For ten long years, Halene and Varina moved together through the woods and mountains as Varina trained her magic, and in that time, Halene watched as Varina’s hatred for the Hondurans grew into something unbearable. Every time they saw a Witch Slayer hunting down one of their own, and every time they saw a village that put up banners and posters announcing Witch Burnings, the hatred in Varina’s eyes would only continue to grow. Halene nurtured the hatred inside of Varina like it was precious gold! Halene knew that she did not have the power to change the world. Not only did Halene lack the talent, but she also lacked the will necessary to see things through! But Halene believed that Varina could pave a new path for the witches of this world and end the era of the Witch Slayers once and for all. But in order to do that, Halene needed to give Varina one last push.
And that was why, in the final year of her training, when there was nothing left for Halene to teach Varina, Halene planned and executed her own death. It happened in a small town known as Destani in the Northern plains of Hondura. Halene had sent Varina away to retrieve some special herbs that they needed for concocting a healing potion, and in that time, Halene made sure she was seen performing magic by some of the townspeople. The townspeople wasted no time capturing Halene and sentencing her to death! In this world, the law didn’t care about whether or not a witch was innocent! The simple crime of being a witch was enough to warrant the death sentence!
Halene was paraded across the town, stoned, and spat on, and a massive pyre was set up in the center of the town as people began to gather to watch the wicked witch burn for her crimes! By the time Varina returned from the task that Halene had sent her on, she was greeted by the sight of an entire town rejoicing and dancing around a massive pyre as her mentor was burned at the stake. Halene raised her head from the middle of the flames and looked right at Varina with an intense gaze, and then she mouthed two words that would shape the fate of this world for the next ten years.
’Kill. Them.’
Something broke inside Varina! A deep, twisted energy began to fill her heart and mind, and the sky above broke open with thunder and lightning as rain fell upon the festival! The rain was not natural; instead, it was a magical phenomenon created by Varina using her magical essence! And the moment it landed on the festival, the villagers felt their minds twisting and bending out of their control as they were taken over by Varina’s mind art!
"ARRRGHH!"
"RAORRR!"
"AKKKK!"
Mindless roars echoed through the festival as hundreds of the civilians lost their free will, and they began to lumber around like zombies as they waited for Varina’s orders! The Mind Arts were a very specialized brand of magic that wasn’t commonly practiced amongst Witches. The reason for this is because the Mind Arts were known to be very taxing on the mind of any witch who practiced it. Before a Witch could take over anyone’s mind, they would need to bypass the natural mental defences that every person had, and afterwards, they would need to use their own mental fortitude to command their subordinates to do something! Anyone who didn’t have a very high mental strength would easily die from the mental strain!
But decades of nurturing the intense hatred in her mind and heart had strengthened Varina’s mental fortitude, and so it was easy for her to handle the weight of the hundreds of villagers that went under her control!
"Hey, what’s wrong with you?"
"Why are you looking like that? Snap out of it!?"
"What’s going on!?"
There were some villagers whose mental strength was too high for Varina to bypass them using the mana essence in the rain, so those villagers didn’t fall under her control. But it didn’t matter because Varina had enough soldiers here to eradicate this village from the map. Varina put her hand forward, and her minions attacked and killed everything in their path! On that day, Varina and her minions killed more than five thousand men, women, and children, and Varina began the journey that would mark her as the Witch of Calamity to more than three different worlds and lead to the intervention of the Overlord himself! In ten years, Varina took over the minds of more than half of the people in Hondura. Every town, village, or city that Varina passed through was completely destroyed by her army of minions, and anyone that Varina couldn’t control was killed by her army!
But even with the army of fearless creatures under her control, Varina was still not a match for the powerful Witch Slayers of Hondura. The Witch Slayers possessed powerful Runes and armor that allowed them to tear through Varina’s army without any problem. And since Varina couldn’t take over the minds of the Witch Slayers because of the anti-magic runes on their armor, Varina had to resort to other tactics. This was when Varina had her first encounter with the Primordial Expanse. Varina met an interworld traveller who told her about the worlds out there, and all the wonders she could discover, but the only thing Varina could think about was how many more minions she could gain if she went to those worlds and used her powers to take over their minds! The Witch Slayers might be strong, but not even they could handle millions of minions from multiple worlds coming after them!
Varina went to these worlds and began to gain more minions. Some worlds had creatures that were weak enough for her to control, while other worlds were too powerful for her to force into submission, but only ten years after awakening as the Witch of Calamity, Varina now had control over three different worlds parallel to Hondura, and she was currently planning the final assault that would allow her to destroy the Witch Slayers once and for all.
.....
[The World of Falic]
[One Dimensional Leap Away From Hondura]
Jason stood on a high cliff and looked down on the rainy world of Falic with a frown on his face. This world was home to many unique magical beasts and creatures, but the most dominant race here was known as the Falicans. They had an appearance that was similar to humans, but they all had very dark skin and wore light and loose clothes with turbans around their heads. The reason for this was because the world of Falic used to be a very humid land with intense heat all year round. But ever since the Witch of Calamity took over this world, there had been nothing but nonstop rain for multiple years now.
’And this rain... It’s filled with magic essence.’
Jason frowned as he collected some of the rainwater in his palm. The water was infused with raw magical essence, and Jason was sure that this was what the witch had been using to take over the minds of people across his domain. Jason couldn’t help but be impressed. The sheer amount of magic you would need to make this much rain fall for this long was astronomical, so Jason was certain that this Witch of Calamity had at least half the mana capacity he did. The Witch of Calamity was probably a TITAN Rank III. It was either that or she had a way to increase her mana capacity artificially. Jason flicked the water away as this thought crossed his mind and he activated [Qi Sense] to get a better understanding of just how many minions the Witch had in this world.