9: An Unusual Dilemma

Her curiosity being piqued, Defolta resumed reading the journal which now enlightened what the dead Witch's agenda was all about.

Basically, Matilda sought a way to gain access to the forbidden power of Hemomancy, the Magic of Blood. Around 500 years ago, Vampires walked the earth and spread their evil throughout mankind. They were immensely feared for their unique type of magic that was infamous for manipulating their own or other people's blood for their own sinister benefits. As a result, Vampire Hunters came into the light and slaughtered them mercilessly like cattle without any exception whatsoever. Thus, the Vampire race eventually turned extinct along with their Blood Magic.

Many had attempted to replicate Hemomancy but all of them had failed. Such magic was exclusive to the Vampire Race, and they selfishly guard the secrets of the Blood from the lowly mortals who dare to replicate an integral part of their noble lineage.

In many accounts, Hemomancy comprised an array of diabolical applications such as the ability to control an individual completely like a puppet, invoke a protective blood barrier that nullifies both physical and magical assaults, the forceful expulsion of someone's blood, and perhaps the deadliest spell of manipulating a blood's temperature and causing it to boil from the inside of a person's blood vessels, allowing them to meet an explosive end. Of course, such were only few of the many extreme applications that Hemomancy had to offer, and it certainly intrigued numerous Witches who even spend most of their life in resorting countless inhumane experiments in hopes of rediscovering said forbidden magic to add to their arsenal and attain undeniable power to rule all over the other Witches.

"Shit, all for this?" Defolta was disgusted by the motivations behind the experiments, "I mean, sure, maybe this Hemomancy is powerful and fascinating, I reckon, but is it really worth spending a significant portion of your lifetime to see if they could use some extinct kind of magic? Like what, are there no fucking other options around?"

"Some villains are just hard to understand." Nekowa shared the same sentiment, "Like destroying the world, for example, but in all seriousness, where would they live after they have achieved that goal?"

"Haha, yeah. Perhaps they just wanna be fucking edgy or something because they think dark looks way cooler than the light. Fucking emo wannabes."

"Well, Umbrina would definitely bash your skull if she hears you say that." Nekowa sweat dropped in response, "Anyways, let's keep on reading. We still need to find out where the prison is."

"Right." Defolta focused on the journal once more and read every entry that was written by the Witch. There was nothing noteworthy so far, only stating about Matilda's travels throughout the land and performing similar inhumane blood experiments, up to the point where she reached here in this current location where they stand.

"I think I found something." Defolta said, "Let's see, she abducted people from a village nearby and kept them in a prison underground. It is said that the entrance may only be accessed by a hidden door underneath the bookshelf. Now how to open… ah here it is."

The way to open the prison's entrance was by locating a switch to the entrance. Fortunately, the journal hinted about the switch's location which was under the Witch's desk where she read on her spare time or issue orders to her bandit followers.

A red switch was sighted and when Defolta pressed it, she waited in anticipation of the entrance being revealed.

To which her expectations were instantly shattered. The switch did not serve its intended purpose and nothing out of the ordinary occurred whatsoever.

"That's a bummer." Defolta was displeased and shook her head in annoyance.

"Perhaps there is something we miss. Let's go all over the journal once more." Nekowa calmly suggested.

Defolta sighed and followed the cat's advice, rereading the entire journal to find a clue that they potentially had skipped or took for granted.

One particular entry caught the pair's attention and Defolta read, "To serve as my lesson in being discovered by my sisterly brethren, I installed an additional safety measure that only I personally have access to, a silver lining from my various experiments. As a result, no one had ever discovered my dealings behind the shadows for the past few years during my run from the Empire. Day after day, my experiments proved to be fruitless and not even a single one of the pigs reacted as I expected, frustratingly so."

"Only she personally had access to?" Defolta said with utmost uncertainty, "I highly doubt that. It was easy, too easy actually, to see that fucking red button right under her desk. Now that I think about it, it's certainly suspicious about how simple it was. I mean, anyone could have found this red button by chance, even if they did not inquire the journal at all."

 "Really fishy, yes." Nekowa eyed the button with a skeptic look, "I guess it's true though. I mean if she truly only is the one capable of opening the prison, then it's most likely a dead end… well, literally."

"True. That rotting bitch of a corpse sure did not make things easy." Defolta sighed and made her way towards to the shelf, "But of course, we do not have to play by the whims of a dead Witch."

"Whatever you mean?" Nekowa tilted her head in confusion.

To answer the cat's question, Defolta took a deep breath and mustered all the strength that she could gather. In a quick and straight motion, she then threw her right fist at the bookshelf, causing Nekowa to gape her mouth in shock.

But not for the reason one may be usually thinking. It was because the only result that they got was Defolta's right hand bloodied with the bookshelf still intact with while not even a single hint of physical damage seemingly ever dealt.

System Notification: Strength Check (10): Failed. A barrier of magical origin protects this object from any physical or magical harm.