Chapter 178: The Seven Desolations of the Underworld

A gust of wind swept through the sky, scattering the thick clouds.

The enormous Wyvern’s black scales gleamed under the sunlight as its massive leathery wings, each one as long as a bus, flapped on both sides with enough force to disturb the flow of the air.

Its deep yellow eyes remained fixed on one point as low growls escaped between its rows of sharp teeth, as if something had gotten on its nerves.

"You realized it as well?" Hecate, standing on its broad head, muttered with a deep frown.

What they were currently looking at was the sky where the huge rift to the Underworld had opened yesterday.

Normally, the entrance was the boiling mana pool inside the mountain beneath them, but when the seal was broken, the entrance itself was disrupted, causing a tear to appear in the sky.

The fact that the entrances to other realms could disrupt the laws of time and space, even tearing through the fabric of reality like this, was not the strange part. What was strange was the lingering presence that remained after the rift had closed.

Even after the rift closed and the entrance was sealed again, Hecate could still feel that lingering presence throughout her body, sending a chill through her.

"It’s even stronger than the pressure of the Seven Desolations." Her heart began to race as a bad feeling rose within her. "Don’t tell me there is a new Desolation rising in the Underworld."

The 7 Desolations were the rulers of the Underworld that the Witch World had discovered during their explorations of the realm.

Each of them possessed their own territory and was unimaginably powerful. Hecate and the other Grand Witches had never even considered fighting them.

Even the seal on the entrance existed to keep them from entering the Witch World, because if even 1 of them managed to pass through the gate and reach this side, the result would undoubtedly be catastrophic.

The thought that there could be another Desolation even stronger than any of the 7 filled her with dread.

Realizing that the matter was far beyond what she could handle alone, she decided to return to the Tower and share what she had discovered with the other 4 Grand Witches.

But there was somewhere else she wanted to visit first.

Her lips opened for only a second before closing again as she chanted the honorable names and the spell activation sound in a fraction of a second, causing the fabric of space in front of her to suddenly distort.

The image of the mountain where the Shadow camp was located suddenly shifted, transforming into a vast forest.

She simply erased the distance between herself and her destination as the Wyvern beat its wings, and in the next moment, they had crossed several kilometers as if they had been teleported.

She looked down at the Black Forest, focusing on the exact location where a massive battle had taken place not long ago.

The wide area below was covered in burned, muddy ground and scorched stone, with trees that had been burned or knocked down and the bones of countless skeletons scattered across the land.

She chanted again, and the scene changed once more. This time, she erased the existence of time, and in an instant, the entire damaged landscape returned to how it had been before the battle. The swamp regained its original muddy appearance, while every tree stood intact once again.

Then she began watching the entire event as though it were happening again, starting from the moment the 3 Witches entered the swamp and fought the Skeleton Lizard, all the way to the moment when the heavily built Shadow wearing frost armor died beneath the relentless attacks of the skeleton army.

Until that point, everything had been quite ordinary, even boring, as a battle on this scale was nothing more than children playing in Hecate’s eyes.

But the moment she saw the first ghost emerge from the dark portal, her body froze under the same chilling presence she had felt before.

This time, the pressure was even stronger than what she had felt at the mountain, as though whatever this being was had personally descended upon this very place.

Her will seemed to shatter beneath that pressure, forcing her to stop the spell immediately and return the entire landscape to its current timeline.

"This is definitely not one of the 7 Desolations." Hecate was certain of it now, as none of those monsters could shake her to the point where she would accept defeat before the battle had even begun.

Now certain that a new entity had appeared in the Underworld, her next step was to find out what it was and what its intentions were.

Her eyes then shifted toward the outskirts of the Black Forest, where one of the lively cities was located.

The Wyvern beneath her continued beating its wings, creating a powerful gust as it turned its massive body and began flying toward the great mansion located in the city.

—

At the Winterborne Mansion, 3 Witches sat in Celeste’s study with heavy expressions as they discussed the battle they had barely escaped with their lives.

"In the end, I had to destroy the Golden Sunberry farm before escaping." Aveline Rosewood, the 12th Trial Witch, spoke heavily as she explained her side of the battle to Rowena and Celeste.

While the 2 Witches were facing Narcissa Nightshade and her skeleton army, Sable Thorn had appeared and attacked Aveline while she was trying to take the farm.

But in the end, after a long and exhausting battle, she realized she would never be able to take the farm, so she destroyed it to keep it out of the enemy’s hands before escaping.

Their mission had technically been a success, since their main goal had been to make sure the farm did not remain in Sable’s hands. Even so, they had lost far too much in the process.

Even Celeste and her Shadow had almost died.

Finding that quite surprising, Aveline looked at her with curiosity and asked, "Really... How did you escape from there?"

Celeste was a 10th Trial Witch, while Narcissa Nightshade, the one who had attacked her, was a 12th Trial Death Witch. On top of that, the region boss, the Crimson Giant Lizard, had also attacked them.

Normally, their chances of escaping should have been extremely low, yet somehow, Celeste had managed to pull it off.

Celeste and Rowena briefly exchanged glances, as they also couldn’t make much sense of what had happened.

While they were thinking about how to explain the silver-colored ghosts that had suddenly appeared and saved them, the voice of a 4th person suddenly echoed through the room.

"I’m also very curious about that."

The 3 Witches suddenly flinched as their Shadows appeared in the room as well, immediately taking defensive positions in front of their Witches to protect them from the stranger who had suddenly appeared.

But the moment they saw the golden lines decorating her white robe and hat, they immediately recognized who she was, and their caution turned into pure shock.

"Lady Hecate?"

It was the first time in their lives that any of them had ever been in the same room as a Grand Witch.