The teleportation circle heading back to Hallbach Queendom's castle was destroyed by mysterious means. Axel couldn't believe what happened, but quickly snapped back to reality.

"Damn! Return Scrolls! You have one for going back to the castle, right?!"

"Y-Yes! I'll fetch some immediately!"

Even Henrietta was starting to panic.

After all, it should've been impossible to destroy a magic circle that was set up without physically breaking it. However, the circle shattered right before their eyes, undeniably broken.

Moments later, Henrietta returned with two scrolls.

"These are the last batch we have, unfortunately. Princess, Sir Axel, please..."

Axel didn't speak and simply grabbed one for himself. He unfurled it immediately… but nothing happened.

"..."

Even the return scrolls failed to work!

[Ah... Looks like you've been hit with a space-lock spell.]

Only then did Navi butt in, explaining what was going on.

Axel glared at Navi and asked out loud, "Space-lock spell? What's that...?"

"Space lock?!"

He was loud enough that even Henrietta heard it. She gasped in shock, seemingly knowing what the spell was.

"This... this means any kind of teleportation is blocked! The space around us is isolated, preventing escape!"

After hearing this, Axel's arm fell listlessly to his side. "Fuck..."

There's no escape!

And to make matters worse, their situation was grave!

The witches' curses failed to affect the enemies waiting outside their walls, meaning that if they fought, Witcheria's side would lose! In effect, Axel would be in danger of losing his life!

"I just came here to fix three fortresses..." he grumbled as he took a deep breath, calming his nerves.

Right...

It still wasn't time to despair.

Although the situation was grave, it wasn't as if there was no way for them to win.

"I'm pulling all stops!" he shouted. "Nina, go with Henrietta and give hope to the witches! We'll need their help to overcome this peril!"

As he spoke, he started manually "dismantling" the max-level potions stacked in his inventory. He continued until he had millions of level 4 mana potions, which should be enough for the mana capacity of the witches present.

Within moments, the room was filled with small vials, clanking loudly as they cascaded down.

"T-This is...!"

Henrietta gasped, pushed aside by the sudden "flood" of potions.

Of course, Axel didn't stop there.

He moved outside the teleportation room and began batch-crafting Advanced Voodoo Dolls. Within minutes, a mountain of dolls had formed in front of the door, shocking everyone who noticed Axel's direction as they glowed mysteriously.

"What are you two doing, standing around?" Axel glanced behind him, seeing Nina and Henrietta just gaping at the sight. "Go and rouse your soldiers' fighting spirits! We can't fight a battle we can win if they've already surrendered!"

"A-Ah! Right!"

Nina snapped back to her senses and rushed outside. Henrietta, albeit still in shock, followed behind her. As for Axel, he glared at the few witches nearby who still couldn't believe their eyes.

"You and you! Come here and help distribute the dolls and potions to everyone! Also, tell them not to hold back and to cast powerful AOE curses as much as possible!" he growled. "If the enemy truly has Voodoo Dolls with them, then our only hope is to overload those until they break!"

"Y-Yes!"

The two witches followed his instructions.

While they were gathering the items to distribute, the voices of Nina and Henrietta echoed loudly throughout the fortress. Of course, with how "busy" Axel was, he couldn't focus on listening to their speech. Soon enough, a wild cheer erupted, shaking the entire fortress with sheer voice and fighting spirit.

Right then, the two witches Axel had called began distributing the Advanced Voodoo Dolls and potions to others. At the same time, they called for backup to help move the literal mountain of items that kept piling up before Axel.

But the next moment, Axel felt a curse sweep through him.

He glanced toward the walls and saw the witches looking confused and shocked. Using the Advanced Voodoo Dolls had increased the range of their curses, causing them to miscalculate their AOE and drag allies into it!

Thankfully, everyone was equipped with Substitute Dolls, so nobody was hurt.

Still, that single spell completely "ate up" the durability of the doll, leaving them defenseless. Axel noticed this and quickly added another pile—Substitute Dolls! National-Treasure-level ones!

After a few back-and-forths, they assigned one witch per area to handle delivering items to those stationed on top of the walls. This way, they wouldn't run out of Voodoo Dolls or potions to recover, no matter how haphazardly the curses were cast!

"Still not working...!"

Axel gritted his teeth, seeing that the demon army hadn't suffered a single casualty yet. However, he noticed a change—their impatience... and fear.

Some demons began to march forward, attacking the walls desperately. Others chickened out and ran for their lives. This reaction made Axel realize that their efforts weren't wasted.

"Good! Continue the barrage! Their defenses are starting to fall, keep this up!" he shouted.

And then, an actual siege began.

Witches fired curses nonstop, while the monsters tried to break the walls to invade. Slowly, the walls began to crack, letting a few demons slip inside. However, the witches capable of melee combat were quickly deployed.

It turned into a chaotic brawl near the damaged walls... until Axel repaired them in a flash.

"Grrr?!"

The monsters, goblins, suddenly isolated from their army, became confused.

Without backup covering their backs, they were surrounded, struck from all sides, and wiped out in moments. At the same time, from the corpses of the fallen monsters—

"A Substitute Doll, as I suspected..." Axel muttered.

He picked one up and placed it in his inventory, checking the item's description... only to hold his breath in shock.

"No way..."

This item... was something he made!

Cold sweat dripped down his forehead as his fingers trembled.

If the witches learned that the demons were using his item, and if the defense failed after that, then he would be in serious trouble for "assisting" the enemy! At worst, he could be subjected to a witch hunt and burned at the stake over this!

'Nobody should learn this truth!' he thought in panic.

However, there was one big problem.

Even after a Substitute Doll ran out of protection, the item itself remained intact. In short, there were literally tens of thousands of chances for the witches to discover that his items were being used by the enemy.

Of course, even if he never intended to help the demons, he couldn't change the facts.

Thus, he could think of only one response.

"I... need to get my hands on all the dolls!"

For the very first time, Axel decided to march into battle all by himself!

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