We're able to cover a lot of ground despite the forest's rough terrain. Zeke's speed even as a young dragon is double that of a horse bred to race. It helps that he's familiar with much of the Weeping Expanse. Thanks to his presence, we're mostly left unimpeded by the more vicious inhabitants of the forest.
The crashing of water can be heard in the distance, and the stone tower that is Eudora's so-called throne quickly comes into view. There are witches hiding just out of sight but within my peripherals. They're not attacking, just watching me as I approach.
There are a lot more than I expected. I wouldn't call two dozen witches an army, but one wouldn't see more than two witches in a single place if it wasn't Grathir. It seems not many witches agree with where Anora is taking our kind. Enough that they would side with the genocidal witch herself. Am I the one who has been in the wrong?
All this time I've cast Eudora as no different than Anora. But only one of them cared enough to save my life, and the other framed two— no, three witches including myself for crimes we didn't commit. I foolishly operated under Anora's words that the Cackling Witch isn't to be trusted. Maybe it's time I make new alliances instead.
Just as described, there are two cascading waterfalls that frame the tower on either side. When I try to commune with nature, I can't sense any forest nymphs nearby. My senses cut out after it pulses as far out as a kilometer.
One witch stands guard at the teleportation circle. As I get closer, I realize that she is someone I know rather well.
"Alira? You, too?"
"Looking good, Ellori." Alira gives me her signature two-finger salute. An old habit of her's from the Academy. "Eudora didn't tell us you were going to ride in on a silver dragon. Where's your shining armor to go along with it?"
I hop off of Zeke and give Alira a hug. The two of us were in the same class year and graduated at the same time. We lost contact after she went to a vassal state of High Saquin to guide the fallen empire's restoration. Never in my wildest imagination would I expect to see her on this side of the world.
"I can't believe so many of you are on Eudora's side," I remark coldly.
"Believe me, she cares more about us than Anora ever did. I looked up to Headmaster as a role model. Not anymore. They feel the same way.." Alira gestures behind me to the other witches who have come out of their hiding places.
Many of them I recognize. I feel like I'm back in school being around them. It strikes me as odd that they are on the younger spectrum of witches like myself. Not a single older witch among them.
"But you guys kidnapped Mira. Did you even give her a chance to speak for herself?"
Alira scowls at me. "Miracella didn't give the three witches she murdered a chance to speak either."
"She… did that?" I ask, hardly believing it. On second thought, it is something she's capable of. She did kill the witch in Randover.
Alira steps aside, giving me access to the teleportation circle. I give Zeke a reassuring pat, and try to hand Rio to Alira. She pushes him back into my hand and says, "you'll understand inside."
As I take a step onto the runes, Allira shouts one last thing to me as the light consumes my body.
"We're all fighting for our lives out here. Please, make the right decision. For all of our sake."
My feet make purchase on solid ground. I expect to be battered by another harsh environment, but I open my eyes to a cloudless and sunny day. I'm on a gazebo situated on a flat green field. A gentle breeze is all that teases my skin. Rio is still in my arms. It doesn't seem like he was ejected by the tower.
"Aren't you going to sit? Or would you rather gawk at the grass grow?"
I whip around to Eudora's voice. She sits across a table that wasn't here when I arrived. It's packed to the brim with platters of vibrant desserts and confectionaries. A seat slides out from under the table.
"Your throne is, uh… rather modest," I remark, taking a seat.
Eudora stuffs a slice of cake into her mouth and points down with her fork. "I noticed your draconic companion. You had sex with a dragon. How in Edith's name did you manage that?"
"I accidentally created an elixir that increased my size— wait, you saw the entire thing?!"
A crystal ball— another item that wasn't on the table previously— appears, showing me the bathhouse in which Zeke and I did the deed. I bury my face into my hands.
"It was a marvelous spectacle. You're probably the most voracious witch I've ever known!"
The more Eudora compliments me, the more embarrassed I become.
It suddenly occurs to me that Eudora is in a forged world. This completely changes what I initially believed she had become. That can't be it though, this tower must be different from the others.
"Now there is a face of someone who has figured me out," Eudora remarks.
"It took me a while, but it wasn't until I escaped the tower did I realize that you couldn't enter them on your own. You've… tampered with your body, haven't you? You reconstructed yourself into a familiar."
There is no laughter, nor a big shit-eating grin. The corner of her lips curve into a sad smile. "Then how does that explain the tower you and I are currently in?"
"The other towers were created by the witches of old, but designed in a way to prevent external magical constructs from entering. I don't have definitive proof, but if you've been digging around the Weeping Expanse, delving into forbidden tomes and magic, then I can only surmise one thing: you found a way to raise your own tower."
Eudora's lips widen enough that I think she's about to erupt into her notorious laughter. Instead, she nods and taps her temple. "You're smart. Then you're smart enough to know that we cannot defeat the likes of Anora and the Order of Piety by conventional means. Your battle with Humility should have hammered that in harder than that dragon's cocks."
The tea I'm sipping shoots out of my nose, and I'm coughing out my lungs to catch my breath. "Stop bringing that up!"
Now she laughs. It seems almost childish. Like a kid playing a prank on her friend. If I didn't know what I knew now, if it wasn't for the black splotches on her face and horns on her head, she would just be another human witch like myself.
But this is the same woman who kidnapped Mira, and I can't forgive her for that.
"There's only one way I'm getting out of this alive with Mira, isn't there?" I ask the Cackling Witch.
"I've come too far to stop now, Ellori. Many a lives have been felled by my magic. I have no qualms killing either of you if I must."
The tension in the air has grown thick. It's as though dark clouds could roll across the sky at any moment. But the clear day of this forged world is a facade to a much darker one outside.
When I was mocked for summoning the weakest soul, Mira taught me that we aren't defined by that which we have no control over— how we then react to it does. It may seem like I have no decision here, that my choice is made for me under the threat of Eudora's monstrous power. But there is one option I hadn't considered.
"I know why you're so desperate to find the soul stone of gluttony, Eudora."
She leans on the table, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. "Why is that?"
"You can't consume duplicate souls. Despite having a familiar's body, no magical construction would be able to withstand two of the same ones vying to occupy your body. You need gluttony in order to identify the rest."
I pull the smooth purple stone from my bag and set it on my empty plate. Eudora stares at it, eyes dilated, unbelieving that I would part with it so easily. I slide it over to her, causing the round stone to roll listlessly on the plate.
Eudora dubiously picks up the stone and holds it between her eyes. "If this isn't gluttony, you will have killed me."
"No tricks," I confirm. "In my naivety, I thought I could be a third force in this conflict. But I've lost battle after battle, and I need to know when to admit defeat. No surprises. This is me building a new bridge."
She shrugs and offers me a smirk. "Bottom's up."
Eudora swallows the stone, followed by the black vial we both drank previously. She clenches her stomach in pain, but it quickly subsides. I had thought it would be more vicious this time, but perhaps she's grown used to it.
"Is that pride I smell?" She asks, sniffing the air around me.
"I held up my end of the bargain. Where's Mira?"
Eudora disappears from sight, as has everything on the table except for a single wrought-iron key. A large mansion materializes in front of the gazebo. I walk up to the door and there is a note taped to the doorknob. It reads: Third floor. Left hallway. Second door to the right.
"Uh… great way to start off our new friendship, I guess."
I feel an enormous weight lifted from my shoulders without the soul stone of gluttony in my pocket. There may be consequences down the line by giving Eudora a fast track to the other souls, but I'm alive. Mira's alive. And she will stay off mine and the backs of the people at home.
The key Eudora left behind fits perfectly into the ornate doors of the mansion before me. A gale of wind fills into the building as soon as I throw the doors open. I follow the instructions up to the third floor, and there is another note taped to the door. It reads: Have fun.
I open the door and a tentacle wraps around my waist, yanking me into the room. The first thing I see is Mira, but my relief is wiped away by the sight of her being assaulted by a large alraune in the center of the room. She's stark naked, arms and legs bound with vines, and even more that prod every hole on her body.
Before I can cast a spell, the writhing monstrosity attacks me with more vines, disarming me of my staff and equipment.
"What the— Eudora!"
My mouth is plugged up by a thick vine, and another blossoms into a flower that expels a floral scent in my face. I'm no match for the alraune's strength, and it giggles as it pulls the both of us to its grinning face.
See pos reference to Re:Zero here