Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 173 - 151: Forest Secret Ritual

Chapter 173: Chapter 151: Forest Secret Ritual

Frankly, those images and their descriptions made Farosa feel odd.

"We’ve come this far, so let’s take action," Farosa placed her hand on the glass, "Do your best to serve your master."

She didn’t want to dirty her own hands, but Farosa was also clueless about how to delegate tasks; she had always been solitary and considered herself superior.

In such a situation, Mizuiro Yoshioka became the most diligent and experienced one. When she was still called Bax, she knew her strength was modest and paid attention to how others handled similar situations, hoping to excel when her own opportunity to demonstrate came. Now, her observations and reflections from her earlier life proved valuable.

"I’ll send the Ink Beasts to distract them at the front," Mizuiro Yoshioka laid out the battle plan, "101 will take 102 to the top and go straight for their key figures. Shallow Dream, you can shoot from here."

Mizuiro Yoshioka handed Shallow Dream a 7mm handgun—Nail Shooter—teaching her how to disengage the safety and shoot. Shallow Dream was thrilled. Mizuiro Yoshioka even helped her put on her coat, pulled a black hoodie with a skull print over her head, fitted her with a Tengu Mask with built-in anti-scanning, and gloves to reduce the leakage of Magic Power trails, showing great concern for secrecy.

Such attentiveness. Farosa had never considered the risks. She just wanted a massacre.

"These masks, these gloves, they’re prepared for witches who engage in covert operations," Mizuiro Yoshioka took out some other tools from a toolbox and distributed them, "101 and 102, what about you? By the way, have you considered changing your names? 101 and 102, they’re just code names like Bax, aren’t they?"

Looking down at the curious assortment of Monster masks, 102 was intrigued. The Monster clans had once thrived in the Northern Archipelago of the Archipelago Continent, but disappeared in a series of monster-purging campaigns after the Witch Wars.

"A new name? What for," said 102, picking up an Ox Demon Mask and putting it on, "Isn’t it good enough that everyone knows it’s me when they hear 102?"

"We are drifters with no pasts to speak of, our numbers are our labels," 101 picked up a Snow Maiden Mask and fitted it onto his face, thinking of the salary from Nestor Corporation.

Working here felt wonderful. Farosa was a capricious mistress who, while fearsome, was also straightforward. Xu Yang was generous and easy to deal with, and he could be with his sister carefree, exerting himself to the best of his abilities, a stark contrast to the grueling life at Blackfire.

"That’ll do," said Mizuiro Yoshioka, donning a Zashiki-warashi Mask with a single horn.

What a parade of a hundred demons. Farosa saw everyone in disguise; she never thought of camouflaging herself because, for one, she couldn’t bear to hide her beauty, and on the other hand, to maintain her "appearance" after Ascension, she absolutely couldn’t allow anyone to have even a slight change of impression about her looks.

Mizuiro Yoshioka conjured ink from both hands, which hit the ground angrily growling. She fed them with canned meat and tortillas prepared beforehand, urged them to eat their fill and enlarge, and then, under her direction, encouraged them to devour each other.

This was her proven method for creating the strongest Ink Beast under current circumstances. The surviving large Ink Beast took on the noble form of a huge black-haired tiger.

Children made of ink. Mizuiro Yoshioka was eager to try. Go and fight, go and tear them apart!

The Ink Tiger burst out of the room, making its way from their location to building 7B controlled by the Secret Ritual Group, and burst through the main entrance.

"Wow!"

"What kind of monster is this!"

"Watch out!" The entrance was guarded by junior members of the Secret Ritual Group. Seeing the Ink Tiger, they panicked and immediately drew their guns to shoot.

Bang! Bang!

Bullets hit the Ink Tiger but were easily absorbed by the ink as if fired into a pool of ink, only causing a few droplets of ink to splash on the floor, doing absolutely nothing to hamper its movements.

"Roar!" The Ink Tiger’s ink became solid, and with a swing of its paw, it splashed ink all over a man’s face and head, blinding him with ink and causing him to scream in terror.

"We have an enemy!" They hurriedly passed the message to the members of the Secret Ritual Group above who were still in meditation.

"I’ll fight you to the death!" Another junior member turned pale, transformed into a Treant with fists of wood, and fought the Ink Tiger. His powers pierced through the Ink Tiger’s body but hit only ink, while its attack penetrated his nostrils and ears, filling his lungs and causing him to choke and cough ceaselessly.

Shallow Dream took aim from a window, targeting a junior follower on the opposite balcony who was on lookout. She steadied the gun, took careful aim, and then activated her power.

—Time Stop!

For a moment, everything halted. She locked the sights on the enemy’s head and pulled the trigger. Along with the sound of gunfire, the bullet swiftly traveled through the air, pierced the cheek of the adversary, and struck the wall in the corresponding direction, leaving a bullet hole. His body remained upright. 0.6 seconds later, everything returned to normal, and the foe collapsed with blood gushing out.

She killed someone, she killed someone! Shallow Dream’s heart pounded. She felt a surge of exhilaration. Time Stop was amazing; there was no need for shooting skills. She had an extra 0.5~1 second to aim. Even a fool couldn’t miss!

To become the master of time!

"Let’s go," said Farosa, no longer able to suppress her desire for slaughter upon seeing even Shallow Dream had killed.

"Yes," replied 101, holding 102 with one arm and Farosa with the other.

Yahara Masato was upstairs at that moment, enjoying the blissful atmosphere bestowed by the Forest Master.

His wife and children lay at his feet. Leaves grew from his son’s breastbone, flowers bloomed in his daughter’s eye sockets, and his wife’s bones were replaced by branches. Their flesh and souls turned into essence, which Yahara Masato sent to the carefree Forest Sanctuary. That was his initial reason for following the Forest Master—to take his loved ones away from this tainted world and to a better realm.

Right now, he was maintaining meditation with seven Forest Elders.

In their collective imagination, they replicated the vast ancient forests in their consciousness, where they merged with the ideology of the Forest Master, indistinguishable from it; all pain, sorrow, grief, and joy dissipated in the Forest Master’s generous green embrace. All humanity turned into a tide of fruit and vegetable juice, crashing into the ocean, and from then on, even the seas were covered in green when viewed from the stars above.

This was the ultimate spiritual pleasure, where people could finally understand each other, instead of living in mutual torment. They longed to escape the roar of the city, to return to the tranquility of nature, and to calmly await a fair and just death to take them away.

Yahara Masato raised his head suddenly and saw three shadows appear before him.

The one in the center wore Witch Armor and the legendary Snow Maiden Mask, alluring in appearance.

To the left was standard Armor, but with a terrifying Ox Demon Mask, a monster capable of splitting mountains and tearing the earth.

On the right was clad in classical robes, beautiful yet fiercely fierce, more intimidating than those wearing Monster Masks.

"Die for me!" Farosa raised her hand.

Reaping lives!

A flash of ashen light swept by, turning into a life-reaping scythe, quickly circling the area. Yahara Masato and several Forest Elders who had remained were instantly slain, covered by the slaughtering law that slaughtered their lives. Their flesh twisted grotesquely as though instantly slashed and minced by countless blades from all directions, turning into thousands of bits of flesh and blood, falling to the ground.

"Powerful..." 102 saw Farosa’s harvest of lives and couldn’t help feeling a tinge of nervousness.

In the center of the ritual site was the Forest Master, built by the followers themselves, towering with heads of a deer, a bear, and a wild boar.

Dewdrops! Farosa saw a bit of emerald green light inside the monster’s belly, precisely the Power she had long dreamed of.

She walked quickly toward the creature.

However, an anomaly suddenly appeared in the corpse of Yahara Masato by the side.

Though his body was divided, the tree-like structures inside him reassembled into a human figure, allowing Yahara Masato to quickly rise. Leaves generated from the sound of the wind and rapidly spun in the area, filling into the reborn wooden body of Yahara Masato.

"Treant Guardians are immortal!" Yahara Masato transformed his arm into a giant wooden spike and thrust it violently towards Farosa, forcing her to retreat.

"Beheaded you!" 102 swung his chain axe, throwing it forcefully at Yahara Masato. The war axe cut through the air, smashing into Yahara Masato’s bark like chopping a tree, piercing the wooden body, and hitting the floor behind it, creating a deep ravine.

This did not damage Yahara Masato’s true basis of existence, as futile as hacking at a straw man. It pulled the chain axe’s chain from its body, with the cleft parts quickly regenerating.

"Be careful." 101 cautioned his sister not to act rashly.

The standoff.

"Watch closely, idiots." Yahara Masato raised his hand and released a Miracle.

With Yahara Masato’s summoning, dark green light dots lit up from his original remains, similar phenomena appeared from the other Elders’ corpses, including the corpses pierced by thorns around the Forest Master sculpture, all of which rose into the air and eventually converged upon the figure of the Forest Master in the middle.

The creature began to move and roar, with the heads of a deer, a bear, and a wild boar emitting muffled growls. Green light shone from the cheap industrial material cobbled together in its body as the life essence of the Secret Ritual Group’s Elders gathered. All six eyes of the creature’s three heads started to burn, and the forest spirits activated the real power of this body, summoning the Forest Master’s true embodiment.

More fur and antlers began to grow and transform, power, and the projection of spirit filled its form, becoming tangible, with each step echoing thunderously.

"What is that?" 102 exclaimed in shock.

"Witness with your body and soul! The embodiment of a deity!" Yahara Masato’s voice boomed like a wooden drum, thunderously resounding.

With the Treant Guardian in the lead, the embodiment of the Forest Master raged, Yahara Masato floated upward, his body glowing brilliantly.

Stepping into transcendence.

He knew these witches had no chance of defeating him. Having operated and controlled Sun Biotech and the Secret Ritual Group behind the scenes, Yahara Masato had invested painstaking effort to become an unmatched opponent within Aizu City.

"...Ordinary beings, tremble and reflect before the great power of nature," Yahara Masato said indifferently, "The time left for you is running short."

The three-headed behemoth roared and lunged forward, biting Yahara Masato’s wooden form out of the air and smashing it to the ground with a pained howl.

"What—" He was extremely shocked and in immense pain.

The behemoth held Yahara Masato in its mouth, each head biting a part of him, tearing him apart mid-air with a grating sound like splitting wood. Yahara Masato was torn into three pieces, churned into fragments, and the Treant Guardian’s core was devoured, turning into a warm current heading towards the far north.

"—What did I do wrong?" Yahara Masato’s wails echoed for a long time before finally fading, "I—what did I do wrong—"

and 102 were taken aback, while Farosa laughed wildly in her heart.