Chapter 96: Chapter 96: Mind Invasion
In the dark mind space of Siderius, Nora appeared.
Her body was pure and uncompromised. All the tattoos and traces of magic were gone. In there, she was purely a human without her witch magic.
And what she saw was something unimaginable.
Usually a mind space was a manifestation of one’s psyche. Their most intimated home that showed any intruder who they really were.
Nora had seen many types of mind.
A bloodthirsty one where the mind was a battlefield of iron and corpses. And the person sat upon that mountain of corpse, carefully contemplating his life.
A mind that was so complex and cunning that itself was a maze with no end. Their heart was buried so deep that even the owner could not find a way to their true self.
Nora had even seen a mind that created their own world. A complete diversion from the real world that had no similarities between the two.
But she had never seen a mind this dark, this blank and empty. It was as if Siderius’ mind was made out of nothing.
"This is your trump card?" A voice echoed in the space.
Nora looked over.
A man in a high-quality blue robe with long floating grey hair. His face was that of Snow and his skin too was smooth and filled with youthfulness.
But the robe was Siderius’. The grey hair was also his.
His appearance before he came to this world. The alchemist robe and the gray hair of an old man.
"This is what you actually look like? You are... indescribably beautiful." Nora said. She was not joking. Snow possessed the face of an angel. Combined with Siderius’ dangerous aura and wisdom, a new being of contradiction had been created.
"Maybe. What are you going to do now? Are you able to find my heart in this endless space of mine?" Siderius approached Nora and stood in front of her.
They were dangerously close to each other. Their breaths touched the other.
Nora was shorter than Snow. At least one head shorter. She looked no different than a fragile innocent girl in this space.
"Why don’t you show me where your heart is?" Nora hugged him and whispered into his ears. Her breath was warm and it exuded a black cloud.
Siderius’ body suddenly shined a silver color. It repulsed back her magic and sent Nora backward a few steps.
Her face sterned. Similar to Bas, Siderius’ mind could resist her magic.
It was more fortified than anyone she had come across. This task wouldn’t be that easy now.
"I have never encountered anyone that could resist my spell. Now I see two of them on the same day. Fate really knows how to play you." Nora said.
Siderius smirked. "Fate is a fickle thing. But I don’t have time to play with you, little girl.
So instead of playing games, let me help you find what you’re looking for."
Siderius stepped aside. A door materialized behind him.
An ancient stone door with a large emblem on it.
The emblem was a circle wrapped around a square. Inside that square was another triangle.
The four corners of the square contained the four basic elements of reality, Fire (🜂), Water (🜄), Air (🜁), and Earth (🜃).
The three corners of the triangle contained the three primes of Alchemy, Sulfur (🜍), Mercury (☿), and Salt (🜔).
Nora stood in a daze in front of the stone door, observing the strange symbols.
"What are these?" She said.
"You can find it out once you have acquired my heart."
Siderius pushed the door open and light leaked through the dark space.
"After you."
Nora squinted her eyes and gazed upon Siderius. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew he tried to lure her inside.
But what other choices did she have? Either straying in this endless dark space for an endless amount of time or walking into an exposed trap set up by this man here.
"You’re very confident I can’t find your heart." Nora said.
"I’m not confident. Confidence means that I hope you can’t find my heart."
This time, Siderius leaned in and whispered to her ear. "I know that you can’t find it, little wicked witch of Santa Roberto."
Nora slapped Siderius. For a moment, she felt she was being played with. It was similar to how those men have always treated her. It made her feel small and worthless.
Siderius didn’t flinch. Her palm engraved on his cheek into a red shade. But soon, tiny sparkles of silver transformed his face back to normal.
The hunter didn’t say anything else and simply pointed his hand toward the door, inviting the witch into his humble domain.
The witch stormed inside and the stone door shut tight.
What was waiting for her inside the door was a world. An unfamiliar world with a palace and air so clean, no magic was found.
"Where is this place?" Nora’s eyes lost their focus.
She stood in a long hallway of a castle. The floor was made by high-grade woods that were crafted masterfully. The ceiling was high and smooth. A unified color of white. Even nobles in Eldoria were unable to acquire such a flawless wall.
And Nora saw a window to the outside world. She quickly approached it and looked outside.
A vast mountain range filled with the green color of trees. The sky had the color of the ocean and the clouds looked like cotton.
A different world than what Nora had ever seen. Her world, or more precisely, the Eldoria Kingdom, was infested with witch’s magic. Everything was twisted to an unnatural state.
The woods had become rotten and ugly. Hence the name Rottin Woods.
The beasts lost their instinct and roamed without purpose. The origin of the Chaos Beast.
The people abandoned hope and stuck on surviving to this old greasy machine. One’s life was decided even before they were born.
But this world was purer. It’s nice. And it’s intoxicating. It made her want to live here instead of reality.
"Nora!" A voice came from behind her.
It was Siderius. But not with the face of Snow. Instead, it was the wrinkled face of an old man, the original body of him.
"It’s time to study." Siderius said.
"Study?" Nora tilted her head.
She looked down and saw that she, too, was wearing an alchemist robe in dark brown color. The uniform of an apprentice.
Right. I have to study. I am an apprentice under the Grand Alchemist of Enderthal, Sir Siderius Satterblade.
"I’m coming, teacher!" Nora quickly hopped over to Siderius.
She forgot that she was ever a witch. For now, Nora was a student of Siderius inside his Alchemical Palace.