Chapter 83: Gatanothor, Known as the Little Witch of Envy (Patreon)

Daniel reached out into the void and grabbed hold, hauling Pandora over with his Pride.

She wasn't in great shape, though—her cheeks pale as a corpse's, her whole body limp as Daniel dangled her in midair.

Pandora tapped her own head with a small hand and stuck out her tongue, playing cute. "Hehe, darling, this was a surprise I prepared for you. Too bad it failed."

Daniel's expression flattened. "You call Satella breaking free of her seal a surprise?"

"That wasn't the plan, exactly," Pandora explained, feigning innocence.

"Didn't you say you only needed one more Witch Factor, darling? Since mine wouldn't do, that only left the Witch of Envy's."

"I figured I'd use a Magical Beast to stall for time while I tried to pry the last Envy Factor loose for you."

"But I still couldn't beat the Witch of Envy, and I think I just made her angrier. So the rest is up to you, darling."

Daniel gave Pandora a flat look. "Having you around is truly my blessing."

"Hehe, you're welcome?"

Daniel didn't bother arguing with someone who'd gone from villainess to airhead.

He tossed her into the arms of a scowling Rem, told the others he'd deal with Satella himself, and cut the light screen broadcasting his Mental Power Scan.

An instant later, he was underground beneath the Pleiades Watchtower.

The underground chamber was thick with black mist conjured by the Witch of Envy, and the pitch-black stone seal that had contained her had already been broken open.

"I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you..."

The Witch of Envy's voice, half-whisper and half-mutter, echoed through the stone chamber.

Daniel raised an eyebrow at the mist-shrouded figure struggling with something not far from the door.

A long black dress, silver-white hair—her face was obscured by the mist, but her features were still faintly recognizable.

"So there's still some consciousness left in there. Is Satella's mind holding back the Witch of Envy's personality, keeping her from rampaging outside? Too bad—the black mist has already spread out."

Daniel walked closer to the figure. Seeing she still wasn't moving—just repeating herself like a broken record—he stepped up to study her face.

"She really does look like Lia."

Daniel hadn't planned on confronting the Witch of Envy this soon—he hadn't finished having his fun yet.

But since that idiot Pandora had stirred up trouble, he had no choice but to move early.

"Might as well see if the Hand of Favor can win her over first."

After all, with a face like Emilia's, there was no way Daniel would let this one go.

He raised his hand at once, reaching for her cheek.

But the next instant, the Witch of Envy snapped her head up, and the black mist around her burst into hundreds of shadow arms lunging at Daniel.

"Don't touch me!!"

Boom!

The entire Pleiades Watchtower exploded outward with a thunderous crash, rubble and sand scattering and vanishing into the black mist.

Yellow sand across a range of over a thousand meters was swallowed up by the mist along with it.

The stone ceiling above the two of them vanished as well, exposing them both to the open air. Daniel stood there, utterly unharmed.

The Witch of Envy's body, however, shattered completely, revealing a hollow form condensed from pure shadow.

Even so, she wasn't dead—her form reassembled itself whole again within the black mist.

A thousand more shadow arms surged toward Daniel.

"Die, die, die, die—only he's allowed to touch me."

Boom, boom, boom!

The shadow arms shattered against Daniel one after another, but the Witch of Envy seemed tireless, endlessly conjuring more to hurl at him.

"Quite a temper you've got, caring so much about your own body. Witch of Envy, you're a good woman."

Daniel said this with genuine admiration, walking toward her even as she glared at him with unhinged eyes.

Sensing how dangerous Daniel was, the Witch of Envy vanished into the black mist without hesitation, the swirling darkness churning around her.

A million shadow arms crashed toward Daniel from every direction.

"Playing hide-and-seek? I'm pretty good at that. Better be careful I don't catch you, or you'll suffer for it."

Daniel chuckled softly, and a vast surge of Cursed Energy erupted from his body, shredding every incoming arm to pieces.

His Mental Power Scan was distorted somewhat by the black mist's interference, but it was still enough to locate the Witch of Envy hiding within it.

He could've drawn this out and played with her a while longer, but given how fast the black mist was spreading and how it devoured everything it touched—

—it wouldn't be long before his Lugunica got swallowed whole by the Witch of Envy.

An ability like this could pass for a Lesser Gatanothor straight out of Ultraman—the Witch of Envy truly earned her title as a final boss.

"So, for the sake of my women, I suppose I'll have to rein you in a little."

Daniel raised two fingers like a blade and spoke softly. "Domain Expansion: Great Sovereign Nephalem!"

A half-domed circular domain spread out from him in an instant, catching up with the spreading black mist and swallowing the entire Augria Sand Dunes—waterfall included—inside its boundary.

A halo appeared above Daniel's head once more, black wings condensing behind him, as he sat cross-legged upon the void, watching the Witch of Envy get steadily eroded by his own black mist.

Unlike the White Whale, though, this power couldn't actually harm her—only the sheer impact of the black mist was enough to shatter her body.

She healed just as quickly as the mist filled the damage, and the more of the condensed darkness sank into her, the more a towering black shadow-figure rose up around her, wrapping her inside.

Soon, every wisp of mist had sunk into her body.

A pitch-black humanoid figure hundreds of meters tall rose up within the domain, raising a hand the size of a small mountain and swinging it at Daniel in the air.

Whoosh!

The sheer wind pressure it kicked up was enough to shatter several meteors floating nearby in the domain, but Daniel merely watched the hand descend with idle interest.

Before the massive hand could even reach him, a shockwave several times stronger than the attack itself surged back through the black figure.

Crack!

The black figure exploded completely, exposing the Witch of Envy within. The shadow tried to reform, but Daniel merely waved a hand, and it froze in place, pinned.

The Witch of Envy tried her old trick again—turning her body into mist to disperse—but found she couldn't manage it no matter how hard she tried.

By then Daniel was already right in front of her, raising his hand toward her cheek.

Shock and fury warred in the Witch of Envy, an ominous feeling rising up as she pushed the power of her Witch Factor to its absolute limit.

The terrifying black mist was on the verge of breaking through the vector barrier, ready to spread out from her chest and restart the world.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Trying to reset things? I worked hard to get this ending. I don't approve."

[-1,000,000 Domination Points]

[Time Stop LV2 → LV3, one minute duration, ten-minute cooldown]

Snap!

The finger-snap fell, and the entire domain froze instantly—everything except Daniel came to a complete standstill.

"Now you can't run, Witch of Envy."

Daniel tipped up her chin, ignoring the fury frozen on her face from before the time stop, and activated the Hand of Favor.

A full minute passed. Only in the very last second did Daniel draw on the Heavenly Sword, severing the link between the Envy Factor and Satella, and absorbing the Witch Factor into his Reflection.

The time stop lifted.

The black mist around the Witch of Envy dissolved in an instant, and the madness in her violet eyes vanished with it, replaced by shame and pleasure.

"Eeeah!!" Satella's entire body convulsed, a helpless moan escaping her.

A steady rain began to fall across the domain, as if it meant to keep falling for three days and three nights straight.

With the Envy Factor gone, Satella's own personality instantly suppressed the Witch of Envy's, and consciousness returned to her.

But she also took the brunt of a terrifying blast of water magic in the other's place, and instantly fell for the man who'd brought her such pleasure.

"Ngh... I'm sorry, Subaru. I can't go back anymore."