Before long, at the top of the holy ground ruins, everyone was moved there.
This was the highest place, to avoid the flood.
Echidna seemed to still have a fish in her mouth, and was now passed out.
"Betty, is your mom waterproof?"
Satou Kazuma asked.
"What, what kind of crazy question are you asking?"
Beatrice frowned, opened her mouth, and looked at Satou Kazuma with a puzzled expression, then looked at the passed-out Echidna next to her.
Even though her soul wasn't complete, in Beatrice's eyes, she was still part of her mother.
"I'm not asking about this Echidna, I'm talking about the one downstairs, in the crystal coffin—that one should be waterproof, right?"
Satou Kazuma looked down at the ground beneath his feet.
Echidna's real body, inside the crystal, was fixed in the building and couldn't be moved.
Hopefully, it wouldn't be ruined by the water.
"...I guess so."
Beatrice didn't know how to answer.
"Anyway, the other one isn't very waterproof right now..."
Satou Kazuma turned to look at Echidna beside him.
Aqua had already come to Echidna's side.
"Kazuma, look at me!"
Then, Aqua used her power as a water goddess, and water sprayed out of Echidna's mouth like a fountain. The little fish that had been stuck in her mouth also jumped out, even taking the time to slap Echidna's face with its tail.
"..."
Even Satou Kazuma couldn't understand what was happening.
But the most important thing now wasn't Echidna.
It was the despairing residents of the holy ground beside them.
After the holy ground was freed, most of them still planned to live there.
But after finally escaping the forest fire, Aqua's flood had destroyed everything. Almost all of the houses had been washed away.
The holy ground could be said to be completely destroyed...
These residents would have to leave and live somewhere else...
Satou Kazuma scratched his head guiltily and said to the residents who were gradually waking up:
"Um, later, I'll arrange places for everyone to live... As for compensation and stuff... please don't worry..."
This was completely unexpected for Satou Kazuma.
"Kazuma, quick, look at me!"
At that moment, Aqua came to the side of the unconscious Roswaal, who had been underwater the longest and almost drowned.
This was the closest Roswaal had come to death in nearly four hundred years.
Aqua raised her hand, and a tiny fountain appeared in Roswaal's mouth as well.
Echidna in her left hand, Roswaal in her right, the fountains even seemed to have a rhythm.
"Enough! It's your fault, you useless goddess!"
Satou Kazuma reached out and hit Aqua on the head.
"You hit me, you hit me, you actually hit me! You were just begging me for help!"
Aqua looked at Satou Kazuma with a wronged expression, hugging her head and crouching on the ground.
"Isn't it because you created such a huge flood!"
"I already warned you!"
"But, but who would have thought you could actually do it?!"
Satou Kazuma felt a little guilty after saying that.
Aqua had said that, but Satou Kazuma had just thought she was bragging.
Who would have thought that Aqua, who couldn't even beat a thug, was actually so powerful?
"Then, then what are you doing to these two? Playing with them like fountains!"
"No way! I'm clearing the water out of their lungs, okay! Hmph! Do you think I'm as idle as you are?"
"..."
Satou Kazuma couldn't argue with her for a moment and just looked at the surrounding people.
With such terrible damage, he would probably have to pay a huge sum.
Luckily, the slum area had already been renovated, so there should be plenty of space.
If only everything could be undone...
Wait, undone?
Satou Kazuma's eyes immediately darted to Natsuki Subaru, who was not far away.
Natsuki Subaru suddenly felt a chill behind him and quickly turned around, but didn't notice anything unusual.
"Strange, am I just imagining things?"
Natsuki Subaru frowned.
Satou Kazuma had already shifted his attention to others, turning his head elsewhere.
"What, what happened?"
Echidna slowly woke up from the pain.
She felt like there was something in her mouth and quickly spat it out.
Wood, pebbles, dirt...
Echidna's mind was blank, and she had no idea what had just happened.
"Dona Dona, you almost drowned just now."
"This is payback, Dona! You started a fire just now!"
"Um... are, are we going to be okay?"
"Who would have thought the great Witch of Greed would almost drown?"
"I'm so tired."
The voices of the five witches rang out instantly, and Echidna just felt a headache.
Damn, damn, damn!
What exactly happened?
Echidna vaguely remembered being flooded.
Wait, did Aqua cause the flood just now?
As her consciousness gradually cleared, Echidna remembered what had just happened.
Even in her prime, she could never have done something like that.
What kind of monster is Aqua...?
At the same time, Roswaal gradually woke up.
But as soon as he woke up, he saw Otto looking around for something.
"Kazuma-sama, I can't find a saw anywhere!"
Otto shouted loudly to Satou Kazuma.
"Useless goddess, hurry up and make a saw, can you make a chainsaw!"
"How can I turn into a chainsaw in this world? Do you think I'm a wishing well!"
Aqua complained as she walked to Roswaal's side.
The reason they were looking for a saw was to remove the magic-sealing stone on Roswaal's hand.
After all, the key was already lost, and with the flood, finding it would be even harder.
"I have an idea, like Kazuma did just now, get burned to a crisp first, pull your hand out, and then revive?"
Aqua seriously looked at Satou Kazuma and asked.
"There's no need to go to so much trouble, Aqua-sama."
Roswaal said with a forced smile on his face.
"But that would waste a lot of time!"
"Aqua-sama, I think we have plenty of time, I can wait a little longer."
"It might take a long time—"
"I can wait."
"..."
"Let's do it on the road, we need to leave the holy ground quickly. After all, these residents don't have homes, we need to get them back to the royal capital as soon as possible."
Satou Kazuma said.
......
Meanwhile, in the Volakia Empire, in a hidden cave.
Countless bodies were neatly stacked, as if a terrible slaughter had just taken place.
And a half-elf girl was standing among them, her body wrapped in a black robe.
She had almost the same appearance as other Ryuzu copies, but there was no emotion in her cute and delicate face.
It was as if she were just an emotionless puppet.
Sphinx.
Echidna's first experiment in transferring souls.
Also a failure.
She only inherited the worst parts of Echidna's soul.
Without emotion, she couldn't understand the emotions of others.
Sphinx only had one purpose in the world—to fill the emptiness in her heart and become as complete as her creator and mother.
She once started the demi-human war, but Sphinx didn't care who won.
The only thing Sphinx cared about was the result of the experiment.
The demi-human war was just an experiment for Sphinx.
An experiment about the Holy Rite of the Undead King.
This was a forbidden magic that could revive the dead as puppets, becoming beings called corpse soldiers.
Sphinx was researching the Holy Rite of the Undead King to bring the Witch of Greed, Echidna, back to the world.
But not just to revive her creator.
But to become the truly complete Echidna.
A container needs to match the soul. Only by having the Witch of Greed's body could she bring out the Witch of Greed's talents and power.
Sphinx was defeated in the demi-human war, with Roswaal's involvement.
But she didn't really die, but was secretly taken away by Leip Barielle.
Leip was Priscilla's former husband, the former leader of the Barielle family.
He was a high-ranking figure in Lugunica, who was previously in charge of matters related to the Dragon Stone.
Using the Dragon Stone, Leip foresaw Priscilla's identity and planned to use her candidate status and the secretly nurtured Sphinx to realize his ambitions.
But Leip was eventually defeated by Priscilla and Al and became senile, dying soon after.
The imprisoned Sphinx noticed something was wrong and used magic to escape.
Because she didn't know the identity of the new lord, Sphinx planned to lie low in the Barielle family's territory for a while—
That's what she originally intended.
But Sphinx met another person, who took her away from the Barielle territory, even away from Lugunica, and brought her to the Volakia Empire, giving her various support to conduct experiments on the Holy Rite of the Undead King.
Originally, Sphinx's body had been severely damaged during the demi-human war, and even after decades, it hadn't fully recovered, but the helper said just one sentence, and her body miraculously returned to its peak condition.
"You're so diligent, Sphinx~"
A gentle, feather-like voice rang out, and a girl with almost white hair appeared as if out of nowhere, standing in front of Sphinx.
She was covered in nothing but a white cloth, and her slender, clean bare feet stepped directly on the ground, without getting a speck of dust on them.
She always had a smile on her face, but no one could see through her thoughts.
"It's a necessary part of the experiment, must observe."
Sphinx said in an emotionless voice.
She didn't know why the other party was helping her do this, she only knew that the other party was related to the Witch Cult, but since their goals were the same, there was no problem with cooperating.
"Originally, you were supposed to cause a big stir in the empire a year from now, but now things have changed, and you might need to take action sooner."
The girl in white said in an extremely gentle tone,
"Because of unexpected circumstances, the Witch Cult is seriously short of manpower~ The most important thing is that there are now two uncontrollable people~ I'm sure you'll be interested, Sphinx."
"Interested?"
Sphinx's eyes moved to the other party.
"One person seems to have the ability to revive the dead~ And unlike your Holy Rite of the Undead King, it's true revival~ You'll definitely be interested."
"There is such a person, must observe."
"That person is also an obstacle to me, because we have common goals in many ways, we all want to create a true paradise, and you also have the title of 'witch', right?——I'm very much looking forward to your performance later."
The girl said with a smile, turning her head to look to the other side,
"The test subjects I brought you, you're using them well, right?"
At the end of her gaze, was a woman who should have died.
Hair as red as fire, and eyes as blue as the sea, seemed to have a golden glow.
"The person who can revive others exceeds the ability of the Holy Rite of the Undead King, must observe."
Sphinx muttered to herself, turning her head to look at the side, but the girl in white had already disappeared.
"Pandora..."
Sphinx only said this name, then turned her attention back to her experiment.
In front of her were several individuals with almost identical appearances to her.
......
One day later, the Royal Capital of Lugunica.
"Finally, finally back!"
Satou Kazuma almost collapsed the moment he entered the mansion.
It wasn't easy to move everyone from the holy ground to the royal capital, and he had to run back and forth several times, renting dragon carriages.
This also caused a lot of trouble for Felt, who was in charge of renovating the slums, as the workload of settling the refugees was not small.
Normally, Felt would definitely give Satou Kazuma a flying kick, but she was too busy right now and didn't have time to beat Satou Kazuma to vent her anger.
And Satou Kazuma was finally going to do something he had been looking forward to for a long time.
He directly pulled Echidna and rushed into his room—
"Quick, let's start that part!"