Chapter 2: Chapter 2

“Mr. Wolfe, mind explaining to me why you chose to use your magic against Angelique,” Morgenstern paused to clear her throat. “I mean, Ms. Tourneau?”

Abel glanced around the huge office. The carpeted flooring ended at sparkling brown baseboards which separated the spotless floor from the shining walls. Bookshelves lined either side of the office, only stopping for floor to ceiling window panes that overlooked the beautiful courtyard. Morgenstern sat behind a polished redwood desk, with a set of monitors to her left and a landline phone atop various documents to her right. She eyed Abel like a mother would a mischievous child, clearly waiting on an answer.

“I just wanted to talk to her is all,” was all he could manage to say. Side-eyeing the Ice Queen, who he now knew was named Angelique, he saw her staring blankly out the window. “She wouldn’t say anything so—”

“That’s quite enough.” Morgenstern interrupted sharply. “I don’t want a repeat incident of the entrance ceremony. You will now have a demerit on your record. As you know, five demerits in a single semester will result in expulsion. Am I clear?” Abel nodded, eyeing the headmaster cautiously. “In addition to this demerit, you will help the professor of your final period clean the classroom until it is spotless. This will be until further notice. You may leave.” Abel stood, cursing under his breath as he exited the office, leaving Angelique and the headmaster. He’d wanted to hear what the punishment would be for the famed Ice Queen, but in the back of his mind he knew there would be none. 

Abel sulked off back to his dorm room, unknowing of the horrid punishment that Angelique would receive, which would be hundreds of times worse than his mere demerit.

 

………

 

“Using Ultra Class offensive magic against another student, huh?” Morgenstern stood from her desk, pacing back and forth before standing in front of the window, looking out over the courtyard. “I’m sure you knew what would have happened if my barrier wasn’t protecting you students, don’t you?” She turned away from the window, waltzing around her desk and stopping behind Angelique. “You know how much I love you, don’t you, my dear?” Angelique flinched as the headmaster began to rub her shoulders softly, caressing her shoulder blades and trailing her fingers across her collar bone. 

“But, I love the money your father pays me to keep little…events, like this, a secret from the public eye even more than I love you.” Angelique was frozen in fear as headmaster Andromeda Morgenstern stood menacingly behind her. Angelique was a monster of a witch, but Morgenstern was a goddess in comparison. The anger that was seeping out in the form of magic was suffocating, even to someone of Angelique’s caliber. To her, it felt as if the headmaster had both hands around her neck and was slowly tightening the grip. “And! As much as I love money, I hate the Tourneaus, and I absolutely despise the fact that I have one of you demons walking the halls of my school. However,” Morgenstern returned to her seat, sipping from a mug of coffee that was surely cold. “Your father and I came to a gracious agreement. In exchange for keeping any accidents caused by you away from the media, I was granted free reign when it comes to your punishments.”

Angelique shivered as Morgenstern burst into a fit of shrill laughter. The House of Tourneau was a cruel and vicious one. Children of the House were raised to be hardened killers in the face of adversity. They were trained in politics and negotiations, in the ways of magic, both old and new, and in the way of the warrior. Tourneau was a name often heard when speaking of the great battle mages of the Great War a millennia ago, though in recent times they’d become something of a super corporation with hands in every corner of modern economy. Children were still raised like hardened killers, though many strayed off to take their own paths in the family business. Angelique was not one of the lucky siblings, she was born to be a monster, a killer. 

    Being put through harsh tests and difficult magic trials as early as the age of four, Angelique had been through her share of hardships. Instead of studying with friends after school and going to parties, she’d been thrown into dungeons that no low level mages could have possibly survived. After being starved of so many meals by her own family, she’d learned to survive by consuming her own magical energy, or mana; this had taken away her need for food, so despite being perfectly healthy, she’d often appeared to be malnourished when she was younger. Almost at her wits end, she’d withdrawn into herself. At a dinner party with her family, she’d thrown a tantrum and had to be subdued by her father. She cursed and flailed under his mighty power. And her last words before she was dragged away from the party and locked in a dungeon were, “I’ll make you all regret this!” She never spoke again after that. 

    Morgenstern’s laughter subsided. She drained her coffee before sliding a piece of paper across her desk along with a ballpoint pen. “Read this contract and sign it, or,” an evil smile crossed thin red lips, “don’t sign it, and we can have a meeting with your father.”

    Angelique grasped the paper, reading over her contract which was clearly a punishment for offending the school. 

    I, Angelique Tourneau, hereby grant Swinescar College of Invocation and Alchemy to use my skills for the betterment of our great province. I acknowledge that this contract requires Relic Class magic or better. I acknowledge that I may be gravely wounded, and may even lose my life by accepting this contract. I acknowledge that this contract will require at least a week away from my studies and that I am responsible for catching up on any and all work. I acknowledge that failure to accept this contract will result in immediate disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion. 

Angelique signed the bottom of the contract slowly as a sense of dread washed over her. 

“This contract is for the Seventh Realm of Immortals on the southern outskirts of Marquiessa. Your targets are the undead. Supposedly there’s a bunch of them, they wiped out a troop of rookie knights. I need you to make your way to the graveyard at the center of the Seventh Realm and destroy the one behind this. You are to pack your bags and leave tonight. Dismissed.”

On a journey to Marquiessa, you could get there by car, or flying if you knew how; but the trek to the Seventh Realm from Marquiessa was a long one. Through marshes and swamps and a thick forest, one would encounter monsters not seen anywhere else in the world. It’d been three days before Angelique made it to the Seventh Realm. She was greeted by gnarled trees and overgrown forestry that arched toward her like angry hands and fingers, as if to say come no closer. 

Darkness settled in, tucking the world under its thick blanket. Insects buzzed and scuttled off as Angelique trekked through the marsh, the mushy ground sucking away at her feet as if it wanted to hold her in place. She’d cast a spell on her eyes, giving her enhanced night vision. It was a spell she’d made herself and hadn’t told anyone about. A faint presence made itself noticeable as she trudged on. A cool breeze caressed the area, carrying with it dozens of whispers consisting of words that weren’t quite clear.

Unknowingly, seconds had turned to minutes, and minutes to hours.  As time became meshed together, Angelique realized she’d walked right into a trap. 

The Seventh Realm of the Immortals had been one of many battlegrounds during the Great War, and had become the burial ground of many renowned war hero’s; though, with there supposedly being an unnamed amount of undead wandering around, it was more accurate to call it a necropolis. These types of areas were often shrouded in ancient magic, undetectable to those who weren’t attentive. Angelique had let her guard down.

“Hours you walk, but tire, you do not. How is that so?” Angelique froze. Being raised as a Torneau, there was one thing she’d learned that had stuck with her for a long time: any being that speaks using telepathy is not one to be trifled with. The only ones who would have had such a power would have been a wizard or witch holding the status of Warlock, or a Greater Demon, a beast of unimaginable strength. 

The trees around her rustled violently; a heavy beast had begun to move quickly, lashing out at Angelique, who’d almost missed her chance to throw up a defensive barrier. A gnarled, clawed, beastly arm lashed out once more from the darkness, tearing through the white runed defensive barrier and tossing Angelique fifty meters backwards. Spinning out of a backflip, she landed on her feet, only to see a monstrous beast hastily closing the distance between them. 

You are reading story Which Witch at novel35.com

Towering over Angelique by at least four feet was a Bukavac, a monstrous six-legged beast. The hunger in its beady black eyes was apparent and confirmed by the pool of drool leaking from its horrifying mouth that was stitched together slightly by separate pieces of slimy skin. Menacing antlers protruded from its angular head, curling upwards to form gnarled forks. Angelique quickly dodged to the side and sprung upwards, barely missing the beast’s ferocious tail as it swung angrily about. As it roared past her, she aimed a finger towards its back, firing off the same magic she’d used against Abel. A red beam of magic burst forth, twisting and turning as it sped toward the beast, penetrating its skin. Its deafening shriek pierced through the night as the beast quickly rounded on Angelique, suddenly moving faster to avoid her then rapid succession of shots. In a speedy adjustment, she switched from one finger to both hands, using all ten fingers to fire off blasts of chantless magic. The beast continued screeching as powerful beams pierced through its body, its legs and its skull, until it ceased all movement.

“You’ve defeated my precious child? How drab,” the voice said with a fake sadness, speaking again to Angelique’s mind. “You wish to become another fallen hero laid to rest on these battlegrounds? I will see to it that wish is fulfilled.”

A number of beasts stood between Angelique and the graveyard she’d been assigned to clear. Her senses had become heightened after fighting the Bukavac, so she’d made quick work of them with her magic abilities. The graveyard sat far from the swamp in the deepest part of a valley. Dead trees twisted angrily toward the sky, arching over a river running with toxic black water. Clusters of Devil’s Opal lined the river, emitting a purple glow that reflected off the deep black water to create a mesmerizing sight.

The river connected to a large body of water with an islet centered in the middle. That islet was a barren plain filled with hundreds of rough, unkempt tombstones centered around a mausoleum about the size of a small home. 

“Oh my, you’ve made it this far already? You’re much better than those knights they sent for me the last time.” 

There was only one presence that Angelique could sense; a powerful aura was being emitted from inside the mausoleum. The decision to use some of her most powerful magic was an easy one, especially after everything she’d been through in the past week. As she stood on the shore opposite the islet, an open palm aimed at the mausoleum; and her mouth opened, sounding out words silently, imbuing her body with an ancient magic. Bloodstained Script: Halo Evocation. 

The earth below Angelique’s feet began to crack, debris rose from the ground and grass withered. Black electricity began to flash through the air, zapping in quick succession and absorbed by her body. Purple energy began to ooze from the air directly in front of her open hand like wet paint before quickly stitching itself around her hand like a glove. Shrill laughter began to fill the air as Angelique steeled herself.

“You don’t speak a word, yet you always call on little old me when you’re in trouble.” The ethereal form of her Bloodstained Script had manifested itself around Angelique’s body, the ghastly form of a long dead woman with toned muscles and scars across her skin. Bloodstained Scripts were an ancient form of magic that required compatible hosts and manifested the ghosts of the original users. Halo Evocation took the form of an Oni woman, a demonic warrior with jagged teeth, sharp horns that arced toward her chin, and skin like red sand.

As Angelique released her magic, everything went wrong. Halo Evocation’s form fell away into nothingness, and the blast of energy from her hand dissipated as well. “My, I’d be a fool to let you use a Script here, wouldn’t I?”

Angelique rounded to see who’d spoken to her, only to be faced with an enormous army of undead soldiers. Empty eye sockets and decayed skin lay guarded beneath rusted incomplete sets of chainmail armor. “I’d offer you congratulations, but I’m afraid you’ll be dying tonight.” Angelique looked to the dark night sky to see a winged figure hovering silently. That was who’d been using telepathy. An Indu, a greater demon.

……

“What’s holding up the tournament? Our sponsors are itching to see what Houses will be the most prosperous this year.”

“Betting on the lives of my students again, are we?” Andromeda Morgenstern stood from her desk, moving to gaze out the window, a cup of coffee clutched in her hands

“Please, don’t act like this is anything new,” the calm, deep voice of an older man called out from her computer. “Last year it was almost a tie between Cryean and Trollain.”

Morgenstern scoffed, turning to face the man speaking, scowling defiantly. “And last year, I had to have a conference with over thirty parents explaining how their children died under the guidance and protection of my academy. I won’t even mention the amount of Crown Banknotes we had to write to keep the lawyers and Suits out of it!”

The man spoke again, but his words were low, as if to avoid being overheard. “Listen, you have our backing, the Cult’s backing. Your only job is to make sure your most powerful freshmen are ready when it’s time for the offerings. You do that, and we can save your academy from any predicament it finds itself in.” There was a pause, brisk clicks of a keyboard sounded from the man’s side, and he spoke again. “How’s Tourneau’s kid doing? She’s one of the prime candidates, I was told to ask about her.”

“She’s as powerful as the reports said she was. She almost killed a student on the first day with Ultra Class magic.”

“A feisty one, huh?” The man questioned, clearly intrigued.

“Only when provoked. She should be back by the end of the week. We’ll have the tournament soon after her return.”

The man cocked an eye at Morgenstern, whose face had become shrouded in shadow as the sun began to set. “‘She should be back?’ Has she been away from campus recently?”

“Yes, she’s been away on a…special project for about two weeks now.”

“Well,” the man had begun packing a suitcase during their conversation, “You have three weeks to begin the tournament and have the students sorted. That’s all I can give you.”

You can find story with these keywords: Which Witch, Read Which Witch, Which Witch novel, Which Witch book, Which Witch story, Which Witch full, Which Witch Latest Chapter