Never before in her life had Nightingale felt so remorseful and regretful.
She thought that as long as she stayed with Roland, no one could hurt him.
However, without any bruises on her body, Nightingale stood in the bedroom of the castle in Deepvalley Town while Roland lay unconscious on the bed.
There was not any magic reaction inside Roland"s body and his internal organs were all intact. Therefore, Roland was neither cursed by a Seed of Peaceful Death or something like that nor hurt by a powerful ability capable of destroying organs. Even though Agatha was knowledgeable, she could not distinguish this ability, let alone its breaking method.
The witches had used all of the regular wake-up means they could think of, but they were all useless. Roland did not respond to any outside stimulus. If he was not breathing, Roland would have been considered dead.
Now, Nightingale finally understood the warning from Agatha.
There was no absolutely safe defense, even in front of the witches" abilities.
But her understanding was too late.
At this moment, hurried footsteps came from behind the door. Then Lightning opened the door and shouted. "The pure witch has woken up!"
The witches in the room all instantly got excited.
"Everyone stay calm. It"s useless for us all to go and investigate her," Wendy said, "besides, we"re not clear about her ability. For the sake of safety, Miss Agatha and Nightingale can go and figure this out for us."
Respected deeply by the other witches, they all quietened at Wendy"s calm tone.
Nightingale took a deep breath and nodded to Wendy. "I"ll handle it."
Based on her experience from being a runaway for several years, Nightingale was fully aware that her negative mood would not help to change the existing situation. She could not s.h.i.+rk her responsibilities because of a mistake she had made, no matter how big and especially at such a critical juncture.
She must bring His Majesty, Roland back.
"Let"s go," Agatha sighed and said.
When leaving the room, Nightingale could not help but look back to see that Anna was sat motionless on the bed with her eyes staring at Roland, as if no other things could draw her attention.
Nightingale felt even guiltier in her heart.
A servant room on the first floor of the castle that had been altered into a special detention room. Dozens of G.o.d"s Stone of Retaliation were embedded behind the four walls forming a black hole, and thus, an anti-ability prison had been readied. Only by standing in the center of the room could a witch cast her ability.
Nightingale was very clear about the target she was about to investigate.
After the battle, the First Army found three pure witches that were still alive in a square-shaped pit within the third trench. One was detached, one was in a coma and the last one was conscious but trembling. According to the last one, there were five pure witches hidden underground, Zero, Isabella, Blackveil, Margie and herself, Vanilla.
According to Vanilla"s intelligence, she and Margie were only responsible for identifying the location of His Majesty, Roland and sneakily escorting the other three to the battle. Thus they knew little about other arrangements. As for Zero, Isabella and Blackveil, they all were directly affiliated with the pope and had the same status as an archbishop. Besides, their abilities were hidden by the Holy Church so that few knew the details. Blackveil was already dead and Zero had disappeared, so they could only get the breaking method from Isabelle.
After an examination, they had found out that the reason that Isabella was in a coma was that she had used all of her magic power. Therefore, Isabella would fully recover in one or two days. In addition, Agatha got a strange sigil on her hand, but she could not identify it because the magic stone was completely ruined.
Unexpectedly, Isabella had been in a coma for five days and so Nightingale had been quite anxious, even wanting to forcibly wake her up with a knife. Lest for Wendy, she would have done so.
"Was she woken up?" Agatha asked Lightning.
Lighting shook her head and said, "She woke up by herself. When it was Ashes" turn to examine her, Isabella sat on the head of the bed and told us that the prison was useless for her."
Nightingale"s face became dark, asking, "Is she challenging us now?"
"We"ll find out," Agatha said calmly.
Having pa.s.sed through the layers of the strict guards of the First Army, Nightingale and Agatha walked into a narrow room where there were no windows. A rosined torch was hung high above their heads which gave off a dim light. There was nothing in this room other than a vertical wooden bed and a short table.
Isabella sat motionlessly on the head of the bed. Her curled hair dropped naturally on her shoulders and became golden-red under the firelight. She was still dressed in that b.l.o.o.d.y robe of priests with dust on her face that had solidified into yellow spots.
"It seems that Zero has completely failed," before Nightingale asked her, Isabella took the initiative to say, "Finally, she isn"t blessed by G.o.d."
"Blessed by G.o.d?" Nightingale smiled coldly.
"Don"t worry and I"ll tell you everything I know," as if she did not hear the sarcasm, Isabella sighed and said, "then, I"ll be at your disposal."
Nightingale was stunned by Isabella"s att.i.tude because she knew that Isabella was telling the truth.
But it was a little too late to be a lamb. "You"ve claimed that this prison can"t hold you, haven"t you? But now you choose to submit to fate?"
"I"m capable of making the G.o.d"s Stone of Retaliation lose effect. As long as I have a platform, G.o.d"s Stone would be useless, even if there are as many stones as you have here," Isabella said slowly, "Except for that, I can neither walk through a wall nor escape away underground, so it"s a waste to arrange such a room for me."
"You"re capable of influencing the G.o.d"s Stone?" Agatha was very surprised and asked.
Isabella said frankly, "They indeed look like bottomless black holes... but I can make them lose effect."
"You mean that it was you who made the G.o.d"s Stone worn by His Majesty, Roland lose effect?" Nightingale clenched her hands into fists.
"I had no other choice at that moment. Zero had become blinded by G.o.d. She believed that only one of the two can be blessed by G.o.d."
Agatha covered Nightingale"s hand and calmly asked, "Is it Zero who made His Majesty unconscious? What"s her ability?"
Isabella frowned and said, "Unconscious? There should be a winner and loser instantly when a Soul Battlefield begins. If Roland didn"t become Zero instantly, it means that Zero failed. Is he unconscious because he can"t accept the huge volume of memories?"
Nightingale and Agatha looked at each other. "Soul Battlefield?"
"Yes," Isabella said with her voice down, "that"s a battle about spirit and will. The winner gets everything, while the loser loses everything. Since Zero was awakened to be a witch, she"s never failed in the Battle of Souls. She"s engulfed numberless commoners and witches and absorbed their memories, knowledge and longevity. So for the time being, Zero has lived for over 200 years." Speaking of which, Isabella closed her eyes sadly, saying, "I never thought that she would be defeated by a common prince."