Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 831 The Last Performance
In the dark and quiet cellar, Sherman was groping to tie up the items in front of him, making final preparations.

As a "witch", she naturally possessed the dark vision that every assassin possessed, but at this moment her eyes were not on the work at hand at all. Instead, she looked out of focus ahead, immersed in her own thoughts.

Based on her experience as an "assassin" and "instigator", she knew that she had already stepped into the threshold of Sequence 6. She only needed one last performance with significant feedback to completely digest the potion in her body and lay the foundation for promotion.

Only in this way can I live up to the title of "Queen of Pentacles" bestowed upon me by Irene... no, Miss Angelica... The corners of her mouth curled up in an unrecognizable smile in the darkness.

After confirming that his boss was not the witches in the "Witch Sect" who created the smog, and was even more powerful than he expected, but was the "Golden Queen" Angelica Sage, Sherman has been in a state where he would laugh secretly from time to time.

Even Triss was a little curious and reminded her many times not to smile foolishly in front of Viscount Stratford, so as to avoid him suspecting that the "innocent girl" who was about to succeed had met another outstanding man.

Oh, Viscount Stratford... Thinking of his mission objective, the smile on Sherman's face gradually disappeared and he became serious.

According to Triss's arrangement, she will be promoted to the Witch of Joy in the near future, and then make the Viscount, who has become a little impatient and has tried many times to invite her to his mansion, fall in love with her, and then get all the secrets in his heart out of him.

After that, he would be able to get out of this months-long mission, and according to Miss Angelica's arrangement, develop his own power in the East District and become her tentacle to control the situation in Backlund...

To achieve this, today's "playing" is particularly important.

Thinking of this, Sherman clapped his hands, stood up, picked up one end of the bundled goods, dragged it out of the cellar and walked upstairs.

Her target today is a gang leader who has been entrenched in Tietan Street in the East District for many years. This "briber" named Malcolm is involved in many evil deeds such as human trafficking, kidnapping, and murder. After the great smog and the control of the East District by the Church of Night, he is ready to retire and use the accumulated wealth to cleanse himself in the Hillston District, open a factory and transform himself into an upper-class person.

But the Queen of Pentacles disagrees.

As a Sequence 7 Beyonder of the Lawyer Path, Malcolm possesses the crucial ability of "bribery," which allows him to symbolically give a target an item to trigger different effects such as "weakening" and "charming," thereby widening the difference in combat power between the two sides and gaining an absolute advantage in battle with his terrifying physical strength.

Of course, after getting the detailed intelligence of this sequence from Triss, Sherman has already worked out a battle plan against the "briber". With the various abilities of the "witch" and some targeted spells, she is confident that she can deal with Malcolm under the protection of other guards.

Dragging the heavy cargo, Sherman arrived at the attic of the building amid the clanging sound of the wooden frames hitting the stairs.

She pushed open the window, letting the dazzling midday sun shine into the dark room, and then she used both hands to strugglely push the wooden frame beside her out of the window and secure it to the platform outside the attic.

It was a wooden cross, with the crossed ends facing downwards. Tied to it was a man with his feet on top and his head hanging downwards. His eyes were slightly closed, as if he was in a deep sleep; his eyelids trembled in the sunlight, showing signs of waking up.

This is Malcolm, the "briber" who is well-known in the East District and no one dares to provoke him near Iron Carbon Street!
He was dressed in rags, with several burn marks on his upper body. Dried blood flowed down the wooden cross to the ground, making the whole scene look like a missionary work of the "Aurora Society" where a bloody sacrifice was being performed.

As expected, someone on the street below soon noticed the abnormality above their heads. They either screamed loudly or called to each other in low voices, focusing their attention on the "Hanged Man" in the attic.

Sherman, wearing a hood with only his white chin and slightly red lips showing, felt the doubtful, panicked and frightened gazes. He took a breath of the slightly bloody air with satisfaction and realized that he should start as soon as possible.

If it's any later, the nervous police and Night Watchmen will probably arrive... She muttered, and rubbed out a black flame in her hand that seemed to absorb the sunlight, and touched Malcolm's face as if she was caressing her lover's cheek.

In an instant, the cursed black flame fueled by spirituality spread over the man, turning him into a cross-shaped black torch.

No one could endure the double blow of the curse and the high temperature. Malcolm immediately woke up from his coma, struggled violently with his limbs, and uttered a weak cry:

"what--"

His voice attracted more passers-by. Half of the people on Tietan Street raised their heads and looked at the black torch. Some people recognized that the fuel was Malcolm who had appeared yesterday, and they couldn't help but exclaimed. More people noticed the petite figure with a hood standing behind the flame.

Malcolm, his body twisted in the flames, finally broke free from the not-so-strong ropes and wooden frames in full view of everyone, and landed on his head on the platform outside the attic. He climbed up with difficulty, looking at his hands with a dazed look. His originally strong arms and tight skin had been twisted and deformed in the high temperature. The charred skin kept peeling off from the twitching muscles, and his lungs, which were still breathing with difficulty, were filled with burning gas.

No, I have to escape from here… The last thought flashed through his mind, and he struggled to take two steps forward and fell headfirst from the attic.

puff--

There was a sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh. An ice spike with dark red blood came out of Malcolm's chest, nailing him to the window below the attic. The eyes that were almost roasted by the flames took a last look at the pedestrians below. The burning body shook twice in the air and was completely motionless. It was not until then that the passers-by who were watching a magic show realized what had happened. They fled in all directions with a bang. Some went to find the nearby patrolman, and some went to the nearest church for help, but most people did not think that the death of the infamous Malcolm was a big deal.

They were just afraid of being contaminated by the horrific black flames, and afraid that the hooded female figure would find them and make them the next to die.

"That's... a witch!"

Some people remembered the rumors that had recently spread in the East District and couldn't help but look back at the woman in the attic who left with a cruel smile under her hood.

……

While using the black flame to burn away all traces of the surrounding area, Sherman felt the last of the magic potion in his body completely disintegrate and dissipate, merging into his limbs, and even his footsteps became lighter.

As she expected, spreading rumors about herself in advance and then killing Malcolm in a weird and terrifying way in front of witnesses all over the street helped her digest the last of the "witch" potion.

In order to prevent further tracking, she left the scene without even waiting for the extraordinary characteristics of the other party's "briber" to emerge.

Originally, it would have been enough to kill these criminals secretly, but the Nighthawks insisted on blocking the news, so I had no choice but to use this radical method, and they also left behind Beyonder characteristics worth thousands of pounds... There were no children nearby just now. If they saw this scene, they would probably be traumatized... Sherman muttered, and quickly came to the first floor of Malcolm's residence, and crawled out of the back door that had been unlocked in advance. At the same time, he sprinkled a handful of fish scale powder around him, making his figure disappear as if it had been wiped away.

After that, she planned to go into the sewer as usual, do another black flame counter divination, and then go to the safe house to burn her clothes to completely destroy all evidence.

But as she removed the manhole cover and jumped down, she felt that the ground that she could reach in one second seemed so far away, and the area below was so hazy that even her dark vision could not see clearly, as if she was falling into a bottomless abyss.

This is some kind of trap... No, it's a dream!

Sherman, who had just used the "sleeping" spell left by Miss Angelica against Malcolm, instantly confirmed her situation. Her spiritual alertness allowed her to wake up from the dream with difficulty, and she found herself back on the first floor of Malcolm's house, back to the time when she had not yet gone out in stealth!
Without hesitation, she sprinkled the fish scale powder all over her body again and rushed in another direction. Her figure faded again and disappeared between the doors and windows.

But the next second, a strong wind blew from that direction, overturning the tables and chairs in the living room on the first floor, blowing down the paintings, and causing the chandelier to fall straight from the ceiling as if pulled by a giant hand and smash into the corner of the wall.

The fish scale powder that had just attached to Sherman's body was blown away by the sudden wind, revealing her graceful body wrapped in a robe. The hood also slipped off her head, and her entire face was inevitably exposed.

Only then did she notice that standing by the door in the other direction she had chosen was a handsome man with black hair casually draped behind his head, wearing an unbuttoned windbreaker, bright red gloves on his hands, and holding a cane inlaid with silver and white metal.

"Got you, Miss Witch."

He spoke softly, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, his green eyes looking at Sherman who was barely able to stand in the strong wind with scrutiny.

----

"Got you, Fishy!"

Listening to the noise coming from the deck, Angel sighed softly and returned his gaze to the nautical chart in front of him. He looked at the location where a red circle was drawn. There was a black curved line next to it. The line representing the current position of the ship was only half a finger away from the circle.

This means that the "Redhead" is quite close to her destination.

During this week's voyage, the mermaid "Yu Yu", who joined the team with the unanimous consent of the sailors and the permission of Captain Elaine, has become friends with everyone in a normal sense. Her unique "Navigator"-like navigation ability has led the "Red-haired Girl" to avoid many dangerous areas, and entered the depths of the Misty Sea three days earlier than expected, arriving near the "Fountain of Youth".

Next, it depends on whether the information from Wensa and Tia is correct... Her eyes stayed on the red circle in the center of the nautical chart, and thoughts kept flashing through her mind.

Just then, the noise outside the captain's room suddenly disappeared.

After a while, red-haired Elaine opened the door and walked in. She looked at Angel with an excited expression and said:
"Ms. Angelica, a thick sea fog appeared right in front of the ship...

"If what Tia said is true, we should have found the 'Fountain of Youth'!"

(End of this chapter)