The Witch (End)
El had once revealed her witch form, which was a bright blue ball of light. When Mi saw the pink and blue lights intertwined again, her first thought was that two bodies were entangled.
“You can interpret it that way, we’re companions, sharing our feelings. What you’re seeing, from a human perspective, is experiencing ultimate pleasure. Although we no longer have human bodies, we retain human feelings, and this superposition makes me very happy. Especially when I can’t answer your questions, this pleasure brings me great comfort. But Joe still retains her human thoughts, and your thoughts are somewhat similar to hers.” El paused for a moment before continuing, “The witch originally only observed and recorded, like a pen, writing down all actions, but the witch couldn’t understand these actions. Perhaps that’s why the witch decided to live in the human brain; those emotions, those feelings, those things that make people laugh and cry are what fundamentally distinguish humans from animals.”
“Animals have emotions too.” Mi shook his head in disagreement.
“Yes, child, humans were animals before they became humans,” Al said with a smile. “But now no animal has the complex and ever-changing emotions of a human.”
"Haven't you thought about going to Earth to take a look?" Mi asked doubtfully. "According to you, if I can go home, you can also reach Earth."
“That was a place of heartbreak for Joe, and she didn’t want to go back.” A hint of sadness flashed in El’s eyes. “I think that’s also a place of heartbreak for you. Why do you want to go back so much?”
“I don’t think I can abandon my origins. You say that humans need to migrate outwards, but we have an old saying: fallen leaves return to their roots.”
“Joe didn’t abandon her background,” Al couldn’t help but defend Joe.
“I know, I can tell from her expression. It’s just that some people are willing to go back and face it while others are not. That’s normal. When there’s only one choice, it can only be when you’re forced to.”
“I think I know why you’re so perceptive now. You’re brave and forgiving.” El looked at Mi. “You’ll be a very charming witch. I can’t wait to see what kind of bloodshed you’ll cause outside.”
"Didn't you say that a witch's characteristic is to have all-knowing perceptions, and that a witch has no way to control people's behavior?"
“You know the saying, ‘I didn’t kill Bo Ren, but Bo Ren died because of me,’ right?” El said. “Witches don’t intervene, but because of their existence, they infiltrate and even guide the direction of humanity to some extent. That’s why many witches have lost their lives on Earth. Earth is a very unfriendly place to witches in the tradition of witches.”
“Well, it’s alright where I am. Witches and priests are similar, and they have quite a high status. It’s just that in the west, in the western part of Blue Star, there was an incident of burning witches. In other places, it’s okay. In many places, people have a lot of awe for witches.” Mi looked up. “But are these witches really witches?”
“You still clearly consider yourself human,” El smiled. “Every witch who returns remembers the scene of her death and how she felt, because the essence of witches is feeling. Many of the witches who returned from Earth suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and many chose to return directly to their resting place and no longer be witches.”
"Restaurant?"
“Yes, it’s right above the Witch Forest, the witches’ resting place. If one day you get tired of wandering and don’t want to stay in the Witch Forest anymore, you can only go to the resting place to gain eternal life.” El looked up. “That’s where every witch’s home is, the witch’s sea of consciousness. Maybe you can see what you’re looking for there.”
“Oh no, let’s forget about that. Thinking about this when I see no hope at all will only drive both humans and witches crazy.” Mi shrugged and changed the subject. “Since witches can coexist with humans, why can’t we see a single human here? I mean, any living creature.”
It's so quiet here, a completely isolated place, so different from the forest on the other side of the river, where there are so many people. If it weren't for this enclosure, Mi thinks there would be a lot of noise coming through.
“This place is a protection for witches,” El said, looking around with appreciation. “Everything in the Witch Forest is extremely precious to witches. Only witches live here, and only witches are protected here.”
"Does a witch need protection?" Mi really didn't understand what kind of protection was provided here; it was more like a cage.
“I have a terrible idea,” El said quietly. “Perhaps life itself is full of plunder and slaughter. Without this forest, perhaps the witch would regress to the state of a pen, held in the hands of some unknown being, writing record after record. Perhaps those witches who did not return have already been eaten. Conscious life is also life, and devouring and expansion are the instincts of all life. At least here is peace. This place is like the witch’s home. Perhaps the Witch Forest is a cage for you now, but when you become a witch, you will find that there is a place in this world that will always belong to the witch, a place where you can sleep peacefully. How rare that is.”
"Like a mother?"
"Your mother will grow old, and your lover won't always be waiting for you in the same place."
"Does the witch not have a mother?" Mi knew that El was referring to the human world.
“No, at least the witch wasn’t born of anyone.” El smiled. “If you mean this kind of mother, then many things in the world don’t have mothers. I’ve always wanted to find long-lived species because I want to understand where witches come from.”
"Why?"
“After all, I was once a human. A person has a clear and definite understanding of where they come from; that is a person’s starting point.” El’s voice was faint. “But what about witches? My guide told me that witches come from the Chaos Sea, but no witch knows where the Chaos Sea is.”
“Is it possible that the Chaos Sea no longer exists?” Mi tried to comfort her. “After all, nothing lasts forever.”
“Then what about the long-lived species?” El stared intently at the ground. “Ever since I learned about the long-lived species, I’ve been searching for them. I want to know where the witches come from.” El couldn’t express the panic in her heart of never being able to find her way back or her way forward. The witch forest could give her a place to rest, but it couldn’t make her stay.
“The Witch Forest is a fortress, and the Witch Forest is also a cage.” El laughed somewhat sadly. “The first thing every witch does upon returning to the Witch Forest is to hibernate, hiding in the hibernation flowers and sleeping for a long time to relieve the fatigue, weariness, and injuries accumulated from the journey. But if you stay in the Witch Forest for too long, you will have nothing to do and can’t help but want to go out, just like an endless cycle.”
"Have you been to many parts of the world?"
“Yes, the outside world is much bigger than you can imagine,” El recalled with a touch of nostalgia. “I once went to a world where two kinds of people lived: bird people and fish people. Bird people had wings, and fish people had tails. That world was full of water, except for some islands and cliffs. Bird people and fish people ate fish from the sea.”
"Is that a person too?"
“If we classify them by their mode of production, bird people are born from eggs, and fish people are born from eggs. They are the same kind of people, and they are very friendly to each other. Bird people will carry fish people through the air, and fish people will float on the sea during storms to provide shelter for bird people who cannot find a place to land.” El’s eyes were full of nostalgia.
"When you go out into the world, will you still coexist with people, I mean other species?"
"Of course not. I am now an independent and mature witch, and I can live on my own."
"When you become an independent sorcerer, won't you just be able to observe and record everything you see, just like before?"
“How could that be?” A blue light rose from El’s finger. “I said that witches are beings of consciousness. As long as I connect with the other’s consciousness, I can understand everything about them. In fact, I was a human being a long, long time ago. I have long forgotten everything about being human. All my current emotions are accumulated in different worlds, from one person to another. Sometimes they are the same, sometimes they are different. Too many different people live in my mind, and my consciousness becomes confused.”
“Won’t you get tired of it?” Mi imagined it for a moment, “It’s like an endless wandering, always experiencing other people’s lives.”
"Therefore, the witch needs to return to the witch's forest to hibernate."
"Is eternal life really a good thing?" Mi looked at El. "Is it true that even if delicious food is placed in front of you, only others can enjoy it?"
“I don’t know, maybe that’s why so many witches went to the resting place.” El stared at the forest above. “There’s a saying among humans—what you can’t have always stirs your heart. If, if one day you find that this place is real, maybe that’s the method humans came up with for immortality.”
“Have you noticed that you’re confused now?” Mi noticed that since El accepted her reasoning, her thoughts had become increasingly exaggerated, and sometimes El would even try to understand everything by following Mi’s train of thought.
“Yes, I’ve figured it out,” El said with a smile. “Even though I’m your guide, you’ve actually been leading me down your own path. I’ve seen your witch’s headband and know all your thoughts. At first, I just thought you were a clueless kid.”
Mi also smiled and said, "Actually, I'm not young anymore."
“I know, I know,” El said gently. “Humans have progressed to a point where I can hardly recognize them. When I first came to the Witch Forest, I felt more joy than fear, the joy of being alive again.”
"Where's Joe?" Mi thought of the beautiful and gentle Joe, and she could never imagine how a man could be so much like a woman.
“Joe is very attached to me. In some ways, he sees me as his mother, like a fledgling bird that doesn’t want to leave.”
"you?"
"Oh, please don't mind it, we're just exchanging feelings."
"Don't you think there's something to avoid about it being between mother and child?"
“Hahaha, you two really are from the same place. Joe said the same thing.” Al laughed. “But pleasure is not a human emotion, it is divine. I’ve said it before, the female goddess created pleasure, unparalleled pleasure, which animals have no inhibitions about.”
"Does the shaman also possess divinity?"
“The reason why gods are gods—I’m not talking about the gods of mythology, but these ancestors of all races who have passed down their characteristics for thousands of generations—is that they truly have achievements that no one else can surpass.” El thought for a moment and then said, “As descendants of gods, humans inherently possess divinity. Humans are born with the desire to reproduce and also enjoy pleasure. Even the witches who once lived in the human brain would want a mother and crave the feeling of pleasure.” El said gently, “The female god is the greatest god. She created the method of childbirth and invented pleasure. To this day, no god has been able to surpass her.”
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