With things having developed to this point, she had no choice but to come back and take a look.
The sudden appearance of such an unknown powerhouse could very well have a serious impact on her future plans.
For the sake of this plan, she had been lying low within the three great empires for over a thousand years.
She absolutely would not allow any unexpected variables to emerge at such a critical juncture, right before the plan's execution.
Yet when she arrived at the Witch's underground palace, she was left utterly dumbfounded.
"G-gone? They just… ran away?"
Imshi stared at the completely empty Witch's underground palace. Not only was the Sealed Land atop the altar gone, but even the pain thorns planted throughout the dungeon, the magic light stones embedded in the walls, and the mana crystals used to cultivate the pain thorns had all vanished.
To describe it as plucking every feather after the goose passes wouldn't be an exaggeration.
But that wasn't what truly stunned Imshi.
What troubled her was this: from the moment she learned of the Sealed Land's disappearance to the moment she rushed over, not much time had passed at all.
And yet, within such a short span of time, the thief had already vanished without a trace.
So where was Spur?
Had he been killed?
And what about Rowan III and the others who had come with him?
The more she thought about it, the stranger everything seemed.
And the unknown powerhouse who had taken the Sealed Land became all the more mysterious.
Several old monsters flashed through Imshi's mind in succession, yet none of them fit.
She even considered Hel's Witch of Death avatar—but based on her understanding of Hel, Hel shouldn't have been capable of defeating Spur.
So she discarded what should have been the most accurate answer almost immediately.
Left with no choice, she continued to speculate along increasingly implausible lines.
...
Heim City · Underground Shelter
A junior magus opened a passage to the undead space. Hel's true body, along with the two avatars under Niv's control, stepped out from within.
This operation's gains had been immense. Precisely because of that, to avoid unnecessary complications, Hel had transferred away via the undead space immediately after cleaning up the battlefield, rather than leaving through the Witch's underground palace's main entrance.
This was exactly why, even after rushing back in a panic, Imshi still came up empty-handed.
Hel walked over to her workbench and began tallying the harvest.
First and foremost was the greatest gain of this operation—and its primary objective—the Authority of Flowers.
The six authorities of living beings, when used individually, were not particularly powerful.
At the very least, they had absolutely no effect on Saints.
Even against a pseudo-Saint like old Chui-de, Hel had nearly exhausted herself, mobilizing the full strength of her authority. Only because her authority had already evolved into Breeding · Living Beings had she barely managed to control him.
Authorities at this level had no effect whatsoever on true Saints.
That was, until Hel obtained the Authority of Flowers.
By combining the Authority of Trees and the Authority of Grass, then further fusing them with Breeding · Living Beings, she evolved a new authority: Life · Living Beings.
Only then did it begin to have some effect on Saints.
Even so, it was still a stretch.
In the earlier battle, she had merely interfered with Spur's subconscious, causing him to overlook the petals approaching him.
But even then, once Spur's life was truly threatened, he broke free of Hel's control.
That alone was enough to illustrate just how vast the gap was between Saints and ordinary transcendent beings.
The saying "Below the Saint tier, all are ants" had just gained even more weight.
At the time, however, the situation had been urgent. Within the Sealed Land, Hel had only hastily synthesized the authority entry before fleeing.
She hadn't had time to examine it—nor was there any need to now.
Because her hand was already tapping open the synthesis interface, merging the newly acquired authority entry with her own.
As a burst of synthesis effects flashed by, two new entries appeared before Hel.
One of them was the remaining result of the fusion: [Death · Witch of Silent Extinction]—or perhaps calling it the Witch of Calamity would be more fitting.
Yes. The synthesis interface had eerily split the Authority of Death in two, separating one of its two fundamental components—the Netherworld authority representing the dead—and fusing it with Breeding · Living Beings.
The result was an entirely new entry:
[Reincarnation · Witch of Living Beings].
As the witch entry among the three authority entries, this was the foundation that ensured Hel would not be eroded by divinity—and it was also the entry she prioritized most highly.
So synthesizing it first posed no issue.
However, when Hel saw the color of this entry, her expression turned strange.
In the past, whether it was a Supreme God Witch or a Lesser God Witch entry, their color had always been red.
That meant that if witches wished to continue growing stronger, they could only tread the path of deification.
By relying on the fruits of that path, they would continuously evolve their bloodlines, allowing themselves to accommodate more authorities.
Only when a witch's bloodline could contain all the godheads within her body would she be qualified to be called a true inheritor of the gods.
But Hel had merely fused her witch entries—and it was as if she had walked the path of deification once already, causing her bloodline to evolve.
That was completely unreasonable.
If Pestis—the one who had unleashed a plague across half the continent just to break into the demigod realm—were to find out about this, she would probably cry herself unconscious in the restroom.
"Maybe… I don't need to walk the path of deification at all."
Hel stared at the entry before her with blazing eyes, then returned the remaining witch entries to her own entry panel.
As her bloodline entries, these two could not leave her body—but they could be directly placed into the synthesis interface.
Once both witch entries returned to her body, Hel could clearly feel that her physical state had changed.
In the past, because she possessed the bloodline of a Witch of Death, her most obvious trait was that she barely seemed alive.
Her body temperature was frighteningly low, her heartbeat sluggish.
Combined with her pale little face, people would've believed she was a vampire without question.
That was why, whenever she went out, she always used cosmetic magic to disguise herself.
But after obtaining the Reincarnation · Witch of Living Beings bloodline, her condition improved dramatically.
Not only did her body temperature return to that of a normal human, but her delicate face also regained a healthy flush.
At that moment, Niv leaned in, poked Hel's cheek, and said in surprise,
"Master, it looks like the new bloodline really changed you a lot."
As she spoke, she couldn't help but extend her sinful little hand and pinch Hel's cheek.
The soft, yielding sensation instantly captured the young girl's heart.