Warlock Apprentice

He tried to fool the green owl into going back to the Nightmare Realm.

He feared that Auri would kill him if he shut off the passage, so he tried everything he could to tell Auri to go inform the queen that they should prepare a bigger army to attack the wizarding world.

Once Auri crossed into the Nightmare Realm, Angor closed the passage right away while putting on a show that he “accidentally” messed everything up.

“Then the white mist disappeared, and you all can see the rest.”

“Anything else you found worth noticing?” Sunders asked.

“… There is, now I think about it.”

“Such as?”

“The monsters, they all recognized me. They called me ‘Shava’. But I don’t know that name. Maybe they mistook me for someone else? That’s good though, at least I can blend in with them and learn stuff from Auri. I did it because they think I’m Shava.”

Sunders shook his head. “Do you think wizard-level monsters can misjudge people like that?”

“Not likely… But I don’t have another answer for that. Am I really Shava? No way.”

“No way? I beg to differ,” said Sunders. He considered it for a moment before asking, “Do you remember how wizards usually describe the Nightmare Realm?”

“The reality is projected into imaginary and gives birth to the truth,” Angor recited those words and suddenly revealed fear when mentioning “birth of truth”. “Professor, you mean there’s my own projection somewhere in the Nightmare Realm?” Angor shivered at the idea.

There was a “second him” somewhere, and probably a monster.

“Possible. I never saw the projection of people before, but considering the level of your Nightmare Form, maybe something can change. It’s only an assumption. Suppose there’s really such a shadow projection of yourself, let’s see, we shall call it ‘your shadow’ for now. If this shadow does exist, it should possess the same traits as you.

“One more thing. Why were the monsters so certain that you’re Shava?”

Angor quickly noticed what Sunders hinted and asked, “You mean Shava wasn’t inside Nightmare Realm by that time?”

If thinking in this way, it explained why the monsters considered him, someone from “the outside”, as Shava. It was because they could not sense this “Shava” in the Nightmare Realm.

“That’s another assumption. We need more proof for it,” Sunders said. The Nightmare Realm held too many secrets.

“But Shava sounds like a woman…” Angor found it really weird if his counterpart was a female.

“Wizards don’t usually remember someone by his or her looks. A man’s temper, properties on his soul, personal pheromone… We can determine someone’s identity as long as most of this information fits, even if the man appears as someone else or different gender.”

“But Lady Mirror-”

“This is not the case for certain witches who only appreciate the outside appearance. I’ll make this matter another research subject about the Nightmare Realm, and we shall work on it for some time. You, will be the coordinator.”

Sunders took out a brand-new scroll, dipped some ink on his quill, and wrote something down in his elegant handwriting.

The Properties of Nightmare Projections, Subject 3: Projection of Creatures

Author: Sunders Eagle

Coordinator: Angor Padt

Angor paid extra attention when he saw Sunders writing his own family name, “Eagle”. It was the first time Angor saw that name.

Sunders put down the scroll and looked up again. “Anything else you think you should tell?”

Angor pondered and did remember something, such as why the monsters all used names of people from Padt Manor. But Sunders might have already explained it—those were projections.

However, Angor could not understand why the projections appeared in the form of animals. It was not an important question though, considering how his own projection might be a woman.

“No. I think that’s everything,” Angor said. He did not lie. He really could not think of other special matters. That incident itself was special enough. How did he summon the Nightmare Domain in the first place? Why did that woman show up just because he thought about her?

Sunders frowned a bit. He could always look into this “Shava” later. Angor’s explanation about how he played his part among the enemies to learn how to close the passage sounded too dramatic, but it was quite possible. The man had been using a spell on Angor too, and he found no trace of lying.

If Angor was being truthful… then who was responsible for the current incident at Twilight Auction House?

Sunders left the island just a while ago to receive an urgent transmission which came from outside the mirror world.

“I asked you here because I just received a message,” said Sunders as he stared at his student and observed Angor’s expression. “A message about Twilight Auction.”

Angor frowned. “Did Twilight defame me again? I mean, she caught me on the street TWICE yesterday. I’d be dead if Miss Flora wasn’t there to help.”

Sunders realized that the reactions coming from his student were all fine. Well, except that the boy was a little exasperated when he heard Twilight’s name.

It seemed Angor was not behind this.

“Yesterday night, the inner hall of the auction house was attacked by monsters, and no one managed to get in there yet. Anything that tried to enter the hall was killed, including wizards. If the information is correct, this is caused by a fox with a harp and a frog singer. Maybe another strange-looking card with a clown on it is also involved.”

“Fox and Froggy? And a card…” Angor was quite shocked.

Sunders nodded. His student already told him the names of the animals earlier. “Should be them.”

“But it can’t be…” Angor mumbled, “Are they so powerful?”

“Those two animals are both wizard-level monsters just like that toy owl. Why do you say so?”

“They’re visitors from a foreign world who should have their strength weakened if they come here, right? How can they kill wizards?”

Angor cast a simple, empty illusion, dragged a teacup with a heart stamp on it from the Nightmare Domain and placed it in front of Sunders. “Look, professor, I’d say they only have like, one percent of their strength left. Ordinary cantrips are enough to hurt them now. Shouldn’t Froggy and Fox be in the same condition?”

Sunders denied. “It doesn’t work that way. The teacup is weak because it always is so. They’re the first ones to come out of the passage, which means they are the weakest beings among that army. They reflected all attacks because of something else we don’t know yet. But I can tell you it isn’t their own strength.”

“Really?” Angor tossed the teacup back into the Nightmare Domain and removed his illusion. “Now I think about it, how do I deal with these teacups and toy soldiers, sir?”

“Let’s put it aside. Something more urgent is at hand now,” said Sunders as he grew a little impatient. “A hundred years ago, I accidentally let a wizard-level monster loose. That monster was of a similar level to Flora, at her current stage. And it didn’t grow weaker at all when it came to our wizarding world.”

“But how?”

“There are two possibilities for an otherworldly visitor to retain strength. One, a monster’s power belong to itself. It’s a similar power as the arts of wizards so that power is not affected by the environment. We can already exclude that reason for now. Many monsters in Nightmare Realm are not unique to that place. For example, the Glutton Flower Lord you ran into once existed in the wizarding world as well. That monster is powerful because of its own natural instinct. It has nothing to do with wizardry.

“As for the second possibility… not all foreign visitors mean demerit to this world. The world’s consciousness will allow ‘beneficial’ beings to exist here, such as certain magical plants.

“Although I don’t think either reason applies to our situation, which leaves us one other theory.”

“There’s a third reason?”

“Do you think you’ll ever get expelled by the wizarding world?” Sunders asked a question instead.

“You mean…”

“If the creatures originate from the wizarding world and possess the mark of natives, the world’s consciousness will not trouble them. The Nether City you saw in the Nightmare Realm is a projection of the real Nether City from the wizarding world. If I’m not mistaken, the Glutton Flower Lord is also a projection, which meant its root belonged to our world. Suppose the Glutton Flower Lord in the Nightmare Realm would show up here… it’ll probably keep its full strength.”

“Um, if a monster is projected into Nightmare Realm from another world, such as the Haunt World, and that monster ends up in the wizarding world, it’ll still grow weaker?”

Sunders nodded.

“The fox and frog must be creatures that already exist in the wizarding world,” Sunders sighed. “They came from the core area of the Nightmare Realm too, which makes them stronger than wizards already. I’m afraid they already equaled with wizards who have found the path of truth.”