Outside the island, on the floating pathway—
“Elder Sister Ander, wait!”
Anthera caught up to Ander, who had left ahead of her.
But strangely, Ander seemed to have been waiting for her deliberately.
She stood in the middle of the path, not moving forward.
“You’ve come, Anthera.”
Looking at the approaching Anthera, Ander’s expression was calm—no trace of surprise appeared on her face.
Once she was close, Anthera didn’t hesitate and immediately asked what she had been holding in her heart.
“What is Big Sister really thinking? Why would she permit Lanafit to descend to the lower realm? You must know—”
“I understand your concerns.”
Before Anthera could finish, Ander interrupted her.
“She possesses memories of her previous life. Compared to us witches, she’s… more like a human, isn’t she?”
She let out a few low chuckles, as if speaking to herself, meaningless laughter slipping from her lips.
When that whispering murmur faded, she looked at Anthera, her expression now serious.
“Anthera, I don’t know what Big Sister is truly thinking either. Other than the message she sent me amidst her overwhelming responsibilities, granting permission for Lanafit to leave, she said nothing else.”
“But she must know how unique Lanafit is. She should have seen everything I reported to her. Then why?”
Anthera couldn’t understand.
She felt that if Lanafit went down to the lower world, she likely wouldn’t return to the Sky Archipelago—this prison of a realm—for a long time.
But that wasn’t the main issue.
The critical concern was this: if Lanafit, due to her duty, brought disaster upon the lower realm and witnessed that cruelty firsthand, would her mind collapse?
Even if it didn’t destroy her, wouldn’t it drive her to do something reckless?
After all… that girl was truly sincere and kind.
As long as she remained in the Sky Archipelago, never setting foot outside, Anthera believed she could use the logic of the world’s laws to slowly numb Lanafit’s sense of guilt.
And with time—centuries, even millennia—her memories from her past life would gradually fade away, and her personality would shift more toward that of a witch.
No longer would she feel compassion for living beings.
She would finally be able to carry out the will of the Demon God with cold detachment.
It would be a painful journey, of course.
But compared to the agony of forever being a human, becoming a witch who forgets the past and ignores the future would be a far happier ending.
After all…Witches were never meant to have a past or a future.
They were merely tools through which the Demon God expressed his will.
Perhaps shocked by how worked up Anthera had become, Ander gave her a surprised look.
But she didn’t respond immediately.
After a long silence, she suddenly asked a single question:
“Anthera… are you beginning to doubt the will of the Demon God?”
“…What?”
Anthera recoiled in shock, taking several steps back, her eyes wide in disbelief at the question.
“Elder Sister Ander… how could you say something like that? I would never…”
But just as the word “doubt” was about to slip from her lips, she couldn’t continue.
Had she truly never doubted?
Maybe once, long ago.
But ever since she encountered Lanafit and recognized her unusual nature as a witch—
As the Witch of Reincarnation and Transmigration, Anthera could see into the very soul of any being.
Why had Lanafit’s soul descended to another world?
Why had she swapped bodies with another person?
If one of those things was merely a coincidence, then two such extraordinary “coincidences” happening together could no longer be considered mere chance.
That was the design of fate.
And who controlled fate?
The Witch of Fate?
No—at the end of the day, witches were simply instruments of the Demon God’s will.
Whatever fate they held dominion over was only that which the Demon God allowed them.
The one who truly governed fate…was the Demon God himself.
It was the Demon God who sent Lanafit’s soul to another world.
It was the Demon God who caused her soul to exchange bodies with someone else.
But why would the Demon God do such a thing?
Anthera could never understand.
The only explanation she could cling to was that Lanafit was a unique existence.
Yet Lanafit’s true uniqueness wasn’t her origin of having traveled across worlds, nor was it her dual domains of Curse and Calamity.
It was her memory.
As a witch personally reincarnated by the Demon God, Lanafit retained the complete memory of her previous life.
Strictly speaking, those weren’t even her memories—after all, they didn’t belong to her original body.
But to possess memory was to possess a complete personality from before.
Up until now, Roseithe had believed what she once explained to Lanafit—that because her soul didn’t carry those memories, the memories originally belonged to Su Xiaorang, and that’s why they had remained.
But…Was that really true?
This was a witch reincarnated by the Demon God Himself.
Would an all-knowing, all-powerful being truly make such an oversight?
What if… the Demon God had intentionally preserved Lanafit’s original personality and still assigned her the roles of Curse and Calamity?
Why?
Although the Demon God was just and cruel beyond compare, if Lanafit’s personality made her unfit to bear the duties of a witch, then wouldn’t everything the Demon God had done be contradictory?
On the contrary, a new personality—one without attachments, built only to serve the Demon God—would be far better suited to carry out such a harsh role.
Just like them—all the witches throughout the ages…
For the first time in thousands of years, Anthera began to harbor doubt and suspicion toward the will of the Demon God.
And for someone who had devoted her entire life to serving the Demon God as her master, this was undoubtedly an act of defiance—an intolerable betrayal.
Perhaps she hadn’t realized it before.
But now, as soon as Ander had spoken the words—
“Anthera, are you starting to doubt the will of the Demon God?”—that uneasy, dreadful feeling finally took root in her heart.
Ander had remained silent throughout, only watching Anthera quietly.
Not until Anthera leaned weakly against the railing along the path did she finally speak again.
“…Forgive me, Sister Anthera. Perhaps my words have shaken you. It’s best not to dwell on these things for now.”
“…Yes… You’re right.”
Anthera nodded slowly, after a long pause.
Indeed, now wasn’t the time to wrestle with such matters.
What lay before her now was this: why had the First Witch allowed Lanafit to leave the Sky Archipelago?
Perhaps she would have to speak to the First Witch in person, to persuade her to withdraw this permission.
But Ander seemed to see through her intentions.
“Big Sister has been very busy lately. It seems the Demon God has entrusted her with many new tasks. Second and Third Sister have been caught up in it too—none of them will likely have time to appear before us in the near future.”
“But surely I can still get a moment with her? I won’t delay her for long… I just want to talk about Lanafit.”
Anthera could hear the implication in Ander’s words but still insisted on her intention.
However, all she received was a gentle shake of the head.
“Big Sister has said—no one is to disturb her for now, unless she chooses to appear before us on her own.”