Chapter 89 : Sorry if I turned you on

Halia noticed the anomaly at neither too early nor too late a time.

She entered through one of the four passageways leading to the inner fortress.

She found one of the concubines’ annexes, and the moment she stepped inside, she realized—

It was a witch.

Crunch. She snapped its neck.

After that, she experienced something similar to Usher.

With her extensive battle experience, she looked at the witch collapsing so easily and thought, ‘That easily?’

The feeling of unease was correct.

The moment she frowned and turned around, the dead witch suddenly sprang up and lunged at her.

Only then did Halia think, ‘Of course,’ and snapped its neck again.

There’s no need to go into deep detail about how a human body crumples like paper.

What mattered was what came next.

‘This can’t be the end.’

Halia incinerated the witch and thought.

And she was right.

Exactly when Halia finished the assassination and was about to leave the annex—

BOOOOOM!

A tremor shook the entire inner fortress, followed by a surge of sinister energy.

And then, the presence of hidden witches began to emerge all over the place.

Halia let out a dry chuckle.

‘What kind of hellhole is this?’

The entire fortress of Baern had long been taken over by witches.

Judging by the sheer number of presences she could sense, it seemed all the concubines she had been looking for were witches.

Considering how long they had been in Baern, the earliest ones must have arrived ten years ago.

But why were they all witches?

A question arose in her mind, and she quickly came up with a guess.

She figured she would find out the truth soon enough and moved into action.

BOOM!

Diego appeared, his body drenched in blood.

“As soon as the witches appeared, some heretics showed up as well.”

“What were they disguised as?”

“They were scattered among the servants and guards.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Thud.

Diego opened the massive coffin he had been carrying on his back.

Inside was a colossal hammer—Halia’s weapon and the most fearsome weapon on the continent.

Halia grasped it.

Though the weapon was larger than her own body, she wielded it as effortlessly as if swinging a twig.

“Where are the others?”

“Sir Therbion is surrounded but handling the enemies with ease.

As for the Saint and the Crown Prince… they are together.

But they aren’t moving, so it seems they’ve been captured.”

“Tsk, getting caught because of carelessness? Tell me where they are.”

“Northeast.

Turn 37 degrees to the right on the horizontal axis, and 7 degrees up on the vertical axis.”

“Got it.”

That was all.

Halia gripped the hammer tightly with both hands and crouched low.

Fwoosh—divine energy flared around her like fire.

She adjusted her body according to the angle Diego had given her.

Then, she charged forward, swinging the hammer.

CRAAAAAASH!!!

This was the result.

Everything in her path was erased—literally.

Diego’s precision ensured that only a single witch was struck.

In Halia’s line of sight were Bersia, staring blankly while still tied up, Gester struggling, and a witch with half of its body blown away.

“Your head is half gone, and you can’t even pretend to stagger?”

She smirked and taunted, and the witch replied irritably.

[This body I worked so hard on is ruined.]

One thing was certain.

‘It’s a fake.’

Even among the heretics, there were many like this.

Those who controlled a body remotely, as if manipulating a puppet, while their real form was elsewhere.

Blood and intestines spilled from the witch’s torn body, staining the floor.

The witch sighed and began to crumble.

[Well, I wasn’t planning on using this body any longer anyway.

It was quite an entertaining diversion.]

The witch waved its hand.

Halia could feel its soul leaving the body.

But apparently, it didn’t intend to leave gracefully.

All.

Of.

Them.

SCREEEEEEECH!

[Let the festival begin.]

As soon as the witch collapsed, screams erupted throughout the entire city.

Meanwhile, Diego freed the captured group.

He spoke.

“It seems they’ve been controlling the entire city for a long time.

People all over are succumbing to the witches’ corrupted divine energy and going into violent fits.”

“What exactly are they doing?”

“They are attacking civilians and mercenaries.”

“What about the guards? Weren’t they called the Lion Squad?”

“They are not taking action. Other mercenaries from the Big Ten have drawn their swords.”

“So, they’re trying to disperse our focus.”

First, Halia needed to assess the overall situation.

She approached Gester.

Gester shared what he had learned and what he had just overheard in conversation.

But that wasn’t all.

She had blasted an entire building away, revealing the open sky.

Halia looked up and saw that the stars in the night sky were burning red.

It was likely that some kind of barrier had been placed over the city or even the entire desert.

Sure enough, she could sense the divine energy of the heretics coming from those stars.

RUMBLE—

The tremors continued.

And Halia immediately understood what was causing them.

Not just her—everyone realized it at the same time.

“A s-sandworm! It’s a sandworm!!!”

The monstrous sandworms, known as the calamity of the desert, were advancing toward the city.

They were far larger than any she had hunted before.

One side of the city wall collapsed, and beyond it, a sandworm began its invasion.

Halia stroked her chin.

Judging by all this, the enemy was certainly worthy of being the mastermind behind the creation of artificial witches.

They had been weaving this conspiracy for nearly a decade, and she was only discovering it now.

It didn’t sit well with her.

But there was no time to dwell on that.

The witch had vanished.

Only the seeds it had sown remained, spreading chaos.

Tracking it down through Diego?

No, that would mean losing sight of all the other unpredictable events unfolding across the city.

“You, follow me. Let’s focus on controlling the chaos in the city center first.”

She directed her words to Gester.

He looked like he was about to chase after the witch immediately, but Halia’s next words stopped him.

“Shouldn’t you protect the king?”

“…!”

Gester had a father who was barely clinging to life.

After switching allegiance to the Blue Blade, he had been moved to a mercenary stronghold, which offered better conditions.

But in the midst of this chaos, there was always a chance he could be harmed.

Gester clenched his lips tightly and nodded.

“Next, Bersia.”

A look of discomfort crossed Halia’s face.

Bersia’s expression was terrible.

“Are you alright?”

She still looked dazed.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like the abduction had left her deeply traumatized.

Bersia bit her lip and spoke in a low voice.

“…Yes. Tracking. I should do the tracking, right?”

“Technically, Usher will be the one tracking.”

When it came to hunting and killing, Usher Therbion was the best in the entire Order.

He might be slower than Diego in locating the target, but once he found them, it was checkmate.

Halia noticed Bersia’s eyes glistening between strands of her hair.

Not knowing that Usher was inside her, Halia assumed Bersia was just feeling humiliated by what had happened.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Yeah, and you arrived just in time.”

Halia had already sensed a fierce presence approaching through her aura detection.

And then—

BOOM!

Usher burst through the wall.

The urgency in his expression quickly turned to relief when he spotted Bersia.

“There’s no time for more talking. We’ll go ahead.”

With that, Halia headed toward the city center.

Bersia watched as Halia, Gester, and Diego left as soon as she arrived.

She hurried over to Usher and grabbed his arm.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

He answered, but he didn’t look fine at all.

His expression was shaken, as if in shock.

Regret filled her.

She should have stayed with him from the beginning.

Splitting up just because there were four passageways had been a mistake.

From the moment he had killed the first witch, he had been surrounded, fighting his way through until now.

Just the thought that something could have happened to Usher while he was trapped in her body made her feel sick.

At least he didn’t seem injured.

But that wasn’t enough to ease her worries.

Usher wobbled as he tried to stand.

Even so, he looked like he was about to rush off somewhere.

His movements were unsettling—almost like a madman’s.

This wasn’t good.

She hadn’t even had the chance to tell him what to do next, but one thing was clear—

She couldn’t let him go like this.

Bersia tightened her grip on Usher’s arm.

What could she do?

She knew what she was about to do was wrong.

But still, she pulled him into an embrace.

“…!”

Usher flinched.

His breath hitched for a moment.

Bersia deliberately spoke in a teasing tone.

“Sorry if that turned you on.”

“W-Wait, this is…!”

She let go of him.

His face had turned slightly red. His breathing was unsteady.

But at least that dangerous atmosphere from before had disappeared.

Bersia gave him a worried yet relieved smile and asked,

“Are you okay now? Can we talk?”

At her question, Usher’s eyes wavered.