The Witch Hunter System
chapter-869

Shortly after Vaan circled the hole area for a few moments, the Death Eaters and their shroud of darkness departed the surface. They returned to Crown's Nest quietly and ghostly.

Since their target had fled the Garden of Thyia, the Death Eaters lost their reason to linger around the hole.

"I need to go and check on the person who came through this hole, Senior. I'll be right back," Vaan promised.

"Alright," Senior Willowthorn readily acknowledged with a nod.

The Elder Spirit didn't seem to have any misgivings about Vaan possibly leaving-only to return with a strong force to plunder the Garden of Thyia's treasures and its innocent residents.

Clearly, the Elder Spirit trusted Vaan despite their short meeting. More accurately, the Elder Spirit trusted the karmic aura of Varuna's life on him and Emerald's choice.

Shortly after Vaan entered the hole and left the Garden of Thyia, it didn't take him long to locate Hecate, a short fifteen kilometers away from the garden's surface. Her face was visibly pale, having recently experienced the shock of her life.

However, Vaan couldn't blame her for having lingering fear after such a close encounter with the Death Eaters.

After all, Hecate had been a Great Devil for thousands of years; she was one of the strongest beings in Gehenna, and few things could threaten her life. Moreover, such things only existed in places like the uninhabitable territories or the Sea of Darkness.

Who would have known that she would encounter grave danger from looking for him in the subterranean region?

"Are you alright, Lady Hecate?" Vaan inquired.

"Sir Vaan? Thank goodness, you are alright," Hecate uttered with surprise before doubtfully asking, "But... those Death Eaters didn't hunt you when you entered the secret realm?" "Fortunately, no," Vaan answered with a shake of his head before seriously requesting, "I hope you will keep everything you discovered in the hidden realm a secret, Lady Hecate." "That much, I can do, of course," Hecate readily agreed, saying, "Since you discovered the hidden realm first, everything inside naturally belongs to you, Sir Vaan."

"Moreover, the opportunities within will undoubtedly be of great assistance in raising your strength to stand on equal footing with the other Great Devils sooner rather than later."

"I have no reason to share or sell such precious information with them," Hecate honestly declared.

Even if Vaan encouraged her to, she still wouldn't dare to do it.

After all, she couldn't imagine what kind of disaster would befall Gehenna if the Death Eaters were unleashed as a result of others trying to unearth the treasures within the hidden realm due to their greed.

"Thank you, Lady Hecate," Vaan said gratefully.

Although he knew she wouldn't do such a thing and his words weren't nice to hear, some things still had to be said and made clear due to their sheer importance.

After all, if the existence of the Garden of Thyia were exposed to the outside world, at worst, he would only lose the chance to monopolize the opportunities within. So long as he was alive, countless opportunities awaited him; he could do without one.

However, it was a matter of life or death for all the Wood Spirits living within the Garden of Thyia.

As such, he would rather not risk it and had to make sure Hecate was on the same page. "Still, I can't believe there would be such powerful Death Eaters hiding in such a secluded realm brimming with life. It is rather contradictory and unnatural," Hecate suddenly mentioned.

"I'm afraid those weren't even the most powerful Death Eaters you encountered from there," Vaan commented before asking with interest, "Are these Death Eaters common in Chaos, Lady Hecate?"

"Common?" Hecate's lips curled with amusement before replying, "More like extremely rare. Within the whole Skymagia Star Kingdom, I can't even name one place that hosts such deathly beings."

"In fact, the Shadowcage Territory's Sea of Darkness is probably the only place within the entire Skymagia Star Kingdom that could possibly nurture and accommodate Death Eaters."

"After all, these deathly beings are said to be paranormal existences born from pure death energy. Unless it's in a place like the Sea of Darkness, they wouldn't even exist, let alone survive for long."

"Of course, help from a user of Death Law or a special storage treasure of death energy could allow them to thrive outside of such places. That said, I have never heard of any Death Eaters dwelling in the Sea of Darkness or that Lord Thanatos was raising them..."

"Thus, it was quite unexpected to find them here, of all places," Hecate frowned.

Vaan could guess Hecate's thoughts and couldn't help but share the same feeling.

It was quite baffling that someone called the Goddess of Life would have anything associated with death, let alone have an entire hive of Death Eaters guarding her inheritance. Evidently, there was more to Goddess Thyia than what the Elder Spirit knew about her. She couldn't just be the Goddess of Life.

Perhaps Goddess Thyia had also comprehended the Death Law.

After all, learning the Death Law would be far easier than learning any other law if she had already mastered the Life Law.

It was just like how a doctor could save lives but also take them just as easily or how medicine could also be poison.

They were two sides of the same coin; the only difference was the application.

"As far as I am aware, you haven't always been a resident of Gehenna, Lady Hecate," Vaan suddenly mentioned before guessing, "Perhaps there's a part of its history that even you don't know about."

"Are you suggesting that the Death Eaters in this hidden realm might have been part of the Sea of Darkness in the distant past, Sir Vaan?" Hecate asked with interest before frowning in wonder, "But who would move them to such a wood element-rich secret realm, and for what purpose?"

Vaan was silent for a moment before asking, "Lady Hecate, have you ever heard of Goddess Thyia, the Goddess of Life?"

"Goddess Thyia...?" Hecate blanked for a moment before her casual expression greatly changed with great astonishment and alarm as she exclaimed, "Did you just say Goddess

Thyia?!"

"

Vaan was immediately taken aback by Hecate's strong reaction to the name. However, he also

got his answer thanks to it.

It seemed Goddess Thyia had been quite a prominent figure.