In the darkness, Tiyi seemed to hear Selys’s soul-piercing laughter. Half-dreaming, half-awake, she vaguely saw the succubus straddle her slender shoulders with one elegant leg.

Though Yedi’s shoulders had never been broad, they once brimmed with boundless strength. Now, they radiated only a disheartening feminine smoothness and delicacy.

Perhaps lost in unconsciousness, she felt the pressure of Selys’s heel—not truly painful. Of course. This woman didn’t want her dead. To humiliate her, to humiliate her *as only a woman could be humiliated*—*that* was her true satisfaction.

“You won’t succeed… Even now… I won’t submit. Never…” Tiyi couldn’t tell if she’d shouted aloud or merely screamed in her dream.

*Heh heh heh heh?* Submit? How utterly disappointing that would be. Did you think this was all? My revenge has only just begun. I’ll strip away everything precious to you… piece by piece… in every way…”

Selys’s voice coiled around Tiyi’s ear. She gritted her teeth in hatred, yet her body trembled at that breath. Until the voice drifted away, dissolving into the abyss behind the curtain of darkness.

Silence stretched, endless…

Slowly, a figure emerged from the shadows. Clad in armor radiating holy, ethereal light, it covered her completely—yet still exuded divine grace. She knelt, hands bound behind her back, night-dark hair spilling loose.

She lifted her head. Eyes like the deep night sky held a look of devout sorrow.

*Qingruo… Qingruo!*

Tiyi jolted awake from the nightmare. Two figures leaned over her—one supporting her shoulders, the other shaking her gently.

“You’re awake?” A golden-haired girl backlit by torchlight peered down. Beside her stood another with chestnut braids.

“Where… where am I? What did I say?” Tiyi sat up on the icy dungeon floor, sweat beading on her skin.

The girls exchanged glances. Their hands—soft, uncalloused—gripped Tiyi’s unnaturally slender arms. The blonde’s palm felt especially tender.

“You were having a nightmare,” the golden-haired girl said, worry in her voice. “Muttering things we couldn’t understand.”

Tiyi exhaled slightly. *Of course.* That vision—Qingruo Redvini—must have been a dream. Qingruo’s will was unbreakable. Her Sacred Power rivaled even Yedi’s own. Within the Holy Academy’s grounds, Selys could never touch her.

“Are you Lady Alandiye?” the blonde interrupted Tiyi’s thoughts.

*Lady?* “Of course not! I—” Tiyi’s chest heaved. Remembering her reflection—the softness of her hips cushioning the stone floor, the way these girls saw her now—she lowered her head. “How do you know my name?”

“Lady Dilovei was guided by the moonstone,” the chestnut-haired girl explained. “A witch named Alandiye, attacked by demons, trapped in the deepest prison. Our teacher sent us to rescue you.”

“No demons are near,” the blonde added. “We’ve swept the area.”

*Rescue?* Tiyi’s mind cut through her despair. These girls couldn’t have saved her from a succubus. Selys must have left willingly. *Where did she go? What does she plan next?* Tiyi felt unseen eyes still watching her.

“Are you hurt?” the blonde asked.

Tiyi shook her head.

As the girls helped her stand, Tiyi realized—even as a woman—she remained tall. Around 170 centimeters. A full head taller than the petite blonde. Only now, the swell beneath her white tunic, framed by her narrow waist, drew the eye.

“Wow…” The blonde’s robe lay flat across her own chest. Her voice held pure envy. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Enough chatter. This place isn’t safe. Let’s get her upstairs,” the chestnut-haired girl said sharply. Yet her cheeks flushed as she hooked Tiyi’s arm over her shoulder, her breath deepening for no clear reason.

“Where… where are you taking me?” Tiyi felt arms pressing against her chest—a sensation he’d once fantasized about as a boy. The irony choked her protest. *At least they’re both girls.*

“To save you, of course!” the chestnut-haired girl snapped.

“Lady Dilovei wants us to bring you to her,” the blonde clarified.

“I… I can walk.” The old Yedi had been reserved but fluent. Now, Tiyi stumbled over words.

Following the robed girls, torchlight flickered on rough-hewn tunnel walls. They passed empty cells, climbed worn stone steps.

*So this is how women walk—the forward dip of the hips, the rear lift.* Utterly unlike Yedi’s stride. Real women must be used to it. But where was his dignity now? Each step eroded his confidence.

At the top, they shoved open a heavy iron-bound door. Tiyi stepped into an ancient, vaulted cathedral.

The nave flanked by statues. Ahead, an obsidian-gold door pulsed with eerie light. Amethyst and mana-crystals formed arcane carvings—a forgotten deity, not of the Holy Church.

“Where is this?” Tiyi asked. After everything, even a heretic’s sanctuary held no fear.

“The Underground Witch Church,” the chestnut-haired witch said. “Lady Dilovei shelters hunted witches here.”

“Oh… the ritual’s already begun?” The blonde stared at the sealed door. Female voices chanted within.

“What do we do?”

The girls looked uncertainly at Tiyi.

“Wait here, Lady Tiyi,” the blonde said. They nodded to each other, then hurried toward a side door behind a pillar.

Silence returned. Tiyi didn’t mind being left alone. The quiet was almost a relief.

In the dim nave, she hugged herself.

*What do I do now?*

Once a Holy Temple Knight. The Empire’s strongest after the Age of Exploration.

Glory. Freedom. All gone overnight. Even the Witch Mark now stained her thigh.

What else mattered?

*Nothing concerns me anymore!*

*No… I can’t…*

*I won’t drown in this.*

“Pull yourself together. You’re Yedi. *Be* Yedi!” She pressed her palms to her face.

But the weight on her chest whispered back: *No. You’re Tiyi. A fallen woman with a name that invites fantasy. A witch.*

“I’m not!”

“I’m not a woman!”

“Who am I? *Myself.* No matter this body—I am still *me*!”

Her spirit had weathered storms before. But this betrayal—by her own flesh, by the gods—was a wound deeper than any blade.

In the gloom, Tiyi trembled.

From beyond the great door, the chanting swelled. A soul-deep resonance vibrated through the stone.

*What ritual has lasted this long?* Tiyi stared at the door.

Staircases led to shadowed upper galleries. Hesitating only a moment, she climbed. Halfway up, the unfamiliar sway of her hips—their lingering tremor—steeled her resolve.

A small, unassuming door stood beneath the arches. She pushed gently. Unlocked. Darkness and a strangely gentle aura seeped out.

Slipping inside, Tiyi hid in a pillar’s shadow. Below, robed women knelt in prayer. Stained-glass windows cast fractured rainbows.

*An heretic church… yet it feels sacred.* *Is my new body just too sensitive?*

“Do we hide here only to lick each other’s wounds in the shadows?”

“The Empire hunts us. Demons hunt us…”

“Are we doomed to be abandoned by the world?”

A woman’s voice—piercing, soul-stirring—rose from the altar.

*That voice…* Tiyi’s eyes narrowed.

She crept behind a pillar, peering through the balustrade.

Hundreds of witches knelt in perfect rows. At their forefront knelt two figures: a petite girl in black with silver hair, and a curvaceous woman in a wide-brimmed hat—a black cat perched on her shoulder.

Before them, on an altar glowing ember-red, stood a colossal crystal radiating night itself.

Beside it stood a figure cloaked in black, face hidden by a moon-pale mask. Even draped in shadow, her form exuded intoxicating allure.

*Selys.*

Tiyi would know that demoness anywhere—the one who made her a witch.

*Succubus Selys. Here.*

“Handmaiden of the Goddess of Night,” the silver-haired girl intoned solemnly. “Speak Her will. Guide us.”

*Handmaiden?* Tiyi’s fingers clenched the stone column until her knuckles whitened. *Selys is poisoning them again! What’s her game?*

She forced her breathing slow. Without Sacred Power, weakened by this frail body, she stood no chance against Selys. Not with so many witches present—especially that one with the black cat. *She feels dangerous.*

Tiyi held her breath. Selys knew women’s gasps too well.

“The Goddess of Night is mighty,” Selys’s voice echoed, “but She is not all-knowing. She cannot guide those who refuse to open their eyes in the dark…”

“Truth would rather watch blood flow down a dagger’s edge…

than listen to screams in the fire.”

"She guides you to wield the magic you’ve discovered within yourselves—not through sacred gifts or mercy. Take up whatever you can command to strike back at those who have harmed you."

"Let the Night of Vengeance begin today."

Whoosh!

The "Handmaiden of the Goddess," masked in moonlight, spread her arms. Purple flames erupted within the towering crystal of night.

From the flames emerged the silhouette of a Holy Temple Knight clad in silver armor—a youth of striking grace.

"Yedi Alandiye! Once the greatest threat to us witches—" Selys cried out in a soaring voice.

"What…" Tiyi, hidden behind a stone pillar, stared at the gallant youth reflected in the crystal. *As if separated by lifetimes… Me?*

Though appearing youthful, his slowed aging from cultivation meant he was already in his twenties—a truth Tiyi knew better than anyone. That was *herself*, just yesterday.

How could this radiant young man now be a woman whose beauty shamed the moonlit frost, matured beyond recognition? Who could grasp such a fall?

"But now, he is no longer a threat," Selys declared coolly to the gathered witches—a dagger to Tiyi’s heart.

The moon-masked Handmaiden nodded toward a tall witch in a dark violet gown slit high up the thigh, a black cat perched on her shoulder.

Rising, the witch addressed the assembly: "Each of you—survivors of flames, rescued from torture, fugitives from relentless witch hunts—came to this Underground Witch Church for sanctuary and training. All for this plan."

"Dilovei and I are wanted by the Empire. We cannot walk in sunlight. But you…" Her gaze swept over the kneeling witches as the black cat turned its head, golden-and-purple eyes glinting. "In months, we will choose the most exceptional among you to execute it."

Within the crystal, Yedi’s figure faded. Fiercer purple flames consumed the night.

As the fire dimmed, embers swirling like fireflies…

A Lady Templar Knight materialized in the crystal—armor gleaming with dawnlight, raven-black hair cascading like midnight, features dewdrop-fresh.

"Qingruo Redvini."

"Humanity’s prodigy. The sworn enemy of witches. Future leader of the Holy Temple Knights…" Selys’s voice echoed through the ancient, silent church, into every kneeling witch’s ear.

"*She* is your true target."