Release That Witch

"Common people can't compete with demons. That's why the church creates God's Punishment Army," Isabella thought.     

God's Punishment Warriors were extremely powerful, without pain or fear, making the best soldiers to fight against demons. They could not act independently, but this was not necessarily a shortcoming during battles.     

It was impossible for the city's garrison formed by common people to stop such a strong troop.     

Especially now, without the city wall's protection, they could never defeat the church's elite soldiers in close combats.     

The golden waves arrived at the gate of Wolfheart City. Judgement Warriors dressed in golden started an intense fight against the assembled garrison. Among the gold waves, there were some red spots which were God's Punishment Warriors wearing red clothes. They walked from the collapsed section up to the top of the wall as easily as on the flat ground and began to kill the soldiers of Wolfheart, who were still trying to hold their position in the front line.     

Isabella turned around and asked Zero, "Are we going to help them?"     

Zero yawned and answered, "No, my magic power is limited. I've got to leave it to the important enemies."     

Isabella twitched her lips, saying, "Come on, you can fight with swords, hammers or crossbows. They can't defeat you anyway."     

Zero shook her head and said, "With or without me, our army will easily win the battle. I don't want to do such a meaningless thing."     

"Well." Isabella decided to change the subject. "Why did you do that?"     

"What?"     

"Seeing you fool with the boy captive, the archbishop got a really stiff face." Isabella seemed a little worried. "He's probably the next pope and he doesn't seem to like this kind of trials. Aren't you worried he'll give you a hard time."     

"Lord Mayne may be angry seeing that. That's because he's not yet become the pope." Zero seemed to pay no heed to Isabella's advice and continued, "As soon as he steps into the library on the top floor of Pivotal Secret Temple, he'll understand that it's the only way to please the deities."     

"What... way?"     

"Fooling." Zero smoothed her snow-white hair blown into a mess by the wind. "Deities will never come to this world, nor will them protect the people in this world. Instead, they set an imaginary goal for us, forcing us to strive for it and long for it. Isn't this just like my trial game? At least, I gave the captives a clear goal, but deities gave us nothing. They even don't promise that the goal they set for us is real, or, all of this thing is just our crazy, twisted imagination. No matter what, we're still willing to risk everything... Tsk, tsk, this is really fooling.".     

"What's Zero talking about? How come I can't understand a word she's saying?" Isabella was confused and asked with a frown, "Have you been to the library?"     

"Not yet," Zero shrugged and explained, "His Holiness O'Brien told me these things. He's no magic power and is getting near to the end of his life. It's said that a common people tends to review all his life experiences in head and find someone to talk to, as his life moves to its end. The pope even plans to let me absorb him before he dies."     

"You can't..."     

Zero interrupted. "I won't, of course. It'll enrage Lord Mayne. Relax, I know what I can't do." She smiled meaningfully and added, "But there's another possibility. What if the pope defeat me? When that happens, I'll lose my body to him."     

"I don't think so. If you lose, nothing will happen, I suppose." Isabella heaved a sigh, thinking that Zero was indeed a strange person. She guessed that Zero's weirdness might have something to do with her ability. By absorbing so many people, she had experienced all kinds of feelings in this world. As a result, she was seldom keen on one thing, and all she did was for fun, unusual fun.     

Isabella moved her eyes back to the battlefield. Some drugged men suddenly appeared on top of the city wall, dashing toward God's Punishment Army. Most of them got pierced through by God's Punishment Warriors' spears. Only a few made close to their target. At this moment, here came another explosion noise. Flying dust and smoke enveloped the gap area at once.     

Isabella thought, "This is probably the alchemical weapon they've seen in the previous siege battle. It may be good enough to suppress demonic beasts, but will never stop God's Punishment Army. Without pills, those people could hardly get close to God's Punishment Warriors."     

At the gate area, the golden waves were blocked, too. A large fire flared up at the gate, stopping the Judgement Warriors outside from entering the city. Some warriors got inflamed in the fire. They immediately rolled on the ground, but still failed to put out the fire on their bodies.     

Isabella said, "Oh, it seems some big shots have come to the gate. The density of God's Stones of Retaliation increases several times, and there're two high-quality stones."     

"So, let's go to the battlefield," Zero stretched her body and said.     

"But they're not the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater." Isabella glanced at the inner city area and continued, "The best stones are still in the castle. Are you sure you're going to join the fight now?"     

"Isn't the army in trouble? A bitter victory is completely different from an easy victory. I've got to reduce loss for His Holiness O'Brien." Zero tilted her head and with a serious look on her face she added, "As what I said before, I serve the church wholeheartedly."     

…     

Wolfheart City' outer defense line finally collapsed in the afternoon. God's Punishment Warriors controlled the gap in the city wall, and Judgement Army swept into the streets of the city to eliminate the remaining defenders of Wolfheart.     

"Our targets started to move." Isabella looked at the castle. "They seem to head for the dock on the inland river."     

The two big shots who came to the gate to organize resistance turned out to be sons of the King of Wolfheart. Zero absorbed both of them and confirmed Isabella's speculation by reading their memories. The two people wearing best-quality God's Stones were the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater.     

Besides, Zero and Isabella also killed an exotically-dressed fallen witch. Right after her death, the number of drugged militia fighters who dared to fight against God's Punishment Warriors decreased dramatically.     

"They probably want to leave by boat. Let's go to fulfill the mission that His Holiness gave to us," Zero smiled and said.     

The King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater acted with caution. They had changed routes several times on their way to the dock. When they arrived at the dock, they boarded a small, single-masted merchant ship instead of a great blacksail ship.     

No matter how hard they had tried to cover their tracks, their each and every move had been captured by Isabella.     

As soon as they stepped on the deck of the small ship followed by a score of guards, the pure witches outflanked them on both sides of the ship. The guards sensed danger at once. Without a word, they simultaneously drew out their swords, jumped off the ship and lunged at the witches.     

Zero fought with skills and ease. She snatched a long sword from a guard with empty hands and used it to fight against the swordsmen. She precisely controlled her strength and used the sword to poke, strike, chop or block. She was so dexterous and quick in action that none of the guards could predict her next move. Each of her movements was well-timed and proper-angled and every strike of hers killed a guard. Soon, a dozen of guards fell down, dead.     

Seeing this, the King of Wolfheart drew out his sword, ready to fight till death.     

"Isabella!" Zero shouted.     

"Got it." Isabella summoned her magic power and formed around herself a lightless realm which could only be seen by Eye of Magic. She was able to see black zones created by different God's Stones of Retaliation, where magic power effects would be eliminated. Those black zones were slightly vibrating at different rates, looking like rippled water surfaces. She made her own dark zone vibrate at the same rate as that one around the king did, and then connected her zone to the king's. The ripples of her zone quickly canceled out that of the king's zone, leaving both zones flat and smooth.     

At this moment, Zero instantly transformed into a beam of dim light and entered the King of Wolfheart.     

Seeing the King of Wolfheart twist and change into the pure witch, the Queen of Clearwater was unable to conceal her shock any longer. "Why can you use magic power faced with God's Stones of Retaliation?"     

"Because God's Stones don't work the way you think them do... but you don't need to know this, as your end is coming soon," Isabella replied and then stopped the vibration of Garcia Wimbledon's black zone.     

Before her voice faded away, Zero darted at Garcia.