Until a Witch Dies – Meg Raspberry’s One Year Left to Live

The portal gate connecting to another world.

Beyond it lay thousands of different worlds.

Some of them were beneficial to us, while others posed grave dangers.

Exchange with these worlds had advanced civilizations, evolved cultures, and brought forth numerous innovations.

Through interactions with other worlds, our civilization had made great strides in technology, agriculture, industry, and architecture. Likewise, there had been instances where we provided knowledge and technology to another world, aiding their development.

The portal gate’s role was to connect us with worlds that were mutually beneficial.

However, history had also recorded catastrophic consequences from opening gates.

Diseases like Black Blood Fever and Monera Plague were said to have entered our world centuries ago when a gate was opened. Millions perished, and it took nearly fifty years to develop effective cures.

There had been cases where monstrous beasts crossed over, killing hundreds before they were eradicated. Some even preyed upon the very mages who had constructed the magic arrays.

To prevent such disasters, the barrier formation was essential.

And now, the most crucial formation had failed, leaving only the portal gate standing.

In other words, every single person here was at risk of dying.

Panic. Panic. Panic.

The word reverberated through my mind.

Cold sweat trickled down my back, and I could feel my blood racing through my body.

I had to grasp exactly what had happened and assess the situation.

One misstep in handling this crisis, and today would go down in history as a “Day of Blood.”

…There’s no choice. I have to act!

“Sophie!”

At my shout, Sophie’s frozen mind seemed to snap back to reality, and she turned to me with wide eyes.

“Set up the barrier formation! I’ll buy us time!”

If I maintained a temporary weak barrier while Sophie reconstructed the large-scale one, we could manage.

But we didn’t have the luxury of drawing a formation on the ground. We needed magic that could be activated instantly.

A conversation I’d had with Sophie recently surfaced in my mind.

— “How do you draw magic circles with just your fingers?”

— “You only need two steps: Gather magic power at your fingertips and imbue it with a casting effect. Then, generate a magical flow in the air and construct the formation. If you want to do it even faster, you have to shorten the formula.”

I gathered magic at my fingertip, envisioning the flow of the magic circle in my mind. I imagined constructing the formation within my body, directing it through my fingertip as the outlet.

It was like controlling the flow of blood inside me, shaping magic within, and releasing it through my fingers.

I had no way of knowing if it would work. I just had to do it.

The moment my fingertip touched the air, I felt something strange—like pressing against an invisible acrylic board. I had never experienced anything like it before.

But I could do this. I knew I could.

As I traced symbols into the air, a streak of light appeared, signaling the formation of a simplified spell.

A barrier began to materialize.

It worked!

There was no time to celebrate.

Simple barriers were easy to construct, but they lasted less than ten seconds.

I had to keep moving, continuously redrawing them.

One. Two. Three.

I conjured spell after spell at my fingertips. I was so focused and tense that I nearly fainted, but I held on.

The mental strain was overwhelming. My head felt like it was about to explode, and soon, blood trickled from my nose.

Still, I didn’t stop.

If I gave up now, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

Faster. I had to go even faster.

I felt my speed increasing, but at the same time, I was burning through my energy at an alarming rate.

I had never used this much magic in succession before.

“Faster… faster…”

My consciousness began to fade.

Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision, and my thoughts grew sluggish.

How much time had passed?

How many formations had I created?

At that moment, someone grabbed my hand, snapping me back to awareness.

“Zberry, you did well.”

“Sophie…”

“It’s fine now.”

I followed her gaze and saw the portal gate—now completely enclosed in a strong, reinforced barrier.

Not only had she reconstructed the formation, but she had improved and strengthened it.

“How long was I at it…?”

“Two, maybe three minutes.”

“Only two or three minutes?!”

In that short span, Sophie had fixed, reconstructed, and even enhanced the barrier.

Even after making a mistake, her ability to recover was beyond extraordinary.

She truly was worthy of the title “Sage of the Seven.”

“I could never measure up to a genius like you…”

“Zberry, your nose is bleeding.”

“Oh, it really is.”

“And one more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“…Thank you.”

Sophie looked away, her cheeks slightly flushed as she murmured those words.

When we turned to the audience and bowed, the entire square erupted into applause.

As Sophie waved to the crowd with practiced ease, she looked every bit the world-famous idol she was.

Even standing right beside her, she felt so far away.

And thus, the Otherworld Festival began.