We must not waste any more time.
Given how long we had been fighting the witch, it seemed shooting out sharp solid tendrils was about the extent of her offensive capabilities.
She might be saving a high-level spell for when the opportunity comes, but that was what I was expecting from her as well.
Moreover, given her stunt with the compulsion spell earlier, there was a bigger threat from prolonging our battle with this witch.
I raised my hand and proceeded to cast a silent spell while concealing my runes to prevent magic interference.
A heat wave emanated from around me.
Darius and Jonah caught sight of my casting and summoned their exploding projectiles to their grasp.
Maha Jwala.
A blazing pillar of fire streamed out of my palms, rushing toward the witch.
The plump woman with the motherly face saw my spell coming and raised a small shield in front of her, parting the stream of fire just enough to miss her person entirely.
The witch also saw the arrow and throwing spear Darius and Jonah sent.
But since she was focusing on blocking my fire, she simply parried them away with her tendrils so their trajectories would miss her slightly.
Big mistake.
Boom!
The arrow and throwing spear exploded near the witch, enveloping her in a fiery dust screen.
Regular people would had died from a blast that strong and in that proximity.
But, alas, this witch was not your average person, despite her homely face.
"YOU FOOLS!"
The dust suspending cloud suddenly cleared away by a wind blast.
The entire catacomb was rushing with strong air current as if a storm had manifested underground.
The witch stood there bloodied with charred open wounds, revealing burning flesh and bones.
However, as each second passed, the flesh began to regenerate rapidly, concealing the bones, and covering the wounds.
I did not sense any magic spell being casted. At least not the regular ones I expected to heal wounds like this.
This woman was performing dark arts.
A forbidden type of magic which utilized not just her mana, but her life force as well.
A self-regeneration spell in this manner was an example of the forbidden magic.
Seeing her recovering, my comrades resumed firing projectiles toward her.
But the witch had anticipated the exploding ones that she intercepted them from afar.
"DIE, ALL OF YOU! DIE!"
A dark cloud suddenly loomed behind her.
It manifested into a serpent-like creature with glowing crimson eyes.
From the tremendous mana it radiated, the witch must had been casting a Fifth Circle killing spell.
That horrifying manifestation would kill us almost immediately if the witch were to complete her spell and unleash it.
I could not help but curled my lips into a smile.
It was the opening I needed.
[Akarshanam]
I sent my invisible threads of mana flying toward the dark manifestation as the witch was completing its form.
The witch chuckled at my stunt, likely sensing my interference attempt despite my threads being invisible.
"You cannot undo this spell. There's no rune for you to temper with."
I twirled my hand and casted the next stage of the casting.
[Astavyastata]
The plump woman's eyes suddenly bulged.
Pitch-black blood spurted out from her mouth.
The dark manifestation rapidly dissipated into nothing as the witch collapsed on the floor, convulsing.
"H-how…?"
The witch whispered hoarsely as she was drenched in her pool of black blood, fed by the streams kept pouring out from her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.
Dark arts offered great powers but at great cost.
Life force was the usual price. It was even the complete substitute for mana in some high-level spells.
Hence when casting powerful dark magic, a dark mage would be in their most vulnerable state.
There was no rune to temper with for dark spells.
Instead, it was the dark mage's life itself at stake.
If one could infiltrate their mana into a dark spell's casting, they could make contact with the dark mage's life force system, their body itself, and temper it directly.
Practically having a knife inside a person's body.
I discovered this unique method when I confronted a Kali sorceress in the Radeshta region.
But this mage in front of me did not need to know that.
"P-please…Your…Highness."
The plump woman cried as she was dying.
"A-accept…your fate…our...fate."
My comrades and the prince rejoined me as the witch kept on muttering in her final breaths.
"It is…futile…to…resis-"
Crack!
The woman's head twisted, snapping her neck. Her life ended suddenly right then.
Since she had been weakened and let her guard down, I decided to take hold of her using telekinesis and killed her there instantly.
We did not need to listen to her rambling much longer.
It was also dangerous to keep her in that critical state. There were many horrifying forms of dark arts a dark mage could cast near their death.
I turned to my comrades and the young prince.
"This witch has wasted a lot of our time. We need to get going immedia-"
Kroaahhhh!
An echo of horrifying screech interrupted me. It came deeper from where we came from.
Kroaahh!!!
Another one. This echo came from the pathway the witch emerged from.
Kroaahh!!!
A third echo, coming from another direction from the two earlier.
"Damn it!"
I cursed at those sounds.
My suspicion came true.
I knew it would happen the moment I saw the witch casting compulsion spell.
No. I knew it the moment I saw that four-legged serpent medallion on her chest.
Jonah turned to me with tense face.
"Fina, could those voices be…?"
I nodded to him.
It stood for a reason why the witch did not have high and varied offensive capabilities.
She was specialized in compulsion instead.
And for a dark sorcerer like her, there was one way she would use that form of magic in this Quintal Trial.
"The witch had summoned her army."
Just like how her sister did back in the Radeshta region.
"The infected have entered the sewers."