9 Act IV: Rescue

Only a couple of inches separated the sharp, wooden root from Eivör's whole, tear soaked face. Her expression played a symphony of despair, even after realizing that the death missile had been stopped. Tears wouldn't stop rolling down her soft cheeks.

The wooden roots were standing still, mid air and frozen, with a flavor of a symmetrical hissing sound of merciless serpents.

Dozens of snakes wrapped themselves around the roots, somewhat blending in with the huskily texture and completely incapacitating the roots from moving any further. After realizing she had escaped Death once again, Eivör decided to look through the blurriness of her salty drops. She looked towards the boy who was barely standing on his trembling feet. The other two wooden roots were stopped as well, thus he remained safe.

Then she glanced around her, only to find the intelligent Vulture, Maurice Megwire on her left side, and the luscious Python, Abel Zoother somewhat northeast to her. The third out of the seven, the Wolf, was right by the murderous Witch.

A change of heart jumped into place. This was the most joy Ásdís felt in decades! Her fingertips straightened, skin tightened and eyes widened. The need to kill also became bigger. Her non-decaying body was surrounded by almost all remaining human magic wielders — a sensation that other Witches could have only dreamed of. Her thoughts, now unstable as ever before, kept cutting the hemispheres of her corrupted brain, convincing her that she will be the first ever to slay all of them on the spot. With no due hesitation, she began speaking.

"What an honor. To be surrounded by almost all of" —

Snapped and direct hit. Ásdís was instantly hit by an enormous wolf, launching her at least twenty meters away at incredible speed. Half of her guts were blown out by this single punch. However, the wolf wouldn't stop — he continued following after her. While the wolf was aggressively running towards her, another one joined it, and they both proceeded to jump mercilessly on Ásdís, ripping off her innards.

It only took a couple of seconds before the wolves completely tore her guts out. Along these couple of bloody seconds, screams of a deep, somewhat roaring voice kept dancing around.

"HA-HA-HA-HAH! CUT HER OUT! MAKE HER EAT HER OWN ORGANS! PIECE OF SHIT WITCH, YOU'RE PATHETIC!"

The wolves, now covered in Witch blood and gut, didn't know when to stop, or preferably did not want to stop. They kept ripping her out alive.

In a glimpse of a moment, two new wooden roots rose from the ground, wrapped around the wolves' bodies and sealed back into the ground. The wolves couldn't move, but the roots were starting to break due to the impeccable resistance of the alpha males.

The Witch barely stood up.

"You pitiful creatures… Ghhh… Thinking you're free to come along and resent this God given forest… The Lord will slay you all!"

"Hate to break it to ya, hun. You look more pitiful than any of us.

And forget the Lord, I am your Saint."

The silky and buttery voice of Abel decided to shut the Witch down.

The Witch lowered her head only to realize that dozens of snakes were now starting to eat her up.

"The most common living species in Teutoburg are insects, moles and… What a pleasure, the last one would be snakes. Be sure that I have as many as you like! Just wish upon!"

And then, the roots snapped. Both of the wolves instantly jumped on the Witch who was covered in snakes. They started using teeth and claws, continuing on ripping her body parts off, chewing them a couple of times and spitting them out afterwards.

Abel started complaining on her fair behalf.

"What a nuisance, Rö! The snakes only are fine enough, thank you."

"HA-HA-HAH! Listen here mistress, talk to me like that again and I'll kill you too!"

"I see no problem in that, honey…"

"Hey! How about you two straighten up? We've got few time!"

Maurice finally joined in, boldly trying to form a pact of peace between the two.

Eivör stared bluntly. She did not know what to feel.

The only thing that was for sure was that all her tears had gone away, as well as the salty wetness that slept alongside the lines of her nose and nostrils, cheeks and corners of her soft mouth. She had slowly began coming to her conscious senses.

Feelings still battled the mind, however. On one side, there was happiness caused by helpful, thus loyal companions. On the other, there was the mixed bitterness of the whole chaotic mess she had to endure and go through. With words only wiping the top of her dry, lower lip, she began murmuring quietly.

"Guys…"

"You don't look too well, Eivör."

Aside all of this mess, the boy still stood his ground. He was the liberating statue of the whole event. He had no idea what to focus on — the thoughts in his head, the pain in his stomach, the weakness throughout his whole body or the suffocating of the Witch.

All of these four options immediately drowned in the dirty water once he saw Ryohu running from the dense trees alive and well. He was sprinting towards the grasp of the paralyzed boy with the smallness of his all four.

The man from before was right behind him. It seemed like he was shouting something.

"The Witch! She's gone!"

The howls of the two wolves started emerging. They were looking above them. The Witch was in the air, glowing brighter than ever.

The first one to oppose this sighting was none other than Rö, the psychotic Wolf.

"Are you being serious right now?!"

"Careful, for all we know she could be preparing a blow!"

"She's vanishing! She's trying to escape!"

[Vanishing… Since when did]—

Abel's thinking was shortly crushed by Rö's loud voice.

"HA-HA-HA-HAH! RUNNING FROM THE OPPOSING?! I'LL FIND YOU EVENTUALLY AND CUT YOU OPEN TWICE THE TIME!"

With the full glare of everlasting glow, the contours of the Witch slowly started disappearing.

They were all staring in awe until Ásdís completely vanished.

"She vanished into… Thin air."

"I'll kill her when I find her, best believe that dawn will rise. Fucking whore."

"We've secured the area, that's what matters now. I think that we deserve a breather. You two look messed up. Especially you, Eivör."

"Yeah, no doubt. It's a Witch we're talking about. She's lucky that I got there in time and stalled – she would've been dead by now."

"So you didn't reach the meeting point because of the Witch? Where is your crew?"

Abel had to ask.

But she didn't know with what to reply. The truth was too far from believable, even while being the pure word of the whole event. She stared quietly into the eyes of the others surrounding her, gulped heavily and decided to let out some inaudible words.

"Ugh… No… It's not because of the Witch. I" —

"Meeow! Meow!"

"Is that… A cat?"

Almost all of them stared in sweet confusion.

Ryohu had finally managed to reach the boy and lovingly stand against his side. The boy laid a weak and shaking hand on Ryohu's tiny head and started petting him. It was transparent that the boy was still in extreme shock and pain.

"Eivör, who are they?"

[They're friends.]

"They're… I don't know."

"You don't know?! What was all of that, moments before?! That didn't seem like you!"

"I…"

"It doesn't matter anymore. Everything is in shreds now.

We failed the objective. We were assembled to chase after one of the Lord's insiders, but the bastard got away. We couldn't chase after him because you were stopped and couldn't manage to get to the cavern. Just your regular useless self."

Rö declared all of this without a single stroke of regret. Eivör was sure to resent.

"I'm not useless! Y-You don't know what I went through!"

"Damn right you are."

"S-Say it one more time and I'll…"

"Let's calm" —

"HA-HA-HAAA! And you'll what? Kill me?! You couldn't even manage to touch the Witch, even alongside Schwimmer's assistance! "

"You're speaking in terms as if the Witch is of low skill."

"She might be. Depends on who is looking at it."

"If she's of such low skill, why'd you let her escape?"

"Shut it, Abel. I'll find her and slice her off."

"Sure hun, you do you."

In this moment, the boy fell unconscious to the ground. Ryohu was extremely tired and eaten up by fatigue, so he laid down next to the boy in peace. The imagery was calmly strange.

As soon as Eivör saw the boy collapse, she released a loud gasp and started running towards him. The others watched in confusion.

His skin, bruised and wounded, was somehow tremendously soft. Mouth just a little bit open. It seemed like he was mumbling something. "U-u…". And it kept going. "U… She…". Eivör kept looking at him — her pupils and hands were shaking. "She's not useless…"

She started praying for his well-being.

"He needs medical care immediately!"

"We can escort him to the nearest district."

"I agree."

"You do what you want, I'm not getting involved. I'm splitting and seeking for the Witch."

They lifted the boy up and put him on one wolf. The other one went with Rö.

Ryohu didn't seem to be waking up, so Eivör carried him. She knew that the boy and the pitch black cat must never be split apart.

Never.