Chapter 867: Chapter 34: Witch and Wraith_3
The dark red blade slashed out, yet it had no effect.
The dark currents pierced through the dark red giant sword, a manifestation of primal darkness, not a tangible force that could be resisted.
It didn’t believe that Ruri and Ayane could endlessly consume its darkness.
As long as the balance inside them was broken, the two of them would die on the spot, tipping the scales of victory once again in its favor.
Under no circumstances could these two humans succeed.
The territory of darkness forbids human intrusion.
Just as the dark current was about to touch Ruri and Ayane’s bodies, a miraculous light suddenly illuminated the scene.
"!?"
The blood-red pupils of the specter abruptly turned towards a certain point.
An ancient stone door had appeared on an intact piece of ground, summoned here from the Shrine of the Land of Demons, the sealing container for the specter.
The stone door was fully open, revealing a different space-time mixed with purple and black inside.
The specter’s body trembled uncontrollably.
That space-time was the ’cage’ it had known for centuries.
Through the millennia, it had repeatedly broken free from seals, only to be sealed again by the witches, left there to endure endless solitude and despair.
It was a world that only a demon could bear, a ’paradise’ crafted by the witches just for it.
Once it entered there, its darkness could not touch the human world even slightly.
For the specter, there was no place more monotonous than that space-time.
In front of the stone door, the Mire Witch shone with a holy white light, different from the darkness of the specter, a warm power that would melt away darkness as soon as it emerged.
To call it warm wouldn’t be accurate; it was a higher level of purification.
Seeing this scene, Hakushi rushed forward without a moment’s hesitation to bring Ruri and Ayane to a safe distance.
Even if the Mire Witch didn’t intentionally target Ruri and Ayane, as long as they were touched by that light, the two who were merging and consuming parts of the specter’s darkness would be severely injured.
Unless they could completely devour the specter’s darkness, turning it into their own strength.
However, this wasn’t something that could be resolved quickly.
The three of them had already done their part as ’containers’, completing their responsibilities.
The finishing task could only be entrusted to the Mire Witch now.
However, for the specter, this was not good news.
The darkness, transformed into a torrential current, continuously overflowed from the specter’s body, forced to flow into the stone door behind the Mire Witch.
The surging waves of darkness brushed past the Mire Witch, stirring her beautiful, glowing long hair, causing it to dance in the air.
"So... that’s it... Those three humans were there to help you balance the darkness... A witch who trusts humans, and humans who trust a witch no longer human... To be defeated by such ’trust’..."
At this moment, the specter finally understood: Hakushi and the others came not to battle it, but as a sealing container for Mire, to balance the excess darkness within it.
For with the Mire Witch’s current strength, it wasn’t enough to seal such a heavy darkness.
It had to rely on balancing the darkness, allowing Hakushi and the others to share the burden, finally leaving the root awareness for the witch to seal.
However, understanding it now was a tad too late.
From the very beginning, the rhythm of the battle had been completely dominated by the opponent.
Its current pathetic state was also within their calculation.
Despite mastering darkness more powerful than ever before, why did it fail every time?
Was its failure really just an accident, losing to humans and witches?
If it were an accident, how should countless failures over the centuries be explained?
Such questions filled the specter’s heart.
The enormous darkness was a manifestation of the specter’s original soul.
Countless dark tentacles danced wildly in the air, losing their spirit, falling lifelessly into the magma below, eventually swallowed whole, leaving no trace.
A massive darkness flew over the Mire Witch’s head, transforming into two arms, gripping the edges of the stone door tightly to prevent its body from being sucked in.
Confusion?
Unwillingness?
Or perhaps both.
Was fate to cycle again?
At this moment, asking any question seemed meaningless.
Why would Mire, as a fellow being, help humans so?
Just a bunch of hopeless insects.
It seemed like in the past, Mire’s predecessors had also asked it why it refused to trust humans.
At that time, the specter scoffed at such a question.
It, who grew by absorbing the darkness of humans, understood more than any other the folly and selfishness of humanity.
Such fools, why would they deserve trust?
Within its blood-red pupils, flowed endless attachment to the human world, and a sense of pity for Mire as a witch.
The pursuit of beautiful things is a fundamental human instinct.
Even the specter, who was more than human, naturally harbored such desires.
Its mouth opened, yet not a word came out, a strange feeling of not knowing what to say.
It voluntarily released its grip, the body formed of darkness lost its hold, plunging into the endless Otherworld.
There, it would once again relish in eternal solitude as before.
Quietly waiting for the next time it descends onto the human realm.
Next time, it wouldn’t easily let go.
"I’m sorry, specter."
