Er Mu - Release that Witch

By now the Devils had come so close to the hot air balloon that even without the help of the mirror, Roland was already able to see these winged mixed species and the big and sturdy enemy it was carrying on its back.

“Be careful,” Sylvie shrieked again. “They are getting ready to throw their spears!”

When he heard the warning, his mind was suddenly flooded with the scenes of the previous battles which had been described by Leaves — last time the enemy had acted in this way; they had taken Scarlet’s life in a flash.

He did not see the Devil extend its arm; he didn’t even see the incoming spear. However, the moment Sylvie had issued her warning, Anna had stretched out her hands, and controlled her fire to form an extremely thin shield to block the front of the basket.

A loud “bang”, “bang” sound rang out a moment later.

Anna released a suppressed groan, took two steps back, while her black fire shattered like glass into numerous pieces. The spears turned into half burned irons, and dropped into the rolling sea.

She’d used a dense black fire curtain to block the attack.

The other witches sighed out in relief; only Roland still kept worrying — after all, he knew that when she used her ability like this, it would greatly consume her magic power. This was something, Roland had already noticed when he saw her smelting steel. If she used it only for heating or cutting, her vast amount of magic power would almost never dry up. However, once she expanded her influence to the macro level and tried to form a dense body to influence the whole object all at once, the amount of magic power she needed multiplied exponentially. For example, when she used her black flame as a furnace, by keeping the molten steel from flowing over to the outside wall, it would increase her magic consumption. And if she wanted to lift up the entire black fire furnace, even Anna could hold on for only a few minutes.

So, it was obviously, that the barrier just now had consumed quite a lot of her power. If they were to throw their spears twice, Roland was afraid that even heating the air for the balloon would became impossible for her.

It seemed as if the Devils had been shocked by the scene they’d witnessed. Because rather than following-up with another attack, they instead chose to sweep past on both sides of the hot air balloon as if they were waiting for the right moment. By now they were so close, it was the first time that Roland could see the enemy’s ferocious appearance — it was exactly the same as in the picture. They wore demonic beast’s skulls as their helmets, and their eyes were covered with scarlet red crystal pieces, they also had a leather pipe running from their chin, which went past their neck and to the carapace on their back.

In the meantime, the other witches had already pulled out their revolvers, but since the basket was constantly swaying it was almost impossible for them to hit an enemy that was moving at such high speed. Even after depleting two rounds of bullets, they still hadn’t hit the target.

At this moment, the Devil’s arms extended once again, only this time, they had instead chosen to attack from the front and the back.

There wasn’t even enough time for Anna to see the enemy at her back, so when she summoned her black flame, all she could do was cover the one side. Roland however, even though he was unable to follow the path of the spear, instinctively knew that the spear had been targeted at her. He almost subconsciously threw himself at Anna’s back to push her out of the way, before he felt an impact on his shoulder, as if someone had ferociously smashed it with a hammer. His whole body lifted into the air, and crashed into the basket’s wall.

The burst of unbearable pain almost ripped him apart, followed by a strong sense of dizziness, as if his consciousness was leaving him.

Roland tightly clenched his teeth and turned his head to the side, merely to see that at the place his shoulder should have been, only a huge gap now remained — the hole in the basket at his back was sufficient to show the power of this blow.

This last round of attacks had completely ripped off the corner of the basket. While the blood which endlessly came pouring out, dyed his clothes red.

“No!” Nightingale’s heart-wrenching cry was the last thing he could hear before he lost consciousness.

The moment that Nightingale saw Roland get hit, she could suddenly feel her stomach tightening.

The surrounding noises all became incomparable distant. When she tried to lift his body, she discovered that it had become stiff and cold, only his hands were still slightly trembling. Apart from her subconscious frightened shout at the beginning, she realized that even taking a step forward felt like an incomparable challenge.

She was afraid that Roland, lying in her bosom was steadily losing his warmth.

She was also afraid that he would never wake up again.

Just thinking of these things made it hard for her to breath.

Never in her life had she ever felt so helpless.

It was Anna who responded first — she crouched down and covered the wound with her black flame. White smoke immediately began to rise from the lightless flame while emitting a “zizi” sounds. When the black flame dissipated, the place where Roland’s arm had been torn off had already become scorched black.

However, the unceasingly flowing blood had stopped at least.

That’s right, this was the emergency measure he had taught us during the first aid class, but what was the rest? ‘Wrap the wound and quickly go to the hospital to find Nana’… Nightingale swallowed a mouthful of saliva, sweeping her gaze over the basket, no, no, Nana isn’t with us, she’s in Border Town.

We have to go back.

We must go back as soon as possible!

She slowly turned her head to the Southeast, looking in the direction of Border Town –

At this moment, the Devils’ fierce appearance, with them baring their fangs, and brandishing their claws came into Nightingale’s view once again, pulling her thoughts back to the current situation inside the basket.

The panicked shouts of the witches, the cracking sound of the revolvers, and the low growls of the enemy all came back into her perception. After the coldness subsided, all the various and disorderly thoughts in her mind finally came together to become one.

“Don’t try to beat the Devils, if they catch up; we are unable to return to Border Town.”

“Lightning!” Anna exclaimed anxiously, “Protect the hot air balloon!”

Although the little girl’s complexion was pale, after looking towards the still unconscious Roland, she gritted her teeth and nodded before she flew out of the basket.

No, Nightingale thought, just by looking at her appearance it is clear that she cannot handle the Devils. Like most witches, Lightning has no experience with fighting a real enemy.

I am the only one here who can defeat the Devils.

Nightingale took a deep breath, she forced all of her thoughts concerning the wounded Prince behind a makeshift veil at the back of her mind.The two Devils are still flying, forming a pincer attack, one at the front, and one at the back. Their throwing arms were as skinny and shriveled as firewood; perhaps it will still take a comparatively long moment before they can fully be restored. But from the hot air balloon to where they are is approximately fifty meters, a distance I’m utterly unable to cross — if she cast her fog high up in the sky it was incredibly easy for her slip through and fall, the higher up off the ground she was, the rarer the “lines” she could travel along became. And if she remained on one line for an extended amount of time, the direction of the lines could begin to turn upside down, which could even result in her being torn into several pieces.

Perhaps the Devils were also aware that once the hot air balloon landed their situation could become tricky. Thus, one Devil waved his three-fingered left hand, and shouted something out loud, then pulled at the reins of his mount and came rushing straight at the balloon.

At the same time, the other fiercely pounced toward Lightning. Flapping its immense wings, the demonic beast just looked like a falcon seizing a fledgling, taking its time to wear it out. Just like Nightingale had expected, Lightning was already hard-pressed to protect herself by relying on her nimble movement, making it impossible for her to aim and fire at the enemy. Also, the other witches, now afraid of accidentally hitting the little girl had also stopped shooting.

Meanwhile the other mount randomly bit and clawed at the balloon’s sac, but fortunately, Soraya’s coating was tough enough to fend off the demonic beast’s claws and tooth. Realizing that its action was in vain, the Demon roared and flew far away, seemingly wanting to use the force of an impact to throw the balloon off balance.

Nightingale realized that this would be her best opportunity.

She released her fog, and the moment a slightly glowing thread appeared on top of her head, she stepped on it without hesitation. She took advantage of the quickly changing outline of the balloon, and was standing on top of the air sac a moment later. Although her body was parallel with the ground, it seemed as if she was walking on level ground, thus she was quickly able to run her way to the balloon’s peak.

At this moment, the Devil was also rushing toward them.

In her world of black and white, Nightingale was surprised to discover that the Devil also had a sparse and slowly rotating magic cyclone, and its thin arm was also inlaid with a sparkling stone.

Do they also possess magic?

But this wasn’t the time to be paying attention to this, for her a dash of ten meters was nothing more than the blink of an eye. So, the moment the Devil was about to hit the hot air balloon, Nightingale had also came out of her fog and appeared behind the Devil.

Because of the sudden increase of the weight, the giant winged demonic beast suddenly dropped. The Devil, as if it was aware that something was amiss, turned around, only to be greeted with the roar coming from Nightingale’s 12mm revolver.

“Go to hell!”

The bullet together with a flame and smoke rushed out of its cartridge. And then, entered and pierced through the Devil’s head with a great force, opening a bowl like hole at the back of its head. Sticky blood splashed out the next instant, and a pungent smell assaulted her nose.

The enemy twitched before toppling over which deflected the demonic beast’s movement and caused it to pass by the side of the hot air balloon. Just as Nightingale was about to leap back to the top of the airbag, an accident happened. The falling corpse pulled at the reins, and the beast abruptly rolled over and threw her off.

Before she even had the chance to react, Nightingale was already out of a safe return distance.

Although the hot air balloon has been reducing its height, at the moment it was still hundreds of meters above the sea. Stepping into the fog while falling was no different from committing suicide — if Nightingale couldn’t control her posture and bump into whichever thin line was available, she’d immediately be cut into two.

“Nightingale!”

She heard her sisters cry in horror, but everything seemed useless. Lightning was currently fighting against the other Devil, while Maggie, even if she changed into a sea bird would still be unable to carry her. Thus she knew what would happen next.

The speed of her fall accelerated more and more, and when Nightingale looked down, the ocean, which was originally a blur, revealed its true form. The rolling and splashing waves became more and more clear — it didn’t look as if she was falling, rather it was as if the sea was coming towards her.

The nearer the inevitable moment came, the clearer were her thoughts.

Nightingale closed her eyes, and once again seeing the moment she’d first met Roland. She’d sat on the edge of the bed, and was playing with the dagger in her hand, waiting for the gray-haired 4th Prince to push open the door and enter. The flickering fire, the door, and the bedroom gradually began to fade, ultimately, only leaving his smiling face behind.

Her only regret was that she wasn’t able to accompany him to the end.