The Reborn Witch had a nice 'Tea Time' with the Dragon Queen today
Chapter 99: The Temple That Hunts Hunters (And the Couple Who Walked In Anyway)

Chapter 99: The Temple That Hunts Hunters (And the Couple Who Walked In Anyway)

"Structure of your mana...is it?"

Adrei propped her chin as she gazed at the fog. Aside from possible gadgets from Coriel the scientist, she couldn’t recall her being adept enough to warp Demond’s magic.

That is especially true considering no one was able to crack through Demond’s weaved <Ice Birds> in the Dragonsong War for decades as well.

"Then perhaps it is not the scientist’s work, but that resurrected vampire? With a newly found spell or trick she learned from La Llorona?"

"I refuse to think my magic would be so easily warped by a vampire who found a new trick so easily," Demond sighed as her hand drifted along the fog as she walked.

"More importantly, the nature of the warping feels...off. My <Ice Birds> do not particularly resist it, like they do not sense any intent of malice either."

"Then there remains only one possibility." The Dragon’s scales flared up, her draconic lens scanning through the fog for danger. "Like my concept-defying flames, there were very few entities strong enough to manipulate your magic."

"...the Divines, is it?" Demond groaned, her palm glittering frost as she summoned her staff. "And based on how my birds didn’t resist, a Divine related to Ice or Water."

"Most likely, it is [Undine]." The Dragon’s fingertip coursed ashes as it hovered in the fogged clearing. "Specifically, we have arrived in one of her temples."

Then Adrei swiped her finger through the fog, a trace of flames scratching through the gusts, as she muttered.

<Wail, Coil, Cease>

Traced flames howled, the gusts coiled and huddled, as the fog that once enshrouded them was seething into cinders. The Witch raised her brows as the swirling fog was burnt away like weeds in the field, before a clearing of barnyards once again enveloped their frames.

"Do give me time to investigate more, would you?" The Witch grumbled, if not for the smirk that betrayed her tone.

"I believe you already have figured out its tricks, my wife." The Dragon Queen merely chuckled as the Witch rolled her eyes.

"Well, my magic is warped, but it doesn’t mean I can’t control them." The Witch shrugged as she turned right in the barnyard. "Specifically, a Divine’s abandoned temples, which my allies and I used to visit many times, had barriers shrouded with an extreme amount of <Divine Magic>."

The Dragon Queen nodded as she brushed away a hay stuck in the Witch’s hair. "Magic that ’reinforced’ concepts instead of ’defying’ it like mine, right?"

"Exactly." The Witch nodded as she stretched her limbs, the hairs a slight tickle to her exposed arms. "Now, because the temple directly sourced the magic from the Divines, even if it is abandoned, the residues of the <Divine Magic> are so strong it can directly intervene in my icy bird’s bodies, manipulating it into something else."

"And in the case of Undine," the Dragon Queen wrapped her arm around the Witch’s waist. "The temple turns your ice into water, correct?"

"Specifically, picture the waters contained within the ice birds bloated so much that their bodies start to leak it and slow down." The Witch leaned into the touch with a relieved hush. "That’s how it reinforced the concept of <Water> within my birds, but..."

The Witch’s smirk grew wider as she raised her staff. "That also, in turn, exposed the temple’s location to us. The manas from a Divine are extremely recognisable after all my travels with my companions, and I can reverse-track it, centering around where most of my birds were affected."

"And now..." The Dragon smiled as she glanced back again, a desperate fog once again coiled from cracks in the air before enshrouding them in protection against something. "You seem to have guessed correctly the direction, my Wife."

"Mhm. Stay close to me. And uh..." The Witch’s back squirmed within the Dragon’s grasp. "Don’t let go, alright?"

"Of course, my wife." Adrei leaned in as she pecked the Witch’s ear before huffing hot breaths into the earlobe. "I won’t, not ever."

"Alright, alright, I get it..." The Witch grunted away her embarrassment as she turned another left in the fog.

Unlike the Divine Magic that heavied the bird’s movements, the fog wasn’t particularly special. The Witch’s eyes narrowed at the peculiar mechanism behind this fog. No mana, no residues, just pure fog that was engineered and machined into existence.

Is it perhaps the temple’s inner workings? The Witch’s eyes squinted further. The Abandoned Temples of Undine... She and her allies used to visit one or two back-to-back at the request of Zero, the Axe-wielding Android, but never have they encountered a fog such as this.

"Adrei, about this fog, do you think Coriel conjured something like this?"

The Dragon’s finger faltered as she played with the Witch’s hairlock before frowning. "If it is her, the fog would attempt to at least thwart our very perception of either time or space. I do not think this mere fog was hers."

"Then this can only be from the temple..." The Witch’s furrowed, partly from her hairlock brushing against the tickly finger, partly from a little confusion, they encountered something troublesome.

"Hey, Adrei. I change my mind." The Witch raised her head to meet the blinking amber eyes. "Originally, I planned to take a peek at the temple for my old Friend and move on once I confirm Coriel isn’t there. But now that this fog is here, I am a little curious."

"Curious about who is intentionally spreading fogs around the temple?"

"Yep, this fog wasn’t particularly dangerous either, and it didn’t hide any monster or attacks, which could only mean..." The Witch’s eyes narrowed. "It is meant to lure those who can figure out the mechanism of the temple, who can find their way in despite this intentionally flawed conjuration of a fog."

"Hmm?" The Dragon Queen tapped the Witch’s cheek. "Explain further."

"Basically like this: Undine’s temple in particular was constructed by Automatons, and the creations could mimic <Divine Magic>." The Witch swirled her cheek, before pouting away the tippy finger.

"So, for a normal fog that would only halt no one but those who could neither sense nor control mana, that only means this seemingly useless fog was trying to arouse curiosity for those who could instead."

"And that means...this thing is a lure, a bait to announce the temple’s location, is it?" The Dragon pinched the Witch’s whining cheek as she glanced at the unsuspecting fog.

"Exactly." The Witch shook off the fingers before her palm looped around the reddened cheek. "In other words, they want to make those who caught onto the temple’s location feel they’re hunters, when instead it is the temple, or whatever is inside the temple is hunting them instead."

"Then, we shall have our answers when we catch onto whatever is inside, which is why you suggest investigating to prevent more harm being done, isn’t it?"

"Of course." The Witch’s hat nuzzled into the Dragon’s front before the fog finally dissipated to reveal stone pavements and pillars. "And look at that, we have arrived quite smoothly."

The statue of a Divine stood tall against the side of a long staircase, to a stone-made temple that seemed worn down over the ages.

And amid that Divine’s stare, the Dragon’s embrace of her wife is unyielding, nonchalant even against the best or worst of the Divines.