Warlock Apprentice

The Monsoon Sector had seen people come and go. The strange darkness that fell upon the outer city was obviously dangerous, but at the same time, it held mysteries that attracted academicism wizards who valued knowledge and research more than their own lives.

Of course, there were many wizards who solely came in search of the rumored Mystery treasure.

Since the major organizations had learned that sending apprentices here as scouts equaled sentencing them to death, no one had further provided their members for the parasites.

Even at this moment, there were still people arriving and leaving from the Monsoon Sector.

Douglas was now together with about 30 wizards, who were sent by various organizations across the region, inside an onion-domed conference hall at the center of the Monsoon Sector.

“I’ll not waste time by explaining the purpose of this meeting,” claimed Douglas. “Ouna, if you would.”

He stepped aside and gave his place to a middle-aged woman wearing a golden-rimmed monocle over one eye and a traditional robe decorated with stars and moons. Several insignificant wrinkles on her cheeks further added to her stern temperament.

“Mister Radiance asked me to go to Brilliance Plane and seek help from Starliege Temple. However, before I teleported to Brilliance Plane via Silver Hub, I encountered Mister Prada.”

“Stargazer” Prada, a famous Prophet from Brilliance Plane.

“It seems he predicted that I’ll be there, so he waited for me at the hub. When I asked his opinion regarding this crisis, Mister Prada gave a similar answer as Doctor Anglo’s, that we should avoid carelessly tampering with the darkness at all cost.”

The participants, especially wizards from Sleepless City, didn’t look very happy upon hearing this. Prada basically told them for a second time that they had to abandon Sleepless City and find a new home.

But there were exceptions.

Those from Edge of Night appeared rather pleased, even though they tried not to show it.

As another moderate-sized wizard organization inside the Evernight Kingdom, Edge of Night always considered Sleepless City as their major rival. They even built the Evernight Mountain just to go against Sleepless City. It was a rather childish act, but it had shown others how bad their relationship was.

Giving up Sleepless City and establishing a new base elsewhere would undeniably harm the foundation of Sleepless City.

Besides, moving away meant giving Edge of Night more room for development. If things kept going like this, Edge of Night was likely to achieve the rank of a major organization first before Sleepless City did.

The wizards from Edge of Night were already being as polite as they could by not laughing out, but this didn’t help them appear any less hostile in this room.

“I’m afraid we have to completely move out of Evernight Kingdom this time.” Qetesh glanced at the smirking wizards and scoffed. “Who knows? Perhaps this darkness will keep growing, bringing those shiny things and monsters beyond the current bounds, by which time… it will soon become someone else’s problem.”

Everybody knew what he meant by that, but no one protested, because it would probably be just the case.

“Did you all remember the hint provided by Starliege Temple last time,” Ouna spoke up, “that ‘The south is shrouded in darkness, yet the new sun will rise again’? We do not know when our sun is going to rise yet, but the darkness does not seem to be ending any time soon. Mister Qetesh is right. It’s very likely that this shaded curse will find its way to Evernight Mountain tomorrow.”

When they were openly offended again, “Evil Dragon” Harris humphed. “While it is true that we aren’t being neutral about this disaster, we haven’t interfered in any way. Yet SOMEONE actually brought this problem out in the open for everyone to laugh at… I believe everyone here is among the elite ranks of their respective organizations. Surely you all can see who’s being the dick around here, right?”

Someone chuckled in the room.

Harris was true. Showing their enmity so boldly during this important conference was both foolish and unproductive. Qetesh and Ouna had overreacted.

“Yeah, right. Enjoy your peace. You won’t have it for long,” Qetesh cursed.

“Get to the point, Qetesh! Don’t waste our time,” Payne scolded him with a grim look.

When no one sounded any other opinions, a wizard asked something about the shiny spots and whether Prada mentioned anything about them.

“Mister Prada told us to simply wait,” Ouna replied. “‘There will be a way’, as he said. But he did not explain in what way exactly. You know how Prophets do their riddles.”

“Wait?? Both my students had fallen as victims in that place. We need a solution right now!” An angry wizard stood up.

Ouna sneered. “The lives of your students do not concern us. We never requested them to come in the first place. Either they came uninvited, or someone asked them to. And either way, the responsibility is their own to bear.”

“Several of my students have been on official business in your city before the crisis struck. At least you should give us an answer to that, no?”

The speaker was an old wizard wearing white all over his body, who just entered the conference room.

The other wizards quickly whispered to each other curiously, while Ouna bowed to the old man politely. “Mister Wallace, I didn’t expect that you’d come as well.”

“Of course I’ll come. All of my students are unparalleled research assistants and I cannot afford to lose any of them. So you do not care for those who came to check the crisis and got trapped instead. What about the others who were staying at Sleepless City all along? Is the city going to answer for our losses?”

This old wizard was Wallace from Brute Cavern, who was very famous for his picky character and shamelessness when it came to scamming other people for his personal gain.

Apparently, he was using the misfortune of his students as an excuse for obtaining profit from Sleepless City.

Ouna quickly removed her dictatorial attitude. Wallace just pointed out their biggest concern as well as their weakness—there were way too many victims suffering from the incident including the friends and relatives of influential wizards. The city needed to find a solution to quench their rage.

Of course, Sleepless City could choose to ignore everything and run away, in which case their names would be spat at for the rest of the era.

When Ouna tried to find a proper answer, Payne sighed and left his seat to join Wallace. “Do not worry. We have received a report which says that there aren’t many casualties. People are only restricted, but not killed, which means your students might be just fine, Mister Wallace. The important matter at hand is to look for a way to get them out. The city will provide compensation afterward.”

Wallace knew for a fact that his students were well and alive, but it didn’t matter!

An apprentice suddenly barged into the room and whispered something to Harris, who immediately widened his eyes.

Next, all wizards from Edge of Night left the conference room together.

The other participants looked at each other and wondered what had happened. Wallace and Payne too, had stopped talking nonsense and looked at the door.

Later, they managed to hear it from an apprentice from Edge of Night, that another wizard just perished inside the darkness.

To be precise, it was a wizard from Edge of Night.

“Heh. Which dumb*ss is it?” Qetesh couldn’t help smiling when he questioned the apprentice for a name. He just said that “Edge of Night would not enjoy their peace for long”, and his words were proved so soon.

“I think it’s ‘Little Imp’ Mister Gragg.”

“Gragg??” The other wizards all wondered what happened. Gragg might not be a powerful wizard, yet he was the best when it came to trickery and smart plans. Besides, that man usually valued his life more than anything else. How did he die at all?

“What about his soul? Completely vanished?”

“I don’t know, sir. It seems to be the case, telling from how people from Edge of Night are reacting.”

Allowing one’s soul to vanish meant he was dead for real. There was no way to resurrect him.

“Will Doctor Anglo be able to predict how he was killed?” asked Payne.

“No idea. Wizards from Edge of Night just went to Doctor Anglo. We’ll get the result soon.”

“Let’s go check on them then.” Payne beckoned to Douglas and Qetesh.

They arrived at Anglo’s house and saw Harris walking outside. When he saw them, Harris humphed and left without saying anything.

Inside the room, Anglo was working on his parchment again.

“Something you need?” he asked without looking away from his work.

“Is Gragg really dead, Doctor Anglo?”

Anglo nodded. He then shook his head. “I suppose so, telling from what clues I can gather. But the strings have told me another message, which suggested that Gragg might still have hope… I just can’t tell.”

When Payne and his partners wondered what this strange message meant, Anglo suddenly stood up from his seat.

“Mister Payne, my Wizard Eye has seen Mister Phantom and his student showing up from the darkness. Time to find out the answer we’ve been waiting for.”