Chapter 20 - Assoluto Argento Mondo

"Augusta!!" Lavinia shouted, glaring at the figure. She had been searching for her and hadn't expected to meet her here.

"Oh? You seem to know me?" Augusta replied, intrigued. The girl's hatred was palpable, as if she had killed her entire family or something.

"Of course I know you. How could I not? You killed my parents, after all." Lavinia said, her eyes cold and murderous.

"..." Augusta was stunned. It seemed her joke had just become a harsh reality.

"Hey, little girl. Don't slander me. When did I ever kill your parents?" Augusta frowned. Despite being known as the Wicked Witch of the East, she rarely ventured into the human world. But there was one time...

"Oh! I remember now! You're the girl with Absolute Demise, right? I did kill your parents, but it was Glenda who told me to do it, you know?" Augusta said, realization dawning on her. It was eight years ago when Glenda hired her for a commission, and she had accepted it.

"Master, who is she?" Augusta's disciple asked curiously.

"Walburga, she's like me. A wielder of a Longinus." Augusta replied with a smile. Walburga nodded, her interest in Lavinia growing.

The task was to kill the parents of the girl with Absolute Demise. A year later, she was supposed to take the girl as her apprentice and experiment on her to understand her power, but the girl had disappeared.

"I see. So my parents' deaths were just a job for you." Lavinia said, her eyes devoid of emotion.

"Of course. We're witches, you know? There's no wickedness or goodness between us. We'll use any means to get whatever we want." Augusta said with a cold smile.

"Fine. I will hunt every one of you. Until none remain."

"Oh? That's some big talk, don't you think? You think you can fight with the Wizards of Oz? Imbecile."

Wizards of Oz.

That's the name of the organization Augusta was in. To be exact, it's a domain filled with magicians, wizards, and witches. There are four cities surrounding the capital, Emerald City, each managed by a witch.

East, South, West, and North. South and North witches are the good witches, while East and West witches are the wicked witches. But those are just titles made by the residents. All four witches are cruel. It's just that the North and South witches don't show it to the public.

The Emerald City is ruled by the leader of the organization, Oz. What's interesting is that the Wizards of Oz exist in the Dimensional Gap.

Augusta here is the Second Witch of the East, and it's unknown who the first is. It might be a reference to the witch that died after Dorothy's house landed on her as she first appeared in Oz.

"Lavi..." Suddenly, Reni appeared beside Lavinia. She is the avatar of her Sacred Gear. Of course, she could be summoned to her place at will.

Reni looked at Lavinia, tears streaming down her face.

"I'm fine. I will exterminate them. Can you support me, Reni?" Lavinia asked, her face pleading.

"Lavi, I'm a part of you. No matter what, I will always support you." Reni answered with a slight smile on her cold face. Then, she transformed into a giant doll. But, the appearance of the doll was not ugly like how it was portrayed before.

The doll had a beautiful face, similar to Reni's own.

"Thank you..." Lavinia replied as she activated her Absolute Demise.

"Danger!" Augusta frowned. She could feel that Lavinia's power had reached her height. If they were to clash, it would not be known who would win.

Lavinia and Reni are one. They could use their power to empower each other. Now, their strength together is on par with Akeno's.

Augusta then teleported Walburga far away from her to the corner of the room while she activated her Longinus, Incinerate Anthem.

Incinerate Anthem is like the opposite of Absolute Demise. If Absolute Demise is ice, then it is fire. This Longinus is created based on the Holy Cross where Jesus Christ is being crucified.

It has the power to manipulate and generate Holy Fire, one of the strongest fires in this universe.

The temperature of the room suddenly dropped to the bottom. But, none of her comrades felt it. Only Hanezu and Augusta felt it. Even Walburga didn't feel it. It must be because Lavinia didn't think of her as an enemy yet.

Suddenly, Lavinia felt that her power suddenly became stronger. It was like she had surpassed Akeno.

'Is that you, Ryuu? Thank you…' Lavinia could feel that Ryuuga was the one who empowered her this time. She sent him her gratitude in her heart.

"Witch, you have lived for too long. Now, atone for your sins with your death in frozen demise!" Lavinia said as she gathered her power.

"Ughhh!" Augusta groaned as she felt that Lavinia became even more powerful than her. She activated her balance breaker and a fire giant appeared on the battlefield. But, somehow, the temperature of the room didn't rise and even kept dropping!

She wanted to teleport away from there, but she couldn't. This is because Tosca used an Anti-Teleport Barrier to surround the room to make sure none of the enemies escaped.

"Assoluto Argento Mondo!" Lavinia shouted as she activated her balance breaker! As she activated it, cold blizzards appeared from her, released into her surroundings, freezing those who she deemed as enemies.

Hanezu and Augusta died as they were turned into ice statues. Then, the statues cracked and exploded! They've died.

Holy Fire and Eternal Ice are two powers with similar forces. The only difference between them is their wielders. Because Lavinia is more powerful than Augusta currently, her Eternal Ice becomes more powerful than the Holy Fire.

"It's finished." Lavinia said with a sigh. She didn't use all of her energy because she didn't want to exhaust her reserves for the unknown.

But, her revenge has just started. Now, she aimed at Glenda, and even Oz. After all, Augusta moved because Glenda assigned her and she must have received something useful from her.

"Master? You lost?" Walburga said as she walked towards the corpse of her master, who had been turned into chunks of ice. She didn't feel sad or remorse because her master died.

After all, she learned magic from her, and Augusta did experiments on her. They were using each other.

"Well, I'll take this then." Walburga retrieved a cross-like item from between the chunks of ice. That's the true form of the Incinerate Anthem. This Sacred Gear is different because it has its own will to choose its master.

So, it could move from host to host. Because it felt that Walburga had potential, it decided to latch on to her for now.

"Hehehe. Then, goodbye, everyone!" Walburga said with a smile as she tried to activate her Teleportation Magic. But, it failed because Tosca still maintained the Anti-Teleport Barrier.

"Eh?" Walburga was stunned. Suddenly, she felt like her body couldn't move anymore. Her limbs were all being chained by Sealing Magic created by Akeno!

"Are you okay, Lavinia-san?" Akeno asked Lavinia with worry. After all, they're as close as sisters after living together for a long time.

"I'm fine. I feel relieved that I've avenged my parents." Lavinia said with a smile. She wished her parents could feel peace in Heaven.

"What should we do with her?" Akeno asked as she pointed towards Walburga.

"Hello? Can you release me? Pretty please?" Walburga said to them, still with her smile. It was like she was really carefree. She didn't even feel remorse for her master's death.

"Slave Contract." Lavinia muttered as she activated a spell. The spell's name is Slave Contract. As its name suggests, it's a contract where she will bind Walburga into becoming her slave. She could also configure it by adding conditions to what not and what can be done by the slaves.

"You!" Walburga gnashed her teeth as she felt the spell enter her. Now, her soul has been connected with the spell because she couldn't use her magic to reject it!

"From now on, you will become our slave. First, you can't hurt any of your comrades. Second, you can't betray your master. Third, you must obey everything you're told to. Fourth, you're not allowed to do anything you're not told to." Lavinia said to Walburga. Those are the conditions she set in the Slave Contract.

"Kuhh! Fine!" Walburga said as she glared at Lavinia. What could she do? The spell has bound her soul. If she rejected it, she would die immediately. She didn't want to die yet!

"Fufufu. Don't worry. Aren't you just looking for fun? We're Exodus and we will fight strong supernatural forces in the future." Akeno explained as she giggled.

"Exodus?" Walburga knew that name. She had heard it before from her master. They said that Exodus was hunting Sacred Gear wielders from the Three Factions and making them angry. The Three Factions were looking for them, but none of them had even found one of the members.

"Now I'm interested." Walburga said with a smirk. Maybe it wouldn't be boring with them.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

"What do you think?" Ryuuga asked the man beside him, whose body was chained to the ground. Both of them, along with the maids behind Ryuuga, were watching the floating panel that showed Lavinia and Augusta's battle.

The battle had ended, and Lavinia emerged as the victor because Ryuuga had used the Master Card on her, which elevated her power to just slightly below his. She had almost reached his rank.

"I will keep my word." the young man said to Ryuuga with determination. His name was Samejima Kouki. After the team led by Lavinia and Akeno set out, he had been assigned to Mira, Ile, and Nel to be brought to the Hanging Garden.

He was the wielder of one of the Four Fiends, Tao Wu. Despite his appearance as a school delinquent, which he was before the students went missing, he possessed significant power.

He had also been approached by Azazel with the same condition as Natsume. Azazel had wanted him to save his best friend named Maeda Nobushige.

Initially, Kouki had been inclined to reject Azazel's offer, but then Ryuuga had shown him a screen. The screen displayed several girls fighting against the Utsusemi Agency. Among them was his best friend, who had been defeated and lay unconscious.

Upon seeing this, Kouki had immediately agreed to Ryuuga's request.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm good enough to be your host." Kouki said to the white cat beside him. Although they had spent several days together, he felt that returning to a normal human life was preferable to joining this unknown world.

The white cat regarded Kouki, as if analyzing him. Seeing the determination in his eyes, the cat nodded.

"Meow~"

With a meow, the cat bowed its head at Kouki one last time. Then, a ball of light emerged from Kouki's chest and floated into Ryuuga's palm. The white cat also leaped between his thighs and settled there.

Sensing Kouki's emotions, the cat understood that Samejima Kouki had chosen to return to a normal life. Thus, it decided to separate itself from him, taking its energy with it. Exhausted from the process, it settled down to rest and recuperate.

Watching the ball of light in Ryuuga's palm, Kouki felt a pang in his heart. It was as if he had lost something important.

"Can I ask for one more thing?"

"Oh? What is it?" Ryuuga, currently in a good mood, decided to listen to Kouki's request.

"Can you remove the memories of the supernaturals from me and the students?" Kouki asked. He didn't want to remember anything about this anymore.

"Sure. When you wake up, everything will be as it was before." Ryuuga nodded and replied. It was an easy task for him. With a wave of his hand, he cast his Debuff Magic to put Kouki to sleep.

"Thank… you…" Kouki said with a smile as he drifted off.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

A/N: Do you guys know of a good Genshin Impact novel where I can learn about the lore in detail? I played the game but had to quit due to lack of time, yet I want to include its elements in this novel.