Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 1404: Section 1405: Hand of the Undead

The undead skulls below swarmed, but Angel was nowhere to be seen!

A minute passed, and Isabel was still staring blankly downward.

According to the frequency with which Angel had been firing ‘Samsara Overture’ earlier, he should have been able to clear out the undead below in one minute. But now that a minute had gone by, not only had the number of undead not decreased, it had actually increased.

Angel had disappeared!

Isabel’s complexion changed instantly. She had only shifted her gaze for less than two seconds, and she was certain that before she looked away, only a few ordinary undead surrounded Angel. So how could he suddenly vanish?!

Where on earth had he gone?

…

Time rewound to a few seconds earlier.

Angel was clearing out the undead; due to the continuous assaults from the undead conglomerates, he could constantly hear booming sounds around him. At first, he was almost accustomed to the succession of explosions, but when the Cragspire Giant exploded, the resulting distant boom was too earth-shattering, jolting even Angel for a moment.

It was in that moment of distraction that an undead suddenly approached him.

While Angel’s attention was somewhat divided, he remained vigilant of his surroundings. Sensing a sinister and cold intent behind him, he promptly snapped back to look.

Revealed before him was what appeared to be a very ordinary female undead.

She was actually still some distance from him.

Angel wasn’t too panicked and lifted his hand, ready to shoot her, but just as Angel raised his hand, the undead suddenly opened her mouth and let out a howl.

Angel was used to such situations; the undead often liked to use these soul-shaking howls as a prelude to battle, but they had no effect on him.

But this time, Angel was suddenly stunned.

It was not because of her howl, but because when she opened her mouth, it was like a deep crevice had split open. Inside her mouth, Angel saw a… bizarre face.

Another undead face inside her mouth?!

Or rather, there was just a skull nested within her mouth. Its pale eyes, bulging veins, sharp howling… A stench-filled, bloody breeze hit his face.

Seeing this before him, Angel was somewhat baffled. Why was there another face inside her mouth? Was this also an undead conglomerate?

Angel had previously felt this was merely an ordinary undead… ordinary, ordinary?! Suddenly, Angel realized something. When he was advancing towards Black Castle, he had encountered a group of ordinary undead, only to find out later that all these so-called ordinary undead were undead conglomerates.

Afterward, no one discovered the reason, not even Isabel knew the details.

Could this be the reason? Compound undead hidden inside other undead, thus invisible from the outside?

Angel didn’t know if his guess was correct, but now, he had to dodge.

Because he saw clearly that the skull within the mouth was suddenly ablaze with intense light, obviously preparing to explode.

Angel was ready to retreat, but at that moment, a bony hand suddenly emerged from the ground and grabbed his ankle.

Looking down, Angel saw that a dark abyss had suddenly appeared beneath him, its destination unknown. From within the pit, a skeletal head emitting a ghostly green light reached out a bony hand, grasping him and pulling him down into the depths.

The undead conglomerate was about to explode, and below, another skeleton was pulling at him, preventing his escape.

The strength of this skeleton was very strong, estimated to surpass that of an Apprentice at their peak.

Angel could have struggled free if he exerted all his strength. But in that instant, certain thoughts blossomed and faded in Angel’s mind, and in the end, he did not struggle but allowed himself to be dragged into the hole by the strength of the skeleton.

As he fell into the hole, there was a momentary feeling of weightlessness, but it didn’t last long before he landed on firm ground.

At this point, the light from above had completely disappeared.

Looking up, Angel saw that the hole that had appeared earlier was now gone.

And the skeleton that had dragged him down, strangely, was also gone. As if with the disappearance of the hole in the ceiling, it was sealed off by the soil into the earth.

Angel extended his fingertip and lightly touched the air, a ripple emanated from his fingertip, and from the center of the ripple emerged a source of light tinged with a pale, clear sensation.

After the light source appeared, it quietly floated above Angel’s head.

This was a Primary Brightness Spell. Although the area of illumination was limited, it was enough to make the surrounding situation very clear.

When Angel had fallen down, he already smelled the rotting stench around him and a malice more intense than before on the surface enveloping him.

With the appearance of the Brightness Spell, Angel saw clearly the situation around him.

The first thing he saw was the densely packed undead floating on both sides and above, exuding a muddled aura, full of spite and anger.

None of the undead moved forward to attack Angel; they remained stationary, but their eyes were fixed intently on him.

In the midst of the undead, a path was left open.

It seemed to be signaling to Angel that this path was prepared just for him.

Angel didn’t know where this was; perhaps it was an other-dimensional space, or maybe it was right beneath the Black Castle. But one thing he could sense was that the Gate Model on the Witchcraft Slot was not restrained.

That meant he could leave by opening the door at any time.

This was also the reason why Angel, when the skeleton caught him, suddenly changed his mind, deciding to go along with its force and fall.

Since both Sanders and Isabel had told him that Princess Gumman’s target was him, it wouldn’t hurt for him to be the bait.

Angel was also curious about what had happened to Princess Gumman in the past two years, forcing the Black Castle to hide in the Soul Realm and even stirring up terrible undead such as the undead aggregates, Infant Spirits, Colossal Mountain Giants, Red Garbed Dread Spirits, and so on.

Angel took a step forward.

No undead launched an attack on him, but their energy was all locked onto him.

According to the nature of the undead, once his living breath was sensed, they would crazily attack until death.

Yet now, there were at least a thousand undead at a glance; and he was less than ten meters from the nearest undead, but none of them made a move.

Naturally, there was some entity that issued them a command.

With this thought, Angel didn’t continue to hesitate and directly walked down the path that had opened up among the undead.

Indeed, as Angel stepped onto this narrow path, no undead attacked him, even though he was almost within arm’s reach of them, and could clearly see their patterns when he turned around.

This path wasn’t long; in less than a minute, Angel had reached the end.

In front of Angel was a narrow passage that somewhat resembled a slit in the sky; the passage was only a few meters long, and it was clear that on the other side of the passage was a huge withered tree.

The heart of the withered tree had been hollowed out, forming a natural gate.

Behind the gate, shadowy black mist swirled, obscuring the specific conditions.

At that moment, from behind came rustling sounds. Angel turned his head to look and saw that the path he had just crossed had been occupied by the undead, densely packed.

Clearly, they had no intention of allowing Angel to turn back; the only option for Angel was to keep moving forward.

All the undead still stared intently at Angel, their malicious eyes glinting green from the reflection of the Light Spell. They looked as if a pack of hungry wolves were watching him.

Seeing this, Angel suddenly smiled, the Samsara Overture on his palm gently spinning as he reached out towards the undead behind him.

Yet the undead, devoid of fear, remained motionless.

No, that wasn’t quite true; there were some undead that moved.

Angel’s peripheral gaze caught a corner where an inconspicuous undead shrank slightly when he took out the Samsara Overture. But when Angel looked in that direction, it froze, watching him with a venomous gaze.

A gleam of light flashed through the depths of Angel’s eyes, and the curve of his mouth remained hooked as he twirled his gun – not firing, he decisively turned and walked towards the slit in the sky.

The previously restless undead’s eyes darkened for a moment before they vanished abruptly.

Angel passed through the narrow passage and stood in front of the tree.

The tree was very large, but unfortunately dead; its trunk was hollow, forming a door. As Angel walked into the tree, he immediately saw two mummified corpses hanging on either side within the trunk.

The corpses appeared to have been slaughtered, suspended on two iron hooks that went through their chests. Their mouths were stretched open wide, and with only a layer of gray skin remaining, they seemed to express despair with silent screams and wails of agonized hopelessness.

That sense of despair, even though long dead, was vividly displayed.

Angel sighed softly, shaking his head as he walked through the tree gate.

Previously, when he saw black mist behind the tree gate, it indeed was so; under the illumination of the Light Spell, the spreading dark mist could be clearly seen.

This mist was filled with the scent of decay, seemingly from rotting corpses and the phenomenon of being in this enclosed space.

Angel pressed down his hat and activated the Purifying Field, only then feeling somewhat more comfortable.

Looking around, he saw that this was a vast space filled with mist and… trees.

Like the tree behind him, there were towering trees everywhere, but all of them were withered and dead.

This place was so vast and seemed to lack any defined paths. Where would Princess Gumman be?

As Angel pondered, there came a sudden noise from the ground. He looked down to find countless pairs of faintly glowing undead hands rising from the earth.

These undead hands extended out, gradually spreading into the distance… It was a visually stunning sight, soon filling the entire space within Angel’s view.

From afar, it appeared as if some kind of hand-shaped glowing plants were lighting up the entire dark space.

But Angel could clearly see that these undead hands were all connected to the undead below. These subterranean undead were struggling, wailing, and sobbing…

Despite the horrifying sight of these undead hands, they gave Angel an answer.

Before, Angel was pondering where to go.

Now, these hands of the undead had pointed out the way for him.