Shepherding Humanity

The entire world was shaken by a horrifying news.

On the Night of the Celestial Witch, the Empress of Death, Medusa, went to the small town of Birchkell and faced the half-recovered Evil God Cthulhu alone. 3 hours later, Empress Medusa died in battle over the Birchkell mountain range.

“Even the ancient existence from the Dark Ages has…”

“The Evil God will soon completely recover…”

The entire world despaired.

Although Medusa had different beliefs and was scorned by the Magic Academies and Sects as the most evil and terrifying Ruler in the history of the Magic World, she was still their final hope.

In the Babylonian Capital.

10 alchemical airships drifted through the dark yellow sunset sky, pulling behind them hide banners filled with blessings and prayers for the “Night of the Celestial Witch”.

In the Babylonian Royal Palace’s audience chamber, Empress Ermin sat in a daze on her high throne, flanked by her Witch Ministers. Her eyes were soulless: “All hope is lost.”

“We pledge our life to the Kingdom until the very end. May the glory of Babylon last for eternity.” Her Witch Ministers knelt as one.

“We’ve lost.”

Ermin closed her eyes, sitting still as a statue on her high throne.

With Empress Medusa dead, there was no longer anyone left in this world who could stop the Evil God Cthulhu’s recovery.

Thes sound of steady footsteps interrupted her contemplation.

Ermin slowly opened her eyes. “This presence… Charlotte?”

“It’s a witch from the Rose Kingdom!”

The surrounding Witch Ministers hurriedly got in between them while cautiously looking at the figure walking through the doorway. “She got in without anyone noticing…”

“Stand down.” Ermin calmly commanded them.

“Ermin, it’s been a long time.” Charlotte leisurely walked into the audience chamber.

She looked at her beloved childhood friend with a complicated expression on her face. The silly, passionate, and upright girl she once knew had grown so much. Thanks to her amazing teacher, she has reached truly dizzying heights.

But Charlotte herself did not fall very far behind. She had also taken in a second gene, recovered her youth, and recently broke through into the Epic Seventh Level.

“I’ve heard that you’re now the Island Prison’s Warden. Your mistress, Medusa, has died, but it’s pointless for you to join me… Are you still working hard after all these years to revive Lucy?” Ermin sighed. She looked up from her throne while reminiscing on their youth. “You should know by now that reviving the dead is impossible. That is an immutable truth of this world. Lucy has left us and gone somewhere far away… But, I’m happy that the two of us can reunite like this before the end of the world.”

“Ha ha ha… What truth? Your so-called Truth is nothing more than a limitation that Mages place on themselves. True Mages must be able to break past the Truth. This is the reason why you’re inferior to the Emperor of Alchemy and the Empress of Death, who shattered boundaries in their respective fields.” Charlotte laughed. She softly continued: “I forgot to tell you, Lucy was revived three months ago.”

Ermin was utterly shocked. “What!? Medusa’s forbidden spell of Resurrection has already been completed?”

Back then, the three of them, Lucy, Charlotte, and Ermin had been students from the same Academy, and were a very close-knit team.

Lucy’s death had left a scar in both Charlotte and Ermin’s heart. It was the reason Charlotte had defected, causing them to go their separate ways

“Lucy! Where’s Lucy?”

Ermin hurriedly stood up, abandoning all pretenses of imperial dignity.

Her teacher, the Emperor of Alchemy, hadn’t been willing to desecrate the dead, and wanted the Seven Little Witches to rest in peace beneath the earth. Ermin had inherited his ideals, but now that a dead person had been revived, and would soon appear before her, she couldn’t help but be excited.

“It’s not only Lucy, others have also been revived… like their mother.” Charlotte gestured with her inky black longsword at a pair of brothers.

The elder brother was a shorty while the younger brother was a towering alchemical construct.

Ermin frowned. “I’ve seen them before. They’re the Elric Brothers who were the champions of the Inter-Academy Tournament… So that’s how it is? Like Charlotte, in order to revive the dead, you two geniuses have sided with Medusa since long ago.”

Ermin was keenly aware that the younger brother Alphonse’s alchemical construct was empty inside. He clearly died long ago, and yet, was still walking around like a living person.

"What's this?" Ermin said in disbelief, "A dead soul without a body?"

“Noble Empress Ermin, this is the charm of Alchemy! Behold our revolutionary Alchemy, the Alchemy of the Soul!” Charlotte’s rectangular-shaped black sword suddenly spoke up. It began to explain the underlying principles: “His outer shell is a spatial magic box! There’s a soothing spiritual space inside that’s a suitable dwelling for the soul, an environment that’s similar to the “human brain”. You can store a human soul within, allowing for dead soul cultivation.”

“The dead training in magic?”

Ermin felt her mind go blank. The shock was simply too much.

In the past years, Medusa’s Death Magic research has already advanced to this level?

Even dead people can level up as Mages now?

But with her sharp intellect, she quickly understood how this was possible after a moment of thought.

After all, magic training was dependent on spiritual cultivation. It was only natural that the spirits of the dead could also do this.

The reason it wasn’t possible before was because, even if you could revive the spirits of the dead, they did not have a body to protect them. Under such circumstances, the spiritual energy generated by meditation could not even keep up with the dissipation of the soul.

But if a Magic Box’s subspace could be made into a suitable dwelling for the soul, then there wouldn’t be any problems.

Pandora’s Box laughed as she continued: “Naturally, the Mage who came up with this was not us, but one of the greatest geniuses to have ever walked this world! Furthermore, she’s not even a living person, because how could the living know what it’s like to be dead, and create a cultivation method for dead souls?”

“Not a living person?”

Ermin suddenly thought of an unbelievable possibility. If she was right, then this was a massive plot 800 years in the making, spanning the entirety of the Babylonian Era.

“You’ve guessed correctly.” A disembodied spirit floated out of the magic box.

“This appearance…” When empress Ermin saw the spirit’s faintly transparent face, she hurriedly turned to the side to look at the royal palace’s ancient mural of the “Three Witches”. One of the three women garbed in pelts, and crowned in flowers, had the exact same face.

“You’re one of the legendary Three Witches of ancient Babylon, Circe!”

At this moment, Ermin felt almost unworthy of sitting on the Throne of Babylon.

Because before her was Circe, ancient founder of the Babylonian Dynasty, first Empress of Babylon, pioneer of the entire Magic World’s civilization, and one of the legendary three witches who had blazed a trail from Level One to Level Six for the Mages who would follow after them.

Ermin sighed deeply. This was a frightening development. “The Old Gods’ invasion of the Magic World has revealed a massive ancient conspiracy. An ancient being has awoken and been plotting in the shadows all this time…”

Behind the dark clouds wasn’t the clear blue sky, but only more dark clouds.

The evil witch Circe was one of history’s most brilliant minds.

In order to live a second life, she had created the foundations for the forbidden “Resurrection” spell before dying and bid her disciple Medusa to perfect it.

This spell has been completed in recent years.

Medusa had already half-completed it when she was beaten by the Emperor of Alchemy back then; that was how she summoned Gilgamesh’ shade. It was only natural that she’d complete it after her 400 years of imprisonment!

“Then, what about the ancient era’s other two Great Witches, or the even more ancient Gilgamesh…” Ermin inquired with a trembling voice.

“They cannot be resurrected. With the passage of eons, their souls have long faded into the mists of history. Even if we call them back, they’ll only be mindless shades like Gligamesh back then.”

Circe smiled sweetly at the frightened Witch Ministers in the audience chamber, then calmly continued: “The only reason I can perfectly revive is because I’ve made my disciples properly prepare before my death, and my body was laid to rest in a special coffin that would keep my soul from dissipating too much.”

“The souls of the ancient heroes may have dissipated with the passage of time, but my teacher, the Emperor of Alchemy has only recently passed away!”

Ermin was extremely excited, and could not help but take a step forward. “Please resurrect my teacher. As long as my teacher can be revived, then there’s still a possibility for us to beat the Evil God Cthulhu!”