Chapter 1164 – #277_Division(3)
#1158
1.
If you can explain it, even with a flimsy reason, it’s a familiar world.
But in a world suddenly deprived of fantasy and light, humans feel like strangers.
2.
A guest came to Erelim.
She had expected her to come.
For countless years, she had been a grim reaper, leading those in despair to ruin.
Many witches swallowed the fruit she offered and met their deaths, unable to find the moment to stop.
A being born from the remnants of Keter.
Unlike Keter, who was obsessed with the delusion of order, she was a being who reveled in and praised endless chaos.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you like this.”
“Lilith.”
In the gap between the pillars.
From among the drooping shadows, golden eyes shine.
She wasn’t taking on the appearance of another person as usual.
Jet-black hair that seemed to melt into the darkness and golden eyes that shone as brilliantly as Keter’s.
The whispering witch, Lilith, in her true form as Keter.
“What are you so surprised about?”
Erelim frowned slightly because Lilith’s appearance wasn’t normal.
As if shedding an old skin, Lilith’s body itself was slowly collapsing.
A precarious presence, as if she would soon disappear.
“Oh, this?”
But Lilith, the person in question, looked at her own body with such nonchalance and laughed.
“It’s only natural. I’m…”
“I’m not particularly curious.”
Lilith is a being derived from Keter.
Keter can exist without Lilith, but the reverse is not true.
Since Erelim had taken Keter’s head, Lilith’s existence naturally began to crumble as well.
“You’re cold. I thought you’d be waiting for me.”
“……”
Erelim said nothing.
The words were true and not true at the same time.
Lilith calmly walked towards Erelim.
“I can roughly guess what you’re trying to do. I don’t particularly want to support it.”
“Why did you come to see me?”
Lilith, who had been wearing a wry smile at Erelim’s reaction of cutting off the nonsense early, said,
“I won’t help you. I won’t interfere either. So you don’t have to be so on edge.”
“No witch trusts you.”
“But you should still listen. Caution is good, but isn’t it a shame to just chase away an opportunity that came all this way?”
Lilith licked her lips, then dropped her smile and said,
“The gift I’m giving you is in case your goal goes wrong.”
3.
Orselia had been enjoying each day recently.
The public enemies were shouting east, west, south, and north, saying that they should trample on the humans who would commit those terrible acts someday, and that now was the time for witches to seize world power…
Frankly, Orselia wasn’t particularly interested in the danger of humans.
Isn’t it natural that many things become dull when you live too long?
However, she found it interesting that the video Pin left behind had united the unorganized Hexennacht under the banner of Qliphoth, and conversely, had split Gehenna.
For the public enemies who had been hiding in the shadows of Keter and Gehenna to devour about a third of the world.
Who would have imagined that such a day would come in a thousand years?
“I didn’t think the party would last long…”
However, there are clear limits to the witch-ism and expansion that were triggered by a moment of crisis.
That’s why none of the Hexennacht predicted an easy victory in the war with Gehenna.
If a full-scale war were to break out, it would still be a war that would require many sacrifices.
There were also variables such as Duke Erelim, who was currently silent, and the Truth and True Name Society.
The balance of power would easily shift the moment they joined the Gehenna side.
“Maybe the story will change again?”
Orselia smiled at the biggest variable on the Gehenna side, who had personally visited the palace where she was staying.
“Should I say you’re bold? Or arrogant? I didn’t expect you to appear so nonchalantly in the middle of the enemy’s headquarters. Blanche.”
“……”
“I knew you were taciturn… You’ve become even quieter as you’ve gotten older.”
The relationship between the two people who had reunited after hundreds of years was not a good one, no matter how you sugarcoat it.
Before Gehenna was formed, they had fought each other to the death dozens of times.
At this point, one is the current Great Sage of Gehenna, and the other is the leader of Qliphoth.
Nevertheless, the familiarity in Orselia’s eyes is probably because they are both old witches.
Reuniting with the connections of those nostalgic days when everything was new stirred up a sense of nostalgia.
But that was just Orselia’s feeling, and Erelim’s expression was nothing but cold.
“So why did you come to see me? A truce? A peace treaty? A declaration of war? A warning?”
Orselia was being ambiguous.
The above examples were things that Erelim didn’t need to come all the way here alone for.
“I’ll join Qliphoth.”
“What?”
Words that weren’t even on the list of possibilities came out of Erelim’s mouth.
Orselia’s mouth hung open in a daze.
Erelim had shown wariness towards humans.
After the Great War vlog video was released, Gehenna, to which she belonged, was not properly united.
She must have felt both frustration and a sense of crisis.
But who is she?
She is one of only three Dukes of Gehenna and the very person who has prospered Gehenna for the longest time.
She would understand better than anyone what it means to side with Qliphoth at this time.
“Oh ho. I thought you’d come with a rather unusual proposal. But you’ve exceeded my expectations. Your joke skills have improved a lot, Blanche.”
But she has lived for a long time.
The moment Orselia looked at the obsession close to madness in Erelim’s eyes, the look of someone who had found her own answer, she realized that something had changed in her.
She guessed that it wasn’t just a change caused by time, but a decisive change of heart.
Orselia’s mood becomes serious.
Erelim is not the type to make empty promises with a simple whim.
“For what?”
“For the witches.”
“There will be a war with Gehenna, you know?”
“The reason I’ve devoted my life was not for Gehenna, but for the witches. Gehenna is just following a wrong order, believing it to be right. If they believe in something that is not right, they must be changed.”
Orselia tilted her head.
Is this real, or is she hiding her true purpose…?
Even she couldn’t easily grasp Erelim’s intentions.
But the return that Erelim’s joining would bring is enormous.
The 25th-ranked Great Witch and the head of the Truth and True Name Society.
Isn’t the biggest variable disappearing and joining the team?
Moreover, the propaganda that ‘Even the leader of Gehenna says that killing humans is the right thing to do!’ would make the morale of Hexennacht skyrocket, and Gehenna would falter even more greatly due to the sudden defection of its leader.
It was truly a free victory.
“Hmm, it’s very unfortunate, but I don’t think it’ll work.”
But the answer has been decided.
“I want to believe you as Blanche’s old friend, but honestly, even I wonder if there’s some hidden intention. Just because I’m performing a figurehead role in Qliphoth doesn’t mean they’re my subordinates. The other members of Qliphoth won’t believe your intentions. If they don’t believe it, there’s no way I can persuade them either.”
Accepting Erelim in this situation is like embracing an unnecessary risk factor.
No matter how pretty a mushroom looks, if there’s no guarantee that it’s not a poisonous mushroom, putting it in your mouth is just plain stupid.
“How about bringing the head of a plausible figure instead? Like Duke Tiferet.”
From Orselia’s point of view, it’s a verification of ‘if not, oh well, if it works, great’.
If Erelim’s defection is true and she really brings the head of Duke Tiferet, the game will end there, and if Erelim is pretending to be a Trojan horse with some half-baked scheme, she will be filtered out.
-Thud
In response, Erelim took something out of the subspace.
It was a corpse.
It was so horribly mangled that it was hard to recognize properly.
Orselia looked at it carefully and let out a dumbfounded groan.
“Eee…”
It was because she was familiar with the corpse that was sprawled on the table.
A small physique.
Curly golden hair reminiscent of golden sheep’s wool.
The witch of Aries, Psyche Teagarden.
The old witch who had been invited as a figurehead of the Hexennacht hardliners, Qliphoth, just a while ago.
“Psyche Teagarden has been a member of Gehenna for a long time. Here’s the proof.”
Erelim nonchalantly stacked a pile of documents, like a merchant showing a quality assurance certificate.
It contained detailed records of Teagarden’s activities, orders, and leaked information, who was an old witch and widely known as a public enemy.
The activity had increased explosively, especially after Hexennacht was formed.
Orselia was dumbfounded and let out a hollow laugh.
“Wow, a leech was firmly attached. How creepy.”
“Is this enough proof?”
If Erelim hadn’t revealed it, it would have been a bomb in the allied camp that no one would have expected.
If they had fought Gehenna without knowing this fact, they would have been hit hard in the back at any time.
Psyche had access to key information, holding a key position in Qliphoth until this moment.
Erelim revealed it with her own hands.
Not only that, but she even brought the corpse.
This implies two things.
That Erelim is a skilled person who can subdue the witch of Aries, who boasted formidable combat power among the public enemies, without any difficulty.
And that she took away the joker that Gehenna would have gained a firm advantage from, with her own hands.
In other words, Erelim’s betrayal was confirmed.
