Although the mages were distracted by her appearance for just a brief moment, this was more than enough for Beatrice.
At this very moment, Beatrice, Susan, as well as the latter's teacher were suddenly sent flying in two opposite directions, as an explosion suddenly erupted between Susan and her teacher.
From that tiny center of the explosion, a shockwave, followed by a wave of darkness, suddenly traveled through the entirety of the city at rapid speeds, leveling it in seconds.
...
The instant, Susan went flying, the transparent water barrier surrounding her shattered into a million piece, causing another barrier, which was not visible before, to suddenly appear.
Unlike the previous barrier, this new barrier, which was clearly not of Susan's own strength, was able to survive the explosion that had just accoured.
Even so, the barrier was still very much litter with cracks.
Although Beatrice was not as close to the epicenter of the explosion as Susan and her teacher, and was much better prepared than the two, she still suffered a bit from the explosion.
But even so, as she flew through the air, Beatrice focused her attention onto Susan, who was sent flying in the same direction as her.
A moment later, an extremely thin needle appeared in front of Beatrice.
Rank 3 Spell, Dark Needle.
Being extremely prepared for this, Beatrice was able to cast this complicated spell in just half a second, causing the needle that had just appeared in front of her to suddenly fly towards Susan.
Unlike its weaker versions, the Rank 0 Dark Bolt, and the Rank 1 Dark Arrow, even as the Dark Needle flew through the air at breakneck speeds far above the speed of sound, no sonic boom was to be heard.
In fact, not only did the Dark Needle not produce any sound altogether, even when it traveled at its fasted speed, it also utilized Dark Magic to make itself less noticeable.
But even if this was not the case, in her current, battered state, Susan was not particularly aware of her surroundings.
In just under one tenth of a second, the Dark Needle reached Susan before creating a tiny hole in her Dark Barrier, which had just formed itself back up, before passing through completely unobstructed.
Next was the second barrier that protected Susan, which the Dark Needle smashed through, using one of the many large cracks as a weak point, allowing it to finally reach its destination, Susan.
A fraction of a moment later, the Dark Needle suddenly passed right through Susan's skull, completely annihilating the entire head of the mage in the process, mainly thanks to the rather insane speed at which it was traveling at.
Not only that, but at that very moment, the Dark Needle that Beatrice had specially prepared went beyond the material realm, and touched Susan's soul, piercing it in the same way and smashing it apart.
After seeing this, Beatrice faintly smiled before quickly flapping her wings and beginning to fly away from the scene, aware of the fact that both Susan's teacher, and at least one of the three mages guarding the nearby mine were probably coming to her location at the moment.
...
The moment Aphelia felt her connection with her apprentice break, an enraged expression appeared on her face, causing two wings of water to suddenly appear on her back, allowing her to nearly instantly arrive near the latter.
After staring at her disciple, whose head had been completely annihilated alongside her soul, for just a brief moment, Aphelia instantly knew that the latter was already dead, and could not be saved at all, causing her to raise her head and stare into the distance, at the young mage that was flying away from her.
"I... can't catch up to her..." mumbled Aphelia as she stared at the mage, deeply imprinting the latter's appearance into her mind.
As an official mage, Aphelia was deeply aware of her limits, and knew that she could not match the speed of the mage, causing her to turn her attention back onto her dead apprentice and pick up her body before rising from the ground without the help of the water wings on her back.
...
As she stared at the city below her, which had been completely wiped away from existence thanks to the power of the Witch of Death, Aphelia couldn't help but fall into thought.
After looking at her dead apprentice, Aphelia was able to quickly understand how the young mage had died.
"Using her power as a distraction and to weaken us, before using a Dark Needle to finish her off..." said Aphelia with a frown on her face, deeply aware of the difficulty involved with casting the Dark Needle Spell.
"It seems as though even without the help of the Witch of Death, this young witch shouldn't be underestimated..." said a male voice, causing Aphelia to turn her attention to the middle-aged mage that had just appeared.
"That's true, Vale, have you investigated the city, are there any other survivors?" asked Aphelia as she approached the other mage, still holding her apprentice in her hands.
"Other than a few apprentices who were patrolling the outskirts of the city, as well as the two stationed in the city hall, I've detected no other life signs in the entire city, but the two in the city hall were a bit on the edge, they would have probably died if I had not arrived in time," said Vale as he let out a faint sigh.
Hearing Vale's words, Aphelia couldn't help let out a sigh of her own.
"I'm going back to the academy to report this, I've seen the appearance of the assassin, I assume you can handle things on your own here?" said Aphelia, causing Vale to nod after a bit of hesitation.
...
On this previously peaceful day, a name which in the future, would resound throughout the entire Mage Continent first appeared, named after the boundless amounts of darkness that would still permeate Matine City decades into the future.
The Witch of Darkness was born.