Through the analysis of the Reincarnation Core, Hel finally extracted the information she wanted from the priestess's soul.
The first thing she cared about most — the Beast Witch.
Because this priestess's rank was too low, she had never met the Beast Witch personally. Still, according to what she'd heard, the Beast Witch was indeed tied to the Witch's Palace.
The second piece of intelligence was even more critical — it concerned the beastmen's colossal defensive line, a chain of camps stretching nearly six hundred kilometers.
According to the Witch's Palace's plans, during the first beastman invasion, the Beast Witch had already departed, bringing with her a host of Insect Maidens and their nurtured moth pupae, scattering them across the continent.
The Insect Maidens — and Nikki — had originally set out to search for Hel. But they hadn't known the truth: they themselves were nothing but bait, set up by Pestis, the Disease Witch, and the upper echelons of the Witch's Palace.
Rats to spread plague. Moths to find witches. And the God-Welcoming Cult's condition for rejoining the Witch's Palace? — to assist in capturing the discovered witches and bringing them into beastman territory.
That was the agreement Pestise had forged between the Witch's Palace, the Church of Supreme Power, and the Returning God Cult.
Of course, none of them had expected Nikki to fall into Hel's hands.
Still, compared to what they'd gained over the past few months, that loss was trivial.
After all, Nikki was never a good candidate for the Demon Queen's mantle. Decades of cultivation and her progress was still slower than most witches'. Instead of honing her magic, she foolishly tried to master both martial and magical arts. Rather than letting her crawl through mediocrity and die short of Saint rank, they decided it was better to… "optimize" her — and let a new War Witch take her place.
In fact, within the last few months alone, they had captured over seven witches from human lands.
These witches were now en route, being transported across the continent — through the Free Nation's Watchwall gap, into the Ivorith Royal Court, through the Aira Royal Court, then the Gula Royal Court, before finally arriving at their destination: the Sperbi Empire — the Holy Land of all beastmen, and the headquarters of the Church of Supreme Power.
At present, however, those witches were only just reaching the southern edge of the Ivorith Court.
As for the priestess Hel had captured, her mission had been far simpler — to deliver a report to the Aira Royal Court confirming border stability. Such reports were sent regularly to reassure the central clergy of the frontier's safety.
After reading most of the priestess's memories, a bold idea flashed in Hel's mind.
If this girl was too low-ranking to know what she needed…Then why not capture someone higher up?
So she donned the girl's black ceremonial robe, mounted her dire wolf, and set off toward the Aira Royal Court.
At the first waystation along the communication route, Hel struck again — ambushing the stationed priestess in charge of message transfer.
She tampered with the lower priestess's memories, then sent her back unharmed.
The Witch's Palace used a tiered relay system to transmit information — at every distance interval, the courier would hand over the report to the next-ranked overseer. The previous messenger was required to return immediately afterward.
This ensured that messages couldn't easily be intercepted — but to Hel, such safeguards were meaningless.
At worst, she just needed to swap a few more identities and play courier a few times. In fact, the staff she "helped" might even thank her later — their work mysteriously completed for them.
After a day and night of infiltration, Hel had crossed over three hundred kilometers, finally reaching the very heart of the Aira tribes — the Aira Royal Court.
The sight that greeted her was awe-inspiring.
It was a city built beneath the colossal skeleton of a wolf. From afar, the remains looked like a giant beast lying across a mountain ridge, its head raised to the heavens in a silent howl.
A massive spine stretched into the horizon, each vertebra the size of a tower; enormous ribs jutted from the earth like white pillars holding up the sky.
And upon those sacred bones, the beastmen had raised their capital.
From the tail region lay the commoners' quarters; at the chest, the merchants and nobles; higher still, at the neck, the aristocracy; and finally, beneath the skull — the grand palace.
Above the wolf's head stood an immense altar, gleaming with divine light.
"What a magnificent corpse…" Hel whispered, her eyes glittering.
She couldn't help herself — like a cat seeing a mouse, or a necromancer spotting a perfect skeleton.
Her spiritual senses confirmed it: this was no ordinary carcass. It belonged to a child of Fenrir — a semi-divine wolf-beast.
Even though its divinity had long since faded after hundreds of thousands of years, its bones still radiated ancient power.
"So many things I could make with those bones…" she murmured, wiping a bit of drool from her lip before forcibly steadying herself.
"No. Focus. I came here for the Beast Witch — not for souvenirs."
Suppressing her greed, she followed the path of bone-forged steps, weaving through the skeletal city until she reached her destination — the towering palace beneath the wolf's skull.
This was the headquarters of the Church of Supreme Power in the Aira Royal Court.
Long ago, it had been the royal palace of Aira's kings, but ever since the witches seized control of the church, it had been repurposed — its halls now echoing not with royal decrees, but with the hymns of witches and saints.
Thanks to her silver-wolf clan features, Hel encountered no obstacles along the way. She reached the administrative office, submitted the report, and began her quiet exploration of the palace interior.
According to Nikki, the highest-ranking witches — the Seven Kings and Seven Calamities — usually resided within the palace's core sanctum.
If she wanted a priestess with valuable information, that was where she had to go.
She wasn't wandering aimlessly, though. Her target was clear: a fifth-rank high priestess stationed in the core sector. Someone strong enough to know real secrets — yet still weak enough for Hel to kill instantly.
Using her as a stepping stone, Hel could get even closer to the Grand Priestess of the Witch's Palace stationed in Aira.
But just as she turned a corner — only a few hallways away from her target — she froze.
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
Standing not far ahead, shrouded in the faint aura of pestilence and corruption, was a figure she knew all too well.
"—The Disease Witch, Pestis?!"