Chapter 749 749 Warm Welcome
”Which of the boys would you like to speak to? I will tell you now, this village isn’t open to outsiders, and if it wasn’t for your power, we would have asked you to leave already.” The old woman in front of them declared.
Ella had suspected that this wouldn’t go smoothly once she saw the look on the woman’s face, but this could be harder than she was expecting it to be.
“I don’t know his name, but if you could follow us, I can walk straight to him.” Wolfe suggested.
“That will be sufficient. Have your conversation and then go.”
Wolfe sensed the Seraphim’s amusement at the situation. He alone could kill everyone in this village and take what he wanted, much less Wolfe, who was already a Saint. But he wasn’t too familiar with witches and their abilities, as there were none in the upper planes, which had no natural order for a witch’s power to attune to.
Everything in the upper planes was based on Divine Energy, which was unusable to anyone not from the Upper planes, which made them much less accessible to outsiders than the Demon Realms, or even Faerie.
Wolfe led the way to a boy with short black hair trimmed tight to his head and simple, undyed wool clothing on, far inferior to even the servants that the witches had brought with them.
“You, what is your name?” Wolfe asked as he approached.
“Jason, property of the Domeh Family.” He replied simply.
“Property?” Cassie asked the elderly witch beside her.
“Yes. That is the fate of all who the seers believe have the potential to bring the Magi back. They are made slaves, then made eunuchs.”
Ella sighed. “You do realize that you are in the presence of a Magi Saint right now, don’t you?”
The old woman stiffened her back and her grim look turned even more fierce. “So-called Saint or not, their species should not exist. Magic using men is unnatural, and forbidden by both Coven Law and the World Government.”
Wolfe nodded. “I understand now. As you are loyal to the World Government, who has declared war on the nations and Covens of this continent, you may now consider yourselves prisoners of war, unless you wish to have a fight over the matter.”
“What? No, not those fools from overseas. Our laws have been in place since the great war, and we keep true to the old ways.” The younger woman beside the Elder pleaded, looking very pale.
“That is the same World Government. Also, by their laws, you are all wanted criminals, as your ancestors disobeyed the orders and the laws that demanded they end their bloodline at the end of the war. The witches are the ones who were to be sterilized, not the Magi.” Ella explained.
“Pardon me?” The old woman asked.
“That’s right. The reason they invaded is that our ancestors were supposed to kill all the humans and then end their bloodlines to prevent the Bloodline Curse from spreading. That argument is moot now that we have cured the curse in more populated areas, but to the One World Army, and their Government, the edict remains in force.
Perhaps we should sit down and have a very long talk about what is going on here, and if this is an isolated situation. Most of our people have very intense reactions to the keeping of slaves, and that custom alone will cause a lot of friction if you should happen to interact with others in the future.”
The old woman sighed, and Wolfe collected their target, pulling the short man along with him. It wasn’t a genetic short, he had the sort of emaciated frame that spoke of years of neglect and malnutrition. Wolfe honestly wouldn’t be too upset about eliminating the witches of this village and relocating everyone else, but he would let Ella handle the matter now, to see if they could be brought in line with modern practices.
They walked to the Coven’s meeting hall, the largest building in town, and as soon as the doors closed, Wolfe felt a large group of witches attempting to cast a Curse together as a Coven.
Ella sighed and looked over at him, while the Seraphim placed his hand on the hilt of his blade. But Wolfe stopped the blade of light, and activated [Mana Purification] at the Seventh Rank, pouring power into the spell as fast as he could channel it.
Screams filled the air, and the witches in front of him dropped to their knees in agony.
“Curses are forbidden in my presence.” Wolfe announced, as the screams turned to pained whimpers and the witches of the local Coven frantically drank healing potions and cast spells on themselves in an attempt to survive the forceful rejection of the curse damaged parts of their bodies.
Wolfe spread the spell over the entire village, and the screaming started again, catching the attention of both the witches that had come to greet the visitors.
“Please, stop. You’re killing them.” The old woman begged.
“I am doing you all a [Favour] by eliminating the curse damage from your bodies. The fact that I let you live after such a foolish act is a Favour in itself, and a life debt. Plus, wasn’t that the Demonic Curse? Did you really think that a Rank Seven Magi would not be able to overcome the combined curse of such a weak Coven?” Wolfe raged.
He waited for their response, but none was coming. The Servant Bond was spreading through the village, marking every single witch who had donated her power to the curse, which included nearly every witch in town, as the power was drawn through the Coven Link.
Most of them didn’t even know what they had been marked for, only that they would now supposedly owe some debt, and the power came from the centre of town, the same as the wave of energy that had torn the curse damage from their bodies.
What they did know was that they needed answers. What had happened between the Elders and the strange visitors?