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The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (I)
 | Name | The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (I) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, loc_fam_book_family_1051 | |
| Rarity |  | |
| Description | The binding and layout are exquisitely made, but the actual content is all handwritten. Judging from the handwriting, there is more than one author. "Don't fuss about WHAT we're writing, the cover needs to look good! That's the only way it'll give off that 'masterpiece' feeling." |
| This is the story of a little witch who journeyed far and wide to find the "undying fire." The story begins as such, in the westernmost part of the magic continent, where a young witch was undergoing her "Witch Certification and Final Trial." As per convention, one need only pass this trial to qualify as a true witch. The trial required lots to be drawn, and the results were completely random, a format which resulted in frequent accidents. But the magic continent was nothing if not firm in its adherence to tradition, and so, if you would believe it, they've stuck to the rules of drawing lots for trials since the very most ancient of times! There's a law in the outside world known as "Morphy's Law." That's how you write it, right...? Anyway! It means that bad things you worry about happening are probably going to happen. And thus did a completely unsurprising surprise strike the little witch! Some little witches got very simple tasks: stuff like synthesizing the final solution to the material world, the Philosopher's Stone, or bringing back baleen from a titanic universe-roaming whale, or perhaps figuring how to get to a parallel universe to find a no-longer-extant grimoire lost to a great, ancient magical war... and so on and so on. But our main protagonist drew a topic of terrible, troubling tribulation — to find and bring back the "undying fire." Perhaps her honored teacher might have an opinion on this subject? Her teacher was just enjoying a most wonderful teatime with her friends, and she comforted her student. "It must be because you're fated to become a really great witch, so, your topic's a little harder than most. Unsolved mysteries are the most interesting, after all!" "Really?" "That's right. When you come back, I'll be sure to welcome you with a tea party, one lovelier than this one, even!" The teacher's friends whispered to her: "Hey now, isn't that a bit much? You obviously only made up that question because you couldn't be bothered to think up a real exam question. If such a thing even existed, we'd have perpetual motion machines by now, don't you think!? Couldn't you have done something else — you know, made her prove the Grand Unified Theory based on the Unified Electroweak Theory or something?" "Oh, don't you worry! Life is full of a great many lies," the teacher spoke brazenly, "and I did not lie, did I? I know that the 'undying fire' does indeed exist. That blazing star... Huh. Hang on, when did I see it again... Must've forgotten." The teacher spun around to her pupil, saying: "Ahem! Considering that your trial is indeed quite challenging, you shall have three times the normal amount of time to complete it! Hehe, I'll be rooting for you!" |
The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (II)
 | Name | The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (II) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, loc_fam_book_family_1051 | |
| Rarity | | |
| Description | "You're more than halfway through and you haven't even pushed the plot forward one iota! Why is it all about the setting!?" "And what would you know? Besides, this stuff isn't fleshing the setting out. It's elucidating natural science and other miscellaneous disciplines!" |
| Deep in the woods, nighttime. The little witch soared upon her broom beneath the blood-green moon. Blood-green was regarded as a symbol of great change in astrology, though whether such change be for good or ill cannot be determined by any result. —Actually, that shade symbolizes the dominant race of this world, the Nephilim. They were the children of gods and humans, and so their blood, too, was the conflux between the red blood of humanity and golden, divine blood. And actually-actually, the green moonlight was the result of the moon's physical composition, the distance between the planet and its moon, atmospheric scattering, and other factors. Anyway, so the little witch was soaring upon her broom beneath the blood-green moon, and then, she met a young lady who claimed to be a "fortune teller." "I wish to become a witch's familiar," said the young lady. But before they could even consider that, the little witch had something to ask: "Can fortune tellers read the skeins of fate?" The fortune teller then explained the underlying principles. Put simply, it's something like this: In our world, the stars are the heavenly strings by which humans are bound. But in other worlds, the subjects of astrological study are the solar ecliptic energies, the various lunar energies of the satellites, the will-energy of the celestial rulers of the planets, the scattered interference energy of distant stars, and the dark energy that suffuses the pitch-black cosmos. Of course, it's not like these things don't exert influence on our planet — they have merely been greatly weakened by a giant sky-shroud. As such, astrology on other worlds is far more abstract than that which is practiced in ours. By the way, other planets refer to an actual celestial bodies as an "archon" and a theorized one as a "virtual." The planet the little witch was on was no exception. You see, we also call a will that comes down from the heavens an "archon." They are normally planets that have sentient life on them, and they number seven, and therefore they are called the "seven archons." As for the virtuals, their number varies between one, two, and four. The planet the little witch was one may well have been one. And in the case of such a world, the "virtual" would be the "dark sun." Astrologists and diviners are, in essence, performing weight calculations on the sky-shroud, the cosmos, and the "archon" and "virtual" celestial bodies, before deducing individual developmental tendencies from world to world. But the relative weight of the sky-shroud over our planet is just way, way too great, and so, investigating it already allows us to obtain very precise results. As for the world the little witch and astrologist were on, they would have to go through the entire formula. After the little witch finished listening, she was very impressed by the fortune teller's learning and technique. Now they could speak of the matter of familiarhood. To be a witch's familiar was to share in her magic, and with magic, one could peer into more destinies. That said, becoming a familiar could have unforeseen side effects — it was hard to say what might happen. Yes! That's what the blood-green moon means: great change, which can't be judged as good or ill by the outcome. See how it all comes together? We didn't go off-topic! "It is a shame that I am still not a great witch. I can't make you my familiar yet, " said the little witch. "I know of another way to establish a contract with a witch. It seems we must resort to using it," said the young lady. This was the night bathed in blood-green moonlight, and it was also, coincidentally, the witches' Night Carnival. By the way, the Night Carnival is an ancient, taboo ceremony. Legend has it that at such times, the witches' magical powers are at their apex. They hold rituals in secret, offering sacrifices and keeping the bonfires burning through the night. This tradition had been forgotten in the westernmost parts of the magical continent but, for some reason, it had been revived within the deep woods. Normally, this was an event that only great witches or figures greater still could be invited to, or invite others to attend. In practice, though, participation in a Carnival had a direct relation with a witch's romantic or marital status. In any case, for some totally unknown reason, the astrologist knew all about witches while the witch knew nothing about astrologists at all. The point is, they decided to go and check out the Night Carnival. Let's just go with it being a way to deal with the anxiety the little witch felt over not being able to find the "undying fire." Under the blood-green moon, the great witches danced around the bonfire. The little witch and the young astrologist hid in the shadows of trees that grew so thick that even dense clouds couldn't compare, and even the bonfire could not illuminate them. "We just need to wait till the day after the ancient, forbidden night of revelry, when the dawn light first breaks and the various great witches depart. "In the grey embers will be a flame that never dies. When a mortal takes this flame and offers it up, that is equivalent to signing a contract with a witch," said the young lady. "Does this method always work?" The little witch asked. "It's possible a witch could reject the contract, but witches do so love their spirit mediums, and I'm not afraid of becoming a fearsome creature," the young lady replied, her voice thick with yearning. "In that case, isn't this an 'undying fire'?" Dark thoughts came into the little witch's mind. "What if I took that flame for my own?" And so, under the blood-green moonlight, the great witches sang their song: "If all things a witch's opera be," "Then nothing true worth mourning would the world ever see." "Our festival has come to a fruitful end." "The story shall not stay its feet," "And every night hence shall also be the witches' night." A sense of shame surged forth within the little witch as she listened from the shadows — it wasn't out of worry that those present, great witches and greater still, might include her teacher, school principal, instructors, or anything like that. She knew everyone at her school, and she was sure no one familiar was present. By the way, while the official rules at the school she attended were lax when it came to governing teachers and their students, students of similar age would still be ranked against each other. Students of different teachers were also permitted to interact outside of classes. The creation of this system could be traced back to the rise of the Western witches, long, long ago. They did not shy away from exchanging secret hexes and rituals for their mutual benefit, which would also result in their swift rise in those days. Of course, the organization that the little witch belonged to was a direct successor of these Western witches. Also, this blurb definitely wasn't just added in here because I forgot about this worldbuilding earlier. Back to the story. She said to the fortune teller: "Since we have this opportunity, go bravely forth, then! Once dawn comes, take that fire. If you should be so unfortunate as to become a monster, I will give you a quick end. You will not suffer." As a gift to commemorate this friendship, the young lady gave her treasured crystal ball to the little witch. "This crystal ball feels joy for all known destined paths, and its heart breaks for all unrevealed tragedies. If you ever feel lost, allow it to be your oracle!" Actually, there's a story behind this crystal ball. It— |
The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (III)
 | Name | The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (III) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, loc_fam_book_family_1051 | |
| Rarity | | |
| Description | Some mysterious handwriting appears before the main text: "It's so rare for R to be in her right mind for a spell. Should she really be wasting the precious little lucid time she has writing this?" "Don't worry. For a witch, this is the most important thing." |
| In her travels, the little witch encountered a group of people getting ready to kill demon kings. She decided to join them and go kill some demon kings. They told her: The more demon kings you kill, the greater your witch's power will grow. This is, in fact, true. Then, they encountered a mimic demon king. After this whole affair, the little witch would write a "Demon King-Slaying Chronicle" each time she hunted one. They encountered the mimic demon king in a run-down old house. At first, no one knew what was going on, assuming that the place had just gone moldy. After breathing the mold spores in, her companions turned into the following respectively: A shoddy-looking ancient robot (which the little witch found really ugly and not up to snuff when compared to alchemy), a beautiful young maiden (this team member was originally male, leading the witch to initially wonder if this was some inversion of biological sequential hermaphroditism), and a pirate (she had no idea about this one). After some time, everyone in the squad developed identity disorders. Considering that her three companions appeared to be of the same species, they should not have exhibited such different natures, while the symptoms were, by contrast, so similar. The little witch discovered that the mold had its own consciousness, and had a power that allowed similar lifeforms to turn into their ideal state. She did not change because she was already very pleased with herself. The little witch decided to test the mold's unique properties. She tried ingesting parts of it, finding it to be edible and without any side effects. Thus, it might have been a miscategorization to call it a mold, but since the mold in blue mold cheese could also be eaten, she decided to continue using that label. Something worth noting was that after a chunk had been cut away, the other mold threads would immediately disappear. Possibly a sign of a rudimentary collective intelligence. To facilitate further communication, the little witch wanted to turn into mold — and so she did. As it turned out, the mold colony only sent strange biological signals that needed deciphering. Through repeated observations, it seemed that their level of collective intelligence might be lower than she had previously thought. In the end, the mold committed suicide. The little witch deciphered its way of communicating communications, and as it turned out, the colony experienced dissonance in self-perception and self-dissociation when it looked upon the little witch who had become just like them. The signals they sent had in fact been philosophical speculation "Who is me, and who am I?" Its intelligence was thus much higher than expected. Her friends recovered, and told the little witch that this was the mimic demon king. It was a species of demon king, in the same taxonomic class as standard demon kings but not in the same order. It was a shame. She wished she had a chance to observe more and make some more records. Then, they encountered a chipmunk demon king, which her comrades had claimed beforehand was also a species of demon king. It was classified as belonging to the same class and superorder as a standard demon king but was part of a different grandorder. The chipmunk demon king looked very fierce indeed, and the little witch suspected that this aggressiveness stemmed from behaviors acquired during the gestation period and while nurturing their offspring. Infiltrating its old nest, they found that it was male. One of her companions was eaten. It turned out that it simply had a bad temper. The little witch decided to report the findings of this investigation to prevent the tragedy from repeating itself. They attempted to feed the chipmunk demon king seeds to lure it out. They lost another companion in the process. It seemed that this creature was not a vegetarian at all. Her final companion fled. having deduced from the pattern of events thus far that he was next on the chopping block. This was an incomplete logical induction — both the process and conclusion were mistaken. Eventually, she used high-grade boar meat to lure the chipmunk demon king into a trap. The creature's fat and fur made it resilient to fire and freezing. Though she had never dissected one, results indicated that it also had an organ enabling it to breathe underwater. A complete vacuum was used to dispatch it in the end. It seems that it still required aerobic respiration. Many demon kings seem very powerful, but they all have their weaknesses. The same is true for alchemical lifeforms. Finally, the little witch had to face a standard demon king, a great demon king of the primate order. |
The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (IV)
 | Name | The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (IV) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, loc_fam_book_family_1051 | |
| Rarity | | |
| Description | Some mysterious handwriting appears before the main text: "Tsaritsa be good, how are there this many unresolved plot threads? Please, have mercy on these old bones, would you?" |
| So, the little witch found the great demon king. I'm sure you all remember that killi— defeating more demon kings causes witches to grow stronger. As such, the little witch was actually already amazingly powerful now! The great demon king was simply no match for her. "Can you really kill a being that looks like a human and has intelligence?" Shouted the great demon king in desperation. "You're right. I didn't really intend to do anything to you anyway," said the little witch. "I've never forgotten that my goal is to find the 'undying fire.' Researching, observing, and defeating demon kings was never even a means to the end, but rather just the building of a basic level of power." Then, she used — sorry, I don't know magic or mysticism — some super powerful awesome technique to bind the great demon king, and brought it back to the largest nearby city. As a trainee of the Western witches who had come out to take her exam, she naturally had credentials that proved her identity. This provided her convenient passage through the many mortal kingdoms — such things were also proven to be immensely hard to forge, thus avoiding the possibility of any cliche plotlines. This actually presented the mayor of the city with a conundrum — ah yes, this is a good time to say that this nation was a loose confederacy. And since this was a mayor, there was no aristocracy or hereditary titles — for the handling of this great demon king was truly quite tricky. I'm sure you all remember that the dominant race of this planet was the Nephilim, a hybrid of humans and gods? Right! So, the race of great demon king is actually the demon king class, and so demon kings were thus a type of Nephilim. And of course, since they were the dominant race, this meant that Nephilim were on the whole much stronger than normal humans — and since this setting for this world has hybrids of humans and gods, this meant that it has gods too. And taking a step back, the Nephilim also had a certain degree of legal immunity — If they had killed 5 humans or fewer, they couldn't be judged by human laws, and had to be repatriated to Nephilim lands. And as it happened, this great demon king had only stolen and eaten several thousand boars and chickens each. So this was fast turning into a diplomatic and political issue. Of course, the mayor could just stick the Western witches with all the blame, but that would offend every witch on the continent. Plus, the mayor was also a good friend of the little witch. She would never do anything that would hurt the organization of witches as a whole. Following some diplomatic rhetoric, some policies to appease it, and an explanation of the pros and cons, the captured great demon king accepted that retribution should only be exacted on the party who had done the wrong, meaning that his ire was now narrowed to the little witch alone. But he could not defeat her, so that was the end of that, really. Finally, I hope everyone remembers that crystal ball, because the little witch's goals had become foggy at this stage, so she decided to take it out and have a look at it. |
The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (V)
 | Name | The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (V) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, loc_fam_book_family_1051 | |
| Rarity | | |
| Description | The writing here is practically a messy scrawl. Perhaps the author doesn't really write much, or perhaps something happened. |
| A familiar face surfaced in the crystal ball. "This is your magic teacher speaking. The trial is over. You were unable to obtain your witch license." |
The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (VI)
 | Name | The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (VI) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, loc_fam_book_family_1051 | |
| Rarity | | |
| Description | "Is it still necessary to write this, the present moment being what it is?" "Allow me, then. Opportunities to return to this world are few and far between. Alice would think the same: If we don't continue, then everything would have been meaningless from the start." |
| The little witch hurried to where her teacher was. She wanted to question her teacher face-to-face about why the test had ended, and why she was not to be permitted to become a witch. She wanted to throw things to the ground in front her teacher — though of course, she would only chuck the ones that could survive the impact and that she could practically lift herself while avoiding her teacher's favorite teacup. Of course, should the situation warrant it, she was even willing to smash her own second-favorite teacup to show how serious this all was. After all, she'd bought that one herself rather than it having been given to her by friends. She valued such gifts as much as the friends themselves, and would never use them as part of an emotional outburst. "Octavia's back. Go catch up with her." That was what her teacher said calmly the moment they saw each other again. In an instant, the emotions that the little witch had stored up, brewed, fermented, plotted, and rehearsed pouring out countless times vanished. Octavia was a good friend of hers, and a good friend also of the legendary old witch. Her home had been destroyed, but as she lacked the courage to fight back, she had taken up a life of eternal wandering. She had seen many worlds, and had told the little witch many tales about the sky beyond the sky. "The entire cosmos is going to die soon. Things peaked but not long ago, and are about to go south very fast." Octavia was sitting in a yard swathed in flowing sunlight, pouring tea into the teacups she and the little witch loved most. The little witch pulled a chair up and sat in it. "You returned so suddenly," she said, "we didn't even prepare a chair for you. You're probably sitting in the old witch's chair now." "Many stars across the cosmos have gone out. I do not know how much time is left," Octavia said, "so I wanted to come back to see you." "Is that why my teacher and the others stopped all the witch tests? Because you came back and told them this?" The little witch asked. "Perhaps. In such a world, all things lose meaning, and there is no longer any need for you to become a witch." "Then I shan't be angry at my teacher any longer," the little witch said. "But will you be mad at me? I caused you to lose your chance to become one," O said. "I will, if you never return after leaving this time," came the little witch's reply. "I'll go to the bedroom to get your chair." "I can just sit in that old witch's chair, can't I? She's too old to get up and come sit in it nowadays." "That's no good! That chair's hers, just as your chair's yours," the little witch argued her case earnestly with O. "To each person a chair. That way, even if they are not present, their memories will be seated still. So we absolutely can't use the wrong chairs." Octavia smiled helplessly. And by way of apology for interrupting the process of the little witch becoming a proper one, she gave the latter a piece of news: So "The 'undying fire' really exists. It may be found at—" |
The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (VII)
 | Name | The Little Witch and the Undying Fire (VII) |
| Type (Ingame) | Quest Item | |
| Family | Book, loc_fam_book_family_1051 | |
| Rarity | | |
| Description | The binding and layout are exquisitely made, but the actual content is all handwritten. Judging from the handwriting, there is more than one author. "I have already found the meaning of writing — that is to tell you: I do so wish you were here, too." |
| As she was buffeted by the waves of time, passing through the vortex where countless causalities converged, piercing countless threads of the weave, she missed a great many things. Even the memorial of the great witch she had so admired ended deserted, without her in attendance. Whatever they were, the point is that the little witch passed through all manner of haphazard trials and challenges and nonsensical stuff before she managed to arrive before the old witch. Actually, it's just that the little witch didn't think those experiences were worth talking about, nor did she know why anyone bothered spilling so much ink about all that earlier stuff. When all's said and done, the most important things were the witch's tea party and the goal she was pursuing. In truth, she had already seen it before her journey began. In a sky as dark as a sack of coal — or perhaps a cavern, for as we all know, there is no difference between the two — there hung a star giving off a weak radiance, resisting the world's darkness as it encroached on every side. As the universe gradually grew dim, and all stars and stars known as suns were extinguished one by one, everyone agreed to call it the Star of Scorpio. The little witch remembered hearing about this during the witch's tea party, but she only remembered the name and nothing else. Anyway, the little witch came before the old witch, who was actually the Star of Scorpio, that which burned still, even at the end of all things. However, her flame was very weak now, barely a faint ember. The little witch held her hand, which had become as dry and brittle as a withered branch. She remembered that the old witch was once a little witch as well, with pale and tender hands that once elegantly held teacups. Those same hands had been used to bring forth much magic, kindling the flames on many worlds. The little witch said: "Looks like everyone doesn't want the flame to go out, and I get it. It can't be helped. The last time we said farewell — you were there too — the witches said that long-lived witches would lose many things as the years went by. Life, death, love, and hate would cease to have much meaning. But that isn't true. Those are just words they used to comfort the companions who departed before them. Witches, in fact, treasure every infinitesimal flame and light that shines in this dark world bereft of hope all the more. They hold even the shadows that these flames would cast dear. "You often said that you weren't our equal, but I've always believed you to be the cutest, most powerful witch amongst us. You often said that you left little behind, but the stories you left to us hold countless worlds. Even should a hundred years pass, or a thousand, even if the apocalypse that a certain astrologer witch worried about comes, even if all the long-lived witches die, the little light that emanates from these little worlds will not grow dim. That's right. You were the greatest great witch — far greater than us all. I miss you. Farewell." The old witch did not respond, for all that was left here was but an empty husk, no different from the many others that the little witch had encountered in her adventures — indeed, they were even made of the same basic material, with the only difference between those and this being the minuscule light of a flame. And so, the little witch took the flame that was burning the old witch and set out on her homeward journey. Anyway, let's stop the story here. The little witch's adventures would continue, though, for she had already decided to bring the old witch's fire across the universe, to light every last corner of time. |
@Anhol Several weeks ago I made a lengthy post about Main DPS Xilonen but that is out of date now. ...