When Suzannah finishes speaking, black chains descend from above and bind Kal's hands, suspending him on a black wall. The witch approaches with a sadistic look, extending the tip of her finger to touch Kal's chest, while the frightened young man screams:
"Don't touch me!"
The more Kal tried to free himself from the chains that held him, the tighter they became. It seemed that the whole place pulsed every time Suzannah got more excited, and as someone impulsive and reckless, the place became increasingly macabre and frightening. And the closer the witch approached the young man, the more the walls pulsated.
"Let me see!" whispered the witch, with an increasingly sadistic and terrifying gaze.
When the Witch gets close enough, a small yellow light like a small thunderbolt came out from inside Kal, making Suzannah stop immediately.
Kal, who before was trying to free himself at all costs, realizing it was useless to force it, simply stops trying and just closes his eyes waiting for nothing bad to happen. But before Suzannah touches Kal, a great flash of light shines inside the place. She abruptly stops and withdraws her arm. The place that was once a gloomy, black fortress with a distorted and macabre throne becomes a beautiful, flowering garden, with rare flowers of countless colors, illuminated by the light of two moons shining in the sky. With a small stone path leading to a cottage amid the trees and then. From a frightening Queen to a fierce, a child with a serene, childlike gaze was there. Kal, who is now free and amazed by what he sees, looks to the child who is now in the same place as Suzannah and says:
"What happened? Are you still the Red Queen?"
The little girl, now looking with an innocent appearance, says:
"Come, let's have some tea in my home."
Kal, not understanding what was happening, just follows her inside that lit cottage.
"Sit there," says Suzannah, pointing to a chair.
The little Suzannah goes to an old cabinet, rummages through some old books:
"Where is it... where is it..."
Suddenly she shouts:
"I found it!"
She goes to the table where Kal is with an old box in her hands, places the box on the table and opens it, revealing a small gold medallion adorned with ancient engravings and with a transparent stone in the center. Suzannah looks at Kal and says:
"Touch it!!"
Kal, still bewildered by the whole situation, just says:
"I'm not going to touch anything until you explain what all is this?"
Suzannah sighs, scratches her head and says:
"Alright, alright."
Then she begins:
"I'm not your enemy, boy."
"Everything I said before was true, you're inside my spirit."
"This childlike form is a side effect of my unique magic - every time I use it, I become a child for a determined period of time."
"And this place we're in now is my refuge, my true spirit."
"Because of my ability to bring others into my spirit, I had to create a protective barrier for my true refuge."
"So I had to see first who you really are before let you enter my refuge."
"What do you mean, who I am?" Kal asks in the middle of Suzannah's explanation.
"You are more than you think, boy," adds the witch.
"I've traveled around the whole world, searching for artifacts and studying ancient magics to try to understand the world."
"In my travels around the world, I ventured to the farthest place from our land - beyond the Dragon's Lair, there is a land without name, inhabited by various tribes of humanoids."
"A place where they say it's the location of the first civilizations and kingdoms, a place where mana flows in a more primitive way."
"Rummaging through some ruins of the first kingdoms, I found an artifact that initially seemed harmless - anyway, I brought it with me."
"Some decades later, when I was in Elaria, I found an ancient book containing the description of the artifact I had found before."
"The name of this artifact was Seed of God - it was used by the first kings to communicate with the gods."
"The book says it was possible for a god to live in a human body, as long as that human had a spirit adequate to withstand, even if just a part, of that god's power."
"When I almost touched you earlier, I felt something that would prevent me from seeing the information in your spirit."
"There is something very powerful inside you, boy, and I want to know what it is!" Suzannah concludes, taking Kal's right hand and placing the medallion in it.
Kal took the medallion but no light or sound came from it - it seemed the artifact was not working. Then Kal says:
"Does this mean I don't have any god inside me, right?"
Suzannah was trying to understand why the artifact was not working. She thought of three possibilities: the first was that the artifact never really worked since she had never found someone with a divided soul with a god; the second was that actually the sensation she felt earlier when she almost touched Kal was her imagination; and the third, more frightening possibility was that the entity inhabiting the boy's soul was actually greater than the gods themselves. Suzannah immediately dismissed the third option, since an entity of that magnitude would have totally destroyed her refuge just with its presence. So she began to think she may have been mistaken about this boy and that after all it was just someone with an extremely massive and strong spirit, but still human and nothing more than human.
While Suzannah was thinking, the door of her cottage began to slowly open. The witch and young Kal quickly looked over as another Suzannah entered through the door - it was the same older Suzannah from before. The little Suzannah, frightened, asked:
"What is happening here? Who are you?"
The older Suzannah simply extended one of her hands and the medallion on the table just flew towards her hands. When the medallion touched the older Suzannah's hand, it rapidly began emitting a black light with reddish tones, and a macabre female voice echoed from the medallion:
"How long I've had to wait to find you!"
Kal moves away frightened, while Suzannah positions herself in front of him to protect him:
"You should not be able to enter my refuge!!" says the little Suzannah to the older one.
"Be quiet!!" says the voice with an even darker tone than before.
"He is not who we think, let us leave him, my lady," says the little Suzannah.
"How small and weak you are, you didn't even notice he has been emitting a majestic aura since entering your refuge," says the voice.
"I can feel him, I can see him, I want him!!" says the voice, escalating to even more macabre tones.
Then, changing her face to a macabre face with a huge mouth full of sharp teeth, the older Suzannah flies towards Kal. She manages to pass over the little Suzannah and bites Kal's left arm with such force that she tears off his entire forearm, making Kal scream in desperation while holding the remaining part of his forearm. At that moment, the little Suzannah says:
"Divine magic of the 6th circle: Celestial Purification"
Suddenly, a sacred and bright white light illuminates the place, destroying the refuge's cottage and affecting the older Suzannah, making her scream in pain and move away from young Kal. The older Suzannah was so affected by the magic that the Suzannah mask she was wearing began to crack and fall away, revealing a black shadow with the silhouette of a woman, two red eyes, and black fluttering robes that looked like black wings.
"When did you learn this divine magic of the 6th circle?" says the shadow.
"I've been with you for 100 years since we made the pact, I've been with you through every moment."
"I have unrestrained access to your spirit, how did you learn to use divine magic without me noticing?" continues the shadow.
"For almost 80 years I created another refuge within my refuge, a place not even you would have access to!" says Suzannah.
"There I learned this magic and learned how to defeat you too!"
"I know who you really are, Salacia," concludes Suzannah.
"Actually, this shadow goes by the name Servant of Witchcraft, a kind of avatar without will that I control," says Salacia with a slightly cheerful voice.
"And actually, even learning divine magic, you are still no match for me," finishes Salacia.
Then the shadow opens its arms and a ball of fire emerges between the shadow's arms. Immediately Suzannah extends her right hand to Kal, who was writhing in pain, and says:
"Divine magic of the 5th circle: Divine Protection."
Immediately, a purifying white light envelops the young Kal, who falls asleep enveloped in the light. When the fireball the shadow controlled grew to a large size, Salacia's voice through the medallion says:
"Elemental magic of 5th circle fire: Flaming Explosion."
The giant fireball is launched and a huge explosion occurs in the refuge, burning the beautiful plants and devastating the entire place. Among the smoke, the little Suzannah appears with half her body charred while Kal remains protected, asleep within the divine protection Suzannah conjured.
"I never imagined you would be left like this by a mere 5th circle magic," says Salacia.
The little Suzannah rises with her skin on the entire right side raw, extends her left hand to the shadow and says:
"Divine magic of the 6th circle: Celestial Purification."
Once again, a strong light covers the entire place, again affecting the shadow, which moves even further away. But in great pain and now almost without magic, Suzannah kneels on the ground and becomes paralyzed as the Shadow emerges again almost intact and again opening its two arms to the little Suzannah. Salacia says:
"You were a good horse for me, girl, but today you will die!!"
"Unholy magic of the 3rd circle: Black Death"
A black light beam is shot towards the little Suzannah, who stood static and weak. Slowly closing her eyes, she lamented over her life:
"I had a cursed life," remembers Suzannah.
And her memories came in flashes. In the first one, she saw herself younger, around 23 years old, embraced to a man and smiling sitting in front of a small humble fireplace home. In the second, she appeared 28, lying in a dirty tavern room, with a fat old man fixing her clothes and leaving while throwing some coins on the floor for her. In the third and last one, apparently 37 years old, she sat in front of a broken mirror while cutting her own wrists and repeating some words in the dark tongue until Salacia's voice emerged, inviting her to make a blood pact.
"I'm the weakest and most miserable person in this world!!" Suzannah whispers, thinking it would be her last time.
The black light beam was about to pierce little Suzannah when it hits something and is contained. It was Kal, holding that magic by just stretching out his right finger, the same hand that had been torn off by Salacia before. Suzannah just opened her eyes slowly and saw Kal in front, saying weakly:
"How?"
Kal turns to her and his eyes shone like the sun's light again. Now Suzannah could see a warm aura like the sun's rays filling the entire refuge. The shadow immediately moves as far away as possible while Salacia orders it to remain. The Witchcraft Priestess did not understand why the shadow servant of witchcraft was no longer accepting its commands.
Then Kal walks toward Suzannah and says:
"I saw you when you were born, I saw you as a crying girl, I saw when you found love and when you lost hope. To me, you are stronger than you think" touching Suzannah's head.
In that moment Suzannah felt a peace she had never felt in her life, felt she could forgive and love again, felt she was being forgiven for all the evil she had done. Then the little Suzannah starts crying desperately. And like a miracle, the burns all over her little body began to dry up. Looking up, she hears Kal say:
"Throughout his life, young Kal will face infinite challenges because of me. I healed you so you can guide him to become the best man ever to walk this earth" Kal smiles.
From very far away, Salacia's voice echoes throughout the entire place, saying:
"You will be mine, you will be mine!!!!"
As the little Suzannah rises, Kal says:
"I trust you!"
Then Kal sleeps again, while Suzannah rises with a determined look. Now that Kal's presence disappeared, the shadow again obeys Salacia's commands and furiously attacks Suzannah, who says:
"During these almost 80 years of studying, I discovered a way to break our pact, Salacia."
"It's enough to gather a gigantic amount of divine energy and combine it with a portion of the mana of the person to be freed from the pact."
Salacia retorts:
"You would never be able to gather such an amount of divine energy without me noticing, and even your mana I would know."
Then Suzannah replies:
"They say that all things in nature have a little divine energy in them, even the stars, the sun and..."
Suzannah points to the two moons inside her refuge, while Salacia simply says:
"No, not the moons."
Suzannah joins her hands and focuses the remaining mana she had left, beginning to say:
"For a long time I cultivated these energies right under your nose - the larger moon is the source of the divine energy I stored, while the smaller one is my own manifestation of mana.
Today our contract ends, Salacia. Thank you for the time we spent together, but now I will live my own life."
With an angelic smile on her face, little Suzannah, still with hands joined, says:
"Divine magic of the 8th circle: Living Light"
The moons in the sky lit up and mingled in a way that filled the entire refuge, eliminating Salacia's shadow once and for all. When everything ended, the place was plunged into great darkness. Conjuring a small candle, Suzannah walks to Kal, kisses him on the forehead and says:
"Thank you."