Witch's Path

Far from the battle raging within the dark, gloomy forest—a place filled with towering, thick black trees and vegetation as dangerous as the wild beasts lurking within—a small house stood quietly. White smoke drifted from its chimney, curling into the air. Inside, a small girl gazed out toward the woods, her obsidian eyes reflecting occasional red particles and multicolored streams of light that flickered in the distance. She stared ahead intently, as if her gaze could pierce through the dense, foreboding flora that blocked her view.

Selene watched with fascination as the light show unfolded deep within the forest. She squinted her eyes and whispered to herself, "It's been over an hour since those particles appeared, and they're getting more intense. But the energy stream... it feels weaker for some reason. I wonder who's using magic on such a scale."

Her gaze shifted to the red particles swirling in the sky, which began to coalesce into the shape of a bird. Her eyes widened in amazement. "Wow, look at that! I've never seen the particles behave like that before. Wait... is that really a bird? That's so cool!" she thought, nearly jumping with excitement.

Meanwhile, her nanny—an old midwife who had cared for her since birth—watched her with a look of quiet amusement.

She couldn't help but ask, "Little Selene, what are you looking at this time? Show me so we can watch together!"

Startled, Selene blurted, "Ah, Grandma Lydia, it's nothing! Just a butterfly with pink wings. They are so beautiful."

'I can't let them suspect anything', she thought to herself, hoping the nanny would simply let it go.

Ever since she could remember, Selene had been able to see particles of many colors—some red, some blue, some bluish-white, and some green. But that wasn't all. She also noticed streams of these particles, like waves, flowing through the air. Unlike the particles that seemed to float freely around her, the waves appeared to rise directly from the ground or the trees, as if the earth itself were alive with energy.

As Selene grew older, her father began to notice her often staring off into the distance, seemingly in a daze. Concerned, he asked her what she was looking at. She explained what she saw—particles and streams of energy swirling around her. Her father was puzzled, dismissing it at first as a child's vivid imagination. But as time went on, her behavior persisted. Her expressions would shift as if she were lost in another world, and his concern deepened.

Eventually, he decided to take her to a local white witch for guidance.

In this world, witches—female practitioners of magic—were categorized into three distinct groups, with their male counterparts being known as wizards or warlocks, depending on their nature.

White witches were renowned for their strong affinity toward earth, plant life, and all energies related to life itself. They often served as local healers, skilled in diagnostic spells, particularly those related to soul-related illnesses. However, white witches were exceedingly rare. Their existence was only possible if the witch had never taken a life—not even that of an ant. In a world where death could come at any moment, often at the whims of those who deemed others worthless, white witches were like lone stars shining in the vast emptiness of space. They stood as the ultimate counter to their twisted counterparts: black witches.

Black witches, known by many names—such as death witches, chaos witches, or curse witches—are the embodiment of death itself. They have no morals, no limits, and spare no one, whether old, young, man, or woman. To them, any vessel containing life is a source of power to be absorbed, and they will stop at nothing to claim it.

Normally, Witches and wizzards cannot naturally recover their mana reserves. Once their mana is spent, it is gone until they perform a Soul Ritual to replenish it, but this ritual is time-consuming. So they must carry a "battery" filled with mana, especially during battles.

When their mana cores are nearly depleted, they use these batteries to instantly replenish their energy. These batteries can take the form of artifacts designed to trap mana or mana bottles—containers inscribed with runic language and filled with a deep, dark blue, viscous liquid. However, the most potent type of battery is a living being.

In combat, black witches often use the roots of death trees to pierce living creatures, draining them of their blood and converting it into pure mana. This not only rejuvenates the witch but also heals her wounds, leaving the victim as a desiccated husk—skin clinging to bone.

Some black witches also maintain secret lairs where they kidnap men and drain them through a process involving intimacy. While this method brings immense pleasure to the witches, the men rarely survive more than a few uses. In certain parts of the world, this has become one of the most profitable businesses, not just for black witches but for witches in general.

Black markets thrive with black witches selling curses and potions capable of killing or altering anything to suit the buyer's desires. Becoming a black witch is a sure path to wealth—but only if one avoids capture. Authorities hold a strong bias against black witches, and their existence, though not as prominent as that of common witches, is considered taboo in all kingdoms ruled by mages and maguses.

The last group of witches is the common witches. They exist everywhere and form the backbone of every empire ruled by witches. They possess traits of both white and black witches but lack the pure, radiant aura of white witches and do not delve into the dark arts to create forbidden curses or potions made from the parts of sentient beings, as black witches do.

Common witches are your typical everyday practitioners of magic, making up nearly two-thirds of the total number of witches in the known world. They fill the ranks of armies, government positions, and everyday jobs, serving as the foundation of society. However, this does not mean they are weak. In fact, the kingdoms of Finster and Dunkel—both under the leadership of the Mitternacht Empire—are ruled by two of the strongest common witches, both of whom have reached the last tiers of the Awakening realm.

Now, returning to Selene, when Rayan took her to the local healer, the white witch confirmed that Selene was physically healthy. However, what surprised the healer was that Selene's soul appeared stronger than that of a normal three-year-old child. Reflecting on this, Rayan began to notice his daughter's peculiarities. She often succeeded at whatever she attempted, usually on the first or second try.

Even Selene herself noticed her differences. When she played with other children in town, she found herself more interested in serious matters than in games. By the age of three, she had observed that the particles she saw came from different sources. For example, the brown particles came from a man who manipulated earth to create structures, while the wave-like particles came from the healer in green and blue streams. Later selene deduced that the woman was a witch, and the man was a magus working for the town hall from what she could understand from her father and the nannies who visted her regularly to keep an eye on her while rayan went to work.

She would engage in small talk with them, carefully trying to learn new words and gather more information to satiate her ever-growing curiosity.

And so selene began to observe these phenomenas more closely, patiently waiting to understand their meaning. She chose not to ask questions, even at her young age, because she was exceptionally intelligent and understood that revealing her knowledge might raise suspicions. In a world filled with superstition, even the actions of a three-year-old child could ignite an uproar.

Unbeknownst to Selene, her decision to keep her observations to herself saved her from a fate so terrifying that it would have made her shiver with fear had she known of it.