"R-Really? A mirror?"
Echidna was completely stunned.
After taking control of this body, she hadn't had time to check her physical condition.
However, Echidna didn't know that after she completely transferred her soul into the copy, her physical body had also changed.
Her hair, which should have been light purple, was now Echidna's pale color, and her pupils were black.
This was why even a simpleton like Aqua could immediately recognize her true identity.
If the soul is strong enough, even the body will change with it.
This was originally impossible...
"Dona Dona, you don't even know something like this? I'm laughing so hard! You really are a useless witch~"
Daphne's mocking voice rang in Echidna's ears.
And what Echidna saw was Satou Kazuma and Aqua laughing heartlessly.
"A useless witch is just a useless witch!"
"Stop laughing..."
"Hahahahahahahahaha!"
"Stop laughing!"
Echidna could not only hear the laughter of the two people in front of her.
In her mind, the souls of the other witches were also laughing wildly.
Even Sekhmet, the Sloth Witch, who was usually too lazy to speak, was willing to spare some energy to laugh.
I can't accept this!
"You, you, I am Echidna, the Witch of Greed!"
Echidna was already furious, and the witch's aura that she had carefully hidden instantly filled the air.
This was the miasma of a witch, and as the Witch of Greed, Echidna's miasma was terrifying.
Just releasing it was enough to cause ordinary people to die in agony.
"Oh, right, Echidna, you want to come back to life, right? But now that your soul is in this body, you can't come back to life. Let me help you release your soul again—"
"No need, thank you, Aqua-sama! I appreciate your kindness!"
Before Aqua could finish speaking, Echidna knelt on the ground with a thud. The witch's miasma instantly disappeared without a trace, and her eyes became clear.
She understood what Aqua meant.
Releasing her soul... wasn't that just killing herself again?
Echidna had finally regained a physical body, and she didn't want to die again.
What's more... she wasn't sure what methods Aqua would use or what consequences it would have.
"Huh? Don't you want to come back to life?"
"Well... for now, in this situation, it's okay..."
Echidna's face showed an awkward smile.
"Teacher... no, you're not my teacher, at least not completely."
At this moment, Roswaal also walked to Echidna's side.
Even though her appearance was completely different, Roswaal could still feel the familiar aura on her.
However, Roswaal also knew that the person in front of him was not the real Echidna.
The only one he acknowledged was the truly complete Echidna.
"Kazuma-sama, after the Sanctuary is freed, what should I do?"
At this time, Otto, Garfiel, and others also came up and asked.
Now that the Sanctuary was freed, what to do with the people living there was also a problem.
"After all, the Sanctuary's barrier has been opened..."
Garfiel looked into the distance with some worry.
The way things were developing was completely beyond his understanding.
Garfiel was afraid of the outside world and didn't want to leave the Sanctuary.
"It doesn't matter."
Satou Kazuma shrugged.
"Those who want to stay can stay, and those who want to leave can leave. It's that simple."
"But, without that barrier, people from the outside world can freely enter the Sanctuary..."
"They could already come and go freely, right? Didn't the barrier affect those half-bloods? It was just a little hard to find at first."
"But..."
"I'm telling you, Garfiel, you keep saying 'but, but'. Are you afraid of the outside world?"
Aqua looked at him with a mischievous smile, as if teasing a child.
"I, I, this great me isn't afraid! And I'm not called Garfield! I'm called Garfiel!"
Garfiel shouted immediately, but the stuttering in his speech at the beginning still revealed the fear in his heart.
Satou Kazuma clearly captured the change in Garfiel's expression, and seemed to have thought of something. He turned to Echidna and said:
"Has Garfiel taken the trials before? Is he so afraid of the outside world because of the trials?"
"That's right."
Echidna nodded with certainty, and then told them about what Garfiel had experienced in the trials.
Garfiel saw his mother die in the outside world.
This was why he feared the outside world.
At this moment, Satou Kazuma noticed something.
"That's not right, useless witch."
"My name is Echidna!"
"Oh, useless Echidna."
"....."
"Your trials are based on the memories of the person involved, right? But judging from what Garfiel and the others have said, he shouldn't have left the barrier. So how could he have the memory of his mother having an accident and dying in the outside world?"
"..."
Echidna looked away guiltily.
"What, what?!"
Garfiel looked at the two of them with a confused expression, and then, as if he had realized something, he rushed to Echidna.
"Useless Dona, you weren't lying earlier, were you?"
"I, I didn't say the trials are necessarily real!"
"Emilia's then..."
"Emilia's is real!"
Before Echidna could finish speaking, Garfiel immediately pressed:
"So, my mother, my mother, she didn't have an accident?!"
"An accident did happen, but she really didn't die."
Echidna was sweating profusely.
Earlier, she deliberately showed Garfiel false illusions in order to influence his personality and turn him into her pawn.
According to the original future, Garfiel was an important part of Echidna's revival plan.
However, she never expected things to turn out like this...
After Garfiel learned that he had been deceived, the first emotion he felt was joy, that his mother was still alive.
But soon, his heart turned to doubt.
Then why hasn't his mother returned?
And the final emotion was anger.
Echidna had actually lied to him!
"Damn you! I'm going to—"
"Garfiel, don't be influenced by your emotions!"
Just as Garfiel was about to beat Echidna up, Satou Kazuma gently placed his hand on Garfiel's shoulder.
"Kazuma-sama..."
"Since your mother is still alive, it must be for some reason that she can't come back. You can go to the outside world to find her."
Satou Kazuma's face showed a very serious expression.
"Kazuma-sama... I understand..."
Garfiel hesitated for a moment, but nodded anyway.
He greatly respected Satou Kazuma, so he thought what he said made a lot of sense.
With Satou Kazuma's strength, he could have used more direct means to stop him just now.
But he just gently put his hand on his shoulder, as if he trusted him very much, knowing that he would never throw a punch.
In reality, Satou Kazuma was desperately trying to stop Garfiel's attack.
Echidna was very important to him!
It was just that his strength seemed a little insignificant in Garfiel's eyes.
"I thought you just wanted Echidna to fulfill your perverted desires."
Aqua said from the side.
These words were Satou Kazuma's true purpose.
"W-What are you saying! On the one hand, I want to prevent Garfiel from going astray, and on the other hand, I have other things I need Echidna for!"
Satou Kazuma's face showed an awkward smile.
After all, with so many people around, he certainly couldn't say his true thoughts directly.
"E-Echidna, your skills in magic must be very good!"
"Of course, I'm the Witch of Greed, after all! The knowledge in the Forbidden Library alone is unattainable by ordinary people!"
Echidna thought this was an opportunity for her to show off.
It was time to make this person who kept calling her useless look at her with new eyes!
"There are too many people here, come with me! I'll show you the power of the Witch of Greed!"
Before long, Echidna took Satou Kazuma and Aqua to the nearby forest.
"The door creates a little difference, but it seems there's no problem using magic, so..."
Just as Echidna was about to cast a spell, the voices of the other witches rang in her ears.
"If you fail and burn down the forest, that would be hilarious."
"Are you guys done yet? Your sarcasm is endless! I racked my brains and resorted to tricks to finally bring you out, and now I'm starting to regret it!"
Echidna said angrily, tightly holding the magic stone necklace in her hand.
"Who are you talking to?"
Satou Kazuma looked at Echidna with a surprised expression. In his eyes, Echidna was just talking to herself.
"I'm..."
Echidna was still planning to hide the fact that she had brought out the souls of the other witches, but Aqua said from the side:
"Didn't you hear? She's talking to the other witches. They're very worried about Echidna."
"What?"
Echidna opened her eyes wide in disbelief.
The other witches were communicating with her on a mental level.
Even so, Aqua could sense the presence of the other witches?
"You brought out the other troublesome guys?! No wonder you're using the body of a child! I shouldn't have expected anything from you in the first place! Useless Dona!"
Satou Kazuma said with a disgusted look.
"It can't be helped. Watch carefully! Using magic with someone else's body is an easy thing!"
Then, Echidna began to gather mana, preparing to cast a simple fireball spell to show Satou Kazuma.
"Echidna, I'm talking to you, Echidna! Are you listening?"
Minerva's voice also rang out.
"Ughhhhh! I'm listening!!!! Stop yelling in my ear... no, it's hard to say if it's in my ear in this situation. Stop yelling in my mind, okay? My head is still hurting!"
Echidna complained, her attention shifting back to the witches.
"This isn't the time to chat! You, look next to you! Next to you!"
"Next to me...?"
When Echidna came back to her senses and looked next to her, she saw a scene of red flames engulfing the forest, the fire spreading along the adjacent trees.
Echidna originally only wanted to cast a fireball spell, but after all, she had just taken control of this body and wasn't very skilled. She accidentally unleashed a spell with terrifying destructive power, directly setting the forest on fire.
"What, what's going on?"
Echidna was a little dazed. She turned her head and looked to the side, and found Aqua was squatting on the ground, drawing something with a pen.
"Aqua-sama, what are you drawing? And... where's Kazuma?"
"Huh? Didn't you see? Your flames just burned him to a crisp! Because it was so funny, I'm going to draw it to record it."
Aqua pointed to a spot not far from Echidna. A charcoal figure was lying on the ground in a very pitiful pose.
"....."
"Get up, Kazuma... Ouch, hot, hot, hot!"
In the next moment, the unharmed Satou Kazuma suddenly appeared in front of the two of them again.
"Huh?"
Although she already knew that Aqua had the ability to resurrect people, she still felt very shocked after seeing it with her own eyes.
It was as if she had missed something just now.
"Useless Dona! What are you doing! I'm going to smack you!"
Satou Kazuma grabbed Echidna by the collar and lifted her up.
"I messed up, but so what! There's no need to be flustered over something like this. While the fire was definitely unexpected... but watch carefully!"
Echidna, who was being held in mid-air, put her palm towards the burning trees, closed her eyes, and said slowly:
"Disappear."
She then opened her eyes, her gaze full of surprise.
"It's still burning... Why?"
In her mind, the other witches were going crazy.
"I wonder, what does Daphne think... that thing, it's not Dona Dona's dream world, is it? You can't interfere with just two words, right?"
"That's not good, alright."
"A d-disaster is... it, is it?"
"Dona, did you start a fire? Dona, are you a bad guy? Answer me! Look me in the eyes! Are you going to be enemies with Typhon?!"
"This isn't the time to discuss this! Hurry! Go put out the fire, geez!"
"I know, I know! I'll put out the fire!"
Echidna immediately prepared to release magic to put out the fire, just by making water.
But she just raised her hand, and then lowered it again.
"Useless Dona, what, what are you doing?"
Satou Kazuma glared at Echidna.
"Hehe, I'm still not used to this body, hehe."
Echidna touched her head, and the silly smile on her face was somewhat similar to Aqua's.