"That damned woman…!"
Aphrolite looked up at the sky, at Agatha's silhouette flying on her broomstick with the blazing sun behind her.
"Go hide inside the house!" Aphrolite said in a commanding and tense tone to her daughter, who immediately obeyed, running into the house and shutting the door behind her.
"Agatha, I see you've decided to fight!" Aphrolite said loudly, hiding her tension behind her voice, then began walking slowly down the veranda to the ground.
At that moment, Agatha's broom descended toward the ground, floating just above it while Agatha remained seated cross-legged.
"You enter my home, threaten me, then try to kill me. Such refined manners, Your Majesty," Agatha said in an arrogant tone, a mocking smile drawn on her lips.
"I've learned from the best!"
"…Revival… it must be tied to her soul… the forest isn't burning… so this is her 'Empyreal Entelechy'? What should I—" Aphrolite was thinking to herself when she was interrupted. One of the sun's rays behind Agatha twisted into a flaming whip that lashed out with enough force to tear through the wind toward Aphrolite. But she managed to vanish and reappear above the hut.
"You're not going to give me time to think, huh?" Aphrolite said mockingly, though she was shocked by how fast everything had just happened.
"You came here intending to kill me. Of course I won't give you time to think… I know how your magic works," Agatha's tone grew sharper, and so did her eyes.
The magic of the Love Witch is love itself. Love falls under the mercy of Queen Aphrolite—the power to make all things, living or dead, real or unreal, fall in love with her. Whether it's a human or a corpse, it will obey Aphrolite. Whether it's a law or a rule, it will bend to the Queen's will. And in a long battle like one against the Sun Witch, drawing out time is an advantage. The magic of the Love Witch wouldn't be this effective if it weren't for her beauty. And with her magic, anyone who gazes at her long enough will fall in love—man, woman, child, or animal. So the longer this battle goes on, the more the odds tilt in Aphrolite's favor, with Agatha slowly falling for her with every passing second.
"Don't even try to act cocky. The sun already has a master. And I have someone I love. Don't expect me to be that easy!" Agatha said. Then, strange transparent bubbles appeared around Aphrolite, almost invisible. One touched the edge of her clothes, and immediately, part of her body vanished as if something had taken a bite out of her. Aphrolite instantly leapt into the sky and floated slowly in place, as if walking on nothingness.
"Ughhh…" the Queen groaned in discomfort. It wasn't just a matter of pain, as even the pain bowed before her beauty. She ran her finger over the missing part of her body, feeling her innards pulse. Then she pulled her finger back, now covered in blood.
"Heal!" the Queen commanded, and her body began regenerating at incredible speed. Bone returned, her missing intestines reformed, and a layer of flesh then soft white skin covered them. But her clothes remained torn.
Aphrolite raised her head to look at Agatha, only to realize she was now surrounded by more transparent bubbles from all directions with no escape.
"Damn!"
Then, the bubbles burst all at once with immense force, as if the sun itself had exploded. A scorching wave of wind twisted the forest trees, uprooting them and smashing them. Agatha's hut was damaged, cracked, and shook. The sky lit up as if a second sun had formed.
Inside the hut, Princess Ivara watched everything from behind the window curtains, horrified, watching her mother lose.
"Mother!" Ivara screamed in panic and rushed outside. Her skin burned instantly upon leaving the house. She bit her lower lip hard to bear the pain and stood watching the explosion fade, leaving only ashes she thought were all that remained of the Queen.
"M-Mother…!" Ivara whispered in terror, her eyes wide in shock.
Agatha turned toward Ivara upon noticing her. Their eyes met, and the princess's expression twisted in anger and hatred. She leapt toward Agatha in the air, uncaring of the burning sun behind her. At that moment, Agatha stuck out her tongue, and the sun tattoo on it glowed a golden yellow. Ivara's movements slowed mid-air and she began to float like a frozen body in space, as if suspended. Agatha raised her hand and with a motion, one of the sun's rays twisted like a whip and sped toward Ivara, about to cut her—when a shadow appeared in a flash, grabbing Ivara and swiftly pulling her away.
Agatha followed the shadow with her eyes as it landed. The Queen was still alive, though her clothes had become even more burned and torn.
"How did she survive?" Agatha thought to herself in astonishment.
"I'm not the only one who can come back from death!" Aphrolite said arrogantly, then looked at her daughter, whom she held in her arms. Her reaction was slow, her eyes blinking weakly, her mouth barely opening.
"Ugh… I almost died just now… damn that cursed witch! She's strong… stronger than any witch I know…" Aphrolite thought to herself, and then, for some reason, remembered Alistair.
"There's someone who can kill her nonetheless."
"Don't think you can escape," Agatha said calmly. The earth trembled then, and the sun behind Agatha slowly rose into the sky, floating.
"…Gravitational collapse…"
Then, the eye in the center of the sun closed as if breathing its last breath, a tear falling and evaporating. Slowly, the great star began to die, its bright colors fading, its golden rays melting into endless void. Its brilliance turned into deep blackness, as if the light of life had been replaced by darkness and shadow, forming a dark vortex of power and gravity—a massive black hole absorbing everything around it, even light that tried to escape. The dead star extended and grew, devouring everything—trees, ground, all lifted into the air, flying toward it, sinking into its depths. Violent storm winds swept everything from the earth, lifting it toward the hole.
"Damn!"
The black hole stretched to infinity until it exploded after engulfing the entirety of Agatha's Empyreal Entelechy, and the whole field collapsed like a soap bubble popped. Agatha floated back to the ground on her broomstick and finally got off. Her house was intact, and everything around her was fine—as if nothing had happened. But it had. Even so, Ivara and Aphrolite were nowhere in sight.
"They must be dead…" Agatha thought to herself, just as her nose began to bleed.
"I've exhausted myself too much… what a suicidal move."
Agatha wiped the blood from her nose, then, with tired and worn steps, entered her hut and closed the door behind her, collapsing onto the couch exhausted, as if she'd just had a normal daily fight without a care. But she didn't know—outside the forest…
Space tore open, revealing a crack like a fracture in a mirror, leaking faint waves of ethereal green, glassy and red light. Out of the crack came the Love Witch, Queen Aphrolite, bleeding from her head, part of her face missing, even the bones of her skull visible as blood poured. She carried her daughter, Princess Ivara, in her arms, then dropped her to the ground and fell to her knees, holding her face, feeling the bone beneath her fingertips.
"Heal," the Queen said in a commanding tone. Her face regenerated again. Joints appeared like threads connecting from bottom to top, then bones formed again. A red mass of flesh swelled and aligned with the joints she'd formed, and her face returned whole—more pristine and whiter than before.
She sighed in relief and turned to her daughter, drawing closer. The girl was in better shape, thanks to her mother shielding her. The Queen ran her hand over her daughter's forehead, as if checking her temperature. Immediately, the girl jolted from her slow, frozen state, gasping hard as if her breath had been trapped.
"…If space hadn't folded and torn just now, allowing us to pass through… we'd be dead…" the Queen thought to herself as she patted her daughter's back to calm her.
"M-Mother, I'm sorry. I couldn't protect you," Ivara said in a tense, apologetic tone, guilt eating her alive.
"Don't worry about that, my dear. We're safe," the Queen said with a gentle smile that made her daughter blush, as she patted her head and softly tousled her hair.
"I-I promise I'll kill that witch one day!" Ivara said with determination, clenching her fists with excitement and confidence.
"Oh, no need for that… I know someone who can kill her," the Queen said with a sly tone, leaving her daughter confused. Then she stood and reached out to her daughter to help her up. Ivara took her hand and rose from her place, dusting off her dirtied clothes.
"Let's return to the palace. Your stupid father might do something reckless that ruins my plan."
The princess nodded and began following her mother back to the palace on foot.
"My dear Alistair… you'll do what I ask of you, won't you?"