Chapter 345: Bygones (Part II)
Translator: Meh/TransN Editor: - -
Elsa was perplexed by the immense changes. She told herself not to believe them, but their stories sounded so real that she thought no witch could have made it up out of blue.
Putting herself in their shoes, she could never imagine she was slaved, hunted or even slaughtered.
Even ordinary people with the lowest status in the Holy City were treated by witches as human beings instead of animals.
She started to feel extremely exhausted. Wendy sensed it and brought her a cup of hot milk and tried to console her, "Oh, dear, drink this milk, and you'll feel better."
Though the lady with reddish brown hair didn't have the godlike power and strength, she affected Elsa with her good temperament and manner.... Elsa drank the milk in one gulp. A warm and sweet current flew into her gut, which helped her recover a little. Elsa rested for a long period before she continued their conversation.
Although she couldn't understand why these witches were wary of her, she knew that she must win their trust first, or they wouldn’t help take the fetters off.
As for the credibility of what the prince and Wendy said, she had to find out by her own eyes.
She wouldn’t believe the words that the holy Union had vanished before she saw the cramped and underdeveloped Barbarian Land with her own eyes.
"As I said, my name is Elsa, and I was a member of Taquila Quest Society. In the 30th year of the Battle of Divine Will, Taquila, the last Holy City, fell down in the war. Most people went into exile, while I went to the Misty Forest to fetch things we left there. "
"Wait. Were you fighting against the demons?" asked the Prince.
"Who else could be fighting against them other than us?" Elsa frowned. "Should we rely on vulnerable humans like you?"
"Were you a witch raised by the Church?"
"I never heard of anything about the Church. What's it?" she said impatiently. "Taquila... no, all the Holy Cities which hosted tens of thousands of people were created by witches. Apart from witches, most of the citizens were ordinary people... like you. They were responsible for reproducing and raising children until their magic power was awakened. And then these young witches would be handed over to another special department to receive education and training. Of course, the witches who were good at fighting would join the Union and participate in battles with demons."
The prince pondered for a moment, and then took out a book and asked, "Can you read it?"
Elsa skimmed several lines and was attracted by the content at once. "This is a diary from a witch."
"Did you also write in this way?" a witch with light gray hair asked.
"This writing system was created by the Union and exclusive to witches. In this way, the ordinary human beings would be prevented from participating in important affairs at upper level. But in my opinion, I didn't think this sort of exclusion was a good idea."
"How could you prevent ordinary people?" she asked with a great curiosity. "Even if witches created another language system, ordinary people could also grasp it through learning, right?"
"It takes magic power to read it," explained Elsa. "It isn't very difficult. I can teach you since you're a witch."
"Language is a tool for communication." The prince commented. "The more popular it is the better. So what the Union did was very stupid. The exclusion of ordinary people would only limit the resources available to you. In fact, after training and education, ordinary people are capable of many jobs. Except that they cannot use magic power, they are as good as witches."
Although Elsa agreed with him, yet she could hardly accept that an ordinary person criticized the Union. She would collaborate with them when necessary, but she couldn’t tolerate their finger pointing.
She began to miss Kaff, her chief guard.
Even though he was only a subordinate to her family, she thought he was more gentle than the so-called prince.
"My name is Scroll, Miss Elsa," another witch who looked pretty mature, suddenly asked, "Have you ever heard of the name of Alice?"
"How come you know this name?" Else suffered a jolt. "Wasn't it said that all the records about 450 years ago had been lost?"
"I found an ancient book in the ruins located in the forest on East Border of King City in Graycastle," said Scroll. "It's the one on your hand. Her name is on the last page written in ordinary people's language."
Elsa quickly turned to the last page. After reading the illegible diary, she deeply sighed and fell into silence. A female statue started emerging in Elsa's mind. The lady raised her long sword, with light radiating from her body shinning and dazzling all the people's eyes. But finally her figure was fading away, step by step, little by little. In the end it totally dissolved in the darkness.
After a long while, she said slowly, "Right, Alice was the Queen of the Meteor City as well as one of the three chiefs in the Union.She was an Extraordinary, or a Transcendent. Even among amounts of Blessed Ones in the Union, she was also the strongest."
"A Transcendent!" The crowd murmured.
"Since these records have been lost, it's natural for you all knowing nothing about it," Elsa said in a serious voice. "The abilities of withes will be enhanced continuously since they awoke and become stable since the Day of Adulthood. But it isn't the ceiling of their ability growth. Some lucky dogs can step forward and get unbelievable achievements... We often call it the High Awakening. In fact, there's no limit for their awakenings, or growth rate. But obvious changes could be observed on the performance of their magic power."
"Hum, is this ability evolution?" The prince touched the back of his head and muttered. "In total, four witches have evolved in the Witch Union."
"Four?" Elsa was almost choked by that. She asked surprisingly, "How many witches are there in your Witch Union exactly?"
The prince counted with the help of fingers and said, "More than ten."
" Stop talking nonsense!" Elsa obviously seemed to be enraged by his rash words. "Do you mean four out of ten have undergone the High Awakening? You have no idea what evolution means for witches.It’s totally different from the consolidation or derivative skills on the Day of Adulthood. Only the luckiest ones can be promoted, which takes both perspiration and inspiration!"
The prince looked rather innocent and gestured to Anna.
"What a pretty and elegant girl!" Elsa said to herself as she watched the girl walk towards her bed. She was extraordinarily good-looking even among all the witches. Her beautiful blue eyes seemed like a lucid lake, where Elsa could see her own reflections. But she was too young and maybe just had her adulthood. It was impossible for her to accumulate enough experience in training, meditation and enlightening. Elsa evolved at 26 years old. At that time, she was treated as the most promising genius in the Union for her achievement. She knew how difficult the evolution was since she went through that.
"They probably take derivative skills a young witch developed on her Day of Adulthood as a High Awakening," Elsa said to herself .
A ball of orange fire appeared in Anna's palm.
"It's the ability to control the flame, a common type of the summoning capabilities, which can be ranked by the maximum temperature and the heating rate," she gave her comments quickly. "The one who can eject the flame are regarded as a combat witch."
Just after Elsa's words, the blaze dimmed away, and then turned into a tongue of fluorescent green flame. It began to change its color, from dark green to light green. It seemed that the green flame tried to absorb all the lights around so that it could become stronger and stronger.
"This is the consolidated skill she mastered on the Day of Adulthood, and you’ll see her most important skill soon," the prince explained.
"Is it? No, it can't be a consolidated skill! If it were, the flame should be hotter and the heart of the flame should be bigger and brighter." Elsa was astonished with her mouth wide open. "Besides, what’s her most important skill?"
Soon something incredible happened. The green flame suddenly disappeared, and a black solid cube emerged in Anna's palm, which looked like a piece of rigid metal with smooth facets and angular sides.