Warlock Apprentice

“Weirdo” might be an understatement. This man was maniacal, secluded, and paranoid at the same time.

Due to his bad temper, he usually remained inside the clock tower and would often look down upon the pedestrians below and imagine different ways of committing mass-slaughter.

Angor found his spirit trapped inside such an individual.

He could not control this man’s actions, but he could sense what this person was thinking about, and it wasn’t pleasant. Being inside this mad character felt like being imprisoned inside a poisonous swamp.

Somehow, Angor knew that the strange man noticed a “second presence” in his body. But again, the man always stayed silent.

The unknown guidance once again told Angor how to get out. He could either accept the strange man’s character and become one like him, or he could watch as a spectator until this man died.

The first way was obviously faster and riskier. Angor was afraid that embracing the weirdo’s terrible nature might affect his own mind even after he returned to reality. In the worst case, he might completely lose himself.

For this reason, Angor chose the second way, which was to observe the freak quietly.

He also tried to express himself whenever the stranger became possessed with mad ideas again. He wasn’t hoping to correct this man’s actions or anything like that—he simply wished to establish some sort of communication and hopefully cause changes. At least, he would like to talk.

However, even though Angor could feel the stranger’s attention, he never received any responses.

Just like this, Angor spent five years inside the man’s body.

He knew that the concept of time was probably different in the omen challenge, but this didn’t prevent him from seeing everything that happened to the stranger.

Every midnight, the weirdo would climb to the top of the clock tower to adjust the giant clock. And each time, he would look at all the passersby below and think of new ways of maiming them.

Meanwhile, Angor looked at everything happening with a neutral mind.

He thought he would be trapped here for a few decades. But no. When five years had elapsed and on a snowy night, after the weirdo finished his job and without any forewarning, he jumped down from the tower and painted the ground beneath in red.

And after giving the terrified onlookers one last look, he closed his eyes and drew the last breath.

When Angor thought he could return at last, he suddenly heard the stranger’s voice talking to him, “You’re a strange one…”

At the end of his life, the “freak” opened up and talked to Angor.

Angor watched the snowfall and suddenly heard the roaring tides of fate again.

Next, he came to.

He gazed at the disappearing Stream of Fate and slowly savored the experience he went through.

When he checked his surroundings again, he found himself floating in total darkness, and the only thing he could see was a giant clock ticking above his head.

The clock was connected to a series of large gears that extended into the unknown.

Once again, Angor believed he recognized the clock to be the Wheel of Fortune. This was another fortunetelling tool used by Prophets. By now, Angor began to wonder if the omen challenge of Empty Ballad wanted him to go through three tasks that were all related to prophecy.

Someone suddenly giggled at him.

Angor looked up and saw a shadowy figure sitting on top of the clock above him. He couldn’t use any cantrip or fly, so he failed to get a better look.

“Who are you?” Angor’s voice echoed in the darkness.

“Heeheehee… It’s such a pity that you chose to wait. Didn’t you want to come out faster?”

“You were watching?”

“Bingo, my friend.” The shadow’s voice sounded rather cheerful.

“I… don’t want to change.”

“Oh ho… but aren’t you always changing when traveling to different places and meeting different people?”

Angor didn’t answer this time. The shadow’s debate didn’t make sense.

“The ‘you’ today is not the ‘you’ from yesterday, am I right?” The shadow continued speaking while laughing somewhat madly, “Of course, you never thought to become the ‘current you’ when you were young. Are you still yourself, as in, what you used to think you’ll become? See, you changed.”

“That’s different. No matter who I become, I make my own choices instead of being forced to,” Angor replied while wondering if this was the second task presented by the Wheel of Fortune.

“No, it’s not the Wheel of Fortune asking you to choose. It’s me.” The shadow saw through his mind.

“Choose what?”

“You already did. To change or to wait, you accepted the latter.”

“So what does that have to do with us?”

“HA! Since you chose to ‘wait’, I’ll take the other choice away!”

“Huh?” Angor just felt his head spinning with questions. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve already done my test, and I’ll gladly take your ‘choice’ away, even though it was a bit outdated now.”

The shadow began to fade.

“Who are you? What’s the meaning of these choices and whatnot?” Angor called.

The shadow’s voice was fading, but it still answered, “My name is… lengthy. I prefer to be called Cassini. But people from the wizarding realm preferred to refer to me as the Time—”

The voice was incomprehensible beyond this point. For now, Angor could only keep the name “Cassini” in his mind.

Following the disappearing shadow, the giant clock also melted into the dark.

As the area grew brighter again, Angor thought he would be dealing with the third prophecy tool, which was the “World String”.

It didn’t happen.

The retreating darkness revealed a door in front of him, behind which lay his cloak, and it looked as if it was trying to shake free of the golden runes restraining it.

He stepped through the door, and the unknown dimension behind him shattered to nothingness.

The dark clouds in the area were already dissipating, while several rays of light were diving to his position and into the cape.

Jebra, Haku, and Swan saw everything happening. At the same time, they felt someone’s spirit power scanning through the area.

“The omen is gone,” said Haku.

“Yup. Telling from the size of the omen and the energy levels, it’s probably a very potent mid-tier item,” Swan commented.

Haku widened her eyes. “The rumors aren’t wrong… He IS slowly getting to the level of a master.”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes.”

The best alchemist in Song of the Deep could also create something of such a level by paying a lot of resources. Haku knew that if Angor joined Song of the Deep, he would immediately receive the best treatment from their organization.

“Brute Cavern sent such a brilliant alchemist on a recruit mission? Why would they do that?”

Jebra hopped onto his whale again. “Haku, time to go.”

“Aren’t we going to greet that alchemist, sir?”

“You saw that spirit scan? He knew we’re here, and that’s enough.”

“Pfft. Do you think he has time for the likes of you just after finishing a new invention?” Swan jeered at Haku and flew off on her black wings.