The Night of the Witch (Part 1)

The pervasive black smoke obscured vision, making it impossible to see into the distance.

Touko Aozaki was on high alert, all her Rune Texts adjusted to a state of readiness for activation.

A sudden gust of wind appeared from nowhere, and a circular blue magic circle began to spin outwards from within the black smoke.

The black smoke, which had been slowly dissipating, was gathered by an unknown force into a whirlwind before finally exploding outwards.

Appearing before Aozaki, standing at the center of the scorched ground, was Aoko, her red hair reaching the ground.

Her figure and apparent age hadn't changed, but there was a subtle difference in the length of her hair and the aura she possessed.

"My, my, what a warm welcome ceremony, Sister," Aoko teased Aozaki in a relaxed tone. "How is it, do you have enough Rune Texts stored?"

"Hmph, as long as it can kill you, I can have as many Rune Texts as I want!" Aozaki glared at Aoko and retorted fiercely.

"You say that, and it truly wounds me," Aoko said, though her tone held no fluctuation, and she maintained a warm smile. "Is it your pride that's been hurt?"

"I don't believe that level of Rune incineration could be directly blocked by some strange Magecraft," Aozaki avoided Aoko's question and retorted directly. "So, is that the Aozaki family's Magic?"

"It's hard to say," Aoko replied. "You can try again."

Aozaki intended to do just that.

So, Aozaki closed her right eye and activated the Mystic Eyes located in her left eye. Her inherent Accumulated Magic Eyes achieved over a thousand reflections and enhancements internally, sacrificing the uniqueness of mystery for an increase in power.

It was a masterpiece created by the Mystic Eyes she had created atop her innate ones. In the original timeline, even Alice, whose Mystic Eyes were far superior in quality to Aozaki's, had been defeated by this technique.

"Mmm, so this is the effect when seen by your Mystic Eyes, Aozaki."

The red-haired Aoko clenched her fist, feeling her movements were slightly sluggish. However, it was clear that this level of effect was not what Aozaki intended to achieve.

She looked at Aoko in surprise, her Mystic Eyes, which shone like a kaleidoscope, displaying an expression of disbelief.

"You... dispersed the Mystic Eyes' effect?!" Aozaki asked. "Did you repeatedly summon yourself, placing countless versions of yourself from different points in time at the same position on the timeline?!"

"Impossible!" As soon as Aozaki voiced her guess, she immediately negated it herself. "Time travel is already something included within the properties of the Second Magic. The Aozaki family's Magic couldn't be this simple!"

"Actually, your guess is quite close, Aozaki," Aoko said relaxedly, placing a hand on her hip. "I simply merged Aoko Aozaki from different parallel worlds into one person temporarily. That way, even if your Mystic Eyes refract thousands of times, it won't affect me, because it's diluted."

Aozaki gritted her teeth, staring at the talkative Aoko, mentally calculating her remaining trump cards—

"But it's not my style to just take hits without retaliating," Aoko said, looking at Aozaki. "Sister, who did something bad must be punished. Are you ready?"

As soon as Aoko finished speaking, specks of bluish-white light slid from her hair, as clear and transparent as dewdrops after rain.

In an instant, Aoko Aozaki illuminated all her inscribed markings, abnormal patterns covering her arms, torso, neck, and face.

As Aoko activated her markings, the countless "dewdrops" that had previously dripped from her long hair were now suspended in the air before hitting the ground, emitting a dazzling light.

Like the rings of a planet, countless Magic Bullets, shining with cross-shaped light, slowly rotated around Aoko, ready to be unleashed.

"This isn't the Aozaki family's markings at all! What exactly are you—"

However, at this very moment, four bizarre swords, black and white, converged on Aoko's vital points from four different angles simultaneously. Then, these swords collided, emitting a blinding light and triggering an explosion far more violent than the Rune Magic Fire Aozaki had created earlier!

With events escalating to this point, Aozaki was somewhat bewildered. Logically, she had discovered that Alice had sealed off this battlefield using the Mirror of Sleep and the Nameless Forest, so no one should have been able to enter.

But the duel between the Aozaki Sisters was being interfered with by a third party—Aozaki was completely unaware of this.

Just as Aozaki stabilized herself amidst the blast, a figure clad in tattered red cloth rushed into the smoke caused by the explosion. At that moment, Aozaki vaguely saw the Red Shadow wielding two black and white swords.

But very quickly, this Red Shadow was sent flying back with much greater speed than he had entered, crashing heavily onto the ground and leaving a long trail behind him.

"Subjective Axis: Fixed."

Aoko, spotless, reappeared before Aozaki, her expression one of anger Aozaki had never seen before.

The surrounding snowfield had, at some unknown time, transformed into a sea of flowers, with fields covered in unknown blue-green flowers.

Aoko's attention was no longer focused on Aozaki, but she glared fiercely at the red shadow lying on the ground.

"I don't really like any of your family," Aoko uttered a statement that sounded somewhat inexplicable to Aozaki. "Especially you."

"Since you and your master are so tactless, then die painlessly!"

With that, Aoko snapped her fingers, and the starlight surrounding her erupted instantly, all of it bombarding the Red Shadow.

The subsequent dazzling Magic Bullets burst with a series of sharp explosions. Countless cross-shaped lights detonated in an extremely short period. Regardless of who the Red Shadow was, Aozaki didn't believe he could survive under this level of firepower.

As Aozaki expected, after the explosion, the ground where the Red Shadow had been was left with nothing but a massive crater tens of meters in diameter.

"Alright, Aozaki, the annoying fly has been dealt with," Aoko's usual composed smile returned. "Now, it's just a private matter between us sisters."

After saying this, countless starlights gathered around Aoko again, even more numerous than when she had eliminated the Red Shadow.

Three-dimensional magic arrays, numerous and resembling exquisite openwork glass crafts, surrounded Aoko.

The magical starlight surrounding her was forcefully injected into these magic arrays, created with Number Magecraft as their theoretical foundation. They were repeatedly compressed, swirled, and accelerated in a manner similar to jet engines—

The vast, alien markings on Aoko's body became even brighter, with ninety-nine Magic Circuits greedily drawing power from the Great Source—

"Communicate Number Patterns, Connect." Aoko spread her arms, and all the magic arrays around her extended "threads" to connect with the markings on Aoko's body.

"Ether Loading, Complete." Beneath Aoko's calm tone was an excitement that she could finally go all out.

"Struggle, let me see the fruits of your two and a half years of effort, Sister—Burning Form: Blue!"