Warlock Apprentice

Angor stepped out of the underground cave.

He didn't learn much information from Flowey. The only thing she remembered about her past life was that she had a brother and that her home was pretty cold.

Anything else had slipped from her mind. Why she ended up in Otherworld, and how she died… she knew nothing about them.

Angor wasn't sure if the little girl simply didn't wish to think about these matters. It didn't matter anyway.

The small bird was also a clue. Angor couldn't remember any bird with such magnificent peacock feathers. Following this lead might help him find where Flowey lived before.

He proceeded to leave the graveyard through the gate. The zigzagging path ahead led straight toward the towering castle on the distant mountain. There were more woods on both sides, where the cries of the female souls could still be heard.

There was a trail of footprints on the wet and somewhat bloody path. Angor assumed that Shadow walked through here before.

Angor felt his spirit being suppressed as he approached the castle. The lightning snakes shifting above his head suggested that a great storm would come sooner or later.

And as he walked, the uneasiness only grew worse.

In his view, the castle had turned into a thunder-wielding monster, who was now gazing at its prey and preparing for a feast of human flesh.

His stress was made worse as his heart thumped heavily while listening to the terrible ghostly screams among the trees.

He even thought about rushing into the woods and fight the undead spirits head-on, just to ease his mood.

The great pressure reached its climax as he finally reached the iron fence of the castle. The inside of the fence looked quiet, but it only appeared extremely dangerous in this situation.

He thought about escaping this place, but he immediately gave up that thought when he noticed that the path from which he came was now filled with souls. Thousands of them.

Like before, they were all naked female souls. Even if he hadn't been discovered by them yet, Angor still felt dread crawling on his spine.

Click!

A noise like metal bumping into each other came from behind him.

He slowly turned around and saw the once locked iron gate of the castle was now open. The metal lock on the gate had dropped on the ground.

Someone in Dark Castle saw me coming?

Angor stepped back, only to sense the great dread unleashed by all the undead creatures gathering around him. They were beginning to swarm toward the entrance of the castle, which meant where he was standing.

The air was still. Yet the castle gate somehow opened wider on itself.

He was exposed. No doubt.

He didn't know how. Even the mighty being, Tree Spirit, took some time to look through his Infinite Reticence. Perhaps there was someone equally powerful in Dark Castle?

Since there was no point figuring out the intention of the castle's master, Angor decided to accept the "invitation" and go inside.

He suddenly felt calm at the decision. Since Shadow chose to explore Dark Castle alone, those words about how the castle was unprotected were probably real. Angor believed that there were no wizard-level beings here to harm him.

Behind the fence gate was another small path about 10 meters long, which ended at the hall gate of the castle.

While walking, Angor kept his gaze on the ground to find Shadow's trail. Soon, he noticed familiar footsteps to the right of the path. He couldn't see where Shadow went, but it was definitely not the main castle gate.

Upon consideration, Angor decided to quit the path. He chose to follow Shadow's trace instead.

While walking under a giant tree, he canceled Infinite Reticence and quickly cast a nightmare illusion. Another "Angor" emerged from his body.

Meanwhile, he activated Infinite Reticence again.

He ordered the "fake Angor" to walk in front while he hid behind the illusion. He still didn't believe someone had really broken his Infinite Reticence. As far as he knew, the owner of Dark Castle was Isabella, an ordinary level-2 wizard. She wasn't strong enough to look through Infinite Reticence in such a short time.

He assumed that something accidentally gave away his position. In this case, using an illusion could help him be fully hidden again.

The "fake Angor" followed Shadow's footprints and walked to one side of the castle openly while pretending that he didn't care about being discovered.

Angor moved behind his image under the effect of Infinite Reticence. By this, even if someone could found his location from afar, they would only see his illusion instead.

And that meant a chance to get away in case of danger.

Even though the atmosphere still felt suppressive, Angor felt as if his mental pressure had mostly disappeared. Maybe because of the lack of undead presence.

The footprints ended at a drainage pipe along the castle wall. Angor looked up and saw a window on the third floor left open where its curtains were flapping in the wind.

Did Shadow climb this pipe?

But there was no way anyone could sneak into a wizard's residence by such simple means.

Angor asked his illusion to put a finger on the wall and received a very weak mana feedback. There were magic arrays inside the wall, but they weren't activated.

Shadow did say that Isabella agreed to shut off all wizard-level mechanism in the castle so that Shadow could do his personal challenge. There were only several apprentices left behind.

This would explain the unprotected entrance.

Angor asked his phantom to climb the pipe first just in case. A moment later, he went up after making sure nothing was wrong.

Before going into the window which led to a hallway on the third floor, Angor sensed energy ripples.

It seemed someone or something was hidden behind the window. Since he could sense it so easily, it was either something weak or something pretending to be weak.

A good choice was to use his illusion to scout ahead.

Sunders' nightmare illusions helped him wield illusions unlike anything known to this world. For example, he could create a girl's room so real that they became a physical reality in Flowey's view. Her toys, her books… even if she was a soul now, Angor could let her feel anything she wanted.

Also, Angor had read about "virtual reality" from several books in his tablet, which even imitated other senses such as taste, smell, and bodily pleasure. However, he wasn't strong enough to create such illusions right now.

But now, he could still easily use an illusion to scan for traps.

The "fake Angor" jumped into the window when a woman covered in blood immediately came out of hiding and attacked with a machete in her hand, obviously going for the kill.

"Fake Angor" grinned at the woman and blinked away to the other side of the hallway.

"How… A spell? Or physical skill?" The woman was surprised for a brief moment, and with her weapon raised, she quickly went for "Angor" again.

With another shift, "Angor" reappeared behind the woman.

The real Angor had already entered the window in the meantime. Together with his illusion, he went for the woman's nape area with a mana-enhanced karate chop.

She collapsed with a yelp.

Angor reactivated Infinite Reticence and walked into the shadows while his illusion began to examine the strange woman.

Now that the brief battle was over, Angor noticed that this one was also naked, but her body was fully covered in bloodstains.

Did she have something to do with the undead spirits outside? Maybe she was also the "victims".

However, a further examination didn't reveal any wounds on her except for her swollen neck, which was from the previous attack.

That wasn't her own blood?