Chapter 42: Witch of the First Flame (2)

Charlotte traversed the wide meadows of green flaming grass, the fiery chains at her ankles limited her movement speed to nothing more than a slow crawl. Her movement skills had been limited, and she was giving her all to go even faster. It's been 3 hours since the dragon had used its domain, trapping the majority of the attack force here. A makeshift meeting between the few higher-ups who had been trapped here as well commenced almost immediately, with each one taking 1/4 of the surviving members to take down each of the 4 witches.

She was following a group headed for the Southern Witch, led by Magus Cereuleun, famed for his contributions to the fields of offensive magic. He was a young man with brilliant blue eyes and a handsome face that belonged to someone in his mid 20's. They marched towards the south, guided by a thin white line that disappeared past the horizon. 

At first, everything was going alright. The sights alone, while something to kill for, were unsurprisingly in a single color palette. It felt like a child took a paint bucket and doused the entire world in green, even the little sky she could see was a shade of darker green. Floating specks of green fire danced around the flowers and vines the size of mountains stretched into the sky, each twisting and turning and melding together into a canopy of green flames. 

Only the slow walk was somewhat of a problem, with the green chains that clasped around their ankles slowing them down considerably, but nothing too much of a problem. Charlotte was also chained the moment the domain appeared, even though she was nowhere near the ground.

That was until a counter began counting down from 24 hours. No one knew what that meant, but Magus Cereluen found a way to extend that timer by simply drawing a little blood and letting it trickle into the green grass. A few others followed his example, and for every drop of blood, it increased their timer by a single minute. 

Charlotte followed Magus Cereluen's example because she had extra blood kept within Masamune. Just buy an extra few minutes so she could see what happens when the timer counts down to 0 for the others.

Many others didn't do it, since they believed that they could just deal with the consequences later. 

That was until the first of the timers reached 0. A part of their body turned grey, whether it be their arms, legs, or pieces of their body, and erupted into green flames. Seconds later, the grey part was seared into ash, with the victim losing the memory associated with that body part. 

They always didn't have that body part, why did everyone else insist that they did?

Chaos erupted within the ranks, with many who were hesitant to draw blood immediately slicing their wrists open, desperate to buy time. On the horizon, the white thread continued to meander on, seemingly going into infinity. The massive egg at the center was already out of sight for hours now, and the end was nowhere in sight.

Charlotte bought herself another hour's worth of time, continuing to trudge forward. It turns out that the timer reversed one minute for every 10 steps you took, but decayed at twice the rate since then. Magus Cerulean, alongside a select few others, followed, determined to either kill the witch or die trying.

It was better than wasting away to ash waiting for the inevitable end. There was just no winning, but at least one option had the slightest bit of hope. 

The only saving grace was that so far, there were no monsters spotted at all, making the only real enemy the clock itself. 

"Miss Rayne?" A voice came from behind her. Charlotte looked back to see Magus Cerulean looking at her. 

"How are you not tired?" He asked. The rest of the group was living on a thread, blood was scarce now. Losing any more blood had the risk of them passing out, or being unable to move anymore. The strain of the chains, combined with the constant blood loss, was just too much.

"Oh..." Charlotte didn't know how to respond. Tell them that she has a sword that contains only blood? She had no doubts that that'll snowball into more difficult questions she couldn't get out of.

You are reading story Masamune, The Blood Blade at novel35.com

Charlotte stuck Masamune into her bag, and drained the majority of the Condensed Ichor within the jar, leaving only a few milliliters left in the jar. Masamune glowed gold, but Charlotte quickly sheathed her to prevent any suspicions. To Magus Cerulean, it just looked like she was sheathing her sword. "I've got a small amount of gold liquid from my parents as a gift." She pulled the jar out of the bag, which made Magus Cerulean raise an eyebrow. 

"That can be substituted for blood?" He eyed the liquid. "It looks like... honey. Gold Honey." He took it from Charlotte, which made her heart ache. Ah... whatever, she could get more once she challenges Atyx's second fragment. 

He pulled out a small turkey dropper and sucked a drop of the Ichor out, and dripped it onto the ground. In an instant, 48 hours appeared on his timer. "What." 

"Yeah..." Charlotte gave a small nervous chuckle. While Magus Cerulean was freaking out and passing the Ichor around to the rest of the group, Charlotte's eyes picked up on something in the distance, at the base of a massive flower stalk. 

"I think I see our objective," Charlotte said, which immediately brought the rest of the group out of their festive stupor. 

A hulking warrior clad in silver armor and lion etchings moved in front of her. "I'll take the brunt of any damage that comes our way." He said, while hoisting a shield nearly the size of her. Another warrior, a paladin with a dented helmet 

"Mages and archers, stay back with me, everyone else stays in the middle. Let the warriors soak any attacks that come our way." Magus Cerulean said. 

Charlotte obeyed, and they slowly moved towards the small hut at the base of the fiery flower stalk. It was the only thing not made of green flames, with Charlotte clearly making out wooden walls and opaque windows. 

"Prepare your spells," Cerulean whispered. A slew of magic circles appeared around the backline, slowly spinning in place. 

Suddenly, the door to the hut burst open. A small boy stood in the doorway, eyeing all of them with a disapproving glare. He looked like he was only 10 years of age, with wavy hair that reached just below his ears.

"A boy?" One of Charlotte's comrades in the middle layer said, confused. He was wearing a pointed helmet with the guise of a woman crying. Decorating his body were a variety of necklaces containing various cryptic sigils, and his breastplate had the etchings of a burning woman.

"A witch hunter. Disgusting." The boy responded with a nasty look on his face as several magic circles erupted around him in an instant. "Since I am here again, this means that Dido is awake somehow." He looked towards the horizon and rubbed his chin, seemingly seeing something they could not. "And my sisters are under attack..."

Purple flames erupted from his form, letting the wooden hut behind him catch afire. "I may be weakened and an untold amount of distance away from my real body..." He grinned, as the frontline braced their shields. "...but you will still come to fear the witch Pasiphae, kindling of the first flame."