Release That Witch

After an unknown period of time, Nightingale slowly opened her eyes.

Beneath her nose was the fragrance of the earth, a smell so pure that only primitive soil could have. She tried to lift her head and saw that as far as her eyes could see, there was an empty field, and the city had disappeared without a trace.

Did she… succeed?

Before Neverwinter City was built, there was not a decent city in the west. It was normal for the wilderness to be everywhere.

An irrepressible sense of joy welled up in Nightingale.

But she knew it was too early to celebrate.

There was a certain degree of uncertainty in this kind of travel. There could be an error in the location and time. Until she reached Border Town, she could not be considered to have succeeded.

"I have to determine my location as soon as possible."

Nightingale took a deep breath and slowly got up from the ground. This operation consumed a lot of magic power and almost exhausted her stamina. Fortunately, her body was unscathed. As long as she rested a while, she would recover.

However, the moment she stood up, she immediately realized that something was wrong!

Her clothes actually slid down, and her shoes seemed to have grown two sizes!

Nightingale quickly crouched down again.

Only then did she realize that her body had become smaller!

"No way… Is this also the price of Time Reversal?"

For a moment, she was stunned. This was a very important matter! If she was no longer her old self, how could she be the bridge between Border Town and the exiled witches? How could she convince Wendy and the others to believe her? Judging from the shadow, she had almost fallen to Anna's level in her early years, which was a huge blow to her confidence.

Her strategies that had been conceived for many years were instantly back to square one.

At this moment, a distinct sound suddenly drifted into Nightingale's ears.

Although it was very faint, she could still tell that it was intermittent cries and screams.

Enemies!?

Nightingale was suddenly alert.

In the wilderness, other than the wild beasts, there might also be knights of the church. She did not forget the experience of exiled witches being chased by the church. She was not afraid of these opponents, but she did not want any sisters to fall into the hands of the church.

Nightingale fastened her clothes and pricked up her ears. After roughly identifying the direction, she immediately rushed into the fog towards the source of the sound.

In less than a minute, a small village appeared in front of her.

There was no continuous mountain range nearby, only clusters of low trees. It was obviously not Border Town. Cries for help became clearer, and at the same time, she heard the buzzing of weapons clashing.

"Get behind me!"

"Torre, ignore them. Protect Lady Meyna!"

A few soldiers in armor were fighting a bloody battle, and the enemy opposite them looked extremely familiar. They were huge, terrifying, and wore strange bone masks with leather airbags on their backs.

Demons.

Nightingale couldn't help but be startled. When did the demon invade the Western Region? She remembered that these aliens had only been to the Hidden Forest at most. They had never had any formal contact with the Graycastle people before Roland appeared.

However, this was clearly not the time to think.

The humans were at an obvious disadvantage. There were more than ten soldiers lying on the ground, and even those who were still standing were covered in injuries. Behind them were at least fifty people. From their clothes, they were undoubtedly local villagers.

If there were no reinforcements, these people would not be able to last long.

Fortunately, reinforcements had arrived.

Nightingale jumped out of the fog and waved a white thread in her hand. She cut open the body of a demon at lightning speed!

Red mist mixed with blue blood gushed out!

She did not carry any weapons, nor did she need any. The spatial rifts formed by her ability were the strongest swords, and even the strongest armor in the world could not withstand the cutting of the fog.

"W-Who is it?" A soldier exclaimed.

"It's reinforcements! Sir, reinforcements are here!"

Reinforcements? Nightingale felt that something was wrong. She was indeed helping these people, but didn't they accept it too quickly? It should be known that witches were dangerous outcasts in this era. If they were caught, they would be sentenced to death. It was only because she was confident that she would not be threatened by anyone that she chose to take the initiative to attack. If it were her early years when she wandered, she would never expose herself so easily.

Although she was puzzled, Nightingale's movements didn't slow down. In just ten seconds, eight or nine demons had fallen.

The remaining enemies raised their spears.

"Be careful of the spears!" a female voice warned sharply.

Nightingale's heart was as still as water as she stepped into the fog. The black and white world enveloped her in an instant. In this vision, time seemed to slow down. She could clearly see every frame of the bone spear's attack, like a movie scene.

She stretched out her hands and pinched the "spear body". Then, with a gentle pull, the spears made of clumsy lines collapsed. In her vision, it was the collapse of the outline, but in reality, it was the complete collapse of the spear structure.

All the spears exploded into countless bone fragments in the air.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Half a minute later, there wasn't a single demon left standing.

"Well… thank you for your timely rescue. I am Squadron Leader Meyna of the advance party of the Garrison. May I ask who you are…" A woman in half-armor staggered in front of Nightingale. She looked seriously injured and blood could be seen under the armor.

The Garrison? This was the first time Nightingale had heard this title.

"Uh… just call me Nightingale." She had already noticed the faint magic fluctuations coming from the other party's body. Coupled with these unfamiliar names, the strange armor style, and the unusual movements of the demons, an extremely bad feeling slowly rose from the bottom of her heart. "I want to ask, what year is it now, and what is this place?"

Faced with such an unbelievable question, there was a commotion among the soldiers.

Meyna raised her hand to stop the whispering of the crowd. While the woman was sizing her up, she was also sizing up this "savior". If she had not seen her clearly before and mistaken her for a patrolling witch who had come to rescue, she was now certain that this person was definitely not a member of the Garrison or even a member of the Union.

After all, no one with common sense would ask such a question.

Moreover, being able to easily defeat a group of crazy demons by herself, such a person must be famous. It was impossible for Meyna  to not remember her. What was even more shocking was that she looked to be at most 16 or 17 years old. Meyna did not know if she was an adult. Witches needed time to increase their magic power and their skills had to be refined. She did not even dare to think about how far this person could grow, considering her capability at such a young age.

For a moment, Meyna wondered if this was just another trap set by the demon.

However, this woman who called herself Nightingale was indeed a compatriot. The magic waves would not lie.

Before the truth was found out, she should respect the girl who was far more capable than herself. "Nightingale… Ma'am, this is the Fertile Plains, under the jurisdiction of the city of Taquila. Of course, this place is quite far from the Holy City, otherwise we wouldn't be here—"

Then, Meyna caught an obvious change in the other party's expression!

"Ahem!" Nightingale almost choked on his saliva. "What did you say? T-Taquila?"

"Excuse me… Is there a problem?" Meyna's heart tightened. That was the last of the Three Holy Cities. Was there anyone in this world who did not know about it?

"So… you belong to the Union?"

"Exactly." She nodded.

Nightingale was completely rooted to the spot. A moment later she slumped down as if she'd lost the strength to support herself. At the same time she was cursing in her head—

What bullsh*t theoretical calculations? You guaranteed that the error would not exceed plus or minus three years? This is 500 years ahead of my destination, back before the Union was destroyed! 500 years! At this time, the Graycastle countries were still a savage land, and there was no sign of Border Town. If she could still go back, she would definitely pull off the beards of those old scholars!

"Are you alright?" Meyna was shocked by her reaction. "Did you use too much magic power? Someone come!"

"Don't panic… I'm fine." Nightingale weakly stopped her. "This tiny bit of consumption is nothing to me."

This, this tiny bit?

Meyna was speechless for a moment.

"Madam Meyna, we shouldn't stay here for too long. The demons might catch up to us at any moment," a soldier stepped forward and said. "But we've lost too many men. We can't take all the villagers with us. Let's pick out the young people and leave the rest behind to buy us time."

"What are you talking about, Keane! Isn't our duty to search the scattered settlements on the Fertile Plains and bring the survivors back to the Holy City?"

"That's just the plan!" The soldier called Keane retorted. "How can the lives of ordinary people compare to the lives of witches? Moreover… we now have one more person to protect." He looked at Nightingale. "Torre, the Garrison can't afford more losses."

"But…"

"Take everyone with you. I can guarantee that the demons won't be able to catch up with you." Nightingale suddenly interrupted their argument. Despite experiencing a huge shock, she didn't immerse herself in shock and disappointment for too long. She had experienced too many twists and turns in her life, but there had never been a difficulty that really knocked her down. She was the most powerful warrior in Graycastle and was used to holding her fate in her hands.

"Are you sure?" Keane asked carefully. In his opinion, this witch was far stronger than his captain, and according to his previous impression, the more powerful a witch was, the less she would take ordinary people seriously.

"That's right. And not just them. Every one of you is a precious asset." Nightingale stood up again and looked around the crowd. "Don't die easily."

Everyone was stunned.

Keane and Torre looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes.

"In that case, let's go together," Meyna decided. "Keane, Torre, listen to my orders. Take everyone and return to Taquila immediately."

"Yes, ma'am!" the two squad leaders replied in unison.

…