My name is Akatosh,

It must be that I'm pretending to be a demon god in the wrong posture.

—4E, 201, Moon of Fire, 4th, 9:33 a.m.

Like other Nord ruins, the "Black Light Tower" is a stone structure built hundreds or even thousands of years ago, it is made of many monolithic boulders, so the main part is still very intact, but due to the changes of the times and the landscape, its role as a "choke road" has completely disappeared, and is currently just an ordinary ruin located in the southwest of Rift Valley City, on the south bank of Lake Hollich, built against the mountain, if there is anything special, it is not a robber or a beast that occupies it, but a group of witches.

Although the term witch can be used to refer to a female magician, its earliest meaning is a woman who can awaken her magical abilities on her own, and the reason for this is said to be related to a certain Holy Spirit who appears in the form of a woman, and the male magician who can only be improved through hard training is very envious and jealous.

"[Helsin—we adore you—please grant us the blood and strength of the beast—]"

At the top of the tower is a wide platform formed by its hillside, and in the center of the platform is an altar filled with feathers, talons, and beaks of various birds, and a gagged man is tied to a high chair in front of the altar, and around the high chair and the altar is a group of women in dark blue hooded robes, praying in unison.

"[Helsing—we adore you—]"

As the witches prayed, the strange altar began to glow, and their emotions began to grow eager, and their voices grew louder, and one by one they all put on a posture ready for battle.

Bang –

A puff of smoke rose and the light of the altar vanished, leaving the high chair empty at the same time...... No, it's not empty.

"Looks like it's failed again," said the witch closest to the high chair, who walked over and grabbed a rooster from the chair in a daze and showed her companions, "It's okay this time, it's just a chicken, not some monster that attacks indiscriminately." ”

After hearing this, the witches who were in a state of preparation for war stopped their vigilance and surrounded the altar.

"There shouldn't be anything wrong with the ritual itself," a witch at the front of the line pulled off her hood, a middle-aged woman with brown eyes and ear-length blonde hair, a little older, but still a beauty, and she stared at the chicken thoughtfully, "Helsing's ritual is not complicated, it's just that all the wolf materials are replaced with birds, and it shouldn't be invalid, unless—"

"I promise I'm not mistaken, Lord Sylvia," a witch behind the middle-aged woman replied in a snap, "There were several people present at the time of the deal with that harpy!" We have confirmed the content and steps of the ceremony and the prayers. ”

"Of course I know that if none of this goes wrong, the only problem could be the 'transformer,'" the middle-aged witch known as Sylvia pinched the cockscomb, "and it's likely that there are no men at all in the Harpy, a race of bestials we've never heard of." ”

"No males? So how do you reproduce? ”

"Isn't it going out to catch ......?"

"Yikes! You're so dirty! ”

The witches whispered.

"So—" Sylvia scaled up the volume and suppressed the whispers, "we need to experiment with 'women'." ”

Click, the witches who had been watching the big took a step back in unison.

"Hmph, I don't know who said that they envied the beauty and strength of those harpy witches," Sylvia scanned the past with a sharp gaze, and the witches snickered and bowed their heads: "Don't worry, I won't let you try it directly until there are no successful examples, now, what you have to do is the same as before, find a way to catch lone robbers, merchants and adventurers and bring them back, but this time the target is limited to women - let's go!" ”

Sylvia took the chicken and threw it off the tower.

"Besides, it's not a chicken, it's a human, and no one is allowed to eat it!"

——10:19——

"Mother, how can she be ...... like this"

In a room on the second floor of the tower, a young witch without a hood was watching out the window at the rooster gliding farther and farther away, her appearance was very similar to that of Sylvia on the roof, except that her blonde hair was slightly whitish and longer, and her eyes were darker than brown, so dark that they seemed to be slightly red.

"Even if he is a robber, he is a human," the young witch muttered to herself, looking at the chicken, "If you become a chicken, you may be eaten by wild beasts or even humans, that's—uh-huh!" ”

Disgusted by her own imagination, she suddenly covered her mouth.

"Ahem, ahem—" The young witch forcibly suppressed the feeling of nausea, but began to cough violently, and when she let go of her hand, her palms were already dripping with blood.

"What, catch women to experiment? Are robbers and businesswomen simply rare breeds, okay? ”

"Female adventurers are common, isn't that 'lioness' Mu Yueer often hanging around?"

"Forget it, it's easy to trick her, we're going to die."

"If you're brave enough, you can go to Rift Valley City to catch a female thief, that's no hidden danger."

The witches who came down from the top floor were talking, and the young witches who heard these words were so shocked that they could barely stand on their feet.

"No, no," she leaned against the wall and rested for a while, staggering to the corner of the house, "although Mother is planning to find a way to save me, if this continues, she and the witch sisters outside will be killed, either adventurers or bounty hunters......"

"Only ...... left "The young witch lifted a carpet in the corner of the room, and below it was a strangely shaped dark red magic circle, apparently painted in blood, but there seemed to be a corner unfinished, and she muttered to herself as she stretched out her blood-stained fingers to outline the missing places, "Dark Brotherhood...... If the client wants to kill himself, they won't take it, right? ”

I heard that the Dark Brotherhood calls these assassination commissions "Dark Contracts", and they will receive full payment in advance before the operation, and if the assassination is successful, they will disappear directly, and if they fail, half of the amount will be refunded to the client, and if they still insist on assassinating the target, they will need to sign the contract again.

The young witch rested for a moment, and turned her gaze to the cabinet beside her bed, as far as the reward was concerned, of course, there was no need to worry, because she had almost no way to spend money, and the jewels and gold coins and other belongings that Sylvia had given her over the years had hardly been touched, which must be enough for them to fulfill the contract of "assassinating a magician in a state of full defense".

For ordinary magicians, the more magic power the better, and she can use more and more powerful magic with them, but this sentence does not apply to her at all, the total amount of magic she has is far beyond the limit of her body's capacity, and as a result, not only can she not use magic, but it is also difficult to take care of herself in daily life - since she awakened her magic ability, she has suffered as if she is about to be blown up from the inside out, and will cough up blood from time to time.

Her mother, Sylvia, was just an ordinary magician, and judging by her mother's attitude of silently looking for a solution without asking any "why", the problem must have been with her father, whom she had never met.

Normally, it's very easy to kill yourself, but this common sense becomes meaningless in the face of her overflowing magic, although she can't use magic, the magic that fills her body will stop any external factors that will cause her harm, such as falling from a tower will fall slowly, entering the water will automatically breathe underwater, even if she hits the sharp weapon ruthlessly, the auto-generated thick armor will break the thing apart first, and in addition, the highest record so far is that she doesn't feel hungry without eating for a month, If it weren't for the intense pain of constant overflow of magic and the complete absence of hemoptysis, she would have almost thought she was some kind of magical genius chosen by the god of magic.

In addition to giving her an idea of the function of her own magic, these attempts also made Sylvia hold her and cry for a long time, forcing her mother to promise that she would never do it again, while secretly adding in her heart "if you are not sure".

"As a long-established Assassin Order, they must have a way to deal with this state - ahem!" The young witch finally drew the magic circle, or rather, the dark ritual circle that summoned the Dark Brotherhood, and wiped her hands and stood up.

"And ...... Incantations. She recalled, and began to read, "Close, close, close, close......"

These spells and magic circles were accidentally recorded by Sylvia when she took her around looking for a solution, and the solution that her mother finally chose was to evolve her body into a form that could contain those magical powers, such as the Harpies blessed by Helsing, who are very famous in the witch world, "Grimm Jasmine Witch Villa".

But since it involves the demon god, it is naturally difficult to carry it out, and although several rituals have been held these days to trade from the harpy, none of them have been successful, and she can't help but wonder if the few witches who came forward to trade were deceived because they did not study the details of the transaction carefully.

"I am the one who fulfills all the good deeds of the world, I am, ahem, destroy everything in the world, ahem, ahem! The Wicked Man......" She was finally interrupted by a violent cough because the incantation to be recited was too long, and was about to rest for a moment to continue chanting, when the door was suddenly pushed open, and a witch of the same age rushed in.

"Illia! Adventurers are coming! Seems to be the new baron of Rift City! Come and pretend to be sick and weak—"

At this moment, the crooked and not very standard magic array suddenly bloomed with dazzling white light, completely engulfing the girl standing next to the magic array.