Eternal Undying Chronicles

Chapter 155 Triple Reload Goddess

Adonis let out a sigh of relief when he felt Alicarde's grip loosen. Finally, he thought, the battle had ended.

"That hurts like hell…" Alicarde muttered, tightening his hold on Adonis.

Trapped in the vice of Alicarde's arms, Adonis couldn't budge. The pressure intensified as Alicarde activated Flux Field, saturating the air with a crushing gravity that forced Adonis to his knees, the ground cracking beneath them.

"Whitewood makes it harder to regenerate," Alicarde remarked, his voice tinged with amusement.

He chuckled as Adonis gasped, struggling under the invisible weight pressing down on him.

"You're really slippery, Adonis, son of Adella."

Adonis groaned as the gravity bore down harder, Alicarde's grip like iron around him.

"The blink spell has a flaw," Alicarde continued with a smirk.

"Unlike the flash step technique, if someone grabs you mid-cast, you can't blink away."

Adonis's groans grew louder, blood dripping from his mouth and nose, his voice strangled. He couldn't even muster a whisper to cast a spell.

Alicarde looked down at him, a satisfied smile playing on his lips.

"I'll admit, the whitewood ash stake caught me off guard…" He chuckled, his voice low.

"But… like I told Cassandra before, I am immortal. Which means you can't kill me."

Adonis's eyes went wide as he heard the words, struggling helplessly as the intense force drove him further down, his forehead slamming into the ground under the relentless weight. The crushing gravity cracked the earth beneath him, leaving him immobilized.

"Now then," Alicarde said, voice calm, "it's time to end this… no hard feelings."

With a quick, brutal motion, he raised his foot and delivered a fierce kick to Adonis's temple. The impact sent the warlock hurtling through the air, his body crashing into a frozen tree with a violent crack as the icy branches shattered around him. He slumped against the trunk, his eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness from the blow.

Alicarde walked over to him, observing his breathing, and sighed.

"Phew, still alive… Malefica would be downcast if he died."

Hoisting Adonis over his shoulder, he set off through the forest, where he had left Malefica. Hopefully, nothing had happened to her.

The forest bore the scars of their battle—trees were frozen, water flooded the ground, and shards of glass-like ice sparkled where spells had struck.

Alicarde took in the devastation with a faint sense of pride.

'I've come a long way from that weak human,' he mused, reflecting on his journey and all he had gained—true power and the mark of a warrior.

As he slid down a small slope, scanning for Malefica, the forest had gone eerily quiet. He resisted the urge to call out for her, keeping his guard up while he made his way through the ruined landscape.

After several minutes of searching, he finally spotted her, seated on a tree root, mixing herbs with a thick, creamy substance that gave off the faint, pungent scent of bear grease. But what caught his eye even more was the young, unconscious blond man half-buried in the tree's roots.

"Honey, I'm home," he called out, a smirk in his voice.

Malefica looked up and, for a fleeting moment, her usual stern face softened in relief.

"Welcome back… good to see you in one piece…good, I suppose."

Alicarde raised an eyebrow. "Good to see me in one piece, huh? You said 'good' twice. Someone must have been worried."

Malefica scoffed, feigning indifference.

"No student of mine would lose to a warlock."

Ignoring her quip, Alicarde gestured toward the blond warlock encased in roots.

"Who's your friend?"

Without looking up, Malefica continued her work.

"Another warlock. A second. There should be one more."

Alicarde groaned, rolling his eyes.

"I've got to deal with another one of these annoying guys?"

"Not necessarily."

Malefica glanced up thoughtfully.

"There might not be a third yet…"

Alicarde furrowed his brow.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Witches adhere to something called Wiccan Rule of Three," she explained, grinding the herbs into a fine paste.

"If there's more than one, it won't stop until it reaches three. There are two of them now, born within this century, so if there isn't a third now… a witch in the coven will give birth to another to fulfill the rule."

Alicarde frowned.

"Isn't that the same thing Cassandra said about you? Something about your grandmother, your mother, and you… being tied to the rule of three."

Malefica paused, her expression turning wistful.

"Guess we'll find out soon enough."

Alicarde nodded, watching as she completed her concoction, adding the final ingredients to create a thick, brown, creamy paste that smelled strongly of wild herbs.

"You aren't planning to eat that, are you?" he asked with a smirk.

Malefica shot him a sidelong glance.

"No, I'm not."

He let out a mock sigh of relief.

"Good, because I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, let alone Cassandra."

Malefica rolled her eyes, unamused.

"It's not for oral consumption."

He blinked in surprise.

"Then what is it for?"

Malefica's serious tone made the air around them feel colder. Alicarde could see that this was different from her usual demeanor.

"I am going to use a spell from my mother's Book of Shadows," she said, voice low and steady.

Alicarde blinked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Book of… what now?"

Malefica sighed, sounding as though she were speaking to a child.

"It's her grimoire. 'Book of Shadows' refers to a personal spellbook. When a witch begins her journey, she's given one to record her experiences, spells, and knowledge. By the time she's older, it becomes filled with her accumulated wisdom, eventually passed on to the next generation."

She paused, glancing at him with a flicker of sentiment.

"My mother's book came to me when she passed. This spell is exclusive to her… a divine gift from the Creator, in fact."

"I didn't know witches got gifts from the Creator—other than the boons from their True Names," Alicarde remarked, leaning in with interest.

"They do," Malefica replied, her tone both wistful and detached.

"Sometimes, if you're lucky. Or unlucky."

Alicarde decided not to press further, though curiosity gnawed at him.

"So, what's the spell?"

Her gaze hardened, taking on a calculating edge.

"It's called Triple Reload Goddess."

Alicarde raised a brow.

"A spell with 'goddess' in the name? Sounds OP. What does it do?"

Malefica slipped off her shoes and sat cross-legged on the ground, placing her bare feet directly on the cold earth.

"Not much, really. It just triples everything I do—good or bad—so there's… a bit of a risk involved."

"That doesn't sound particularly safe," Alicarde muttered, frowning.

Malefica shrugged.

"I know a workaround. The spell aligns with Wiccan beliefs. If you do a good or bad deed, it returns threefold. I just need to make sure all my actions are perceived as good deeds."

As she smirked coldly, Alicarde recalled the night she had used a similar spell back in the databank. That one, too, seemed to operate on a karmic principle—it had been fueled by the amount of negative karma in its victims.

Malefica bent down, scooping up a strange substance and rubbing it over her feet as she whispered incantations. Alicarde felt a flow of energy ripple through the air, magic swirling as if responding to her words. Once she finished, she placed her feet on the snow-covered ground, and he watched as her power created a glowing circle in the earth beneath her.

"I'm ready," she said, a confident glint in her eyes.

"Or at least halfway. Now I just need to gather enough good deeds to snowball into a powerful surge. But with limited time, I'll have to make each one count."

She pointed firmly at him.

"I forbid you from killing any witches."

Alicarde raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Ermh, okay, madam. Whatever you say."

Malefica's smile grew sharper, her power thrumming as it amplified threefold.

"I've stopped a known mass murderer from rampaging. Such a noble deed I've done… and the universe has rewarded me three times over."

Alicarde's eyes widened. He felt the surge of magic emanate from her, leaving him nearly speechless.

"How the hell is that a good deed?"

She chuckled softly, her eyes glinting with satisfaction.

"This… is the power of Triple Reload Goddess."

She put on a smile, her expression radiating a mysterious allure that made her look every bit the enchanting witch she was.

"The secret to Triple Reload Goddess is that good and evil are subjective…"

Malefica explained, her voice soft but filled with conviction.

"As long as I interpret my actions as good, then they will be seen as good. The universe doesn't actually care about concepts of right and wrong, nor does the creator who bestowed this spell… after all, the Unseen Sovereign cannot be defined by good or evil… this spell is from the domain of gods."

Alicarde looked around awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

"Erh, yeah, sure, whatever… so can I learn the spell?"

Malefica's smile widened, with a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"You can, although… can you use it safely? All you need to do is convince yourself that even your darkest deeds are good… or else you would be destroyed. And trust me… your immortality won't save you from the repercussions."

Alicarde took a step back, considering her words.

"You know what, on second thought… I think I'm good without some weird OP spell. You do you."

Malefica tilted her head, her expression calm yet slightly teasing.

"I can still teach it to you… no need to worry."