The Witch’s stare suddenly turned icy, causing Fate to freeze and almost release his grip on the chain, while his doppelganger clicked its tongue in frustration.

The Witch raised her hand up, exposing a radiant indigo crystal fragment that rested between two of her pale fingers, angrily staring at the copy, who could only flash her an obviously forced smile in an attempt to hide its discomfort…

-The...hell is that thing...? Why is she holding up a crystal...or did I just miss some weird, new-age hippie rave?

Fate’s confusion lasted for a few moments, but he was dragged out of his thoughts by the sudden snapping of the black chain, which tore itself from his hands!

[Clang!][Clang!][Clang!][Clang!][Clang!]

The sound of metal ringing as it slammed against the platform penetrated Fate’s ears, as he saw more and more of the thoroughly soaked construct be hauled out from the black sea below. A storm, the ringing of metal, and one spire against the waves…

-Coupled with this monster...this would make one hell of a standard horror-survival film back on earth...cliché as those are...I think I would prefer them to this…!

Fate was shocked by what finally emerged at the end of the chain, after what had seemed like hours of the Witch angrily digging icy daggers into his skull with her stare...what emerged was a small, worn book that seemed to have an extremely dim, blue aura gradually leaking from its soaked pages…

Fate: “The...that... can’t be the book I think it is...right?”

Fate vaguely remembered the leather binding and style of the letters that ran across its surface...the first characters that had greeted him from a small collection, right after he had arrived in Ilthea, though he couldn’t read them then. The very same volume that had been bathed under a blue light from the starry sky that seemingly hid the moon…

‘Maintaining One’s Earthly Paradise: Volume IV - *blurred text* Sanctified Soil’

After a few moments, the Witch waved the crystalline shard, causing the energy seeping from the tome’s pages to gather inside of it. She then directed her gaze at the clone, who suddenly began grasping its neck as if it was being strangled!

Witch of Fate: “What do you believe you have accomplished or could have accomplished by separating my essence from the journal?”

The doppelganger’s eyes widened…

The Witch began walking towards its still crumbling body, which at this point had now almost completely lost its legs and lower body. It now floated into the air, channeling black energies into its hands, which made visible a myriad of slender, purple limbs that were tangled around its throat while the Witch gazed upon it with now a fully revealed disdain…

Witch of Fate: “And you intended to utilize the remaining energy and your own putrid toxins to reformat it into a vessel? For one who has already had the experience of death as an integral part of their being...I find it disappointing that you would fear it, to the extent that you would enact this farce of a scheme…”

The copy growled as the young man’s face was quickly torn apart from the inside, revealing a gaping maw of black fangs, only for the withering to suddenly hasten, bringing its last chance at resistance to an abrupt halt…

However, its returned golden eyes are still brimming with life, even as its arms are now stagnant against the crushing force of its foe, glaring daggers at her, but the Witch simply responded with a quiet chuckle.

Witch of Fate: “Still impertinent to the last second, do you believe that makes you endearing because I assure you, it quite doesn’t…”

She then turned her head to Fate, eyeing him with some degree of contempt, while the rest of her vision was indecipherable to Fate. Fate, on the other hand, could only fix his gaze on her, not daring to look away for even a second, as if his next moment would be his last…

As if to stop him from reaching into his thoughts of oblivion and accepting what seemed like the inevitable, the Witch suddenly appeared before him, slapping him across the face, causing him to fall to the ground!

Fate: “F*ck, you…!!!”

Suddenly, he found a finger placed to his mouth, silencing him as the Witch’s form lowered itself to meet his gaze again, with a look of disappointment now taking the place of her previous one of contempt…

Witch of Fate: “Now then, my treacherous little familiar...I shall allow you to leave my presence, much as it slows our collective progress...Though as punishment for even thinking of disobeying me, as flawed as this creature’s plan was…”

She held out a black bead, placing it into Fate’s pocket before lightly caressing the indigo stone in her other hand as her eyes seemed to scan every inch of it like a mother looking for injuries on their child’s body, before stopping at a nearly-invisible spot at the tip of the now teardrop-shaped gem.

The weathered book suddenly shrunk, zipping like a bee into Fate’s pocket with the black bead, leaving him noticeably bewildered.

Witch of Fate: “You shall not be able to receive my wisdom, nor shall you be able to utilize your journal. However, as a silver lining, I have allowed you enough of my residual mana to maintain a single page...I trust you should know which one I mean.”

Her speech didn’t seem cold or distant now, but somewhat lukewarm and forced…

Suddenly, before he had a chance to speak, Fate began to radiate with a blue light as his body began to float off the ground, sending him drifting through the air as he looked down at the gradually shrinking Witch and scenery below…

Witch of Fate: “Goodbye, my little familiar...for now…”

And with that, Fate vanished into the mystical gate above, as the darkened and torn world around the Witch began to fade away…

Witch of Fate: “It would have been easier to send him off if he hadn’t kept interfering with my casting! Still, though, I suppose that I’ll keep an eye on him...through the tides of suffering and sorrow, that repugnant shadow shall be my sentinel...serve me well, my children…~”

With a quiet smile, the Witch flew into the gate, as the world behind her faded to black, with only a cascade of black dust to drift aimlessly through it...
...

It's finally the end of the backstory arc, back to the mansion, my intrepid readers!