The Warden of The Witches

Experiment

Late at night, Aiden stood in the center of his fog-filled office, calmly observing the "anomalies" unfolding within.

The mist obscuring his vision suddenly dissipated, scattered files on the floor autonomously returned to their shelves, fallen paintings levitated back onto the walls, spilled coffee rewound back into its cup, and the items on his desk resettled into their original positions.

Moments ago, he had experimented with the "Return" divine incantation he had mastered within his office.

Though he had firsthand experience of the effectiveness and value of divine incantations from his battle with Priscilla, it was only today that he earnestly delved into studying and practicing the effects of this particular incantation.

Speaking a divine incantation with one's physical body required transforming the vocal cords into an extreme state. For someone like him, who could manipulate his body without experiencing the associated pain, each use of the divine incantation felt like a sharp blade slicing through his throat. Thus, he couldn't casually play with this incantation or use it as a tool for lazily tidying up his room.

Aiden paced back and forth in his office, verifying the effects of the divine incantation.

The earlier mist, created by dark magic, had also been dispersed by the incantation. This dark magic could completely obscure others' vision, and providing the user with better sight but also subjecting them to significant influences.

Intentionally disordered items had mostly returned to their original positions, and the floor had become much cleaner than before—Aiden had noticed paper scraps on the ground flying into the trash can on their own.

This reversion effect sometimes surpassed the limits achievable by ordinary human effort. Even ink splattered on paper and coffee spilled on the floor would rewind like time itself, returning to their original places—yet, he wasn't too keen on drinking that coffee.

He then circled back to the front of his desk, carefully inspecting the documents arranged on its surface.

Among them was a copy sent over for review by the HR department. Aiden reached out to pick up the document but ended up only grasping a fragment.

Narrowing his eyes, he ran his finger across the paper, splitting it into several pieces—it had always been fragmented, but it was expertly pieced together to appear whole at a glance.

Before using the divine incantation, Aiden had deliberately torn this document into pieces and crumpled them together. With the incantation's influence, the document fragments smoothed out and intricately reassembled.

Glancing at the waste basket, alongside this document, several other useless scraps of paper had been torn and crumpled together. Unlike the document, these scraps had not been meticulously reassembled but had all autonomously tumbled into the waste basket.

Aiden then picked up a kettle filled with boiling water, intending to pour it on the floor, but not a drop flowed from the spout.

He stared at the clock, maintaining this pose for quite a while, until finally water streamed out of the kettle's spout, splashing on the floor. Aiden quickly leveled the kettle once more.

This time, he measured the duration of the divine incantation's effect—approximately around thirty seconds.

Ah, that's how it is... Aiden felt like he had grasped a bit of the boundary of this incantation's effect.

The efficacy of the divine incantation depended on the caster's subjective judgment. For Aiden, a crumpled paper transformed by the incantation mean the document was useful while the waste paper was not. Therefore, the incantation aimed to restore the document to its original state as much as possible, while all the waste paper was tossed into the bin.

However, although the document "reverted" to its original position, its damaged state remained unhealed.

Extending this to dark magic, in the case of this "Revert" divine incantation, it could dispel magic and revert some magical effects to their state before activation. Yet, it likely couldn't repair the predetermined harm caused by dark magic on the target.

When Priscilla had initially used a sustained form of mental magic on him, once the spell was dispelled, his senses and mind would return to their original state. However, if at that moment Priscilla's spell had inflicted irreversible damage on his mind or she had directly aimed a gun at him, this "return" divine incantation would have been powerless.

In other words, this divine incantation can only serve as a means of dispelling or purifying during battles and cannot be used as a healing support skill.

Apart from this, through several previous attempts, Aiden has roughly determined the scope of this divine incantation—it centers around the caster, extending to approximately five meters, within a space that the caster's consciousness can perceive.

For instance, the current scope of the divine incantation is actually larger than this office, but because Aiden cannot directly sense the state outside the office, the incantation can only take effect within this workspace.

He had inquired with Priscilla about her experience when he previously used this divine incantation on her. Priscilla had felt a force attempting to pull her spirit out of Rebecca's body, but ultimately, the incantation did not work, likely due to Priscilla's body being beyond the range of the incantation.

Honestly, this divine incantation that is effective for dispelling dark magic, is quite powerful. To some extent, it could even achieve a "mage killer" effect.

However, his incantation has limitations in terms of effectiveness, range, and duration. While it may surpass dark magic, it may not necessarily work against other divine incantations.

In Aiden's estimation, his chances of winning against an opponent like the witch Vera should be relatively high.

However, if facing Abigail or "that person"...

No, he might not even be able to defeat Lamia and Chimera, who also wield divine incantations.

The Divine words is the authority of the gods, indicating its power surely exceeds this.

Yet, in his hands, the effect of this divine incantation can only be considered a useful purification spell, likely due to his limited strength as the user.

Even the sturdiest and sharpest axe, when wielded by a powerless child, cannot chop through a thick tree trunk.

He remembered Mephilia mentioning that the effects of divine incantations would enhance as an individual mastered other divine incantations under the same authority.

By mastering three sentence under the same authority, obtaining the corresponding "unique authority," and completing the corresponding ascension ceremony, one could directly become a dominator...

Due to his inability to fathom Mephilia true intentions, Aiden remained cautious of her advice. When Mephilia had spoken before, he had not given a direct response.

However, one thing Mephilia said was true: if he did not find a way to master as many divine incantations as possible, his situation would inevitably become very challenging.

Mephilia may have ulterior motives, but she seems inclined to have Aiden approach the authority of a ruler—of course, this could be for her own gain, but for Aiden, this manipulation could prove advantageous.

Although he is bargaining with a tiger, at least for now, the tiger is on his side.

Determined, Aiden picked up the lantern and once again opened the entrance to the underground passage.