Chapter 211: Peace Offering
Back at the church, September was left alone.
The four ghosts of the ancient witch sisters faded away, leaving her with a message of peace. An offering of their wisdom. September pondered alone for a while until she heard a major cacophony right outside the church. She heard stomping. Running. Then, a presence on the other side of the closed (and even locked) gates began pounding against them.
Someone or something was trying to get inside. Then, she heard other things outside. Footsteps, as well. A lot of them. It was almost as if people were surrounding the dark church. The ponding on the locked gates continued. It felt as if it was never going to end.
September didn't know what to do. Did the other witches of the village somehow find out about their infiltration here?
Not only finding out about the Minotaur and the elvish ranger, but about her, as well? How did that happen? She used them as bait. Decoy. So, she wouldn't have any trouble with the witches.
Now, here she was, certain that they had somehow found out about her. She readied herself to meet and greet the witch students she used to be teaching all these years ago. She was well-prepared. Prepared to fend for herself, but not exactly prepared to confront her past pupils. She was still quite hesitant about the concept of battling them.
They didn't do anything wrong. September used to be their master. She, unfortunately, lost her throne, unfairly and suspiciously, leaving her younger sister, Bridget to take her place, right here, in this dark church of their witch coven. How convenient. Bridget wasn't their Queen. She was. And it was up to her to fix what had been done wrong. It was up to her to save her past pupils.
The ponding on the gates continued until they ultimately gave in, and they were forced open. September lifted her scepter up and pointed it forward, threatening to attack whoever was going to come through those gates. As soon as they were fully forced open, the first things the Autumn witch witnessed were a huge and sharp pair of horns. Horns?
I see horns… This can only mean… September began thinking. As a matter of fact, she was right. The one who charged at the gates was no other than Junk, her Minotaur and demon knight. He crashed through the gates and finally made it inside the church with her.
"Demon knight?" She called him, not even saying his name.
"Witch Queen!" The Minotaur responded with her title.
"What are you doing here? You are supposed to be at the rest house. I never gave you the command to leave and come here."
"You are supposed to be watching the outside of the rest house and covering her asses. Isn't that right, Witch Queen?" He was right. She realized that he had realized the tiny change in her plan she had recently made.
It was almost as if she had been caught by him. She nodded. She didn't care that he knew. She was his Witch Queen, after all. She was the one making and taking the big decisions in their team. She wasn't mad at Junk for coming here, she simply didn't understand why exactly. She finally lowered her magical scepter.
"I changed the plan. What are you doing here, Junk?"
"Brought you a little gift…" Junk removed a bath towel that was covering the face and the body of a certain person of interest he had brought all the way here with him. He was carrying her in his arms. After removing the towel off of her, he revealed to her that he had brought her younger sister, Bridget, to her. A perfect present.
"Put me down! Put me down right this second!" She argued.
"You brought her to me? You were able to seize her."
"We did!" April rushed inside the church, following Junk, finally showing up. She came in like a wrecking ball, all excited, arms up in the air.
Waving them. Smiling. Simply excited to be part of the team and to have contributed in helping capture Bridget, even though they were still far from being somewhere safe, and to be calling this a victory. April closed the gates behind her. Well… Sort of. She could no longer fully close them, unfortunately.
It was now impossible because of the brute force of their Minotaur friend. The gates could sort of close, but there was still a gap in the middle, and they could no longer be locked.
"Yikes! This could be… Problematic at best. I can't close the gates and lock them. It means that if they come looking for us, we are going to be vulnerable, guys!" April shouted for everyone to hear. She wasn't exactly discreet, but yet again, their demon knight was never quiet, especially not when he just rammed into the gates.
"We are never vulnerable, April. We're going to be just for fine," Junk replied to her, still carrying Bridget in his arms. The beast was positive to say the least. He wasn't too concerned with that issue.
"For the last time! Put me down now!" Bridget argued again.
"Bridget," September said her name as she stepped forward.
"September…" Bridget calmed down for the first time.
"I came here in the hope to take my throne back and bring you to justice. This was my original reason for coming here."
"Your original reason?" Bridget grew quite curious.
"But now… Things changed… Look. We shouldn't fight. We should be working together instead. There should never be only one Witch Queen. There should always be two. Collaborating together."
"What? Seriously?" April couldn't believe what she heard.
"Are you certain this is a wise idea, Witch Queen?" Junk asked, still carrying the nude witch in his arms. He was shocked.
"Do you even hear yourself sometimes?" Bridget asked.
"I am serious about this. We should be sharing the throne and work together. There is no reason for us to fight. Please, tell me, you'll consider it," September told her.
Then, footsteps were heard outside again…
They weren't alone.