Warlock Apprentice

Endless stars guided sleeping folks toward the horizon. Under the shining curtain, the airship went toward the great canyon while leaving a trail of black smoke behind.

Hobbiton created quite the scene when leaving Ananda’s side by crying sharp and loud. The body of a child which trapped a similar child’s soul grew tired quickly and fell asleep again. There were still tears hanging around his eyes.

Angor leaned on the wall and watched the beautiful lake going past the scenery. The tranquil and serene ambiance brought him sad memories.

Footsteps approached and stopped beside him.

“I’ll find time to do researches on drawing Prelude to Elimination when we’re back, as fast as I can,” said Angor. He paused for a moment before continuing, “There’s only a number of problems to tackle. Dealt with, and nothing should stop me. Tell this to Master Prome.”

“I see.” His visitor sighed in sadness as he said, “Just listening to you makes me jealous. Magic arrays are nothing like ordinary runes. They are extremely hard to memorize, and you sound… so chilled. Man… maybe this is talent, something that people just can’t learn.”

The speaker put a hand on Angor’s shoulder.

“I trust you, Angor. You have what it takes to become the best alchemist ever.”

Those words, a pair of sincere eyes, as well as the curtain of stars and the empty hallway in the airship, turned into a permanent portrait in Angor’s memory.

“Same to you,” said Angor as he looked into the eyes glimmering under starlight and smiled back. “We’ll learn together, Dave.”

“Together.”

Maybe the amazing scenery at night charmed their minds, the two young men observed the miracle creation of nature from the window and chatted over something they would no longer mention again upon reaching adulthood—their dreams.

Angor dreamed for the great future, while Dave dreamed about his own growth. But they mostly meant the same.

By “future”, Angor referred to something that could not be foreseen. It was something beyond time and space, even beyond dimensions.

They both spoke their minds. Yet they each still held something back for their own. Not privacy, but room for better ambition.

Probably because they were too indulged in their emotional discussion, they failed to notice Hobbiton sat behind their wall, eyes twinkling, also dreaming about the wonderful wizarding world.

“Angor, that kid, Hobbiton…” Dave was going to curse the little thief again but decided not to ruin the mood. “He’s loud, you know? I think the kid’s gonna kick you if not for that woman to stop him. He probably hates you to guts. You sure it’s a good idea, taking him to Butler Goode?”

“Hate me? Why? Because I didn’t bring Ananda with him?” Angor asked.

“Yeah. Kids get emotional too easily. He thinks you’re taking him away from Ananda so Ananda will never become a wizard. He’ll hate you for that, up front,” said Dave. When he recalled what happened before they boarded the airship, he moaned, “He’s too stupid to figure out why you agreed to take him to Brute Cavern.”

“Like you just said, he’s a kid. Well, maybe not chronologically but… he has a child’s mind. And it’s totally fine for kids to disregard social rules. Let’s bear with that.”

“Heh. You’re pretty open-minded. If someone, even a kid, yells or kicks me like a spoiled brat, I definitely will not help him with anything.”

The airship dived into clouds when the starlight began to shift a little.

…

There were three wizard clans controlling Twilight Well from behind the curtain who took turns for the job. It was Waterward Lions who was responsible for this month.

The captain of the guards, Walmazan, was the sixth wizard from Waterward Lions who officially became a real wizard three years ago.

The population in Wizard Fair reached the peak of the year during the Grand Auction. Walmazan stationed in the guard tower for half a month, and kept his eyes on the magic readings of the large-scale magic array.

Now that the auction had ended, and nothing serious happened apart from how Twilight attacked Sunders’ student twice. The readings were all fine.

Of course, Walmazan noticed Twilight’s attempts, but he did not do anything about it. The said kid should well answer for his offense against the regulations of Twilight Auction, no matter who he was.

Walmazan did not believe Sunders would go out of his way to attack Twilight Well just to help his student. Walmazan totally agreed with Twilight’s decision.

Also, he was the one who provided Angor’s position to Twilight. As a Shadow Wizard, he was adept at shadow spells. The nose of an Abyssal Bat he implanted, combined with shadow tracking abilities, helped him know everything around the Twilight Well. Walmazan did not even need to use the magic array to locate Angor.

Two hours ago, Walmazan lost track of Angor’s “signal” within Midnight Sovereign, which meant the boy had left.

It was not something worth noticing either. The life and death of a mere apprentice had nothing to do with his job whatsoever.

Walmazan sighed in relief as the auction concluded with a grand finale, and stepped out from the guard tower which he had been staying in during the past half month. He ordered his men to keep patrolling before he went back to his laboratory to do researches on his self-created spells.

Walmazan was a man of great ambition, who hoped to find the path of truth using his own unique spells. However, a unique spell did not always help people achieve such a goal. For example, Angor turned “Cleanse” into “Tornado”, which was also unique. The spell was only modified based on someone else’s experience, thus it was unlikely to help Angor seek the truth.

A real self-created spell had to be based on its creator’s original theories.

There were only a handful of wizards who had successfully found the path of truth, and there was a reason for it.

Walmazan went back to his lab and barely had enough time to draft his theories before his transmitter shrieked loudly.

“Something’s happening, sir! There’s a HUGE mana reaction inside Twilight Auction House!!”

Walmazan bolted from his lab, knocking the iron door of the room into scraps.

Upon arriving at the guard tower, the man looked at the magic array and immediately put up a look of pure horror.

A swarm of crimson-black energy indicators had shown up around the auction house. Walmazan only felt faint when he realized the color suggested level-2 wizards. Level-2s who was at the summit of their level.

Someone so powerful came to Twilight Well?

“Is Mister Phantom still here?” He asked. However, he was sure the gentleman would not do anything bad to Twilight Auction.

“Mister Sunders had left after the end of the auction. The array did not pick up his signature!” A guard replied.

Walmazan scowled in great anxiety. “Forget it. Two of you stay here. Everyone else, follow me to the auction house!”

Several light streams brightened up the night sky and headed to the tattered steel tower.

The moon was exceptionally large tonight. Under its great brilliance, Walmazan got a feeling that he was flying straight into the moon itself.

Steel tower, skywalks, tattered flags flapping in the wind… the auction house which already looked like ruins put up a more desolating aura under the moon.

Walmazan sensed something before reaching the vicinity of the tower.

He saw terrifying energy reading back on the monitor. Why was the auction house ghostly quiet?

It seemed as if an invisible barrier had separated the auction house from the outside. In the city, everything lived on. Meanwhile, inside the barrier, it was a deathly and lifeless graveyard.

A dozen light streams arrived and stopped just outside the “barrier”.

Walmazan quickly saw the master of Waterward Lions, ‘Azure Lion’ Devildare, who was also one of the supreme leaders of Twilight Auction House.

“Sir,” Walmazan flew toward Devildare.

Devildare was also here because he received the message from the guard captain.

“What’s going on?” He cast a glimpse at the quiet tower.

Walmazan replied in a stressful tone, “My men told me just now, that there’s a powerful energy reaction coming from the auction house. From the monitor, I saw the energy almost breaking the capacity of the magic array.”

“You mean a level-2 wizard at his peak?” Devildare exclaimed.

“Yes, and I already asked, the only level-2 wizard who visited Twilight Well recently is Mister Phantom.”

“It can’t be. I know Mister Sunders. If he’s doing something to Twilight Well, he’ll notify me beforehand.”

Devildare came from Brute Cavern. As another wizard on the path of truth, he was well acquainted with Sunders.

“The readings suggest that Mister Phantom left Twilight Well two days ago and never came again.” Walmazan spoke, “If Mister Phantom isn’t the one causing this, I… don’t know who it is.”

Devildare looked at the tower carefully. “We’ll see when we’re in there. The reading of a level-2 wizard does not necessarily mean a real level-2 wizard has come.”

Devildare could create a similar energy signature if he was determined to do so. It could also be achieved by using certain alchemy items. Now he had to get into the tower and check it out.

He told the other guards to enter the tower in three divisions and flew into the tower together with Walmazan.

Getting closer to the tower proved to him that he only “assumed” that the tower was quiet, which was not the case.

He heard faint music lingering in the air when he stepped into the first floor. Decent music.

However, the melodies felt extremely weird. The musical notes were intentionally dragged longer and sharper as if an adult was putting on a child’s show who was doing a terrible job at it.

The music would do well in a circus but only made people’s hairs stand on end when played here.

“Who is it?” Devildare asked the air when someone suddenly appeared in front of him.

“Sir! The Lion Princess… she’s dead!”