Chapter 56 : The Witch

Just before the pain and death could reach her, the emerald cloak on Li Wen’s body flared brightly.

A glowing green orb shot out from within, absorbing all the damage she’d just taken—then exploded in an instant.

Li Wen’s expression remained unchanged.

This demon, Tilrogzach, truly was formidable.

A mere probing attack had been enough to shatter the magical shield formed by her “Everlasting Guardian of the Emerald Star.”

If not for the cloak, she would’ve already been staring at the resurrection interface.

Li Wen suspected the demon had used a curse known as “Dark Erosion.”

It left its victims in a state of prolonged weakness and significantly sapped their vitality.

Tilrogzach had likely implanted the curse into the three-headed fire serpent, then transferred it to her when she killed the beast.

Using that first curse as a bridge, he had chained a second one—“Agony and Resentment”—which had nearly taken her life.

The conditions to activate Agony and Resentment were incredibly strict, but once triggered, anyone without extremely high curse resistance was as good as dead.

Even a typical Stage Two Transcendent would have been hard-pressed to survive that combo.

As an opponent, this demon was clearly a nightmare.

Li Wen glanced at her status bar—her health had dropped to 89%, but her mana was still above half.

The Prayer Spell’s shield had broken under the second curse but had simultaneously restored some of her health and dispelled the lingering effects of Dark Erosion.

Which meant she still had a fighting chance.

She activated Incantationless Arclight, enchanting her Bone-Eating Dagger, and recast her Prayer Spell.

Since she had already witnessed Tilrogzach’s fire control and curse capabilities, it was time to test his close-combat skills.

With that thought, Li Wen dashed forward like an arrow, twin daggers slicing through the air with radiant arcs of light.

Tilrogzach didn’t dare underestimate her.

Though he’d already tasted those dazzling arcs and found them more flash than substance, he wasn’t sure if that had been a feint—a lure to drop his guard.

The black ring in his eye stopped spinning.

His figure blurred and turned translucent.

Li Wen’s arc of light sliced clean through his form and vanished into his shadow.

But she had already closed the distance.

Her dagger, gleaming with eerie green light, stabbed toward him.

Tilrogzach’s face darkened as he spun a goat-horned weapon around to block.

The dagger, capable of corroding bone with ease, struck the horn like a dull, rusted blade.

It didn’t leave so much as a scratch.

Just as the demon prepared to counter and end the fight, a blinding flash erupted before his eyes.

A deafening crack of thunder echoed in his skull, and his mind was thrown into a daze.

When cast on enemies, the Divine Supplication spell was treated as a Godstrike of equivalent level.

It inflicted damage scaled to the caster’s vitality and ability level—and most importantly, it inflicted confusion for up to five seconds.

Tilrogzach was a demon, naturally resistant to all forms of control magic.

Coupled with the level disparity between them, he’d shake off the daze in under a second.

But in combat, even a second of hesitation could be fatal.

Li Wen unleashed a second Incantationless Arclight.

By the time Tilrogzach shook off the disorientation, the gleaming dagger was already arcing toward his neck.

This time, it carried not only the dagger’s own cutting power but also its enchantments—corrosion, venom, the Arclight’s infused magic, and the radiant aftershock of the slash itself.

The compounded force tore through the demon’s neck in an instant.

Brilliant light burst forth along with a spray of blood, and his severed head crashed to the ground.

Li Wen felt no elation.

Raising her Bone-Eating Dagger, she aimed straight for the demon’s heart to finish him off.

But before she could strike, the headless corpse reached up and grabbed the blade.

No matter how much force she applied, the dagger didn’t move an inch.

“A spell tailored to demons…” the severed head on the ground said.

His eyes glowed with a ghostly flame.

“I see. So that’s what you were relying on.”

Li Wen instantly let go of the dagger and tried to retreat—but it was already too late.

The demon’s left hand ignited in flames.

Flesh burned away, revealing charred black bones inscribed with living, writhing runes.

The runes glowed with an ominous black light.

Tilrogzach pointed a single bony finger at Li Wen.

A wave of agony surged through her.

The shield from the Prayer Spell shattered in an instant, offering no resistance.

An invisible force pierced her chest, tearing straight through the cloak that even the Bone-Eating Dagger couldn’t damage.

A massive, gaping wound opened across her chest.

Blood, fragments of bone, and bits of organ spilled out in a gruesome flood.

“This is the limit of your kind,” the demon sneered.

“Fragile flesh—no matter how much potential it holds—will never be enough.”

Tilrogzach picked up his severed head and calmly placed it back onto his shoulders.

Li Wen’s HP dropped below 10%.

The number kept falling due to blood loss.

Her blurred consciousness left her paralyzed—unable even to cast a healing spell.

Was this the end?

The demon offered no mercy.

He summoned flames to engulf her, intending to burn her to ash.

The crimson blaze surged higher than ever, mirroring the euphoria in his twisted heart.

But soon, he noticed something was wrong.

The girl’s body did not turn to ash beneath the inferno.

Instead, the hellish fire itself began to dim, weakening as though life had drained from it.

A deep unease bloomed in the demon’s chest.

He watched as Li Wen slowly stood—no, floated—into the air.

The crimson fire peeled away from her body, fading into a dull gray before vanishing completely.

The flames were dead.

Li Wen hovered midair, her wounds healing alongside the emerald cloak.

The cloak now blazed with vibrant green light, more alive than ever.

Intricate root-like patterns writhed across its surface, transforming into mystical runes.

She opened her eyes.

Pale gray hair slipped free from beneath the cloak.

Her pupils had turned amber-red.

Reflected in their depths was a massive, withered tree—and beneath it stood a faceless witch, chanting verses of the world’s end.

A power unlike anything before surged through her veins.

Her life had reached its end—but death had not come.

What awaited her was not the void, but eternity.

She had no life, no death.

Only the twilight gleamed clearly in her eyes.

Beyond that… there was only the end.

This was the power of the witch.