Chapter 444: Seed Germination

A week later, deep in the night, in the basement of the church.

The Home Witch was humming a tune, her waist swaying as she forcefully gripped a large ladle, stirring the potion brewing in the cauldron.

"Tsk, it's been a week, why is there no movement yet? Pfft, pfft, pfft, no movement is better; after all, if there really is movement, it's usually the start of a tragedy."

Dorothy shook her head, correcting her train of thought that had nearly slipped.

Over the past week, she had completed the "proselytizing" work in the peripheral districts around the City of Sin. Hundreds of the little hammer pendants had been sent out; the seeds of power had been sown, and now all that remained was to quietly wait for them to take root and sprout.

She had set activation conditions within those little hammer pendants. Once the wearer was perceived to possess a strong desire to resist and a craving for power in order to protect something, the incantation within the pendant would be triggered, injecting the "Hero's Blood" potion into the wearer's body and causing them to awaken.

Considering that the "Hero's Blood" potion was something Dorothy had nicknamed "Degraded Witch's Blood," one could see how powerful this potion was.

As the name suggested, once the wearer was injected with the potion, for a certain period, they could be regarded as a degraded, beggar-version of a witch.

The power of witches stems from two major characteristics: infinite growth of mana and infinite evolution of the physique.

Therefore, "Hero's Blood" not only granted the user a certain amount of starting mana (degraded mana of a mage) but also guided the user through an "evolution" based on their physique and personality, combined with their strongest desire at that moment, leading them to directly master supernatural power.

This "Hero's Blood" potion was researched by Dorothy using the witch template as a guide.

Unfortunately, a true witch was not something she could easily replicate in her current state. In fact, ever since the witch race rose to power, countless other races had studied witches, attempting to replicate the witch's miracle.

After all, on the surface, the awakening of the God King was nothing more than the World Consciousness bestowing the primordial mana belonging only to the world upon a mortal; it didn't seem to require much technical skill.

But such experiments almost all ended in failure. Many World Consciousnesses, while attempting to copy the witch world's homework, discovered in despair that even if they generously offered the primordial mana to their people, their people simply could not withstand the power of the primordial mana and were directly blown to bits.

Yes, blown to bits in the literal sense.

Weak mortal creatures simply could not withstand that primordial power belonging to "Gods."

In fact, let alone those mortal creatures, even among the four Golden Calamity races, only the witch race could directly use pure primordial mana; the other three races used variant powers of primordial mana.

The angels' faith-based divine power, the demons' original sin mana, and the dragons' dragon-might.

These were all special powers obtained by the three races through secondary processing of primordial mana based on their respective characteristics. In terms of pure power and destructiveness, these three powers might not be inferior to primordial mana, but they ultimately lost some of the magical properties inherent to primordial power.

Let alone those alien races, even the witches themselves didn't quite understand why they were so special. Currently, the most mainstream speculation in the witch academic world points to the first witch—the God King.

Scholars speculate that the God King's physique might be very special, naturally compatible with primordial mana, and thus able to bear this powerful force that did not belong to mortals.

As for the other primordial witches that followed, they couldn't be considered truly primordial. According to historical records, the subsequent witches were all awakened by the God King, leading to the speculation that the God King might possess the authority to "create witches."

The World Consciousness created the God King, and the God King, as the primordial witch and the natural Queen of Witches, created the witch race. This might be the truth of the matter.

Scholars who proposed this speculation also cited the primordial witches who awakened on their own (like the Elemental Queen), who are very rare in the present day, as evidence.

The phenomenon of primordial witches who awaken on their own, despite having mortal parents, only exists in the witch world. Such primordial witches are not born in other worlds. This must be because the God King sits in the witch world, and her authority has always shrouded the entire world, thus allowing outstanding mortals with talent to awaken on their own.

Of course, this speculation has always remained just a speculation; no one dares to go and verify it with the God King.

But now, Dorothy has proven the correctness of this speculation, because the most special ingredient in the "Hero's Blood" potion is Di Nisha's blood.

The birth of the "Hero's Blood" potion was also a coincidence. At the time, Dorothy, suffering from mana-deficiency phobia, wanted to try making a potion to enhance mana, and Di Nisha, who had always doted on her, naturally wanted to help.

However, in the process of helping, the shepherdess's hand was accidentally cut by the leaf of a special spiritual plant. Her blood then dripped into the potion cauldron, directly causing the entire pot of potion to mutate.

Afterward, through Dorothy's diligent identification, she discovered that this pot of mutated potion was brewing a strange power of evolution.

Therefore, the Home Witch boldly speculated that of the two characteristics of the witch race, the infinite growth of mana might be a characteristic bestowed by primordial mana, while the characteristic of infinite evolution might originate from the God King herself.

It's no wonder that Di Nisha was able to bear primordial mana that others could not in history. Perhaps she couldn't withstand it at first either, but under the stimulation of primordial mana, she directly evolved a physique adapted to primordial mana—the so-called witch physique of later generations.

The Home Witch recalled the historical record of the God King's "Night of Rise," where she lost control and slaughtered an entire village. That process of losing control was probably Di Nisha adapting to primordial mana.

The reason she lost control and started a massacre was likely because her heart was filled with hatred and anger at the time, and she couldn't control the primordial mana bestowed by the World Consciousness, instead being influenced by the rampaging power.

Emmm...

Dorothy thought of the "herself" in history; the true Sister Nun and Father Adam died a bit unjustly.

Because recently, when she had nothing to do, she slightly identified some finished potions left by the original owner and found two good things among them.

The potion "Body of No Burning"—although it still suffers the pain of fire and bears the damage of flames, it prevents the user from dying from burning, hanging onto the last breath.

The potion "Tortoise Breathing Agent"—this slows the user's breathing, putting them into a state of suspended animation.

Theoretically, if these two potions were used well, they might have allowed Di Nisha to fake her death and escape. After all, the one who lit the fire was Sister Nun herself, so she had every opportunity to feed these two potions to Di Nisha.

It's just that...

Sister Nun hadn't told Di Nisha about her witch identity before that, and there were so many onlookers at the stake that even if she wanted to find a way to feed the potion to Di Nisha, it wouldn't be convenient to explain the potion's effect.

And then...

And then there was no then...

An out-of-control true witch, even without using any spells, just relying on mana suppression, was a terrifying map-cannon that mortals could not withstand. Even if Father Adam, as a hidden big shot, had a few tricks up his sleeve, it was a matter of solving it in one or two blasts.

In short, the death was a bit unjust.

Thus, the Home Witch fully absorbed the lesson of "improper awakening leads to tears after the fact." When brewing "Hero's Blood," she set up multiple safeguards for this potion to avoid the tragedy of "the first strike of awakening kills a loved one."

The initial program that only activates upon sensing a strong desire to protect was for this purpose. Only a sufficiently strong belief could ensure that the user wouldn't be lost during the subsequent "awakening," instead being controlled by the rampaging power.

And this evolutionary power originating from Di Nisha also needed to be driven by a sufficiently strong belief. Otherwise, with a restless mind and complex desires, who knows what strange things would evolve in the end.

For example, if you are lustful and have nothing but lust in your brain, it might just evolve you into a hermaphrodite.

A sufficiently clear belief could provide clear guidance for the power of evolution.

Dorothy was even worried that these mortal believers wouldn't know how to clearly obtain power, so she directly stuffed the memory packets of the magic she had recently improved into this potion.

As long as the user's belief met the standard, they could trigger these memory packets and obtain the spell models most suitable for their physique and personality.

The power of evolution would directly use these spell models as blueprints to evolve the user's physique into one with an affinity for these few spells, making them use these spells like an instinct afterward.

Emmm...

The users are mostly young girls; they will awaken and transform, and once transformed, they can instinctively use magical spells fluently...

This is definitely a Magical Girl.

The third alias of "Hero's Blood" originated from this.

In short, the little hammer pendants she distributed were both proselytizing to those believers and a test for them.

Those who could successfully awaken in the end were definitely girls filled with the belief of protecting their families; these girls were naturally Dorothy's comrades. As for those who couldn't successfully awaken, that didn't matter; it could be considered a protective amulet for those poor, good children.

Anyway, a self-destruct spell was set on the pendant, and even if they bypassed the self-destruct spell and got the "Hero's Blood" inside, without the belief as a key, this potion was actually more toxic than medicinal. Hopefully, those guys wouldn't grow anything strange during the random evolution.

And just as she was feeling contradictory and complex, both hoping that the seeds she planted would grow, but not wanting those cute little girls to suffer the hardships needed for growth, she suddenly frowned and looked toward the city district.

She sensed that an incantation on a pendant had been triggered, which meant the awakening of a girl.

"Alright, as expected, the probability of not encountering hardship in this kind of ghost place is infinitely close to zero."

The Home Witch sighed, stopped her potion brewing work, and casually took a test-tube-like potion bottle from her pocket and gulped it down.

Afterward, amidst a flash of magical light, the Dorothy in place disappeared, replaced by a cooing white dove.

Potion "Bird Transformation," this was a transformation potion Dorothy had brewed.

Although she had now mastered some basic transformation techniques and was as talented as ever in transformation magic, why waste her precious mana, which wasn't much to begin with, on problems that could be solved by taking medicine?

The white dove spread its wings and then nimbly flew out of the basement, flying away from the church through the room's window.

Although theoretically, the awakened girls, as degraded witches, should possess combat power that crushes mortals and could walk sideways in the peripheral districts of the City of Sin, the Home Witch was still a bit worried. She decided to observe in secret; if there was any accident, she could still intervene, lest these hard-won future comrades die prematurely.

It's just that...

Dorothy, transformed into a white dove, hadn't flown far when she sensed something approaching rapidly from behind. Looking back, she saw a magnificent white eagle flying rapidly toward her.

"Dorothy, where are you going so late?"

The white eagle spoke, but emitted Di Nisha's voice.

The shepherdess's room was next to Dorothy's; she had sensed the aura of mana and had chased after her, worried.

"The seeds I planted earlier have sprouted, so I'm going to take a look to avoid any accidents. It's so late, you should go to sleep early, don't worry about me."

Dorothy replied while flapping her wings vigorously.

Tsk, flying as a mortal bird is really tiring; she missed the dragon wings that came with the concept of flight.

"Then I'll go with you; I can't rest easy with you alone."

The white eagle said, then easily caught up and flew side-by-side with the white dove.

At this, Dorothy felt a warmth in her heart.

Woo woo woo, what a good sister, it's a pity it's just a dream.

The Home Witch sighed in her heart, then thought she should enjoy the present, so she folded her wings and stood on the back of the white eagle.

A white dove riding a white eagle.

After all, the white eagle Di Nisha transformed into flew much faster than her little white dove.

Tsk, this low-level magic is really inconvenient; you can't transform into whatever you want, it's all random, and once you transform, you can't change it. Why did she transform into a harmless dove? She also wanted to be a bird of prey; at the very least, an owl would be acceptable.

Damn it...

Di Nisha: "..."

The shepherdess was a bit helpless about this mischievous sister.

The white eagle shook its head but didn't say anything, just spread its wings and flew rapidly forward, carrying the white dove on its back.

Not long after, the sisters arrived at a familiar place—the home of the little girl from the beginning.

It's just that...

This house was quite normal, without the slightest sign of a battle, which left both the white dove and the white eagle puzzled. The dove and the eagle looked at each other, then quietly came to the window, the hard bird beak nimbly pecking two small holes in the paper window, and then the two birds leaned toward the holes to look inside.

At this look, both birds were astonished.

"Whoa, this kid has something in her."