Berne and the dark-haired girl were at a stalemate. Nobody had attacked yet.
Fwoosh!
The fireball in the hand of the girl grew slightly bigger with every passing second.
Berne noticed this and sighed, "Well, it won't be too bad to devour a witch. It's been long since I had such a delicacy."
At his last words, he threw his hand toward the witch, and a long black, red centipede with its maw wide open extended with breathtaking speed!
The witch raised her other hand to directly receive the attack. From the insides of her cloak, an orange wave flowed out and formed into a ball of fire shielding her.
The centipede halted at the front of the barrier and curled around it looking for an opening.
Berne smiled maniacally and said, "I shall ask again, why were you following me?"
The dark-haired girl removed her hood to reveal a small face with dark bags under her eyes, "So what if I'm a witch?"
"Oh my, you look so young. And you could even defend my attack. Witches nowadays disappoint me, to be honest. They are all so weak. How are you able to remain so young? Or…" A shadow covered Berne's eyes and the corner of his lips touched his ears, "...Is that even your real body?"
The witch didn't answer and looked a bit shocked but only for a split second.
Berne let out a loud cackle for a full minute before he calmed down, "I can guess how you managed to stay this young, or should I say, stay alive? Heh, welcome to the dark side."
The witch didn't look like she was ready for Berne's mocking chatter and just said, "You talk too much. You have estimated my strength and know full well you do not stand a chance against me. You are not sure but I shall tell you. Yes, I transfer my soul into younger witches, and with it comes the spiritual energy of the previous bodies. And no, these bodies don't have any defects or faults. I can live a full life in them."
This piece of information might seem like a secret and the witch openly saying it means she has other secrets she was not mentioning or there are lies mixed in between. This is the skill of feeding the enemy knowledge they 'can' or are allowed to know so they make a lapse in judgment that can benefit one later. The lapse in judgment could be either overestimation or underestimation.
Berne's smile faded and only a cold gaze remained. He knew what the witch was doing. He waited for a few seconds and took the centipede back in, seemingly in thought, before asking, "How did you manage this?"
The witch smirked and said, "Oh, don't play coy with me. You already know."
Here she redirected the question to Berne, seeing if he would bite and spill information about what he knows.
"..." Berne still stared coldly and didn't say anything. Under the hood, these tricks are tests to gauge the intelligence of the opponent. He knew about these flimsy tricks.
The witch smiled and said, "I possess one of the twelve stelae of the Dark Apocrypha."
The witch's words hit Berne like a train. He screamed, "A whole stelae?! How?! Impossible! The tombs of the Twelve Dragon Priests were destroyed over a millennium ago!"
The witch grinned, "Heh, then it seems your knowledge is lacking. Do you think the churches have the power to destroy all of the tombs of those monstrous creatures? I even know how to find the remaining eleven stelae."
"There's… There's no way that's possible."
"Yes, I once thought so too, since they all spread around in broken pieces. But here I am, a supreme witch in a very fresh and young body. I have my secrets too, after all."
"No… no… there's, there's just no way you're telling the truth! It's impossible!"
The witch scoffed, "Not when you have a contract with a divine spirit. Impossible? As a sorcerer, you should know there is no such thing."
"You…You have contracted a divine spirit?!" The constant shocks that Berne received almost made him electrocuted.
The witch nodded seriously, "Of course. Evil spirits don't appeal to me. One gets tainted with their madness over time, I'm sure you know this."
"No! I can't believe you!" Berne screamed.
The witch smiled and orange streams of fire left the hand of her garment until it formed a big blazing phoenix, standing on her shoulders.
Seeing this, Berne fell on his butt in awe, "A…A divine bird… honestly, I am amazed. For the past 100 years, I believed I was the only magic practitioner trying to progress. Those witches are happy being stagnant and sorcerers hardly ever reach anywhere before they're hunted by the churches. I'm sorry but I still cannot believe you have a whole stela."
The witch looked at Berne for a few seconds before saying, "You possess a piece of the Stela of Moroloi, the 10th Dragon Priest."
Berne immediately got into a defensive position with two centipedes protruding from his back. He was expecting her to show him the stela, not to mention the one he had.
The witch folded her arms and said, "Don't be scared. I don't go around stealing stelae. I trade by barter. Knowledge for knowledge. You very well know the stelae take decades to decipher, so why kill off someone that has already understood its contents?"
Berne had a fixed gaze, he said, "...What do you want?"
The witch's expression suddenly turned sour, he spoke in a hushed and annoyed tone, "I came here to this relatively remote city to live a normal life but your experiments have caught the attention of M21 and the Divine Cadres of the churches. How do you repay me for this disturbance?"
Berne replied, "I apologize for my disturbance and I shall offer you a chance to see the progress of my life's work. And if you take a liking to it, I would greatly appreciate it if you joined me in achieving my goal. After all, you followed me to decide whether to kill me off or keep me as an ally, did you not?"
The witch smiled with pride and asked, "What sort of goal is worth the youthful years of a genius sorcerer like you?"
A smile curled up Berne's face and he said, "Immortality…"
The witch's eyes bulged, she was greatly shocked.
Berne tightened his fists, "I wish to wake up and witness the sunrise and explore the wonders of nature, knowing there shall be no end to the greatest happiness of living…
"...My loved ones shall never age, no plague shall come upon them, and no sickness shall weaken their legs. As long as life is abundant, hope is abundant."
The witch quickly recovered from her shock and smiled seductively, "Tempting…"
Berne continued, "I am about to achieve this goal. My experiments have been immensely fruitful. If you offer me your help in completing this experiment I will give you my piece and its deciphered version."
The witch didn't think much before she said, "Hmm, very well then. There is nothing more attractive than a powerful man set on his goals."
Berne smiled genuinely and thanked, "I appreciate the compliment. I am Amon, the Immortal Sorcerer. May I know your name?"
"Sure, "The witch smiled and added, "...I am the Queen of Elements, Athena."
....
[A/N: I will start explaining the motives behind actions characters take that serve hidden purposes. A reader complained the characters are like NPCs. Characters I suffer to make unique and distinct. Idk if explaining the motives behind their actions would make the story a bit boring but I'll do it anyway! You all deserve a great book that's why things go deeper and deeper. Now I've mentioned the dark apocrypha and ancient dragon priests. A 4-dimensional story. Zero plot holes. You can thank me in the comments or in your way like gifting a spaceship idk (~￣³￣)~]