Warlock Apprentice

At one corner of the vast yet lifeless Midworld, there was a dark valley hidden in the shadow of mountains.

A lone wizard tower stood in the valley; it was surrounded by darkness and the pale light of a cold moon.

Unlike the harsh environment, the inside of the tower was warm and cozy.

On the top floor of the tower, a fireplace burned brightly as several fire-element spirits who just earned intelligence chased around playfully. However, they immediately dived back into the fire when they saw the girl in the black dress outside.

"What, my beauty isn't enough to arouse your inspiration?" She spoke in her "double voice" at a tall male figure who was working at a workbench.

No response.

She moved closer and checked the man's work with her crimson eyes.

The man tilted his head while licking around his mouth with a long, slickery, serpent-like tongue. He had been gazing at his "masterpiece" with his eyes that twinkled in excitement.

There was a snake woman puppet with a fine body curve on his workbench. She had two tails, one silver-white and one azure, which corresponded with her hair and eyes—blond-white hair and azure irises.

When the man released a trace of mana into the puppet, the creature suddenly revealed a gentle smile.

"Greetings, my master."

The man's tongue was moving faster now as he laughed in a strange way.

The woman in the black dress frowned at the puppet creature. "You really like these half-man-half-beast things, huh?"

"Jajaja… Isn't she a beauty? Look at her eyes… I think she just got my heart," the man replied without looking at the woman at all.

"Beauty? Better than me?" The woman crept closer and licked the man's ear.

Any male wouldn't resist such a seductive tongue gesture, but there were always exceptions.

The man pushed her away. "Get off me. You stink of blood."

The woman grimaced and stood up. Then she moved in front of the puppet, still giggling.

"She's a beauty eh? What about… now?"

She reached out a hand with black fingernails and pulled an azure eye out of the puppet. With a mighty squeeze, the eyeball became shards and liquid.

The snake-woman puppet yelled and collapsed. Then she looked at her master with black, bleeding eye socket.

"It hurts… master…"

The man slowly retracted his tongue and put up a more serious look.

He spat and moved one hand around the puppet, dissecting the creature into several parts.

"Disgraceful."

The woman in the black skirt was not bothered by the man's ill-natured attitude at all. "Right? Such a being will never compete with my own beauty," she criticized with her giggling voice.

"Isabella…" The man gazed at her with a cold look. "Are you perhaps taunting me?"

"Heh. It's just a reminder. As my future companion, you need to change your personal taste."

"Jajajaja! I'm not interested in ugly women. Especially someone who actually chased her teacher away with the excuse of love."

Isabella scowled at those words.

A stronger bloody smell emerged from her body. As the aura grew thicker, several bloody phantoms appeared inside the cozy room.

"You know, I have planned to kill you a long time ago." The man didn't seem scared at all.

A pair of puppet ladies with blond hair and blue eyes appeared from behind him. They began to exert their own might which slowly suppressed Isabella's phantoms.

Isabella clenched her fists and canceled her power. They were both level-2 wizards, but she clearly knew that she lacked strength for now. The man in front of her had almost found the path of truth, while she was far from it.

Since Isabella gave up whatever she was planning, the man also returned his puppets back into his own space storage.

He returned to the workbench and cleaned up the bloody remains. He then took out another female corpse from his storage before he began working again.

"You can leave now, Isabella," the man murmured while he gazed manically at his "material" again. He would like to get rid of the "incompatible element" in his lab before getting back to work for real.

Isabella looked really pissed off now. "YOU invited me to Silent Hill, and now, you are asking me to go back to Dark Castle?"

"Do whatever you like. Just don't bother my work."

Before Isabella could retort further, she suddenly stopped moving to sense a strange ripple that just came to her.

The man also lifted his head when he noticed the ripple that was now trying to get inside his wizard tower.

"Let it in. It's the power of consciousness that I left in the Soul Genesis Garden," Isabella said.

The man waved a hand casually and allowed something inside, which quickly headed to Isabella.

Isabella absorbed the message and grinned. "Well, it looks like I need to go back to Dark Castle now. Your student has reached the garden. It won't be long before he gets in."

"Jaja… Diablo? But the passage shouldn't be opened at the moment."

"It did. The ritual in the garden was brought forward. And if my assumption is right, Diablo is preparing to get inside now…"

"Brought forward? For what reason?"

Isabella sat on the workbench and placed her bare feet on the man's lap. "I'll tell you if you allow me to spend the night here."

The man grabbed her feet and pushed her away. "How many times do I have to tell you that you look too awful for my liking?"

Isabella wasn't offended at all since she experienced such treatment many times. Besides, she was trying to seduce this man for another secret reason.

She dusted her skirt a little and headed out of the tower.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to Dark Castle, duh."

The man summoned his female puppets to block Isabella's path. "Don't forget about what we agreed on."

"You just said I can do whatever I want, right? And don't worry, I'm not doing anything to Diablo. I'm going back to deal with someone else," Isabella said while thinking about the image of a blond-haired, blue-eyed young man in her message.

"Someone else got into the Soul Genesis Garden?" The man grew curious.

"Together with your chicken student, I think. But this one's a lot more able-minded than Diablo, that coward," Isabella said and tried to move around the puppets.

She tried and failed. The puppets swiftly blocked her way no matter which way she went.

"What's this supposed to mean?" Isabella felt really irritated now.

"We agreed that we are not going to stop Diablo from using anything to achieve his goal."

By this, he meant that Diablo's helper was also a viable method.

Isabella rolled her eyes. She thought about her guest who was visiting Dark Castle and decided to comply for now.

"Fine, I'll stay here. You know, Diablo might get Naga if I'm there to watch him. But if I'm not… I don't know what'll happen!"

The man didn't question Isabella's hint. He was still working on his puppet with the smile of a freak.

Isabella only snickered in response to the silent treatment.

Her guest wasn't the kind type, especially now. If Diablo ran into her… He would definitely look ugly.

"So unlucky for you to do it at this special year, kid…" Isabella muttered to herself. "Guess you'll have to accept your fate."

…

"You'll have to accept your fate! Give up!" Shadow laughed madly.

A beautiful woman lay on the ground in front of him. She was still carrying the same expression before she was knocked out, which was both surprise and confusion.

She was the one who came to the Sorcerer's Garden from Dark Castle, 'Mercy Witch' Fiona.

As for why Fiona ended up here…

According to Gummy, the ceremony would persist for three days, during which Fiona would stay in Hippocrotee.

Gummy provided another piece of important information—that the visitors from Citadel would all stay inside a palace south of Hippocrotee. Krakoks spent almost 100 years to build something to house a human visitor.

Since they knew the exact time of Fiona's arrival and her destination, Shadow proceeded to kidnap her by waiting in the middle on her scheduled path.

Fiona was also a level-3 wizard, but when caught by surprise, she had no choice but to succumb to Shadow's dirty tricks.

Previously, Shadow prepared to have at least a decent fight with her. Yet Angor's illusion saved them all the effort. Fiona was trapped in the mist illusion before she could resist.

An Illusionist was always the best when it came to backstab unwary victims.

Once Fiona was lost in the illusion, Shadow simply knocked her out. Actually, even Shadow wasn't prepared to accept the easy victory.

Next, he unleashed his strings from his fingers, which sank into Fiona's limbs.

When Fiona reopened her eyes, they showed emotionless glares rather than intelligence, which meant she was now another puppet controlled by Shadow.

"Got'er. Let's continue with my plan."