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On the outskirts, towering trees stood guard, while deeper within lie eerie, blue-tinged lakes. Parts of the exposed land were dotted with bizarre plants, some even glowing with an ominous blue light, like giant poisonous mushrooms. Occasionally, bones — some human, others beastly — lie scattered, overgrown with moss.

This place was a sanctuary for the wicked and a graveyard for the living. The sporadic bubbles rising from the swamp seemed to forewarn of its peril.

At the heart of this treacherous expanse was a dense thicket, where faint flickers of firelight could be seen. From within, eerie and maniacal laughter echoes.

“Ah! Perfect! A knight with a fully awakened life seed! He will make the ideal ingredient for my potion!” the Swamp Witch cackled, her orange eyes glowing with fervor as the bone spurs protruding from her back quivered in excitement.

“The potion I can brew from him will be teeming with vitality, restoring my youthful looks and suppressing the malignant effects of my magic. I will look human again!”

The Swamp Witch, though twisted in form, with skin mottled in shades of green and pink, exuding a stench of mud and rotting fish, was not always like this.

Once, she had been a resident of Long Eagle Territory, a beautiful woman like any other. But when her family was slain by water demons, she sought forbidden power, stealing the notes and potions of a local shaman.

After years of experimentation on herself, her strength grew immeasurably — but at a dire cost. She became a monstrosity.

As her power grew, so did her thirst for vengeance. She massacred countless water demons, leaving the swamps littered with their corpses. Her revenge was so complete that even the demons began to fear her.

However, the thrill of slaughter soon wore thin. Ironically, she eventually took many water demons into her service.

Over the years, her retinue expanded to include not only water demons but also mist creatures and blood-sucking bats.

Her twisted mind, corrupted by the potions she consumed, grew ever more deranged. She would even occasionally mate with the water demons, earning her a reputation as a vile and despicable witch.

In the records that Rhodes delivered to Richard, she was described thus: “It is said that the Swamp Witch is the consort of the water demons. If true, she truly is a despicable wretch!”

Oblivious to the slander from the outside world, the witch cared only for one thing — power and beauty. “Durand, do you seek the knight’s life seed so you can revert to your human form and abandon us?” asked Hogan, the leader of the water demons, his green eyes glinting with suspicion.

The witch sneered. “Fool! Do you think I would ever choose to return to the disgusting existence of a human?”

“Really? You don’t want to be human again? Besides, we seem far filthier than any human…” Hogan’s eyes gleamed with a mix of humor and uncertainty.

“Idiot! It’s humans who are filthy on the inside!” The witch’s eyes flared with anger.

“I rid Long Eagle Territory of the swamp’s threats. I slaughtered the water demons! Yet those humans wouldn’t take me back!”

“Then why didn’t you destroy them when they had no lord? They were weak, ripe for slaughter.” Hogan asked, his voice now openly suspicious.

“Killing such worthless pigs would’ve been a waste of my time and energy! You imbeciles murdered my family, and I came for vengeance!”

“That was Ace and the others, not me! If I’d been involved, you wouldn’t have spared me, nor would you have… rewarded me with your favor, right?” Hogan’s eyes glinted with smugness.

Before he could finish, the Swamp Witch slapped him to the ground. “That was a gift from me, worm! Don’t forget your place! When did I ever need to explain myself to you?” she sneered.

Turning her gaze to her potion shelf, she mused.

Yes, she had lied to him. She longed to regain her human beauty.

She remembered stories of a witch who, with the right potion, seduced a king and became queen. That witch even possessed a magical mirror that could answer any question about the world. Oh, how she yearned for such power…

“Stop lying there like a dead fish!” The witch kicked Hogan, sending him skidding across the muddy ground. “Tell your underlings to avoid the human towns for a while. I need time to brew potions specifically to deal with knights!”

Though Hogan’s eyes flashed with anger, he bowed his head and slunk away. The witch watched him leave, smirking. She tapped the edge of a worn wooden table, summoning a vampire bat. It flapped in through the open door.

“I’m out of materials. Go gather more! I need ingredients for weakness potions, fatigue potions, toxins, and paralyzing agents…”

The bat hesitated. “It would be faster if you just told me what to collect.”

Irritated, the witch pulled out a tattered list. “Spider crab excrement, corpse infant hair, ghoul eyeballs, deformed spider silk, tsetse fly mouthparts… As much as you can find!”

The bat seemed frozen in place, memorizing the strange items on the list. After a moment, it spoke. “Some of these will be hard to get. We’ll need the mist demons’ help.”

The witch turned and bellowed into the fog. “Bowie, you filthy wretch! Take your lackeys and follow the bat to collect materials!”

A raspy voice responded from the mist. “Understood.”

With that, the bat flew off, soon joined by a swarm of bats that blotted out the light in the witch’s chamber.

“Filthy creatures, blocking my view! How am I supposed to work like this?!” she cursed as the bats vanished into the distance, and the dim light returned.

Looking at the jars and bottles scattered around her, the witch grinned wickedly. “Soon, very soon… Just a few more ingredients, and my potions will be ready. Perhaps I can even sneak into the human city. They say that knight is fond of beautiful women… That will make things easy.”

Though she could not completely return to her human form, she could use her potions to temporarily suppress the curse within her. With a little makeup and a clever disguise, the knight would be hers to manipulate.

“He has some knightly attendants too, doesn’t he? While they lack life seeds, their vitality might be enough to help me feel even younger.”

The witch’s grotesque face contorted into a hideous grin.