The Witch Sabbath Ritual.
Using the Witch Factors of thirteen candidate Witches as sacrifices to resculpt the flesh of the Great Witch of the Void back into the human world.
This was the ritual Suke and the others needed to perform, and it was also Sakuraba Emma's greatest objective in this world.
As long as the ritual was performed, the girls' Witch Factors would be extracted.
According to the intelligence provided by Suke, Sakuraba Emma believed she could persuade Tsukishiro Yuki, the Great Witch who was not evil by nature.
They were friends, after all, weren't they?
It was night, Prison Island, second-floor Entertainment Room.
To ensure no accidents occurred that night, Suke did not return to Stardew Valley.
Although, once the time passed 2:00 AM, his brain became terribly sleepy.
But perhaps because he was outside Stardew Valley, and having downed a few cups of Triple Shot Espresso, pulling an all-nighter should be no problem, probably.
"Wine, Ancient Ingot Machete, Fire Slash!"
"Breaking through the formation to behead the general, severing the pass and mowing down the city!"
"A mere few hundred Wei troops—watch me annihilate them in one strike!"
Unparalleled, taking the head amidst ten thousand troops!
The Lord is near death, begging for a Peach!
The Lord has fallen in battle!
"Hanna-chan, you died, oh!"
Accompanied by the 'Jie Xu Sheng' Tachibana Sherri in the fourth seat playing a 'Fire Slash' card against the 'Vine Armor' wearing 'Guo Jia' Tono Hanna, who held the identity of 'Lord', Tono Hanna's full health bar instantly dropped to zero.
Insta-killed!
Don't misunderstand; Suke manually dubbed that sound effect.
With the prison curfew lifted, and knowing that their prison life would likely end tomorrow, the girls coincidentally all chose to come to the Entertainment Room to stay up late.
Some were playing movies, some were drawing.
And Suke rummaged through the Prison Island warehouse to find a set of 'Legends of the Three Kingdoms' (Sanguosha) left behind by some moronic predecessor in the prison. With great interest, he called a few people over to play.
"W-What kind of overpowered general is this, desu wa!"
"Everyone else can only deal one point of damage with one card, so why can you, this gorilla woman—!"
Tono Hanna found it hard to keep her composure.
Although it was her first time playing this board game, she could tell at a glance the peculiarity of the general Tachibana Sherri had drawn, compared to the generals without prefixes that everyone else drew.
This power level wasn't even from the same patch version!
"Ma, just good luck, hehe~"
Tachibana Sherri scratched her head embarrassedly.
"Eh? I didn't expect that Uncle me wouldn't even get a chance to play a card before the game ended..."
Saeki Miria in the fifth seat put down her hand of cards and revealed her identity. As the 'Spy', she could be said to have had zero gaming experience this round.
However, she didn't mind; as long as everyone had fun, wasn't that enough?
"It seems this round is a victory for me and Little Sherri."
Revealing his identity card, Suke, who was a 'Rebel' alongside Tachibana Sherri, easily took the win.
"Next, it's time to carry out the loser's punishment!"
"Now, start choosing! Little Hanna, Little Miria, and Little Emma (*This World)!"
"Is it Truth or Dare?"
Suke smiled diabolically, taking out a few Wild Horseradishes (the raw material for wasabi) as if he had prepared them long ago.
To make the board game appear more interesting, everyone had added stakes before the game started.
The losing side had to choose between Dare or Truth as punishment!
Of course, if they chose neither, they could also choose to eat a whole Wild Horseradish raw.
"For Uncle me, I'll choose Truth. After all, such a big Wild Horseradish is really hard to swallow~"
Tapping her cheek with her finger, Saeki Miria pondered.
"I-I'll also choose Truth!"
"Then I'll just do the same..."
The timid young girl Emma and Tono Hanna chose to follow Saeki Miria.
"Then this detective shall propose the first question!"
"Say the name of the person you like the most in your heart. Let's start with Miria!"
Coming in so directly right off the bat, Tachibana-san!
Suke was somewhat awed by Tachibana Sherri's boldness. Shouldn't this kind of question be saved for the grand finale?
"Eh, eh, this kind of question?"
"The person I like most... is probably Uncle's [Teacher], right? That was a very important guide in Uncle's life~"
Saeki Miria gave her answer after thinking for a moment.
"T-This young lady naturally likes my little sister the most!"
Ignoring the gaze cast by Tachibana Sherri, Tono Hanna flushed red, stiffened her neck, and blurted out her answer.
"Eh~ So cunning, Hanna-chan, actually saying a family member~"
Evidently, Tachibana Sherri looked somewhat disappointed after hearing the words the other party spoke.
"There's no rule saying we can't mention family members!"
"Alright, it should be Emma's turn, right? What about you, Emma?"
Not knowing if it was to change the subject or what, Tono Hanna hurriedly looked toward the Sakuraba Emma of their original world.
"Me?"
After accepting Hiro's apology, the pink puppy of today looked much better in complexion.
Of course, Suke felt his Magic Rock Candy also deserved credit; that was a divine item equivalent to the Enchanted Golden Apple from the MC next door!
"I... I don't know..."
"Whether it's Sherri, Hanna, or Hiro, they are all my good friends..."
The pink puppy spoke somewhat hesitantly.
"We said the person you like the most!"
"Most, do you understand the word 'most'? You can only say one!"
Tono Hanna spoke up to correct her, although she herself had used a loophole.
"The... best friend...?"
Sakuraba Emma seemed to fall into a memory; her eyelids closed slightly, and her brows knitted together.
And unbeknownst to anyone, her hands actually raised together to clutch her head.
Suke: ?
Young girl, what are you doing?
Seeing this scene, Suke was startled and hurriedly secretly pulled out Sakuraba Emma's favorite Magic Rock Candy, ready to strike.
He had already used the Magic Rock Candy to push back the cyber ghost twice; presumably, the third time would be no problem either.
Great Witch-san, how about manifesting tomorrow instead? It's not trendy to do it now!
"Mr. Suke!"
It was also at this moment that Witch Emma and Hikami Meruru, who had been discussing something outside, returned to the Entertainment Room.
Seeing the abnormality of her own self from this world by the table, Witch Emma gave a soft shout, and magic targeting the Witch Factor completely dispersed the anomaly.
In fact, Witch Emma's magic was no longer just 'Witch Killer'.
After riding that bus once and becoming a Farmhand, the imagery known as 'Witch Killer' had already integrated into Sakuraba Emma's essence.
As long as it was in this world, even if the Great Witch came, her attainments in 'Witch Killing' probably wouldn't be as good as hers—
This was also one of the sources of confidence for Sakuraba Emma daring to hold the ritual to summon the Great Witch.
"You're back. What were you chatting about outside? So mysterious."
Stopping his shuffling motion, Suke looked at Witch Emma and Hikami Meruru beside her.
"It was about some detailed arrangements for the Witch Sabbath Ritual tomorrow morning. Miss Meruru hopes there will be no accidents."
Witch Emma nodded to Suke on the surface, but secretly sent more critical information to Suke via the Farm's public channel:
[Sakuraba Emma: Mr. Suke, Meruru was very evasive when explaining her resurrection, but I noticed some unusual places.]
[Sakuraba Emma: [Image]]
[Sakuraba Emma: Look at this ring? I am certain that in my timeline, Meruru never had this accessory.]
[Sakuraba Emma: Moreover, Meruru covered it very carefully, seemingly terrified we would discover it. If not for that, I wouldn't have noticed either.]
Ring?
Suke, learning for the first time that the Farm public channel could send images, looked toward the message Emma sent.
He saw a red-and-yellow gradient ring that felt quite familiar to him blatantly appearing on Meruru's left index finger.
This ring, it's so familiar. Have I seen it somewhere?
Wait!
Suke looked at his backpack. Putting aside the [Eden's Ruby Ring] located in the trinket slot.
He began to rummage through his backpack. Before long, he locked onto one of the items:
[Phoenix Ring]
[Allows the wearer one chance to resurrect and restore 50% health. Cooldown time is one day.]
This ring was one of the original Stardew Valley items Suke had obtained earlier from opening a Golden Mystery Box.
Since he could instantly eat dishes to recover health, the resurrection function was rather useless, so Suke had always ignored it, just keeping it in his backpack for emergencies.
Originally, he had thought about letting Emma try it if she found Meruru's corpse, after all, this thing's effect was somewhat similar to the Totem of Undying in MC.
But the ring was still in his backpack, right? He had never taken it out!
How could Meruru have one...?
Suke's eyes gradually widened.
____
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