-"There isn't much I can teach you anymore."-Otto looked at me.-"But your music still lacks heart. You won't be able to confront the 'me' out there on even ground like that. You either have to use some other abilities to gain the advantage or avoid head-on battle.
I looked at the Voice that had changed much from our first meeting. He no longer wore the gorgeous robes, but a classical noble suit, looking more like a young heir of some family than the feared Witch King. I was surprised that he turned into the Reconvener like Promulgator, but, thinking that it was a chance to live again for him, I could understand his decision.
-"I understand. To be honest, I never intended to confront him in his area of expertise."
-"That's not only understandable, but also reasonable. Just be careful, if what I know of the current him is true, you are about to face a being without any care for the repercussions of his actions."
-"I will."-I nodded.
After that short conversation, I left my inner world, opening my eyes in the broken landscape of Kargereich. After I collected myself, I flew into the air to look around. The first thing I noticed was the strangeness of this space. I could feel that everything around me was much more fragile than the world outside; with some effort, shattering space wouldn't be impossible for me.
I picked a direction and flew there, observing the surroundings the whole way. Kargereich was an interesting place. I would like to research it if I had more time, but I needed to quickly find everyone else to know what was going on. After a few minutes of flying without finding anything, I encountered a group of people.
Hidden with Night Sorcery, I approached their group, only to instantly discover an abnormality with them. They were corrupted with something beyond this world, which reminded me of those Outer Gods from the Lands Between. While it had different properties, I had the honor of meeting Lady Malenia, so I felt what it was like for someone corrupted by such power.
Closely observing them, I noticed the black blankness in place where their face should be; only a white glowing circle in one spot was present there. I could also feel that they didn't possess any thoughts or emotions; they only possessed pure instinct. I killed them quickly to experiment on their bodies.
First, I tested how they differed from normal people, discovering that they were identical in every aspect aside from that oil-like substance in their bodies. I made some tests and discovered that the substance was the source of abnormality. This substance was abnormally normal; no matter how I tried to probe it, I couldn't find anything about it. And this is where the problem was.
This substance acted as I expected it to act, but when I forcefully changed my expectation, it also changed. I quickly increased my mental resistance using one of the Cyclops' techniques I learned, and everything started to get weird. All around me, strange objects started to appear, things that I knew weren't there were now visible, shapes like human parts emerging from the ground.
I jumped back, the distance reducing the effects, but before I could leave, the gravity itself shifted so that I almost fell back to where I was before. I had to teleport away, defending myself with miracles. This finally proved effective, signaling that powers originating from faith and divinities can restrain them.
This made me continue my testing. I confirmed how strong the restraint was, experimenting with how to negate the effects of that substance. When I was sure that I knew enough, I moved to trying to destroy it. First, I tested many miracles, but this time they proved ineffective. I then tested magic, achieving some success, but it was still far from destroying that substance. Other direct methods all failed. As my last alternative, I tested pure divine power, imbuing it into a crystal spear, and this was the breakthrough.
This thing was vulnerable to powers beyond the mortal world. This was also why my magic, imbued with powers from the Stars, could harm it. I made some further tests and narrowed down the reason for this weakness. My theory pointed to this thing possessing characteristics of warping and destroying reality, mainly information, looking at how it behaved in certain situations.
This meant that powers working beyond the information realm, such as divine power, could restrain and even destroy it. This was because some stronger gods were beings not bound by reality, also possessing the power to warp or rewrite it. My Patrons were in such a category, while Stars were closer to a Principle, a Law of the world, as something inert; their power was much more restricted in this situation.
I then tested many other Laws, but as my understanding of them was much weaker than of Stars, those proved even less effective. The only other things that showed promising results were powers affecting cause and effect or time. This would work in favour of my theory, as cause and effect powers targeted the information directly, affecting the corruption in the place it existed, while time was parallel to the information realm linked but not interconnected.
After a few last tests, I was satisfied with my understanding of those things, so I flew away, continuing my search for others. This time, I was able to find the old Zwillingstürme, and after finding the traces of combat, I followed them into the central Spire. When I entered, still hidden with Night Sorcery, I found everyone confronting the Witch King.
-"Hold on!"-Empress Hildegard shouted.
-"We need to interrupt him."-Old Lynx tried to help one of the Gesatzswächters who was injured in the battle while controlling her Originium monster to attack.
-"Easier said than done."-Fremont commented while reflecting another attack flying their way.-"He isn't known as the greatest Caster for no reason."
-"We can't continue like that."-Empress Lieselotte looked worried.
I instantly moved above them, grasping my Royal Scepter and forming clouds of stars above everyone, raining them down on the Witch King. This made me instantly a focus of his attention, turning most of his Arts at me. Soon, the whole room was filled with clashes between stars and Arts. This bought time for others to recover, but they couldn't do much in their current state, so I ignored them.
While continuing to restrain him with the rain of stars, I began to cast gravitational sorceries, making the whole Spire shake. Witch King responded to it by also affecting the Spire with his music, negating my magic. But this confrontation made the whole room twist and shake, shatter, only to reform after a short moment.
Next, I unleashed the frost. Blizzard formed above his head while the frigid winds appeared all around. This forced the Witch King to change his melody, making the whole room suddenly erupt with lava. The confrontation between ice and fire wrought even greater destruction, finally collapsing the part of the Spire.
To prevent any accident, I quickly waved my hand, teleporting everyone outside while I pushed my gravitational force to the extreme, trying to bury the Witch King. At the last moment of the collapse I myself teleported out, appearing near everyone else. My eyes never left the collapsing building, my full attention on being ready to cast the next spell when he emerged.
-"Holy Son! I demand an expl..."-Empress Hildegard wanted to scold me, but the movement from the ruined Spire interrupted her.
The Witch King walked from the rubble without any issue, no wounds, just some dust. His face hidden by the mask, but I could feel his gaze was solely on me.
-"I can hear the sound of the Voice on you. Along with your familiar casting technique, you are my inheritor."-He spoke calmly.
-"I did indeed claim your inheritance."-I admitted.
-"Good."-He raised his baton, ready to continue his music.-"Let me test you."
-"Retreat."-I threw a command to the others while returning to the magic duel.
The rain of stars appeared above me again, clashing with the music opposite me. Using the technique he created to use multiple instrumental Arts at the same time, I used many of my sorceries simultaneously. Soon, aside from the stars, meteors guided by gravity, icicles from the blizzard clouds, and even my crystals were flying his way, creating a scene out of an apocalypse.
The consumption of my magic power caused the area around me to crystallize rapidly, forcing others to move back to not be affected. But even then, neither he nor I took a step back. In a few short minutes, the whole city turned into ruins, but it was far from over.
-"You chose well not to confront me using my Arts, but your techniques still fall short."-He commented, waving his baton, forcing me to take an impact directly.
His attack didn't cause me any damage, but it blew my cloak, exposing my left arm to those who hadn't seen it before. I could feel the stir of emotions behind me, but it wasn't the time to deal with this.
I didn't respond to his words, just waved my left hand, making the crystals around me shatter, scattering into dust. Under my manipulation, the dust quickly gathered into a giant figure behind me. With a roar that made the earth rumble, a dragon emerged, the strongest Ash in my possession. It rushed into the air, attacking the Witch King along with all the magic I resumed.
At the same time, I used my blood to write countless runes around me, using the Banshee techniques to further strengthen them. In a few short moments, the whole space around me turned into a red web of runes, intertwining into a seemingly impossible construct. My hand never stopped moving, completing the whole runic structure in one of the longest minutes of my life.
I then started to input enormous amounts of magic power into it, causing the already fast crystallization to accelerate even further. The red runes started to glint, their color slowly turning into the familiar deep blue of my Originium Glintstone. The whole runic construct started to merge into a straight spear, looking simple from the outside, yet this was one of the greatest masterpieces of runic magic.
Of course, the spear in my hand was just a replica of the spear Scáthach used to torment me not even a year ago. The original was a B+ rank Noble Phantasm; the one in my hand was weaker as it was recreated using my Remembrance, not pure runes, placing it closer to B-, but the destructive power was never why this spear was so feared.
I twirled it in my hand, my attention locked on the Witch King. I waited for a moment to strike, not wanting to give him any chances. And as he was in the middle of fighting a dragon, I didn't need to wait long for an occasion to appear. And so, the spear left my hand, turning into a blue streak in the sky.
Witch King noticed my attack, diverting some of his attention to deal with it, but he quickly noticed that no matter what he tried to do, the spear would just change direction. He tried once, twice, thrice... But nothing worked. No matter how many times he tried to block it, the spear would never stop.
Before the Witch King could find a way to resolve the situation, the spear reached its target, piercing his body. The impact caused the dust around him to rise up, obscuring his figure, but I could feel that this strike wasn't enough to deal with him. I recalled the spear, noticing that it sustained some damage in the attack; it could be used one more time at most.
I stopped my magic, and even the dragon returned to my side; some wounds appeared on its body, but it was far from defeated. I watched the cloud of dust, waiting for that person to emerge. And he did just that, walking out of it; his state was tragic compared to before.
His robes were burned in places where dragon's breath bypassed his defenses, the deep wound in his chest from my spear strike turned the black cloth deep red, and even his mask was cracked, revealing his face. Or rather, what remained of it, as only half remained human, the rest was the black nothingness caused by the corruption. Looking closer, I could see that oil-like substance flowing along with his blood. This would also explain his power, as it was far more than what I expected.
I looked into his eyes, using my Empathy to check his feelings and thoughts. The influence of the corruption was noticeable. He still remained conscious, but I knew that his state was beyond saving. He also observed me, his eye looking me up and down, focusing on my left arm and the spear in my other hand. I could feel a sense of satisfaction coming from him, despite his face showing no expression.
-"Impressive. May I know what that spear is?"
-"It's a replica of a spear called Gáe Bolg. A masterpiece of someone close to me."
-"It's nothing like I ever faced."-He commented.-"No matter what I did, I couldn't stop it."
-"This is to be expected."-I nodded.-"This spear was created to kill those who can't be killed. To strike at targets that can't be reached. This spear isn't thrown to pierce; you are priced so the spear is thrown."
He repeated those words before bursting out laughing.
-"Hahaha! To think such fascinating technique exists!"-He covered his face with his hands, a look of madness appeared in his eye.-"To kill unkillable. Your friend, they also pointed their weapons at them, right?"
-"She claimed the title of godslayer."
When he heard that, I could feel him relaxing, as if some weight had been lifted.
-"What about you?"
I was silent for a moment; my feelings about the divine were complicated at the moment, but no matter what, I had to accomplish the Princess' mission.
-"I will kill a god."-My voice carrying conviction.
The Witch King smiled.
-"Then I'll leave the rest to you. My research is in the underground below our feet. I believe it can help you."
I nodded.
-"What's your name?"-He asked only now.
-"Eno. Holy Son of Laterano, Enoch."
-"Eno. Don't fall into the hands of those things."-He warned me before closing his eye.
I clutched my spear tightly, a black-and-red flame appearing on the spearhead. My eyes glowed with moonlight as the spear changed from blue to white. I took a stance for throwing, preparing to unleash the full power of the spear. Without any fanfare, I threw the spear into the air.
The spear flew with simple parabola, striking the Witch King with no issues. I could see my flame enveloping him, followed by the explosion of white. When the moonlight of the divinity receded, the figure of the Witch King was no more. Only his baton remained behind, the memento of the greatest Caster and the cruelest tyrant.