"Well... is this a Higher Awakening?" the prince asked.
Agatha did not know what to say for a moment. There was only one thought left in her mind — how could this be?
The Holy City had been forgotten, and the Union had been destroyed. It was reasonable to say that without specialized training and guidance, the witches' abilities should have greatly declined. But what did she see now? A witch who had just reached adulthood had already achieved two promotions. This was not something that could be described as good luck. Even in the Union, where many geniuses gathered, there were only a few witches like this.
And, if she heard it right, there were three other witches like Anna?
Agatha stared blankly at the gray-haired man, and it took her a while to recover. "This... should be, but I don't have the Stone of Measuring, so I can't test the extent of the ability change." She paused, and her throat was a little dry. "I want to ask, what did Anna experience when she awakened? She seemed to have just reached adulthood. Did these two changes happen in just one or two years? "
After finishing her words, Agatha realized that she had unconsciously used honorifics — witches could not inherit. Even if a large number of ordinary people were gathered around them, there was no guarantee that a powerful witch would be born. Therefore, the seniority was always determined by ability rather than family background. According to Anna's current ability, she already had the qualifications to enter the senior management of the Union. Compared to herself, even if she was not a superior, she was at least an equal figure.
Any Higher Awakened was worthy of respect.
"The first time was because her magic power was exhausted while fighting against demonic beasts. The second time, I think, should be caused by learning knowledge."
"Knowledge..." She was startled. "What kind of knowledge?"
"Ahem, we can talk about this later." The prince cleared his throat. "Now let's go back to the topic we were talking about. What does Alice's God's Punishment Army experiment mean?"
"Yes, if he did not lie to me, this knowledge must contain a very great truth, so that Anna could awaken a new ability through an epiphany. It was very normal that he did not want to explain in detail before gaining her trust. Agatha could not help but feel excited. Improving the probability of promotion was of extraordinary significance to witches. If they could figure out the principle, it would not be difficult to revive the Union.
However, where did he get this knowledge from? This was a backward Wilderness. How could a few villagers understand the mysteries of magic power? She was filled with confusion. What had the world become in the past four hundred years?
Agatha temporarily put these difficult questions aside. "Alice is extremely powerful. After wearing the God's Stone of Retaliation, she won't be at a disadvantage even when facing several Lords of Hell. However, there were too few who were above the Transcendent level. In other words … we lost because of the diversity of our abilities. "
"Diversity?"
"That's right. Before a witch awakens, no one knows what kind of ability she will have. But according to the statistics of the Union, only 10% of the witches are suitable for fighting — the same ratio applies to the Extraordinary. Among this group of combat witches, it was unknown how many of them would be promoted. The Union once encountered an embarrassing situation where there was not a single promoted person for 50 years, so the fighting ability of the witches is very unstable. "
"Mortals may not necessarily awaken, awaken may not necessarily be able to fight, and fighting may not necessarily make them stronger. Is this what you mean?" The prince touched his chin and said.
"Something like that." Agatha sighed. "So we set up a guard of mortals to make up for the lack of witches, but... mortals can't defeat the demons. Even if they were given God's Stones of Retaliation, they were far from enough to compete with the powerful Mad Demons. Under such a disadvantageous situation, Alice ordered the Quest Society to start researching warriors who could break through the limits of the human body. From this scribbled note, it seems that she succeeded... "
"Seems?" The prince asked curiously. "Didn't you say you were a member of the Quest Society?"
"Indeed. But after this order was issued, I left the Taquila Quest Society and built my own laboratory building in the Misty Forest." She bit her lip and hesitated for a moment before continuing. "They soon found the direction and used the power of the God's Stone of Retaliation to forcibly combine witches and mortals, but... this process consumed the witches' lives. I couldn't accept this kind of experiment. The Quest Society should focus on exploring the use of the God's Stone, instead of treating witches as consumables. Natalia was right, this kind of behavior would only bring destruction to witches. "
The prince looked a little shocked. "Treating people as consumables?"
"Alice had no choice. At that time, Taquila was on the brink of destruction." Agatha suddenly felt a little more pleasing to the eye when she saw Alice's sympathetic expression. "But now that the Union has disappeared, it's obvious that this thing didn't survive and it probably won't appear again in the future."
She lowered her head and stroked the pages of the book. "Over the mountains, across the rivers... What a familiar slogan." "But where are you now? How can I rebuild the order alone? "
"But the God's Punishment Army still exists."
This sentence made Agatha's fingers suddenly freeze. She looked at the prince in disbelief. "What... did you say?"
"I don't know if this is a coincidence." The prince spoke very slowly, as if he was considering his words. "The church... is an organization that you have never heard of. In the middle of the Impassable Mountain Range, there are two cities, and both of them are called Holy Cities. The witch-hunting operation was initiated by them. Not only that, they are also searching for orphans and street children, and bringing them back to the monastery in the Holy Cities for adoption. Vendy was one of them who escaped. "
"The church has its own army and territory. Among them, the most powerful warriors are the God's Punishment Army. These monsters who have lost their minds are extremely powerful, comparable to Extraordinary witches, and there are definitely a lot of them. In addition, they may even have a group of powerful witches, which is why I used the God's Locket of Retribution to temporarily seal your ability. " The prince spread out his hands and said, "Before you told us this... we always thought that it was the church who built the Holy City of Taquila in the Barbarian Land and fought against the demons. Those ruins were also left by the church."
Agatha opened her mouth, but no words came out. An organization composed of mortals, unexpectedly took away the most important secrets of the Union, and in turn hunted witches to create the God's Punishment Army to stabilize their rule? She suddenly felt a splitting headache. The God's Punishment Army did not disappear, but fell into the hands of an organization that hated witches!What did the people of the Union do?
As if seeing her fatigue and discomfort, Vendy gently pressed her down on the bed and whispered, "Let's call it a day. Have a good sleep. Don't worry, we will find out the reason. "
Then, she felt the God's Locket of Retribution was removed by Anna.Everyone left the room one by one, and the gray-haired prince was the last to leave.
Just as he closed the door, Agatha heard a calm and steady voice.
"You are wrong about one thing. Mortals can defeat the demons."