Warlock Apprentice

As Tulu wondered if he should keep following Angor and go down into the hatch, a sudden cold gust came from the main entrance and hit his back, convincing him of the safer choice.

“At-at least Mister Padt can protect me if anything bad happens…”

The stairway down wasn’t as dusty as the other parts of the building, but it didn’t feel any better because there was this strong medicine smell in the air.

Thud, thud…

Tulu couldn’t see the end of the stairs with his weak light. As he walked for longer, he grew more stressed until he felt like walking straight down into hell.

“What’s that smell, Mister Padt?” Tulu looked at Angor’s back and decided to say something.

“Oh. Because—”

Angor looked back at Tulu but suddenly stopped moving.

“Are you here to stop us from reaching her?”

The child didn’t understand how Angor saw through the door, but he still replied, “She’s Sunny. She… becomes mad when she wakes up, and she will kill anyone alive in sight. She’s much, much stronger than me! Leave at once if you don’t want to die in there.”

The child didn’t seem so confident in his words because he just saw Angor being a “devil”. He was no longer sure who he should be worrying about.

“You’re actually trying to save people’s lives? But weren’t you killed by someone? If I’m not mistaken, the manager of this orphanage murdered you. Don’t you hate humans?”

The boy nodded and once again looked terrified when he recalled the man who killed him. “Yes. It was Director Dison. But that has nothing to do with other people, right?”

Angor gave him a meaningful look. “You know what, I’m glad you can think more clearly than many adults who’re still alive.”

He then turned around and reached a spirit feeler out to pick the door’s lock.

Ka-click!

“Are you sure about this?” The child showed a worried look on his pale face. “Sunny has not done any more killing in a few months, but I know she’s still there.”

Angor pushed the door open and was immediately welcomed by a sharper smell of disinfectant, along with more cold air.

“Yeah, she’s inside. But I don’t think she can do anything to us right now,” said Angor as he cast Light and tossed a bright orb into the room ahead.

Tulu looked further into the room and widened his eyes.

Not far from the entrance, there was a little girl wearing a red skirt trapped in the middle of a magic array drawn by some blood-red substance. It appeared to be real blood.

She seemed to be of a similar age as the boy outside. Moreover, she was staring right at them with an eerie grin, which immediately reminded Tulu of the dress-up toy he saw a moment ago.

“She can’t get out from there, so… we should be safe,” Angor said as he approached the edge of the magic array.

“What’s-what’s happening to Sunny?” It seemed the boy also cared for her. They were probably friends.

Angor crouched down and examined the drawing on the floor.

“Wait… this is not a proper magic array. This blood contained a special type of energy that restrained her.

“But compared to the strange blood, I’d like to know who did this to her.”