Chapter 47: You Reunited with the Witch

A huge sadness filled the heart of the Witch.

Sadder than the falling leaves of autumn.

More sorrowful than the afterglow of the setting sun.

Despite being in the midst of a fiery, blazing scene, the Witch, with a vast emptiness in her heart, could only feel cold and a suffocating sensation akin to drowning.

Having lost her reason for existence, even her soul was gone.

She was submerged in an ocean of despair.

Letting her thoughts and sanity continuously sink.

“It’s all my fault… If only I could have returned sooner…” she uttered, her voice broken, staring blankly at the still-burning courtyard in the distance.

Her heartstrings snapped, leaving only regret.

The pain was so intense she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

The collapse from within completely overshadowed her physical injuries.

At this moment, Cressa wanted so badly to cry, but her eyes remained hollow and dry.

The immense grief was trapped in her chest, tormenting her heart, spreading numbness and weakness through her limbs, plunging her into endless self-reproach.

“Why… me…”

“I can’t even shed tears for my mentor…”

“What right does someone as incompetent as me have to live.”

The 16-year-old Cressa knelt on the ground, her eyes lifeless.

Her pupils trembled, flashing with pain.

She clutched her head, banging it against the hard ground, hating her emotionally flawed body more than ever.

Once, twice, thrice, four times…

The Witch continued to bang her head, seemingly feeling no pain.

Or perhaps, she deliberately used this self-torture to replace the tears of sorrow, diluting the self-blame and collapse within her heart.

But it was ultimately futile.

No matter what she did, the one person who mattered most would not return.

When she realized this, Cressa stopped banging her head, blood dripping from her forehead, sliding past the corner of her eye, down her cheek, past her nose.

Finally gathering at her chin.

Like crimson tears, slowly dripping to the ground.

At last, the despair crushed the personality known as “Cressa,” turning her pale golden eyes dark.

This was not a metaphorical description of her mental state, but a literal, physical change.

Her pale golden eyes turned black from within, like a black hole devouring everything, swallowing the original gold, along with the girl’s thoughts and mind.

Just disappear, just fade away.

It doesn’t matter anymore…

A world without her mentor is meaningless…

The girl thought dully, remaining motionless in her kneeling position, even as the flames approached her, she remained indifferent.

One might even say she was anticipating the flames to consume her.

But then.

A hand appeared.

Blocking the increasingly approaching scorching flames.

A large, warm hand appeared miraculously before the girl, indifferent to the filth and disarray, lifting the despairing Cressa.

Accompanied by a familiar voice.

“What’s wrong, Cressa?”

“Are you hurt?”

“Let’s get up, I’ll heal you.”

The familiar voice awakened her self-enclosed consciousness.

A miracle, a miracle had occurred.

The Witch looked up dazedly at Xu Xi before her, her half-golden, half-dark pupils trembling, calming down as if she had been redeemed.

It’s great, really great.

The mentor is safe and sound.

The snapped heartstrings reconnected, her soul freed from despair, and the immense grief trapped in her chest dissipated with her breath.

No reason, no need for a reason, just because the “Sun” had reappeared before her eyes.

“…I’m fine, mentor.”

As long as you’re here, I’ll be fine.

Fearing it was a dream, a hallucination, her slightly trembling hands tightly grasped the man’s hand before her.

Unwilling to let go.

“This…”, Xu Xi fell silent.

Looking at Cressa’s pitiful state and her strange eyes, he couldn’t conclude that she was “fine.”

Earlier.

Xu Xi was alone in the study practicing magic.

The Observer Trait suddenly activated on its own, alerting Xu Xi to the attack from the sky, so he promptly cast a defensive spell, successfully protecting himself.

Considering Cressa was still outside, Xu Xi immediately flew to the market to search.

But after searching, he found nothing.

Finally, he decided to return to the courtyard ruins to wait, where he saw Cressa kneeling alone on the ground.

Her body covered in wounds, dirty bloodstains, and a relieved expression.

Everything indicated.

That Cressa had experienced something.

“Buzz—”, a faint green light emanated from his palm, Xu Xi used Life Magic to heal Cressa’s injuries, then began to ask what had happened, Cressa didn’t hide anything, telling everything.

Mistakenly believing Xu Xi was dead.

Alone in the ruins, filled with self-blame and regret.

And initially, seeing the fireball and attempting to stop it.

Perhaps because Xu Xi was by her side, the girl’s face showed no more strangeness, returning to her usual calm and expressionless state.

But it was precisely this demeanor that made Xu Xi even more silent.

“Crackle—”

The surrounding flames still burned fiercely, fire snakes hissed and coiled around the buildings, blackening the outer walls, from time to time, large mechanical equipment exploded from overheating, creating even more terrifying explosions.

In this intense firelight, amidst the billowing black smoke.

The figure of the Witch seemed so small, her clothes burned through by the flames, her body covered in small wounds, her face still bearing traces of despair and helplessness, pitiful.

“Sorry, Cressa.”

“I should have come sooner.”

“Making you worry alone for so long, it’s my fault as a mentor.”

Gently rubbing the Witch’s hair, then with tender and delicate movements, wiping the blood from her face, Xu Xi spoke with deep regret.

He could have done better.

To avoid this crisis for himself and Cressa.

But Xu Xi had underestimated the high officials of Allenson, he never imagined that their departure was for the purpose of destroying the city.

To annihilate the entire city of Allenson, along with its hundreds of thousands of residents.

Unthinkable.

Completely incomprehensible what benefit this could bring.

It was utterly against reason.

A wrong judgment led to a wrong result, precisely because Xu Xi didn’t anticipate the city’s destruction, he and Cressa were caught up in this series of twists and turns.

“It’s okay, mentor,” Cressa said, gently shaking her head.

She didn’t care about anything else.

As long as Xu Xi was back by her side, looking at her again, she was content.

This was the awareness of being an “object.”

If she had more thoughts, if she had unnecessary willfulness, then the “object” would become an invisible burden to the master, Cressa didn’t want to be a burden to Xu Xi.

Faced with such a stubborn Cressa, Xu Xi had no good solution, he could only take care of the girl in his own way.

He summoned a stream of water, carefully cleaning the girl’s face, restoring the soot-covered little face to cleanliness.

Throughout the process.

Cressa remained very quiet.

Like a delicate porcelain doll, letting Xu Xi wipe her face.

The black soot was wiped away, revealing a clean, pale, delicate face.

Then, Xu Xi looked up at the sky.

He originally thought that the most crucial part of leaving Allenson City was solving the supply issues on the way to other cities.

But now, it seemed the difficulty lay in how to safely leave Allenson.

The overwhelming Meteor Shower Attack was just the beginning, the real biggest challenge was the alien races that emerged from nowhere, roaring into Allenson.

“Beastmen, Goblins, Pure-Blooded Demons, Magical Beasts…”

“What exactly are those departed high officials of Allenson planning, to have alien races attack their own city.”