Yet the matter did not end with the old count's suspicious death and the execution of his wife and son.
Just three days later, word spread that the eldest son, who should have inherited the title, had been assassinated by a Witch. The Witch was said to be the countess's younger sister, a scrawny girl of only thirteen.
When the count's only surviving son mournfully announced this unbelievable "truth" and duly inherited the family title, others might have doubted him. He, however, insisted that the little girl sent to the executioner's block had been an utterly evil Witch...
That night, in the Basement of Feilagon County's castle.
Torches burning on the walls cast some light across the spacious, dark Basement.
Count Feilagon, who had just inherited the title, wore a victor's smile as he watched the beautiful woman trapped in the center of the Basement.
More than a dozen Transcendents surrounded her, radiating powerful Psychic Energy as they watched her with open hostility. At one word from the Count, they would kill her.
"Why are you doing this to me?" The beautiful woman gazed at the newly titled Count standing a few yards away in his finery, her face filled with grief and confusion. Sorrow brimmed in her watery eyes, as though the person dearest to her had betrayed her. Even knowing she was acting, the young Count could not help being moved.
"Hmph! Do you think such petty tricks will work now?" A deep, weighty voice came from a black-clad, hooded figure beside the Count. An invisible force instantly cleared the Count's mind. He snapped out of it, fear crossing his face as he instinctively stepped back.
The woman smiled unconcernedly. "No, I suppose not. Well, let's end this. It's about time." She took an exquisite pocket watch from