Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 1455: Section 1456: The Light Rising in the Ice Cave

Angel’s reasoning made Isabel involuntarily think of her own mentor.

Kalafi, known as the “Soul Death Flame,” matched her nickname in personality—cold towards others, and fierce in her actions. Yet, such a person treated souls with extraordinary tenderness.

Granting souls their freedom was something Kalafi did often.

“Bound by shackles and suffering during life, they have already lived in great pain. At least in death, their souls should be granted a measure of freedom,” Kalafi would often say, words that somewhat echoed what Angel had spoken today.

Angel quietly said, “I do not know what kind of person High Priest Kalafi is, but my attitude towards souls does not depend on him being a soul, but on who this soul is.”

Isabel nodded, seeing that from this perspective, Angel was more rational and shared a viewpoint similar to her own, based on idealism. Kalafi, on the other hand, was indiscriminate towards all souls.

“At least in one aspect, you resemble my mentor,” Isabel paused, “How could I refuse, based solely on that?”

Isabel gladly agreed to Angel’s request.

Angel smiled, having anticipated Isabel’s nod. After all, in this trade, if Hua Que chose to stay in the Black Castle, Isabel would not lose anything, as she was quite permissive with Hua Que already, evident from the fact that Hua Que could freely interact with Natasha.

Angel had also learned of Isabel’s attitude towards Hua Que from Hua Que herself but still made the request, simply hoping for an additional layer of assurance.

The complexity of human nature cannot be generalized. Nobody knows whether the tenderness Isabel shows Hua Que is truly felt or just a front.

Therefore, Angel made this request.

Besides, using the Samsara Overture would not consume much, and he would gain yet another set of experimental data—he was actually not at a loss.

After Isabel gave her nod, it was time for Angel to fulfill his promise.

Isabel walked down from the ceremonial platform and looked towards Angel, signaling him to begin.

Angel looked at Moriya, took out the Samsara Overture, and raised the muzzle.

The previously sleeping Moriya seemed to sense some fluctuation from the outside. Her tightly closed eyes slowly opened.

Her eye sockets contained no whites or pupils, purely a pitch-black void, like a terrifying and profound vortex that seemed capable of swallowing everything, including light.

With Moriya opening her eyes, a strange rhythm originated from within her body.

This rhythm disturbed the smoky shroud covering her, clearly showing that Moriya was not content to be trapped.

Angel, not wishing for Moriya to break free and add complications, didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. A white light bullet shot out from the gun barrel instantaneously, hitting Moriya’s forehead.

After letting out a miserable shout, Moriya’s expression morphed from calm to ferocious before returning to tranquility, her face now faintly revealing the features of a Semi-Undead.

Isabel watched the scene intently, astonished by the effect of the Samsara Overture, despite having witnessed Mandhela’s transformation before.

As the Semi-Undead form began to take shape, Angel could clearly feel that the chaotic energy in Moriya’s soul body was rapidly declining.

However, compared to the initial Tullas and later Mandhela, Moriya’s transformation was much slower.

But when compared to the ordinary undead that Angel had previously dealt with, Moriya’s transformation was significantly faster.

Seeing this, Angel’s eyes flickered, and he made a tentative judgement in his mind.

Once Moriya had completely transformed into a Semi-Undead, Angel fired the second bullet…

After the sixth shot had been fired, Moriya’s eyes closed, falling into unconsciousness amidst the frantic plummet of chaotic energy.

The whole process took Angel roughly three hours.

From this, it seemed that Moriya truly did not transform as quickly as Tullas and Mandhela. Although Angel’s experimental data on the Samsara Overture wasn’t extensive, based on the current situation, he had essentially deduced that the ‘speed of transmutation’ depended on two prerequisites: the nature of the soul and the total amount of soul energy.

Special souls transmute almost in the blink of an eye, and Angel could even fire six shots consecutively without pause.

But with ordinary souls, Angel needed to rest after each shot, waiting for the transmuted to be ready for the next.

Therefore, the nature of the soul determined the speed of transmutation.

And the total amount of soul energy was another factor. Initially, when Angel transmuted ordinary souls, the time taken was calculated in “days.”

Moriya taking only three hours was extremely fast. Since Moriya was not a special soul, the conclusion was quite clear—the total amount of soul energy must also be a factor to consider.

About half an hour after falling unconscious, Moriya opened her eyes.

Now, her gaze no longer held the abyssal blackness but had returned to that of an ordinary soul. The cold and grim expression had become richer, especially when Moriya saw Isabel, the joy bursting from her eyes was undeniable.

Watching the two silently facing each other, Angel wisely said his goodbyes.

Molly had returned to her soul form, Isabel must have had a lot to say to her, and Angel’s presence would have surely been a disturbance. Besides, Angel had obtained new data about the Samsara Overture, and he needed some time to sort it out.

Regarding the matter of the Infant Spirits, since there were no bullets left in the Samsara Overture, it would have to wait until next time.

Angel withdrew from the Wizard’s Tower at the heart of the Holy Mountain. As he traveled down the long corridor to the cliff entrance of the outside world, he saw the High Priest Baya waiting outside.

Behind High Priest Baya, Angel also saw a group of Divine Officers dressed in white robes, all of whom looked at him with curious and excited eyes.

“Sir hasn’t visited for a long time. How about sitting down at Centennial Hall?” High Priest Baya suggested.

When High Priest Baya extended the invitation, the Divine Officers behind him also showed a look of expectation. Some of them were familiar faces to Angel, including friends and relatives of the Kulakuka Tribe who had initially left with him.

For them, the welfare of dispersed sub-tribes like Babaya’s was perhaps the most concern they couldn’t let go of. Now that Angel had appeared, even if they could not see the sub-tribes with their own eyes, getting news from him would be a consolation.

With this thought, Angel nodded to Baya: “Okay.”

…

When he left Centennial Hall, it had already been several hours.

Escorted by Divine Officers and flying Knight pigs, Angel made his way to the altar and returned to the Inner World from there.

Angel had just arrived in the Black Forest when he sensed something strange. The region around the Black Castle was always covered with dark clouds, with Lightning Serpents dancing among them.

But upon his return, Angel noticed a sliver of light.

The dark clouds in the sky remained, but they were much thinner than usual, and the Lightning Serpents had disappeared. Under these conditions, a streak of light penetrated the thin patches of the clouds and sprinkled down.

Although the light was still dim, duller than the gloomy days in the outer world, such brightness was very rare in the Black Castle, which was perpetually shrouded in darkness.

“This undead disturbance might give the Black Castle the chance to be reborn,” Angel mused as he looked at the faint light. “Perhaps this is the effect taking place?”

While he guessed to himself, Angel headed towards the area where the undead were converging.

It took most of the day, but Angel managed to gather six more White Light Bullets once again. After so many incidents of vanishing and banishment, the undead around the Black Castle had clearly thinned out, and Angel encountered less than a hundred of them on the way to the spatial node.

However, this was only near the Black Castle building. In the distant reaches of the Black Forest and beneath the Black Castle in the Corpse Forest, there was still a large number of undead.

After returning to the Soul Realm, Angel was about to go back and organize the experiment records of the Samsara Overture. However, as he passed through the long corridor to his temporary residence, the door opened and Sanders came out from inside.

“Mentor?”

“You’ve come at just the right time. I’ve already communicated with Greya through messages, and she and Felicia have emerged from the ice cave,” Sanders said.

Sanders was now planning a trip to the ice cave himself.

Upon hearing this news, Angel’s eyes lit up. His reason for coming to the Black Castle was twofold: to keep his promise to Popota and to meet Greya.

Knowing that Greya had already come out, Angel decided to accompany Sanders to the ice cave.

Angel was very familiar with the route to the ice cave, having spent a lot of time there with Shadow, including conducting his Alchemy work.

They journeyed down from the Soul Realm, through the Negative Third Layer Soul Chasing Grounds, the fourth layer of the Worm Nest, and finally reached the ice cave.

Before even formally stepping into the ice cave, Angel noticed that many Apprentices from the Black Castle had gathered around, and he even saw Natasha there.

Seeing Angel’s puzzlement, Sanders explained, “You were at the Garden of Living Souls and didn’t know that an anomaly occurred at the Black Castle not long ago…”

A beam of light, like a spear piercing the heavens, had broken free from the shackles of space, rising from underground and slashing through the clouds.

This column of light entered the clouds, stirring them as if agitating a pool of water.

The Lightning Serpents that once navigated the oppressive black clouds suddenly disappeared, and even the thick dark clouds thinned out considerably.

The source of this light anomaly was from the ice cave, hence the inquisitive Apprentices had gathered nearby.

After Sanders had finished recounting, Angel understood why he had felt a thinning of the black clouds and light spilling down upon his return to the Black Castle. It seemed to have been caused by this anomaly.

Whether the light that penetrated and spilled through the clouds was daylight or the light that broke into the clouds was still somewhat uncertain.

“It appears that the ‘Feast’ Greya and Felicia were preparing should be taking shape,” Sanders said, looking towards the entrance of the ice cave not far away. “Let’s go, proceed inside.”

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