The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 324: Embrace of Darkness (1)

Chapter 324: Embrace of Darkness (1)

"Please let us go."

Jade shielded Cyantha as much as possible, hoping that her pleas wouldn’t be ignored. Her heart thumped against her chest and her mind conjured images of her best friend being tortured, both of which nearly left her gasping for breath.

The group of women and girls didn’t react, watching her with calm expressions on their faces. Seeing them stand there without doing anything, only increased the unease she felt.

Before she could plead again, she heard the leaves rustle. This time she didn’t have time to worry because the leaves parted almost immediately and another group appeared. Their attire matched the Witchkin perfectly.

But they weren’t alone. Jade first heard the muffled noise before the group parted and a few men, bound and gagged, were shoved to the front.

Jade recognized them. She had faced them not so long ago. All the people of the Colorless Tramps struggled to break from their bindings but they were too weak to do so. Or their bindings were too strong to be broken by sheer force. Jade, inexperienced as she was, suspected the latter. She had grown up hearing stories about the ways Witchkin operated.

Her mind churned trying to come up with a solution to save herself and her friend. She even considered playing the bait to distract the women and give Cyantha a sliver of a chance to escape. She didn’t think that the Witchkin would fall for such a ploy but she didn’t have anything better in mind. Just as she contemplated whether to act or not, two women stumbled from out the back.

Jade didn’t recognize one but the other she did.

"Aunt?"

The woman in question looked at her, her gaze filled with sorrow and pity. Her gaze didn’t linger for too long on Jade though. She looked past her stunned face, toward the girl at the back.

"You did well. I didn’t think you would be able to pull it off."

Cyantha squirmed under her mother’s gaze. She glanced with a reddening neck at her best friend, who still looked dazed.

Jade only looked from one to the other, her mind unable to process the things occurring in front of her eyes. She saw them, but failed to connect the image of these two with the people who sheltered her. She heard them, but their words filled her with cold instead of the warmth they usually did. Her friend, who held her hand when she felt alone, left her hand, making her feel the same loneliness again. And this time, having known their warmth, the cold pierced deeper.

"It’s time," the other woman, who appeared with Cyantha’s mother at her side, announced. She gave Jade a feeling of unease much akin to the darkness at the entrance of the Witch’s lair.

Two women walked up to Jade and grasped her hands, and used a black, leathery rope to bind them behind her back. Jade just stood there. She didn’t struggle. She didn’t ask or say a word. She just looked at everything with a blank look. It took a single second to fill those eyes with life years ago, and it took a single second to remove it.

"Has the leader arrived?" Cyantha’s mother asked, trying her best not to look into the eyes of the girl she considered her daughter.

"She has," replied the other woman. "But we need to enter the lair now. She will join us in a bit. There are some pests that need to be taken care off."

...

Hex coughed blood up.

He barely contended against the leader of the Guardians when it was one against one. But once the three others joined, he became a large punching back for them. Lucky for him, the leader took a breather while his men ganged up against Hex. If he was there too, the fight would have ended.

He had called Elize out, not yet by name or stage, for help. But the woman remained in the spot she had been since the battle started. She didn’t give any indication of being willing to help.

If not for the difference in strength, he would have believed she had conspired against him, luring him here to be captured. But she could have done so ever since they parted with the others. Hex, strong as he was, knew he wouldn’t be able to survive against an Enlightened Knight.

The battle against the three was going well too. Individually, each was weaker than him. But as a team, they played off each other’s weaknesses well enough. His blood-drenched white fur was the best proof of it.

The three were fast, strong, and creative. They relied on their superior grade weapons to dart around Hex and inflict damage, even when they barely scratched him. Even his enhanced regeneration failed to keep up with the injuries suffered.

Hex unleashed great amounts of Ice elements, freezing the pathways around him. The slippery ground helped a little. Unlike the previous time, when even Heartless slipped and lost their footing in battle, the three only slowed a little. Hex discovered the cause quickly. Like their weapon, their gear seemed superior too. They all wore shoes that helped them with applying friction when there wasn’t any.

Even shooting Ice Spikes helped a little. Their robes deflected some of the Ice Spikes while they used their weapons to block the others. All these didn’t mean Hex was at their mercy. No, his Blink Step and superior physical strength enabled him to match the three blow by blow.

A quick glance at their leader revealed that he wasn’t interested in Hex. His gaze didn’t leave Elize for a second. It seemed he was ready to jump into action as soon as Elize moved, alas, she seemed content with standing like a statue in the back.

Just as Hex believed he had no choice but to retreat and escape, he sensed something. He couldn’t help but glance from his shoulder toward the patch of darkness. It seemed like an illusion but Hex’s senses told him that it was real the way the darkness pulsed.

The others were a bit slower but the leader and Elize, both, looked at the same time toward the darkness. The three Guardians ganging up against Hex were the last to notice it. They, like Hex, halted their steps and observed the strange phenomenon.

With each second the darkness pulsed with greater frequency. Gradually, the darkness swirled and opened. But instead of seeing light, the darkness deepened. From that darkness a figure of a woman clad in black from head to toe, stepped out.

Her robes covered everything. Even her eyes weren’t visible. Hex, after observing a little, had a strange feeling. He realized only a little while later what it was. The robes weren’t just black. No, they were made of darkness.

With each step of the woman, light around them receded and darkness covered the leaves and branches. Seeing this, the three Guardians hurried back to stand with their leader. It wasn’t cowardice. Even without senses such as Hex possessed, one could tell she was at a similar stage as their leader.

The woman stopped a couple of tens of meters in front of them, hovering in the air. Or was she standing on something made of dark.

"Welcome to my lair."

She spoke in a melodious tone but her words shocked the guardians. But Hex frowned. She called this place her lair, but it belonged or had belonged to the Witch. Was she related to her? Or was she claiming to be the Witch?

"I see the fear in your eyes those words bring. But I am not the Witch. I am but a humble servant, trying to keep her legacy alive."

"And how exactly are you doing so, Marcia?"

Everyone, including Hex, looked to the back. Elize, who had refrained from acting or even speaking up so far, asked. Her gaze looked straight at the figure in the dark.

"Mar–Who are–...Elize?!"

The woman, Marcia as Elize called her, seemed confused at first before she guessed the identity of the woman in the back. She shouted the name in shock. The leader of the Guardians, who stayed still, looked shocked too. Whoever he had expected to be behind Hex, it clearly wasn’t Elize.

"It’s truly you," the woman in black growled, losing all semblance of being in control. "In that case, I can’t hold back."

At the same time as she shouted, she lifted her hands and pointed at them. The darkness burst out and engulfed the entire area.

Hex saw something green flash, as a dome of greenish light appeared, holding the Guardians inside. Tendrils of dark lapped at it, corroding the layers of the dome.

A glance at Elize, showed tendrils of darkness leap at her and tie around her. She remained calm but stood still, while Marcia cackled.

No one, aside from Hex, noticed that the darkness, instead of binding him, embraced him.

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