Chapter 97: Done the Impossible

’No, no, no, run, why are you just standing there?’ Renna watched the scene from the forest in a panic, spamming her spells without stopping.

The words flowed from her mouth so smoothly, one after another, that the fire arrows never stopped shooting from her hands, aimed straight at the Faceless Witch.

She was trying desperately to interrupt her chanting.

She was just trying to buy enough time for Magna to escape. But he looked so exhausted at the moment, unable to move or dodge the spell at all.

Renna even started to rush forward while still casting her spells, just to reach him in time and join the fist fight, hoping she could at least save his life.

But she was still too far away, and by the time she got close enough it was already too late.

She only arrived in time to hear the Faceless Witch’s last chanted words drifting from her mouth.

"...teach flesh and stone their mortality."

She could only freeze in place and watch a blurry, yellowish wave burst from the Witch’s body and slam straight into Magna.

"No!" She screamed desperately as her body caught fire instantly, her bloodline trait activating.

The grass beneath her feet withered and burned, and the ground left behind flaming footprints with every step she took.

She charged straight at the Witch, no longer caring whether her mana reserve was empty or not, only answering the rage rising inside her.

Before she even realized it, she was already standing in front of the Witch. Without a second thought, she raised her fist and slammed it straight into her jaw.

BANG!

The sound of the impact tore through the whole forest, and at the same instant the Faceless Witch’s body was thrown off her feet, sent flying through the air.

The impact was so powerful that she only stopped after slamming into a tree trunk.

Renna was boiling with so much rage that she just kept walking toward the Faceless Witch’s body lying motionless on the ground, the only thought in her mind to keep hitting her until nothing was left but bone dust.

Only to have her steps come to a sudden halt as she realized something was wrong.

The Faceless Witch wasn’t someone who would take a hit like that directly. She was fast and agile, with sharp reflexes.

And stranger still, even after taking the hit, her attention wasn’t on Renna, who was now closing in with killing intent.

Lying there without moving in the slightest, her empty sockets stayed locked on one single point, as though she couldn’t look away.

’What is she so focused on?’ Renna found it strange enough, for just a moment, to forget her own anger, and turned to look at the spot the Witch was staring at.

Her eyes went wide at what she saw.

Magna stood there motionless, hunched over without moving.

A yellowish mist swirled around him, the spell the Faceless Witch had just cast.

The mist was rapidly aging and corroding his skin. In some places, it had already begun peeling away and falling to the ground as flesh, exposing the bone underneath.

But what was shocking was that the wounds healed at the same speed they formed.

The pieces of flesh that hit the ground snapped instantly back to where they had torn off, quickly regaining their youthful look.

"What’s going on?" Renna couldn’t make sense of what kind of spell she was looking at.

All she could think was that Magna’s state right now looked almost exactly like how the Faceless Witch herself had looked earlier.

Renna even found herself asking an impossible question. Had Magna just cast that defense spell himself?

But how could that even be possible?

"That’s impossible." The Faceless Witch clearly shared the same thought, her voice coming out in utter shock.

She had already found Magna was someone out of the norm after taking a hit from his Glacial Calamity spell.

But this time it was different.

For one thing, what he had just cast was a Time related spell, unlike Glacial Calamity, which was Life related.

The truly impossible part was that this spell was one the Faceless Witch had invented and developed herself. No one else should have been able to know it.

"How? How can he cast my spell?" Her whole body trembled at the fact unfolding right in front of her.

She was too shocked to even get up and attack him or Renna. The only thing she wanted to do was ask a single question.

Who on earth was this boy?

—

"Celeste, we need to find Renna first, before I cast anything." Rowana said, running through the dimension, glancing at the figure keeping pace beside her.

They had entered the dimension a while ago with a plan: lure Sable inside, then have Rowana burn down everything around them until there was nothing left for Sable to hide behind.

But that plan carried a risk too. It could put Renna in danger.

If she really was here, just as they suspected, she could get caught in the spell’s range and lose her life before she had a chance to escape.

The giant tree was still chasing them from behind, its roots moving like octopus limbs, tearing apart everything in their path.

Titus and Corvo, still running and trying to block every deadly branch rushing toward them, were already showing signs of exhaustion in their bodies.

Even the damage visible on their armor was proof enough that they hadn’t been able to block every attack, having taken a fair amount of damage by this point.

If they kept holding off their counterattack much longer, their Shadows wouldn’t be able to keep this up.

Understanding her concern, Celeste nodded, then began chanting her detection spell again.

Once she finished chanting, the same thin layer of water appeared around her body.

It burst outward in every direction, turning to vapor and spreading out like mist, until it struck some figures and sent feedback straight back to her.

"I found them. There are three people ahead." Even as she said it, her face didn’t change in her serene state, though a deep sense of dread stirred inside her.

Through her spell, she could sense three distinct shapes. One matched Magna exactly, another matched Renna, and the last one belonged to someone she had never seen.

Looking at their location, all three were standing very close together, making it clear they were near a third figure she could only guess was the Faceless Witch.

"Rowena, they look like they’re in danger. I’m going ahead." She voiced her guess at once and started chanting another spell.

She could only hope she would make it in time, that they were still alive.