“Great Witch-sama, can we rest a little? My feet feel sore…”

I glance backwards, towards my followers and was met by looks of plea as they were all on the same condition. Turning to the beautiful snow elf, I answer, “Sure thing,” before turning to the other men. “We are resting for thirty minutes, gentlemen! An hour tops! Gather the supplies and relieve yourself!” My order was met with a collective sigh of exhaustion, some even falling to the ground on the spot. Thankfully, I had someone capable of telling me to stop, otherwise who knows what these people might have suffered under such constraint.

Normally I would laugh at their pathetic display; how could they fall so behind by such a frail lady like myself? But then again, I was in no mood for such jokes, nor would anyone receive them as before.

“Miss witch…” Regalia says softly as she sits by a rock nearby. “When are we going to escape the Lost Woods? Are we still being followed? I… Don’t think I can go for much longer…” Pain was clear in her voice, the cut in her heart still fresh and bleeding. For how long will she bleed? Will it ever stop? Will she ever recover?

I pat her silky light blue hair, ruffling it more than it already was, her equally beautiful eyes looking away in embarrassment. “Don’t you worry, Regy-chan, we are almost out, and as soon as we leave the forest, they won’t be able to follow us.” Sometimes lying was the right thing to do, sometimes not answering a question was also the right thing to do, for if she knew the truth her hope would shatter, and the future of the Union would crumble.

“Witch-sama, I’m already an adult, stop calling me ‘chan’…”

“Ara, ara, for me you are nothing but a child.”

“Everyone is a child compared to you!”

I let out a chuckle, such comment would have offended me years ago, but not anymore. I let go of her head and move towards Marcus, who was inspecting his weaponry. “How are we looking, Cap?” The handsome, brutish man looks up to me. Blonde hair, jade eyes met my gaze, a combination I was too accustomed to by now.

“Not too good, Witch-sama, we might have to stop and search for a water source and hunt some game if we want to go through this in one piece, problem is…”

“We are in the Lost Woods.”

His gaze grimaces. “Aye, we are only alive due to your wards, my men are too tired to go and fight the beasts, much less the curse.”

This was indeed dire. I might not need to, but everyone else needed to eat, drink and do their necessities in order to survive. They all needed to sleep, unlike our pursuers. I tilt my golden, coiling staff and tap it on his shoulder, a quick mental chant later and his exhaustion was somewhat relieved. “Gather up your best, I will try and heal them to the best of my abilities. If anyone complains, tell them if I try and heal everyone then you will have to face a bigger beast than the Black Moon,” to this Marcus laughed and nodded as he went and attended to his men.

I look towards Regalia and see her lighting up a fire in order to warm herself up, I decided to help her since such a small spell wouldn’t put a strain on me. “T-thank you, Witch-sama…” The pointy-eared girl sits beside the wood and puts her hands against the fire. No words were exchanged between us, no words were needed in order to know what we felt.

After watching the small fireplace burn for a while, Marcus returned to me with a small team of his most trusted, who I then partially healed so that they can find resources. “You are not carrying my blessing, children,” I tell them. “Return with haste as soon as you see anything abnormal.

“Pff, this whole place is abnormal…” One of the men rudely replies. “Wouldn’t it be better if the oh so powerful Vampire Witch went and searched instead of sending us lowly humans to do her errands?”

“Hector!” Marcus tries to stand up for me, but I stop him with my staff.

“He is right, Marcus, right now I’m nothing but a burden. But listen here, young boy,” I get closer to this man, towering him not due to his height, but mine alone. “If it wasn’t for this useless lady, you would be nothing but a head in a stake, or a puddle on the ground.” He immediately gets the point and looks away in anger, not even wanting to refute my reasoning. With that, I order Marcos to search the least abnormal parts of our surroundings and then jump onto one of the trees in order to rest a little.

This body no longer needed rest, and sleeping was out of the question, so I just decided to look at the children scattered about, resting, sobbing and some even trying to sleep despite our situation. We were too few, but at the same time too many for this forest, we have lost men getting this far and the morale was low. If we had any women with us no doubt, they would be trying to leave seeds in this world. Such foolishness.

But who am I to talk? Aren’t I the biggest fool of all of us? What blinded me in the end? Greed? Status? Power? So many things definitely contributed to this very moment, and I was a fool for letting it get this far. Why was I so attached to this country anyways? I could just go to the next one and start anew, my name is known in every corner of the world, so I would not have any complications for a comfortable living.

So why bother? Why don’t I just abandon these fools and live my own life once again? Even if they captured me, I would just recover naturally, even if they raped me, I would not yield nor bear their children. So, why? Why do I want to see them to the end?

I let out a sigh as I drift into these pondering thoughts. Maybe it’s finally time to find myself a man? Or a woman perhaps? With my witchcraft, heritage would not be a problem. I molded this body of mine to my liking in order to gain favors from men and women alike, even if these piles of flesh in my chest made it difficult to move in tight spaces, I knew everyone loved my body, because I loved it, too.

“…!” I quickly went down and positioned myself in front of Regalia. It was faint, but I felt something lurking in my radar. Problem was: from which direction? I was too distracted, my guard too lowered to know where it came from.

“Witch-sama… Is something…?” She realized it too.

We were completely alone. Not a single man in sight.

“Regalia,” I calmly whisper to her only. “I’m preparing an emergency teleportation spell so that you can get away to a safer location. I didn’t want to use it because it would deplete my reserves completely, but this is our last hope.”

“Witch-sama!? What do you mean!?” I feel her stand up and hold my arms. “What about you? Are you also going to leave me behind?”

Shaking my head lightly, I answer her: “No, Regalia, we will meet again. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, but I will return to your side, just make sure to- “

Bang!

Pain. Everything was pain, looking down I saw a bullet hole in my abdomen, blood steadily pouring out from it and from my mouth. A bullet somehow penetrated my shield, but how? Regalia was screaming my name, but I pushed her backwards with my staff. I tried to speak but no words came out, I felt a useless organ being filled with my own blood preventing me to say a word.

But something was wrong, I couldn’t cast any healing spell, not even the most basic one, and the pain was no other like I had experienced before.

Slowly, a group of shadows surrounded us, one stepped forward.

Marcus.

For how long?

“You are wondering for how long was I on their side?” Spot on, bastard. The dirty dog lets out a dark chuckle and takes slow steps towards us. “I wasn’t too much of a fan of angering the Great Vampire Witch at the beginning, but when they presented me this-“ He raised an elegant revolver. “And they promised me to give me your body? Oh, man, I was on.” I try to take a step forwards, but my knees fail me. What is happening to me? Is my Spirit draining? What was in that bullet?

“Don’t you worry, Witch, I’ll treat you nicely once you become my woman. Soon you will not be able to live without my cock on your pussy and a child in your womb.” Marcus was now in front of me, thankfully my spell was about to fire off and Regalia would be put somewhere safe. Said girl was too afraid to say a word.

However, I just spat blood on his face. “You…! Imprudent bitch!” He hits me with the handle of the gun on the side of my head, knocking me down and disorienting me. “I can’t wait to see that attitude of yours disappear as you become a bitch in heat! But first…” He took steps towards Regalia, but I couldn’t even move as darkness slowly overcame my vision.

“Let me and my boys have some fun with this whore first.”

Something snapped inside of me in that moment, strength returned to my body in a flash, but my body was no longer in my control. With a beastly howl I jumped to Marcus’ back and snapped my fangs on his neck and started to quickly drain his Spirit.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

More pain, but protecting Regalia was the only thing in my mind. It wasn’t long before the bulky man then turned to a scrawny pile of bones and flesh. The feeling of young, mortal blood was exhilarating. Such lust! Such vigor! So much pleasure!

More! I needed more!

“Witch-sama!”

A single voice returned me to my senses, I looked to the young, juicy lady in front of me. How would such high-quality blood would taste? I needed to know.

I did my best to continue feasting, but my body wouldn’t move. Why!? Such a luxurious plate was right before me! Oh, would I love to suck her completely dry as I ravage her holes! But why. Won’t. I. Move!?

Huh? Why was this sack of blood crying over me? Didn’t I tell you that crying didn’t fit your face? Don’t worry, little girl, this lady just wants to… Rest…

I sense a spell being casted right before I dive into the world of nightmares.

I feel my body but can’t actually move it.

My lids are closed so everything is darkness, but all of my other senses were assaulted with an alien experience. I was no longer wearing my attractive clothing, instead I had some sort of shirt that was tight on my breast and short pants protecting my body. The texture was unlike anything I have felt before. Why was the bastard treating his would-be breeding bitch such high-quality clothing?

Not only that but the smell of the room felt… Synthetic, almost like an alchemy room but lighter. Was I experimented on? If so, how come my conscience returned to me all of the sudden?

And the sounds… Were those beasts!? The roaring came and went, were we being attacked!? But no sound of fighting rang out…

I was in a rather comfortable bed, not like the ones in the palace, but it was far beyond what a soldier like Marcus could afford. Was I sold to a noble after he grew bored of me? I tried to use my Spirit and…

“…!” I could open my eyes! But I quickly closed them since it was daytime, and my eyes were not accustomed to such brightness. The air… It was stagnant with Spirit! Where in the seven hells was I? I have travelled through the world and no place was so blessed like this, it’s almost as if Spirit had not been used at all!

I ran a diagnosis to my body. I was expecting my sex to have been abused and my womb with a child but no, there was no difference as before. My blood had something foreign in it, so I quickly eliminated it. But other than that, nothing was out of the ordinary. My body had no traces of drug addiction, curse, modification or abuse.

Slowly but surely, I grew accustomed to the light and after some time of trying, I was surprised beyond belief. Everything was… Different. I was in a strange, small room, in a blue bed, wearing some sort of gown above my clothing. The walls were a solid white, something was attached to my arm and into some sort of apparatus that displayed information. One of these displays showed the crude and popular shape of a heart alongside a number and a line that went up and down in a steady rhythm. Was that… My heartbeat? Was this thing registering my heartbeat?

Who in their right mind would go such lengths as to use legendary equipment on a lowly war prisoner? Why would they monitor my heartbeat and other things? Regardless, there were other things that caught my attention, such as a blood bag and a bag of some sorts of liquid connected to my arm, slowly dripping and flowing into my body via a small needle.

But the most attractive thing of all: a grand set of fine, transparent glass mounted on the wall, letting me see the blue sky and white clouds.

Terrifying sounds of beasts asides, this was rather peaceful, I could even heard a bard and his companions sing on the other side of the door of the room, but his instrument and voice were very attractive, I must say.

Even so, if my body won’t move, my mind could. Less than a second of chanting later, my field of view separated from my body and floated in front of it. I could see the room more clearly, all the fine details, the cupboards, the shelves of medical equipment, and a weird black panel of materials foreign to me mounted on the wall in front of me.

Enough of this room, I moved my consciousness outside of the door and was overwhelmed by all the humans in uniforms going on and about. Some were carrying bags, some were pushing metallic carts full of tools and vials, some were resting and reading light literature of their choosing. I traveled to the rooms from the hallway and found humans in the same, if not worse, state than me. They all had something in common: All of them had dark hair. Not a single witch in sight.

What was this place anyways? It was no palace, for there was no soldier nor scummy noble ordering servants around. This place was simply way too big to be a church and no there were no priest healing these people nor priestesses pleasuring said priest. I simply had nothing to compare this to! Such joy! To be captive of an unknown civilization! I would gladly act the part of a broken breeding slave if that meant being able to see more of this place! I could simply stomp all over these defenseless humans if push comes to shove, but maybe I could entertain the idea of me being powerless? Those bullets did a number on me, but I was now good as new.

But no matter how much I searched, Regalia was nowhere to be seen. A part of me was glad, seeing as the spell worked, but the other part of me was worried. I was in a bad state of mind at the time, so maybe the destination had changed.

While I pondered, I found one of these black panels on the wall showing a set of moving, colorful pictures. Fascinating! To be able to make moving pictures of such smoothness and colors! And then I discovered they didn’t operate on magic! How could they make it move? I wanted to learn more!

Click

I forced my consciousness to my body and saw as a young lady entered the room, her uniform the same as one of the assistants. Her light green clothes of an unknown texture fit her body tightly, her impossibly silky hair ran down to her shoulders. She was carrying a piece of wood with a stack of fine, pristine paper with neat writing on it.

She turned to face me.

I smiled; my body too weak to muster a word.

Her object fell to the ground.

“Oh my God you are awake,” came from her pretty lips, she then bolted out of the room screaming ‘Doctor!’. A strange job: doctors were often hired by the royals and none were independent. Just who is my captor?

For some reason I felt that my bleak life was now going to shine once more.