Chapter 323 Cursed Enchantress
This one was warded differently than mine, more chaotic and forceful, but there was no mistaking who it was. The energy pulsed around me before shoving me back a good few yards, knocking the wind out of me as I hit a tree and slid to the ground in pain.
"Fuck," I swore as I sat up and looked at my now bloody arm that had taken the brunt of the force from hitting the tree. It wouldn\'t kill me anytime soon, but I healed myself right away. I did not see that coming, but now I could see the electricity crackling in the ward barrier. I stood back up slowly before stepping forward again, but this time I summoned Pure Magic to the tip of my finger. "What the hell made this thing?"
"Cat God! What are you doing here?!" A beautiful woman in a black dress demanded as she walked out from behind a rock. I stared for a minute, racking my mind, and then I placed her face.
"Cynthia? Did I not clear your castle out for you? What are you doing here?" I asked, but the woman shrugged as she walked over and reached a hand through the ward to me. I took it and stepped, though.
Cynthia was a Witch, but she was called the Cursed Enchantress in the world that Cleena came from. That meant that I knew who the Jorōgumo was as well. I had already moved her to an area that was known for cut-throats, and highwaymen were popular, but now Matilda was stuck in this world. I wasn\'t sure what the point of bringing all these girls here was, but I was going to be having words with Xena when I caught her.
"I am sure you can understand that since I was brought here as well, albeit forcefully. I just want to find a way home," Cynthia said, and I shrugged before letting her hand go. The Witch was extremely beautiful, and that was how she lured her victims before capturing them in her illusions.
"And what are you going to do when you get home? Just go back to enslaving people for their souls?" I asked, and Cynthia pouted as she turned away from me.
"Is that not what you do? God or not, you are still a monster," Cynthia said coldly over her shoulder, but I scowled at her.
"My job is to make sure that creatures like this don\'t succeed in their plans of disaster and chaos! Something has been screwy lately, which means there is something bigger going on than just you experimenting with crossing realms!" I growled out before turning my attention back to the woods, looking for any clues. "Where did Matilda take the girls?"
It was strange enough finding two monsters in one place together already, but it looked like they were working together despite being mortal enemies in Cleena\'s world. Witches were natural enemies of Banshees and Jorōgumo. Even if they weren\'t trying to kill each other all the time, it was because of how they lure their prey versus Banshees and Jorōgumos, who just steal them outright most times given a chance.
This situation was getting stranger by the minute, it seemed, but something told me that the worst was yet to come. I now had to get the girls back, but I also needed to keep these girls fed until I could get them back home. That was a taller order than the first since, so far, I had found no places where I could set them up in, but I was combing my brian.
"Look, if you girls want to stay alive in this world, you are going to have to listen to me, and you girls are going to have to stick together," I said, and Cynthia gave me a look of displeasure.
"You can\'t be serious! We don\'t just cuddle up and drink tea together or whatever, Cat God. I know that you are still mad at me for what happened with Aiden, but that needs to go," the Witch said as she gave me a glare before starting off. I sighed as I followed after her, trying to figure a way to make this work even if it killed me, but in all honesty, they probably were going to turn on each other eventually anyway.
"Don\'t underestimate yourself, Cynthia," I sighed as we reached a cave that had spider webs around the entrance as well as some of Matilda\'s illusionary traps. "You two were brought here for a reason, and I still don\'t know what that is yet. If it was just you girls alone, then that would not be an issue for me to deal with, but Xena brought more potential trouble by summoning Cleena as well."
"Cleena?" Cynthia asked after stopping dead in her tracks and turning around to look at me sharply before biting her lip. "You mean the Banshee Queen?"
"Yes, meaning that I am going to have to find a place to put you all, but it is going to be harder to find your food. I am not big on creating Negative energy, but there are ways that we can work around this. For now, I need the two girls that were taken and to know if there were any others brought with you," I explained, and Cynthia gestured to the cave.
"Matilda and the girls are in there. I am sure she hasn\'t taken too much blood, but I told her just to take beasts for now, but you know how well that diva listens," Cynthia sighed, and I nodded my head.
"Come, let\'s go see her, and I will explain what is going to happen going forward until I can return you all home," I explained, but Cynthia shrugged.
"If you are here, this place might not be so bad. You are one of the only men that I can control myself around, and we did have fond memories of you cleaning my deep caves and then plunging them full of your excitement! This world also is very rich in magic, quite tasty to me to the point where I don\'t even know if I would need much to survive here. Matilda is just greedy," Cynthia explained as she leaned into me as I walked.
"How did you even know it was me? I thought this disguise would have fooled anyone, but you all seem to know me at first sight," I said as I created an orb of light that lit the cave up to make it easier to see.
"If you were anything less than a divine being, that would have killed you and left your body a charred husk. You just got up like you had walked into a glass door, and then I felt the way that you were about to use this Pure Magic in the air to destroy my ward. No one can do that except for you, and I have been alive for thousands of years, even before I met you. No one has ever left such a mark on me," Cynthia explained, and I sighed.
As much of a pain as she was to deal with at times, what she said did have some truth to it. When I had been in her world with the others, I spent time with them as I tried to find places for them to live without being too much trouble.