At the moment when Roland was hit, Nightingale felt her heart suddenly constrict.
The surrounding noisy sounds instantly became incredibly distant. She wanted to go and help him up, but found herself cold and stiff all over, her hands trembling slightly. Apart from the initial subconscious exclamation, even taking a step forward was extremely difficult.
She was afraid Roland would gradually lose warmth in her arms.
She was afraid he would never wake up again.
The mere thought of this made it hard for Nightingale to breathe.
Since she had memories, she had never felt so helpless.
Anna reacted first—she squatted down and covered the entire wound with a ball of black fire. White smoke rose in bursts under the lightless flames, accompanied by sizzling sounds. When the black fire dissipated, Roland's severed arm had been burned into a charred mass.
The trickling blood stopped.
That's right, this was the emergency measure he had taught in the first aid class. What should she do next? Wrap the wound and quickly go to the medical center to find Nana Wa… Nightingale swallowed, glanced at the hanging basket, no, that wouldn't work. Nana Wa wasn't on the hot air balloon, but in Border Town.
She had to go back.
She had to get back as soon as possible!
She slowly turned her head towards the southeast, where the town was located—
Just then, the devil's ferocious, bared-teeth appearance reappeared in Nightingale's eyes, pulling all her thoughts back to the hanging basket.
The witches' panicked shouts, the gunshots, and the enemy's deep roars returned to her ears. After the cold subsided, the chaotic thoughts in her mind finally converged into one sentence.
"Without defeating the devil, there is no way to get back to Border Town."
"Lightning!" Anna shouted anxiously, "Protect the hot air balloon as it lands!"
Although the little girl's face was pale, she glanced at the unconscious Roland and gritted her teeth, nodding before flying out of the hanging basket.
No, Nightingale thought, just looking at her, she knew she couldn't deal with the devil. Like most witches, Lightning had no experience fighting real enemies.
The only one who can defeat the devil here is herself.
Nightingale took a deep breath, forcing herself to temporarily put aside the scene of His Highness the Prince being injured. The two devils still maintained a pincer formation. The arm that threw the spear was as thin as firewood, and it would probably take a long time to fully recover. The other devil was more than fifty meters away from the hot air balloon, a distance she couldn't reach at all—spreading the mist in the high altitude would easily lead to a fall. The higher she was from the ground, the fewer of those fleeting "lines" she saw. If she stayed on a line for too long, she could be torn into pieces when the direction and vertical position changed.
Perhaps the enemy also realized that once the hot air balloon landed, things might become tricky. One devil waved its left hand, which had only three fingers, shouting something loudly. Then it pulled up the mount beneath it and charged straight towards the hot air balloon.
The other pounced on Lightning. The demonic beast flapping its huge wings was like a falcon capturing a fledgling, leaving her struggling to evade. Just as Nightingale had expected, Lightning could only rely on agile movements to protect herself and had difficulty aiming and firing at the opponent. The other witches even stopped shooting for fear of accidentally injuring the little girl.
The devil heading towards the hot air balloon drove its mount to bite and claw wildly at the gasbag. Fortunately, Soroya's coating was tough enough, and the claws and teeth of the hybrid demonic beast had difficulty embedding in it. Seeing that this trick was ineffective, it roared and flew a distance away, seemingly wanting to unbalance the hot air balloon with an impact.
Nightingale had already seen the best opportunity.
Spreading the mist, when a faint, glowing line appeared overhead, she strode onto it without hesitation, taking advantage of the moment the hot air balloon's outline changed, and stood directly on the gasbag. Although her body was parallel to the ground, she walked as if on flat ground and quickly climbed to the top of the balloon.
The devil happened to be charging straight over at this moment.
In the black and white world, Nightingale was surprised to discover that there was a sparse vortex of magic power slowly rotating within the opponent's body, and a shiny stone was embedded in that thin arm.
They actually possessed magic?
But now was not the time to pay attention to this. The sprinting distance of more than ten meters was only a short instant for her. Just as the devil was about to hit the hot air balloon, Nightingale leapt out of the mist and appeared behind the devil.
The giant-winged demonic beast suddenly sank downward because of the sudden increase in weight on its back. The devil seemed to realize something and turned its head sharply to be greeted by the roar of a twelve-millimeter caliber sniper rifle.
"Die."
The bullet rushed out of the flames and smoke, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, penetrated the devil's headgear, and blasted a bowl-sized hole in the back of its head. Viscous blood splattered everywhere, and a pungent, fishy smell spread out.
The enemy convulsed and fell down. The demonic beast also changed direction, skimming past the side of the hot air balloon. Just as Nightingale wanted to return to the top of the gasbag, an accident occurred. The tilting corpse moved the reins, and the mount suddenly rolled sideways, throwing her out.
Before she could react, she had already left the safe distance from which she could return on her own.
Although the hot air balloon was constantly descending, it was still hundreds of meters above the sea. Falling into the mist at this time was equivalent to suicide—without being able to control her posture, hitting any thin line would cut her in half.
"Nightingale!"
She heard her sisters' panicked shouts, but it was all in vain. Lightning was entangled with the devil, and Maisie was unable to pull her up even if she transformed into a sea eagle. She was well aware of the ending she was about to face.
The speed of the fall was getting faster and faster. Nightingale looked down, and the originally blurred sea had revealed its true face. The churning water and waves were becoming clearer and clearer—as if it was not she who was falling, but the sea was accelerating towards her.
The closer she got to this moment, the clearer her mind became.
Nightingale closed her eyes, and the fragments of her meeting with Roland seemed to reappear before her eyes. She sat on the edge of the bed, playing with the dagger in her hand, waiting for the gray-haired fourth prince to push the door open. The flickering fire in the stove, the door panels, and the bedroom gradually faded away, leaving only the other's smiling face.
The only regret was probably not being able to accompany him to the end.
"Goo goo goo goo!"
Suddenly, a series of loud chirps came from her ear. Nightingale opened her eyes and saw a white figure rushing straight down and pouncing on her chest.
It was Maisie.
Before she could say anything, dazzling white light burst out from the pigeon, and its body instantly swelled up. A pair of huge, unparalleled fleshy wings opened from its back, feathers fell one after another, and its bird head became hideous and terrifying, looking exactly like a flying demonic beast!
"Aww————!"
Maisie let out a deafening roar, grabbed Nightingale with her claws, and threw her upwards with force. The latter rolled half a circle in the air and landed straight on the broad bird's back.
What on earth was going on? Nightingale was completely stunned.
"Aww aww!" Maisie turned her head and cried out again, as if reminding her of something.
Even without translation, she understood what the other party meant this time. Although she wasn't clear on why Maisie could transform into this appearance, defeating the devil was the most important thing right now.
"Go!" she shouted.