Warlock Apprentice

They could see the wounded young man still releasing mist from a corner of the castle’s hall. As the mist grew denser, the blood-covered body of the boy slowly vanished from sight.

“Ohh, this one’s pretty good, considering the little boy’s age. The castle looks real enough,” Lydia’s voice came from behind.

People turned around and saw Lydia sitting in front of a luxurious round desk. She had a flame-red robe, coiled-up pink hair as well as a very charming look. She blended in with the scenery of the castle hall quite well.

Lydia frowned when she saw people looking at her.

“Weird… I should still be inside my private room now. How did they see me?”

She looked aside and saw another white-haired old wizard admiring a painting hanging on the wall. She knew that wizard. A famed man who booked the room next to her.

The old wizard noticed Lydia’s gesture and returned his own gentle smile.

“What-Little Red? I think I see the shadow of a skeleton.”

Flora frowned and tossed the apprentice away.

“What’s going on? What the heck did Angor do? People can see Little Red now?” She thought to herself. “Argh! This is such a pain!” She clenched her teeth in irritation.

She no longer cared about Lydia and stomped her way toward Angor in rage.

When Twilight thought about what Flora possibly wanted to do, something else happened.

Someone screamed in pain inside the mist, and Flora immediately realized it was Angor.

Following the scream, people began to hear the faint sound of musical instruments, which was becoming louder.

As they looked toward the source of the noise, they suddenly felt an unknown fear slowly grasping their hearts.

Twilight felt it too. She frowned and turned to the guards behind her. “Can you get in touch with the house?”

The guard captain shook his head as he replied, “Lady Twilight, we’ve lost contact with everyone outside. The illusion seems to be a real dimension. The walls around us are all real. The only way out is behind that mist.”

Twilight felt his heart twitching. She turned to the mist and lifted her hands.

Ten light beams pierced the air and went inside the mist.

She was aiming at where Angor collapsed. Despite what she expected, people heard the noise of something bouncing on metal.

And they were shocked to see all the light beams coming back out.

Most of them hit nothing, while two hit the guards of Twilight Auction House. One of them had his head pierced and fell dead on the spot. The second one had a ruined chest, which meant he probably did not have long to live.

Twilight grimaced. The small incident caused by an apprentice and a bird had turned worse. They had casualties now…

“It was my fault… I’ll confess my mistake to the clan later,” Twilight looked at the struggling guard and spoke sadly.

As she talked, a team of… teacups walked out from the mist-covered area.

People frowned at the strange sight. Those were white porcelain cups which all had the marks of hearts on them. Each teacup grew stick-like arms and legs while carrying a musical instrument. A teacup was even playing the piano while floating in the air.

What was worse, the music they played had materialized. Lines of stave slowly came moving in midair while tadpole-like notes bounced on them along with the lively melodies.

However, the “music band” which seemed like something in little girl’s stories was playing an extremely terrifying musical piece.

“What’s this?” Twilight unleashed her beams without much of a thought.

The beams were immediately bounced away by the instruments.

Now Twilight realized what had just happened to her attacks.

But what were them, really?

Several more attempts were soon proved to be useless. The other wizards and guards followed her example and tried their own attacks, but they were all in vain.

“That damned boy… Kill him and this is all over,” Twilight growled.

She dashed into the mist and quickly found Angor still lying on the floor. She grinned and lifted a hand with knife-like nails. She then went for Angor’s heart.

Laughter suddenly came from Angor’s body. Sharp, cold laughter, which was as horrid as hearing the sound of ringing knell in the middle of a graveyard.

“Heeheeheehe-”

As the laughter was heard, the teacup band stopped moving and announced together in a strange, child-like voice.

“Behold the Queen! It’s time for nightwatch!”

Before Twilight could understand what happened, someone grabbed her hand and stopped her attack from reaching Angor.

“Mister Sunders?!”