“Filthy desire…” Flora scoffed at their uncontrolled behaviors.
“A very strange fox.” Lydia raised her eyebrow. “So, it can bring out the deepest desire of people? That looks like something the Sinister Mischief can do.”
Sinister Mischief, a grand demon from the Abyss Plane, also called the “Devil of Lust”. It could capture and manipulate people’s evil intentions and ideas. One of the worst enemies wizards could expect.
Twilight’s expression grew darker as many people in the hall began to display their worst side of humanity while under the control of their own desires. They were all customers of Twilight Auction. They would humiliate both themselves and Twilight Auction House at this rate.
Twilight clenched her teeth in determination and began to chant something. Her forehead began to shine with a pale blue light.
The light covered the entire castle hall. Even Sunders briefly turned around and watched Twilight’s action carefully.
All apprentices slowly stopped their movements and fell asleep.
The light vanished after the last apprentice collapsed. It shrank into a pink, tear-shaped crystal and sank between Twilight’s eyebrows.
The other wizards revealed their own envious looks when looking at the crystal.
“Fulalle’s Slumber Chain,” Flora exposed the name of the pink crystal.
“Pity. The real thing had shattered to pieces in the long history. Without the chain, it should be called the ‘Fulalle’s Tear’,” Lydia added.
“And it’s still a Mystery Treasure, even at the current condition,” said Twilight as she made sure her item was well hidden.
“Aside from Brute Cavern, I’m afraid you possess the only Mystery Item in the entire Darkivil Empire,” Kooper said.
“For now, maybe. But something might change today,” Twilight hinted.
“What do you mean?” Kooper asked.
Lydia stopped them. “Hey, those strange animals are gone. Anyone saw where they went?”
Those who were awake looked around and did not find the creatures from earlier in the hall. The Fulalle’s Tear distracted them for quite a long time.
“Maybe they went invisible too, just like the previous monsters?” Someone suggested.
“Probably… I wonder what they’re up to.”
Not everyone agreed to it though. Someone spoke another idea in an uncertain voice, “Not really, I’ve been paying attention. They… went for the wall, and just, walked through it, as if the wall isn’t there.”
Walked through the wall? Did that mean there was a way out?
“Where exactly did they leave from?” Sunders suddenly spoke to them.
The speaker pointed to somewhere.
Sunders quickly moved to the said place and placed his hand against the wall, casting a spell.
“It’s here!”
“Mister Sunders, did you find an exit?”
“No. This is a vulnerable dimension spot,” said Sunders with a shook of his head. “Monsters stronger than wizards can leave the Nightmare Domain freely, and they always know how to find such spots. If… something goes wrong, you can try to rip open a plane passage from here and escape.”
Escaping from a plane passageway was usually a last-ditch move when wizards were sure there was something they cannot defeat. Wizards who entered an unstable plane passageway were very likely to lose their direction and get trapped between planes forever, or get torn to pieces by the violent energy in the chaos.
“Our situation is so bad now?” Lydia frowned. “That we have to forcefully open a plane passageway by ripping the dimension open?” Lydia glanced at Twilight, putting the blame on her.
Twilight’s expression was so ghastly that anything might detonate her now.
Sunders simply nodded to confirm Lydia’s words. That fox and frog were already wizard-level monsters. What could come next would only be worse.
“Remember this spot… if you want to live,” Sunders’ warning sowed fear in everyone’s mind.
Another terrifying aura came from the mist.
This time, all the wizards froze in place. Even Sunders failed to maintain his calmness.
“What… whatever could that be?!” Someone yelled.
“Twilight! You! This is all because of you! Why did you have to kill Mister Sunders’ student so badly and drag us all into your mess?” Someone lost his temper and scolded.
“Something’s coming… something I’ve never seen before…”
“It’s like when we see the world’s consciousness. I can’t lift a finger!”
What they were sensing now was similar to when people were suppressed by the law of nature. The deadly aura slowly condensed into their minds and finally became a thunderous bellow:
“Shava, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”
What was that? Who was Shava?
Sunders frowned. It was a male’s voice, so… it was not the sutured queen?
“That’s definitely a legendary being! But why here? Isn’t the south void of legendaries for a long time?!”
As people discussed in panic, Lydia looked at the old wizard Kooper and asked in a small voice, “You’re the most cultured wizard here. Can you tell me if that’s really a legendary being?”
Kooper considered and shook his head.
“I’d assume that it’s not a legendary, but… something more than a legendary. I won’t be surprised if it turns out to be something of the same level as a grand demon from Abyss Plane…”
Beyond legendary?
People panicked harder when they heard Kooper’s words. Where were they? How was it possible that they ran into such mighty beings?
Now, they all began to fear for their own lives instead of “watching a harmless incident”.
Another voice followed behind the powerful bellow earlier. “Sir Auri, I’m really sorry I made a mistake! To make up for it, I’ll stay in this filthy place and scout the way for Her Highness! Don’t worry about me, I’ll stay strong!”
It sounded firm and determined. Whoever said that was regretting about something dearly while trying to stay determined. The emotional speech really stood out in this atmosphere dominated by primal fear.
“What is it this time??” People wondered. They did not feel any power from that voice.
Sunders and Flora remained speechless. Unlike the other wizards, they instantly recognized Angor’s voice.
Flora sent a transmission to her professor. “What’s Angor doing? Is he acting in a drama or something? Those words sounded so fake.”
Sunders was just as puzzled. The exaggerating speech did not sound something from his little student who believed “silence is golden”.
Before they could think about the question for long, the mist abruptly vanished.
They watched as the white mist shrank quickly into a whirl and went inside Angor’s shoulder, like water in an unplugged bathtub.
They saw Angor weeping at something as if bidding an eternal farewell to an old friend.
It was only partly true. Angor did bid farewell to something—the green toy owl and the strange amusement park.
Angor, on the other hand, suddenly could not hear Auri’s voice anymore. He looked up and noticed the mist covering him was gone.
And the other people were all staring at him in a daze.
Angor blushed when he thought about the possibility that those people might have seen his “performance”.
His image! So many people were watching!
“Angor?” Flora broke the silence first. “What are you… doing?”
Angor cleared his throat, quickly removed his previous pose, and put up his serious expression.
“It’s nothing. A monster possessed me and I couldn’t control myself. But everything’s fine now, hehehe.”
Angor pointed to something non-existent behind his back, which was not really convincing.
“Is that so? Ha-ha,” Flora laughed in a different manner compared to her usual temper, which probably meant “disbelief”.
“The mist is gone?”
“Did YOU bring all those monsters?”
“Where is that legendary? I mean, something beyond legendary?”
Not minding Angor’s terrible performance, the other wizards were more interested in the more pressing matters.
And Angor could not think of anything to answer them now, so he only stuttered without making much sense.
Twilight suddenly blinked in front of Angor and roared, “You’ve some explaining to do, after causing so much trouble!”
She exerted her wizard aura in her voice. Angor’s legs trembled under the wizard’s might. The woman’s furious gaze immediately brought back all the painful memories.
“Explanation… about what?” Angor tried his best to sound calm, which was already impressive.
“Where were we? What were those monsters? Are you trying to get us killed?” Magic shined in Twilight’s eyes. She cast a Detect Truth spell unknowingly.
Angor went into a trance and opened his mouth to speak, but Sunders woke him up with a loud “HA”.
“Don’t use little ploys if you don’t want to look for trouble,” Sunders approached them and spoke to Twilight with a plain expression.
When he had successfully scared Twilight off, Sunders turned to the other people. “Don’t ask questions you shouldn’t know. As she said, consider this a harmless incident, and keep it that way.”
“Harmless incident?! We lost three guards today, and you said it was harmless?” Twilight protested despite the dread she felt from the gentleman.
Three guards?
Angor looked around and did see three corpses lying not far.
“Well, it’s not me who killed them!” Angor spat.
He just saved the world! People should call him a hero! And he had no idea who those corpses were!