate the passage leading to the basement. It was on the southwest side of the ground floor, right across the entrance to the tower. Lightning suspected that she could probably find Holy City of Taquila mentioned in the ancient book if she advanced toward Barbarian Land in this direction.     

While she was pondering, she felt something dropped on her nose. It was rain. She thus slowly entered that passage winding down to the basement and took a turn. There, she reached a wooden door. Although the door had not been completely eroded, it was quite dilapidated as if it were going to crack into pieces upon a gentle touch.     

Presently, the light drizzle turned into a pouring rain. The rain pattered on the ground in torrents and obscured her vision. Although Lightning was standing somewhere dry, puddles soon overflowed and the water started to trickle down the stone staircases. In order not to get her shoes wet, she managed to float above the ground with her two feet dangling in the air.     

Suddenly, Lightning heard a feeble, obscure yell in the rain.     

The sound made her hair all stood up on its ends. The little girl glanced about in horror. The narrow passage was littered with nothing but a few dead vines here and there. With the help of the dim light from outside, she opened her bag and took out a portable torch and flints, attempting to light the torch for a further examination.     

At that moment, she again heard the shout. This time, she realized the sound was coming from the wooden door behind. Lightning shuddered in fright and turned around immediately. The torch fell to the ground and the water splashed over her body.     

This time, the voice was clearer. Although still pretty quiet, it was loud enough for her to figure out it was a woman.     

[Is someone in the basement?] Her back was instantly covered with cold sweats at this thought. [How could that be possible? The stone tower should be a relic of over 400 years old. As it situates in the middle of nowhere deep down in the Misty Forest, who could have come here other than me?]     

"Help me..."     

By the time the woman yelled for the third time, the voice had become fairly clear. It was indeed behind the wooden door. Someone was truly asking for help. Lightning swallowed hard. She put her hand on the doorknob cautiously and then gently pushed the door open. The wet, goopy wooden door fell backward and hit the ground, accompanied by a muffled clunk.     

A tall, stout figure appeared before her abruptly!     

Lightning felt all her blood froze. The figure looked exactly like the demons Soraya had drawn. In the dismal light, Lightning sensed that the demon was also gazing at her. Its giant stature slightly leaned forward. In its hand, which had only three fingers, was an axe glistening with dark red blood stains. In a second, she recalled the day when these fiends had slaughtered the witches from the Witch Cooperation Association.     

"Ah...!" Lightning shrieked at the top of her shrill voice. She threw the flints in her hand at the demon and darted out of the passage as fast as she could. She flew straight into the rain and headed toward Border Town.     

Lightning did not notice, however, that the flint hit the demon on his chest at a crisp and clear sound. Some tiny cracks soon appeared around the area that was hit and then started to expand all over the demon's body. The demon gradually shattered into pieces as more cracks emerged. It finally reduced to some white ashes that eventually melted into the wind.