Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

Chapter 396: Despair

With a single slash, Evan was left with only one family member remaining, the boy who had tried to grab someone from Loren's household.

There was only one reason Loren didn't kill him: to make him feel the deepest kind of despair.

"I'll kill you!"

Mad with rage, Evan charged at Loren at all costs, forgetting even to use magic.

Loren paid no real attention to Evan's attack, merely using Abundant Magic to summon vines that bound him fast to the spot.

"When you are weak enough, your rage becomes laughable, and—"

Loren's tone shifted, sudden anger surfacing.

"It was you who struck first! What right do you have to be angry?"

Then Loren directly invoked necromancy, pulling the souls of Evan's dead family toward him. Under the influence of necromancy those souls manifested. Evan once again saw the familiar faces of his relatives, except now they were devoid of any emotion.

Evan did not pause to wonder why Loren could use necromancy, because he saw his family’s souls being consumed by flames. The Sin-Burning Flames burned souls. Loren did not care about revealing that he knew necromancy—dead people do not talk.

These unconscious souls screamed under the burning, and before Evan’s eyes they were ultimately scorched until nothing remained.

"Your turn now."

Loren raised his hand at Evan, and then his body began to slowly dissolve.

"What kind of magic is that!"

That strange sensation, coupled with the fear of death, threw Evan into panic.

"First-tier magic, Return to Earth.

"This magic is not only effective on corpses. When the gap between two sides is large enough, it works on living people too, as long as the target is completely unable to resist."

By the time Loren finished explaining, Evan's head had dispersed into the air.

"Let's go. The others should be finished too."

Loren ignored the remaining people and left with Anna and Noah.

After Loren left, Evan's younger brother and the bodies on the ground began to disperse together; from start to finish Loren hadn't let him utter a single word.

......

"This is the place. Go in and kill them. Keep a few alive for interrogation."

Naclis led this party, with Luna and Laila trailing behind her.

"Understood."

Laila answered. She merely carried a submachine gun loaded with Enchanted Bullets; she had not brought the Heart's Scales that Loren had specially made, since that gun would be overkill for these people.

They each carried an Abyssal Gaze Eye given by Loren; even if the enemy activated invisibility, they could not hide from them.

Besides, Gwen was standing guard here.

A silver sword appeared in Luna's hand as well; it was produced by her Arcane Ability. Once she had mastered her Arcane Ability, Luna could draw weapons without transforming.

"Move."

A shadow in Naclis's hand condensed into a long blade. She sliced open the door with one stroke, then beheaded the guard at the entrance with another. Naclis had reached the point of killing without hesitation; even when that man's blood spurted from his neck, Naclis's mood did not change.

There were not many guards here, and their combat power was low. By the time Loren arrived, Naclis and the others had already dealt with them all, leaving only a few prisoners who seemed to hold higher status.

They were controlled by Abundant Magic, just like Noah had been earlier.

When Loren hurried over, they had just finished processing things.

"I'm too lazy for small talk... just interrogate them."

The deaths today were only the beginning. By Loren's standards, the nobles who had directed Evan's group could not be left alive.

Loren stepped in front of a man and without a word stabbed his thigh, twisting the knife's hilt as he did.

"Tell me, who is pulling the strings behind you?"

"Ugh..."

Vines wrapped around the man's mouth, muffling him. Loren stabbed several more times.

"Still tough, won't talk..."

Each time Loren stabbed, he twisted the blade another turn. Finally the man bit through the vines with his teeth.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

His mouth was full of blood; he didn't care that Loren had just gagged him. Afraid that one useless word would cost him his life, he rushed to speak.

"I don't know exactly who they are, they..."

Before he could finish, Loren split his head with one stroke as if cleaving an unripe melon.

"Speak, you."

Loren pointed his knife at another man who had not been gagged and had witnessed everything.

"I..."

"Too slow. Next."

Loren swung his knife again and invoked Return to Earth; little blood sprayed from the corpse.

"Who ordered you to do this?"

"It was the Langton family!"

This man blurted out the mastermind's identity.

"They didn't reveal themselves directly, but based on what they supplied us, I deduced it was the Langton family!"

"Oh? Explain in detail."

Loren sheathed his knife; the man finally relaxed.

"They gave us potions that temporarily boosted Abundant Magic and those invisibility black robes!

"Those potions are products of the Chailros family, and the Langton family has close ties with the Chailros family. Their supplies were far better than those on the market."

"It might also be the Chailros family. Why are you so sure it's the Langton family?" Loren asked. He suspected this man might be trying to shift blame away from the Chailros family out of fear. Previously William Chailros had tried everything to get Ember Radiance from Loren.

"Those invisibility black robes are Langton property. They often use them for shady deeds; few people know about it.

"I used to be just a rogue mage and worked with them in some operations. When I spied on them I saw their family crest, so I confirmed their identity."

"Good, your information is useful."

Under his gaze, Loren executed the others one by one. They scrambled to give information, but it was either false or useless. Just as the man who had given Loren useful information relaxed, Loren ended his life with a single stroke.

"Sorry. Only the dead can keep secrets. Letting you die peacefully is my last kindness."

After dealing with the bodies, Loren erased any traces of his presence and left with the others.

"Master Mentor, what should we do next?"

On the way back, Anna asked.

"I'll first see if I can find genealogical records or something. Then we'll kill from the top down according to rank."

The Langton family was a mid-tier noble house, but also a noble family within the Nofica Theocracy; wiping them out would require effort—particularly to do so without making a sound.