Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2220: Chapter 2221: Winds in Memory

”The domain of the wind is the hall of whispers, the boundary of distance, an invisible string sensing the world’s pulse...”

”Once you merge with the wind, you will hear the whispers it brings to you...”

”Hmph, but you, a mere human, how could you understand the grace of the wind.”

When Angel was at the center of countless air rings, dodging the impact of myriad weather phenomena and feeling the roar of the storm, Fafnir’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

Sealed memories were uncovered, the seal of time removed—

Returning to the days when he opened a shop in Lassudral.

Fafnir, as an abyssal dragon of wind energy, always maintained a wind domain field around him. Angel could always feel the flow of the wind while beside Fafnir.

Initially indifferent, he began to explore joyfully, then Fafnir’s relentless disdain followed. This was Angel’s first contact with high-order wind’s force and his most profound understanding.

Fafnir would always use extremely cold words to disparage Angel’s comprehension of the true essence of the wind as worthless.

Angel indeed had little talent for the wind’s force, so he merely understood it briefly, and ultimately, his research into the wind came to nothing.

Even though later, before Lassudral fell, Fafnir once said: As a human, you barely qualify to study the wind.

But Angel was not a wind wizard, and his illusion technique skills were not proficient. He lacked the time and energy for cross-disciplinary research. Hence, he shelved it until now.

Angel thought Fafnir’s parting words were merely kind farewell words. But at this moment, truly surrounded by countless wild winds, he suddenly gained a further understanding of the wind.

Of course, even if he achieved some insights, it was of no help to Angel at that moment. He couldn’t instantly convert the insights into applicable knowledge; at least a long journey lay ahead.

However, although the insight could not help now, the memories could give Angel a significant boost in a short time.

The so-called memory is the recreation of the scenes when Angel opened his shop.

It was unremarkable back then, but now, reflecting upon it, Angel realizes it was an enormous wealth. Fafnir, as the pinnacle of abyssal dragons, constantly stimulated the wind domain field, embodying Fafnir’s comprehension of the wind.

This comprehension included all of Fafnir’s understanding of the wind sequence.

Angel was very fortunate; he didn’t see the wind domain field on the battlefield. It harbored no malice towards him, so he could leisurely be in all wind wizards’ envied wind sequence, unconsciously listening to the whispering of the wind.

When he recalled the scene at that time, it was as if he was conversing with Fafnir in that era.

Every time Kraken’s air ring hit him, Fafnir in the memory would mockingly jab with icy words that pierced his heart.

Every time he evaded the air ring, Fafnir would nonchalantly say: This is fundamental, failing it you can’t face me.

Thus, Angel continued to advance and dodge under Fafnir’s razor-sharp words.

As the clamoring sound around gradually lessened, Angel found that he could truly dodge many air rings.

Of course, it’s not the imaginary insults from Fafnir that gave him strength, but the insights gained from recalling Fafnir’s wind sequence.

Under such insights, he seemed to grasp some rhythm of the wind.

Thus, as he neared Kraken, the chance of being struck by the air rings decreased.

However, this peculiar experience could not last long. Even in the future, without environmental pressure, this realization might never be possible again. Memories, after all, are just memories, not the reality.

But even maintaining this state for two or three seconds allowed Angel to evade many air rings and ultimately arrived nearby Kraken at minimal cost.

He was now less than ten meters from Kraken’s bell-like eyes.

Yet, he could not get closer.

Kraken, initially dazed, had now returned to normal. Not only had air rings formed around it, but also numerous invisible yet sharp wind blades. These blades arrayed as ”thorns” like armor, densely covering every inch of Kraken’s body.

If Angel went another step closer, he would surely face the fierce backlash of all the wind thorns.

Without the help of ”memory,” without Fafnir’s ”guidance,” touching the wind thorns would result in far more than minor injuries.

However, to control Kraken, close proximity was necessary; ten meters were still too far.

”Opportunities are few, perhaps only this one.” Staring at the gigantic squid nearly within reach, Angel made a decision in his heart: ”If I don’t want to miss this chance, it seems I must try this move.”

Angel didn’t want to forsake his hard-won opportunity, for the next time, with brute force, it might not be as easy to reach Kraken’s side.

Thinking this, Angel took a deep breath. Before Kraken’s eyes of surprise faded, he abruptly opened his right eye.

The green pattern surrounding his right eye began to throb, nurtured by the breath of the Nightmare Realm, with numerous symbols and structures swirling around his right eye.

In Kraken’s eyes, Angel’s right eye had completely turned green.

Moreover, a daunting aura spread from his right eye.

Under this oppressive aura, Kraken hesitated for a moment.

This brief pause provided Angel the chance to cast his spell.

He released the heart illusion model constructed in his Mind Space through the casting conduit directly.

Previously, whether facing Chimera or Lobal, Angel cast the heart illusion model through his fingertips, the most familiar conduit.

But this time, the outlet for the casting conduit was his right eye.

Maintaining stable magic power requires the most familiar position for the casting conduit, which Angel previously used on his right hand fingers. Not only out of habit but also because the green pattern on his right hand could attach the power of the Nightmare Illusion. This reckless change held substantial risks of lowering stability and success rate, with failure potentially causing backlash.

Yet, Angel decided to do so.

Because he tested it before, opening the green pattern in his right eye and using it as a casting conduit slightly increased the heart illusion’s power.

Even if it’s just a ”slight” increase, a successful invocation could become the last straw to break the camel’s back!

As Angel maintained the stable influx of magic power to his right eye, the illusionary realm of the mist battlefield suddenly enveloped by an extremely terrifying hurricane.

The wind swept away the clouds.

A large amount of clouds and mist began to be blown away in this hurricane’s rhapsody.

Even without Earl Mi sending a thought, Angel could already tell from the changes around him that Hurricane had finally taken action on the fog battlefield.

Forcefully suppressing irrelevant thoughts in his mind, he focused all his efforts on maintaining this ”floodgate” of the right eye.

He knew, victory or defeat rested on this strike.

When he went all out, there was no longer the sound of wind in his ears, nor the flickering shadows in front of his eyes. The whole world consisted only of green patterns, growing luxuriantly, akin to emerald waterweeds in gentle waves.

When the ”waterweeds” spread to every part of the pupil, a light cluster surfaced from the depths. Its glow was weak, yet it illuminated this dark, stagnant pool.

As the light cluster broke through the pool’s surface, several gentle green patterns seemed summoned, gently wrapping it, causing the originally faint light to suddenly bloom into a bright brilliance.

And this is the power of Heart Illusion, enhanced by the right eye.

When Heart Illusion leaped from Angel’s right eye and pierced Kraken’s wind spike armor with incomparable speed, rushing into its brow, only then did Angel breathe a sigh of relief like someone drained of energy.

It had succeeded.

Succeeding at the last moment might seem dramatic. But in fact, it wasn’t. Angel rarely used his right eye for spell casting, especially in combat. When he was accumulating experience in the ruins, he used his right eye countless times for spell casting in order to study the green patterns on it, because of the calm and slow casting, he never made a mistake.

It was precisely due to this accumulation that there was a foundation for spell casting in today’s battle; otherwise, all would be for naught. Building castles in the air sounds wonderful, but it only exists in dreams.

As the Heart Illusion broke through the space resistance and entered Kraken’s brow ten meters away, the ever-swelling airbags atop Kraken’s head and its flamboyant waving tentacles slowly came to a halt.

This meant that Kraken was already under the control of Heart Illusion.

Only then did Angel finally move his stiff body; with cracking sounds, waves of tearing pain along with the piercing pain of dislocated bones surged like tides.

Even Angel, who was tolerant, couldn’t help but let out a soft cry of pain.

After all, what he considered minor injuries were actually absolutely lethal injuries to other apprentices.

After casting a Healing Technique on himself, Angel felt slightly more comfortable and then slowly approached Kraken, preparing to complete the last corner of the triangle structure of the Illusory Realm.

The clouds and mist around became increasingly thin, and Hurricane’s wind power had initially shown. But Angel was no longer much afraid, facing the fierce gale, he set Kraken as the last corner.

As his fingertip fell, the whole fog battlefield began to undergo earth-shattering changes.

The previously blown-thin clouds and mist once again spread, even at Hurricane’s full strength, this time the returning mist could not be dispersed.

Moreover, the mist became denser, even more so than before Hurricane had interfered.

When Hurricane’s gale could no longer even disrupt the basic clouds and mist, it indicated a qualitative change in the energy level of the fog battlefield’s Illusory Realm.

At this point, it wasn’t so simple for Hurricane to break the Illusionary Realm. Only by exhausting all the energy of the three major nodes could it possibly break the realm. And the three nodes represented the three wind generals, in this land where wind energy could be replenished at any time, it was no easy feat for Hurricane to deplete the energy of the three wind generals.

Of course, Hurricane could enter the mist, find the wind generals corresponding to the three nodes, and kill them one by one, which would also break the Illusory Realm. However, this would definitely not be worthwhile for Hurricane.

Having done all this, Angel clapped the nonexistent dust off his hands and gently pushed Kraken.

The giant squid, massive like a mountain, was pushed into the mist just like that, and finally disappeared without a trace.

Afterward, Kraken, Kymera, and Lobal would drift within the mist, maintaining the triangular stable structure at all times, allowing this Illusory Realm to be sustained until the end of this battle.

Looking in the direction where Kraken disappeared, Angel seemed to hear Sanders’ rebuking voice in his ear.

If Sanders knew he took a risky move to shoot Heart Illusion into Kraken, he would probably be furious and scold him vehemently.

Substituting himself into Sanders’ perspective, Angel also felt today’s battle was seriously embarrassing.

This was retribution for his shallow foundation.

There was no other way; his accumulation was still too short. If he was given another five or ten years of accumulation, these overlooked flaws would surely be slowly filled.

Angel shook his head, thinking to himself that once the matter in Tidal World was over, he would use the Teleportation Array Plate to return and continue his secluded accumulation.

...

Since his clothes had been shattered by the impact of the air ring, Angel had to change.

This time, he donned the star-moon Wizard Robe he wore while teaching at Ashiliya Academy.

Although he preferred the gentleman’s attire, the clothes in his bracelet were all ordinary garments, so he could only settle for this inherently undamaged Wizard Robe.

After changing into the Wizard Robe, Angel gazed towards the south of the fog battlefield.

Once Hurricane realized the storm couldn’t blow away the mist, it didn’t hesitate, immediately stopping its futile efforts and, without further entanglement with Earl Mi, directly plunged into the fog battlefield.

This suggested that Hurricane highly valued its comrades. Even without ascertaining the situation within the fog battlefield and being unaware if there was any danger, it charged in regardless.

It was likely Hurricane wouldn’t choose the path of killing the three wind generals.

If that was the case, abundant time was afforded to them.

Angel glanced remotely at the direction Hurricane entered, not pursuing battle immediately, but with a flash of his figure, following the vein of the wind, appeared on the other side of the battlefield.

A few wisps of bluish smoke appeared in the mist, and a ghostly shadow topped with a Blue Lantern Flower emerged from the smoke.

The newcomer was precisely Earl Mi.

Under the power of Nightmare Illusion, the fog battlefield was basically smooth ground for Earl Mi. However, since it wasn’t the controller of the Illusory Realm, even though it could come and go at will in the fog battlefield, it knew nothing about the layout inside.

Since Angel had decided to deal with Hurricane, he naturally had to thoroughly inform Earl Mi of the situation within the Illusory Realm, to avoid any unexpected occurrences.

After explaining the general layout, Angel inquired with Earl Mi about Hurricane’s capabilities.

Only with a deep understanding of Hurricane could they deal with it more specifically.

Earl Mi directly transmitted the scenes from its battle with Hurricane to Angel through thought.