NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Repelle
There would be no better choice than a defensive Sigil.
Survival was everything and a defensive sigil did not need this body cooperation to work effectively.
Repelle, a Sigil that created a one second barrier that would repulse the enemy with two times the force they struck. Perfect for defence and the best option right now for Siderius.
There were better defensive Sigil but it was too advanced for Siderius' current Alchemist rank or not suitable. Aegise was a much better shield with longer duration but no longer had the repulsive effect. And it drained way more mercury than Repelle.
The Sigil for Repelle was a flipped L with a horizontal line going through it. Then another circle surrounding the L and the final stroke connected the top of the L to the right edge of the horizontal line.
[MERCURY -2]
Siderius felt even more pain losing his mercury than being whipped by a witch.
The mercury seeped under the mirror.
[REPELLE SIGIL REGISTER]
[SIGIL SLOT: 1/1]
The symbol for Repelle temporarily lit up in the black mirror then dissipated.
At the moment, Siderius could admit that he was a witch hunter. Graft mutation? Check. Alchemy Sigil? Check. The two most important internal mechanisms for a witch hunter.
There was still room to improve. His body attributes. A good set of armor and weapons.
But that would need time to build on. Right now, he needed to pack his things and get out of here.
Lyara's disappearance would soon be noticed and he would be the first suspect in line.
Siderius ran at the Alchemical Barrier then deactivated it.
The Deactivation Sign was the same all across the Alchemy Seal. This was to ensure a streamlined process for the witch hunter and alchemist.
Siderius drew a triangle in the air with his right hand index finger, then a diagonal slash going right through the heart of the triangle. The triangle materialized into lines of orange spark then the slash cut it in half. The barrier immediately faded and retreated to the Salt on the ground.
Siderius would like to collect the Salt. It was not easy to synthesize anti-magic Salt in this world. But he needed to move quickly so he had to leave the Salt behind.
Siderius dashed away, aiming for the Ashen Slum, the current home of the nameless boy.
Prior to Siderius' transmigration, the nameless boy was a performer inside a circus. His job, specifically, was an actor. He always took the role of a beautiful female character in a drama play.
He had clear white skin and a handsome face. It was not hard to make him feminine with a few lines of make-up.
The nameless boy didn't know better to resist either. He was a slave, more or less, and was raised by dancers of the circus. For him, being feminine was nothing wrong as anyone he was close to was similar.
Obviously, since Siderius' transmigration, this body had never touched a powder of make-up.
The Ashen Slum was located at the Southeast of the Blossom Glades, a garbage district where all the waste of the coven would be discarded to. The people here lived off of those waste.
His circus was mostly better than the average slave as they at least never had to worry about food or place to sleep.
Siderius found his way back to the circus. It was a large collection of tents, the largest of which was their performance stage. Surrounding the performance tent were smaller, individual tents of each performance group.
The fancier the tent, the more successful the performer was. The male performers who did juggling and illusion acts were in small, ragged tents. While the female performers were treated with bigger, newer tents.
This society was ruled by witches so the gender roles were a contrast to the previous world of Siderius. In this place, a female was always a candidate to become a witch. While a male was always going to be a slave.
Naturally, this led to females being treated much better than males. This had stacked an unhealthy amount of resentment from the male slave toward the female.
They couldn't take their anger on witches. So they were damn sure to take it on someone else that they could get away with. The conflict between this world was on the verge of explosion.
But this did not concern Siderius one bit. He did not care about any of those ideas and hatress. What he wanted was to get stronger and stronger. Everything else was a distraction.
Inside the tent of the dancers, females of all ages were removing their make-up and wigs. Some were even in their undergarments. There were young dancers that barely made it to twenty. While there were also old, experienced performers like River.
River Lake, a rare Ashen with a name. She was the one who discovered the nameless boy and raised him within the dancer group. It was also her that introduced him to work in drama play, ensuring him to never have a hungry day ever again.
When Siderius appeared, all the dancers screamed in panic. They scattered away from him, covering their body.
River pulled out a knife from behind her waist and pointed at him.
"Who the fuck are you?" She growled.
"It's me, River. It's little Snow."
The boy didn't have a name, but he had a nickname that the dancer used. Because of his unusually white skin for a man, he was called Snow.
"Snow? What are you talking about? Don't trick me!" River's eyes trembled a bit.
The nameless boy was taken away by the witch for weeks now. They needed him for some reasons. River had made peace with herself that she would never see him again.
Siderius' appearance was completely different from the nameless boy.
The nameless boy always wore feminine clothing, a clear influence from the dancer. He had long hair that was usually made into a bun. His face was always filled with white powder that made him unusually pale, like a ghost. This made him surprisingly grotesque. The dancers didn't see anything wrong with him as they had seen him grow up. But other people always avoided, mocked, and even bullied the boy for his appearance.
Now, Siderius had a completely different outlook. He wore a torn black shirt on top that revealed partially his rib. There were bandages clearly visible under his shirt. His hair was let go and flowing. It didn't give off a feminine vibe but instead a rugged manly look.
Before them wasn't the weak, fragile kid they knew. But a MAN.
Siderius knew he couldn't convince them with words. He lifted his hair up to let them have a closer look at his face.
River dropped the knife on the ground. She walked up to Siderius in a daze. Her legs trembled with every step but she tried her best to hold on.
River held him close.
"Oh, my dear Snow. What has happened to you?"
"It's alright, River. I'm alright." Siderius tapped River's back.
She was the mother of this body, even though they didn't share a bloodline. Siderius felt like he needed to give her closure. No mother would want to live on thinking their son was killed, or worse, become a witch's toy.
The other dancers lost all their hesitation when they realized it was Siderius. They closed right in and hugged him tightly.
Siderius was an old man but he still couldn't hide his embarrassment from the women's warm touches. Some of them were basically in their undergarments so when they hugged him, their skin collided.
A few dancers even rubbed his head. They all seemed to love him dearly. All of them had lived with him for a long time.
Siderius pulled himself out of the sea of women.
"Alright. Alright. I miss all of you too. But I need to say something."
"Yes? What is it, son?" River said.
"I killed a witch."