Rewrite That Witch
CH999 · Rewrite
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Chapter 999: Witness the Glory

Roland and the witches convened in the conference hall at Neverwinter.

The room was quiet and worried — particularly Agatha and Phyllis. What Kabradhabi had given them was not merely disturbing intelligence. It was a reordering of the entire shape of the war.

The fighting had lasted hundreds of years. Thousands had died. Humanity had lost the vast majority of its territory and compressed itself into one corner of the Land of Dawn. And now: they were not the demons’ primary enemy. On the far side of the continent, something called the Sky-sea Realm was locking the demon army’s main force in a war that showed no sign of ending. Humanity had survived not because of its own strength, but because the demons were occupied elsewhere.

For the Taquila witches — who had given four centuries to this fight — that was a blow that went deeper than strategy.

The Witch Union and Sleeping Spell members, watching their faces, felt the weight press down on the room.

In the recent battle, humanity had taken the offensive for the first time — struck at a demon outpost and achieved a record victory at almost no cost. But that victory had depended on serendipity. The demons had not understood their opponent. The First Army had seen through the ambush and chosen a fight that favored them. That combination was not reproducible. In a longer war, with rising casualties, humanity — already bled of land and population — had a shrinking chance of winning anything.

“Perhaps Kabradhabi invented it all,” Wendy said carefully. She knew how the silence was bending and said what needed to be said. “No one has been to the far side of the continent. Who can say whether any of it is true? Maybe we shouldn’t dwell on it before we can verify—”

No one answered her.

Agatha met her eyes with something grateful. “Although Kabradhabi likely exaggerated, I don’t think it was fabricating. Especially not in those first moments after the soul transfer, when it could barely control its own body and had no time to construct a story. The details it gave us at the start were consistent with everything that followed. To sustain that coherence under those conditions, it would have needed to rehearse the lie for a very long time. I don’t think that’s what happened.” She paused. “Zooey will have felt it too.”

“So you’re saying the legacy shard information is real?” Scroll asked.

“Yes. If I understand Kabradhabi correctly — any species can enhance itself by consuming the shard that corresponds to their civilization. The relics of gods.” Agatha assembled her thoughts carefully. “If the demons could eliminate humanity once and for all, why haven’t they? There’s only one answer: they genuinely can’t. Not yet.”

The room absorbed this.

During the first Battle of Divine Will, the demons had been uncivilized — and still the human kingdoms had failed to unite. The war had dragged on for decades. The underground civilization had made contact with humanity during that time, though what came of it was unclear. By the second Battle of Divine Will, the demons had grown enormously stronger and driven the Union out of the Fertile Plains entirely.

If upgrades delivered the kind of advantage Kabradhabi implied, the demons should have pressed that advantage to its limit — overwhelmed humanity and seized the human relic before another rival could take it. The fact that they hadn’t was its own evidence.

“We truly underestimated them,” Phyllis said, her voice carrying a quiet grief. “For four hundred years, the Union focused on the territory it knew — the Land of Dawn, the familiar ruins, the patterns we’d already mapped. We never asked what the rest of the continent looked like. We never asked what else was out there.”

“What does the other side of the continent look like?” Roland asked.

“I’ve only read about it in ancient books.” Phyllis reached back into memory. “An extremely barren place — numerous mountain ranges, sheer cliffs. The average altitude is far higher than the Land of Dawn. And tens of kilometers across the sea, there’s another landmass — though the two are actually connected by a vast mountain range that sits mostly submerged. You can only see it at low tide. According to legend, the demons came to the Land of Dawn through that passage.”

Roland touched his chin.

That sounds familiar.

It arrived like a lightning strike: Thunder. The Shadow Waters. A seaside plateau, a great cliff, a stone gate embedded in the rock face — though Phyllis hadn’t mentioned a gate. Had Thunder’s exploration team somehow reached the continent on the far side? The Shadow Sea lay to the east of Neverwinter, but the land Phyllis described was supposedly northwest of where demons originated. On a spherical world, a telescope pointed across the Shadow Sea shouldn’t be able to show the far side of another continent. The geometry didn’t work.

Unless it isn’t geometry. Unless something else is happening there.

He noticed Tilly watching him from across the table — that particular stillness she had when she was holding a thought parallel to his. She had been in the Shadow Islands ruins. She’d seen the underwater stone tower. She knew what he was thinking.

The building in the Shadow Islands wasn’t built by the Union. But it was clearly positioned to observe something beyond the sea. Who built it? Why there?

I need to give Thunder a real mission this time — not a quick survey. A proper investigation.

“Your Majesty?”

He came back to the room. Agatha was watching him with a sympathy that, for a moment, he didn’t understand.

“You were frowning,” she said. “Please don’t worry too much. I know this news is heavy. But we still have hope.” She spoke quietly, as though offering something she herself needed to believe. “When I woke from the Frozen Coffin, you told me humanity was going to defeat the demons. I still believe that. Even if it takes several generations.”

“Yes.” Phyllis followed her lead. “We’re close to the Taquila ruins now. Once we destroy the demons’ base there, they won’t be able to build new obelisks for another four hundred years. Even if humanity ultimately fails — it isn’t your fault. You’ve already done more than the Three Chiefs managed.”

Roland blinked.

They think I was frightened.

He had been frowning at a puzzle — the Shadow Islands, the ruins, Thunder’s survey — and they had read grief into it and started building him a scaffolding of encouragement.

He shook his head, and the laugh that came out of him was genuine. “The worst outcome would be spending the rest of my life curled up in one corner and leaving the problem for later generations. That’s not my plan. Besides—” he let the smile stay, “I probably can’t live long enough for that. I’d rather defeat every competitor and solve the mystery myself. Now that sounds like fun.”

Most of the witches looked uncertain. Anna watched him with the particular expression she had when she already knew the answer.

“Since you remember that I said humanity would defeat the demons,” Roland looked at Phyllis, “do you remember the rest of what I said?”

She didn’t answer immediately.

“Real power doesn’t fill the world with darkness,” he said. “It dispels the darkness. It’s willing to burn itself to light the way — like the sun.” He didn’t give anyone time to respond. “I wasn’t making a rhetorical point to Kabradhabi. I meant it. Against a power like that — against something as vast and relentless as sunlight — everything burns. Including demons.” He looked across the room. “You’ll witness it. All of you. Together with me.”

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