Pestis flew straight back to her quarters and landed in front of her private palace. Just as she arrived, she ran into Hel, who had just finished absorbing a witch's blood and was preparing to leave.
"Lady Pestis." Hel bowed respectfully. Pestis only nodded expressionlessly and led the Beast Witch toward the sealed chamber once again.
After sending the Beast Witch inside, Pestis turned toward Hel with a faint frown.
"Do you still need something?"
"Yes, Lady Pestis. A member of the Church came earlier and delivered a document. Since you weren't here, she left it with me."
Pestis raised an eyebrow. "A document?"
"I'm not sure what it contains. She said it was important, so I didn't dare open it."
"I see." Pestis nodded and took the file from Hel, flipping it open.
But the moment her eyes scanned the first page, her brows furrowed tightly.
"The Archbishop's group has gone missing. The Church's carrier hawk was intercepted, and the documents were replaced. The news of the Tempest Witch's ambush was likely false intelligence. These reports arrived far too late."
Pestis shook her head, flipping to the last page—where the final report made her expression turn grim.
"The Apostle of Desire was assassinated. The corpse appears to have been reanimated through necromancy.…Wait—if the Apostle of Desire is dead, then the Desire Witch's earlier commands were fake as well. Heh… it seems our Witch of Death is not only powerful, but also remarkably cunning. Still, how did she manage to control the Apostle of Desire? After all, those Apostles are…"
Before she could finish, Pestis's face suddenly changed.
In a flash, her figure blurred and vanished—reappearing at the entrance of the underground chamber. With one strike, she blasted away the heavy metal slab covering the floor and leapt inside.
When she arrived, what she saw made her blood run cold.
A young woman in a white cloak was standing in the dim light, her hand gripping the Beast Witch's throat.
"You're… the Witch of Death?"
"I'm surprised you recognized me," Hel said with a faint tilt of her head. A thin smile curved her lips, and under the flickering magic lamps, her white teeth gleamed with a chilling light.
"So your true target is the Beast Witch… or perhaps her divine core?"
Pestis raised her hand slightly, and a wand woven from belladonna vines appeared in her grasp. Her gaze locked onto Hel's every movement, the tip of her wand subtly tracking her.
Hel, however, remained completely calm—still holding the Beast Witch effortlessly, as if Pestis's presence didn't concern her at all.
"I heard from Nikki that the Insect Witch is in your custody," Hel said lazily.
"So you took such a risk just to help her ascend, didn't you? But the Divinity of Fertility was split into five parts. Even fusing two divine cores is a deadly gamble, let alone five. I don't believe the Insect Witch has what it takes to evolve into the true Goddess of Fertility."
"Why don't you guess?" Hel replied softly, still smiling.
The three casual words made Pestis's pupils contract sharply. She suddenly had a feeling—the way Hel spoke, there wasn't even the slightest doubt that the Insect Witch could ascend. As if divinity ascension were as trivial as eating or breathing.
But could that really be possible?
Hel looked far too calm. Too confident.
Before Pestis could speak again, Hel continued:
"Your Disease and Poison divinities still haven't fully fused, have they? And to stabilize the Poison core, you forcibly merged your soul with another one. At this rate, even if you ascend to become the Witch of Plague, the one who ends up controlling your body might not be you."
"I know that," Pestis replied coldly.
"And I doubt you came all this way just to lecture me. You're either preparing a teleportation spell or waiting for someone to extract you."
She narrowed her eyes, her vigilance rising.
"I may specialize in plague magic, but I'm not ignorant of death spells. Unless you turn the Beast Witch into a full undead, you have no way of taking her through teleportation. From the moment I sensed you, your little scheme was already doomed to fail."
"Failed?" Hel arched a brow and smiled faintly. She glanced meaningfully toward the ceiling of the chamber.
"Are you talking about the Mindscape Domain you secretly activated? Or the paralytic drug you slipped into the Beast Witch's body? Ah, I should mention—while your trick of disguising the drug as a buff potion to bypass divine backlash was clever, it doesn't work on me."
At those words, Pestis's heart sank. Her carefully arranged traps and contingencies—all of them were useless.
She had no choice left but to fight.
The next instant, the world around them twisted violently.
The underground chamber shattered like glass, replaced by a vast, desolate realm.
The sky was murky green. The land, too, was green and rotting. Everywhere, miasma of plague rolled and surged like a tide, engulfing a decayed city below.
Pestis now held a dark green dagger in her hand.
"I know," she said, her voice steady.
"As a lower-ranked witch, I can't possibly match a higher witch through ordinary spells."
She flipped the dagger into a reverse grip, lowering her stance in preparation to strike.
"There's only one way for a lower witch to defy and slay a higher one—aside from using enchanted tools."
"You mean divine power?" Hel asked, one brow raised.
"Exactly. The Dagger of Plague, a sacred artifact of disease. With it, I can strike at you without triggering divine backlash from the God of Death. So—hand over the Beast Witch, and I'll let you leave alive."
Her tone was cold, her killing intent sharp as a blade. She looked ready to pounce at any second.
Hel, however, merely smiled—amused by the act.
"Clearly," she said, voice dripping with irony, "if you were going to use that artifact…you'd have done it already, by stabbing me in the back."