Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2800: Chapter 2801: Delusional Thoughts

Adanis could also see Angel’s blatant lack of fear. However, she didn’t think it was her own nasty attitude that caused Angel’s pushback; instead, she grew ever more certain in her heart that there had to be something fishy about Angel, and this trickiness might very well be the reason Olao’s attitude was off.

Either find out the reason and weigh the pros and cons, or... eliminate him at the source.

Unstable factors were what Adanis least wanted to see. Especially when this matter also affected Olao!

Adanis: ”You dare be so presumptuous because he told you I can’t make a move here, didn’t he?”

The ”he” in Adanis’ mouth referred to the Wise Sovereign.

Adanis indeed could not descend at this time, because the Wise Sovereign held absolute control within his own hall, and the Wise Sovereign and Adanis were not completely of one mind. If her true body descended, even if the Wise Sovereign did not kill her, he might forcibly strip away some of her Authority—for example, the Authority over the Magical Energy Array that she had obtained with such difficulty.

This was not something Adanis was willing to see.

So, she would not descend now, much less make a move on Angel. It was just—

”Even if he shelters you, it can only protect you for a time. If you still intend to press forward, what awaits you will be an eternal Nightmare.”

Angel glanced at the Wise Sovereign, who was watching the show from the side, then said unhurriedly, ”Dealing with Nightmares? That’s actually my specialty.”

Adanis ignored Angel’s jest, staring at him gloomily as she said, ”So you really have no intention of leaving. Very well.”

”Let me ask you one last thing: what is your relationship with Mirror Lady?”

Angel raised a brow. ”What, you know Lady Mirror too? She and I are on very good terms.”

Looking at Angel’s flippant attitude, Adanis didn’t believe a word he said. ”Since Mirror Lady is so close to you, then I’ll just give it a try and banish you into the Mirror Domain to see whether she shows up.”

With that, Adanis said nothing more and vanished directly from the bronze mirror.

...

Within the mirror passage filled with hazy, shifting light, Adanis’ figure flickered again and again, and with each flicker she surpassed countless mirror surfaces.

Soon, Adanis arrived in a space dominated by inverted reflections of mountains and seas. In this Mirror Space, aside from those illusory mountain-and-sea reflections, there were only web-like cracks of mirror fracture filling the sky.

These cracks meant that this was a space on the verge of shattering.

Birth and annihilation were far too common in the Mirror Domain, so Adanis paid it no mind. All her attention was focused on a pitch-black Abyss of Shadow within the mountain-and-sea reflections.

Adanis’ figure landed lightly at the edge of the Abyss of Shadow.

The moment she landed, black mist churned within the abyss; a few seconds later, a figure wrapped in black fog slowly rose up from the center of the abyss.

After the figure left the Abyss of Shadow, the black mist thinned somewhat, but it was still very hard to glimpse the true visage within. One could only vaguely see that the figure inside should be female, her whole body faintly giving off a crystalline luster.

”You Nu, are you hurt? What happened?” When facing You Nu, Adanis’ tone was clearly much gentler. Even though she was very puzzled why You Nu had failed to keep Angel and the others here, the first thing she did was still to check whether You Nu was injured.

The figure in the black mist was also the You Nu of the Mirror Domain. ”Rest assured, Your Grace, I am not hurt... It’s just that I don’t know what happened either.”

”You don’t know what happened? Tell me the specifics in detail,” Adanis asked.

You Nu thought for a moment, then recounted in detail what had happened earlier.

Just as Angel and the others had deduced, You Nu had in fact discovered their tracks early on, but she did not launch a pursuit; instead, she patiently waited like a hunter at the fork in the path. Anyway, they would have to pass by sooner or later.

However, just as Angel and the others reached the edge of the fork and You Nu was preparing to open the Abyssal Pit, she suddenly found that she couldn’t move.

Her true body within the Mirror Domain was unaffected, but the Abyssal Pit outside the Mirror Domain could not be unfolded at all, as if shackled by something.

You Nu had also considered sending her true body out to confront them, but the other side was clearly prepared. Once they confirmed that she couldn’t open the Abyssal Pit, they didn’t linger at all—every last speed and amplification effect was thrown on. Even if You Nu’s true body forcefully descended, it would still be hard to catch up.

In the end, You Nu could only watch helplessly as Angel and the others crossed the fork without expending the slightest effort, and then sprinted toward the Hall of Wisdom.

By the time You Nu had finished recounting the main story, Adanis still hadn’t figured out where the problem lay—until You Nu mentioned one particular detail.

”The red-haired Wizard threw a lot of discs on the ground. I don’t know what they were. I just exhausted myself to open a tiny bit of the Abyssal Pit and took one from the Material Realm.” After You Nu finished, she began to churn the Abyss of Shadow, and an object slowly rose up from the pit.

”This space is about to completely shatter. If you keep bringing things from the Material Realm into it, it will break apart even faster,” Adanis said with a frown.

You Nu: ”It’s fine. It’s going to shatter sooner or later anyway. Besides, Second Treasure has already just found a brand-new space, very stable, there won’t be any problems.”

When speaking of Second Treasure, You Nu didn’t hide the intense maternal love in her voice. Just from this tone, one could tell that this You Nu was precisely the ”motherly-heart” You Nu.

Originally Adanis had wanted to ask whether it was Cyclops Big Treasure and Cyclops Second Treasure who had helped Angel, allowing them to break through successfully; but seeing You Nu’s proud-mother expression as she spoke of her children, Adanis swallowed the words back down.

”This is it. It’s what that red-haired Wizard threw down. There were a lot of them at the fork,” You Nu said, presenting the round disk to Adanis.

As Adanis examined it, she asked, ”Red-haired Wizard. There are two red-haired ones—which one do you mean?”

You Nu: ”This one.”

The black mist of the Abyss of Shadow rolled, and a mirror slowly rose up. In the mirror was a red-haired, golden-eyed human.

Adanis frowned. ”Him again?”

Without a doubt, this human was Angel. At first Adanis didn’t think a few round disks could suppress You Nu, but when she saw Angel, alarm bells rang in her heart. She took the disk from You Nu and began examining it carefully.

”An External Array Disk?” As a big shot in the field of Magical Energy Arrays, Adanis needed only a glance at the few strokes carved by the engraving pen on the disk to see what was going on.

Adanis pondered for a moment, then looked at You Nu. ”Project the current situation at the fork outside onto the mirror surface.”

You Nu did not dare neglect the order and immediately connected to the pit in the outside world, projecting the external situation in.

The image of Angel on the mirror surface slowly faded, and the scene at the fork outside gradually emerged.

You Nu very considerately included the location of every Array Plate at each fork in the path within the image; clearly, You Nu had also guessed that perhaps these Array Plates really were the main reason for its failure.

Adanis carefully studied the scene on the Mirror, then compared it with the Array Plate in her hand, and fully understood Angel’s methods.

”Using an External Array Disk to alter the flow of Energy, then diverting all the Energy in a given region so it converges at a single point—that’s what he did.” Adanis said softly.

”Huh?” You Nu didn’t understand.

Adanis sighed inwardly. If she were saying this to Dabao or Erbao, she wouldn’t need to explain again. But You Nu... though its strength was indeed great, and its body was gradually capable of materialization, its thinking had not yet changed; it was still like the other creatures in the Mirror, empty-headed and disdainful of everything in the Material Realm.

Even so, You Nu was still her subordinate, so Adanis patiently explained: ”You can think of it this way: he took control of a part of the Magical Energy Array’s Authority, so that the moment you appeared at a fork, your confrontation with him would turn into a confrontation between you and the Magical Energy Array.”

You Nu said, half understanding, half confused: ”Then if I hadn’t held my ground at the fork, would I have been able to avoid a clash with the Magical Energy Array?”

Adanis shook her head. ”Since he could discover the Magical Energy Array Power’s flow at the fork so quickly, and in just a single second throw out the Array Plate to block your appearance, that means as long as you were in the Underground Aqueduct, no matter where you went, he could restrict you using the same method.”

”I see. He can manipulate the Magical Energy Array... no wonder Dabao and Erbao didn’t stop him.” You Nu nodded. ”In that case, it’s only natural that I lost...”

Adanis did not believe that Dabao and Erbao had truly lost to Angel. Dabao and Erbao did not rely solely on their devouring ability to run rampant; with their Special Talents, they might not be constrained by Angel’s method of manipulating the Magical Energy Array.

Most likely, they hadn’t even seriously exerted themselves; she even had to question whether they had actually met Angel and the others at all. After all, those few brats from the Cyclops Family had all been brainwashed by the Wise Sovereign.

Adanis could not very well point this out. Dotage had made the doting-mother-hearted You Nu trust those two children implicitly. If she exposed the truth and something unexpected happened, then with You Nu’s innate Temporal Body-splitting Talent, the motherly heart could split again, creating Temporal Bodies like a strict-mother heart or stepmother heart; that would be equivalent to directly dismantling the upper limit of You Nu’s core abilities. Moreover, Adanis would definitely be resented by Dabao and Erbao. So the best method was still to maintain the current balance of mutual checks.

Adanis vaguely nodded, glossing over the topic. Then, after offering You Nu a few words of consolation so it wouldn’t be too dejected, she motioned for You Nu to return and await orders.

Once You Nu left, Adanis’s expression instantly turned grave.

She looked again at the Array Plate in her hand; the beautiful and smooth Magic Patterns gave Adanis a faint sense of familiarity.

Adanis lightly raised her hand. An engraving pen appeared in her palm. She found the first stroke of the Magic Pattern on the Plate, closed her eyes, and slowly retraced it with the pen.

When she opened her eyes again and looked at the Array Plate... the lines the engraving pen had followed overlapped with Angel’s Magic Pattern by seventy percent; among the overlapping parts, even the angles were unchanged.

Although Magical Energy Arrays had always demanded extremely strict engraving, the positions in which one laid down Magic Patterns—their orientations—could be adjusted according to one’s personal habits.

Yet Adanis and Angel’s engraving direction and habits when carving Magic Patterns turned out to be almost the same!

This was what had seemed unbelievable to Adanis the moment she noticed it.

”Could it be her?” Adanis looked at the External Array Disk on the staff and murmured under her breath.

She could think of only one possibility.

Angel was connected to... Margaret.

And although Adanis had never truly met Margaret, she had obtained the Magical Energy Array inheritance Margaret left behind from Olao.

Precisely because this was a direct lineage, Adanis’s habits while engraving were almost identical to Margaret’s.

Angel could actually reproduce several of Margaret’s habits.

Did that mean Angel had obtained Margaret’s inheritance? Perhaps with some deviations in the transmission, so while his Magic Patterns weren’t exactly identical, they were at least seventy, eighty percent similar?

If things really were as she conjectured, Adanis could somewhat understand why Olao had behaved so strangely upon seeing Angel.

Margaret was Augustine’s partner, and Olao’s birth had been entirely engineered by Augustine’s own hand. If Augustine was his ”father,” then Margaret could be considered his ”mother.” Although the analogy was a bit off, there was no doubt that, to Olao, if one of Margaret’s students came knocking, he absolutely would not dare turn them away.

If that truly was the reason, even Adanis felt somewhat conflicted. After all, she could also be considered a student of Margaret’s; looking at it this way, Angel might even share the same lineage as herself.

However, this did not make Adanis give up her attack on Angel.

Adanis had never met Margaret in person, so she felt very little sense of identity toward the status of ”Margaret’s student.”

Compared to a dubious ”student of Margaret,” Adanis now placed far greater value on Olao and on the normal operation of the secret domain.

She would not allow a variable to enter the secret domain.

Unless Margaret and Augustine personally came, she would absolutely not change her stance.

Adanis’s gaze once again grew firm, and now that she had ”guessed” why Olao valued Angel, she would be even more composed in dealing with today’s group.

No matter what, Angel was at most Margaret’s Disciple and had no direct connection to Olao. The reason Olao valued him lay more in his ”respect” for Margaret.

Therefore, Adanis believed that as long as Angel completely disappeared, Olao would not care too much.

Just like in previous years, when she made one Noah descendant after another vanish.

She had struck at Augustine’s descendants, and Olao had never rebuked her—let alone this mere student of Margaret’s?

Thinking this, Adanis hesitated no longer and vanished from this reflected space of mountain and sea.

Angel had already passed the trial of You Nu, which meant he was not far from the secret domain. It wouldn’t be long before Angel and the others left the Hall, so she had to prepare a response.

She herself could not go after Angel for the moment, because she had to return to the secret domain and keep Olao occupied.

However, this did not mean that Angel and the others would have smooth sailing.

After leaving the Hall, what they would face was a monster from the Otherworld. And this monster, even Adanis had to admit, possessed power that had reached a terrifying level.

Even You Nu’s devouring had no effect on it.

So, Angel’s attempt to use the same method he’d used against You Nu on it was almost impossible!