17 Trial by Fire

After a while, Rocky felt the rough fabric being pulled away, allowing him to regain his vision. He saw his captor was a figure covered in a dark cloak and a dark hood that hid his face, like a ninja. From what he could see, he was in a dimly lit corridor with a few torches burning dimly.

The 'ninja' figure was kneeling subserviently to a young woman with white hair and red eyes. The young woman extended out her hand and the figure respectfully handed Rocky to her.

The young woman asked, "Is this the supposed philosopher's stone that got the Alchemists Workshop all worked up?"

The hooded figure nodded. The young woman waved her hand dismissively and said, "You may leave." The hooded figure bowed respectfully and walked away.

After the hooded figure left, the young woman looked closely at Rocky and muttered, "Is this really it? It seems like an ordinary piece of copper."

Rocky was face to face with the young woman's crimson eyes and it was incredibly unpleasant. The young woman tossed Rocky up and down as she walked down the hallway. She opened a door and Rocky, albeit dizzy, saw two guards standing by the doorway.

Past the door was an enormous room with guards lining the walls. In the middle of the room were various weapons on a table and there was dried blood all over the floor. There were also two other women standing in the middle of the room smiling at the woman carrying Rocky. Rocky nervously asked Dustina, "Do you know anything about what the Church does?"

Dustina replied naively, "Don't they just help people and stuff? Oh they also want to kill all the witches and demons too!"

Rocky sulkily said, "Thanks for the useful information that was totally not common knowledge."

One of the young woman in the center of the room asked the woman carrying Rocky, "Zero, is that the philosopher's stone?"

Zero nodded, "One of the Church's contacts in the Alchemists Workshop managed to steal it not long after the master alchemists there confirmed it."

The other young woman remarked, "It doesn't look all that special to me. It looks like an ordinary piece of copper. Are you sure we should go through with using it to forge the staff?"

Zero frowned and said, "I'm not too sure either but there is a high probability that it is the philosopher's stone. If it is and the forging is successful, we can easily win the Third Battle of Divine Will against the demons."

One of the women in the center of the room nodded to a guard standing in the side of the room. The guard pulled a lever and a large forge was lowered from the ceiling.

Rocky was lamenting, "Forge? FORGE?!? They want to melt me?" He was going through mental gymnastics while reconsidering all of his resources and methods at his disposal. Rock magic would not work on the cauldron as it was made of iron. He could not move and why in the world should he 'speak' to the witches? It would only confirm their suspicions even further.

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