Warlock Apprentice

Douglas looked at Anglo, who had been awfully quiet till now.

“Doctor Anglo, didn’t you say that you may predict more information if someone shows up? Well, the student of Mister Phantom just provided a perfect chance.”

Anglo didn’t respond. It was “Ocean Moray” Heroline who spoke up while giggling, “Come on, you all believed it? So Rak’sel claimed that Angor came out, well bring him here then! How can the doctor do anything if he has not seen Angor yet?”

Rak’sel narrowed her eyes and gave Heroline a hateful look.

Douglas didn’t mind them. He was waiting for Anglo’s reply.

“Angor did show up from the boundary.” Anglo shook his head at Heroline and said, “I saw him from my Wizard Eye.”

Rak’sel’s eyes twinkled. “It was you who sneaked a Wizard Eye inside a tree? But it was you who told us to abandon the city. What, you’re getting interested too?”

“Interested? Do you mean the Mystery item? No. I’m simply curious about the dark realm itself, and a certain omen I saw earlier, which was powerful enough to disrupt the strings of this world.” Anglo adjusted his glasses, which glimmered in the candlelight. He then said to Douglas, “In fact, I performed ‘plucking’ as soon as I saw Angor, but the result did not change.”

He showed everyone the topmost parchment on his wooden tablet, which had a line of characters written in blood.

[The source of all darkness, and the bearer of unrelenting menace]

Douglas sent Payne a voice transmission, “Anglo spoke the truth. The blood was left there recently.”

Anglo continued, “Nothing has altered the prediction, but the phrase is giving me a different feeling this time. I cannot explain this in words. Perhaps something else just happened in the outer city, and we must find the answer from Mister Phantom. Or his student, Angor.”

“Since Angor could walk through the dark mist unharmed, then—” said Payne as he stepped up to Anglo.

Anglo shook his head. “I do not know. If you’re anxious to learn about the situation, might as well wait for Mister Phantom. I assume that he will return soon enough. I wish to know what this disaster means to us as much as you do.”

They all looked through the window and at the dark dome outside in silence.

…

While the wizards outside were waiting to find out what the crisis meant to the city, Angor was looking at the dead city from the air and wondering about the same question.

What is the “queen” planning to do? Yorkshire regarded this city as an outpost. Why does that queen need an outpost? And what will become of this city?

Angor could not think of any answers to these questions, but each time he decided to ignore them, there was something in his mind that tickled him and urged him to find out.

He even thought about returning to the central interlayer and question Froggy. He managed to persuade himself into giving up. Yorkshire already seemed suspicious of his actions. Sunders did help him avoid further trouble, but he should not test his luck too much by asking things when he wasn’t supposed to. He didn’t know how much privilege he could enjoy using Shava’s name yet.

The Nightmare Realm always presented him with endless mysteries. Solving one meant discovering more, and Angor found it impossible to not get curious.

He felt like a pawn being controlled by someone unknown. He could neither see where he was going nor resist his fate.

To shake free of the control, his first choice was to make up his mind and never go to the Nightmare Realm again. However, this was not optimal since he had gained so much benefit from that place. And even if he could, Sunders would not allow him to hide from danger and challenges all the time.

The second choice was to get strong enough to oppose whoever wanted to manipulate him.

He was on this path right now, but it would still take a lot of time.

He gazed at the swirling vortex in the sky and let out a deep sigh.

“Angor!” someone called.

Angor looked down and saw Shan happily waving at him.

He rubbed his temples and wondered what to do. He came to the sky just to avoid listening to the chitchats among the ladies. While Nausica was not someone to waste time on small talk, she was currently trying to help Shan feeling better indirectly, which meant she would gladly join Shan’s conversations, be them productive or not.

And each time Angor joined them, he just felt a huge headache.

He landed on the ground and pretended that he felt tired by yawning. “What’s up?”

Shan hopped his way on bunny steps.

Angor would really like to complain that Shan didn’t know how to walk properly without Gank despite the fact that she was several dozen years older than him.

“It’s nothing. I saw you pretty bored up there, so I want to talk to you!” Shan tried reaching for Angor’s arm, but Angor moved faster by flying higher.

“Nah. I haven’t had any sleep in several days. I need to rest.”

With that, he turned to find somewhere more private.

But he didn’t get to move before they heard a sharp scream echoing across the sky.

“ARRRGHHH—”

Angor was rather surprised to notice that the voice came from not far away—the church near the city gate.

Nausica limped to them while still breathing puffs of smoke. “But I checked that place earlier. There’s no one inside.”

“I think it came from the top floor. Did you check there as well?” Angor looked at the pointy roof of the church but couldn’t see many details apart from the colorful stained glass and the statue of a praying goddess.

“No. I only stayed inside a prayer room and found that pipe from a confession chamber.”

“Let’s check it out. We don’t have anything else to do anyway.” Shan looked thirsty for adventure.

Angor secretly gave Nausica a wink, who nodded to him and made a rubbing gesture beside her ears. Apparently, she was getting fed up with Shan’s blabbering as well.

“Alright, let’s do it.” Angor smiled at Shan.

The church was built for mortals to attend and pray for their families during weekends.

The first thing that caught their attention on the first floor was a large goddess statue that seemed to be a fictional deity used for spreading religions among the citizens. While Angor was not interested in such things, he would admit that this “fake” deity was still better compared to actual demons from the abyss who kindled all sorts of fanatics and crazy cults around the world.

The church was hollow and empty. They only heard their own footsteps echoing between the walls.

They came to the third level and reached the bishop’s office along with an “enlightenment chamber”. It was likely that the bishop used this chamber to receive guidance from their goddess. Angor was pretty sure that this was only for a show.

The door to the enlightenment chamber was shut. There were various pictures carved on the brown wooden door, such as wings, rays of holy light, or other symbols that represented life and blessing.

“There’s something inside,” said Shan.

Angor listened quietly. “Yes. It’s another monster nest if I’m not mistaken.”

They all heard the familiar buzzing noise across the door. While Angor and Shan didn’t seem too concerned, Nausica’s face instantly went pale since she knew how terrifying these parasites were, because she had been watching them roaming around her when she was bound by the deadly strings.

“Don’t worry, I got you,” Angor whispered.

Nausica chuckled and spat out a smoke ring. “Never, ever did I think that I’d get reassured by a kid.”

Angor raised an eyebrow. That sounded weird in a sense.

Nausica quenched her pipe and moved ahead to open the door with a determined look. As expected, a glowing dragonfly nest was fixed in the center of the room.

They quickly looked up to see who was captured. Perhaps it was the victim they just heard.

Again, using Shan’s cantrip, they saw a man in a bloody and tattered robe hung in midair by the same golden strings that connected to the portal of a void.

Unlike the other victims like Nausica, in whose cases the dragonflies hid in the nest and only came out when they sensed someone coming, this man was constantly surrounded by the insects who would attack him every time he tried to move.

And it seemed the man managed to stay alive even though he had been enduring both the strings and the rainbow dragonflies, which were as powerful as top-level apprentices.

Guess he’s a wizard, Angor pondered in his mind.

The prisoner suddenly opened his eyes and looked at them.

“Who are you?”