Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 432: Unexpected Escape Plan

About an hour after Angor and Shadow entered Silent Hill, Talos suddenly began to whisper in a small voice.

“Oh, I think I remember something.”

“What is it?”

“That small kid, I knew something looks familiar on him. It’s the same aura as Mister Phantom!”

“Mister Phantom? You mean…”

The voice ended. Talos wouldn’t dare to talk about Sunders in the open.

…

After leaving the gate area, Shadow also whispered to Angor, “Mister Talos is a Dual Sprite, the guardian of Silent Hill. Consider him our version of your Three Ancestor Souls. But Talos is of course, not as strong, since it was only born like two thousand years ago. It never stops talking, mind you. Make sure you interrupt and get away before it talks you into death.”

Dual Sprite? A stone that developed intelligence?

Angor thought about the Three Ancestor Souls in Brute Cavern—Lady Mirror, Tree Spirit, and Elder of Books. They all seemed to originate from certain objects. What was the difference between these presences and intelligent monsters?

When he asked, Shadow could only say “of course they’re different”.

But Shadow never said what exactly.

“Does it always ask for stuff like that?” Angor asked curiously.

“Yes, for anyone who doesn’t belong to Silent Hill. Well, maybe except for people from Floating Mech City, like me.”

The inside of Silent Hill wasn’t barren and desolate like the other parts of Midworld. There were grassland and forest. They still couldn’t see the sun, but the whole place was almost as bright as Real World.

Basically, it looked like Real World but with really cloudy weather.

A moment later, Angor stopped and watched the buildings with unique designs.

Sky-piercing wizard towers, random stone edges… Every structure more or less showed something wild. Just like Mirror World, the sky in Silent Hill was full of floating chunks of earth with a good number of apprentices traveling on them.

“Well, here’s your Silent Hill. Don’t go to the center. Without an identity, you can’t buy things anyway. I’ll take you to the market bazaar later. Floating Mech City has a branch set up there, and I can get you a room.

“Let me see… My teacher will leave Silent Hill in three days. You stay in the market for the time being. You need some other materials, right? Find them in the market.”

It didn’t take long for them to reach the market bazaar.

I looked very similar to the underground market in Mirror World. Most individuals here were mortals, with a small number of apprentices scattered everywhere. There was also a giant Sky Tower in the middle.

By “Floating Mech City’s branch”, Shadow was actually referring to the Sky Tower. In the end, they found a room just around the tower area.

With Angor settled, Shadow prepared to do something on his own.

Before he left for real, however, the man suddenly looked back at Angor with a hesitant look.

“… If possible, can you show up three days later, just when we’re going to leave by the portal?”

Angor failed to understand him.

“You see, my professor—”

An old man with white hair suddenly beckoned at Shadow and interrupted his speech. “Oh hey, Diablo! You’re back at last.”

Shadow quickly looked around, then back at Angor again. “I’ll come back at night. We’ll talk. Get some rest for now.”

The old man tried to check out Angor, who was inside the room, when Shadow dragged him away hurriedly.

Angor tilted his head in confusion. He felt something wasn’t right, but he didn’t really have a choice other but to wait for Shadow’s return.

The room wasn’t big. A simple bed and an equally simple desk were all he had, but Angor didn’t mind. It seemed this was the only thing Shadow could get him. It was only two days; he could manage.

The room sat among a cluster of stone bunkers built behind Sky Tower, which allowed him to see the busy crowds gathering around the tower. He felt as if he were back inside Brute Cavern again.

Everything here looked as amazing as Brute Cavern, if not better. The wizarding world was really full of wonders.

Angor closed the room door to shut all the noises outside.

Completing his flying vehicle earlier left him with nothing to do. Considering Shadow’s strange attitude earlier, he wouldn’t wander around this strange place by himself; he simply stayed on the bed to work on the next Illusionist spell.

His study on Fear wasn’t going too smoothly. Mind Manipulator spells required mind-reading skills and great insights into human desires and emotions. For now, he still had nothing to go by.

It was totally expected that he couldn’t master a brand new art all of a sudden. However, Fear was only a level-1 cantrip that didn’t require a deeper knowledge system. Knowing the basics of Mind Illusions was enough.

The rest of the day quickly elapsed. It was nearly the next morning when Angor heard someone knocking on the door.

As agreed, Shadow had returned.

However, the man looked a bit more worried for some reason. He quickly dragged Angor’s hand and began to move away. “Come with me. You can’t stay here.”

“What happened? Is there danger?” Angor could clearly see it from Shadow’s eyes. The man was extremely anxious about something.

“I overlooked something. I thought everything’s fine as long as I get my teacher’s consent, but… There’s more danger than that.” Shadow put up a grim look. “Get out of Silent Hill before she finds you!”

Although puzzled, Angor knew Shadow meant business, so he didn’t question further.

While walking toward the outside, Shadow handed Angor several parchments. “Hide. I’ll use Spirit Bond.”

Angor used Infinite Reticence, while Shadow also cast Optic Confusion.

“Those are maps. Once outside, you can use your Gondola to leave Fairy World and look for another way back.”

With a hasty tone, Shadow spoke through Spirit Bond.

“Whatever’s going on? Did your teacher refuse to bring me along?”

“He… urgh, how do I say it? He got a strange hobby, or should I say, obsession. I told you to wait until the last day because of this. But that’s not a problem now. Even if he’s going to do something to you, I can take you away again.

“The REAL problem now is someone I forgot to consider, that old hag Isabella. I knew my teacher invited her here, but I never actually saw her up close. I thought she already left Fairy World. But she’s right here!”

They successfully left the market area.

“Take the main road. I don’t know if she already found you, but she isn’t going to do stupid things inside Silent Hill. It will get her in trouble.”

“What’s wrong with Isabella?”

“You forgot? She left a small trace of her consciousness in Soul Genesis Garden, and you broke it. She’s the meanest bitch I’ve ever seen among wizards. Trust me, she’s onto you! When I went to report to my teacher, I said I’m taking a friend to Floating Mech City together. He had no problem with it. But the old thing was listening in just outside the door back then.”

“So she heard you?” Angor frowned.

“I’m sure of it, and I’m also sure she knows who I was talking about. As far as I know about her character, she WILL come get you personally. And… there’s a second reason why she hates you.”

“Huh?”

Shadow moaned. “Your hair and eye color… You know, she’s trying to… bond, with my teacher. My teacher refused because she doesn’t have blond hair and blue eyes.

“She got so angry and slaughtered many people with such features. Old and young, men and women… Now she has TWO reasons to kill you, and she will do it at all cost.”

Angor gradually got ahold of the situation.

“You mean your professor likes blond hair and blue eyes too? Is that the ‘obsession’ you mentioned? ‘More danger’ meant another danger beside your teacher?”

“Crap. Well, I can’t lie to you now. Yes, my teacher will try to do something to you too. But he won’t kill you—he will make sure you become his puppet willingly, so don’t worry about your safety. Once we’re at Floating Mech City, I can do something to help you escape. But I can’t do anything to help you with Isabella. She’s a psycho!”

Abruptly, a third, giggling voice joined their Spirit Bond.

This new voice that sounded beside their ears sounded cute and young, while at the same time, eerily creepy.

“Ohh, the coward student of my future husband… Little Diablo. Who’s that psycho you’re talking about?”