Ch.951And You Still Say You’re Not a Witch?

======[ A Few Minutes Ago. In Front of Ophelia’s Laboratory. ]======

When they encountered the red-haired archmage waiting for them in front of the laboratory, the three remaining Yangsan Guardians were confident in their victory.

This wasn’t born from emotions like arrogance, but rather a judgment and conviction based on cold reason.

A mage who ventured forth alone without even a frontline fighter couldn’t possibly face fairy guardians. That’s what common sense etched in their minds told them.

Until the moment Ophelia scattered the green gems she had been clutching in both hands.

—-

“The essence of soul magic is the utilization of souls as a resource.”

Ophelia began speaking as she shattered all the gems she was holding, releasing their contents.

“It’s a magical technique that forcibly captures souls that should rightfully rest in the embrace of gods, either commanding them or converting them into mana.”

– Keeeeaaaaaak!

Could the chorus of hell sound like this?

Hundreds of wailing cries overlapping into a thunderous roar.

Gray spiritual masses with expressions of agony carved into them swam like fish in a whirlpool, covering the entire space.

“The greatest soul magician in history, Feirus Haransior, raised an army of tens of thousands of the dead to sweep through the holy state. That’s why the church designated it as forbidden magic.”

No answer came, but Ophelia steadfastly continued her story. It was her own form of mockery.

“The power to form a legion single-handedly, and moreover, the result of tampering with what belongs to the gods. What could be more blasphemous than that?”

This was mockery directed at the moths who had unknowingly entered her laboratory, and who had provided her the opportunity to fully confirm the results of the techniques she had been researching.

“But I’m different.”

Ophelia smiled ominously.

“I didn’t focus on something like converting souls to mana, a technique that seems to invite divine punishment just by touching it. Instead, I focused on the opposite possibility.”

Wrapped in countless ghost-like entities like a dress, like wings, like mist.

She had the appearance of a goddess of death walking through hell.

“If souls can be converted into mana, couldn’t mana be altered to create souls?”

The soulification of mana.

This was Ophelia van Sigmillus’s unique soul technique, created by reversing the conventional concept of soul magic.

It was the fruit of Ophelia’s long research after realizing she could distort the form of souls using mana while torturing Isabella.

“Like this.”

– Keeeeaaaaaak!

The result was the artificial souls—mana spirits—circling around her.

After deciphering the structure of souls through knowledge of soul magic and her magic eye, she fixed her own mana into the same structure.

By implanting her own emotions and will into these soulless masses created this way, Ophelia was finally able to create artificial souls with self-awareness.

“Perhaps because they’re forcibly created souls, the strength of the soul itself is weak, so I couldn’t implant advanced intelligence…”

Of course, the mana spirits created this way were still flawed products with numerous areas for improvement.

Even with self-awareness, their thinking capacity was at best animal-level. No, in reality, it was closer to insect-level, barely deserving to be called thinking capacity.

This was an unavoidable problem even for Ophelia.

When she tried to grant intelligence beyond that of insects, the mana spirits couldn’t withstand the burden and ruptured, reverting back to mana.

“Well, that’s the same for your spirits too, isn’t it?”

However, Ophelia didn’t consider this a serious flaw.

Even with intelligence inferior to low-level spirits, they could still understand simple commands, which was more than enough to use them in battle.

“…Combat ready.”

Perhaps recalling Perneisia’s bizarre attack method they had witnessed earlier at the mention of spirits?

The Yangsan Guardians summoned high-level earth and ice spirits to use as shields, and behind them, they summoned low-level spirits onto their bowstrings.

It was a textbook response to defend against an archmage’s magic and mana spirit arrows, and to counterattack with spirit arrows.

“Hmm? What, did you think I was going to shoot these like arrows like you do?”

But instead of transforming the mana spirits into arrows as they expected, Ophelia calmly smiled while playing with one mana spirit on her right hand.

“Well, Perneisia and Hush do use these by converting them back to mana for pseudo-spirit arrows. But honestly, that’s an inefficient method.”

Mana spirit arrows involve converting mana that has been recreated in soul form back into mana masses.

If that approach were to be taken, it would be twice as efficient to just use the mana itself for magic without creating mana spirits in the first place.

During the meaningless double conversion process, a significant amount of mana would leak into the air and simply evaporate.

“Since I’m not a fairy, I have no reason to stick to such a method, right?”

Unlike Perneisia or Hush who couldn’t create mana spirits in the first place, Ophelia had no reason to choose such an inefficient method.

She had a more efficient and more powerful way to utilize mana spirits.

“…Leaving aside such a good method.”

To demonstrate this, Ophelia lightly flicked her fingers to scatter the mana spirits in all directions, summoning what she had prepared to utilize the mana spirits.

The next moment.

Rustle.

Rustle rustle.

Crunch. Crunch crunch.

Small, very small footsteps echoed. Along with the sound of wing beats so faint they could barely be heard without straining one’s ears.

Buzz.

Buzz buzz.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz-!

Between the footsteps and vibrations, screeching and chirping sounds were added.

The noise grew louder as if multiplying, as if getting closer and larger.

It was a sound somewhat familiar to fairies living in the forest, but also one they had never heard before in their lives.

The guardians who were about to shoot spirit arrows turned their heads to look at the source of the noise, experiencing both déjà vu and unfamiliarity.

Even saying “source,” the entire cavity was filled with such noise, so they ended up looking all around.

“…This is.”

And they saw them.

Pale creatures with multiple legs crawling out from between the tiles of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

“Insects…?”

Insects. Their common sense couldn’t find a more accurate expression.

Multiple legs. Bodies covered with something like carapaces. Bizarre compound eyes and thin wings.

Though their shapes varied, most of them possessed the characteristics of insects.

While they only somewhat resembled insects in appearance, they looked quite different from actual insects due to being modified for combat.

Even in size, the smallest ones were as big as a human head, and every one of them was equipped with spines, tentacles, and blades like the forelegs of a mantis.

Dozens… no, hundreds of such insects.

No, nearly a thousand.

In the blink of an eye, nearly a thousand giant insects filled the entire cavity, emitting roaring cries.

They contained the mana spirits that had disappeared without a trace.

“What do you think? Aren’t they magnificent?”

Ophelia, standing in the midst of thousands of insects, smiled with satisfaction.

“Mana spirits created by imbuing mana with will, and homunculus chimeras modified for combat. Then, using eastern possession techniques to combine the two, as you can see—”

She spread her arms wide and explained the identity of the insect swarm.

“The birth of a legion with human-level thinking ability that absolutely obeys my commands.”

An army of insect-form homunculi that compensated for the weakness of homunculi’s combat ability with the power and intelligence of mana spirits.

The homunculus creation method written in the soul magic grimoire. The insect monster control technique extracted from Isabella. Even the possession technique taken from Meiharin.

It was the result of all that knowledge combined, and the most efficient use of mana spirits that Ophelia had devised.

“…Are they dangerous?”

“They’re numerous but still just insects. Switch to fire spirits and incinerate them.”

“I’ll handle defense.”

Facing the roaring, writhing swarm of insects, the Yangsan Guardians looked at each other and exchanged brief conversations in emotionless tones.

One guardian would focus on defense, while another would burn the insect swarm with high-level fire spirits—that was their plan.

Just as the guardians were about to execute this plan—

“As if I’d let you do that.”

Ophelia smirked and drew massive mana from her dragon core as she chanted.

『 As embraced by shadow, dreaming of languid nightmares. 』

“As Amplexa Umbra Somniat Tepidus Formidulosus.”

Blue mana light erupted, covering the entire cavity like a tidal wave—

『 Sink toward death. 』

“Somnium, Descenda in Mortem.”

It plunged the three guardians into a rest mixed with nightmares.

【 Black Repose 】

The power of the evil god Lilith once wielded by the witch Isabella. It was now manifested in the form of magic.

A magic that mimicked Isabella’s soul with mana, analyzing and reproducing the manifestation method of the power engraved in that soul.

That was Ophelia’s unique technique obtained after transcending barriers with soul magic—the imitation of divine powers through mana.