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“Have you seen all the memories, young master?”

“What exactly happened?”

Karnak hesitated.

How was he supposed to explain this?

A crazy old lady tied up dozens of perfectly healthy humans like a bundle of fish and carried them away?

“Well, it’s, um…”

As Karnak fumbled for words, the two pressed him.

“What kind of techniques does she use? Black magic? Or maybe necromancy or spirit summoning? Which field is it?”

“You have to explain for us to understand.”

Karnak responded vaguely.

“…She just beat them up.”

“Pardon?”

“She just used her fists and feet to beat them up.”

Baros and Serati’s expressions became serious.

“An Aura user, a high-ranking mage, and even a first-tier Inquisitor—she defeated all of them barehanded?”

“Is she a powerful martial artist?”

“Even calling her a martial artist seems… a bit off.”

Karnak gave up trying to explain.

There was no way he could explain this without causing some misunderstanding.

“Fine, both of you can just see for yourselves.”

He used Chaos Magic to project a memory visualization.

Moments later, both of them wore expressions similar to Karnak’s.

“What exactly did we just witness?”

With a relieved look, Karnak laughed.

“See? It’s better to show once than to explain a hundred times.”

***

The witch was by no means a master or expert.

She didn’t display any martial arts moves, her movements were crude, and her body was full of openings.

It was exactly how an untrained person would flail around wildly.

Yet, she was ridiculously strong.

Regardless of whether her opponent attacked or not, she tanked all the blows with her body. No matter how they tried to dodge, she would chase them down, grab them by the collar, and beat them senseless, completely ignoring their counterattacks.

Baros muttered in disbelief.

“It’s purely a physical ability, isn’t it?”

That alone was so overwhelming that neither Aura nor magic could break through.

Even holy spells from the clerics were shrugged off by her body.

Serati asked,

“Is there any necromancy that can amplify physical strength like that, Lord Karnak?”

“There is.”

In fact, the spell cast on the cursed sword Mareda worked in a similar way.

It injected human blood into the host, empowering them and making them go berserk to absorb even more blood.

“It can’t make someone that strong, though.”

This witch was just incomprehensible for a similar reason.

“She’s too strong. Necromancy alone can’t make someone that powerful.”

In response to Karnak, Serati fell into thought.

In the case of the cursed sword Mareda, the host, Laficel, was already a monstrous figure, which is why it could show such immense power. So then?

“Could that old lady actually be the Martial King?”

She offered her theory, eyes gleaming.

Serati asked, “Could Laficel’s master have used space-time regression too?”

Baros shook his head.

“One thing’s for sure, it’s not Beltia.”

The current Beltia was, at most, 40 years old. Even if her future soul had taken over her present body and gone insane, her appearance should still reflect her forties.

“And there’s no one else who comes to mind among the others.”

They had already identified most of the strong figures from the future, having either killed them or turned them into undead.

So Baros was confident in saying, “There wasn’t a single person with such a distinct and eccentric appearance like that old woman.”

Indeed, if someone like that had roamed the world, it would have been hard for them not to become famous.

Serati proposed another idea.

“Then what if she returned in a different body? Is that possible?”

Karnak scratched his cheek.

“Honestly, I’ve been suspecting that too…”

Generally, when a future soul regresses, it naturally returns to its own past body. This is because the body itself serves as an anchor in the flow of time, allowing it to pinpoint its location.

“But we can’t say for certain that exceptions can’t occur.”

Karnak himself hadn’t fully grasped the intricacies of space-time regression when he used the technique. And in necromancy, there were many spells that swapped souls or allowed possession of other people’s bodies.

Serati’s idea wasn’t entirely impossible.

“Though I don’t think that’s the case this time.”

“Why not?”

“Well, it’s just… a feeling.”

“Is that all?”

“Yep.”

Baros smiled from the side.

“Oh, then you’re probably right this time.”

“Huh?”

“When the young master goes with his gut, his accuracy is pretty high. It’s only when he tries to overthink things that he tends to get it wrong.”

“….”

Serati pondered. Was that a compliment or an insult?

Meanwhile, Karnak was seriously trying to think things through.

“This is definitely a strange situation.”

It was clear the witch was strong, but he couldn’t figure out why she was so strong.

The aura of malevolence and evil energy she left behind was too faint. Judging by how she fought, she didn’t seem to be wielding the power of darkness. And if her strength came from her own ability, it was beyond belief.

“I’ll have to see her in person to understand.”

In any case, they needed to find the witch because of Alius.

“Do you think Mr. Alius is okay? What if he’s already dead?” Serati asked, worried.

Baros responded nonchalantly, “We still have to find him, regardless. Only then can we check if he’s alive or dead.”

Karnak grumbled as he stood up, “What is he, a princess in a tower? Why do I keep having to go rescue him?”

***

After finishing his business, Karnak woke up the medics and survivors who had been put to sleep.

He had done such a neat job putting them to sleep and waking them up that none of them even realized what had happened to them.

“These are the ones. Both are mentally unstable, so I doubt they’ll be able to provide any useful testimony…”

“That seems to be the case.”

Since Karnak had seamlessly linked their memories, the medics believed they had been awake the entire time.

They had lost about 10 minutes of memory, but since there was no clock in the room, they wouldn’t notice the gap anytime soon.

“Well, we’ll be heading out now.”

As Karnak’s group left the room, Viscount Demetas approached them again.

“You’re planning to find your companion, I assume?”

“Of course.”

“The main temple has promised to send Inquisitors as soon as possible. Additionally, the Evil Slaying Brigade will also send reinforcements.”

Unlike Karnak’s group, Baron Demetas had been unable to obtain any useful information from the survivors. He didn’t know the extent of the witch’s powers.

However, he was certain that the situation was dire.

The situation was completely different from when regular border guards had gone missing.

With two Aura users and a high-ranking mage defeated, this had escalated into a top-tier darkness-related disaster.

“The troops will gather soon, just wait four days,” said the baron.

In any case, without the help of a trained Inquisitor, it would be impossible to track down the witch. Naturally, the baron assumed that Karnak and his group would wait at the fortress until then.

“I plan to form a search party as soon as the Inquisitors arrive. Will you assist us?”

“Of course, it’s not someone else’s problem.”

After finishing the conversation, the group left the castle.

When there was no one around to hear, Serati asked immediately.

“You’re not really going to wait, are you?”

“Of course not.”

Karnak could easily trace the signs of necromancy far better than any cleric. He didn’t need an Inquisitor’s help to find the witch.

“Besides, it’s much easier to move without anyone watching.”

“Well, at this point, having people watch doesn’t matter much anymore…”

Since the incident with Prince Lloyd, Karnak had been steadily researching the fusion of magic and necromancy whenever he had the chance.

“There’s no way we can wait four days. Something could happen to Alius in the meantime.”

The group quickened their pace. They needed to return to the inn, pack up, and prepare for the search.

Baros mumbled, “But what about Laficel?”

Under normal circumstances, they would’ve just brought her along, but the situation seemed too dangerous.

Their opponent wasn’t someone they could fight while protecting a non-combatant. And with her memory still sealed, Laficel couldn’t use her full combat abilities.

Of course, if the memory seal were lifted, she would become a powerful ally, but then she’d likely attack Karnak’s group, which was equally troublesome.

“Can we really leave her alone at the inn?”

Serati shrugged. “She’ll probably be fine.”

Even if Laficel couldn’t unleash her full combat power, she wouldn’t be easily overpowered by ordinary people.

When they arrived at the inn, they sat her down and gave her firm instructions.

“Be good and wait here.”

“Yes, unnie!”

“What do you do if a stranger tries something bad?”

“I’ll turn them into leaves!”

Baros and Karnak tilted their heads in confusion.

“Leaves? What’s she talking about?”

“I have no idea.”

With that, they finished their preparations for the search and left the inn again.

As they looked around, Karnak asked, “So, where exactly is this Witch’s Forest?”

***

The Witch’s Forest itself was easy to find.

It had originally been just an ordinary forest near Swindler Fortress. It only became known as the Witch’s Forest after the witch appeared, so it wasn’t exactly difficult to locate.

The real problem was where in this vast forest the witch could be.

“The traces are too faint,” Karnak muttered, standing amidst the dense coniferous trees with a frown.

“Judging by the traces, she’s only about half as strong as the Lord of Darkness,” he said.

By now, even Serati had started to understand Karnak’s strange way of describing things.

“You’re saying she’s only half-trained in necromancy, right?”

“Only based on the traces, yes.”

This was precisely why the border patrol and Leocolt from the brigade had confidently gone after the witch.

Based on the traces she left behind, she seemed insignificant. It was as if some untrained thug had accidentally consumed a bit of the Darkness of Doom and caused a ruckus.

“But in reality, she’s incredibly strong, isn’t she?”

“Exactly, which is what makes it so strange.”

Only someone like Karnak could even attempt to track her; any ordinary Inquisitor wouldn’t be able to find these faint traces.

Baros clicked his tongue in disbelief.

“Even with these faint traces, Mr. Alius still managed to track the witch?”

“I have a rough idea of how.”

As for Alius, that was understandable. But Felix, the priest from the border patrol, was only a second-tier Inquisitor.

There was no way a second-tier Inquisitor could track such faint traces of darkness that even Karnak struggled with.

“Most likely, the witch found them. They didn’t find her.”

In any case, the traces were too faint and unclear. At this rate, they might not be able to track the witch, even if they spent days searching.

Just as Karnak was contemplating whether he needed to find another method, something caught his eye.

“Hm?”

He noticed a faint aura scattered between the bushes and the grass.

It wasn’t a dark aura, but it was something equally sensitive that a necromancer would immediately recognize.

“…It’s divine power?”

Upon closer inspection, it was a small fragment of sacred object, barely the size of a fingernail.

Baros nodded. “It’s from Mr. Alius.”

Alius hadn’t gone down without a fight.

Even as he was being captured, he had chipped away at the Inquisitor’s holy relic from Hatoba, imbuing it with divine power, and scattered it along the ground, hoping that someone would find the trail and rescue them.

The aura was so faint that even the witch hadn’t noticed it.

Serati smiled with relief.

“This means Mr. Alius was alive at this point.”

Karnak started moving.

“Let’s follow it for now.”