Chapter 831: Ready to watch a show with an eccentric Witch. 3
"... Mother, I still think we shouldn't do this," Emilly Moriarthy, Evie's daughter, said as she focused her magic on the portal.
"It's too late to talk about it now, Emilly. Focus on your work," Evie replied.
"We both know that if we want to stop the ritual now, we can. The connection to the other side has not been fully established," Emilly explained.
"Why are you hesitating now, my daughter? You've been ready for the ritual from the beginning, haven't you?" Instead of treating Emilly like a 'child,' Evie respected her daughter's opinion, after all, in the entire realm, she was the only woman she saw as an 'equal' in matters of magic.
After all, just like herself, her daughter was a genius.
"Yes, I have been," Emilly nodded. "But when the ritual started, I began to have a bad feeling," she voiced her thoughts.
"Whatever is behind this portal, it's not our home... At least, that's what I feel."
"..." Evie narrowed her eyes as she looked at the portal.
While the Witch Queen continued with her ritual and talked with her daughter, Victor and Albedo sat watching everything while eating popcorn, as if they were at the cinema watching a very interesting drama.
"Hmm, this girl has good instincts," Victor praised.
"I agree," Albedo nodded.
A compliment that was not easy to come by was earned by this little girl.
Albedo Moriarthy is the goddess of research and alchemy, not only that, she is an extremely proficient magic user.
And Victor... Well, everyone knows Victor, and everyone knows how demanding he is with 'talents.'
Receiving praise from these two beings is not something easily achieved.
"So? Do you think she'll stop now?" Victor asked while munching on popcorn.
'Hmm~, it's not as delicious as the blood of my wives, but it's a different texture... I really missed this.' Victor thought as he savored the greasy popcorn with sweet sauce.
"Nah, she helped in a war, stole resources from another pantheon, prepared all these girls present here for this feat. After going this far, she won't stop now," Albedo said.
Victor nodded, agreeing with Albedo. As he has Diablo's memories, he knows very well what 'participation' the witches had in the war. Well, not the 'witches,' but only 'Evie.' The woman did everything alone with her daughter; it seemed she couldn't entrust this matter to her 'daughters.'
'As expected, blood always speaks louder, huh,' Victor chuckled.
No matter if all the women present here were loyal to Evie or not, at the end of the day, Evie would always choose her own blood for the most important matters.
"I'm curious, can you answer a question of mine?" Victor asked.
"Hmm? What is it? If it's possible to satisfy your curiosity, I will answer."
"When I ascended to this form, I realized that the 'magic' your blessing allowed me to wield is nothing more than a completely different energy with 'requirements' to be met."
"Just as miasma can only be used by demons that came into existence in hell or beings that have some connection to demons. Magic can only be used by women who have the 'blood' of an 'outsider.'"
"But despite this absolute rule, Merlin still used the magic of the witches... Why?"
"Fufufufu, that's a very easy question to answer," Albedo smiled. "That's because I blessed Merlin."
"... As expected," Victor nodded. 'This woman is older than I thought,' he thought.
"The boy's theory about 'energy' interested me immensely. Therefore, I gave him a 'boost,' and as expected, he was a great research material."
"What he said, that there is no Magic, miasma, divine energy, but only 'energy,' was completely correct."
Albedo pointed her finger upward, and five small magic circles of different colors appeared on her finger, and soon five small spheres of opposing energy appeared.
Demon energy known as [miasma]. Holy energy wielded only by light beings like angels. A green nature energy that Victor knew well. A blue energy called 'magic,' and an unknown colorless energy that Victor couldn't identify... But he was sure he had felt it before.
Victor narrowed his eyes and focused on that energy; he soon 'saw' the property of a god, namely the divine energy that only gods use.
Victor opened his eyes a little wider. "Why is this energy colorless? I thought it was golden and had a light attribute."
"Unlike the other energies, the energy produced by the gods is colorless, attributeless. The user itself gives attribute to that energy."
"If a god of death uses that energy, it becomes part of the 'negative' side of the balance." The demon energy grew as a sense of negativity took hold of Albedo.
"If a god of life uses that energy, it becomes part of the 'positive' side of the balance." The miasma sphere shrank, and the sacred light sphere grew.
"Energies like nature produced by a world tree and divine energy are neutral energies that change depending on the user."
"Beings like you who are connected to a world tree of negativity in theory can use neutral energy and negative energy, but you cannot use positive energy because you have no connection to any beings on that side of the balance."
"In a way, the energy known as 'magic' is the same as divine energy and nature energy. Magic is a neutral energy, but much weaker than the other two energies."
"In terms of the power pyramid ranking, it would go like this: negative and positive energy are at the top as the duality that controls everything, they are the main energies that govern everything in the universe. Then comes the gods' energy, which is 'neutral' and can draw power from these two main energies depending on the individual."
"After that come 'mortal' energies that are flexible like Youki, Magic, etc."
"... I see... The energy of angels and demons, I assume they are directly connected to positive and negative energy."
"Correct, after all, demons use the 'miasma' of hell produced by the world tree of negativity of the Earth."
"The same applies to angels, with the only difference being that they draw this power from the divinity of the Heavenly Father, after all, he is the god of creation, and creation is deeply connected to the positive side of the balance."
Victor fell silent as he thought about what Albedo had said.
Albedo didn't mind the silence; she just chuckled in satisfaction. "Fufufufu, thanks to that boy, I managed to understand more about how existence works. He was the best investment I ever made; I don't regret blessing him."
"He was talented enough that he only needed a push to spread his wings; it's no wonder that in less than a few years, he no longer needed my blessing, and with his own discernment, he learned to wield magic." Albedo commented more to herself than to Victor, although she spoke loud enough for him to hear as well.
"... I see..." Victor said. "It's like a prerequisite, huh... The being will wield the energy depending on their background." Victor touched his chin and raised his palm, and in the next moment.
"Merlin can't use magic because he lacks something that connects him to the witches. I presume this connection is more metaphysical, coming from the soul, and not from blood or something like that..."
"Something like that, I guess."
Five spheres appeared in his hand, similar to what Albedo is using.
Albedo's smile didn't leave her face; in fact, it grew even more when she saw this man absorbing the casually spoken knowledge from her.
"I understand more now what it means to 'control existence'..." Victor spoke with a solemn voice; his expression was neutral, but only he knew how his 'mind' opened up with this brief explanation.
'Enlightenment, huh...' He came to understand this concept more now; the phenomenon of enlightenment was not just about discovering oneself or having one's own journey; it was also about understanding one's world and reality.
Looking at the colorless energy that began to grow at a considerable pace, Victor felt that the 'wall' that had been blocking his progress was slowly being torn down.
"Thank you for answering my question, Albedo Moriarthy."
"Heh~." Albedo's smile grew. 'Even with so much power, even being the progenitor of dragons, a race known for its pride and arrogance, he didn't let himself be consumed by those feelings.'
Albedo was quite shocked; she expected a completely different behavior from him, but she didn't expect him to react like this.
'Although, he has always been like this, huh? Always breaking everyone's expectations.'
'I'm really curious about which deity he will awaken... There are so many possibilities that it's pretty useless to speculate.' Albedo thought.
"We will continue," Evie suddenly spoke, grabbing the attention of Victor, Albedo, and Emilly herself.
"I've come a long way. Whatever is on the other side, I can handle it."
"Famous last words of an arrogant adventurer who entered the goblin's lair," Victor rolled his eyes.
"... Fearing the unknown is not wrong... What's wrong is not making enough preparations to deal with the unknown. Even if the preparations fail, it's better than jumping into the unknown like a fool."
In summary, Evie Moriarthy should have taken more countermeasures in case of failure or an unforeseeable situation.
God favors the cautious and despises fools. What kind of idiot creates a portal to another dimension/planet/universe without at least 100 countermeasures in case of failure?
They're asking for a universal terror to invade their own planet.
"It's at times like these that the Batman mentality is needed," Victor muttered.
"Indeed."
"..." Victor looked at Albedo with a slightly surprised face; he didn't expect her to understand the reference.
"What? Even I have some downtime, okay? I don't spend 100% of my time doing research."
"Really?"
"Yes. I only spend 99% of the time, the other 1% I use for leisure and consuming human world content," she said proudly.
"..." Victor naturally looked at Albedo, then glanced at her voluptuous body.
'If she weren't a goddess, a witch who can do magic... Ewwww.' Victor's brow twitched a bit.
Even though Ruby is a research and experiment enthusiast like Albedo, she still takes 30 minutes to an hour a day for a good bath.
"... Somehow, I feel like you're thinking something extremely rude about me," Albedo narrowed her eyes.
"It's your imagination."
"These are the words of someone who was having bad thoughts about someone else."
"As I said, it's your imagination; I was just admiring your figure."
Albedo didn't buy that nonsense; if it were another man saying that, she might believe it, but this man was the husband of the goddess of beauty.
He wouldn't be 'admiring' her body when he literally has the most beautiful woman by his side!
Suddenly, a massive surge of energy was felt by everyone. This made Albedo put the matter aside and look at the portal.
"... What's happening? Where is this energy coming from?" Albedo narrowed her eyes while creating several magic circles in front of her.
