Great Witch's Legacy

* Title screen
* Original title card

**Great Witch's Legacy** is a side story in Counter:Side.

## Synopsis

> *Yuna follows her grandmother's will and arrives at a cute cafe instead of the Witch Association. With the Halloween festival just around the corner, the witches prepare a secret ritual.*
>
>

## Characters

* Harab
* Evelyn Keller
* Laura Beatrix
* Mark Finley
* Ingrid Johanna
* Pluto
* Yuna Springfield
* Regina MacCready
* Cindy Looper
* Elizabeth Pendragon
* Roy Burnett
* Rayleigh
* Serapel
* Edel Meitner

## Plot

### Act 1

Yuna Springfield enters Cafe Strega on a busy day and asks its staff members if she is at the Strega Witch Association. Evelyn Keller initially claims Strega is just an ordinary, witch-themed cafe but retracts her words when Yuna reveals she is the granddaughter of May Springfield, one of Strega's former members. Cafe manager Laura Beatrix immediately recruits Yuna into their association but makes her an employee first, much to Yuna's disappointment.

After closing time, Yuna explains that her grandmother had given her her staff and told her to find the Strega Witch Association before passing away from old age. Evelyn and Laura reveal that May Springfield was the best witch within Strega and the staff is actually a rare and special kind of Watch— precisely speaking, a witch is someone who wields powers similar to that of a Counter's called "magic", and the staff is a "magical instrument" that can be passed down to new owners (unlike most Counter Watches) and activated only with specific magic spells. Laura pledges to make Yuna a true witch in honor of May, and so Yuna, determined to follow her grandmother's footsteps, agrees to become a full member of Strega.

For her first task, Yuna is brought into the Counterside through Cafe Strega's basement door—which is in fact a dimensional rift fixed in place with magic—where she and the other witches hunt Corrupted Objects for crafting materials; as it turns out, Cafe Strega also makes and sells Halloween costumes imbued with magic, and the C.O.s around Strega's rift have unique, magical ingredients that make the costumes functional and attractive. Ingrid Johanna wants to partake in making the costumes, but Laura shuts her hopes down after pointing out that Ingrid can't sew. Fortunately, Yuna promises to teach Ingrid as she learned how to sew from her grandmother.

After meeting their gathering quota, the witches prepare to return to Normalside, but Yuna hears someone or something calling out to her and ends up wandering off to find where the sound is coming from. Ingrid follows her out of concern, and the two end up spotting a mysterious castle atop a floating island. Tempted by the voice, Yuna goes into the castle despite Ingrid's pleas and encounters a swarm of C.O.s surrounding some sort of altar. Laura and Evelyn soon arrives to help extermine the C.O.s, and the latter then chastises the two for going too far out instead of coming back. When Yuna asks where they are, Laura explains they are in the Walpurgis Castle but refuses to disclose any details and says it off-limits. Before they can exit the building, more powerful C.O.s that Laura calls "puppets" emerge, forcing the witches to engage and prevent them from escaping the castle. After the threat is take care of, Evelyn notes how easily Yuna was able to defeat the puppets despite Yuna's lack of experience and confidence. As the witches leave the Counterside, an unseen figure silently expresses her desire to have pain inflicted on her by her master.

Out in the city, the Cronenworth Puppet Troupe is setting up their show for the Halloween parade. The troupe leader, Harab Cronenworth, suspects that her "greatest puppet" is located somewhere in her vicinity and starts gleefully fantasizing about how much pain and suffering they will inflict upon each other when they unite.

### Act 2

The next day, Regina MacCready and Cindy Looper come to Cafe Strega to pick up their costumes. Cindy is more than impressed with her hockey mask-slasher costume; on the other hand, Regina finds that out Rivet, who was instructed to make the order on Regina's behalf, had surreptitiously requested an extra-lewd succubus outfit and is embarrassed by it. Suddenly, a low-level Corruption disaster erupts outside, prompting the witches and the Counters to join nearby TASKFORCE units eliminating the C.O.s. Evelyn and Laura find the surprise outbreak suspicious and speculate that the seal on Walpurgis Castle, which had been set by May Springfield, has weakened since May's death. Laura says they will need to fix the seal, though Evelyn fears they lack the power to do so.

As she fights off the C.O.s, Yuna encounters Harab and tries to escort her to a shelter. However, Harab convinces her that she urgently needs to make sure her puppets are safe from damage, and so Yuna gets Regina and Cindy to help them secure the puppets. Afterwards, Harab takes note of Regina's and Cindy's costumes and learns from Yuna about their origins, and Yuna tells Harab that she's looking forward to see her puppet show later at the festival. Unbeknownst to everyone, Harab was the one who released the C.O.s in order to find someone who can help her remove the Walpurgis Castle barrier.

   As City management announces the end of the Corruption threat, Yuna returns to the Cafe where Laura gives her a book that belonged to May. When Yuna opens it, flames shoot out of its pages and nearly burns her. Laura reveals it is the Solar Codex, a tome that can only be read by those deemed worthy by the ancient entity it contains— those who try to force it open are burned, and May was the only one who was able to read it. Yuna thanks Laura for the tome and vows to train hard before Laura closes shop and dismisses her for the day. Evelyn questions if it was too early to give Yuna the Solar Codex since it was what maintained the Walpurgis Castle barrier, but Laura reasons that their only hope is for Yuna to figure out how to read the tome now that May is gone.

Later that night, the Halloween festival's costume contest enters its final round—the contenders being Cindy Looper, Regina MacCready (who, for reasons unknown, is referred to as Regina "*McDonald*" by the host), and Ingrid Johanna—and begins the Cronenworth Puppet Troupe parade. Before the parade starts, though, Harab announces that she will show the audience how her puppets are made. But to everyone's horror, the puppets turn into C.O.s and start attacking while the three finalists quickly fall under Harab's control. Laura and Evelyn realizes Harab's true identity but are unable to stop her as the C.O.s engage them. As chaos spreads throughout the city, Harab finds Cafe Strega's hidden portal to the Counterside and proceeds to go in with her new "puppets."

Evelyn explains to a confused Yuna that Harab is looking to awaken a powerful being known as the "Original Puppet" that lays dormant deep inside Walpurgis Castle; May was Harab's archenemy and had used the Solar Codex to prevent Harab from entering the castle and reaching the Original Puppet. As for Ingrid, Cindy and Regina, they fell under Harab's control because their costumes were made of materials from the puppets at the Castle. Laura and Evelyn head make their way to the portal to stop Harab while Pluto makes sure Yuna stays put and out of danger.

Upon entering Walpurgis Castle, Laura and Evelyn first encounter Ingrid, who attacks and gains the upper hand against them due to her increased power as well as Laura's reluctance to damage her. As Ingrid is about to kill Laura, Yuna, having convince Pluto to let her through the portal, barges in and launches a fireball towards her. Ingrid returns to her normal self, making Laura and Evelyn realize that Yuna's fire spells are uniquely capable of burning the Puppet Master's magic strings that allow her to control her subjects— a technique that May was specialized in.

Next, the witches find Cindy Looper. Against Laura's initial plan, Ingrid brashly charges in and infiltrates her subconscious, bringing up her traumatic memories of being locked up in an isolated room. This distracts Cindy enough to Yuna to launch a fireball at her, though she almost singes Ingrid in the process. Cindy demands Ingrid to never expose anything about her past troubles to anyone or else.

They then find Regina and take her by surprise, but Regina easily deflects Yuna's fireball and overpowers everyone with her amplified ice powers. Pluto comes up to Yuna and shows her the Solar Codex, and the entity within the book, Rayleigh, begins to speak. Pluto demands Rayleigh grant Yuna his powers, but Rayleigh is unwilling because Yuna is too inexperienced and may die if she tries to use them. Desperate to save her friends, Yuna forcibly opens the Codex but is too overwhelmed by the flames. Rayleigh demands Yuna to stop until May's spirit, briefly possessing Pluto, pleads him to give Yuna access to his powers. Rayleigh gives in and helps Yuna transfer the heat of the tome's flames to the staff, allowing the girl to temporarily gain a new, awakened form.

Yuna manages to rejuvenate her fellow witches with new powers but goes into a stalemate against Regina. In the midst of the battle, Harab arrives and abruptly drains Regina's remaining power and transfers it to the reawakened Original Puppet, Serapel. Knowing how dangerous Serapel is, Rayleigh tells Yuna to run away while he tries to buy her time. Suddenly, Edel Meitner bursts into the scene in her Gha'agsheblah form, enraged that Harab would dare to belittle Regina, and destroys the Puppet Master in one fell swoop before taking Regina back to the MacCready estate. Serapel remains untouched and, to Yuna's bewilderment, expresses disappointment that she will need to create a master for herself. Yuna questions why Serapel would want a new master, and Serapel answers that a puppet like her yearns to be tortured by a puppeteer. Serapel then reminisces how May was able to satisfy her masochistic desires with her flames and allows Yuna, as well as her friends, to peacefully leave because Yuna is not powerful enough to deliver to her the same amount of pain and suffering; she even becomes hopeful when Rayleigh vows to destroy her.

    Back in Normalside, Laura and Evelyn ridicule Serapel's temperament but also contemplate how they will continue to reside in the current world; as Exiles, the two have been able to survive for many years thanks to May's magic, but May's death means they will soon disappear or die. Laura hopes Yuna will eventually find a way to not only extend their lives but also restore their old world. In the meantime, Evelyn suggests reopening the Cafe in another location.