Warlock Apprentice

Crimson eyes, twisting face, inhumanly sharp nails. “Undead Hookdick” bared his teeth randomly while yelling incomprehensible noises like a drunken madman.

Several possessed mortals who had not left yet were torn to pieces by a claw-swipe. When bathed in fresh blood, Hookdick’s corrupted soul grew even more hysterical.

While laughing maniacally, he suddenly heard someone’s voice coming from above him and jerked his head up to look.

There was a man up there. He didn’t know who that was, but something inside him was urging him to sink his claws into that man’s throat as if it were the only reason for his very existence.

And Hookdick had no problem following that instinct since he no longer had the sanity to control his actions.

“DIE!!!” The ground beneath him cracked up as he bolted into the sky.

While going after Angor’s position, his claws aimlessly swiped at the air, which caused more of his black aura to dissipate into the environment.

“Venom of the undead.” Fox wrinkled her nose and swung her tail to chase the blackened air away. “Lord Shava… can handle this, right?”

Fox was looking at Froggy while speaking. But Froggy did not answer as he was fully focused on Hookdick’s moves while charging up an attack.

“Hey, if you disturb Shava’s ‘finesse’, I’m afraid Shava will never visit your aria concerts again,” Fox spoke through their “private channel”.

Froggy briefly halted his attempt and let out a “croak” in distress.

…

Above them, Hookdick’s poisoned claws had almost reached Angor.

Angor needed only to tap his feet for his sequence of gravity to carry his body away. After mastering the gravity power, Angor could navigate in the sky as if walking on flat ground. Without the element of surprise, it was impossible for Hookdick to catch him.

Hookdick was infuriated when he saw Angor slipping away from his assaults almost effortlessly.

The unknown rage in his mind further incited his negative energy, which slowly took form and spread into the air like a poisonous mist.

He didn’t need to catch Angor—as long as he could get close enough, the mist around his body would drag Angor’s soul form into the ranks of undead as well.

Angor remained still and watched Hookdick coming to him again. The black mist was so dense that he could only see Hookdick’s pair of glowing eyes now.

Before the mist could touch him, Toby descended between them as a giant Griffin. A quick wing-flap was all he needed to knock Hookdick’s charging form aside.

Next, Toby slowly reverted to his normal size and landed on Angor’s hand.

Hookdick regained balance and charged again.

This time, Angor lifted an arm and aimed a revolver at Hookdick.

Hookdick had no idea what the strange item was. He kept dashing until he sensed strange energy ripples being released from Angor’s position, which completely covered him up.

And it was too late to run now. His negative energy was rapidly eradicated like wax faced with heat.

Negative energy was the fundamental component of an undead being. If such energy was removed, the remaining pure soul energy would quickly dissipate as it could not exist without a balanced medium.

This was what was happening to Hookdick right now. As the negative energy ceased to be, his red, maddened eyes slowly showed human intelligence again.

“What… is that?” Hookdick didn’t know why he asked that. He saw what remained of his presence being slowly carried away by wind and decided to at least say something.

“An alchemy weapon specialized in killing the undead,” Angor answered while not feeling sorry for Hookdick’s sad fate at all. “Plotting against me again and again… you left me with no choice.”

Hookdick had turned from an unlettered tribe brute into a powerful level-2 apprentice capable of surviving the Purification Garden within two years. It was only natural that Ness sent a golden professor poster to someone with such brilliant potential. If Hookdick kept progressing so swiftly, it was quite likely for him to challenge the path of truth someday.

But his simple and straightforward character set him back.

“I… lost…” Hookdick’s final sadness was soon replaced by deathly stillness.

Angor silently watched the last particle of Hookdick’s soul disappearing into the darkness.

During their lengthened lives, wizards all needed to go through undesired events that tested their mentalities. Those who could control themselves and endure the present would win more chances to see the future, while foolhardy hotheads must pay for their careless decisions—sometimes with their lives.

Such was the cruelty of this world, and what Angor had already learned.

At least Hookdick didn’t come and go while being completely useless. His pure soul energy that was left behind had rejoined this world to give birth to something new.

When coming to Sleepless City, Angor never thought he’d run into Hookdick and kill him for real.

Guess one less burden to worry about.

He twirled his gun and tossed it to Toby, who skillfully transferred the weapon into Snowy Feather.

Before leaving Sunders’ Gravity Garden in his soul form, Angor made sure he was ready for all possible situations. Putting Prelude to Rebirth inside Toby’s storage was one of the many preparations he did. And it proved to be very necessary. Without the revolver, he’d have a rather difficult time dealing with Hookdick thoroughly.

“Lord Shava’s killing finesse is captivating as always.” Fox approached Angor while replacing the lingering stink in the air with the smell of perfume. “Letting your opponent fully display his strength, before using your decisive and unparalleled might to completely shatter his chances. Something we’d never hope to learn.”

Finesse my ass! Angor rolled his eyes when the monster could not see and put on his pretended smile before addressing her, “Miss Fox, I do need to tweak my… tactics, just a little, so they look as elegant as your music.”

Fox covered her snout with her tail and giggled.

Froggy also came and presented them with a terrible hymn of war in which he praised the glorious victory of Shava and the deserved defeat of Hookdick.

Angor was quite surprised to see the monster rearranging the one-sided slaughter into such an exciting and lengthy story. The frog got skills!

Similar to before, Angor flattered their “great performance” unwillingly.

Through some unproductive changes of words, Angor managed to confirm his earlier presumption that the monsters already knew he was a human who had lived in the wizarding world for quite some time.

It seemed Froggy and Fox weren’t interested in the reason why Hookdick hated him so much, and why the man had been calling him “Angor” instead of Shava. One possible explanation for this was that they expected much.

Of course Angor wouldn’t act so boldly as to ask why.

“Hope you enjoyed watching this small ‘intermission’. Since all the humans are gone, I can continue admiring your beautiful music,” said Angor.

Next, Angor returned to the exit of the interlayer through which the remaining clowns were leaving. Since Hookdick was dealt with, the only thing he needed to do was to find Nausica.

Before he could order the remaining clowns to keep moving, however, Toby called out and told him to check something.

“Did you find Nausica?” With a bit of excitement, Angor looked toward where Toby was pointing at.

It wasn’t Nausica or anyone for that matter. He saw the spotted puppy gnawing at a pile of bloody flesh.

“This…” He approached the animal and noticed several broken patches of fabric clung to the remains. “Is this Hookdick’s corpse?”

At first, he felt a little disgusted. But then he believed that it was completely normal for monsters to consume humans. No big deal.

Things said, he wasn’t going to enjoy such a thing, so he quickly turned away.

Toby called again to tell him to keep watching.

Angor felt a bit irritated as he thought his partner was playing a prank, but Toby appeared to be rather serious as he was calling a little anxiously this time.

Angor decided to comply by looking behind him again.