The Collection of The End

My name is Akatosh,

It must be that my posture of impersonating a demon god is wrong.

— 4E, 201, Hearthfire, 4th, 9:33 —

Like other Nord relics, the "Black Light Tower" is a stone building built hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Changes, its role of "guarding the main road" has completely disappeared. At present, it is just an ordinary relic located in the southwest of Rift Valley City, on the south bank of Holwich Lake, and built on the mountain. If there is anything special, That is, it is not robbers or beasts that occupy it, but a group of witches.

Although the term witch can be used to refer to a female magician, its earliest meaning is a woman who can awaken magical ability on her own. The reason is said to be related to a certain holy spirit who appears in the appearance of a woman, and can only be improved through hard training. The male magician expressed great envy and jealousy.

"【Hiersine—we adore you—please grant us the blood and strength of beasts——]"

On the top of the Black Light Tower is a wide platform formed by the mountain, and in the middle of the platform is an altar, which is filled with feathers, claws and beaks of various birds. A gagged The man was firmly tied to the high chair in front of the altar, and surrounding the high chair and the altar were a group of women in dark blue hooded robes who were praying in unison.

"[Hiersine - we adore you -]"

As the witches prayed, the weird altar began to shine, so their emotions became more intense, their voices gradually became louder, and at the same time, they all put on a posture ready to fight.

Bang——

A puff of smoke rose, the light from the altar disappeared, and the high chair became empty at the same time... no, not empty.

"It seems to have failed again." The witch who was closest to the high chair walked over, reached out and grabbed a cock that was in a daze from the chair, and showed it to her companions: "It's okay this time, it's just a chicken, not what will happen." A monster that attacks differently."

After hearing these words, the witches who were preparing for war stopped their alert movements and surrounded the altar.

"The ceremony itself should be fine." A witch at the front of the line pulled off her hood. It was a middle-aged woman with brown eyes and blond hair. Although she was a bit older, she was still a beauty. Staring at the chicken thoughtfully: "Halsing's ceremony is not complicated, it just replaces all wolf materials with poultry, and logically speaking, it shouldn't be invalid unless—"

"I promise I remember correctly, Lady Sylvia," a witch behind the middle-aged woman repeatedly defended: "Several people were present when we traded with that harpy witch! It's confirmed."

"Of course I know that. If nothing goes wrong with these things, the only problem may be the 'converter'." The middle-aged witch called Sylvia pinched the rooster's comb: "It is very likely that the 'hawk The lycanthropes, a race of lycanthropes we've never heard of, have no males at all."

"There are no males? Then how do you reproduce?"

"Could it be going out to catch..."

"Hey! You're so dirty!"

The witches began to whisper.

"So—" Sylvia amplified the volume to suppress those whispers: "We need to experiment with 'female'."

Ka, the witches who were watching the big cock all took a step back.

"Hmph, back then I didn't know who was envious of those beautiful and powerful harpy witches." When Sylvia glanced over with sharp eyes, the witches all lowered their heads with snickering smiles: "Don't worry, there are no successful examples." I won't let you try it directly before. Now, what you have to do is the same as before, find a way to catch the lone robbers, merchants and adventurers and bring them back.

It's just that this time the target is limited to women - let's go! "

Sylvia took the chicken and threw it down from the tower.

"Also, this is not chicken, it's human, no one is allowed to eat it!"

——10:19——

"Mother, how could she be like this..."

In a room on the second floor of the tower, a young witch without a hood is watching the rooster flying farther and farther out of the window. Her appearance is very similar to that of Sylvia on the top of the building, except that her blond hair is slightly whiter. , and also longer, with eyes darker than brown, so dark that they seemed slightly reddish.

"Even if he is a robber, he is still a human being," the young witch muttered to herself while looking at the chicken. "After becoming a chicken, he might be eaten by wild beasts or even humans. That's—uh!"

As if disgusted by her own imagination, she suddenly covered her mouth.

"Ahem——" The young witch forcibly suppressed her nausea, but began to cough violently. When she let go, her palm was already dripping with blood.

"What, capture women for experimentation? Female robbers and businesswomen are rare breeds, okay?"

"Female adventurers are quite common. Doesn't that 'lioness' Mu Yueer often wander around?"

"Forget it, it's easy to deceive her, but we are dead."

"If you are brave enough, you can go to Rift Valley City to catch a female thief, there is no hidden danger."

The witches who came down from the top floor talked a lot, and the young witch who heard these words was so shocked that she almost couldn't stand still.

"No, I can't," she rested against the wall for a while, and staggered towards the corner of the house: "Although my mother intends to find a way to save me, if this continues, she and the witches and sisters outside will be killed. Either an adventurer or a bounty hunter..."

"Only...the last few strokes are left," the young witch lifted a carpet in the corner of the room. Underneath was a strangely shaped dark red magic circle, which was obviously drawn with blood, but there seemed to be one corner missing. Finished, she stretched out her bloody fingers to outline the missing place while muttering to herself: "Dark Brotherhood... If the client wants to kill herself, they won't refuse to accept it, right?"

I heard that the Dark Brotherhood calls these assassination commissions "Dark Contracts". They will receive full payment in advance before taking action. To assassinate the target, you need to sign a contract again.

The young witch took a short rest and turned her eyes to the cabinet next to her bed. Naturally, she doesn’t have to worry about the reward, because she has almost no way to spend money. The jewelry, gold coins and other properties that Sylvia gave her over the years have hardly moved. However, it must be enough for them to fulfill the contract of "assassinating a magician in a state of full defense".

For ordinary magicians, the more total magic power, the better, and they can use them to use more and stronger magic, but this sentence does not apply to her at all, the total amount of magic power she possesses is far away. It exceeded the limit that her body could bear. As a result, she was not only unable to use magic, but also found it difficult to take care of herself in daily life. Hemoptysis from time to time.

Her mother, Sylvia, is just an ordinary magician. Judging from her mother's attitude of looking for a solution in silence without asking any "why", the problem must be her father who has never met.

Generally speaking, it is very easy to kill yourself, but this common sense becomes meaningless in the face of her overflowing magic power. Although she cannot use magic, the magic power filling her body will stop any External factors that can cause her harm, such as falling from a tower, will automatically fall down, enter the water and automatically breathe underwater, even if she hits a sharp weapon cruelly, the automatically generated thick armor will first break that thing apart, In addition, the highest record so far is that she hasn't eaten for a month and doesn't feel hungry. If it wasn't for the severe pain caused by the overflow of magic power all the time and the hemoptysis without any symptoms, she would almost think that she was chosen by the god of magic magic genius.

These attempts not only gave her an idea of ​​the function of her magic power, but also made Sylvia hold her and cry for a long time. She had to promise her mother that she would never do this again, and at the same time secretly added a sentence in her heart "In the absence of certainty".

"As an assassin organization with a long history, they must have a way to deal with this state—ahem!" The young witch finally finished drawing the magic circle, or the dark ritual circle that summoned the Dark Brotherhood, wiped her hands and stood up.

"And... the spell." She recalled it for a while, and began to say: "Shut up, shut up, shut up..."

These spells and magic circles were accidentally recorded by Sylvia when she took herself around to find a solution, and the solution her mother finally chose was to evolve her body into a form that could accommodate those magic powers, for example, in the witch It is very famous in the world, the harpies blessed by Hircine in the "Grimjasmine Witch's Cottage".

But since the demon god is involved, it is naturally difficult to implement it. These days, although several ceremonies to trade from the harpies have been held, none of them were successful. She couldn't help but doubt the witches who came forward Did you get scammed because you didn't study the details of the transaction carefully?

"I am a person who performs all good deeds in the world. I am, cough, destroy everything in the world, cough cough! A person who does evil..." Because the mantra to be recited was too long, she was finally interrupted by a violent cough. When he was about to rest for a while and continue chanting, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open, and a witch of similar age rushed in.

"Illia! An adventurer is coming! It seems to be the new baron of Rift Valley City! Come pretend to be a sick and weak girl—"

At this moment, the crooked and not-so-standard magic circle suddenly burst into dazzling white light, completely engulfing the girl standing next to the magic circle.