Warlock Apprentice

“Je-Je-It’s Jebra…” Shan replied to Keely’s interrogation.

“Jebra… Oh, Jebra,” Keely mumbled this name several times. “I finally found you…” Her expression had turned terribly cruel and hateful.

Both Shan and Angor flinched a little when they sensed the overwhelming resentment coming from her.

“Now tell me where he is,” Keely said again after regaining some of her sanity.

In Angor’s eyes, this girl was now like a time bomb ready to go off.

Shan shook her head, and when she saw Keely’s killing glare, she quickly changed her mind and said, “I don’t know, BUT! Those two witches might know something. I mean, Jebra hired them!”

Keely kept her deathly gaze on Shan’s eyes to make sure she wasn’t lying.

“So that Shiliew person attacked Jebra, huh?” Keely let Shan go. “Good. That alone is enough reason for me to help! Shiliew is trapped by two of Jebra’s witches? Let’s gut them.”

Shan was still unsure of what happened just now. She expected Angor to move first to help Nausica since they seemed to be good friends. Instead, Keely offered her assistance first.

Angor was left speechless by the display as well. He had been thinking about a way to persuade Keely into going for the destination first, while he took a detour to get Nausica. He didn’t think Keely would suddenly get so pumped up.

Although he kind of understood what Keely was thinking about.

It was “God of Seas” Flunza, a wizard from Song of the Deep, as well as Jebra’s teacher, who murdered Keely’s parents when she was younger. How could anyone NOT want to get revenge in such a case?

Keely was surely not strong enough to confront Flunza right now, so she made Jebra her target.

It was commonly known that “Child of Ocean” Jebra was the beloved pupil of Flunza. There were also rumors saying that Jebra was actually a member of Flunza’s family. People didn’t know whether Jebra was his son or grandson.

Regardless, Keely wouldn’t waste time confirming such rumors. She believed them and had considered killing Flunza’s “family” as one of her quests.

“Well… we have different ideas but the same place to go, so we’ll go together,” said Angor. “Before that, we have to deal with something first.”

He looked toward where Shan came from and noticed a powerful aura was approaching them quickly.

Angor finally saw who was coming and narrowed his eyes.

Long, black hair, cold and distant temperament, and a silver longsword…

“Saladin…”

Saladin already saw his target—the giant man to be “recycled” and the annoying little imp who always sat on his shoulder. As for the other two on the scene… Saladin might not be someone who paid a lot of attention to the outside world, but he also knew about them.

Keely from Lilith’s Clan, and Mister Phantom’s new student, Angor, who had his name posted everywhere in the city recently.

Last time, Saladin did not recognize Angor because Angor was wearing a large hooded robe. It was the Alien Eye that drew Saladin’s attention. Before entering the garden, Angor crafted something to conceal the item, so Saladin didn’t connect Angor with the hooded figure he saw that day.

Saladin didn’t really care what they were doing here. He was going to do his job, and anyone standing in his way would be killed.

“Stopped running, eh? I give you one last chance. Hand him over and I’ll let you live,” Saladin said to Shan while completely ignoring Angor and Keely.

Shan clenched her teeth. “In your dreams, a*shole! You filthy cultists don’t even follow your own rules. I’m not going to trust your words!”

“I see, then you two shall perish right here!” When Saladin drew his sword, the seawater around him immediately grew violent.

“He’s a cultist?” Keely frowned in disgust. “Jebra paid a cultist to act as his henchman too?”

“I don’t think so,” Shan denied, “he found us midway and wouldn’t give up on chasing Gank. We got registered at the Supreme Cult and it’s like a complete waste of time!

“I and Nausica escaped from Tulip Palace and was looking for a place to rest up so that we can save Shiliew. Then this guy appeared out of nowhere with a bunch of flying fish behind him. Nausica and I went different ways when running.”

Keely didn’t seem so interested now that she knew the matter had little to do with Jebra. Regardless, she still chose to help Shan for the sake of her teammate.

Angor walked in front of Shan to face Saladin.

“So, you two are going to protect this foreign creature?” Saladin’s violence was getting obvious. “The world’s consciousness does not allow these creatures to exist in this world; do you want to oppose the world’s consciousness too?”

Angor never liked the Supreme Cult, nor did he like Saladin. He felt worse when someone used “moral high ground” as a defense and judged right-and-wrong by using false justice as an excuse.

“You done with your hypocrisy? Feeling better now?” Angor concealed his emotions and gave Saladin a cold grin. “I’m wondering… will this ‘world’s consciousness’ punish me for killing you? I want to see what that looks like.”

He immediately triggered his previously prepared illusion nodes, which then engulfed Saladin within.

Saladin had moved into Angor’s illusion area on his own, and he no longer had time to get away.

It only took Saladin several seconds for him to sense something familiar in the illusion, a certain trick that placed the exit just several steps away from him yet he couldn’t get there.

“YOU! You were the reason they escaped back at Champagne Road!”

“Correct,” Angor’s voice echoed in the mist. “You want to ‘recycle’ otherworldly creatures, right? You shall get past me first.”

He said that because something in him wanted to speak for Jon’s stead.

“You’re abetting the enemy!” Saladin wielded his sword while trying to break the illusion by slashing around. He never learned how to break an illusion, so he could only do it in a clumsier way.

By some miracle, it worked.

Angor placed his illusion in water; the water current would get disturbed by Saladin’s energy attacks. More than once, the water moved strongly enough to break the illusion nodes. Saladin would soon get out of the trap at this rate.

“Need some help?” Keely noticed the situation. Usually, they could keep any enemies at bay using their teamwork. Her job was to burn them away while Angor kept them busy with illusions.

“No,” Angor rejected firmly. He wouldn’t want Keely to enrage the cult established by total maniacs.

Even without Keely’s help, Angor had a plan in his mind.

It seemed Saladin could only grow stronger in his “mad” state, which required some time to build up. In terms of strength, Saladin in his normal condition was weaker than Yethew.

As the illusion began to falter, Saladin’s eyes grew red as he approached the threshold of insanity.

Angor lifted a finger and released the nightmare aura, which was only visible to himself, toward Saladin’s direction, along with a cantrip that he had been preparing.

Nightmare Fear, an advanced version of Fear.

Saladin’s eyes lost focus.

He saw the environment changing before he reappeared somewhere familiar to him—the Kewpie’s Badlands. He once came here to ambush a group of otherworldly creatures—”Registered” ones.

But the world’s consciousness wants them dead! The files and papers made up by the conservatives are meaningless!

But I already killed them, didn’t I? Why am I here-huh? Did I really kill them before? Is that what I should do right now?

But I’m inside the Sea of—no! My job is to get rid of such abominations and I must do it!

One kill. Two kills. Three… the victims’ blood felt so real and pleasantly hot. Everything around him told him that this was the reality, while the Sea of Purification was a dream.

Saladin kept killing. In fact, he killed too many creatures that he began to expect an end to it.

In the eyes of the onlookers, Saladin fell for Angor’s Fear and started swinging his sword randomly. The illusion was already broken, but the man was still trapped in his imaginary world.

“What’s happening?! You’re at fault! I’m gonna kill—”

“No-no! Don’t get closer! How are there still more?”

“What’s that up there… ARRGH! That’s… that’s the devil, not the world’s consciousness! THE DEVIL!”

It seemed Saladin saw something horrific, and it was torturing his mental defense line. He kept mumbling “the world’s consciousness is the devil”. Before Angor could pay more attention to those words, Saladin yelled at something again, “Wait, so it IS the world’s consciousness… it’s here…”

He suddenly took out a magic scroll.

Before Angor could do anything, Saladin ripped the scroll open and disappeared from their view.

“Teleportation?!” Angor was the surprised one now. A teleportation scroll was always a costly asset among people. Only those with brilliant space-related talent as well as great expertise in Runecraft could create this item. Because of such harsh conditions, people could never find teleportation scrolls by going to common markets.

What did Saladin see that convinced him to use such a thing?! The world’s consciousness, for real?

But he believes that he works for it? Then, why did he run away?

Fear basically functions by creating the image of one’s most fearful memory. Does this mean Saladin actually feared the world’s consciousness while pretending to be radical in public?

Angor didn’t know. Regardless, it didn’t really matter since Saladin had left them.