Warlock Apprentice

There was a large, white banyan tree that supported an equally large treehouse among its thick branches.

This treehouse was called “The Luminous”, which was shown by a luminous stone tablet hanging on a branch near its entrance. This hotel-like structure would be Angor’s first destination during his search for Nausica.

They landed on the ground beneath the tree while listening to the spotted puppy still barking loudly at the beautiful structure in front of them.

“Is Nausica here?” Shan frowned as she looked at the unlit treehouse, which seemed to be haunted.

“Let’s go and see.”

Angor never managed to comprehend the puppy’s intention. But they couldn’t wander around the entire Sleepless City and look through the countless buildings without a lead to follow, and the puppy was the only thing that MIGHT give them a clue.

There were about a dozen wooden ladders that led to the hotel house. When Angor’s group climbed to the hotel’s door, the door was knocked open by a swarm of parasites that appeared like countless fireflies above their heads.

Shan and Shiliew immediately crouched down and covered their heads.

They waited until all the parasites had left without touching them. It seemed these creatures intentionally escaped while avoiding Angor.

“Why-why are there so many of them in this place?” Shan stood up, trembling.

“Maybe this is their nest,” Angor replied and walked into the absolute darkness ahead of them without looking back.

Shiliew and Shan exchanged an uncertain look. Angor wanted them to follow him, but he never explained why he was safe from these parasites. These two ladies never regarded this matter as anything serious before, but it was no longer the case when Angor just “walked by” such a huge group of parasites untouched.

“Geez. Why is he all shushing?” Shan mumbled and also entered the hotel with Shiliew.

They saw Angor standing still not far from them. They could not see anything yet as the inside of the treehouse didn’t have any light source, but they heard the buzzing noises as if there were a lot of insects flying about.

Shan gulped, and after getting Angor’s consent, she prepared Light in her mindspace and released it.

What they saw next shocked her greatly.

There was a large monster nest located right in front of Angor, which was giving out that buzzing sound.

“An-Angor? What-what-what is that? Is this the home of all those parasites?”

Angor nodded, which was his only answer. This thing was not necessarily a “parasite nest” as there were more complicated connections between the parasites and the Nightmare Realm, about which he didn’t wish to explain right now.

Since he had confronted this thing for more than once now, Angor didn’t feel fearful or any particular concerns for that matter.

“Shan, move your Light higher, place it near the top of the nest.”

He was looking for someone, so he wasn’t interested in the monster nest. He told Shan to move the light source because he sensed something strange above their position.

While still trembling a little, Shan complied and controlled her cantrip.

As soon as she did, a flock of several hundred rainbow dragonflies rushed out of the nest and surrounded them.

Each dragonfly displayed the same level of power as the strongest apprentice an organization could offer. Upon seeing so many hostiles on top of them, Shan’s face went pale as she almost lost control of her spell.

“What do we do?” Shiliew spoke up. She sounded relatively calm compared to her partner, but she was not doing very well either.

Angor already sensed emotions coming from the creatures before he could respond.

Shan and Shiliew could feel something as well—excitement, mostly. Angor could tell more. He heard the familiar praising chants that were admiring the queen, Shava, the moon… even though they could not see the moon for real.

Similar to before, the dragonflies didn’t seem too intelligent.

“Don’t mind them. They won’t do anything as long as you don’t provoke them first.”

As he said, the dragonflies kept flying around them while releasing their “emotion signals”. But that was about it.

“Shan, your light,” Angor urged.

They suddenly heard someone screaming.

As Shan moved her Light higher, they finally saw a woman with pale green hair being restrained by several golden strings above the monster nest. One of the ends of the strings locked her in place by piercing through her limbs, while the other ends were connected to a portal toward the void.

After screaming, the woman’s irises slowly vanished until her eyes turned completely white. A strange energy wave then emerged from the portal and traveled through the strings until they sank inside the woman’s body.

Angor saw a brand new interlayer space slowly spreading out, centered around the woman.

It seemed the woman could no longer move or think. The interlayer expanded and reached a certain limit before it quickly shrank smaller and concentrated inside the woman.

When this was completed, the woman was dragged into the portal and vanished from their view.

At the same time, Angor sensed the “central interlayer” slowly reaching its influence toward this place.

“Let’s go. Nausica is not here.”

He just witnessed how a new prototype puppet came to be by losing her sanity, and he feared that Nausica would meet the same fate.

Without tarrying any longer, they headed to the next destination.

The dragonflies moved to both sides as if they were politely making way for Angor’s departure.

Again, Shan and Shiliew were curious to find out why, but it was obviously not the time for it, so they carefully followed behind Angor closely. They knew Angor was the only reason that kept them safe in this madness, so they could not afford to stray away from him.

Once they stepped out of the hotel, Toby activated his Griffin power again to hasten their travel.

The puppy saw what Angor was doing and began barking in another direction.

Two minutes later, Toby brought them to a cemetery area at the west of the outer city not far from the main city district.

Across the black iron bars, Angor noticed that the cemetery had been taken care of nicely. There were no random body pits or dug-out coffins like the graveyard he saw outside Dark Castle. Even the tombstones showed careful craftsmanship and delicate designs.

“This is Rosette Mortuary, intended for the rich. Anyone who can find a burial spot here should be someone influential in the city, as in, their family or clan at least has a supernatural,” explained Shan.

The iron bars were full of thorny vines that had bright-looking roses growing on them. Instead of the stench of dead bodies, the air was filled with a faint, sweet fragrance.

They weren’t exactly glad to smell it because wizards usually had another name for this particular scent—Whiff of the Dead.

This was produced by a certain flower that survived by draining on the rotten corpses buried underground. There were wizards with special tastes who loved perfumes brewed by using this ominous flower. As long as one didn’t mind how the perfume was made, they would enjoy the more potent aroma compared to using other products of the same kind.

“Let’s get inside.” Angor moved first.

Shan followed behind on uncertain steps. “Hey, Angor… what happened to that woman earlier? Is Nausica going to…”

“Yes. This is why we must find her before she completely loses it. We don’t have time now.”

They reached their target soon. There was the same monster nest built at the center of the cemetery, where someone captured by Yorkshire was hung above it.

It wasn’t Nausica. Although the captive was someone else they knew—Gank.

Similar to the other victims, his large body had been penetrated by several golden strings. He was roaring out both in pain and rage. That strange mask he used to wear was cut open, exposing a pair of bleeding eyes.

“We did something to remove most of his responsiveness against emotions and bodily harm. He’s crying blood like that because he cannot take it anymore!” Shan called out to Angor.

Gank heard Shan’s voice and looked her way, calling her name weakly.

“He’s not possessed! He knows me! How do we get him out? We must do something now!”

Angor already knew that these captured people who were to be made into “interlayer containers” were free of parasites, probably because it was easier to break their sanity in this way. This meant the time it took for their last defense line to break down solely depended on their mental fortitude.