To the Holy Tribunal Church, the most profitable policy was to remove every organ that could be taken from a witch and transplant it into those in need.
The brain and heart could not be transplanted — once those were removed, the witch would die. The digestive system and kidneys could not be taken either, for they were what allowed the witches to continuously produce holy water. And the spine was also untouchable, since the Church still needed the witch's blood. Everything else, however, could be harvested.
But clearly, the Church's biotechnology and alchemy hadn't yet reached the point where they could create artificial organs. Or perhaps they simply thought manufacturing them was not worth the cost. Thus, these witches likely had to rely on certain alchemical devices just to survive —devices that were probably massive and difficult to move.
Of course, it was also possible that the beastmen simply wanted these witches—turned into living Grails—to die. After all, only when they perished would their organs lose the divine authority contained within. By merely killing two witches, they could turn hundreds of the Holy Tribunal's elites into mere transcenders without divine power. That was, for them, the best outcome.
"It really is a world where people devour one another," Hel muttered softly, gently closing the eyelids of the two witches preserved inside the jars. Though their eyes were long gone, the act still gave her a faint sense of comfort.
As she touched them, their keywords were drawn into her Word Repository.
"Witch of Trees and Witch of Grass? Really? What are the odds?"
A system prompt flashed before her eyes:
[Rare keywords acquired. Keyword fusion suggestion available.]
[Lord of Flowers + Lord of Grass + Lord of Trees = Lord of Abundance · Life]
[Lord of Fertility · Life + Lord of Abundance · Life = Lord of Vitality · Life]
[Lord of Vitality · Life + Lord of Death = Lord of Reincarnation · Life]
Hel's expression turned a little strange. "So it's offering me an alternate route—just half of the fusion? Or maybe… three-fourths of the full set?"
Still, that meant she could assemble the Lord of Reincarnation fragments much faster. After all, she had no idea where the Witch of Life was located—but she did know the whereabouts of the last piece among the Flower-Grass-Tree trio: the Witch of Flowers.
It wasn't exactly a secret—just a "secret everyone knew." The Garden Kingdom of Gordon was where the Witches of Flowers had been imprisoned for generations. That nation, known as the "retirement home" of the Three Great Empires, was home to many reclusive powerhouses due to its beautiful environment.
If she were to attack that place rashly, the resistance would be formidable. Even its geographical position made it almost untouchable: to the north lay the capital of the Knight Empire of Nait; to the south, the capital of the Empire of Yuniel; to the west, the grain-rich Windmill Kingdom; and to the east, the Scholars' Nation, home to the continent's brightest minds.
In other words, if anyone dared to stir trouble in the Garden Kingdom, they'd first be swarmed by hidden experts—and then crushed by a four-nation blitz.
"This… might be tricky," Hel sighed, scratching her head. She decided it was better not to get too ambitious. For now, the priority was to seize the Beast Witch's keyword.
But before that—Hel waved her hand, and two elemental crystals floated out from the two mangled corpses.
"Sixth-rank elemental crystals? As expected, any witch strong enough to be sealed isn't weak."
She beckoned again, pulling two souls from within the crystals. Then, finding two empty Philosopher's Stones, she sealed the souls inside.
"I'll revive them later—maybe they'll know something valuable. For now, I'll deal with the crystals first."
She decided to give one to Anna. Ever since Anna signed a contract with the Mother Tree of Elves, her bloodline had evolved at an astonishing pace. Then something utterly bizarre happened—she reversed life and death. Originally, Anna's energy and bloodline were of the Death attribute. But after her transformation, they became Life. She was now, quite literally, a living being.
Even Hel couldn't figure out how that was possible. However, this change made Anna's advancement much harder—she now required Life-element crystals. If not for this unexpected bounty, Anna might've been stuck at the fifth rank for a long time.
As for the remaining crystal, Hel planned to use it herself. She looked at her petite body and frowned, unsure where to place the crystal.
"Maybe… insert it through the intestines?" she wondered aloud.
"No, that'd hurt too much. Maybe I can store it with the Death crystal—as long as I control the energies properly, they won't clash."
"But slowly absorbing these crystals is just too inefficient. Why can't we liquefy them instead? Maybe after Niv finishes her absorption, I'll ask her to help me figure out how to turn elemental crystals into reagents."
"For now, though…"
Hel grimaced and went to find the elf Niv, asking her to perform another surgery on her.…
Meanwhile, at the beastmen border encampment—
Pestis stood with a dark expression, staring at the body nailed to the ground. It was the corpse of the Wolf Fang clan chief, who had just broken through to Saint Rank.
Opposite him lay two more corpses, both wearing white robes. Their skin was ashen, covered in corpse spots; their fingernails had fallen off; blue pus oozed from their wounds, and thick plague miasma spread around them.
Because of this, the Hand of Judgement looked just as grim. To slay that beastman prodigy, they had lost two Saint Rank powerhouses—an enormous loss no matter how one viewed it.
Yet skill decided the outcome. The Hand of Judgement had never been a match for Pestis. If one of his subordinates hadn't launched a desperate sneak attack, the fight would've ended with his entire side wiped out.
Having achieved his goal, the Hand of Judgement saw no reason to remain. He shot Pestis a venomous glare, then waved his hand. The Judgement Knights behind him silently followed as he withdrew from the field.