Chapter 98: Too Traumatized

"...Swiftest river, claim the stride, sever my weight."

Celeste chanted the words, and her body dissolved into rushing water in an instant. It surged forward, moving across the ground at incredible speed.

As she got closer to where the children were in danger, she started to hear loud booming sounds echoing through the air.

Hard impacts rang out, as if someone was slamming the ground with all their strength.

The sound alone was enough to tell her how brutal the fight was, and it made her push her speed even further.

But when she finally arrived, what she saw was nothing like what she expected.

On one side stood Magna. He was frozen in place, with a yellowish mist of mana wrapped around him like a cloak. His body was tearing apart at the edges, his flesh splitting open only to heal back at the exact same terrifying speed.

On the other side was Renna. Her skin was bright red and steam rose off her body from the heat as she pinned a woman down to the dirt.

She screamed in pure rage, shouting before every hard hit she landed. "What did you do to him? Cancel it now!"

"Is that the Faceless Witch?" Celeste muttered under her breath, ending her spell as the water pulled back together into her normal shape.

The bare skull with no face was all the proof Celeste needed to know who she was. But what really shook her was that the Witch was lying there without moving.

She wasn’t fighting back at all. She just took hit after hit without trying to defend herself.

The only sign that she was still alive was a weak, broken murmur coming from her lips, saying the same words again and again.

"My spell... My spell..."

Whatever had happened before Celeste arrived had clearly broken the woman’s mind look even traumatized.

"Renna," Celeste called out, stepping closer, hoping to understand what had happened here.

Renna didn’t hear her. She kept up her attack without stopping. Every hit she landed drove the Faceless Witch deeper into the broken ground.

"You damn monster, what did you do to him?" Renna’s red eyes burned like fire, showing no sign of stopping.

Then a cold hand grabbed her firmly by the shoulder. "Renna."

Renna froze, then snapped her head up to meet Celeste’s eyes. "Lady Celeste?"

For a moment, confusion crossed her face, but she quickly came back to herself, her voice full of panic. "Lady Celeste, this Witch did something to Magna. Please, help him!"

Celeste turned her gaze back to Magna, trying to understand what kind of spell he was under, but none of it made any sense to her.

At least he didn’t look like he was in danger of dying. His body was healing at the exact same rate it was breaking apart.

Since she didn’t know what the spell actually did, she chose not to step in, afraid she might make things worse.

"Do you remember the spell she used?" she asked Renna.

If Renna could remember the words, Celeste might be able to recognize them from something she had studied or read before.

Renna hesitated for a moment, then muttered softly. "It was... teach flesh and stone their mortality... or something like that."

She tried to copy the rhythm of the words, but she had only caught the last part clearly, so she wasn’t sure about the rest.

Still, it was enough for Celeste to figure out what the spell was.

"Quicken time’s march, teach flesh and stone their mortality," Celeste murmured, remembering the full incantation. But something about it felt very wrong.

"This spell is only supposed to speed up time on an object and break it down," she remembered clearly.

But what was happening to Magna looked far more complicated than a simple decay spell.

While she tried to work it out, the Faceless Witch’s shaking voice rose from the ground again.

"My spell... How... He is... a monster..."

Her jaw was already broken from all the punches, but the words still came through clearly enough to understand.

Hearing her speak set off Renna’s anger again. She drove another hard punch straight into the middle of the Witch’s face, crushing what was left of her broken jaw.

"Renna!" Celeste grabbed her again, holding her back before she could crush the woman’s skull completely.

If they wanted answers about what had happened, they needed the Faceless Witch alive to talk.

But they couldn’t just leave her lying there unbound in this state either, since she could still be a threat.

Celeste said firmly, "Step back."

Though Renna was still angry and ready to land a few more hits, she gave in and stepped back to watch Celeste cast her spell.

"...Halt your endless journey, and lock this flesh in eternal frost."

A huge block of ice burst out from beneath the Faceless Witch, quickly covering her whole body and sealing her inside a solid, frozen coffin.

Once she made sure the Witch couldn’t move at all inside the ice, Celeste turned to Renna. "We’re in a tough spot. A 12th Trial Witch is attacking us."

She quickly explained the key things Renna needed to know, then added, "I’ll put up a protective barrier around you. Stay inside it until this is all over."

"But what about him?" Renna asked, pointing frantically at Magna.

Celeste let out a heavy sigh. "There’s nothing I can do to help him right now. He doesn’t seem to be in immediate danger of dying, so stay here until we deal with the threat."

Renna could only nod, quietly hoping that everything would work out.

Once she was sure Renna would stay put, Celeste got ready to leave and go update Rowena.

Before she left, she cast her barrier spell to protect them from the fire that was about to burn through the whole dimension.

"Freeze the current into a sanctuary."

Thick sheets of ice rose up from the ground on every side around the Faceless Witch, Renna, and Magna, curving upward until they met at the top to form a huge dome.

"This should be enough."

Celeste took one last look at Magna through the clear ice, then turned away.

She activated her movement spell again, and her body dissolved into a rushing wave of water as she sped back toward the fight that was about to break out with the 12th Trial Witch.