“Long time no see, Chloe,” she said. “I’d like to say that you’ve grown, but you’re about as tall as I remember.”
“Ms. Natalia, why are you…” I started.
“Does the reason really matter? I came to save you because you’re in a pinch. You’re supposed to cry and wail, ‘Master! I wanted to see you!’ while rushing over to me in this scene, Chloe. Shall we redo it?”
“I don’t think we’ve got the time right now, so I think we should do that later!”
Ms. Natalia folded her arms in front of her chest as I looked up at her and gave a forced smile. It really takes me back. She’s actually in front of me again.
After she first picked me up from the streets and taught me alchemy, she suddenly disappeared one day. It’d been three long years since, yet she hadn’t aged a day. But now’s not the time to reminisce about the past.
My heart, which was on the verge of giving into despair, suddenly lit up brightly. I was so tired that I could barely move, and I was tempted to just lie down to sleep, but I wasn’t about to look so disgraceful in front of my master.
“Why do you look on the verge of death, Chloe?” Ms. Natalia scolded. “That won’t change your current situation, will it? If that’s the case, smile! No matter what, the last one smiling will always be the winner!”
“Yes, ma’am!” I answered with a large smile.
As I did so, I felt so silly grinning in the middle of the desert, and I couldn’t hide my amusement at my situation. I wonder what Mr. Julius would say. I can imagine him going, ‘Do something about that foolish face of yours, idiot.’
“Now certainly isn’t the time to be so weak-spirited,” Ms. Natalia chided. “I hope you haven’t forgotten my lesson. What is alchemy?”
“The strongest and best field in the world, better than any magic known to man!” I answered.
“Correct! I am the first and last uber-beautiful witch and truly the strongest alchemist in the world, Natalia Báthory! Together with my apprentice Chloe, I’ll crush you into smithereens, you human-faced bird! I don’t know your name, so I’ll just call you that! A perfect nickname, if I may say so myself!”
Mephisto was still staring at the remnants of the serpents that Ms. Natalia had destroyed. He narrowed his eyes with bemusement.
“Where did you obtain that power, human?” he asked.
He must be talking about Ms. Natalia’s magic. I haven’t seen it before either. I had no doubt that she was a very skilled sorceress, but the spell she’d just used closely resembled Ruto’s. Ruto used powerful spells, but it seemed as though she was offering her lifespan in exchange, and it took a lot out of her. On the other hand, Ms. Natalia seemed as lively as ever.
That wasn’t anti-evil magic, either. Her chant never appeared in the book that Jahala gave me.
“Where do you think? Secrets, secrets are so fun,” Ms. Natalia replied with a smile while placing a finger over her lips.
Mephisto gave an annoyed flap of his wings. “Hmph, no matter. The addition of another human is no different from another pest. Your deaths are already set in stone.”
“Can you move, Chloe?” my master asked. “If you can’t, you better sit tight and watch your amazing master’s valiance.”
“I can!” I replied. “My arms and legs move just fine!”
“Good!”
Her powerful reply echoed throughout the desert. While I could still move, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t envious of my master’s magic broom that allowed her to float in the air. I tried to put on a tough front, but in truth, the sand weighed my legs down and it was difficult for me to run around. In terms of mobility, there was a clear difference between me and Mephisto, who could fly in the air.
“First, we keep him busy,” Ms. Natalia said calmly as I took deep breaths. “And then, we rip his wings off.”
I think I have the perfect item to capture a flying creature…
“Yes! I do! I’ve got it!” I cried.
As Mephisto took to the air, he raised an arm above him. The blue sky started to shift and distort. I wasn’t sure if he was planning on summoning more serpents or another Otherworldly Gate, but either way, it wasn’t good. And I certainly didn’t have enough energy to fight against monsters again.
I dug through my bag and took out one of my alchemy items—a moss ball with a tiny sprout growing from it.
“Grow big and strong to protect the field! Anti-vermin Venus flytrap, capture that human-faced bird!” I chanted.
“Good thinking,” my master replied. “Then why don’t I show you the power of the world’s best and strongest alchemist? Cover the skies, paralyzing capture net!”
As I threw the moss ball, Ms. Natalia floated higher in the sky and caught it. She plunged her free hand into the open space, took out an iron net resembling a spiderweb, and smashed the two items together. I’d never seen alchemy without an alchemy pot before. Even among the alchemists, I guessed that only Ms. Natalia could accomplish such an awesome feat.
“Double alchemy!” she yelled. “Come forth, anti-vermin plant, Venus spidertrap!”
My moss ball and Ms. Natalia’s spiderweb trap fused with her hands, mixing together to form a new item. A rainbow glimmer shone from her hands, making way for a rather cute item—a plump spider with a sprout growing on its back. She then threw the item into the sky with all her might.
The spider spat out a black thread that covered the skies to trap Mephisto inside. In the blink of an eye, there was a spiderweb resembling an enormous, semicircular casting net that covered the desert.
Countless giant Venus flytraps grew from the threads of the spiderweb, their jaws gaping wide to capture their prey. They snapped their mouths hungrily as they moved their stems to restrain Mephisto.
The demon transformed his arm into an ugly blade and sliced the plants into pieces. “You think this kind of toy can capture me?” he asked in annoyance while dodging the Venus flytraps that attacked him from behind.
As he did so, his three large wings touched the spiderweb. Smoke rose as a burning stench filled my nostrils. A part of his wing had been burned, causing black feathers to dance through the air.
“Why don’t you hurry up and come down?” Ms. Natalia asked. “You’re basically a chunk of magical energy, aren’t you? I cast a magic sealing spell on the spiderweb, so merely touching it will be bad news for you. I originally made this for troublesome raptors, monsters that spread curses, but I guess demons are no different from them.”
“And my Venus flytraps are meant to gently capture the birds that ruin rice fields, so they aren’t fatal,” I added. “However, they’re specialized for capture, so as long as you fly around with your feathery wings, they’ll continue to see you as a bird and attack you.”
For the first time, I saw what looked like rage fill Mephisto’s face. Until now, he always had a condescending, malicious smirk on his face, and I couldn’t help but grin at his angry expression.