Chapter 172: Witch

"Pearl..."

"You can come play in the Great Forest anytime, meow, you’re always welcome, meow~"

Irena seemed especially reluctant to part with Pearl, she hugged Pearl and looked pitifully at Ethan, seemingly begging him to let Pearl sleep with her for the night.

Ethan truly couldn’t bear to refuse and smiled as he nodded.

Irena cheered happily and ran back to her room hugging Pearl, the maid looked lovingly at Irena’s back, then followed her into the room.

Only Ethan, Mirelle, Iris, and Edric remained in the dining room, none of them spoke; they merely drank in silence while eating the appetizers Ethan had made.

Mirelle leaned back in her chair, swirling the wine in her glass, and spoke up: "The atmosphere isn’t right."

"What do you mean?" Edric set down his glass and asked vigilantly.

During the time they spent together, he had witnessed Mirelle’s immense strength and sharp intuition, if she said the atmosphere wasn’t right, there was definitely a problem.

Edric’s hand was already gripping the hilt of his sword, while Mirelle stared out the window. "Something is approaching."

"Iris, go protect Her Highness!"

"Yes." Iris immediately stood up and ran toward Irena’s room.

Exclamations of surprise from Irena and her maid came from the room, but Edric had no time to worry about that now.

"Where are they coming from?"

"The sky, and underground."

"I’ll handle the ones underground." Ethan grabbed the Scythe of Gaia and stepped out of the posthouse.

Outside, it was dead silent; there was no movement at all, but this tranquility didn’t last long.

The Scythe of Gaia expanded.

’The ground is shaking.’ Ethan could feel faint tremors coming from the ground, he tightened his grip on the Scythe of Gaia, carefully sensing the direction of the vibrations.

The tremors grew stronger and stronger.

The ground shook violently as a massive figure burst out from the earth, it was a gigantic serpentine magical beast.

"Wrath of the Earth." Immediately following, a few more serpentine magical beasts drilled out from underground.

Ethan activated the Wrath of the Earth, stone pillars shot up from the earth, impaling the monsters.

At the same time, a shadow cast over them from the sky.

"W-What is that?" Hearing the commotion outside, the posthouse guards ran out to investigate, seeing the scene in the sky, they were frightened out of their wits.

A massive, wyvern-like magical beast was flying toward them.

’I think they’re called Wyverns.’ Ethan had seen this type of magical beast in the Great Forest before, the warriors of the Minotaur village would occasionally hunt Wyverns and then proudly show off their spoils to him, he hadn’t expected to see Wyverns here as well.

However, now was not the time to be thinking about this.

"We’re here to help." Elven archers scrambled onto the roofs and fired arrows at the Wyverns, meanwhile, elven warriors wielding spears and swords rushed to Ethan’s side, fighting shoulder to shoulder with him.

With their help, Ethan quickly eliminated the serpentine monsters.

A Wyvern’s wing was cleaved off, blood spraying everywhere.

It turned out Mirelle had climbed onto the roof at some point and attacked the Wyvern with her spider silk.

Losing a wing, the Wyvern plummeted powerlessly from the sky, Mirelle sneered, leaped into the air, and sent it flying with a powerful kick.

The Wyvern crashed heavily next to Ethan, before it could recover, Ethan decapitated it with a single swing of his sword, then, he furrowed his brows.

"This might be a diversion tactic." Those magical beasts were highly likely just meant to draw them away; their true target was Her Highness.

Hearing Ethan’s words, the guards immediately rushed into the posthouse.

"Come out." Ethan flicked the blood off his sword and spoke into the darkness.

The moment his words fell, several dark-skinned elves stepped out from the shadows.

"I no longer have any need for Chaos Fragments, yet you still dare to come throw your lives away, are you truly not afraid of death?"

The dark elves did not answer, they simply raised their weapons in silence and surrounded him.

"What’s going on?"

Suddenly, streaks of blue chains materialized on the bodies of the dark elves, bound by the chains, they were completely immobilized.

Ethan watched this scene in confusion, at that moment, he heard footsteps coming from the direction of the posthouse, he looked up and saw an old woman leaning on a cane, slowly walking toward him.

The old woman, dressed in a long black robe, smiled kindly upon seeing Ethan and gently waved her cane.

The dark elves bound by the chains were instantly hoisted into the air.

"Ahhhhhh!!"

They flew higher and higher, before finally plummeting powerlessly to the ground, smashing into a pulp and mixing with the corpses of the serpentine monsters and wyverns.

The old woman watched this expressionlessly, then walked up to Ethan.

"...Are you... the Witch of the Great Forest?"

"That’s right." The old woman spoke as she slowly pulled back her hood, she had a head full of silver hair and looked quite elderly, however, Ethan felt a powerful aura of pressure radiating from her, it felt as if he were facing the giant dragon.

"I am Ethan, from the Great Forest."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." The old woman smiled happily and extended her hand to Ethan.

Ethan smiled and shook her hand.

Just then, the window to Irena’s room swung open. "Long time no see, meow~"

"Hohoho, yes indeed, how was your vacation?" The old woman smiled gently and lightly patted Ethan’s shoulder, then, she walked into the posthouse.

Mirelle jumped down from the roof, looked at the old woman’s retreating back, and curled her lips. "Let’s clean up this mess first, shall we?"

By the time they finished cleaning up the aftermath and returned to the posthouse, everyone was gathered in the parlor.

The Witch seemed to have been waiting for Ethan, upon seeing him enter, she immediately spoke, "Thank you for the Doll Grass you sent."

"You’re too polite, I am truly sorry for taking up residence in the Great Forest without your permission."

"Hohoho, although I am the master of the Great Forest, I have not managed it properly, whoever wants to live there may do so."

Ethan had originally thought the Witch would be very eccentric; he hadn’t expected her to be so reasonable, he looked at Mirelle in confusion.

Mirelle, however, merely drank her tea expressionlessly.

"When are you returning to the Great Forest, meow?"

"I still have matters to attend to; I cannot return for the time being."

"What matters, meow?"

"It’s probably regarding the forces of Chaos, isn’t it?" Mirelle set down her teacup and spoke indifferently.

The Witch nodded. "You all should know by now that the forces of Chaos have started to stir, if left unchecked, I’m afraid it will result in a great disaster."

"What great disaster?"

"The extinction of a species." The Witch took a sip of tea and looked at Ethan.

"The very same disaster that caused all humans to disappear."

"Species extinction... But isn’t Mr. Ethan a human?" Iris asked in confusion.

The Witch gave a faint smile. "He is merely a human from another world, the humans of this world are already extinct."