Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch.100)
Blurb:
What does it take to turn your life around? Death, of course!
I died in this lame ass world of ours and woke up in a completely new one. I had a new name, a new face and a new body. This was my second chance to live a better life than the previous one.
But goddamn it, why did I have to be a witch? Now I don't just have to be on the run from the Inquisition that wants to burn me and my friends. But I also have to earn a living?
Follow Elsa Grimly as she:
- Makes new friends and tries to save them and herself from getting burned
- Finds redemption from the deeds of her previous life
- Tries to get along with a cat who (like most cats) believes she runs the world
- Deals with other slice of life shenanigans.
--
Chapter 100. Vortex
There must've been at least fifty people that I buried alive that day. Probably more. And I only had them to blame for it. Damn them for not letting me escape. Damn them for pinning me down like a hen on a cutting board. Damn them for thinking I'd let them get away with pawing at my body like a bunch of rabid animals. And damn this bitch Merryweather for thinking I was anything like her. Damn her for thinking I enjoyed killing and enslaving others.
I felt multiple invisible hands tugging at my souls, as if they were animals that I'd roused at once by pulling at their leash. The floor that we stood on turned smoky black, as if we had stepped onto a misty night sky. These were nothing but all the abysses of the dead ones accumulating under my feet. Then their bodies materialized out of the black smoke.
"Master," their collective voices echoed at once.
Merryweather's pale face somehow turned paler. "H-How?"
I didn't care about her astonishment. I didn't care about the fact that I held all the power in this little battle between us right now. Not because I was riding some ecstatic wave of power. But because the power I held in my hands right now seemed to weigh down on my very soul like a heavy boulder.
My tongue refused to move and making my lips shape any words at all felt like a feat and a half.
I could feel it, the overwhelming potential of my malice rising high enough to burn me from inside out. I had to assert my control over it again or I would succumb to a malice illness I may not recover from. I clenched my fists and focused all my malice of knowledge into my throat, the sheer intensity of it almost singed my vocal chords. And when I spoke, my words sounded like a foreign language.
"I yearn for the knowledge...to control all that death abandons..." I uttered with the effort of heaving open a thick stone door.
Merryweather was visibly terrified now. "You stubborn wench. You don't know what you are doing!" She yelled at me.
My hexonomicon flew out of my reticule and fell at my feet, opening to the page of Liberation Ritual.
The words 'Supplementary Spell: ....................' had appeared on the page.
My overexertion of my malice to summon so many abyssal servants at once had turned this entire scenario into an enhancement ritual. My mind was growing foggier. I had to put an end to this right now. I held my still bleeding hand over the page and dripped a few drops of blood.
With my voice still charged with my malice I said, "Vortex..."
"That's it, I'm leaving," Merryweather whirled in her spot.
But all the abysses merged into a single big, mass of shadows that enveloped the entire room in their bottomless darkness.
And then, the unexpected happened. Someone began laughing. It wasn't me.
"Magnificent!" the foreign voice declared. "What a magnificent sight!"
I was still in my half-dazed state. The voice seemed to reverberate inside my head. And I saw a dark figure sitting upon a glass throne with entire universes swirling within it. "My little servant, you've done it."
My mind cleared just enough to acknowledge that the voice was feminine.
"You've done such a magnificent job," she said and lifted one hand that was obscured in shadows. The vortex whirling around us was sucked into the palm of her hand, leaving only translucent walls that looked like they were made of gauze. I faintly heard the sound of gears turning and the rattle of chains.
"The first lock has come off," the voice said, laughing.
"I-Impossible," Merryweather said from somewhere.
The laughter stopped. "I would obliterate you if I wasn't locked here." Then the head obscured by shadows turned to me. "But I can bless you for your magnificent work. Your malice. It is going to melt your brains inside your head after what you just did. Let me take care of that for you." I felt an icy cold finger touch my forehead like a kiss of death. It was oddly comforting, as if I was resting my head in my mother's lap, although neither I nor old Elsa had ever got a chance to do that. But this is what it must feel like for other people.
The fog lifted and everything came into view. And I saw her, sitting there on her throne.
She didn't have a face. But her entire being was like a silhouette painted upon the fabric of reality itself. She didn't need an introduction. I knew who she was right away.
"You've made your Ruler happy," she said. "I knew I could trust you when I blessed you with my powers. Make sure you find a way to use that key soon. Farewell, my servant."
There was a click. And we were back inside the building where I had killed all those people.
I collapsed to my knees the moment I was back in Orowen.
Merryweather casted a terrified gaze at me before she turned and fled.
I couldn't even care enough that she was leaving. Especially now that I was strong enough to actually kill her.
My eyes were fixed on my hexonomicon in front of me. The words in front of the Supplementary Spell now read: Vortex.
I'd enhanced the Liberation Ritual. I'd made the Ruler of the Abyss stronger.
My lips quivered and I mumbled, "What have I done?"
--
When I rose to my feet and began walking, I moved like a ghost. I didn't know where I was headed. When my brain felt like it was in control of my body again, I found myself shaking Nemo by his collar. And tears blinded my vision. "Do you know what I did?! Do you know what happened because you couldn't let go of your vice? Are you going to wash the blood on my hands?! You have a son, goddamnit. Was the booze more important to you than your own child?!" I slapped him. Then I slapped him again. And again. And again.
He didn't resist the beating. Even the son just kept staring numbly at me sobbing wretchedly while I beat his father.
"Answer me! Don't you care what you do with your life?!" I said desperately.
He just stared at me with his dead tired eyes and his voice was like a whisper that a soul gives while abandoning its mortal shell. "What life?"
My fingers grew weak. My hands let go of his shirt and he thumped to the floor. Tears kept rolling down my face, I looked at the child. His face was still as a mask. His eyes, that should've been innocent, were instead vacant, defeated, resigned.
I couldn't stand it. I couldn't do anything. I didn't have the power to change any of it. So I ran out of there.
I ran and I kept running until I found a carriage and gave the driver my address in an unsteady voice. He gave my tear botched face a weird look but was decent enough to not ask me what had happened. I was grateful. I couldn't tell anyone. I just wanted to go home.
Home. Where Lily was. Where madam was. I wouldn't tell them anything. They don't need to know. I'll be the Elsa they know. I'll be the Elsa they want me to be. Not...this...this...
More tears ran down my cheeks.
I paid the driver once we were back in the Burning Bend. I rushed inside my house, hoping everyone was home.
"Lily? Madam?" I called out. "I'm home. Where are you?"
I called out for them several times. No one answered. My heart was starting to sink. I didn't want to be alone.
That's when Lenora came downstairs. "Elsa? What happened?" she said with concern.
With a ragged sob I rushed into her arms. "I...I don't want to be alone, Nora. I...I don't..."
Lenora put her arms around me instantly and held me close. "You aren't alone, Elsa. I'm right here." She gently led me towards the sofa.
I clung to her as we sat down.
"You want to talk about it?" she said to me softly.
I sniffled. "I don't know if I can," I said.
"Then you don't have to, Elsa," she said. "Not until you feel like you want to." She gently patted my back.
I let out a trembling sigh and sank further into her embrace. I didn't know when my head ended up on her lap, but I didn't want to leave her comfort. She didn't say anything. And she let the silence linger, letting it sit with us.
I sniffled and said, "Lenora, if I tell you something, do you promise me to not tell anyone about it?"
"I promise," she said without hesitation.
I looked at the mark of the Liberation Ritual on my hand--it was still bleeding. I bit my lip. I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I couldn't tell her that I wasn't the real Elsa. I wasn't anything that she or Lily or madam thought I was. But I knew keeping the truth buried was going to kill me a little each day. I had to tell someone. If not the whole truth, then at least some of it.
"Lenora...I never thought I could be a good person. Or even a person that deserved anything good in life," I said. "Then something strange happened. Suddenly, I had everything that I didn't think I deserved. I decided I wouldn't let it go to waste. But...but I'm scared, Lenora. The thing that gave me all of that might just destroy me. I wouldn't be the kind of person I want to be. I would lose everything that I worked so hard to protect. I don't want to lose any of it. But, I...I know I'm not as strong as I think I am. I know I let things push me to do bad things. And when things reach that point I end up doing something I'd decided I wouldn't do." I clenched my marked hand into a fist. Blood seeped through the space between my fingers.
Lenora was silent for a long time, as if letting me process what I had just said. I didn't insist on her to answer me. I was just glad that she had let me speak. That she still sat here while I cried like a baby on her lap.
"I won't tell you that you wouldn't lose what you are trying to protect," she said. Her statement made me perk up. Then she said, "But I would tell you to be kind to yourself. You were kind to me when you helped me. You were kind to Cynthia and Rowland. I want you to direct that same kindness to yourself." With a gentle rub on my shoulder, she said, "You are allowed to not be perfect, Elsa. You are not a sum of your flaws."
"I-I'm not?" I looked up at her.
She smiled. "You aren't.” She touched my fist. The contact loosened my fingers like a key opening a lock. Lenora pulled out a handkerchief and tied it around my bleeding palm. “You are my dearest friend. Not because you are someone who you pretend to be. But because of who you are. And I won't let you forget that."
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Posted Feb 12, 2026, 12:12 PM UTC