Roland widened his eyes. "Using those who are already dead—"
"No," the other interrupted. "Like the blood of devils, it must be fresh."
He heard Nightingale gasp behind him.
"This is the highest secret of the Exploration Society. The experiments hadn't been going on long when I left the Stone Tower of Holy City. All I know is that they mixed the blood of old and weak witches with God's Stone of Retaliation and injected it into ordinary people, thereby changing their bodies." Agatha's voice was somewhat heavy. "Judging from the notes you found, this research should have been successful."
"How...much blood?"
"More than half," the witch's answer made Roland's heart sink. "And the blood must come from the same person, otherwise the magic contained within will counteract each other, greatly reducing its effectiveness." She paused. "You guessed right. Each experiment results in the death of a witch, and ordinary people also find it difficult to withstand the erosion of magic blood after the power is weakened. In the beginning, no one could survive. Many members raised objections, believing that ordinary people could not obtain magic at all. If it weren't for Chief Akalais's insistence, this plan might not have been executed to the end."
"But now the Church has a large number of God's Punishment Army...According to Tilly's intelligence, the number of God's Punishment Warriors may be around five hundred to a thousand." Roland frowned.
"Assuming that the success in the notes refers to increasing the conversion rate to 100%, it also means that at least half of the witches have died, and I don't think those people can gather so many elderly witches."
So, the Church captures witches and raises witches in order to drain their fresh blood and use it to create powerful extraordinary warriors? Roland felt the hand on his shoulder involuntarily tighten. Damn it, hundreds of witches with various strange powers died without value in Hermes Holy City, and they also had to bear the name of fallen ones, despised by the world—such an ignorant organization must be destroyed, even if their original intention was to fight against devils.
"Don't worry, I will stop them," Roland said, word by word.
After Agatha left, Nightingale emerged from the mist and appeared before him, gritting her teeth. "I didn't expect the God's Punishment Army to come about like this! If the Church really evolved from the Union, then their chief must be a madman!"
"Indeed," he sighed. "This explains why the Church adopts female orphans and abandoned infants everywhere. They are just collecting materials to create a large army. Perhaps slandering witches as devil's claws is also part of the plan—to justify the disposal of witches."
"..." Nightingale didn't answer, but her face was filled with anger.
Roland grabbed her hand with some concern. "You're not planning to..."
"Go to the Church alone to cause trouble?" She shook her head. "I'm not that stupid. If they could really be overthrown by a witch, then someone would have done it long ago."
The prince breathed a sigh of relief. "The ultimate goal of the Church in creating the God's Punishment Army is to strengthen its own power, so if there are witches with extraordinary abilities among the raised witches, they will definitely not be consumed in blood supply...Faced with these witches who are loyal to the Church, even entering the mist cannot guarantee safety. When the war with the Church begins, it is a safer approach to advance step by step with the firepower of the First Army. No matter what the enemy is, there is no difference in front of bullets." He paused. "I said that in the new world to come, witches will live a normal life without barriers, just like ordinary people."
"Mm," Nightingale responded softly, pressing her forehead against Roland's. "I believe you can do all of this."
*******************
Wendy returned to the Lord's Castle contentedly after sending the white paper back to the Witch Building.
Recently, she felt that her life was very fulfilling. Although her previous life was also quite pleasant, she always felt that something was missing. Now that she had a particularly well-behaved little girl who admired her, nothing could make her happier.
Now that winter has arrived, the time of year when witches are most likely to awaken, there may be more new members joining the Witch
Alliance family in the next few months, and she will need to take care of more and more children. Just thinking about it makes her feel incredibly excited.
Wendy gently hummed a tune she had heard from His Highness, pushed open the bedroom door, and was stunned by the scene before her.
Good heavens, what did she see? Nightingale was actually sitting upright at the table, flipping through that book, "Fundamentals of Natural Science Theory!"
Did she quarrel with Roland?
"Ahem," Wendy coughed twice. "I'm back."
The other nodded without answering. Seen from the side, her expression seemed very downcast, as if she had written her discomfort on her face.
It seemed that was indeed the case.
Wendy stepped forward, patted her on the shoulder, and softly comforted her, "That's just how feelings are. Sometimes there will always be disputes. Actually, when you think about it, it's nothing. You'll be fine after a sleep."
"What are you talking about?" Nightingale frowned.
"You and His Highness... Quarrels are only temporary, you don't have to take it to heart."
"Why would I quarrel with him?" She held her forehead.
"Uh... you didn't?" Wendy was stunned. "Then why did you suddenly think of studying?"
Nightingale sighed and repeated Agatha's revelation about the God's Punishment Army experiment. "I just feel like I need to become stronger so that I can do more in the future battle to overthrow the Church."
"So that's what happened." Wendy nodded solemnly after listening. "I didn't expect the purpose of building the monastery was actually for witch blood... If Ash hadn't suddenly awakened as an extraordinary person and attracted all the guards' attention, I'm afraid I would have become one of the corpses."
Nightingale was right. Perhaps the environment of the castle was too comfortable, making her completely relax. She suddenly realized that the enemies were still close at hand. Neither the Church nor the devils had completely eliminated the threat, but she had not improved for a long time. Although the magic power was growing slowly, her combat skills and wind-making abilities were not much different from the Mutual Aid Society era, and evolution was even out of the question.
Compared to those sisters who studied hard, such as Mystery Moon, Hummingbird, and Echo, she seemed too lazy. Clearly, she was an older senior, but she couldn't even light up two magic stones with the God's Will Rune. At this rate, she probably wouldn't be qualified to stand in front of them as a senior again.
"You're right, I have to work hard too." Wendy took a deep breath. She decided that from today onwards, she would also spend an hour every night, like other witches, studying His Highness's knowledge before going to bed.
After quickly washing up in the bathroom, she returned to the room, only to find Nightingale already lying on the table, asleep.
.(。)