A Sorcerer’s Journey

In the half a month that followed, the three Stigmata Sorcerers did not move an inch at all above the Void Fortress.

Grimm and Millie were those of the last Dark Sorcerers to have completed their autopsies on the Amonro Specimens on the Void Fortress’ landing porches. After they had finished putting away their experiment tools and collecting simulated despair, the three Stigmata Sorcerers finally slowly descended from the sky.

After the process of collecting despair was completed, the force of nature that was being linked to the souls started to shift a little.

From the looks of it, Grimm might need to bring around zero point one degree of despair along whenever he needed to hurl Sorcery Attacks at the Amonros.

To the Amonros, the Demon Hunters who usually collected their despair were the Black Sorcerers native to the Shadow World.

On the Void Fortress, there were only several dozens of thousands of Dark Sorcerers—thus, this left a lot of space for each one of them to stretch their limbs a little. As they raised their heads, they saw the three great Stigmata Sorcerers descending from the sky.

All three of them were female.

The one who was hovering in the middle appeared to be the dominant leader; she wore a white pointed mage hat on her head while carrying a long magic staff that was radiating azure light. Flapping a pair of mystical green wings that appeared to be made out of pure energy and light, she scanned all the Sorcerers who were gathered on the landing zone with a pair of stunning bright eyes behind her short elegant black hair. The aura of her great wisdom was constantly brimming out of her as she slowly descended towards the Sorcerers.

Everyone on the landing zone held their breath as they looked on, awaiting orders from the great Stigmata Sorcerers.

The leading Stigmata Sorcerer’s voice rippled across the landing zone and into each Sorcerer’s ears; her voice was calm and elegant, yet she still remained sagacious.

“O’ dear respected and powerful Demon Hunters, I welcome all of you in pursuing the same path as I. Together, we will march into our illustrious conquest and spread the Sorcerer Civilization and its wisdom to every corner of this savage Shadow World. I am Hearkening Whisperer. These two here are my friends and allies—the great Tomb Segja and Tomb Averer.”

Then, Hearkening Whisperer waved her staff in the air and, in a flash, thousands of bright little starlights descended from the sky. As a serene invisible wave rippled through the air, every Demon Hunter felt as though a series of water dripping sounds calmly sounded in their ears.

It was quite common for the Sorcerer World to use a rather noble cause as their excuse to invade other worlds. This was to show that it was a civilization that was far more superior than the savage worlds it was conquering.

It was always about “spreading wisdom”, “civilizing the uncivilized”, “igniting hope”, “saving lost souls”, “teaching logic and morals to the illogical and immoral”, “expanding the glory of the Sorcerer Civilization”.

Needless to say, every civilization had their own methods of warfare. Yet, if it was for the other notable civilizations, they would never waste so much energy in giving so many pointless excuses to justify their invasion of the weaker smaller worlds—all they would do was just kill and plunder.

The Stigmata Sorcerers got their titles from the Sorcerer Towers, in which they inherited or developed.

Like the master of the Black Isotta Tower, his title was “The Black Isotta”.

Although Tomb Segja and Tomb Averer possessed titles that were almost identical to one another, they were two different Stigmata Sorcerers who displayed different styles.

Tomb Segja wore a chromatic bell tiara on her head while having her eyes covered by a red ribbon. Her long slender elf-like ears were hidden beneath her thick long emerald hair, which dangled softly around her waist. A layer of white mist fogged around the fabric that she wore, giving an impression that the mist was her soft long silky scarf.

Tomb Averer, on the other hand, wore a metal helmet on her head as she glared with her cold eyes from within. Clad in a finely crafted full armor with four long swords on her back, her slender body constantly radiated rays of menacing crimson aura—like moving strings on a harp.

After nodding their heads in acknowledgment of the Dark Sorcerers, Tomb Segja and Tomb Averer both, without uttering a word, flew straight into the depths of the Void Fortress, leaving Hearkening Whisperer alone in the sky.

“O’ great Sorcerers, bring forth the illustrious flame from the Sorcerer World and light up this poor savage world! The evil, heartless, dark, savage civilizations shall all one day be cleansed by the great illustrious flame of our great civilization. O’ respectable Demon Hunters, bring forth your wisdom and power as you light up this Shadow World of savages. This poor uncivilized immoral land needs our saving…”

As Hearkening Whisperer delivered her words of fiery passion, the Void Fortress suddenly quaked violently—as though the massive metallic structure had slowly been awakened.

Looking at every Demon Hunter in the landing zone, Hearkening Whisperer continued on with her speech in a solemn tone, “I, Hearkening Whisperer from the Sorcerer World’s Holy Tower of Seven Rings, now declare that the forces of Hearkening Whispering Tower will begin its conquest on the Shadow World! Our conquest will obey the laws of the Sorcerer Civilization and the Holy Tower of Seven Rings. I pledge to the Heart of the Sorcerer World that I will give it my all to ensure the survival of every respectable Demon Hunter in their quest to bring this savage world the hope of civilization.”

Suddenly, one of the laws of nature of the Sorcerer World was initiated.

‘Hmm?’

Grimm could feel that as Hearkening Whisperer announced her pledge, the great Void Fortress suddenly came alive—as though the Stigmata Sorcerer’s pledge had bestowed upon it a soul.

This felt almost the same as the time when Grimm was being enveloped by the heart of the Sorcerer World when he first advanced in his rank and became a full-fledged sorcerer.

Vroom….

As a loud lingering noise echoed everywhere, a huge invisible force field was raised above the Void Fortress—forming a hemispheric defensive barrier just above the fortress. From afar, with the hemispheric force field covering the upper part of the metallic hemispheric fortress, the entire Void Fortress now looked like a gigantic sphere.

In the meantime, as though it was being guided by some sort of powerful will, the Void Fortress started to descend downwards towards the Sorcerer World, dispersing layers after layers of clouds beneath while being guarded by several dozens of Snail Emissaries.

Then, the Void Fortress landed within the Seven Rings defensive cover without any resistance at all.

As these were all happening, Hearkening Whisperer bawled out an order.

“O’ Bright Sorcerers and Dark Sorcerers on the Void Fortress! Summon forth your Soul Slaves!”

After giving her orders, she pumped up a surge of Magical Power into her staff and waved it in the air; in an instance, a huge black dimensional crater was torn open in the sky.

As the crater opened up, various kinds of creatures, created and conjured from Sorcery, were storming out of the crater in torrents. Screeches and bellows of all kinds could be heard everywhere, in the sky, on the ground… everywhere!

Then, thousands and thousands of black-white mosquitoes emerged and lined up in an orderly fashion in the sky, as though trying to fuse into a huge massive being. At the same time, two rows of Soul Slaves stormed out of the Void Fortress into the air! This was the soul slave army that Tomb Segja and Tomb Averer summoned forth.

As three rows of slave souls flocked in the air, the spacious Void Fortress was now starting to feel very congested. Even the defensive force field was packed with all kinds of flying creatures!

As the soul slaves rocked around like a fierce stream for a quarter of an hour, some powerful life forms started to emerge from the black dimensional crater.

As Grimm raised his head, he could see a blob of mud flowing slowly out of the dimensional crater—it was a massive mud creature. It was so massive that even the hundred-meter wide dimensional crater was not big enough for it to pass through in one go—it needed to take a lot of time to squeeze through the crater bit by bit.

That was not all.

There were countless gigantic creatures gathering behind the mud creature, clambering and squeezing through the crater at the same time.

Suddenly, a ray of light flashed on Grimm’s shoulder—it was the Myna.

“Oh, damn it! Get your dirty ass wings away from me, the great Lord Myna, you stupid two-headed bird!”

As soon as he appeared, the Myna quickly covered his nose with his wings as he snarled at the two-headed bird that was standing next to Grimm.

Naturally, with how noisy the crowd was in the area, the Myna’s voice was utterly drown out and went unheard.

Roar!

Suddenly, the two-headed bird turned its heads at the Myna and let out a loud roar. It was quite apparent that the two-headed bird’s roar was much louder than the Myna’s cackling complaints.

Seeing that it “won” the shouting match while being able to hear the Myna, the two-headed bird showed a smug face. In the meantime, several dozens of scorpion-like creatures that were standing on top of the two-headed bird were also making some hissing noise, as though laughing at and belittling the Myna.

Overwhelmed by anger, the Myna barked furiously at the two-headed bird and scorpion-like creatures, “You! Why you despicable low-lives! How dare you treat the great Lord Myna like this! I’ll have your heads!”

Hmph!

Before the Myna was able to do anything, Grimm grabbed him and placed him on his arms, coldly leering at the two-headed bird and scorpion-like creatures. Sensing possible threat, these soul slaves immediately squeezed their way among the crowd to get away from them, pushing other soul slaves over to them instead—the place was so overcrowded and jam-packed with creatures that there was no space for one to move about at all, be it on land or in the sky.

Throwing the Myna a stern glare, Grimm spoke calmly, “As you can see, this is the situation right now. Now, behave. The conquest will begin soon. When it begins, be smart and do your best to keep a cool head. If you can’t hold it in, just cower in the dimensional gap.”

Letting out a dissatisfied grunt, the Myna took out a peanut from the dimensional gap and started to munch on his snack on Grimm’s shoulder.

Looking at Millie who was standing next to him, she had already summoned her Ghouls and Half-Mantis Half-Snake Soul Slave. Cracking open the dimensional gap, Grimm too summoned his five Ghouls and had them encircle and guard him.

One of the five Ghouls was a replacement for the old Gnaw.

Now that every Sorcerer had summoned their Soul Slaves, the entire Void Fortress felt as though it was now a fully inflated balloon; and if this balloon were to burst in a foreign world, that entire world would shake and tremble!

Grimm peeked below the Void Fortress when he had the small window of opportunity to do so; and a magnificent sight of an endless far-reaching Magic Array came into view. The majestic Tree of Life extended its widening crown towards the sky as long winding battle horns were heard blaring below.

It was then Grimm could feel that he was not one of those Demon Hunters who looked up to the sky and wondered “what could have been” below on the ground anymore. He was now one of the protagonists who would be venturing into a new foreign world, conquering it and plundering its vast resources—the inhabitant specimens, Soul Slaves and whatnots.

As the Void Fortress landed on the Tree of Life’s Seven Rings, a massive energy beam shot up from the tree and pushed the Void Fortress upwards, into the dimensional crater…

Then, after a brief blur flash of light, suddenly, a massive scorching world filled with volcanoes and layers after layers of shadowy clouds, accompanied by countless waves of dark living creatures rushed into view!

They had arrived at the Shadow World!

***

To the Void Fortress and Demon Hunters, crossing the barrier of time and space happened in the blink of an eye.

Yet, to the Amonros, this scarlet moon had already been hanging in their world’s sky for a whopping seven months.

To these lowly Golden Amonros, this “foreign world developing” was an exciting opportunity for them to acquire more survival space, food, and offsprings. To them, this was a golden opportunity to overcome aeons of hunger and harsh habitat once and for all.

However!

To the Enigmatic Amonros, who were the ruling class of the Shadow World, something was definitely off. After establishing communication with the other great beings from other worlds, they knew what this scarlet moon meant—it was an omen that an invasion from an evil world was imminent. An invasion from an evil powerful civilization called the “Sorcerer World”!

That evil, old, powerful Sorcerer World would bring fires of war into the Amonro World and bring them to their knees.

The great Amonros must stop all this from happening!