Warlock Apprentice

Angor had done retrieving his body and arranging his possessions, but Sunders had not let him go yet.

Since he had time, he decided to memorize what he observed inside Spotty’s “stomach” and see whether he could put the knowledge into his illusions.

Cycles of life, unknown paths that always led to destruction, conflicting yet amazingly congenial rules… Bit by bit, he gathered all the small elements in his mind.

When it was almost time, he reopened his eyes as the model for an illusion was swiftly made in his mindspace, facilitated by the axes of the universe.

This was one of the simplest illusions. He was confident that the illusion was well-made, and that the “senses of Mystery” he blended in the illusion would be presented right in front of eyes soon.

His eyes twinkled as his mana slowly constructed the basic shapes of something unknown.

A powerful spirit suddenly restrained him in place.

Before he could do anything, the connection between him and his illusion was severed. He was forced out of the Gravity Garden by Sunders.

Before he had any time to mourn over his failed attempt, a Spirit Bond reached inside his mind.

“Remember, do NOT tell anything related to what you saw inside the darkness to outsiders,” Sunders demanded.

Angor said “okay” and quickly checked his surroundings.

They were no longer standing at the dark boundary. It was a round-domed room that was as big as the plaza square in a park. The room was fully lit by the colorful light sources fixed on the ceiling as well as a number of shining runes.

Several groups of wizards were chatting in the room, while Angor was currently standing in the center of the room, which meant he was surrounded by wizards.

Angor saw Sunders walking toward one of the groups, where Payne, Qetesh, and Douglas were waiting.

In another direction, Greya, Nausica, and the rest of her group were resting around a stone pillar.

Of course Angor wouldn’t approach the other wizards carelessly, so he chose to join Greya.

On his way, he felt as if many of the wizards were gazing at him. Yet he could not see anyone openly looking.

“Angor, right? May I have some of your time?”

Someone suddenly spoke to him in a clear and quick tone.

Angor looked ahead and saw the speaker as a middle-aged man in tidy and rigid clothing. He knew this man—a Prophet from White Coral Floating Island, “Plucker of Strings” Doctor Anglo, who still had that golden-rimmed glasses and wooden clipboard he had been carrying.

Angor did not wish to offend a wizard in such a situation, so he quickly agreed to talk.

Just as he appeared to be, Anglo was not the type to waste words on courtesy. As soon as he saw Angor’s response, he began to ask all sorts of details Angor might know about the darkness.

Angor answered every question with either “I don’t know”, or silence, if he must.

“Did you cause the energy storm? Why didn’t you let it continue so that it could dispel the darkness?”

When Angor tried to act dumb again, he suddenly heard Sunders talking directly to his mind.

“Prophets do not infer answers by what they hear. They know how to observe you. Divert all attention to me if you can and get away from Anglo.”

Angor considered. “Doctor Anglo, it was my professor’s decision. I don’t know the reason though.”

Anglo showed neither approval or disbelief. The man kept his intense gaze at Angor so that he could read every single detail from Angor’s moves, such as how Angor was frowning, his heartbeat, his sweat, and other bodily signals.

“Why did you leave the darkness by yourself? Rak’sel saw you coming.”

Anglo was continuing his questions without giving Angor any time to think. “So you somehow found an exit, am I right?

“Thank you for your time. I do have more questions, but I’ll leave them for another day, or Mister Phantom is really going to kill me with his eyes.”

Anglo turned away, but he quickly looked back again as he remembered something.

“Just as Mara said, your nature does not sit well with Mister Phantom’s way.” He adjusted his glasses. “Maybe you should consider joining the academy.”

Angor saw Anglo leaving and continued walking to Greya. He still had not recovered from Anglo’s “interrogation”. He felt as if he was being controlled all along.

He didn’t tell Anglo anything useful—at least he believed so—but Anglo seemed satisfied.

Greya saw him coming with a confused look and asked why.

“Oh, that…” said Greya, after listening to what happened to Angor just now. “Don’t mind that old lecturer. He always puts up that ‘I know everything’ look. But I really doubt it. If he talks to you again, don’t be all hush-hush. He can get what he wants from your looks even if you don’t say anything.”

Spivet chipped in, “It’s awfully easy to deal with him. I mean, just make up stuff. As Greya said, that guy’s good at catching details and using them to deduce what he needs. In other words, he imagines answers out of random. You can create some sort of dramatic story in your head and tell him that, and he’ll get fooled in no time.”

“He’s right.” Greya chuckled and said, “Spivet knew how to bamboozle Prophets back during the Demon Blood War. It’s a piece of good advice that you should heed, Angor.”

Angor nodded. “What happened after I was taken away? Did you all stop fighting?”

“Those cowards backed out, that’s why!” Greya shrugged. “Sunders didn’t tell us anything but I think he forced Payne to agree to something. I guess that’s why Payne looks so pissed right now.”

Angor looked at the wizard group on the other side of the room. As Greya mentioned, Payne and Qetesh didn’t look pleased when speaking to Sunders.

To wizards, fights and conflicts were mostly about profits. And if something could be solved by the exchange of profits, they would all avoid risking their lives.

When Angor could no longer find things to talk about, he spent time going over what he sensed in Spotty again. This was what he usually did when he was unoccupied, so as to not forget the wonderful experience.

“Let’s go,” Sunders said in their Spirit Bond, after a while.

Angor opened his eyes and saw Sunders standing right in front of him and was talking to Greya. “Greya, you bring the others back to Brute Cavern and send Spivet to Flora.” He tossed a gold coin to her and said, “This will allow you to enter Phantom Island. Goode will prepare a room for you.”

“What about you?” Greya frowned.

“I’ll remain here for a while with Angor. It won’t take long.”

With that, Sunders beckoned to Angor and left the conference hall.

Toby saw Angor leaving and left Greya to join him.

Greya stopped Toby and handed him a one-use space capsule.

“Mana Flowers. You take care of Angor for now. He needs your backup.”

Toby bade farewell to his old master and returned to Angor’s shoulder.

While greeting his partner, Angor was wondering what Sunders planned to do next and whether it had something to do with the darkness.

“Don’t mind the crisis from now on. If anyone asks you about it, put all the blame on me,” Sunders said to him. “We’re heading to the undercity, where they imprisoned all the possessed apprentices. We’ll remove their parasites and leave the city.”

The “undercity” of Sleepless City was a place similar to the underground market in Brute Cavern, but one could only hear ghostly noises in there right now.

The entrances toward the undercity were all sealed up. Currently, there was only a dried-up water well that served as a temporary “dumping hole” where all newly possessed people would go.

The well was now the most guarded place in the entire Monsoon Sector. There was a team of powerful wizards stationed here.

After passing through several checkpoints, Sunders and Angor arrived at the well.

“Hey, Sunders, have you seen my students in the outer city?” Wallace suddenly showed up from somewhere and walked to them.

“You go first,” Sunders said to Angor.

Those who heard him talking all grew confused. Sunders would allow his student to go to the prisons where thousands of “possessed clowns” dwelt?

Angor did not have a problem with this. He nodded and jumped straight into the well without a second thought.

Before he completely fell into the darkness beneath, he managed to hear Sunders talking to Wallace.

“I did not see them.”