Warlock Apprentice

“Lion Princess?! Dead?” Devildare was furious hearing those words. Lion Princess was one of the six wizards from Waterward Lions. Someone as strong as her… was dead?

“What happened, Wood?” Walmazan asked.

“I don’t know! I’ve been following her closely. When she stepped into the inner hall, she just, exploded! There were body-her parts all about!”

“Where’s her soul? Give me her soul and I’ll ask her!” Devildare demanded.

Wood shook his head. His voice was trembling in fear. “It’s gone.”

“Gone?? Explain to me!”

“I tried to get her soul when I saw her die like that. But it was only a second, and her soul was drawn into the inner hall. I feared that there’s danger in there, so I sent my familiar inside, whose body became pieces too! And I ran back to report it to you, sir.”

“Her body was shredded just because she entered the hall? But Lion Princess is a Bloodline Wizard!” Devildare felt his heart racing. “Quickly, tell everyone to stay out of the hall. Assemble on me!”

Wood nodded and created several avatars who scattered into different directions.

Devildare sensed the strange energy flowing in the air around the place which prevented all transmitters from working. He had to ask Wood to get his men.

Walmazan spoke up, “Sir, there should be a secondary auction held in the inner hall today. I kept my watch during the day, and I didn’t see anything.”

Devildare nodded. “I know. I was there to maintain the magic array.” He frowned as he continued, “Yet… I can no longer sense the presence of the array now. Like Wood said, the inner hall is void of life, perhaps the magic array is already destroyed.”

A moment later, eleven individuals had come to Devildare’s side.

There were wizards who stationed at the auction house from all three factions, Waterward Lions, Enthralling Aroma, and Amber Dragonwing.

All wizards from the three clans who were currently in Twilight Well had come.

“Mister Devildare, is Wood true? Lion Princess died in the inner hall? And her soul is no more?” A witch from Enthralling Aroma, Kagura, spoke. As someone from another clan, she would be happy to see Waterward Lions losing one of their wizards if it was someone other than the Lion Princess. Lion Princess was her good witch friend.

“We were just having tea at her place, and you’re telling me that she’s gone? You sure this isn’t a terrible joke?”

Devildare tried his best to contain his great grief.

“Follow me, if you would.”

They followed the man to the west door of the hall and were all shocked in place when they saw a broken human skull standing right under the door frame. Lion Princess’ eyes stared into the darkness as if a powerful being was using her to display its absolute domination.

Kagura wept at the horrible sight. She tried to use her spirit feelers to pull the head closer, but the feelers were immediately cut off when they reached the door.

Kagura screamed in pain and knelt down.

“No spells can enter the hall. There’s some kind of powerful barrier.”

“What do we do now, Mister Devildare? As the commander for this month, do you have an idea about the situation?”

“Well, we never ran into such a thing when we guarded the auction.”

“Yeah, maybe an enemy of Waterward Lions came to sabotage?”

Devildare already expected the other two clans to disgrace him using the chance. The man sighed and summoned a dozen monster rats.

These rats were low-leveled summoned beings, and one of the most common test subjects for wizards. No matter if it was to test dangerous spells or potions, the rats always ranked first on the material consumption list.

They were born with superior sensitivity too. When Devildare ordered them to enter the hall, the creatures only trembled in place.

The man cast a spell and knocked them in there by force.

Next, they saw several strange-looking strings appearing in the air which tore the rats to bloody parts. The area around the door was soon covered in blood and stink.

Devildare moved to the door himself.

“Please reconsider this, sir!” Walmazan tried to stop Devildare.

Devildare shook his head. “Don’t worry. I amplified my right hand with a spell before, and I can always re-implant a new one. I’ll use this hand to feel what’s going on in there. I can’t learn anything if I don’t experience this with my body.”

Walmazan acknowledged and moved aside.

Devildare stood right in front of the door and gazed at the dark hall which devoured all light.

He slowly reached out a hand toward the door, which was shining with a defensive spell.

Everyone looked at his move carefully.

“Hurph!”

His right hand was instantly fragmented. It did not end there, Devildare felt something crawling along his arm. He quickly took out a blade and chopped down his arm before he then collapsed.

“Sir!!”

“Mister Devildare!”

Devildare struggled a bit and stopped the bleeding.

“Get the clan masters of Enthralling Aroma and Ember Dragonwing.” He said in a low voice, “I need to start a tripartite meeting, right now.”

A tripartite meeting was a decision-making meeting held by the authorities of Twilight Well, which usually meant to discuss fending off invasions or dividing significant profit. Of course, there was no profit to be seen here, so… an enemy was attacking Twilight Well?

Everyone grew stressed when thinking about the possibility.

Most wizards had gone to inform their own faction, while Devildare stayed at the door. His right arm was no longer bleeding, but his blood-soaked clothes created quite the horrifying sight in the dark passageway.

“You’re here, Twilight?” He suddenly spoke.

A middle-aged woman wearing dusk-colored robe showed up from the darkness. She quietly stood behind Devildare.

“What did you find out?” Devildare asked.

Twilight came to the auction house together with him, but she did not answer Wood’s assemble call. She only told Wood to send a message that she found something.

Twilight hesitated a little before saying, “Sir, the music came from the inner hall, so whoever playing the music must be inside.”

“I know that. Anything else you can tell me?”

“I saw two shadows, and I think I know them… yes, this has something to do with Mister Sunders’ student.”

“Flora? Or…”

“Angor.”

…

At the same time…

Angor arrived at the mirror world. Before he could head home though, he heard Sunders’ voice ringing around his ears.

“Get to Phantom Island. I have a question.”

Angor already thought Sunders was going to ask him something about the auction. However, he did not expect the gentleman to use a voice transmission. Also, it seemed Sunders noticed his arrival at mirror world right away.

He sighed in frustration. Some kind of tracking spells. It must be.

“You go back first,” Angor said to Dave. “I’ll take Hobbiton to Butler Goode.”

After seeing Dave off, he looked at Hobbiton who was now both worried and curious about what was going to happen.

“Follow closely and don’t get lost. I’ll get you to see Goode.”

Considering Hobbiton’s age, Angor walked a little slower.

Occasionally, there were passers-by giving them curious glances, which caused Hobbiton to grow more and more nervous.

The kid yelled out loud when a commotion came about from not far, and a human arm suddenly dropped in front of them.

Angor rubbed his temples. The Tree Spirit Garden was usually “relatively peaceful”, but he ran into trouble so soon.

They kept walking. Soon, Angor found a tiny trembling hand grabbing the side of his clothes.

And he thought the kid was a fearless little rogue… Angor tried to hold back his laughter. He did not say anything just to spare Hobbiton’s ego.

Hobbiton grew comforted when he received no comment from Angor. He kept his hand on Angor’s side.

They climbed some stairs and reached a leaf bus stop when Hobbiton’s face began to grow pale.

The boy simply shrank into a ball on the sky bus and shivered badly. Now his lips were losing color as well.

“He’s afraid of height?” Angor realized something funnier would soon happen.

Those who could not fly had to travel across a completely transparent, unprotected sky bridge to reach Phantom Island.

Angor stepped onto the bridge with a plain expression and prepared to enjoy the show.

He walked some distance and looked back at Hobbiton, who stayed at the edge of the leaf, shuddering. The boy was so scared that he looked as if he was going to faint.

“We must go through here to find Goode,” Angor did not exert any emotion in his voice. “It’s a road you can’t see called the sky bridge. Don’t you want to find Goode?” Angor crossed his arms and gazed at the trembling boy.

Hobbiton stayed silent for quite a while before stuttering, “I-I-I’m afra-afraid…”

“Then you can give up thinking about becoming a wizard. Wizards don’t walk around on their feet.”

Maybe those words encouraged him just a little. Hobbiton poked his foot forward slowly and finally walked onto the bridge in slow motion.

Just when Angor thought Hobbiton had gone over his fear, the kid rushed to him and clung to his leg with his eyes closed.

Angor did not know how to feel. He never thought he would have someone hugging his leg like this.

Considering that Sunders was still waiting, Angor only moaned without saying anything. He dragged Hobbiton on his leg and moved to the Phantom Island.