Bodies lay scattered like wrecked boats after a storm; a metallic stench rolled in waves; gunpowder bit like bitter smoke.

Anyone who stepped in reeled like a land-sick sailor.

After one fight, the body felt like a drained well; strength bled away; the mind frayed like wet paper.

Yun Shi panted, blood like smeared ink on her cheek; her steps wobbled, yet she planted herself and stared knives at the enemy.

“Seriously, this never ends.”

They’d fought close to ten minutes; numbers swelled like a flood; she and Sham could fight, but the drain gnawed like frost.

Keep going and they’d die like candles in wind.

“I say we cut and run.”

“Easy to say. How?”

“We’ll find a way.”

Yun Shi steadied her breath like a drumbeat; waves of enemies kept pouring; her hand slipped to the belt at her back like a thief.

The enemy moved with fox-caution; they feared Yun Shi and Sham’s bite, since the two had felled dozens like trees.

“Don’t be afraid, there are only two of them!”

“Yeah. Thought there’d be more; turns out Heaven hands us a gift. Brothers, nothing to fear!”

“They’re running out of strength. Our victory’s a sunrise away!”

Their morale rose like a bonfire; eager faces burned; the earlier panic blew off like dust.

Their aim, from start to finish, was the Artifact Spirit on Sham; cold strategy said ditching it might buy life.

But Sham’s nature was iron; the Artifact Spirit was her banner of dignity; that plan died before breath.

There was, however, another road through thorns.

“Bullying just the two of us? Isn’t that a bit much?”

“Who cares? Look who butchered our men!”

First, prick their pride and stir their ranks like a stick in a hornet nest.

“If you hate us that much, come together; hiding behind backs won’t avenge your friends.”

Yun Shi drew a charge from behind her like a snake from brush; Sham saw it and read her intent, and sealed her lips.

“Fine. You said it. Charge!”

At the shout, they came with weapons high like a black tide, howling as they ran.

Yun Shi yanked the fuse with a snap like a cut string, then pitched the explosive at their feet like a thrown stone.

They were rushing full tilt, which swept aside her doubts like leaves; the distance was a breath; if not now, when.

Boom.

The blast kicked bodies into the air like rag dolls; some lost hands or feet; the scene was a butchered field.

Yun Shi seized Sham’s hand and ran like wind through reeds; if there was a path, she took it.

“They’re running. After them!”

The field had tilted against them like a tipped board; victory was a mirage; retreat would at least keep breath.

“How far are we running? I’m spent.”

“Just run. Don’t think.”

The river finds its course at the bridge; that was Yun Shi’s lone faith, thin as mist.

She didn’t know how long they ran; only when the chase fell away like fading thunder did she let out a breath.

She still didn’t dare relax; this was their turf like a thorny nest; discovery could come like a sudden gust.

They had only stumbled into a hollow with no people; the edge of danger still pricked like ice.

Yun Shi peered outside like a cat at a doorway; safe for now, but discovery could drop like rain any time.

“What a disaster.”

In this bind, every plan felt like smoke; no matter how she twisted her mind, nothing solid took shape.

The key was fuel; without enough Mystic Power, they wouldn’t see dawn like lamps without oil.

“I’m out of Mystic Power.”

Yun Shi’s voice carried a soft grief like a low bell; the cruel fact left her empty-handed.

“Sorry, me too.”

Sham’s tone was thinner than paper; she clenched against despair like teeth on ice.

“What are we supposed to do? At this rate, sooner or later…”

She tried to dam the gloom like a dike, but reality leaked through like dark water.

With even a spark more strength, they could fight a little longer like coals under ash.

Yun Shi watched the alley mouth; footsteps skittered in the distance like scattered stones; no matter where she hid, discovery would come like dawn.

“Damn it. Why, right now, am I…”

Able to do nothing.

Yun Shi smashed a fist against the wall like a thrown hammer; pain rang, but her mind stayed blank like winter sky.

What can’t be done by one person stays a mountain; effort alone won’t move it like hands against a cliff.

She cooled her breath like still water and hunted for another road through the forest.

What she lacked was only energy; with enough Mystic Power, the night might bend like willow.

Her gaze slid to Sham’s throat like a moth to light; a bright jade hung there, gleaming; the Soul Gem the enemy craved.

“I want to ask you something. Does that Soul Gem really hold unmatched power?”

“Not like that. An Artifact Spirit isn’t about raw power; it lives in mystery like a locked fog.”

Sham didn’t know why Yun Shi asked, but she answered with courtesy like a bow.

“Mystery?”

“Yes. The Artifact Spirit’s core is the unknown; maybe world-breaking, maybe useless like an empty shell; no one knows.”

She never knew why the Church handed such a strange thing to the Magic Institution either; the Soul Gem wasn’t like a normal Magical Stone.

The contract was different like a crooked key; stranger still, an Artifact Spirit chose its master on its own, unlike any ordinary Magical Stone.

“Wait, don’t tell me…”

A thought struck; Sham’s look turned odd like a tilted moon.

The girl’s face was tangled like vines, but her eyes were iron; some great decision had settled like a blade.

“You’ve decided to sign a contract with me?”

Sham couldn’t read her fully; she asked softly, like stepping on thin ice.

Yun Shi kept silent; her silence was heavy like snow.

Sham had always wanted Yun Shi to sign the Witch’s contract; it would finish her mission and grow her Mystic Power like rain.

But now that the moment stood here like a cliff, she hesitated, hands cold.

She knew Yun Shi never wanted the Witch’s contract; nothing so far had changed that stone.

To ask someone born of the Seven Clan Heads, who’d betrayed her house, to become a Witch was a wild dream like catching fog.

Neither her old comrades nor the world would accept it like oil and water.

“I’ve been running, thinking leaving the Underworld would make me free.”

Slowly, Yun Shi spoke; her first note was a sigh like wind in pines.

“But in the end, it wasn’t so; even outside the Underworld, I get pulled into fights like leaves into whirlpools.

I try to run, to flee, and I sink deeper like feet in mud.”

Her words carried helpless sorrow like rain on eaves; even Sham, listening, felt the chill.

“I don’t know what to do, or what I truly want; I know nothing… but running forever won’t give answers.

Right. I haven’t found the answer, so I can’t leave the dark like a moth from a lamp.

If so, I’d rather go back and keep searching for my answer.”

Yun Shi’s mind drifted to the past like smoke; back with the Clan Head, with Mia, with Eil, and with her brother.

She thought that home was a cage like a small room; only after loss did she know its light like spring.

As in her last life, only after losing did she learn to cherish like late regret.

From birth in this world she was adrift like a boat without oar; she didn’t know where she belonged.

She kept running and searching, bloodied head to toe like a hunted deer; there was no road back, no turn once she set out.

“Xiao Yun…”

This time, she would step onto the road again like a pilgrim; no more standing still; she had lost too much.

“I’ve decided. I’ll become a Witch. I need power. I need the power to live.”

Saying it cut her from the past like a knife across a rope.

“Are you sure? Do you know what becoming a Witch means?”

“I know. I can never be counted among the Witches as a companion, and I’ll be the enemy of the Seven Clan Heads forever.”

“…You can still regret this. There’s time.”

The truth was harsh like winter wind; a Witch from the enemy line would be shunned like a plague, even hated.

Yes, it was a way to handle the enemy like a desperate move.

But Yun Shi wanted power; power demands a price like fire asks for wood.

To live, she needed power now; there was no second path like a forkless road.

“I don’t regret it. I’m not afraid of anything now, because I have nothing. And I don’t want to die.”

Yun Shi gave a crooked smile like a cut; her eyes showed rock-solid resolve.

Sham fell quiet for a heartbeat like a held breath, then didn’t argue.

Her feelings were a tangle like storm-tossed ropes.

A magic circle flowered on the ground like frost, etched with circuits; the Magical Stone on Sham rose and drifted before Yun Shi.

“In the name of the agent, awaken the sleeping Magical Stone; hear my prayer.”

The circuits blazed like lightning; the stone shed pale motes like fireflies.

“Legendary Artifact Spirit, awaken now; open your eyes and behold your master.”

Sham sat cross-legged, eyes closed like a calm lake, chanting the words; pale light bled from her body like mist.

Warmth poured into Yun Shi like spring water; it spread sweetly through her bones.

Facing change, she felt no melancholy; two familiar faces surfaced like stars.

Mia. Eil. I’ll live for the three of us; I won’t die.

Yun Shi shut her eyes like a seal on a vow.

“Mystic circuit forged. Conclude.”

As the circuit formed, blue-violet light wrapped her like silk; breath coiled around her; Mystic Power streamed in like a river.

A blue sleeveless shirt, a black pleated skirt, black gloves and combat boots formed like frost; a gun hung at her side.

There was also a black cylindrical object like a sealed tube; she didn’t yet know its use.

She moved, and her black cloak flicked like a raven’s wing.

“A Witch, huh.”

Yun Shi looked over her new gear like a mirror.

From today on, she truly was a Witch like a blade drawn into night.