In this land of the Nine Great Kingdoms, where strife is a daily affair, the conflict among many intelligent beings actually stems from differing standpoints, not strictly from a clear-cut divide between good and evil.
Just because the Laine Empire deeply despises the Undead does not mean that an undead being like Amberser is truly beyond redemption, nor can one argue from Amberser's viewpoint that the Laine Empire is an utterly inhumane Cult.
This is a matter of perspective, not something that can be simply measured by good and evil.
However, the Witch is different; she is a naturally evil creature, born as one of the most cruel and malicious existences.
The appearance of a Witch resembles a hideous and contorted old woman, and their hearts are as ugly as their visages.
Just from the way they reproduce, the extremity and distortion of these creatures are evident.
Witches cannot bear offspring on their own; they will steal babies from cradles or even from their mother's wombs, then they drain these poor infants dry. After a week, the Witch will give birth to a human-looking baby girl
and maintain the appearance of a human as she grows. Until her thirteenth birthday arrives, she will transform into a Witch identical to her mother.
Under normal circumstances, a Witch will leave her offspring with the parents who have lost their child, and before the child reaches their teens, they will grow up seeming like any normal child.
A decade is enough for them to become a real family.
When the Witch's soul matures, the child will suddenly change in temperament, becoming cruel and malicious, catching their foster parents completely off guard. But no matter what these parents do, they cannot awaken their child's conscience, often after experiencing countless betrayals and harm, they are killed by the very child they raised.
And in their dying moments, they will witness their child's transformation into the hideous form of a Witch, realizing that what they have nurtured for over a decade was a monster; a monster that grew by consuming their own flesh and blood.
This cruel torment will leave a mortal's soul riddled with wounds, while the Witch will revel in the human's anger and despair.
That is the essence of the Witch, her existence is to bring suffering to other lifeforms.
As adults, Witches quickly master an array of evil magic, then start to become arrogant and presumptuous, with some Witches believing that deities are nothing special and that they can eventually trample the Gods underfoot.
This extreme arrogance leads Witches to enjoy toying with humans, as a way of proving themselves "equally divine." Typically, Witches would engage in trade games with humans; they might first poison someone, then appear when the victim despairs, telling them they can survive if they sacrifice their dearest family member.
In such ways, they deceive humans into sacrificing their beloved, and when the truth comes to light, the Witches delight in watching the humans' collapse into despair.
For this, they are even willing to pay some price.
It can be said that Witches are born evil, even more preposterous than Hell Demons.
Amberser explained in great detail the information about the Witch to Naomi, leaving her with her mouth agape, unable to close it for a long while.
"Sylvanas above, can there really be such evil creatures in this world? Eating children, then forging a monster to give back to the parents to raise... It's just too heinous!"
Naomi felt a chill just listening to Amberser's description, realizing that her own people had encountered such a terrifying creature.
Amberser went on to say, "Most Witches are adept at illusion techniques, and creating widespread illusions is no challenge for them; not only do Witches possess strong casting abilities, their claws can tear through steel, and a Witch is never alone—they are best at bewitching humans into becoming their puppets.
"Even a fully prepared army facing a Witch may suffer heavy casualties. What's more terrifying is that Witches are mostly good at escaping—if you can't kill her in one go, she will keep seeking revenge, until she kills you!
"I've heard a rumor that three Witches teamed up to unleash a terrible plague in the Elf capital, turning city after city into domains of death, with the death toll exceeding a thousand. Were it not for the intervention of a Legendary High Elf, who expelled the three Witches, the casualties would have been even greater."
Amberser's words turned Naomi's face pale; these sounded like incredibly terrifying creatures, her people must be in grave danger.
"Master Ultraman, what do we do now?" Naomi said with a hint of panic.
"It's tough, witches aren't so easy to deal with; only those of Legendary Rank are sure to handle them," Amberser said. "If you spend money to hire a professional adventurer team, it would cost at least several tens of thousands of Gold Coins for someone to be willing to take the commission. But that was the price years ago. With the recent surge in prices in Alchemy City, I'm afraid it might even double."
Naomi became even more anxious after hearing what Amberser had said. Where could she get tens of thousands of Gold Coins to hire adventurers? Were her people really beyond help?
"However..." Amberser suddenly changed his tone.
Naomi promptly asked, "However, what?"
Amberser said, "However, I happen to know an expert at dealing with witches. With my face value, he'd guarantee solving the witch problem for at most ten thousand Gold Coins."
"Really?" Naomi asked skeptically, sensing something was off. These few sentences sounded too much like a scam.
Amberser patted his chest and said, "Of course. If you don't believe me, I can swear by the name of the God of the Undead. The expert I know can absolutely take care of the witch, and it will only cost ten thousand Gold Coins. If he fails, even if the witch escapes, you won't be charged a penny."
Naomi said helplessly, "But I don't have that much money either. I have nothing of value on me."
Amberser said with a smile, "That's easy to solve. Aren't you going to rescue your tribespeople? Their belongings combined should easily cover ten thousand Gold Coins. The natural magic equipment made by Druids sells well in the Nine Great Kingdoms. You can receive service first and pay later."
Naomi felt something wasn't quite right, but it seemed she had no other choice.
If she could rescue her tribespeople, then ten thousand Gold Coins would definitely be worth it. They could gather that amount within the tribe.
If she couldn't rescue them, what loss would she have?
Thinking this way, Naomi immediately agreed.
"So shall we find this expert you mentioned right now? Where is he?" Naomi urged anxiously.
Amberser smiled slightly and said, "No rush, he's already here."
After he finished speaking, Amberser's body began emitting layers of ghostly light.
The effects of Shapeshifting were dispelled, and the young man with black hair quickly transformed into a skeletal figure. He wore a black robe, had Soul Fire burning in his eye sockets, floated off the ground without touching it, and held a long Magic Wand in his hand.
With such an appearance, there was no need for Amberser to introduce himself for Naomi to exclaim, "A Lich? Are you a Lich?!"
The Undead were of many types, and Naomi initially guessed that Amberser might be a Vampire or something of the sort, but he turned out to be a Lich.
Among the Undead, Liches were probably the most powerful spellcasters, no wonder his magic was so formidable.
"Wait, the expert you mentioned... is it you?"
Naomi suddenly felt like she had been deceived.
"That's right, I have plenty of experience dealing with witches. Don't worry," Amberser said confidently.
But after reverting to his Lich form, his speech turned into vibrations of magic power, sounding like a chilling breeze over a mass grave, deeply unsettling to hear.
Naomi still felt something was wrong and continued to question, "But you just said, only a Legendary can deal with a witch alone."
With a light wave of the Magic Wand in his hand, the corpses of the mutant rats on the ground burst open, and amidst the blurred flesh and blood, numerous skeletons clicked and clacked as they assembled into several dozen oddly shaped Skeletons.
Amberser stood in front of the skeleton army and said to Naomi, "Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Diga Ultraman, the Legendary Lich!"