Chapter 77 The Labyrinthine Forest: Their magic intertwined and entwined. ...

"Hey, have you heard? All those monsters from the Edoro Labyrinth have come out and even dared to enter the royal city!"

Bill, the royal guard, thought he had seen it all. As a guard, he saw all sorts of people every day, trying to break into the royal city with all sorts of outrageous excuses.

But today is the first time.

“Monster, Bill. Monster. Are you deaf?” the carpenter yelled at him. “Damn it! That chimera is catching up!”

Another gasp rang out, followed by the howls of wild beasts. A large group of ragged villagers stood huddled at the doorway, trembling and filled with fear. An infant cried loudly, and no amount of comforting from the women could console it.

“Let us in, sir,” the carpenter’s husband pleaded. “Those are monsters of the labyrinth! They just emerged out of a tavern in the lower town without warning and tore everything apart!”

Bill was still hesitating, but then, a burst of green light erupted from the crowd in the darkness.

People dispersed to make way for the green light. Two familiar figures emerged from the light.

He was a tall, dark-haired boy with a face full of wounds and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He took off his blue hood, revealing a pair of strange cat ears.

Gasps of surprise erupted from the crowd.

"Prince Lucas? The prince has turned into a beastman?"

"Is this also one of the illusion tricks of the Edoro Labyrinth?"

"Oh, I also heard that he passed away from illness!"

The green light emanated from the green fluorite staff in her hand. In truth, she wasn't in much better shape; she looked much more exhausted than when Bill first met her, and seemed to need the staff to walk.

"Evil witch! Kill her!" someone shouted immediately.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a clump of thorny nettles sprouted up at his feet.

The person was choked by the pollen and retreated repeatedly, shutting their mouth in fear.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry! But I personally don't really like fire." Ashlin showed no remorse.

“As for me, I really like black cats.” Lucas touched his ear and raised his eyebrows. “If anyone ever mentions the word ‘witch’ again, that person will lose their tongue.”

People fell silent.

“You all heard it, the prince likes it very much,” Ashlin pressed, raising her staff. “Does anyone else have a problem with that?”

The crowd stirred, but no one dared to voice their opinion.

“Very well. Bill, let them in,” said Prince Lucas. “Otherwise, the monster will kill them.”

“The King,” Lucas interrupted him, his voice hoarse, “is dead.”

The crowd erupted in cheers, and several patriots immediately burst into tears.

“The monster is coming,” Lucas continued. “Bill, let the refugees into the city. Immediately send out all the witchers and troops, and have them ready to defend the country.”

Bill nodded and opened the city gate.

Ashley and Lucas then mounted their horses and arrived at yesterday's tavern.

It still looks the same. The vines and branches that Ashlin planted in the corners and on the table are still stubbornly surviving.

Ashlyn could sense the anchor point. Yes, she hadn't had this ability before, but now she did. The Edoro Labyrinth lay beneath her feet.

She didn't need a map; the maze's layout, like the vines she had planted herself, became clear in her mind.

Elaine is down there.

A minotaur crawled out of a hole in the broken table, but she forcibly pushed it back in.

Ashlin took a deep breath, picked up a glass of wine from the bar, took a few sips, and raised her staff.

Green magic was torn out from her internal organs.

The floor reluctantly creaked, then, like a hiccup, spat out a tile before slowly cracking open a crack.

The underground is not soil, but another unfathomable space.

“Good heavens,” she exclaimed in surprise, “I didn’t use any spells. Does this mean spells can be abolished in the future? I feel like I haven’t done much with spells along the way.”

“That’s only true for you. You are a descendant of the forest gods!” Lucas retorted.

Ashlin was about to continue casting her spell when suddenly a shadowy monster pounced on her, knocking over her staff, grabbing her shoulder, and hissing at her.

Before she could think of anything, a flash of silver light, the sound of a sword cutting through the air, and her shadow slumped limply to the ground.

Lucas looked at her anxiously. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, thank you. That was a quick response," Ashlin said, rubbing her shoulder.

Lucas knelt down, reaching his hand into the darkness. In the blur of the shadows, Elaine's hand gripped his wrist tightly.

“I have to admit, it looks really weird,” Lucas said. “Eight people in four different places, one above ground and one below, shaking hands in pairs… I would have laughed in another situation.”

"Oh, don't hold it in." Ashlin smiled slightly. "Laugh if you want to. This method wasn't invented by us. It's all the fault of the person who designed the maze."

“I can’t laugh.” Lucas pointed to the wound on the corner of his mouth with his other finger. “My face hurts.”

Ashlin rolled her eyes at him, then planted her staff on the ground.

Life underground and life on the ground can stop the darkness.

But we need someone who can make magic penetrate the earth's surface, so that points can be connected into lines, and lines can become surfaces...

Magic originates from within. Ashlyn recalled how she had healed Lucas. If she hadn't had such a strong desire to cure him, she wouldn't have turned him back into a cat after bringing him back to life.

Those destroyed labyrinth anchors, those terrifying monsters bred in the darkness, were just a few other things that needed to be healed by her.

Magic surged within her, initially very fast, but gradually calming down, like spring water overflowing parched land.

“It’s alright,” she whispered, whether to the labyrinth, the monsters, or all the wounded creatures of this land, “let me heal you.”

Her magic flowed from her fingertips, and a shimmering green thread wrapped around Lucas and Elaine's clasped hands. Then, three more threads flew east, south, and north, respectively; she knew they would obey her will and embrace her friends.

Ashlin laughed.

Winter is almost over, and perhaps she can bring the first breath of spring to Dias.

A map appeared in her mind. She could see that she was currently at the western anchor point, and that the magical threads were radiating out from her as the apex and connecting in three other directions; but what she really had to do was to connect all the points.

So she once again mobilized her magic, connecting the north with the east, the east with the south, and the south with the north. Then she used the same magic to create the same shape underground through the surface of the earth.

She tugged at the green threads, and the magic threads vibrated like harp strings, producing a melodious sound.

However, just as she thought the maze would close at the anchor point, a force that wasn't hers suddenly pierced her palm. It was some kind of pink magic, surging straight towards her from the center of the four directions.

Ashley immediately understood what had happened.

The intersection of the east-west and north-south diagonals is the crystal that seals Cynthia. Her magic must have alerted her through the threads.

"Ah, naive little witch, thinking that closing the labyrinth will stop us," said the dark witch in a sweet voice. "But darkness will always exist. Locking the monster in the labyrinth again is nothing but self-deception."

"You realize that now?" Ashlin retorted. "Your own magic is just self-deception, so what right do you have to tell me?"

However, Cynthia has a point. After all that effort, is locking things up the only option left?

A thought struck her like lightning.

The maze's anchor points closed tightly like scallop shells, but Ashlin had no intention of stopping there.

She was dizzy, but she was determined to finish this task. From now on, there would be no more Deville who loved dark magic, no more dark witches, no more illusions, and no more monsters that killed indiscriminately.

She can definitely do it; she is Ashlyn Bailey.

A major earthquake occurred.

Unseen underground, the labyrinth was no longer a labyrinth. Plants never seen on the surface grew wildly underground, knocking down the uninteresting stone walls.

“I don’t care,” Ashlin said, feeling the magic flowing out continuously. “It’s what I should do.”

However, Lucas was right; her magic was about to fade away. She wasn't sure how much longer she could hold on, but there was no one who could help her. She was the only known surviving member of the forest spirit; no other spirit possessed the power to penetrate the earth.

“Please stop,” Lucas pleaded. “You’re terribly pale. I…I just lost…I can’t…” Perhaps realizing Ashlin wouldn’t listen, he stopped talking.

What can't he do?

To Ashlin's surprise, he then placed his hand on her staff as well.

In an instant, Ashlin realized what was happening.

The black cat magic she once bestowed upon Lucas, which is also part of her forest magic, is now returning to aid her through her staff.

He can help her.

Or rather, she can help herself.

Their magic intertwined, green and blue tightly bound together, gradually merging into each other, transforming into a malachite-like color, clearer and brighter than any gemstone.

They burst forth from the green fluorite at the tip of the staff, piercing the tavern's ceiling and bursting into blue-green magical fireworks in the sky.

The fireworks then dissipated, transforming into countless forest seeds that scattered across the earth, burying themselves in the soil of the Edoro labyrinth.

Deep within the maze, plants grow wildly tall, filling the once dark labyrinth with greenery.

At the base of the stone wall, thick wild kudzu and ivy climbed upwards along the cracks in the stone like giant pythons. They entwined and tightened, tearing the wall apart piece by piece.

The enormous leaves unfurled, wider than the shield of the strongest minotaur, layering over the ground to form an undulating green wave.

Aidan and Cassandra retreated, expecting to face even more monsters. But the creatures surrounded by green seemed to have lost their way and appeared bewildered.

Moths were lost in the swirling dandelion fluff, bats bumped around in the dense foliage, and even the strongest minotaur stood there dumbly, munching on the alfalfa that suddenly sprouted at his feet, as docile as domesticated livestock.

Inside the cave of Dragon's Breath Mountain, the little red-scaled dragon was about to breathe fire at the monster behind it, which had three different heads, when the monster was engulfed by green.

"Meow."

Aisusa paused. Had she heard correctly?

When the chimera reappeared, it was no longer a hybrid of a lion, a goat, and a python.

In reality, it turned into a completely harmless goat.

And it is not the only monster to undergo such a change.

Billy Mara, unarmed, was about to fight his zombie buddy to the death. The instant he threw his punch, the zombie inexplicably vanished into thin air.

All the monsters either turned into harmless little animals or disappeared.

As dawn broke, the sun rose higher, its rays burning the underside of the clouds, pulling them into a golden-red hue.

Layers of rose gold shone through the window frames of yesterday's tavern, igniting all the wooden materials and the greenery on the soil. The edges of the leaves shimmered with gold, and the flowers at their tips swayed like golden flames, their original colors no longer discernible.

Ashlin was very tired. She really needed a good night's sleep.

"It's solved!" she said happily.

Lucas smiled, ignoring the pain, and went forward to hug her.

The earth returned to calm, but countless flowers sprouted from beneath their feet, seemingly trying to turn the tavern into a garden.

When he let go of her, Ashlin suddenly felt a little uncomfortable again.

“Listen to me, Lucas,” she paused for a moment, “that kiss…”

“Oh! Right.” Lucas took two steps back, his cat ears folding back as well. “Another kiss of friendship, isn’t it? I know you Riverbank people always give each other a kiss of friendship on the lips.”

Ashlin smiled and punched him.

"Don't be silly, you cat."

"I'm kidding."

“Tell me something,” Ashlin fought off sleep, “Why won’t you tell me the truth about lung disease?”

He looked at her carefully, the light of dawn melting into her blue eyes.

"Hmm, are you angry?"

Lucas's ears drooped, and Ashley could almost hear the sound of his heart breaking.

Lucas breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Please, stop talking so dramatically!"

Ashlin looked at him for a moment, then stopped smiling.

“Sanova,” she said, “I…we still have to save him. God, he might already be dead or insane while we’re talking.”

Lucas, however, did not move.

His eyes reddened again when he mentioned them.

Ashlin lowered her gaze. "I know."

“Too many things… I need to take care of them,” Lucas said. “And… thank you, Ashley. I know it sounds meager, but…”

He looked out the window.

Ashlin recalled the feeling of first stepping into the royal city and receiving that small amount of copper from the king. She could still get money from the royal family, but what about the rest of the people?

“These are not what I want,” she said. “I don’t care about giving the wealth you want to give me to the wounded, to the children of Foxtail Bend.”

Lucas nodded.

"I promise you."

“So, is this a separation?” Ashlin’s nose stung with tears. “I know witches and princes shouldn’t be on the same path. But… I mean, now you can become a cat, a cat-person, or a human whenever you want. You’re not entirely…”

She gestured wildly and pointed randomly. Perhaps she should cry or something.

Lucas placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Yes, thank you, Miss Witch.” He repeated, “But I…I don’t know. I can’t escape those things.”

Ashlin nodded, her eyelids drooping, her thoughts hazy.

"I understand. No, I need to sleep. I remember... saving Sanova... and school, I haven't submitted a paper yet."

She rubbed Lucas's ear one last time, then fainted and fell into his arms.

Author's Note: Three more chapters to go!