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Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Calamity

The heart of the Caesar Continent.

There stood a colossal tower, seemingly piercing the heavens.

At the very top of the tower, where one could overlook everything, lay a throne.

This place existed solely for the witch Iris.

The jet-black crystal ball placed before her.

Through the orb, specters overflowing with evil energy revealed themselves.

The Spectral Knights.

[TL/N: Phantom Knights -> Spectral Knights]

A knight order that had devoted their loyalty to her for hundreds of years.

Even with her eccentric nature, they were so loyal that she couldn’t help but ask them questions with a hint of warmth.

“Is it over?”

—Yes. The northern fortress has fallen, and Velitas has returned to the earth.

“Did you speak to the dragons?”

—As you commanded, my lady. They didn’t seem to completely believe it, but… they didn’t seem to want to make a big deal out of it.

“What could those wretches possibly do?”

Iris responded with a cold laugh.

The grand organization she belonged to, the “Eastern Witches’ Coven” had extended its reach into numerous dimensions.

The Caesar Continent was no exception.

One of the lower-tier dimensions. Originally, this place was classified as a ‘danger zone.’

Orc King, Mutakta.

For a being born in such a low-tier dimension, his power was out of the ordinary.

Reaching out recklessly would require excessive manpower, making the investment inefficient.

But things were different now.

One day, Mutakta vanished overnight. The Eastern Witches’ Coven immediately dispatched her upon discovering this.

It was akin to pioneering a new continent.

One problem was that the Witches’ Coven wasn’t the only one to dispatch forces.

The Dragon Legion.

They had also dispatched a dragon.

The strength of the two organizations was roughly equal.

The witch and the ice dragon were no different.

They had formed a kind of pact to avoid mutual losses. It was a loose agreement, but it had worked well so far.

Neither side had much to gain from breaking it.

‘But, it’s different now.’

Those ignorant dragons might covet their territory regardless of living beings.

As befitting a refined organization of witches, the Coven’s main source of income was procuring corpses for experiments and obtaining by-products. They had been reaping great rewards from acquiring fresh bodies.

Offering tribute to the higher-ups had significantly boosted their contributions.

Even the higher echelons were pleased with her performance.

But now, corpses had nearly disappeared. Iris stood to lose more by keeping the promise.

So, she let the northern fortress fall.

A kind of sabotage.

The ice dragon would understand this.

But, so what?

‘Orc-inhabited continents are rare anyway.’

Orcs reproduced quickly and had many offspring, making them the perfect creatures for supplying corpses.

Having been assigned to this honey pot of a continent, Iris had no intention of backing down easily.

And it wasn’t even a major conflict.

There were countless planets where the Witches’ Coven and the Dragon Legion extended their reach.

Everywhere, they engaged in power struggles and fought for their share. Iris was just doing the same.

North, West, South, East, and the Center.

Iris gazed at the five regions of the Caesar Continent marked on the map and smiled faintly.

‘Let the orcs reproduce a bit… For that, I’ll have to give up the North and West.’

As for the ice dragon.

She could just tell it to freeze the South and the East.

If she promised to freeze them again in the future, the dragon wouldn’t likely rise in rebellion.

If she could once again offer numerous corpses as tribute.

Being promoted from a mere apprentice witch to a full-fledged witch wouldn’t just be a dream.

“Hmmm.”

She was humming a tune of happiness when it happened.

Boom!

Dark clouds began to gather above the colossal spire. Intense magical power swirled into a vortex.

Crack…!

The sky appeared to fracture like breaking glass.

“…What?”

Iris uttered in a daze.

It was a phenomenon all too familiar to her.

Dimensional transference.

She had also arrived here by tearing through dimensions like that.

But…

‘What is this?’

For the sky to shatter like that from the concentration of mana?

That wasn’t something an apprentice witch could accomplish.

At the very least, a full-fledged witch would need to gather such a massive amount of mana for dimensional transference.

Soon.

Through the fractured sky, a figure on a broom emerged.

A smooth neck.

For a normal creature, there should be just one head attached. But the witch now appearing had three heads on a single neck.

A gleaming emblem adorned her chest. The emblem resembled a pitch-black raven. Iris’s eyes widened.

‘The Raven School?’

Among the Eastern Witches’ Coven, there were only seven grand witches.

Among them, the witches belonging to the school of the Raven Monarch, Ananke, wore such emblems. Not only was she a full-fledged witch, but she had also grasped a golden lifeline.

Iris couldn’t fathom why such a being would visit this lowly dimension.

At that moment.

The three heads stared directly at Iris.

“I am Leluya, a full-fledged witch of the Eastern Witches’ Coven and a member of the Raven School.”

“Inexperienced witch, where are we?”

“And who are you?”

A barrage of questions.

Iris, not daring to look directly at the three faces, lowered her head cautiously and replied.

“I am Iris, an apprentice witch of the Eastern Witches’ Coven. I have been dispatched to manage this Caesar Continent.”

At her words, Leluya’s three heads looked at each other and spoke.

“An apprentice witch? Then this is a lower-tier dimension?”

“This wasn’t our intended destination.”

“Let’s inquire further.”

Soon, a raven appeared around Leluye.

Ananke’s Raven.

A raven personally bred by the grand witch, and each member of the Raven School was assigned one.

Its role was simple.

It foretold omens.

―Caw! Thud, roll! Thud, roll!

Just like now.

Seeing the raven flapping its wings and speaking, Leluye’s heads interpreted.

“Thud, roll?”

“The sound of rolling?”

“It’s no coincidence. Something interfered?”

Leluye’s heads, with serious expressions, continued interpreting.

“Who summoned us? The Dragon Legion?”

“No. It seems they were also summoned here… So we don’t know yet.”

“In any case, it’ll take a month to transfer dimensions again.”

Iris, who was cautiously looking at Leluye, asked.

“Um, Lady Leluye.”

“Yes?”

“Did you call?”

“Speak.”

“Well… an omen appeared. Is it alright?”

At that, the three heads of Leluye chuckled.

“Tripping on the road is also an omen.”

“The fate of death is also a bad omen.”

“It’s all relative.”

“Ah…”

Iris scratched her head.

She only knew that the raven foretold omens, but she didn’t understand the detailed mechanism behind it. It seemed that whenever there was even a hint of trouble, they would blurt it out.

“May I ask what you’re thinking?”

At that moment.

The six eyes of Leluye, staring fixedly at Iris, rolled around.

“Young witch.”

“Tell me.”

“There have been strange occurrences lately, tell me everything without omitting anything.”

* * *

The sky darkened and cracked open.

The ground shook.

While the orcs enjoyed it like a carnival ride, the elves were different.

A bustling group of elves.

Soon, one elf began to run swiftly towards this direction.

Elise, the Guardian of the Mother Tree.

It felt like it had been a long time since seeing her.

‘It really has been a while.’

Nearly four months since re-entering this hidden gate. Thanks to this elf, he had dined with gods and easily taught alchemy to skeletons.

Before he could express her joy.

She spoke with a stiff, serious expression.

“…It’s similar.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hundreds of years ago, when the witches and the ice dragon appeared. It was the same then. Darkness covered the sky and it split. That’s a sign of calamity. Moreover…”

With trembling eyes, Elise continued.

“It’s even worse than back then. It wasn’t this severe at that time…”

“Did you see it firsthand?”

“…Yes. I was alive back then too.”

It was a conversation that made one keenly aware of the average age range of the elves.

From that remark, one could infer one piece of information.

‘The witch and the ice dragon. Did those higher beings come?’

Coincidentally, there were related pieces of information.

Cedric’s pet dragon, Gleipnir.

Didn’t the talk revolve around the Dragon Legion and the Eastern Witches’ Coven making that? If the witches and the ice dragon were affiliated with those organizations?

It wouldn’t be strange for higher beings to visit.

He looked at him.

“Cedric. Does this seem related to the organizations we talked about last time?”

―Probably. This is a dimensional transfer phenomenon. It’s how witches and dragons move. It seems both were summoned.

“Both?”

—If you look up and down, the patterns are different, aren’t they?

As Cedric said.

While the upper part of the sky split like spiderwebs, the lower part was sliced straight through.

This guy truly was like an onion, revealing information layer by layer.

The witch and the ice dragon.

From the moment Cedric entered the first gate, he would have been recalling information about organizations like the Eastern Witch’s Coven or the Dragon Legion.

The reason he didn’t mention it was obvious.

‘He probably meant for me not to think about it right now.’

There was no misunderstanding.

Wasn’t it a fact that when he first entered, he couldn’t muster the courage to directly confront witches and ice dragons?

Back then, he was a novice, with skills limited to curses and summoning skeletons.

That was also his style.

“This is great.”

― Are you going to catch them?

“Of course. Cedric, don’t you want to ride your pet dragon?”

― … It’s not a pet dragon, it’s a comrade.

“So you don’t want to ride it?”

― Of course… I want to ride it.

Cedric, with eyes gleaming with desire, emitted his longing.

Well, the Bone Dragon he saw in the first arrangement was indeed awesome.

“Then we have to catch them. Now we’re strong enough to give it a try, right?”

― Hmm… Indeed. If it’s that level of phenomenon, it seems like the level of a full-fledged witch. The dragon is likely an Ancient Dragon.

Elise, who had been listening absentmindedly, asked.

“Are you going to catch them now?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Last time, it seemed like you were planning to make them fight each other…”

“Now there’s no need for that. As you know, Elise, I’m not from this dimension.”

They explained the situation to Elise, who was staring blankly at them.

To summarize, while the time here was stopped after clearing the northern fortress, they had become much stronger than expected.

“Time stopped here?”

“That’s roughly what happened.”

In any case.

Why did they get super lucky, and the dice roll paradoxically landed on 1?

The situation was gradually becoming understandable.

A high-ranking witch and a high-ranking dragon arrived?

In other words, didn’t that mean the ingredients for a pet dragon had arrived?

‘Then I have to catch them.’

Unwavering will doesn’t activate unless you don’t back down from difficulties.

What were the difficulties in the first place?

A witch and a dragon.

Making them fight and watching from the sidelines with arms crossed didn’t seem like a situation befitting the difficulty.

‘The most difficult thing is undoubtedly.’

Just smashing everything.

That’s the most likely way to trigger Indomitable.

‘If things go wrong, I can just detonate a nuclear bomb.’

Of course, judging by Cedric’s reaction, it didn’t seem like they needed to go that far.

The witch’s stronghold is in the central part of the continent.

The ice dragon’s stronghold is in the southern part of the continent.

Since they were in the north, they just had to go down and catch them all to clear the gate.

“It’s settled. Urkhan!”

―Chwiik! Did you call me, big brother?

“We’re going to catch a witch. Wanna come?”

―Let’s go!

The orcs began to gather with bright smiles from all directions.