Editing Leviathan:Volume 7 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 4===

"At last&mdash;It's over for now, huh?"

After some time, Asya could finally take a break and relax.

Although it took quite some work, Asya finally wiped out every Raptor that Pavel Galad had left inside the barrier.

This was after the three witches and three leviathans had returned to the Earth together.

Asya and Rushalka had used the Rune of the Bow to attack the flock of Raptors with sweeping fire for ten-odd minutes. Then after that, she watched out for reinforcements but no signs showed up even after ten minutes.

Hence, it was worth it for her to stay behind on purpose to help her companions retreat.

The white desert stretched endlessly towards the gray sky. Right now, there were no living creatures in this extremely bizarre world apart from herself and Rushalka. At least, within her vision.

Holding the rear to help everyone else escape&mdash;

Asya made the call that this job must be left to her.

"That being said, the price is I have to stay back alone. There was no other way," she told herself.

Back then, no one else could complete this task. Also, there was one reason that she could not ignore.

"I wouldn't be able to sleep at night unless I repaid my debt to Luna."

The reason for Rushalka and Glinda suffering heavy wounds during this battle.

In particular, Asya was to blame due to her mistake. Back then, she had taken action with the belief she could wipe out all the enemies surrounding Glinda in one fell swoop&mdash;In the end, two enemies survived.

This caused the two master-class witches' partners to suffer severe injuries.

"Luna is so smart. I'm sure she noticed."

The two of them were equals. Even if Hazumi and Orihime did not notice, Luna Francois must have discerned Asya's mistake.

Rather than getting mocked by Luna for this later, it would be better to settle the score upfront first.

She would be lying if she denied having such thoughts. Hence, Asya had left the group discreetly to take on this responsibility.

The rightful star of the battlefield, Shootdown Ace Asya, must tend to this backstage role&mdash;

"......"

No. Actually, there was another option.

Heroically making playthings out of the approaching Raptors in the air, then accelerating swiftly during the seven or eight seconds before her friends returned to Earth, descending. Meeting up with them at the last second to return as one group&mdash;

Too early a descent and she would end up drawing the enemies to her friends.

She needed Rushalka to fly faster than every other leviathan without any miscalculation in timing. Asya and her partner should be up to this task.

However.

Instead of doing that, Asya chose the safe route.

She had a premonition. She might be a fraction of a second late in timing her descent, or she might fail to make Rushalka fly at her rightful top speed.

"My sensitivity and magical power has dulled a little, even though in all honesty it is just a tiny bit..."

Under the gray sky, Asya was standing alone in this abnormally white desert.

Perhaps only because no one could hear her talking to herself, Asya was able to voice these words. Finally admitting her long-held doubt, the words slipped out of her mouth.

The self-hypnosis to improve feminine prowess. Loss of appetite as an apparent side effect.

Along with that came doubts of "My power as a witch seems to have weakened!?"

Many symptoms had came up over the past month or so, but Asya had relegated things to the back burner because they had survived the intense battle against dragon king Hannibal.

More importantly&mdash;She was reluctant to admit it.

It was precisely thanks to the feminine prowess granted by that hypnosis spell that she had found the opportunity to make a comeback on the romance front.

She had not dared to consider the possibility of this magic having side effects. But this time, the hypnosis' effect surfaced to the forefront in this manner...

"I'm so hungry."

Gurgle rumble rumble rumble. Her stomach growled for the first time in a long while.

After using hypnosis magic, Asya's stomach had never growled. Most likely, it was injured Rushalka's feedback of pain that had caused her witch nature to become exposed.

What an annoying noise.

Asya desired nourishment intensely. Calories, fulfillment&mdash;The source of magic.

"Urghhhh. But all my earlier efforts would be for nothing if the spell fell apart now..."

Asya was wearing her usual military jacket.

The jacket was not cute at all, the furthest thing from feminine. But it was durable and she did not need to worry about getting it dirty. In addition, it featured Asya's own clever design.

She had added several secret pockets to the inner lining.

Due to force of habit over many years&mdash;These pockets always carried small packets of food at all times.

Ten-odd candies, biscuits, heat-resistant chocolate commonly issued as part of US military rations, assorted dried fruits and nuts, cereal bars, beef jerky, crackers, powdered milk, niboshi, sports youkan, energy jelly, seasonings such as salt, pepper, and sugar...

Even after her appetite was reduced to a normal person's, Asya still replenished and replaced the food in her jacket.

She never found the chance to wean this habit. Or perhaps somewhere in the back of her mind, she was worried whether this food might come in handy ''one day''.

Rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble.

A low noise. Her stomach growling again. This was the longest rumble yet.

At least I'll have a candy&mdash;Just as Asya reached for her secret pocket, she shook her head forcefully a few times. All would be lost if she ate this.

She was informed by instinct. That candy could very well render her hypnosis magic to lose effect.

If she were to lose her hard-earned feminine prowess, her life could very well become hopeless!

"I get the feeling it won't succeed even if I tried to hypnotize myself again..." Asya murmured.

This was her instinct as a witch. Conversely, if hypnosis could be applied repeatedly&mdash;That would be quite dangerous too. After all, it was powerful hypnosis capable of altering personalities, a kind of brainwashing, even leading to the possible collapse of one's ego...

"A-Anyway!"

She raised her voice in an attempt to distract herself from hunger.

Asya suddenly raised her right arm. Rushalka flew down from the sky, but not in her usual giant body length of ten-odd meters. Asya had shrunk her down to roughly one third in size.

The severed wing had been restored successfully.

It was all thanks to Hazumi and Minadzuki's healing magic.

Asya had already cast Leaping Power Enhancement on herself. Light as a swallow, she jumped nimbly onto Rushalka's back.

Next, she was going to travel, riding on her wyvern partner's back.

In front of her was the mysterious set of ruins resembling an open-pit mine. Her destination was the bottom of the pit, over five hundred meters deep by visual estimates.

"By strengthening the Rune of the Sword, Pavel Galad was able to oppose Haruomi's whose power had risen to the point of matching Hannibal..."

Earlier, a blue spark had shot out from the bottom of the ruins.

This was what produced the Rune of the Sword and the reason why Asya and her companions had fought such a difficult battle.

"If the secret of the power up is as I suspect..."

There was no other witch here to aid her in using the Rune of the Twin Katana to execute the technique of the rivalry of complementary opposites, so she had no way of escaping this dimension either. In that case, satisfying her own curiosity would be more constructive.

Hence, Asya and her partner took flight, making her way to confirm whether her hypothesis was correct or not.