Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In the southern wizarding region, Dark Castle used to be the limelight of all clans and organizations due to the help of “Bloody Queen” Mary, a legendary wizard. But ever since Mary left, they had entered a shortage of capable inheritors.
Until Isabelle made her name known one thousand years ago. She became a level-3 wizard before she turned 100 and achieved the mark of a “truth finder” Soul Manipulator.
Just when people believed Isabelle would start another era of legend after Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard, she suddenly disappeared from everyone’s sight and was no longer to be seen again.
And since that point of time, there hadn’t been another legendary wizard in this region.
No one knew where Isabelle went or whether she was alive. At the same time, it was uncertain whether she would come back. This was why no one attempted to attack Dark Castle even though there was an unoccupied Sorcerer’s Garden in Midworld with only one level-2 wizard, Isabella, watching over it.
The Dark Castle organization had enjoyed peace for a thousand years, and so had the real Dark Castle estate, which was located in Otherworld.
Until today.
The Dark Castle estate was built upon Lightning Basin, which was constantly troubled by raging thunderclouds. The forest nearby was named Black Forest, and the bare land was Scorched Earth.
As everyone inside Dark Castle prepared to spend another peaceful yet boring day, something suddenly happened in Lightning Basin.
At first, the air stopped flowing and became still. No one inside Dark Castle noticed this since it wasn’t a serious abnormality.
Next, the undead spirits in Black Forest suddenly ceased their cries and trembled.
The apprentices responsible for discarding corpses never attracted any hostile souls while doing their work. Previously, they always drew hungry souls who hunted for fresh human flesh like mad. But now, they weren’t sure why everything was so quiet.
The dancing lightning in the sky slowed down until they completely stopped. Not only that. Those thunderclouds which usually kept the surroundings of Dark Castle shrouded in eternal darkness also began to disperse.
Those who managed to notice the clearing sky was now looking at the true color of the sky in Otherworld, which was pale blue mixed with gray mist as if the sky were heavily polluted.
Not many people paid attention to these changes since they were nothing harmless… until the disappearing dark clouds revealed a giant hole behind them.
Countless souls emerged from the hole, screaming and dancing around. As their number increased, another cloud that was purely made out of souls came into existence in the sky.
Meanwhile, streams of black trails appeared from the forest, the graveyard, and bare land, which all floated into the hole. As the spirits on the ground trembled in fear, their negative energy was absorbed by the undead cloud above them.
The cloud grew larger as it consumed more energy. It now reached dozens of thousands of meters in width and was still expanding toward the horizon.
As it grew, more black streams rose from the ground while more undead spirits screamed in pain.
The air current caused by the surging energy knocked against the windows of Dark Castle. The strange sight outside had grown large enough to draw everyone’s attention, including ‘Lady Butterfly’ Felicia, who had been brewing her wine on the first floor.
Dragging her slim, black dress, she slowly moved to the castle gate on elegant steps and opened the door.
Violent gale flipped her dark colored hair around. For some reason, the strands of her hair disobeyed the wind current and moved on their own as if they had their own consciousness.
As the gate was opened up, the terrible howls in the environment instantly filled the inside of Dark Castle.
Felicia looked up at the soul energy that was gathering in the sky and grinned slightly.
“An alchemy omen? Impressive.” She took out her crystal ball, which began to display different areas in Dark Castle. It then stopped at floor B9, the Blood Prison.
She quickly found Diablo and scanned toward another direction, which was the source of the omen. However, she couldn’t see the actual source because everything was hidden behind a thick black aura.
“To make a mid-tier item in such a short time… This little apprentice does have a lot of surprises,” Felicia murmured as she tilted her head and considered. She thought the boy was another student of Puppet Master, but it seemed not to be the case.
Puppet Master was good at creating puppets, but he wasn’t so good at alchemy. What she just saw was the heritage of a master alchemist. There was no way Puppet Master knew how to teach such knowledge.
Did someone from Floating Mech City send his or her student here to help Diablo?
As she went over her mind, the soul cloud in the sky had grown so large that no one could see the edge of it. Even Angor didn’t expect that he would create such a gigantic alchemy omen.
“Too bad you made a poor choice, boy,” Felicia muttered.
Trying to make an anti-undead item in this birthplace of undead spirits was a terrible mistake. This was one common mistake often made by apprentice alchemists—they forgot to size up environmental factors.
This area was full of souls. They provided too much negative energy that the soul cloud was getting out of control.
“And he still needs to get past the omen challenge…” Felicia shook her head as she thought about the possible fate of the young apprentice. Such a waste of talent.
Experienced alchemists all knew how to pick a suitable spot for their work. It was obvious that Angor wasn’t “experienced” yet, which she could tell from such a reckless attempt.
Felicia put away her crystal ball and stopped observing. She couldn’t see into the core of the omen. A failed omen challenge would either wound the young apprentice or kill him—probably the latter.
She closed the gate and prepared to go back to brewing her wine.
However, before she could get to work again, an overwhelming pressure suddenly descended and pressed her body down a little. She quickly stood upright again and opened the gate to check; a little bit panicked this time.
The monstrous soul cloud was shrinking rapidly. In a matter of seconds, it appeared as big as an ordinary cloud.
As most of the soul cloud disappeared, the sky of Otherworld showed itself in front of people again after being blocked by thunderclouds for decades. The dull color of the sky didn’t look so good, but it was still better compared to darkness and lightning.
To ordinary apprentices, seeing the sky was a refreshing experience.
Felicia, however, was fully attracted by the great pressure exerted by the now smaller soul cloud. The powerful undead energy had been compressed so much that it was more solid than the core of abyss.
She got a feeling that if the soul energy suddenly gained intelligence and became a monster, then she would probably get defeated easily.
“Oh boy. You’re going to get known by the whole world even if you die in that omen challenge…” Felicia mumbled while watching the cloud continuously shrinking, further increasing the density of negative energy.
She suddenly got an idea. A bold and absolutely unreliable idea.
If. Just if… that the young apprentice survived the omen challenge. Then what kind of item would he create?
It was definitely not mid-tier. High-tier? Tactical? Or could it be… a Mystery item?
She brought out her crystal ball again and checked the Blood Prison. The alchemist was still covered in flowing black aura. Felicia had nothing to look through that barrier right now.
…
Away from them, Diablo and the black-haired woman were huddled against a wall; their faces were slowly losing color.
They stayed too close to the source of the omen, where the undead energy was raging.
The violent aura had stripped all air around them. They had no choice but to wait for death, either by suffocating or letting their life energy taken by the anti-life surge.
Diablo had no idea why this happened just because someone was crafting an item. He saw many different alchemy omens before in Floating Mech City, and he couldn’t imagine what the outside would look like now.
“Angor!! You hear me? Damn it! Stop!
“I’m dying here!
“What about our covenant?! Hey, he’s killing me! Make him stop!”
Diablo called Angor’s name like a madman, but he could no longer sense the other end of their Spirit Bond.
He felt his vision fading and his blood boiling. His past life was flashing in his mind.
He was so sad right now. In the end, he wasn’t killed by Isabella, Felicia, or those dangerous floors like Soul Exile or Spirit Realm, but at the hands of his teammate!
And he was the one who agreed with Angor’s decision…