Just as the gray-robed witch was about to begin chanting, Colmar reached out and pressed a hand against the spellbook, covering the incantation on its pages and stopping her from continuing.
Catherine turned back in confusion and glanced at the owner of Genie's Hut.
Unlike before, there was no longer any hesitation or calculation in her gaze. It was filled only with reverence and admiration.
"Do you want your hair to turn completely white while you're still so young?"
Colmar lifted a lock of Catherine's silver-white hair with one finger and chuckled. "This is an entirely new spellcasting system... We didn't get the 'measure' right in that earlier experiment, but now that we have experience, naturally I won't make you waste your life again."
As she spoke, she pulled a palm-sized live frog from her pocket and handed it to Catherine.
"Hold it, then chant the spell again."
Without the slightest hesitation, Catherine took the little frog and gripped it tightly in her hand.
Then, holding the spellbook in one hand and the frog in the other, she gave the audience below one last look and softly chanted:
"Ge Zhi Tan Xi, bestow upon this building."
The spell mark on the girl's forehead suddenly flashed. Then the frog in her hand struggled desperately twice, its flesh visibly shriveling and withering before it finally turned into a puff of black ash that slowly drifted through her fingers.
Almost at the same moment, a faint green glow appeared on the spellbook.
The witches below collectively sucked in cold breaths.
Slender vines burst from the ground, climbed along the floorboards covered in moldy corpses, and, before everyone's eyes, reached the second floor, cramming themselves into every gap between the pillars around the small balcony.
Smack!
The spellbook in Catherine's hand fell to the