Chapter 540: Different Moods
Is that all?
Hearing this, Agatha breathed a slight sigh of relief.
The strength of the devils lies in their large numbers. If it's just a small number of Mad Devils, one or two High-Rank witches can deal with them.
"Do you have a method to imprison them now?"
"The new witch is perfect for the job," Roland explained their abilities. "After Iffy captures the devil, the cage can easily be taken away by a balloon. Of course, I'll also prepare some handcuffs and shackles to subdue them without much trouble. What I want to know is, how long does the red mist carried by the devils last, and can their blood after death still be used to make sigils?"
So that's it... Agatha now completely understood his purpose. "Generally speaking, a jar of red mist can last about a day. Devils will choose the number of mist jars they carry based on different tasks. For example, when performing surveillance and patrol tasks, their mounts will carry three or four jars—but that's the limit."
"Why?" Roland asked curiously.
"After leaving that strange Black Stone Tower, the mist will gradually lose its effectiveness," she explained. "Otherwise, the Exploration Society would have been able to raise devils and Chaos Beasts long ago, synthesizing large quantities of sigils. The three Seats of the Union have tried this, such as actively attacking some devil outposts to seize small Black Stone Towers, but the enemy always destroys it before collapsing, leaving only a withered stone tower for the Holy Knights."
"Withered?" he asked in surprise. "Can stones wither?"
"No one knows what it is, but judging from the stones brought back, 'withered' is not an exaggeration. The original smooth surface becomes rough and dull, and many stone chips fall off when touched by hand, which is completely different from what the knights initially saw."
"I understand..." Roland pondered for a moment. "If you can really bring the devils back, can you make magic stone sigils?"
"Give me enough experimental materials, an independent laboratory, and twenty ordinary people as assistants," Agatha said, counting on her fingers. "The success rate of simple sigils is about 70%. Advanced ones... well, you don't have the relevant magic stones anyway."
"These are no problem," he hesitated for a moment and asked softly, "But what if the trapping operation attracts a group of devils?"
Agatha couldn't help but laugh. "Seeing how confident you were before, I thought you had never worried about this issue."
"Ahem, I just want to ensure everything is foolproof."
She said casually, "Just bring me and Anna xiaojie."
"You and... Anna?"
"You may not have a correct understanding of the witches in your territory, Your Majesty," Agatha sighed. "You should know that the Union, with its influence spanning the entire Fertile Plains, only has over a hundred High-Rank witches, of which less than forty are combat types. They constitute the Union's high command and the backbone of the Holy Army. And in your Witch Union, there are several High-Rank witches, plus those strange weapons, their strength is equivalent to a Holy Army squad. Eating a group of devils is not a difficult task. Even if we encounter a Lord of Hell, Anna xiaojie can activate the Divine Will Sigil twice."
"Ah... I almost forgot about that thing," Roland suddenly realized. "Thank you for your suggestion."
"You're welcome. Defeating the devils is my lifelong wish. Don't disappoint me, Your Majesty."
Agatha was about to say goodbye when he stopped her again.
"By the way, I have one more question."
"What is it?"
"Why did you react so strongly to attacking the devil camp just now?" Roland raised his eyebrows. "You didn't say that before... I remember you not only asked to actively attack them at first, but even didn't care about the sacrifices to seize the Chaos Beasts that might exist in the camp, didn't you?"
Agatha immediately felt her cheeks burning. She knew they must be flushed.
She couldn't say that she thought Roland had no ability to stop the devils at the time and was boasting about his military power, so she made those remarks out of spite. Now that she feels the situation in the territory is excellent, and as long as time passes, the strength of humans will become stronger and stronger, her attitude has naturally changed drastically. "Did I? I don't remember saying such a thing."
"But you did at the time..."
"Ahem, Your Majesty, I feel very sleepy," she forced a yawn. "Please allow me to take my leave first." After saying that, she left the office without looking back.
As she walked through the corridor leading to the Witch Building, the cool evening breeze brushed Agatha's face, gradually calming her mood.
Looking at the starry sky, Wendy's words suddenly appeared in her mind again.
"He will one day become the King of Graycastle, leading us to defeat any enemy. That's what I believe."
Seeing her unwavering expression at the time, Agatha felt both envy and a hint of sadness in her heart. She envied that they had not yet been overwhelmed by the cruel reality, and she was saddened that trust could not reverse the gap in strength.
But now, she also believes it a little.
*******************
Iffy didn't remember how she got back to her bedroom.
Her mind was full of the scenes of gunfire and cannons—hundreds of people neatly lined up, pulling the trigger on the targets in front of them. Besides the thick white smoke, she couldn't see anything. Even if magic could sense it, she couldn't possibly trap the bullets with her cage.
His Majesty didn't lie. The power of metal bullets was far greater than the special bullets that Maisie used in her duel with her. The wooden targets a hundred steps away were riddled with holes, and witches could only passively take a beating at this distance.
As for another weapon called a cannon, it was even more terrifying. Its attack range was several times that of a gun. A telescope was even needed to observe the shooting results. However, the personal guard who led the team said that it was just the oldest type of field gun, and a weapon called the 152mm fortress gun was the real trump card of the artillery battalion.
Various explosions kept ringing in her mind, eventually all converging into one thought.
"Hedy Morgan deceived us."
Iffy murmured.
"Or maybe she didn't expect that there would be such power in the world," Yu Yu said with a complicated expression, obviously equally shocked by the army training that afternoon. "What should we do next?"
She didn't answer. No matter what Hedy's purpose was before, it was meaningless at this moment, because she knew that the Bloodfang Association that His Majesty wanted couldn't provide it at all—Tilly Wimbledon's many support witches were obviously much more useful than the Bloodfang Association's combat witches.
Recalling her experiences over the past few years, she realized that her proud abilities and growth had all become a joke. Besides Annie, there was nothing else worth remembering.
After a long time, she raised her head. "I don't want to go back to the Bloodfang Association anymore."
"..." Yu Yu nodded almost imperceptibly. "Me neither." Then she was stunned. "Are you crying?"
Only then did Iffy feel a hint of saltiness at the corner of her mouth. She raised her hand and wiped her cheek, and a wet feeling came from her fingertips.
"I don't know."
She hadn't tasted tears in a long time.
Beasts never cry.
Even if they do, it's not for themselves.
If only she and Annie had met the Witch Union from the beginning.
Iffy closed her eyes, letting the salty rain fall on her heart.
Annie, forgive me.