Warlock Apprentice

Lawson was carefully watching the screen, which was now showing a hunter wearing green camouflage paint and a giant bow on his back. The hunter was slowly sneaking into an underwater cave.

This hunter managed to interrogate a high-class Duon for useful information. He learned that one of the “real gods” of the Duons lived inside this cave. As a strict follower of his ancestor’s motto, he decided to investigate.

“Oh, who’s that? He came pretty far,” Melantha asked. She had been staying at the machine tower since she returned to the city.

“Kayaso Sunward Feinwerder,” said Lawson.

“You… actually memorized all of their names?” Melantha grinned. “Do you still remember my mother’s name, dad?”

“Sherry.”

“Yeah… Wizards have such good memories that they can’t forget something even if they want to.” Melantha didn’t mention her mother’s matter any further. She looked at the screen again and asked, “So, this man’s family name is… Feinwerder? Which Feinwerder?”

“The same one you just thought about.”

“The author of Wonder Worlds as well as a wizard, Feinweirder?” Melantha looked at the hunter’s movements more carefully. “I see he inherited the ways of his family… Such a curious soul.”

On the screen, Kayaso had entered the entrance of the cave and reached a giant underground section after going through a dark hallway.

The area was as big as Pocratee village, which was the first place Angor arrived when he went to Fairy World by accident. However, the area Kayaso was at was almost empty. The only noticeable object was a large ice boulder, and inside it, one could see a silhouette of something unknown.

“Being curious isn’t always a good thing,” Melantha commented. Immediately following her words, the ice boulder slowly shattered while the individual sealed inside opened his eyes.

“Good. This Kayaso man can write his own story, add something untruthful to it, and let everyone know his experience, just like how his ancestor did.”

Lawson didn’t seem to agree. “There’s no need for his stories. When the Duons begin their sacrifice, everyone will see it.”

…

Angor’s group was still heading toward Jebra’s position.

By listening to Shan’s descriptions, he made up several stories regarding what happened to Shan’s team. He then gained a conclusion that Jebra might be innocent.

He assumed that Shiliew had a second hidden character, which only showed up in front of Jebra. This mysterious character of hers regarded Jebra as an eternal rival and wouldn’t stop going for Jebra’s life; she wanted to turn him poisonous boiling water.

Angor believed the strange story told by Shan since he already witnessed Shiliew’s change in personality before they entered the purification garden.

The situation was made interesting when Shiliew’s talent countered Jebra perfectly. And she met with Jebra in the garden for real.

This caused Shiliew’s hidden personality to take over, who then tortured Jebra for good before Shiliew fell asleep again, which meant Shan and Nausica had to clean her mess afterward.

Anyone else would simply give up on Shiliew. Yet it was Shiliew who helped Nausica and Shan enter the Sea of Purification. For this, they decided to help Shiliew by protecting her.

There was a female apprentice with Jebra, and she was no weaker than Jebra himself. However, she still needed to look after Jebra after he was wounded, so the witch did not chase Nausica’s team for very long.

What happened next was how Sinehowze and Carveline accepted Jebra’s “mission”.

Shan felt somewhat embarrassed when telling the whole story because it was her friend that caused such a series of troublesome events.

After listening to the story, Angor chose to consider Jebra as an innocent outsider for now.

But Keely didn’t agree. She believed that all hatred had a reason, which meant Shiliew’s strange attitude toward Jebra must have been caused by something they didn’t know yet. Jebra was very likely a big villain in this.

Angor could understand Keely’s idea. However, he still could not find fault with Jebra when thinking in a neutral manner.

Keely wanted to kill Jebra because she thought Jebra was the blood relative of “God of Seas” Flunza. But did Jebra have anything to do with how Flunza killed her parents? Probably not. Keely was going after Jebra just so that she could vent out her vengeful rage on someone.

Despite all this, Angor would still do anything to rescue Shiliew. He wanted to learn where Nausica was.

Nausica was a good friend to him who saved his life before. As long as he could help her with something, he would.

By rescuing Shiliew, there was no doubt that he would get on the bad side of Jebra. Angor had no problem with it—he already prepared to receive Jebra’s grudge.

It was until Luna finally showed them to an area full of corals that Angor realized his expectation was completely off.

Shiliew was still madly attacking her target; her body looked well and unharmed.

As for Jebra… For some reason, the two halves of his face had different colors as if a knife just cut through his head from the middle. And the man kept retreating from Shiliew’s attacks.

Shiliew looked nothing like what Shan explained earlier. Right this moment, she was happily wrecking Jebra while yelling phrases such as “boiling the sea” or “turning you into poison”. In great contrast, Jebra’s condition looked pretty dangerous.

More importantly, Shiliew was fighting Jebra, another apprentice, and a giant horned whale at the same time while completely holding her ground just fine, if not enjoying an upper hand.

Angor couldn’t find any reason to “rescue” Shiliew at this moment. Rather, Jebra was the one who needed someone’s help. Otherwise, his terribly injured body would get destroyed soon.

Shan was watching the ongoing fight with a very surprised expression. “Uh, see that? That’s how Shiliew looks like every time she sees Jebra. I don’t know… if that’s really her?”

Angor shook his head as he didn’t know what to do.

Keely, on the other hand, was already rushing at Jebra at full speed. She had prepared herself for a big fight with Jebra, but she didn’t expect to have such a big chance to pummel Jebra to her heart’s content. Of course she wouldn’t give this chance up.

Faster than anyone could see, Keely reached Jebra’s side full of killing intent.

Angor stayed away and did not join the fight. Shan also remained at a distance while keeping an eye on Shiliew so that she wouldn’t go dozing off in battle again.

Keely yelled something at Jebra, which made Jebra’s already complicated expression to turn funny.

Angor was beginning to feel sorry for Jebra’s fate. But that was about it—he would not intervene in their business.

Also, he noticed that, instead of helping, Keely’s arrival had turned the battle into chaos. Shiliew was an Occultist who could manipulate water at her free will, which meant she enjoyed home-court advantage in the sea. However, Keely kept summoning underworld flame that hindered many of her tactics.

When Shiliew figured out that Keely’s meddlesome moves actually helped Jebra to stay alive better, she quickly considered Keely as another enemy and began to use her attacks without minding friend or foe.

Shan kept calling out to Shiliew, but her words were completely ignored since Shiliew had pretty much lost herself in the fight.

The battle was becoming weirder as three parties wrestled each other while not forgetting to use verbal curses loudly.

“What should we do? One of them is going to get hurt like this!” Shan really wanted to help Shiliew out, yet she couldn’t go in there as she might become Keely’s next target. Therefore, she chose to rely on Angor.

Angor sighed in distress. He only wanted to get Shiliew out of trouble. And if this fight kept going, there might be more trouble later.

He decided to do something to actually help them.

With several moves of his fingers, a number of illusion nodes were placed around the battlefield. None of the fighters were paying any attention to Angor, so they all bumped into the illusion.

Next, Angor entered the mist illusion himself and unleashed his nightmare aura. This power was usually decisive when used against apprentices, especially ones who were tired out.

Almost instantly, everyone in range fell into a trap woven out of both reality and delusions.

“What are you doing?!” Keely yelled.

“If I don’t stop you two soon, Jebra’s going to recover and escape. If you want him dead, why don’t you just sit tight and watch Shiliew do it?”

“But I need to kill him with my own hands!” Keely protested.

“HE’S MINE!!” Shiliew didn’t stay quiet in the illusion either. Angor checked and saw that Shiliew’s face was twisting in both anger and excitement. Meanwhile, the calm and gentle “Dripping River” woman was nowhere to be seen.

There was no way Shiliew could help Angor look for people like this.

If that’s the case…

Angor freed Keely from his illusion first to let the girl deal with Jebra.

Jebra remained quiet in the illusion while using the chance to regain his stamina. His partner, a female apprentice, was in a worse condition, which meant that she couldn’t do anything to help him right now.

Jebra watched Keely getting closer with a grim look.

“How I’ve been waiting for this day…” Keely muttered under her breath.