A tragedy was coming to a close in the quiet of the forest; or perhaps, the ending itself was the greatest tragedy of all.
A young man was sobbing as he held the body of a young girl to his chest. She was dying and all he could do was embrace her as she slowly turned cold.
"Ver... I... Having you by my side truly was...a blessing..."
"No! Don't die! You can't! Don't leave me!"
When did our fates diverge? Why did it have to end this way?
It was already too late to find the answer to those questions. Things could no longer change...
The only thing the young man could do now was to lose himself in regrets.
"Ver... I love...you..."
The young woman—Eterna—mustered her courage to show Verner one last smile amidst her tears.
The truth was, she didn't want to die. She too wanted to stay with him—not as the saint and her knight, but as a man and a woman free to walk down their own path until the end.
However, as the saint, she had a duty bigger than her own desires—a mission no one else but she could accomplish. And so, Eterna fought. She fought with all she had, defeated Alexia, and ended up suffering a fatal wound. Saying that she "suffered" that wound wasn't quite accurate—she'd inflicted it on herself.
Once she killed Alexia, she'd become the next witch and turn against humanity. Ever since she'd learned that terrible truth, Eterna had made up her mind. She'd break that cycle and secure a happy future for the people she loved. She'd chosen death to finally, finally bring this tragedy to an end.
And so, convinced that it was the only way to free the rest of the world, Eterna committed suicide.
When had she messed up? What had she gotten wrong?
Eterna closed her eyes. She could feel Verner holding her tight even as her body grew colder. She wanted to wipe away his tears for him, but she couldn't lift her arms anymore. She tried to move her hand, but it fell limply on the ground.
"Eterna..." Verner lamented in between sobs. He wept as he embraced the lifeless body of the girl he loved. Don't go! Please, don't go! he begged inside of his heart. Don't leave me all alone in this world!
He squeezed her in his arms, trying to keep her here with him. It was a pointless act of resistance, and when Verner realized it, he cursed his powerlessness.
Little did he know that it wasn't the end. As one tragedy came to a close, another took its place.
Verner was still holding Eterna's corpse when a shadow started to seep out of her cold body. At first, he didn't notice—he was too preoccupied by his grief. After a while, though, he sensed an ominous presence above him. He lifted his face and saw it...
"HA HA HA HA HA!!! HEE HEE HEE!!!"
...the dark cloud that loomed over him and the countless feminine faces sprouting out of it, mocking him.
Amid this disturbing cloud, Verner recognized Alexia's face—the woman Eterna had given her life to kill. Suddenly, it dawned upon him. That thing was the root of it all! The culprit behind all of their suffering, the horrible curse that had turned generations of saints into heinous witches!
That thing was the "witch."
Lost between anger and pain, Verner reached for his sword. At the same time, one of the gruesome faces opened its mouth and fired a beam of black light. Verner was blown away before he could react.
That attack was so powerful, so destructive, that Alexia's blows felt like child's play in comparison. Verner felt himself slam into a tree. He had yet to recover from the fatigue of fighting Alexia. He collapsed, unable to stand back up. He was about to lose consciousness when something even crueler happened. It was as if the world wanted to let him know that it wasn't done with him, that many more tragedies were still awaiting him.
A tentacle extended from the "witch" and coiled around Eterna's body, lifting it up.
"Don't you...dare! Give Eterna...back to me!" he screamed, forcing himself up even as he coughed up blood. He had no strength left. His outstretched arms trembled, and half of his field of vision had turned dark already. "Eterna... Eter...na!"
Wasn't it enough? Hadn't she been through enough?
Eterna had already suffered plenty. She'd persevered even through the tears. Why couldn't destiny let go of her? Why couldn't she be allowed to rest in peace even in death?!
"Don't...fuck...with me!" Verner groaned, clenching his teeth so hard that the taste of blood filled his mouth.
Red tears flowed from his only remaining eye, and his face twisted in rage. The "witch" kept cackling, as if to let him know it didn't care. It flew away, the sound of its shrill laughter gradually fading.
The source of all evil had taken away the corpse of the girl he loved while mocking him—them.
Verner, his arms still stretched toward the sky, could only grasp at air.
"ETERNA! ETERNAAAAAA!!!"
◇
All right, I'm done. I'm not playing this crappy game any longer!
Or so I'd say while slamming my controller into the wall if this was an actual video game.
To defeat the "witch," I needed to harness the light inside of people's hearts. However, this world was in such a state of despair that there simply wasn't enough hope to do that...which meant I couldn't kill the "witch." Checkmate.
No, but for real—what am I supposed to do?
Even as overpowered as I was, I just couldn't kill a boss like that. If we hadn't found a way to damage it yet, I would've kept looking, but I knew we had to wait for it to attack to strike back! The thing was, even though I could deal as much damage to it as I wanted, it could regenerate itself. There was no point.
At this point, it seriously looked like some kind of bug. You know, something like—even if you got the boss's HP to reach zero—it'd keep attacking you forever instead of disappearing like it should. Anyone would either resell such a crappy game or dump it in the trash. Hurry up and update the damn thing, dev team!Anyway, the small sun in my hands wouldn't do anyone any good as long as I just held on to it, so I hurled it at the "witch." It exploded, and a blinding light shone as the laughter stopped.
"Did ya get it?!"
Verner! The second you ask that question, it's over already!
Although I supposed there was no need to chide Verner for raising a losing flag—my attack was doomed to fail either way.
The "witch" had vanished, and the villagers started cheering.
Oh! Hang on, there's more hope around! Yeah, no—still far from enough.
As I looked in the general direction that the "witch" once stood and pondered my next move, I noticed something amid the floating black mist. It looked like...a person—a woman, I think? She had long, silver hair and beautiful features—definitely cute enough to be a love interest. Actually, she was as pretty as... ETERNA?!
"Eterna!!!" Verner, who noticed at the same time I did.
Despite his cry, Eterna didn't budge. Her eyes remained closed.
But more importantly...she was naked! In the nude! Nakey!
YEEEEEESSS!!! THANK YOU, WORLD!!!
Aaaaah, my eyes are blessed! Hang on—now's not the time to rejoice! Why's Eterna inside the "witch"?! What's up with this new development?!
As I ogled at Eterna like an idiot, the "witch" gradually restored itself. She was on the verge of disappearing into the black mist once more.
Not happening!
I didn't really care about the "witch" regenerating itself since I'd already expected it to, but I wasn't about to leave the corpse of our poor main girl in there. I was an Eterna stan through and through—saying that I was unhappy with the way she was being treated—especially in death—would be an understatement!
What do you mean, I was literally cheering five seconds ago? Shut up! Those are two completely different things! Actually, you know what? Forget about it altogether!
Sometimes I kinda wished I had the ability to mess with people's memories.
Leaving my internal turmoil aside, I flew forward, grabbed Eterna's arm, and pulled.
"Huh?!"
I froze. Eterna's didn't feel at all like I'd expected, and—while it was incredibly faint—I felt... No... There's no way...
The witches cackled, and I realized my mistake. I shouldn't have allowed myself to be distracted, no matter what.
The "witch" pulled Eterna inside of itself with such intensity that I was forced to let go of her arm. Before I could react, the "witch" had finished regenerating itself and moved away. I had a feeling there were one or two fewer faces than before, but it still looked pretty damn lively.
Still, it showed that my attack had been at least somewhat useful. While the "witch" couldn't be stopped for more than a few seconds with such a blow, the positivity I'd hurled at it had indeed destroyed a couple of them for good. Getting the "witch" to zero HP wasn't enough to defeat it, but it was still possible to decrease its overall HP count permanently.
I should probably try it one more time to make sure.
Besides, there was something else I wanted to check. To do so, I needed to get to Eterna once more.
I thought I was stuck, but I might've found a way out. If I could gradually weaken the "witch," I had a shot at making it harmless, even if it didn't disappear entirely.
Just as I'd finished hyping myself up, the "witch" decided to change direction. It was currently flying away.
Is it...fleeing? Seriously?
When had that thing become smart enough to retreat? My best guess was that it had instinctively fled from me because I'd used an attack it had never seen before.
In a way, it takes after Alexia.
I considered chasing after it but immediately gave up. To blast people's noble emotions at that thing, I needed...well, people.
In my previous world, there were people pretty much everywhere I went, and there was so much hope floating around that I could've fought the "witch" virtually anywhere...even if I couldn't kill it in just one blow. Things were different here—leaving this village meant I'd have no way to attack anymore.
All in all, there was nothing I could do about the "witch" running away. As I watched it disappear, the noisy cheers of the villagers echoed once more.
Dang, y'all scared me!
"WHOOOOOOA!!! She drove the 'witch' away!"
"I can't believe it! It's a miracle!"
"You're amazing!"
"You saved us..."
"Thank you! You have my eternal gratitude!"
I turned and flashed my usual business smile. When in doubt, always smile.
That somehow got them even more excited, and they started freaking out over me even more. I still loved being in the center of it all, so it was doing wonders for my attention-whore tendencies. Showing off how cool I was and being showered with praise as a result always made my day, no matter how many times it happened.
Sorry but, once an attention whore, always an attention whore.
I was having an absolute blast, but...why was Four-Eyed Pervert kneeling on the floor? What's wrong with you?
"O glorious saint! It's such an honor to make your acquaintance!" he exclaimed.
"Hmm... I'm not the saint," I retorted.
What in the world was this weirdo on about? I'd never even pretended to be the saint in this world, so why were things developing in that direction again?!
I shot a glance at Verner to gauge his reaction. He was looking down at Four-Eyed Pervert.
"Moving on to a new target already, shitty four-eyes?" he taunted, his voice thick with disdain.
"How preposterous! I'm simply showing my devotion to our glorious saint."
"Yeah, sure. I'm warning ya just in case—ya pull the same shit as last time, your head's gonna roll."
EEK! This Verner is terrifying.
I knew he was looking out for me, but still!
"O glorious saint, would you be so kind as to bless this poor soul with your sublime name?"
"I'm not the saint," I repeated. "And my name is Ellize."
"A beautiful name worthy of our saint! How fitting, how noble, how— Huh? E-Ellize?" Four-Eyed Pervert stopped in the middle of his ridiculous monologue to stare at me. My name had given him pause, but after taking a good look at my face, he smiled. "I finally understand now. That piece of filth had even stolen the real deal's name... Pretending to be her wasn't enough—she even had to defile the true saint's name."
Hearing him call Ellize a piece of filth cracked me up. Witnessing how badly everyone hated her here felt great.
"The real saint is Miss Eterna. I'm just a regular person who happens to be decently good at magic," I replied.
I honestly didn't get why I had to go through this whole saint thing again when I hadn't said a word about being one this time.
"Way to downplay your abilities, El," Verner said, walking up to me. "That aside, I've got some questions for ya."
I didn't think he was trying to intimidate me, but the way he towered over me—coupled with his creepy face—scared me shitless.
"What was that last attack? Something different happened. It worked!"
"I harnessed the noble emotions present in the air and threw them along with my mana," I explained.
"The...'noble emotions'?"
"The 'witch' is an aggregate of the successive witches' grudges. You could say that it's a lump of mana stirred into action by negative emotions. Since it's made of pure mana, neither physical nor magical attacks can hurt it—or, rather, they can deal damage to that abomination, but they cannot harm the grudges that make up its core. That's why it always regenerates itself. The only way to truly offset it is to drown it in positive emotions."
Explaining the way it all worked to Verner made me realize all over again how ridiculously unbalanced this fight was. The devs had messed up so badly that the command to end the boss and restart the fight was the same, creating an endless loop.
Still no patch in sight, huh?
"Why would that be the only exception?"
"Opposite emotions cancel each other out. Wouldn't you be less sad if something joyous happened to you? It's the same logic. At its core, this monster is made up of the witches' despair over the state of the world...or perhaps over their own fate..."
"And the opposite of despair is hope, huh? Something no one's feeling anymore."
Yep, exactly. That's why this game's ridiculous.
The longer the "witch" was kept unchecked, the more people fell into despair and forsook all hope—making it impossible to turn the tables on it. With time, its victory would become inevitable.
I was belatedly realizing how easy I'd had it in my previous world. Circulating my mana for a few moments had been enough to fill me with so much hope that it had even messed with my personality. I'd dumped these awful feelings at the "witch," and poof—it'd disappeared! This time, I'd consciously handpicked the noble emotions around me, but it'd been far from enough. Making up for that would prove difficult.
"If hope is the biggest threat to that monster— Wait, did it come to this village on purpose?"
"I think so. It must have felt that the people of this village had more positive feelings than others."
"That bastard... It'll trample on the last bit of happiness it can find, that it?!"
I could hear the rage in Verner's voice. I completely understood. Whoever was the happiest would be killed first—I couldn't think of anything more cruel.
Verner turned to look at me. I'd never seen such furrowed brows in my life. He's so scary... Or so I thought, before I noticed the vulnerability underneath.
"Do you think there's a way to...get Eterna back?"
A realization dawned upon me. "Mr. Verner...was that your goal all along?"
Verner paused, his head drooping, before revealing his true feelings. "Yeah... I don't care about the world or the 'witch'—I just want her back. I know that she's...she's already gone. I know that I sound like a dumbass who doesn't know when to quit, but I can't leave her like that! I just want her to rest in peace... She deserves that..."
"Verner..." Marie whispered.
That was why he'd kept challenging the "witch" even though he knew he'd never win. He despised that monster, obviously, but—more than that—he wanted to get Eterna's body back.
It was a bit too early for the dramatics, though. I'd made an incredible discovery earlier.
"Miss Eterna is still alive," I said.
Verner and Marie both froze. Verner blinked repeatedly, staring at me with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
"I noticed when I touched her earlier," I explained. "She's in a state of suspended animation, but she's not dead yet. She's not gone, Mr. Verner—she's still in there."
"No way... That's... Are... Are ya sure?"
"It seemed to me like she's been sealed. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but darkness magic isn't about wielding darkness itself—it's the power to manipulate spaces, and by doing so, to create an area in which not even light can travel. Eterna's been trapped in such a space, so her body's remained perfectly preserved."
I'd seen this happen twice and lived—or rather, died—through it once. I knew what I was talking about.
Besides, it all made sense—Eve's grudge had started this curse, so it made sense for the "witch" to be able to use Eve's skills. Although I had to wonder why it didn't use such barriers for self-defense. I had a feeling it drew whatever dark powers were left inside of Eterna and used it to keep her sealed. As a result, it'd left itself defenseless. At the end of the day, the "witch" was just a bunch of grudges jumbled together. Even if it had inherited the know-how from Eve, it didn't have the power to manipulate space.
"This is nothing but conjecture, but I think Miss Eterna became a witch, albeit partially. I heard that she'd died from the wounds she'd sustained while fighting Alexia, but I'm fairly certain that Alexia breathed her last before Eterna succumbed to her injuries. The witch's powers transfer immediately after the witch dies. At that point, Miss Eterna was still alive."
I should've figured that out sooner.
In the version of this route I knew of, Eterna and Alexia dealt fatal blows to one another. However, they didn't die simultaneously. Alexia died first, then Eterna. While the gap had been small—a few dozen seconds—it had still been enough time for part of the witch's powers to enter Eterna's body. She'd even had the time to say her last words in Verner's arms.
"Mr. Verner, I'm sure you're aware that the witch's powers will do anything to keep their host alive. It kept Miss Eterna on the brink of death, but she'd already sustained a fatal injury; because of that, it was unable to heal her and use her as its next host. However, that aggregate of negative emotions has no intellect and cannot comprehend this. Therefore, it remained glued to Miss Eterna and ended up sealing her."
As for why she was naked... Well, I wasn't sure either. The space the "witch" had created probably isolated her from everything else—including whatever clothes she'd been wearing at the time. For all I knew, foreign bodies could make seals weaker. It was kind of like...when you applied shatter-proof film on a windowpane. If you left a hair or some dust in while you applied it, air would eventually enter, and it would fall off...right?
Now that I thought of it, Alfrea had also been sealed naked. I hadn't, but my seal hadn't exactly been the sturdiest—I'd broken out of it pretty damn easily.
"Are you sure? Are you sure that she's...still alive?"
"Yes. She's on the brink of death, but she's alive. If I can get to her, I should be able to heal her."
I could fix rotting flesh, damaged organs, and restart people's hearts. The only thing I couldn't do was bring back someone's soul. However, Eterna was still in there, so there was room for me to intervene. Ironically enough, the "witch" had stopped her from dying.
While I was thinking about it all, Verner grabbed my hand and surprised me.
"Please, I'm beggin' ya... Please save her! I'll do anything ya want... I'll even give ya my life, so please!"
Oho? Anything, you say?
Leaving the bad jokes aside, I would've saved Eterna even without him asking. In fact, I would've done it even if Verner had begged me not to. As a fan, I craved a happy ending! What better feeling than to see your favorite characters come back from a desperate situation?
"I'll take you up on your promise," I said. "Stop treating your life like it's disposable and live a long life. You're the one Miss Eterna will want to come back to."
I took the chance to give him a stern warning. Verner nodded, his hand still clasping mine.
I feel a lot more motivated now!
I'd messed up Eterna's route in my previous world because I was a dumbass, but I'd gotten an unexpected opportunity to see my OTP together!
Okay! It's time for some serious business.
Defeating the invincible final boss was going to be a pain in the butt, but I'd figure it out as I went.
For the time being, I had to prepare for the next battle as well as I could. I touched Verner's shoulder and cast healing magic. I'd avoided doing it before because I hadn't wanted him to turn on me, but it was finally time.
Light emerged and took the shape of an arm. To be honest, the light served no purpose as far as healing went, so I could technically do without it. I just added it to avoid looking at the gory spectacle of the blood vessels, nerves, muscles, and skin reforming in front of my eyes. The light eventually disappeared, revealing his brand-new arm.
A look of astonishment replaced Verner's usual frown. I also fixed his right eye while I was at it, and he removed his eye patch, utterly shocked.
I left the scars where they were, though. Scars were a man's badge of honor. I didn't want to mess with his and have him yell at me.
"How's that even possible...? My arm, and even my eye..."
"You wouldn't be able to hug Miss Eterna properly with only one arm or see her face properly with only one eye. I know you didn't ask for my help, but I took the liberty of healing them."
"Thanks, El. I'll never be able to repay ya for everything you've done," Verner said, opening and closing his left fist over and over again.
He dug into his pocket until he found a gleaming blue stone. It didn't quite look like a jewel. It was more like a...healing crystal or something. He pushed it into my hands.
"Hmm... What is this?" I asked.
"Found it on my travels. It's an augurare crystal. It's supposed to have the power to grant wishes. I kept it with me hoping it'd work, but I'll give it to ya instead. I know it's not enough to repay ya—nowhere close—but that's the only thing I've got that's remotely valuable. Take it, please."
"I don't want you to compensate—"
"I'd feel bad if I didn't give ya anything in return. You've healed my arm and eye, El. Take it, if only to make me feel better."
I couldn't exactly say no, so I accepted Verner's gift. I kinda got where he was coming from—always being on the receiving end would leave a bad taste in my mouth too. I didn't really have any use for a wish-granting crystal, though...
Guess I'll sell it when I go back to my world.
◇
Three days after our first fight with the "witch," it came back to the village.
The "witch" despised hope more than anything, so it was only a matter of time until it returned to destroy this place.
The villagers had seen me chase away the supposedly unbeatable monster with their own eyes. They were even more optimistic than before, so they must've stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of all the despair.
I'd called it, but I still thought it was kind of funny for the "witch" to come crawling back after running away like that last time. It went to show that this idiotic beast moved on instinct—which, to be fair, was quite convenient.
"MWA HA HA HA! HEE HEE HEE HEE!"
The dark clouds gathered and materialized into the terrible "witch." Its shrill laugh echoed, as though it had entirely forgotten about its recent defeat.
It always materialized to attack, but I was now noticing that it didn't keep its form at all times. Did it drain too much energy? I supposed it made sense. Why bother looking for a host if it didn't need one in the first place?
Anyway, all speculations aside, it was time to fight!
I'd learned from my previous mistakes. My first move was to create a barrier with a five-hundred-meter radius to close off the area. Just like when I'd fought Alexia, I'd made a barrier that didn't let mana through. This time, I wouldn't let it get away.
If I'd been a little quicker on my feet, I could've done that last time too and prevented it from fleeing, but I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed...
There was one little issue with that method, though—since noble emotions were the only thing that worked on the "witch," I had no choice but to trap the villagers inside the barrier alongside us. Obviously, I'd asked for permission beforehand, but that didn't change the fact that I was treading a tightrope.
To ensure the villagers' safety, I'd asked Verner, Marie, Four-Eyed Pervert, and Farah—every decent fighter, excluding me—to protect them.
In other words, the "witch" and I would face off one-on-one. To be fair, I was the only one who could put up a fight against it, so it wasn't like there were other solutions in the first place.
"The sun shines upon all alike," I said in English as I raised my hands, gathering all of the noble feelings and shaping them into a sphere of light.
Ladies and gentlemen, the pitcher is about to throw the first pitch!
I smashed the ball of light into the witch as a greeting, and it dispersed into a thin black mist once more. I knew it'd quickly reform itself, so I used that time to get my next spell ready.
"Fortune favors the bold," I chanted.
Eight swords of light fell from the sky, forming a perfect circle around me. I made them float, pointing the blades away from me, then moved the ring of light behind my back and let it spin.
What's the point of this? Nothing, why? But come on, it looks cool, right? Isn't that reason enough?
I floated as I countered attacks so they wouldn't hit the village.
"MWA HA HA HA HA!" Shrill laughter echoed once more as the witch finished regenerating itself.
The number of faces had dropped again. For instance, I could tell that Griselda, the witch that had come two generations before Eterna, had disappeared. YES!
Countless tentacles erupted and flew at me, but I used some of the swords floating behind me to cut them down. Whenever they were done slashing at the tentacles, they returned to their original position on my back.
I felt just like the Provid*nce Gundam!
Using funn*ls had always been my dream! Wait, the Provid*nce Gundam used the DRAG*ON system, didn't it?
Anyway, I was all done charging it up, so I fired a second little sun at the "witch."
The villagers cheered as the abomination vanished once more.
Perfect, perfect! Keep up the hype, guys! The outcome of this fight literally depends on it, so don't fail me now!
Half of the reason I was doing useless—but very cool-looking—stuff, such as making blades of light rotate behind my back, was to look stronger. Visual effects had a lot of impact on the way an audience reacted. The other half was just because I was having a blast doing it.
The most crucial part of this battle would be to keep the villagers hyped up so that they'd keep pumping out hope for me to use. If I failed, I wouldn't have any more ammunition.
To achieve that, I had to be careful not to repeat the same exact attack patterns over and over again. The villagers might end up thinking that I'd never win and lose faith. Instead, I had to keep emphasizing my strength, and I figured visual effects were the way to go.
"Now!" I exclaimed, getting my blades of light to surround the "witch."
Light beams came flying out of the tip of the blades, destroying the witches' faces. Some tried to retaliate by firing dark beams, but our attacks canceled each other out. Eventually, my swords flew back to me.
All the while, I was charging up for the next real blow.
You may be wondering why I hadn't been rapid-firing successive suns, but with so few people around, I needed a pretty long time to charge back up. In fact, I felt like it was taking longer this time...or was that just my imagination?
Whatever! I blasted the third sun at the witch. The same thing happened—it was gradually starting to feel weaker.
Unlike that time when I'd fought the "witch" in my previous world, I was neither tired nor on the verge of death. I was doing fine physically speaking, but this fight was starting to get annoying for a whole other reason.
"She's fighting it! She's fighting that abomination!"
"You can do it! Keep at it!"
"But...isn't it regenerating itself after each attack?"
That wasn't good. They'd finally calmed down enough to analyze the situation.
I knew it... From their point of view, what I'm doing looks useless.
I'd told Verner and the others my plan, and I'd asked them to help cheer up the villagers if they started having doubts. I could only hope that they'd do a good job of it.
I heard Verner explain to them that—while it didn't look like it—my attacks were, in fact, effective. Unfortunately, the villagers knew very little about the "witch," or even about magic in general, so I wasn't sure they'd believe him.
I tried a few other tricks I had up my sleeve to get the crowd riled up again—I could take out my Tough Guy, make light beams rain from the sky, and sprout flowers around us. No matter what I tried, though, the time it took for me to charge each new sun grew longer and longer.
The amount of faces on the "witch" had dwindled significantly, and I could tell I wasn't far from winning. It was just that the final push was hard.
At that moment, the "witch" started wriggling and changing its shape. My barrier was still active, so I doubted it'd take up half of the sky like last time, but I was still anxious to see what form it would take.
Uh-oh. I gasped before whispering, "So this is how you want to play it..."
The "witch" hadn't exactly changed shape—it had crammed itself into Eterna's body, and now it was forcibly moving her around.
The black mist covered her body, quickly turning into a black dress.
I couldn't help but think that something was strange. If the "witch" could do that, why hadn't it done so from the start? Hadn't the "witch" appeared because Eterna's body couldn't become a host for the witches' grudges and powers? The grim spectacle that was unfolding in front of me had overturned all of my theories.
Eterna wasn't dead, that much was certain. However, I didn't get how or why the "witch" had turned her into its host now. She was in a state of suspended animation, so she shouldn't have been able to withstand the bulk of the witch's pow— Oh, crap.
It was all my fault. I'd attacked the "witch" so much that its powers had finally become weak enough to fit inside Eterna's diminished body.
Damn! I made everything worse! How stupid can I be?! Oh no... What do I do now?
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