Chapter 692: A Vow Made in Dust
Instantly, the words caught in the witch’s throat, an invisible pressure bearing down on her. Her legs buckled, her own weight increasing two, five, tenfold in a second—and still growing.
The crunching of her bones reverberated through her crushed body. The agony was unbearable, but the consequences were much worse. Locked in place by the crushing, she had no way to escape. She hated it, but could only use her trump card to ensure survival.
As she channelled her mana, however, Adam’s voice cut through her hopes.
"I also thought you wielded symbiotic magic. I didn’t know I was literally correct. Symbiosis through infestation. That’s how you control the forest, that’s how you plan to escape."
He retrieved an empty parchment from his spatial ring, mana dancing on its rough surface into glowing symbols. Although he had never crafted it, he had seen and used it a few dozen times during his college days.
With a thought, he blinked into the gravity zone he had summoned and strapped the parchment, now a talisman, on the witch’s forehead. A vicious smirk split his face as he continued. "Monsters like you don’t deserve second chances. That was my last misunderstanding."
The talisman burst with a radiant light, making the witch tremble in horror. He could use mana! No, it didn’t matter when she felt the paper extirpate her soul while she tried to transfer it to the girl. She couldn’t let it happen!
Adam was correct. She controlled the forest through parasites that carried fragments of her soul, allowing her to transfer it to a new vessel and cheat death—at the cost of time. In this case, the girl was the best target. She could have hidden in her, biding her time to recover while marking her body and slowly taking it over. But he had even seen through that plan!
She wanted to plead with him for forgiveness, to tell him she would atone for her sins. But the pressure denied her even that. Her spells? She had tried already. They couldn’t pierce his skin. Worse, something destroyed her microscopic parasites as soon as they approached him. Infecting him was impossible.