I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 65: Witch of Walpurgis (4)

For a moment, I couldn’t fathom what was happening.

The Witch of Walpurgis, now nearly as large as she was at her peak.

And standing before her was my fiancée, Ariana.

It didn’t take long for me to realize how dangerous the situation was.

“Ariana, you’re being reckless!”

“…….”

“Get the hell out of here, Eamon and I will take care of this!”

Ariana with no offense except magic vs. a magic-devouring demon was the worst possible matchup but Ariana shook her head lightly and answered me in a low voice.

“I don’t know, whatever happens, happens.”

“…Huh?”

“I wasn’t sure, so I was going to leave it as a last resort, but I don’t think I can hold back any longer.”

“What’s that….?”

Before I could ask what that meant, a stream of black magic shot out of Ariana’s staff.

A long blade of dark magic sliced through the giant’s body from top to bottom in one swift motion.

The creature lost its lower half and regenerated to about half its size.

“…Huh?”

For a moment, I didn’t understand what had happened.

From what I had learned in my previous life, magic clearly didn’t work on her.

I hadn’t even seen what had happened to the magical creature before my eyes.

So how is it that Arianna’s magic is the only one that works on the Witch of Walpurgis?

The only difference between her magic and the others is that she uses dark magic….

“Ah.”

There was one thing I hadn’t figured out in my previous life.

The final battle against the Witch of Walpurgis took place during the spring semester of my fourth year at the Academy.

Ariana had left the Academy at that time due to my poor judgment and I hadn’t been able to find out if her dark magic, which was different from the other four, would work against the creature.

Of course, her dark magic is a type of magic.

From what I’ve observed so far, its activation mechanism seems to work in a different direction than the other four.

In reality, dark magic was different from the other four in many ways, and its power was different from the pure magic of nature.

Perhaps that was why it worked.

“Kuuuu…!”

A huge explosion that shook the surrounding buildings erupted from the demon again.

It was Ariana, of course, who had used the explosion magic.

Before the demon could finish its cry, the explosion that erupted from its center ripped off the limbs of the Witch of Walpurgis and shrunk it down.

Even at a glance, it was clear that the damage had been done.

“…….”

The dust from the explosion slowly cleared, and the Witch of Walpurgis stepped back into view.

She had shrunk to the size of a human woman, clearly having lost much of her power.

And, as an added bonus, she looked utterly terrified.

“Ku…Kuuuu….”

The demon cried out with an unconfident cry unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, and looked at Ariana with wary eyes.

Resurrected and at the peak of her powers, she had lost nearly all of her strength in just two spells and she vaguely suspects that the next attack will destroy her.

“…You’ve ruined my precious time.”

There was a hint of anger in his voice that even I, listening from a distance, could detect.

Despite her outwardly nonchalant demeanor, it was clear that she was still holding a grudge against the witch for cutting the date short.

…Judging by her adamant demeanor, I’ll have to make amends for today sooner rather than later.

“If your specialty is absorbing other people’s magic power and turning it into your own.”

“Ku, kuuuu…!”

“Why don’t you try some of my magic?”

Ariana flicked her finger once.

A magical sphere of dark magic enveloped the creature’s entire body.

“Kuu, Kuuu…!”

Trapped within the precisely crafted spell of creation, the Witch of Walpurgis pounded her fists against the translucent walls of the sphere in a desperate attempt to break free.

It was clear that the creature was unable to counter the dark magic.

“Well, at least you inspired me to travel all the way here with Alex.”

“Ku…ku…?”

“I’ll make it less painful for you, and I’ll make it disappear as quickly as possible.”

The sphere of dark magic enveloping the demon slowly shrank in size.

The Witch of Walpurgis trapped within the sphere also seemed to be losing strength under the pressure, shrinking along with Ariana’s creation magic.

“Kuu! Kuu! Kuu…!”

“Shut up and disappear.”

“Koooo! Ku, Ku…!!”

The magical sphere that had enveloped an adult woman had shrunk in size until it could fit in the palm of one hand.

The demon cried out in a pleading voice as it pounded on the surface of the sphere, but Ariana’s demeanor didn’t waver as she carried out her sentence.

…Wait a minute.

Now that I think about it, today’s Ariana seems to be using a bit more magic than usual?

“……ah.”

The moment that thought crossed my mind, her body immediately fell to the ground.

Somehow, I had a feeling this was going to happen.

* * *

When she woke up from her longest magic exhaustion, just like on the shores of Canbina, the first face she saw was Alex’s.

“Ariana, are you feeling okay?”

“Are you awake, Ariana?”

Alex watched me from the right side of my body, the first to make eye contact, and Elise from the left, holding my hand and asking me concerned questions.

The first thing I had to say to them after waking up was already decided.

“…I’ve worried you two again.”

They had to carry my collapsed body to my quarters, change my outfit from the one I’d passed out into something more comfortable.

It was a combination of apology and gratitude to the two people who had done all the hard work.

“Ariana, do you have any idea how many times you’ve collapsed from magic exhaustion?

Do you intend to enter the world’s encyclopedia as the princess who has suffered from magic exhaustion the most times?”

“I think you were a little reckless this time, especially with that last attack, when you didn’t need to finish it off, you could have left it to me or Eamon.

You didn’t have to scrape every ounce of magic left in your body to use a third spell….”

I gave a silent, bitter smile at their valid concerns.

Elise was right, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve collapsed from magic exhaustion already.

When I was younger, it wasn’t a big deal if I collapsed at any time, so even now, I’ve grown quite desensitized to the sensation of magic exhaustion.

It happened on the shores of Canbina, and it happened in today’s battle. In fact, this is the second time I’ve experienced magic exhaustion while putting my life on the line.

And, as Alex said, the Witch of Walpurgis in that state could probably have been handled by him alone.

I let my anger get the best of me, and I lost control of my emotions.

As a result, I caused him pain he didn’t need to go through and worry he didn’t have to.

“I’m sorry, I just got carried away because I thought it was something I had to do.”

“It’s a good thing Ariana’s dark magic worked on the Witch of Walpurgis, I was wondering what I was going to do with Eamon when she got big.”

“…That’s a good thing.”

Let’s be honest, there’s a little bit of luck involved because in the original game, there are officially only two attacks that can damage the Witch of Walpurgis.

One is a physical attack using the physical abilities of a melee character like Alex or Eamon.

The other is light magic, wielded by the main character, Sierra.

Of course, even if physical attacks work, it’s virtually impossible to take down the Witch at her peak with just two people, so the main character’s light magic is an integral part of the process.

The problem is that the light magic is no longer available, so I’ve traveled a long way to the Eloreal Empire.

The original plan was to find it early and slay it before it regained its full power, but we didn’t anticipate the old men’s intervention.

As a result, the creature was at full strength upon its resurrection, and I was forced to use my own magic, which I had been saving for a gambit.

If light magic works, so does dark magic.

It was a bit of simplistic logic, but it had its place.

In my previous life, when I implemented magic that worked against demons, I didn’t set any of them up to be compatible with dark magic.

I did put in some compatibility settings, for example, plant-type creatures are weak to fire magic, and elemental-type creatures don’t work with wind magic.

As far as Ariana’s dark magic, which we had no intention of implementing in the game, we haven’t set up any compatibility at all.

Or even the Witch of Walpurgis, on whom magic shouldn’t work except for light magic.

It wasn’t intentional, I just didn’t have the time.

By my rough count, that’s over a hundred different creatures, and the only people who even use dark magic are Ariana and the Demon King.

Just fixing the bugs on the other side in time for the launch date was an exhausting task, and definitely not the kind of labor I could do as a one-person development team (practically).

I realized today that Ariana’s dark magic affects all demons except for the Demon King, including the Witch of Walpurgis.

The problem is, I found out too late, and the only thing left to fight is the Demon King.

Anyway, thanks to my access to dark magic, I’m able to take out the Witch of Walpurgis with ease, and I’m able to finish off the slaughter without taking any casualties.

…Oh, come to think of it, I forgot something a little important.

“Alex.”

“Huh?”

“In case I didn’t finish, did you take care of the Witch of Walpurgis?”

Sure enough, from my recollection of the moments before I collapsed, I’d been in the process of wiping out the Witch of Walpurgis.

That said, I’m still a little uneasy that I collapsed before seeing a clear finish.

Of course, Alex and Eamon were nearby, so it’s not like they’d have missed a beat against a weakened demon.

“If it’s the Witch of Walpurgis, she’s over there by the pillow.”

“What?”

I turned my head, wondering what he was talking about, and saw that Alex wasn’t wrong.

The dangerous creature that had once grown to over ten meters tall, nearly destroyed the Imperial Academy and had already destroyed two countries in the original story.

“…Kuu….”

Shrunk to the size of a small fairy and was sleeping on my bedside, oblivious to the world.