novelraw Chapter 1925: Hotel Guardians
Chapter 1925: Hotel Guardians
As the faint glimmer, undetectable to ordinary eyes, flashed three times on the walls of the Green Lake Hotel, the most central ritual in the basement was fully activated. This was a modified ritual, blending the powers of six different Grand Witches and refined according to the specific circumstances of the Green Lake Hotel, thereby fully qualifying it to be named the new ritual "Green Lake Hotel Guard".
Miss Sylvia, holding the Keeper of Secrets Level Relic [Door Key], came to the hotel entrance. She gently turned the key against the door, and everyone within the hotel heard a "click" sound in their ears. Subsequently, dense bronze-colored patterns extended from that door, covering the hotel’s inner walls, ensuring no one could forcibly enter.
Miss Sylvia stepped back, giving way to Shard and Miss Aphrola. The two of them joined hands to cast their spells together, with the Rings of Fate of Six Rings and Twelve Rings appearing behind them. Even though the witch level was higher, the diameter of Shard’s Ring of Fate was almost three times that of hers:
"Moonlight Thorns!"
"Witch’s Secret Arts—Guiding Light!"
Under the gloom of the rainy day, the dense and colorful moonlight thicket, centered on the hotel entrance, gradually crawled across the entire building’s outer walls like a living thing.
The moonlight was transparent and strange, but to prevent being noticed by others, the thicket quickly disappeared under the cover of Illusion Technique.
What was called "joint spellcasting" was really just Shard and Miss Aphrola summoning the Rings of Fate and then performing the Arcane Technique. It wasn’t like the Edwards twins genuinely using a single power together, but rather different arcane techniques creating a combination.
After sealing the space and the Moonlight Thorns, Hevy Aphrola, Galina Cavendish, Megan & Audrey Edwards, and Emma Sylvia, the four Grand Witches, came together in the basement. They held hands in a quadrilateral shape, standing at the center of the ritual core in the basement, arms enclosing a golden Holy Emblem suspended in mid-air, resembling a "question mark":
"Witch’s Secret Arts·The Witches’ Banquet."
The Golden Stairs shone brightly, and the spreading golden glimmers penetrated every corner of the building. The hair of various lengths swayed in the sourceless wind, touching the elements and spirits in the turbulent air, causing the witch’s power to seep into all areas of space.
This was the top-tier Witch’s Secret Arts from the Fifth Era, capable of transforming a certain range of space into a venue extremely suitable for witch power to flourish. Most of tonight’s combat force in the hotel were witches; this, almost like Maze Lock, was a secret technique even the Grand Witches had to rely on the council’s power to use, and it would be the key to this battle.
"Ladies, tonight it’s up to us."
Miss Aphrola said to the other three witches, and the four nodded to each other, each reaching out to the Holy Emblem suspended in mid-air.
The four were arranged in different positions within the hotel, with the Twelve Ring Miss Aphrola guarding the first floor, the Twelve Ring Miss Galina remaining on the second floor, and the Ten Ring but Space Witch Miss Sylvia watching over the critical third floor.
The descendants of the Edwards staying in the hotel, to prevent being "swept in one net," were not all gathered together. Among them, Megan was in Dorothy’s room, with Lecia, Angelina, and little Mia also there, capable of assisting in defending the third floor. Durut Giles, meanwhile, stayed in the basement with Laster Edwards and Mr. Soren Green for protection.
The followers of the four Grand Witches, those girls with an average level of seven rings, each followed pre-arranged plans, heading into the basement, first floor, second floor, and third floors near windows and corridors to prepare for battle. The glow of various arcane techniques bloomed, making this stronghold of witches even more impregnable.
As for Shard, whose level was not even close to the average level of the girls here, after casting spells with Miss Aphrola, he did not participate in other actions but went to the third floor, knocked, and entered Dr. Schneider’s room.
At this moment, the Doctor and the Professor were standing by the window, chatting idly while watching the rain. As Shard entered, he just overheard the priest telling the doctor that the current situation reminded him of Midshire Fort last autumn:
"It was much like now, holding a certain stronghold against the enemy. But then the enemy was clearly an uncountable army of the undead, yet now we don’t know who will be knocking."
"At least the view is open now, back then the entire city was covered in fog."
Shard said, and the Doctor and the Priest turned and nodded at him:
"How is it going now?"
"So far, nothing unusual. But tonight, the hotel is not providing dinner, and the cost of dinner included in the accommodation fee will not be refunded."
Shard joked as he came to the side of the Doctor and Priest:
"This tense atmosphere, although it makes my heart race, somehow also gets me a bit excited. Quite interesting, usually we infiltrate the enemy’s territory and fight powerful enemies alone. This time, defending a stronghold with so many people, it actually gets me excited."
"I don’t know what you’ve done in the past, but it seems you’re well adapted to this environment. From my psychological treatment experience, your excitement is not just from facing danger again, but from having so many people with you this time."
The Doctor said, staring as half a building suddenly fell from the sky two streets away outside the window, crashing to the ground with a loud bang. The cut surface of the half building was extremely smooth, and during the space transfer, the remaining half should still be in place.
The earth’s vibration was transmitted simultaneously to the Green Lake Hotel, causing the building to shake slightly. The Doctor sighed:
"What on earth is happening? I hear such anomalous spatial phenomena have already spread across the entire Old Continent."
Priest Augustus whispered prayers, as it was clear the building that had fallen was not empty.
Shard did not know how to respond and finally could only say:
"There’s a speculation that this is a sign of the apocalypse. It’s as if the world is sick, constantly showing various symptoms. Even if we solve the anomaly at Green Lake, new disasters will pop up elsewhere."
The Doctor, worried, seemed not at all surprised by talk of an apocalypse:
"If there’s a need, you can call me for things like this in the future. An apocalypse, it really feels like something from a story."
Then Shard went to Dorothy’s room.
At the moment, besides Dorothy, Lecia, Angelina, and Megan were all there. The girls welcomed Shard into the room, and Shard directly manifested a pink crystal shard in his hand, then handed it to Dorothy.
Miss Writer was quite puzzled:
"Why give me this now? Moreover, releasing this Arcane Technique would decrease your Spirit’s limit, wouldn’t it?"
"Yes, but if a real fight breaks out shortly, I won’t be able to give it to you at will."
Shard said and then rubbed the little head of the cat Mia, which was being held by Angelina. The Little Princess blushed slightly, as Shard extended his hand just now, she almost thought he was about to...
Lecia took the shard from Dorothy’s hand and stuffed it back into Shard’s hand:
"Do you underestimate us too much?"
She and Dorothy stood side by side, two pairs of similar green eyes looking at him:
"The two of us are Circle Sorcerers from the Three Great Magics Academies. Though our level is only Five Rings, that doesn’t mean we’re powerless girls who only scream when facing trouble."
"Shard, I know you’re worried about us, but we are not powerless."
They seemed somewhat annoyed, Shard understood their feelings and looked towards Megan, who smiled and shook her head, clearly not intending to get involved. Shard recalled the events of the last adventure at "Black Mist Camp," thus the Love God’s Sting shattered, and the Arcane Technique’s spellcasting canceled.
"Alright, just stay in this room and make sure not to go out. Remember what we agreed on earlier?"
He shook his finger, and both the princess and Miss Writer nodded with a smile:
"Of course, we’ll follow your lead. We can offer opposing opinions, but definitely won’t make decisions on our own. Last month’s incident taught us a lesson."
Shard finally felt assured, left the room, planning to check downstairs. Once the door closed, Megan looked at the two "sisters":
"Shard is really nice to you."
She clearly knew Shard surely had a breakthrough relationship with them, but since they weren’t witches, Megan didn’t really care about it.
"Miss Edwards, don’t be fooled by Shard’s current gentleness; if he’s really angry, he can be quite scary."
Dorothy spoke softly, while Angelina pretended not to listen closely, hearing her sister add:
"Yes, last time we got into trouble due to impulse, we learned a lesson when our souls had to be separated."
Megan suddenly inspired, thought of her business:
"Is it... the whip?"
She tried to lower her voice when saying the last word, then saw the princess and Miss Writer blushing. Even the witch herself recalled the pain and true pleasure when the blood-red long whip struck her soul, her face also slightly reddened.
Angelina carefully looked at them, pondering over the simple Draleon word "whip," thought of the illegal imprints her sister always took away, somehow even her face turned red.
"Meow?"
The cat was quite curious about the human women’s behaviors.
Walking out of the room, Shard saw Luviya waiting for him in the hallway.
The purple-eyed girl gestured for him to go downstairs together:
"I heard on the first floor just now that you found that card?"
"Yes."
The card was handed to Luviya, who checked it and then returned it to Shard. Shard walked towards the stairwell with Luviya, once again raising the card in front of his eye.
In the "Lostwoods," the red-haired witch Miss Aleira Andriana can unravel space’s mystery just by putting this card in front of her eye, even gaining guidance from fate. Shard initially wanted to get this card to unravel the Green Lake Central Island’s thick fog.