Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 315: Suspicion of Parasites

“I left Twilight Well half a month ago. I traveled to Abyss Plane first, then I’m here in Brute Cavern with no other stops in between,” Lydia said. She then pondered about it. “If Tepikkhu is right, the incident started in Midnight Sovereign three days ago… and no one noticed it? There was nothing wrong when I was still there.”

“Or maybe it all started from Twilight Well,” Lady Mirror mumbled, “and it only spread into Midnight Sovereign when the entire Twilight Well fell?”

“Possible. The three clans of Twilight Well have more than 20 wizards and more in the dark. Something must have gone wrong since none of them get the message to Brute Cavern,” Lydia said. She tried to calm herself as she continued, “An infection that affects wizards is no small matter.”

“And there’s Devildare, a wizard on the path of truth. If that man failed to deal with whatever that’s happening, it means great trouble!” Lady Mirror agreed. “Let’s go find Tree Spirit and ask him to contact Devildare. We must find out what exactly is going on.”

“I’ll leave my connection on and send the puppet into the city to check the situation.”

“You do it. I’ll provide the energy for the link.”

The two ladies departed and flew toward the Tree Spirit Palace. When they were halfway there, Lydia suddenly frowned. “It’s happening!”

“What’s happening?” Lady Mirror asked.

Lydia considered and displayed the image showing Tepikkhu’s chamber.

On the altar, Horey already closed his maddened eyes. The man’s face completely lost its color, and he wasn’t breathing now.

Soon, something shiny came rushing out of his mouth and swiftly ran into the body of another guard before anyone could react.

Next, the affected guard displayed a twisted face. His neck abruptly jerked onto his left shoulder, while his four limbs bent and twisted beyond what was humanly possible. He was now singing and dancing madly inside the chamber in a weird way while slashing at random things using his equipped long sword.

Caught by surprise, Tepikkhu had his arm cut by the sword, and it began to bleed.

“Father!” Domino quickly assisted Tepikkhu. He stared at the mad guard in fear as he said, “Laury! But how come? He didn’t touch Horey! Or his blood!”

After witnessing the death of Butler Horey, the wound on his father, and his childhood friend who had lost his sanity, Domino could no longer control his emotions. Tear streams came running down his cheeks.

Lady Mirror scowled at the sight. “Looks like it’s not something we expected.”

Lydia nodded. “Yeah… Mortals cannot see that thing, so they think it’s some disease. But it’s not an infection. It’s probably a type of parasite.”

She controlled the big-headed doll to float in front of the mad guard.

At the same time, Lydia pressed her palms together and performed a series of strange movements; the slim arms of the doll followed her example and did the same gesture.

A scorching fireball appeared in the air and engulfed Laury.

“No! Laury!”

When Lydia saw Domino rushing toward the flames, she ordered, “Get out of there. Take Tepikkhu with you!”

Tepikkhu already joined his son while he pressed down on his bleeding wound. The duke dragged Domino away before his son could say anything. But before they could reach the door, a shiny object emerged from the guard’s burning body and flashed into Tepikkhu faster than Lydia’s doll could react.

Tepikkhu had become another victim under everyone’s gaze, even though Lydia’s doll was just beside them.

Lydia grimaced. She knew she should have asked them to escape BEFORE burning the guard. Now Tepikkhu was affected, which was mostly her fault.

Tepikkhu’s body began to flop around madly. He stepped onto Laury’s burnt corpse and did a ballet spin, while his limbs zigzagged beyond human recognition.

“Why… why is this happening…” Domino couldn’t take it anymore, and he knelt down. “We called a mighty wizard, but my father…”

While Domino sulked, Lydia controlled her magic doll and floated to Tepikkhu.

Domino quickly looked up when he heard his father screaming in pain. He saw the doll holding Tepikkhu high in the air, preparing to drop the man down.

Domino immediately ran to the doll and knelt. “No, please! Lady Lotus! I can’t… I can’t watch my father die like this, even if he has turned. I beg of you, spare my father!”

Lydia wouldn’t hesitate to kill Tepikkhu at all, even if anyone else were there to beg. However… Tepikkhu’s condition was her fault, and Domino Moa was the one who signed the contract with her. Lydia wasn’t going to act harshly on someone who simply wished to save his father.

“I won’t kill him.”

Lydia cast a low-level cantrip “Bind” and constrained Tepikkhu in a rope she created. Then, she tossed Tepikkhu’s trapped body in front of Domino.

“I’ve stopped the bleeding. Do take care of him. It’s not an infection, but a monster parasite. There’s still hope to get him back.”

…

After the matter was dealt with, Lydia fell into a worse mood. She was now more anxious about the incident than Lady Mirror.

“Since we know it’s a parasite, we only need to use the right approach,” Lady Mirror said.

Lydia nodded. By “right approach”, Lady Mirror meant to use spells like Expel or something stronger to chase the parasite away from its host. Every wizard knew about such spells. But… why hadn’t any wizards from Twilight Well done anything yet?

They both got a bad feeling about the situation.

Upon arriving at Tree Spirit Palace, Lydia was surprised to see two Phantom Servants, one taller and one smaller, standing right beside Tree Spirit while wearing those usual robes and masks.

Lydia sensed something familiar coming from the shorter servant. However, Sunders’ family emblem on the taller servant convinced her not to do anything to offend Sunders. Therefore, she decided not to use her spell to check them.

With that in mind, Lydia returned her attention onto Tree Spirit.

Lady Mirror already approached and explained the situation in Midnight Sovereign.

Three days ago, the Midnight Sovereign was suddenly covered in thick mist, which abruptly turned the ten-thousand-square-kilometer city into hell.

Inside the affected area of the mist, a malevolent anomaly began to affect the residents like a disease. Anyone who was tainted would become a maddened psycho who sang and danced while wearing strange clothes.

Together with the eerie singing voices, the mist-covered city had become an accursed prison.

The number of infected increased faster and faster, and nobody knew where the disease came from. Within three days, more than 99% of the entire population, which was nearly a million citizens, became victims.

After Lady Mirror explained the overall situation, Lydia joined them and provided some details; all the while showing them the image sent by the magical doll.

When the image materialized in the air, they suddenly saw the shorter one of the two Phantom Servants knelt down with a loud “thud”.

“Father… Father?!” The servant cried out from behind his mask.

Father?

Everyone else looked at the image and saw Tepikkhu’s mad face displayed on it.

“Who are you?” Lydia turned around and asked in confusion.

“Lady Lotus… he is my blood,” the taller servant replied.

Lydia immediately recognized the voice of Goode Moxa, Sunders’ personal butler.

“Your blood? I… don’t think he’s a Moxa. He’s a Moa, no?” Lydia sneered and dragged the robe off the shorter Phantom Servant, thus revealing Hobbiton’s child face.

“Of course it’s you, Hobbiton,” Lydia sneered again. “Now tell me, why are you here at Brute Cavern instead of waiting for me like a good kid at Midnight Sovereign?”

Hobbiton was still sad about his father’s condition. Upon hearing Lydia’s question, he suddenly recalled Grandfather Goode, who just addressed the woman in red as “Lady Lotus”.

Lydia was the reason why he escaped from Midnight Sovereign to look for Goode, and he had no idea what to do now that Lydia suddenly showed up right in front of him. During the half month he lived with Goode, he learned many things about the wizarding world, and he knew that Goode couldn’t oppose Lydia despite his relation with Sunders.

Lydia briefly explained why she was looking for Hobbiton. “I don’t have time for you now, kid. Let’s have a nice little talk when we’re done dealing with the situation.”

Then she turned away and continued speaking about the Midnight Sovereign. “Mister Tree Spirit, according to what’s happening to Tepikkhu, I’m almost sure that it’s a parasite. I have no expertise in this, so I don’t know what was that shiny thing I saw. But we must be extremely careful since it’s something that affects Twilight Well.”

Lydia would speak to Lady Mirror in a carefree manner because they had always been best of friends. Now, when facing the Tree Spirit, a powerful ancestor soul who had lived for countless millenniums, Lydia would display her best manner.

“I recorded the image of the shining object with my transmitter. Maybe if we can ask the Elder of Books…”

Lady Mirror shook her head. “That old man won’t answer us, considering his temper. As long as it doesn’t affect him, he would sit in his library even if the outside world is crumbling down. And no, the two of us won’t make a difference.”

Tree Spirit also moaned and agreed.