"What do you mean 'save him'?" Caterina said.
"A soul of the dead trapped in the world of the living. Never has the chance to move on to the afterlife and be granted their peace. What do you think that life would be like?" Siderius squinted his eyes and said.
"A fate worse than death." Caterina lowered her head. "How can I help you?"
"You won't be able to. But someone else can…"
A while later. Siderius' eyes shot open. The foliage of the trees and the sunlight of morning dawned on him. Reality welcomed him back with a gust of fresh wind.
Siderius sat up and saw the floating notifications of the system in front of him.
[TOXICITY -1] Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹⟡𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⟡𝙣𝙚𝙩
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 1/125]
[TOXICITY LEVEL: 15/100]
[USER: Siderius 'Snow' Satterblade]
[WITCH HUNTER RANK: OCULUS EXTIMA I]
[ALCHEMIST RANK: SILVER I]
[MERCURY EXTRACT: 0/150]
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 1/125 (-26)]
[TOXICITY LEVEL: 15/100 (-30)]
Siderius opened his mouth wide and breathed a cloud of smelly green smoke. The toxin in his body had majorly worked its way out. It made his breath smell like the vomit of a drunkard.
The vengeful hunter hadn't put on his obsidian glass yet. Still, with the dark eyes of the owl, he was still able to see everything fairly clear. Everything was brighter and harder to observe but it was much bearable than before.
Siderius put on his obsidian glasses and looked to the object faraway. He was able to make sense of the patterns on the tree trunks, even slight movement of the grass beneath. The short-sightedness of this body was completely nullified. He had 20/20 vision at the moment.
All of his other senses also got a small push. But it wasn't that clear like his eyes. After all, this mutation focused on the eyes, not the ears.
Beside him, Caterina slowly sat up as well. Siderius didn't react, simply watched her collect herself and recomposed.
"Welcome back." He said.
Caterina looked at Siderius. Her wide eyes observed him closely. He was the same as he was in the Mind Palace but lost most of his intimidation. Siderius in the mind world was something much more terrifying.
Even then, Caterina was not going to provoke this man in any way. Her eyes lingered the traits of intelligence, they had lost the madness caused by the broken Mana Core.
Caterina closed her eyes and looked deep within herself. Her psyche reflected into her mind as a pool of water. Her pool was rather large, almost reaching the side of a pond. But there was a large section that collapsed and was filled with dirt. No amount of magic could be stored there.
However, as of this moment, there was a calm and harmless silver hue covering the collapsed part, preventing it from affecting the rest of the pool. It was because of this energy that Caterina was able to maintain her sanity and not fall into madness.
When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Siderius completely differently. Witches' powers were made to destroy, not to heal. She thought this was Siderius' magic. Hence, she was shaken to the core.
"I can't thank you enough, high lord."
Siderius had already stood up and was ready to go. "No need to be formal with me. Come on, we need to go. There are a lot of things to do."
Siderius put two fingers inside his mouth and whistled high. Not so far away from there, Red was burying its face into a yard of delicious grass. Suddenly, its ears stood up and its head snapped to Siderius' reaction.
The striking red horse moved through the woods and quickly arrived at Siderius' location. He petted it on the neck.
"Have you been good when I was gone?" Siderius whispered.
Red let out a joyful neigh in response.
Caterina stood up and dusted off the dirt on her clothes. "Before we go, I need to visit my house."
Siderius nodded. He jumped on the horse back and reached out his hand, helping Caterina to climb up. They quickly returned to the lonely cabin in the woods.
Caterina opened her eyes wide when she saw the destructive scene left behind by the Schizomancer.
"Have any idea who might attack you?" Siderius said.
"I have quite a lot. Jude and I made many enemies in our youth. There are just too many to remember."
There goes the chance to identify the masked man. Siderius thought to himself.
"What do you want to find?"
"A tear. I can't go meet my husband ."
Caterina entered her house. Under an inconspicuous tree that had its roots plunged into the floor of the house, Caterina took out a small steel box that was covered with dirt and dust. She blew the dust away and wiped off the dirt.
Siderius was there standing behind her. His eyes stayed focused on the box. A tear of the fountain of youth. Or more precisely, a tear of a Mother Tree. He was about to see how the witch of this world consume the tear.
Caterina opened the box. Inside, there were three tear-shaped crystals with amber color. They almost looked like a kind of specially crafted topaz but with a darker shade and opaque crystal structure.
Caterina turned her head back to Siderius. "If I consume this tear, will my mind break again?"
"Alright. Here goes nothing. Go away, old age."
Caterina took a deep breath and she opened her mouth. Siderius imagined the process of consuming the tear must be at least very sophisticated. But he expected too much out of witches.
The Black Witch of the Woods swallowed one of the three tears and instantly, black feathers appeared on her body. Her mana core pulsed like a living beating heart.
Dense oil-like liquid reached out from within her mouth and circled around her body, slowly creating a black egg to envelope Caterina. Siderius felt like he was watching a caterpillar spinning silk and turning into a cocoon.
The black egg pulsated from time to time. It seemed that the process wouldn't be quick. Siderius left Caterina at that spot and went out of the house. He created a salt barrier around the house in case that Schizomancer returned to attack them.
Then he kneeled down in front of the house. His hands joined together to activate the sign sequence of Ring of Urge once more.
Alchemy Palace had quickened the process needed for the Ring of Urge to completely dissolve Fluff's psyche. Now it was more defined than ever with only one point of psychosis before Siderius conquered Fluff entirely.
His mouth mumbled the verse of the Ring of Urge once more:
"No thirst nor starved, nor craving's fire
Shall take the heart of my desire."