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The philosopher's stone.

A powerful alchemical reagent and tool. Witches and alchemists across the ages vainly pursued it as the apex of their craft. But It was an existence that was both real and false. A paradoxical concept.

For in order to create such a thing required an endless font of magic and an all-consuming void to contain it.

Though there did exist an impossibility. Edith Percouli, who was the first witch to consume all seven souls of the cardinal sins, bore that power in the palm of her hands— the power of creation and destruction. No mortal could wield them as gods do. Yet the stones allowed her to ascend to a godlike being.

That Edith sought to create the philosopher's stone meant only one thing— she could not contain her powers. All this hoarded magic from the towers flowing into the Eternal City was to forge the sole alchemical means for her to survive.

An elixir of immortality.

Usurper. Traitor. Within me, Vessyra seethed with fury.

Of course, she would be angry. A witch sought to climb the steps of godhood through foul means. Her brother Demos betrayed her

We won't let them get away with this, I assured the wrathful goddess.

"Why the dark face?" Edith asked. "Our teacher-student reunion not what you expected? The Anora you thought you knew had long passed away. I have always been Edith Percouli."

"Even so, you taught and raised me to become what I am. Now I shall put everything I've learned and gained to put a stop to you." I clenched the lance with both hands.

The swelling of magic coursing through me cried out for release. My skin tingled with divine energy that gathered to my hands. From the golden lance, I fired a beam of light in Edith's direction.

The demon witch sprouted wings and flew out of the way, letting beam carve through the castle like butter. It ceased, but I still felt plenty of magic in me. I only knew that it couldn't be used again so soon. Vessyra was recovering slowly.

"Very impressive. Now allow me." Edith conjured a black ball above her head and hurled it toward us.

Eudora acted swiftly. She summoned a barrier around us that instead folded inwards around the incoming spell, absorbing the explosion that followed.

"Rio," I shouted for my familiar who had hidden himself from Edith's detection, "go wild."

A vicious hiss accompanied the destruction of several ceilings. I hijacked Rio's vision and ordered him to send Edith crashing almost fours floors up the castle.

Mira and I followed after, landing in a repository of old books and dusty scrolls. While our foe was entangled by Rio's tentacles and pinned underneath shelves, we launched a volley of fireballs at her.

A cold front unleashed across the chamber, sending parchment and tomes flying. Mira raised a barrier to protect us from the magical chill. Through Rio's vision, he was sent flying away.

Dozens of bloody tendrils emerged from the hole in the floor. They sought out and impaled Edith, flinging her around like a ragdoll. Her concentration broken, the blizzard she had conjured ceased.

"Now how do you like being tossed around?" Eudora snarled.

Edith sliced the tendrils away with a blade of frost and freed herself.

"You will never achieve what I have today!" she fired back.

Both of them clashed with the destructive power of gods. Chunks of the castle were blown away with each blast of magic. The ceilings began to give way and crumble.

Mira and I rejoined the fray only in time for Eudora to be sent crashing multiple rooms away in a burst of flames. Our combined magic, in addition to Rio's ambush tactics, we tore through the castle walls like wet paper and put Edith on the defensive.

A black mist filled the surroundings, robbing me of my sight and hearing. I felt the warmth of Mira's back, but the only sound I heard was Demos' maddening laughter.

"Illuminae!" I cleared the fog away by brightening my lance.

I shoved Mira aside just as black claws plunged into my gut. Edith bull rushed us out the door and into the terrace we had spoken at just before she imprisoned me.

The battle continued to rage on below and above us in the crimson battlefield. Across the Granite Promenade, demons and statue constructs advanced upon Eudora's tower, slowly overwhelming their defenses.

"As long as humanity exists, we will always be a threat to them. Defeat me and a hundred years from now, they will put our kind in chains again. Is that the future you want?" Edith asked, lifting me by the throat.

"Who knows what will happen that long from now? I only know that you're giving them a reason to make those excuses. Twice now!" I answered.

White, wispy tendrils from my robes coiled around Edith's fingers, struggling to pry them from my neck. I tried to swing my lance, but at this distance, she merely grabbed my wrist. The blade of my weapon was only inches away from her throat.

"We could have created a world for all witches together. Without men and women wearing pretty rocks on their head to tell us how to exercise our powers. You won't be there to see it. I take no gratification hurting my own witchkin." She frowned.

"Don't talk about self-gratification. Your bitter old cunt hasn't seen action in centuries that you went and made up stories about your sex life, you senile bat!" A pitchy voice cackled as roots sprouted from the ground to entangle Edith's feet and immobilize her where she stood.

I seized the distraction to put force on my lance, but Edith flung me away instead.

Mira and Talos flew to my side. Together, we unleashed a flurry of spells that battered our foe. Exhaustion was taking a toll on them both. The longer this fight dragged out, the less chance we had of winning.

"What happened to that beam of light?" Mira asked between labored breaths.

"Vessyra isn't responding." I violently shook my staff and received no answer.

A ball of black energy fired at us from the smoke. This time, it was Mira who threw herself on top of me. We fell hard to the ground, but I kept her in my arms so that I took the brunt of the impact.

"That… left a mark…" Mira peeled back a hand on her abdomen to show a webbing of necrotic magic expanding.

Edith charged toward us, her hands bristling with necromantic energies. Rio arrived in the nic of time, slamming into her. Landing to our side was Eudora, who saw the wound on Mira's body and clicked her tongue.

"Take a moment. I will hold her off. But know this— it doesn't end until she dies, or we die." Eudora left us with that grave reminder as she returned to battle.

"Quick. Drink this!" I offered Mira the last of my restoration potion, but she pushed it away.

"I've studied enough about black magic to know this won't kill me instantly. Come now, no need to make that face. Although, it is most welcomed." Mira reached up and wiped the tear streaking down my cheek. The brave front she put on was stamped with sweat.

My mind was blanking out. If I were to lose Mira, I didn't know what I would do.

She pushed a sheath into my hand. Her signature, six-inch steel dagger.

"If you die on me, I will go to the hells to bring you back," I warned.

"Quite the adventure we would have." Mira got to her feet on her own, but struggled to remain standing. She kept me at an arm's length away to stop me from helping. "I will use my own magic to keep this wound at bay. Go. As much as I'd hate to say it— Eudora needs your help."

With Talos' help, she hid behind rubble to stay hidden. I fixed the sheath to my belt and detected traces of a magic signature in the blade. If I didn't know better, Mira's dagger was a… soul-bound weapon?

"You're not hurting anyone else," I swore aloud.

I reached into the depths of my soul to summon every ounce of magic I had. Nature heeded my calls. It, too, granted me a fraction of its magic through Flora's boon. I interrupted the duel by raising gargantuan roots from the earth, forcing Edith onto the defense. She didn't see the root coming from behind and swatted her to the ground.

"Do not let up!" Eudora shouted. She used a claw to slice her own palm. Bloody tendrils emerged to bind Edith while she was still on the ground.

However, our foe climbed to her feet and yanked the tendrils, including Eudora into her grasp. The Cackling Witch, refusing to be outdone, slipped behind and put Edith in a chokehold.

"Finish it!"

My body moved on its own. I plunged the lance as hard as I could into Edith's body. Her hand broke free from Eudora's hold and grasped the bladed edge of golden lance before it carved into her chest.

"Rio!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

He headbutted them from the back, the impact sinking the lance into the demon witch.

"I've come too far to be stopped now!" Edith clenched her teeth. The muscles on her arm swelled as black magic swirled along the shaft of my golden lance.

I let it go.

Guided by Flora and Vessyra's hand, I unsheathed the dagger at my belt and plunged it into Edith's chest. The silver blade sparked and filled with divine energy, carving up to her neck like butter.

All at once the struggling had stopped.

Eudora staggered away from Edith, clutching her abdomen and wincing in agony.

I pulled the dagger and staff away from Edith without resistance. The crimson witch knelt on the ground, staring at her gaping wound of swirling abyss which began to distort the space around us. There almost appeared to be relief in her eyes.

"Hundreds of years ago, I had a vision of paradise." Edith sighed.

"There is no paradise in a world ruled by fear. The world changed while you were stuck in your old ways. Instead of fighting against it, you should have changed with it," I replied, pitying the old witch's archaic concept of an eden.

"A fine lesson, my dear student." She shut her eyes and nodded. "You should escape while you still have time."

At long last the centuries old witch, Edith Percouli, laid dead on the ground. Her body vanished in a flash of light, replaced with an amalgamation of seven soul stones melded together, trying to break itself apart from one another.

When that happened…

You must flee, Vessyra screamed at me.

"We have to escape. There's no way to contain the implosion!" Eudora screamed.

"Contain… the implosion…" I repeated after her.

Did we have an entity powerful enough to do that? The answer was at the tip of my tongue. A single thought crossed my mind— Rio.

Familiars were bonded to a witch. They knew and felt every emotion, shared in it even. That was why I didn't need to say a thing. Rio knew exactly what to do. He looked me in the eyes, smiled the only way a kitten could, and sprung to action on his own.

My heart seized.

At that moment, I remembered Rio as a corpse. The cold, dead body of a kitten. So small and fragile even as he came to life. My familiar whom I'd cared for and raised. He was the sweetest thing I'd ever held in my hands.

The thought of losing him overwhelmed me with grief.

"Rio— no!" I cried out.

My familiar proceeded nonetheless. He clamped his jaws around the amalgamation of souls, putting a stop to the implosion from going off.

"It… worked?" Mira uttered as she hobbled her way up to me, still tense and keeping her eyes on Rio.

I raced to my familiar and cradled him in my arms. He rolled over to his back and purred.

"I can't believe you would do something so reckless," I sighed.

Rio's temperature took a sudden spike. His body was practically on fire, it was so hot. He began to yowl in agony, steam billowing from the corners of his mouth.

"No, no, no— What's going on? Rio? Are you okay?" No matter what I asked, Rio answered back in pained whimpers..

"His body is deteriorating," Eudora answered, one hand clutching the side of her stomach and leaning against a partially crumbled wall. She limped her way over to us to inspect Rio and frowned. "Gluttony he may be, now just like me, two identical souls rage within him. The souls' implosion will continue once he dies."

My familiar… Die?

This couldn't be happening. Not my Rio.

Vessyra, is there anything you can do? I pleaded to her.

The goddess merely apologized and fell silent.

"What do we do? How do we save him and stop the implosion?" I asked desperately.

For once, Eudora had no snarky solution to give. Her hand remained on top of Rio's sweat-covered head.

"We seal him in a forged world. Let the voidal collapse take him," she answered.

I dropped to my knees, clutching Rio tighter to me. He spent every last ounce of strength to hop out of my arms and into Eudora's instead.

"The etchings on my tongue can create a new tower." Eudora stroked Rio's head and smiled. "You will not go alone, dear."

"You're going with him?" Mira asked, comforting me in her arms.

"I must." She opened the arm clutching her stomach to reveal not a bleeding gash, but a gaping abyss of darkness similar to Edith's body.

Eudora snatched a magic crystal from my pouch and tossed it into her mouth. A large stone tower materialized behind her, flattening the part of the castle in its way. She then pressed a soul stone into my palm, one that was currently powering the new tower before us.

As she turned to leave, I broke free from Mira's grasp to hug Eudora from behind and placed a hand on Rio's head to pet him one last time.

"Hmph." Eudora chuckled. She marched forward. The teleportation circle underneath her feet activated as soon as she stepped onto it.

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I watched her and Rio disappear.

Mira held my hand clutching the soul stone. We clenched it together. Then the tower collapsed in on itself. The stone cracked and deformed. A black vortex swallowed it all until nothing remained. Only a hole in the citadel where the tower once was.