The One after my Heart

The old witch Barlow panted as she took in long gasps as she lowered her cane and leaned on it, looking exhausted. She had given it her all into her previous attack.

She frowned as she noticed tiny cracks appear on her beloved white cane. She knew the man in black was stronger than average, so she had channelled almost all of her energy into that one attack since she didn't want to take any chances. This decisiveness was exactly how she'd managed to survive until now.

She frowned as she looked at her weapon. It would take a long time and many precious materials before she could restore the cane completely back to its old form.

The old dark witch stared into the darkness, and after not sensing his presence ahead anymore, she nodded in satisfaction and turned towards the barrier shell enclosing the two women.

Barlow coughed incessantly, and she said in a raspy voice with a grin," It's a shame, but it's time for you two girls to die now. Although it's a pity the greenwood girl is missing, restoring some of my vitality from the two of you shouldn't be a problem. Hurry up, I need to hunt down those sisters after this so don't resist."

Although she could drain these two witches, the spell was only temporary. For her to have her retain and restore her vitality and boost her powers, she had to find the young Greenwood witch.

Nothing would stop her from her ambitions. She could find another two witches easily, but she had to find Nisa before she got too far.

"Pointless resistance." The old witch straightened herself as she pointed her cane at the barrier with a disdainful glance as she harumphed, "Nether claw!"

Cracks immediately appeared on the energy barrier wall that Bree had set up, and it shattered with the sound of a glass breaking. Bree's eyes went helpless as she found herself weaker and unable to resist the old witch.

Barlow waved her cane, and the four remaining skulls from within the formation flew up in the air and immediately surrounded Bree and Kyra, placing themselves equidistantly like the points of a square encasing the two women.

"Cough-cough...Sadly, I won't make it painless for you like the last time. You'll feel it down to your very bones and every nerve as though it were getting plucked.

"Life drain!" the dark witch roared as she raised her hands into the air like earlier.

Bree immediately felt herself lose all signs of resistance, but unlike last time, she was aware of what was happening to her. This time the spell seemed even faster, probably since a spirit witch wasn't included. Her body lit up with a faint brown metallic glow, and Bree could feel herself slowly weakening, but somehow Kyra's body seemed unaffected yet.

'Did those three imbeciles make a mistake? Is that why the spell didn't complete earlier?' she wondered to herself as she cursed inwardly. No wonder the spell took so long.

Today, really was a wretched day. Looks like all she could do for now was to drain out the brown-skinned witch. It would barely restore her spirit and vitality, but it should be enough temporarily enough to somehow capture the older Greenwood girl with her experience, she calculated. The younger one must've escaped too. If so, it shouldn't be that difficult to capture them, she surmised.

"Looks like it will just have to be just you, girl. This one seems useless.", Barlow spat out as she waved her cane at Kyra in anger after giving the latter a disgusted look.

Kyra's body was lifted from the stone bed and violently flung into the air out of the skull formation as it was thrown away like a rag doll in the air towards the side without any mercy. The dark witch focussed on Bree entirely now, who was placed on the stone bed Kyra was in previously.

In the next instant, the metallic brown glow on Bree flashed brightly once and then started growing duller every second. Bree's body seemed to be slowly desiccating as her skin slowly lost all moisture. Her cheekbones were slowly narrowing.

On the other hand, the pale, exhausted complexion on the face of the old witch reduced as her face turned flush red. The wrinkles on her face and skin seemed to be smoothening out slowly. Her white hair was slowly starting to turn grey, and her murky eyes slowly started to regain their sight.

'Yes, yes..Just a few more seconds and I'll have her vitality drained out and later channel a few of her spirit powers after that,' thought the old witch to herself as she felt the same excitement bubble within her just as every other time when she'd performed this spell for the last few decades. Once she recovered, she would soon track down those two brats.

"That's a nice beauty trick you got there, old lady.", came a teasing voice from behind her back as though it was right next to her ear.

Old lady Barlow's hair immediately stood on its end as her eyes went wide in shock with a cold chill running down her back. She stopped her spell hastily, trying to suppress the backlash and turned behind to see the man in black just two steps away from her, looking at her with a smile with those ice-blue eyes of his.

He held the unconscious Kyra in his embrace with his left hand wrapped around her waist. His right hand brushed her hair with his fingers as he gently angled her head onto a more comfortable position.

"Y-you..how come you're still alive?!" the dark witch asked with an astonished expression on her face. "Wh-who are you?" She'd clearly hit him with her blast, and yet here he was standing right in front of her with not even his clothes being damaged. How was it possible!

"Oh I'm just here to save a damsel in distress though I seemed to have saved more than one.", he chuckled good-naturedly.

'I can't let him live. I've to finish him off for good this time!' the old witch thought to herself. She immediately channelled all of her powers along with her vitality and attacked with her cane as she thrust it forward like a sword towards the man's chest. 'Vortex tornado!'

The man in black simply took a step forwards as he held his right palm against the tip of the cane and stopped the blast just as it shot out. The energy blast that was supposed to be colossal simply compressed into a point before his right palm and vanished in a few seconds, with the remnants of the energy blast which blew nothing more than a fierce wind on his either sides and proceeded towards the depths of the forest in his background. Strangely, both he and Kyra weren't brushed by the wind at all as they remained where they were.

"Y-you...who...-cough cough-..are you?!" the old witch warily asked with fear creeping into her voice as she coughed. Her figure that seemed to have restored and recovered a little from her earlier spell was even frailer now. Right now, she was even worse than the first time Kyra saw her. Not only interrupting the spell twice tonight had a backlash effect on her, but the attacks she used on the man in black with all her power and her vitality had drained her out. "Well, that was quite a pleasant breeze. It blew out the dust on my clothes from your previous attempt", he said with a smirk. "It's my turn now."

She saw the man hold the cane with his right palm clenched around it at the end. She immediately tried to pull it back along with hastily erecting a violet barrier around her at the same time separating the two of them. She let go of the skull as it raised up in the air within the barrier and held her cane with both of her hands. But no matter how much power she channelled, it made no difference.

As soon as the man's right hand clasped the cane in a firm grip, immediately it started cracking up all the way from his end to hers. It splintered and shattered into a fine powder with a bang. The old witch had a dreaded panicked look on her face now. She knew she was no match for her opponent.

'Escape!'

She had to get out of here and escape at any cost.

Immediately, she bit her right thumb, and as it started bleeding, she drew some sort of a rune on the wall of the barrier in front of her. Her body slowly started to morph into a dark violet smoke.

"Pointless resistance", the man in black drawled in a lazy voice, repeating the same words as she had said to Bree just a while ago. He recognised the dark witch planning to execute what looked like a relocation spell. A spell that would transport the subject hundreds of miles away as they morphed into smoke temporarily. Though it would later affect their vitality and most likely permanently injure them, it was quite a handy spell.

At the next instant, he immediately thrust his right hand into the barrier like a spear. His hand pierced through the barrier, all the way piercing into the old woman's chest, reaching towards her heart.

The moment the barrier was breached, the skull in the air cracked apart open and burst into flames leaving only ashes in the wind.

"Y-you..! H-ho..how can you? " The old woman coughed out blood as her eyes widened in shock. The old lady lost all signs of giving any resistance as she found herself unable to channel any energy anymore.

She looked at the face of her opponent and then noticed something as she looked into his eyes. Gone were the pale-ice blue charming eyes and the teasing smile, and what was now staring at her was a pair of blood-red pupils with an indifferent cold look on his face.

She paled in terror as she recognised the blood-red eyes and finally recognised the identity of the person in black. "I-it can't be! Y-you are--"

She shrieked in pain as she felt his hands wrap around her heart as she blurted out," Young lord! P-please forgive this ig-ignorant one. Y-you ca-can't kill m-me for my ignorance! K-killing me would violate the Tripartite p-peace agreement of Ethra. Even though I practise dark magic!" she said, trying to make a desperate attempt to save her life.

"The elders in my c-coven will find out. You know it. P-please let us fo-forget the grievances between us. The girls can walk away free."

"Hmmm, it is troublesome indeed since you've recognised me.", muttered the man in black as he slowly tightened his left grip around Kyra's waist.

"But I'm helpless since I already have an agreement made prior with the lady among us. I'm sorry", said the man in black with a shrug at the next moment as he slowly tightened his right palm around the old witch's heart. And then, right after, with a yank, he pulled her heart out of her chest.

The bitter old lady Barlow looked at Kyra's unconscious face with a strong hateful look as though she were cursing the latter for everything that happened tonight. She noticed a silver rune in the shape of a flower flash for a few brief seconds faintly on Kyra's forehead that even the man in black seemed not to have noticed.

The dying old witch was stunned for a second before she realised what she'd seen. What followed her next thought was bitter remorse and regret of not realising the true gem in front of her until now.

"Th-this girl... not witch...but..she's that...the one. How can it be! If only I knew...", she whispered in an odd tone and collapsed on the ground, utterly dead.