Chapter 241 – The Evil Power of Katherine

  Martha Riverclimb:

  I had just eliminated a soldier when a deafening bst echoed from the fortress wall.

  BOOM!

  The sound reverberated, and what I saw left me speechless.

  “It’s down…” I murmured to myself.

  The fortress gate had been obliterated by a light resembling a thunderbolt.

  Young master… what have you done? You’ve put yourself in danger.

  But we had to trust the pn, trust that it would work. Part of the problem was already solved; Nathan had caused a devastating brea the wall. Lightning tio erupt from that dire, apanied by explosions. A spectacle of fshing lights illumihe fortress interior as the mages on the walls were eliminated one by one. Overhead, a bck cloud loomed, desding suddenly to engulf everything, turning the Wolves’ fortress into a shrouded, ominous domain that cealed everything within. The army stationed inside was noed.

  “Attention!” I shouted to the maids. “The young master has given us an opportunity! We no longer o worry about the Shes or archers on the walls. Let’s go all in!”

  “Yes, ma’am!” they replied in unison as we advanced.

  One of the maids sounded a horn, signaling my husband. In response, our soldiers emerged from the shadows of the forest.

  The enemy army was heading our way.

  “AHHHHHHH!” Their war cries echoed across the field. I saw men with shields, swords, axes, and spears. Some fired arrows. The enemy forces in the field were ready to collide with ours, while the soldiers and mages on the walls were supposed to bombard us with spells and arrows. But now, with the wall ralized, that advantage was gone.

  Nathan had trapped everyone inside a storm from the heavens, log them within that ominous pce. From a distance, I saw a soldier trying to escape, but as soon as parts of his body emerged from the bck fog, a bolt of lightning struck him with brutal force, exploding him instantly. It was as if the darkness itself punished anyone who dared defy its unfiving rules, making escape impossible.

  “Charge!” my husband yelled, leading our soldiers forward.

  There otlefield, we were about to fa army five times our size, but we were not mere farmers as they believed.

  “For the Evenhart Duchy!” I cried, leading the maid-soldiers who followed me with their spears raised high.

  “No survivors!” they shouted back.

  Massive fireballs were hurled in our dire. Ag quickly, I phe shaft of my spear into the ground and propelled myself into the air, geing a surge of water beh my feet.

  "Great Water Wave!" I shouted, as the giant wave swept away the enemies charging toward us. I saw barriers of wind rise to ter us, but we had already reached them.

  Beside me, soldiers and maids fought with relentless fury. One soldier tried to attack me.

  “You bitch!” he snarled, but I sidestepped and delivered a precise kick, using my spear for bance. He was thrown backward.

  “One less!” I yelled as he clutched at the wound on his neck, blood gushing from his throat. Hidden in my boot was the bde I had triggered during the kiow dripping with blood.

  “A maid always carries knives for emergencies,” I muttered before driving my spear into his face, sileng him forever.

  Then, I turo the enemy.

  Katherine Evenhart:

  The battle was already in full swing, armies g, the sounds of magid steel eg across the battlefield. But my focus was locked on the Wolves' fortress, now shrouded in a bck cloud, heavy with lightning r like wild beasts.

  Nathan... my son... I thought, my heart heavy. He had been carrying an unbearable weight, the guilt over Chloe's dition ing him. Seeing him like this, so engulfed in sorrow, was a torment even war couldn't erase.

  A scream tore through the air, brutal and desperate:

  "Ahhh, help!"

  I turo see an enemy soldier suspended in midair, his legs kig the void as roots burst forth from his body, snaking into his mouth and nostrils. The pnt snakes, one of my darkest creations, worked quickly, carrying special seeds that would soon germinate inside him.

  "Silerash," I muttered coldly, watg with cruel satisfa as his body vulsed. The man's scream became a muffled gurgle, and his stomach began to grotesquely swell. Then, CRACK! a siing sound echoed as his skin split apart, and small, fleshy, grotesque creatures began to emerge, dev him from within to grow.

  "e on, my babies," I whispered, the birth of my ivorous pnts. Nurtured with a macabre precision, these creatures transformed their hosts into something far more useful for my cause.

  Around me, more men began to scream in agony, writhing as roots and tendrils ripped through their flesh. Their bodies were violently reshaped, deformed into living vessels for my creations. Parts of their heads exploded into grotesque cavities, from whiew sprouts emerged, growing frantically and writhing in the air.

  "Ahhhh!" another soldier colpsed to his knees as his eyes rolled bad his veins filled with pulsating vines. His limbs twisted and torted, his insides ed by the rapidly germinating seeds.

  I strode across the battlefield with the calm of someone who had already decided the fate of everyohere. Cries of terror and pleas for mercy echoed around me, but they were like musiy ears. The ground became a grotesque carpet of ivorous flowers and pulsating tendrils, each born from the bodies of those who dared to face me. The rger war felt distant, but in this hellish patch of earth, I was the undisputed queen.

  Suddenly, five men charged at me. Four soldiers in gleaming armor and a mage in their midst, wielding a staff radiating agic.

  "Who are you?" one of them shouted, pointing his sword with determination. The archers apanying him drew their arrows, aiming directly at me. The mage began casting, transf spheres of water into sharp, gleaming ice arrows.

  "Help me!" a desperate cry from one of the men ensnared by my roots broke the silence.

  They didn't wait. The arrows flew, and shards of ice cut through the air, all aimed at me. But before they could hit, one of the soldiers I had transformed threw himself in front, taking the blows meant for his creator.

  "What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?" one of the knights shouted, bewildered.

  The transformed soldier growled, rising with effort as tentacles burst from his deformed armor, pulsating with a life of their owuro the archers, his body t in obedieo my will.

  "Attack them!" I anded.

  Like grotesque mariohe other soldiers, still groaning in pain, rose and charged at the men they once called allies.

  "We're your allies!" one of them screamed, desperate. "What are you doing?"

  The mage tinued casting his spell, a freezing mist beginning to envelop the field. I raised my hand, and thick roots erupted from the ground like hungry serpents. They surged forward, shoving the mage bad breaking his tration. One of the shield-bearing soldiers stepped forward, swinging his sword at the roots, but I had already turhe terrain into my on.

  A dull thud shattered the chaos. From a distance, I saw a knight on horseback emerge, swinging a massive mace. He charged toward the mage and, with a brutal strike, crushed the man's head in a single blow. The mage colpsed to the ground, and the horse reared, trampling the body into a pulp of flesh and ice.

  The knight turo face me, his grotesque head hosting a ivorous pnt that sprouted from a gaping hole in his skull.

  "Kill them!" I anded, and more transformed soldiers appeared, riding horses.

  The battlefield desded into utter colpse. The enemy soldiers tried to flee, but my grotesque army surrouhem. Archers fired frantically, but their arrows were useless against the ied bodies. Those who attempted to run were dragged down by soldiers with tentacles and pnts sprouting from their flesh.

  "Stop! Whose side are you on? Traitors!" one soldier yelled, trying desperately to resist.

  One of my transformed soldiers approached him, holding a writhing pnt-snake in his hands. The creature was forced into the man's mouth, and he began to scream ierror. The snake squirmed as it slithered down his throat, seeking his stomach.

  One by ohe soldiers were captured. The pnt-snakes iheir bodies through their mouths and nostrils. Their agonized screams blended with the grotesque sound of flesh tearing from within.

  CRACK! SPLAT! The siing sounds of stomachs bursting echoed across the battlefield. Grotesque pnts emerged, their bloodied sprouts turning the soldiers' bodies into deformed cos.

  Screams, the ch of bones breaking, and the wet explosions of flesh formed the macabre symphony apanying the birth of my creations. The battlefield no longer beloo them. It was my domain, and I was just getting started.

  "You dared to harm my son!" I hissed, my voice dripping with venom. "Remember this as these creatures devour every an inside you to grow stronger."

  I left them behind, letting the sprouts tio emerge, verting more bodies into soldiers under my trol. The age was absolute, and my vengeance had only begun.

  Margaery Evenhart:

  I was drained after juring so much fog. The snow spell was desigo cover vast areas, typically used by Builder Mages, but it had its advantages in warfare. By creating this snowy mist, I deprived our enemies of visibility while my maids exploited the chaos to eliminate key soldiers. My pn was to maintain the fog throughout the battle, limiting the enemy's vision and making the magical attacks from the walls far less accurate. They could unch their spells or arrows, but never with certainty of hitting their targets.

  Additionally, I had yered an icy barrier above the mist to ralize much of the destructive power of any fire magic aimed at us from above.

  However, my nephew had already handled much of the problem when his storm engulfed the fortress, ralizing the mages stationed on the walls.

  “Nathan…” I murmured, a mix of worry and exhaustion weighing on me. “When you make it out of this alive, we are going to have a serious talk.”

  I turned my attention back to the battle. "Let’s move!" I ahe maids guarding me in the forest.

  By now, Katie was surely creating her pnt soldiers. Her spell was so horrifying that it would likely be deemed a crime against humanity if the kingdom's authorities ever discovered it.

  "No oold them to harm our children," I muttered as I stepped toward the battlefield.

  Such is the power of a banished spell.

  Unfortunately, those pnts have a short lifespan outside the soil and will wither within a few hours, ing the bodies they inhabit and maniputing them like puppets. A devastating, yet temporary on.

  As I emerged from the forest, the chaos of the battle unfolded before me, men in a freruggle for survival. In the distance, I saw Lionel wielding his massive sword with precision, single-handedly taking on a squad of soldiers. He was focused, each swing of his bde felling multiple foes.

  "I want to have some fun too," I muttered, feeling a surge of excitement.

  I pulled a familiar from my ste bracelet. With a swift motion, I ehe in a sheath of ice, transf it into a deadly aquatic whip. Water flowed along the length of the , perfectly trolled by me, ready to ensnare and annihite any enemy foolish enough to e near.

  When the whip struck a foe, the hellish entment within it would activate, unleashing unbearable pain as the water crushed them. The shimmered uhe gray light of the battlefield, eager to do its work.

  "Let’s see how much you endure..." I whispered, stepping into the fray.

  The whip cracked through the air, the first screams of agony pierg the chaos. I had returo the battlefield as the Witch of Torture.