Chapter 400: Sansa vs Adriana
The Witch’s Game would never be complete...
Unless the witch herself took part.
That had always been the unspoken rule.
But it seemed the Witch’s battle... was already over.
Hovering in the sky beside the red gate...
Beatrice, inside Adriana’s body, let out a sigh of disappointment.
"Sansa Valerion... is that really all you’ve got?"
Her face showed clear disappointment as she stared down at Sansa.
The girl lay inside a massive crater of destruction, her body broken and drenched in blood.
She had lost—completely.
Adriana had overwhelmed her with a terrifying gap in power.
"I didn’t expect you to be this weak. What happened to the strength you once showed me? The terrifying shadows that once struck fear into the fiercest of Nightmare Creatures?"
For years, Beatrice had lived inside the temple, using Adriana’s body as a vessel.
In other words, Beatrice had lived among Frey and his companions for nearly two years now.
Among them all, Sansa had always caught her interest—the girl’s demonic power was unique.
"Are you holding back because I’m your friend? Kihihihi... You’re breaking my tiny little heart."
Adriana laughed loudly as Sansa slowly pushed herself up.
"Shut that damn mouth of yours."
Staring at her battered body and the wounds she had sustained just from exchanging attacks...
Sansa realized that winning this battle was almost impossible.
’If I could still control my power like before... I could have beaten her.’
But that was no longer possible.
The will of the demon seed inside her—the one that once helped her wield that power—was long gone.
Even though Adriana was the weakest of Beatrice’s puppets... she was still far too powerful for Sansa now.
Knowing this, the princess gritted her teeth and tried once more to summon her strength.
A massive shadow formed beneath her feet.
"Trying again? Sorry, darling... but your shadows are too weak."
With a wave of her hand...
Adriana summoned dozens of celestial spheres once more, releasing a tremendous pressure that made Sansa flinch instinctively.
"I know I can’t fight like that demon did..."
That wild and violent combat style was gone—buried somewhere deep inside her.
"But I’m not a demon. I’m human. So I’ll fight like a human!"
Gathering her shadow around her...
The darkness slowly crawled across her body.
Sansa was trying something... something that made Adriana narrow her eyes.
"What are you trying to do?"
Instead of attacking with the shadow ..
Sansa wrapped it around herself.
She focused intensely, trying to recall a memory that had once captivated her.
"This... this is the way I want to fight. Just like her."
Just like the girl who had once wrapped her power around herself, forming a pure white shield of ice.
Now, the shadows tightened around Sansa’s body, forming a similar—but darker—armor.
The pressure in the battlefield shifted.
Finally, after pouring everything she had, Sansa reached that form.
Using her power to create armor around herself, she now looked entirely different.
Unlike Seris’s ninja-like form, Sansa’s was something else entirely.
The jet-black armor clung to her body, forming a pair of wings and a crown of horns rising above her head and dark hair.
She looked exactly like...
"Demon."
Adriana burst out laughing as she watched the dramatic transformation unfold before her eyes.
"You said you’d fight like a human, yet now you take on a form that resembles a demon... What a delicious contradiction."
Ignoring her laughter ..
Sansa stomped the ground with force and shot toward her opponent.
She was eager to test her new power as soon as possible.
Adriana immediately bombarded her with dozens of flaming projectiles using her celestial spheres—but Sansa deflected them effortlessly, her wings wrapping around her in defense.
Then, reaching out her hand toward Adriana ..
Within seconds, a massive shadowy hand formed and lunged forward, trying to consume the witch entirely.
But the giant hand came to a sudden halt as it slammed into a thin barrier that had manifested just in time. Adriana twirled her staff with a grin.
"Crush her for me."
Responding to her command ..
A giant foot materialized in the sky and came crashing down on Sansa’s head, aiming to flatten her into the earth.
But Sansa, acting on pure instinct, conjured dozens of black tendrils that shot out from her back like magic.
The tendrils instantly wrapped around the descending foot, halting it completely.
And like serpents, they slithered upward, coiling tighter until the entire construct exploded into pieces.
Without pause, Sansa redirected the tendrils to attack Adriana.
But as they closed in ..
Adriana began teleporting, vanishing and reappearing each time just before impact, effortlessly dodging the attacks as she flew through the air, laughing all the while.
"How wonderful! Your strength has grown so much!"
She continued to taunt and toy with Sansa, who said nothing in return.
The princess pursued her relentlessly, determined to end the fight as fast as possible—especially as she began to feel something odd: the shadows building up inside her body, giving her an unsettling feeling she couldn’t ignore.
"Kill her for me."
With a flick of her wrist ..
Reality twisted once again around Adriana.
In a surreal shift, dozens of magical cannons and firearms manifested out of nowhere.
Hundreds of them.
All aimed directly at Sansa, surrounding her completely.
And without warning...
They opened fire in unison, unleashing a relentless barrage.
Sansa had no choice but to wrap her wings tightly around herself, bracing for impact.
Adriana, on the other hand, was clearly enjoying herself.
"Even after boosting your power like this, the gap between us is still immense, dear Sansa."
Trapped in a hellish storm of gunfire ..
Sansa was at the mercy of the witch, who was merely playing with her.
"At this rate, you really will die here."
With another motion of her hand, swords and spears materialized alongside the firearms, pointing at Sansa from all directions.
"Let’s end this game before it gets boring."
With that playful grin on her face, Beatrice, from within Adriana’s body, prepared to bring the battle to its conclusion.
Sansa Valerion vs. Adriana...
The battle was about to enter its final stage.