Chapter 1069 – #254_Anger, Purity, and Greed – DeepL
#1063
1.
A project with a long way to go.
One day of rest and three days in Akula was enough time.
After spending the day with Sharon and Leroy, Xiu was alone in an empty room.
No light, no sound, just silence.
He closes his eyes and begins to meditate.
It’s a time I haven’t had much of lately.
I was in the middle of enemy territory and on a tight hunting schedule.
A time for reflection.
One by one, Xiu began to recall his previous battles.
His recent battles had been more intense than any other.
Amidst the screams and roars.
In the blink of an eye.
The primal fear of dying.
And the realizations that come with it.
The essence that was condensed and condensed and transformed into a drop is held in my hands.
I open my thinking horizons and constantly seek new possibilities.
Could there have been a better way?
Could there be a better way to fight?
What do I lack to reach a higher level?
Xiu’s consciousness is driven into a trance by an intense concentration of power beyond the reach of ordinary humans.
Black, dark, and infinite.
Ain embodies all the feats of a witch in the mental world.
Ain has realized all of her feats in the visual world.
This is the history and accomplishments of Xinxiu.
Hundreds of times he tore it apart.
He’s tweaked and tailored his magnetic magic to destroy his targets.
Once he’d dealt with them, he’d tear down the magic he’d built up.
Rebuilt the destroyed magic for the next target.
“…….”
The methods I thought were best at the time.
They were the most efficient.
But is it really the right answer?
If we frame our responses to certain situations, aren’t we imprisoning ourselves?
Shouldn’t we be breaking out of our shells and soaring to greater heights?
We are at a crossroads.
Magic for what?
What is achievement?
To what endeavor and step.
You ask yourself and no one else, yourself and no one else.
“Bloom.”
I chanted it because the tiny droplets of magic water vaporizing at my fingertips were beautiful, like a flower in full bloom.
It was magic against unreasonable malice.
Ea tried to take Odile and Odette’s lives, Bianca tried to kill Takasho.
Though he lacked the power of a god, he had a sense of justice in his heart that he could not back down from.
Change.
The structures within Ain change form in synchronization with Shiou’s image.
-Chulkuk
The new spells, composed of fractals as a skeleton, reminded me of a giant flowering tree.
Is this it?
Is this the form of magic to pursue?
Xiu shakes his head, and the flowering tree crumbles to dust.
The magic was pure scholarly greed.
Like a climber who climbs a mountain simply because it’s there, he enjoyed studying and improving his magic.
For that moment, I forgot about everything else.
I was so ecstatic and giddy to take that one step after my head felt like it was going to explode.
-Cheolkuk Cheolkuk
As my vision shifts, it changes again.
A towering pagoda of gold pierces the sky, towering over Xiu.
But this time, he was unmoved.
The golden pagoda, which seemed to stand forever, crumbles like a sand castle.
It changes again.
The magic is the rage of one who wants back what has been taken.
It was the rage of one who wanted to reclaim what had been taken from him.
Even in this moment, Xiu has been absorbing all of his learning at a faster pace than ever before.
In stark contrast to his tangled thoughts, the structures of Ain moved in an orderly fashion.
-Crack, Crack, Crack
His final form resembles a raging flame.
A flame meant only to burn the enemy.
A savage flame that, if not properly controlled, would consume my body and lead to my destruction.
2.
Leader of the Rehar Group.
War Witch Herja Valhirie was losing count of the minutes.
“Damn it!”
The thick crystal goblet in her muscled arm exploded like a grenade.
“Chief, stop breaking glasses. We’re running out of money.”
The deputy shrieked and turned to Herya.
“Lydia, you fucking Calvary bitch!!!”
After the flood, the homunculus disappeared.
The Lehar Group, whose main business was hunting and hunting for homunculi, had accepted Lydia’s dubious request in order to raise money.
But it was either poison or apples to apples.
Either by sinking my ship or catching me off guard by embracing the Lehar Group as Hexenacht, Lydia began chopping off limbs in earnest.
As a result, several of my entourage were wiped out, and half of Lehar’s group was dismembered.
The most humiliating part was that she was powerless to do anything about it.
Not that Herja was idle.
She planned to sink the other smuggling fleet on sight.
But Lydia was prepared.
If she could, she would avenge Talia and her men by killing the witch atop Solidus.
But that would only provide a rationale.
At least on paper, Top Solidus seemed to embrace the Rehar group.
Lydia took a step back and allowed the Rehar to enter Hexenacht.
The moment Herja made a non-preemptive move, Lydia took advantage of it and launched a full-blown….
“Off! Off!”
“Chief! Chief! Chief, calm down!”
Her head hurts so badly that she collapses in a fit of madness.
A witch is one who has surpassed humanity and touched the apocryphal.
A great being who is not satisfied with that, but aspires to reach even greater heights.
Such a being must possess the dignity befitting her position.
Morality, humanity, ethics, trust, love?
Power, wealth, connections, respect?
All are worthless.
All else can be put aside as long as you have a companion to walk with you through the wilderness.
That is the purity of a witch.
“Lydia….”
That’s why, for her, magic was pure,
In that sense, Lydia is an unspeakable Calvary.
She’s a witch, but she’s also drawn to things that aren’t magic.
A lowly whore, driven by ugly desires, doing all sorts of lowly things.
“Chief.”
It was the deputy who calmed Herya’s unseemly rage.
“I’ve got a crazy idea.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve got an idea for Lydia.”
Hearing the deputy’s words, Herja let out a shout of joy, like a scholar who has just found the right answer after a long struggle.
“Let’s do it now!”
3.
Lydia sat down on the couch after saying goodbye to the children of the House of Angels, her face relaxed.
She looked relaxed, as if the stress had been lifted.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes, Mother.”
Kiara Berris, one of the Werpana, witches with white blindfolds over their eyes, replied politely.
She is the daughter of Lydia, who had only recently graduated from the House of Angels and committed herself to Las Werpanas.
“Kiara, how are you doing these days?”
“There’s still a lot I don’t know about the world, Mother.”
“Do you have a job?”
“…Well, yes….”
Lydia knows why Kiara is hesitant.
The original reason Lydia brought Kiara into the Angelic House was to use her as a watcher.
Even at 18th rank, a girl who specialized in surveillance magic could be of great use.
But I can tell you that the timing is very bad.
Kiara, who had been bred to predict and track homunculi, found herself without work before her internship even began when the homunculus seeds dried up.
As soon as she joined the company, the industry collapsed and the department disappeared.
But when you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, there’s nothing like a little help.
Because what I need now is absolute loyalty, not detection skills.
“Kiara.”
Lydia called out softly to the demoralized Kiara.
“I need you.”
Kiara’s shoulders shook.
It was a tremor of overwhelming gratitude, like that of a devotee favored by a cult leader.
“Do you think you can help me?”
“Yes, of course, Mother…. I will give you my body and soul….”
“There, you’re still crying.”
Lydia held out the back of her hand, and Kiara dropped to one knee and kissed it reverently.
A pair of golden eyes watched the scene in ecstasy.
For a witch, magic is her life.
In other words, how a witch views magic is how she views life.
For Lydia, magic has always been greed.
One might ask her, “Greed for what?
Greed for what?
And she would answer without hesitation.
Many things.
More.
More than I hold in my hands now, more than I have ever held in my hands.
Enough to fill the horizon and the shoreline.
Enough to make the effort of counting them ridiculous.
As the stars fill the sky.
You want, crave, and desire more riches, wealth, strength, treasure, power, loyalty, and faith.
It is foolish to ask why.
Motivation and direction are unnecessary for one whose path is set.
Insatiable, insufficiently humble, incapable of self-control, inconsiderate.
Endlessly greedy, arrogant, wasteful, despising, and grasping for everything.
It wants only that.
It’s time to show them.
The fears of those who have chosen a way of life to those who have not.
