The Wizard World

Stigma collected a lot of valuable information when he was still in the family’s territory and he noticed that the ruins around the air transportation were recently opened. He sneaked into the ruins and found a lot of resources that would help Arisma recover. Stigma took away most of the valuable resources, but he was ambushed by a group of wizards that hid their faces with black masks. He was injured and returned to the family to recover. However, an exploration team with members from several major organizations found out someone entered the ruins before them. They then asked a prophet to find the one who "stole" the treasure from them. However, the prophet made a mistake and thought the target was Stigma’s sister. This was how the whole thing started.

Stigma put the half-body lizard into Della’s pouch without being noticed and the lizard helped Della recover her stamina on the way. However, it seemed like those assassins realized that Della was carrying the half-body lizard. They knew the situation about the ruin and they thought Della was the one who raided the ruins before the exploration team. The leader of the assassins quickly contacted the prophet and confirmed the target.

Stigma learned that his sister had become the scapegoat and he decided to ask his old friends for help. That was the truth behind the whole situation.

"So... you already took most of the valuable resources from the ruins?" Angele was a bit speechless.

"Well... yeah. Sorry." Stigma nodded slightly.

"That’s why your master is recovering so fast. Did you notice anything special about the ones who ambushed you?" Angele rubbed his chin.

"Of course. They were using the shadow power." Stigma took out something small from his pouch and threw it to Angele.

*PA*

Angele caught the item easily. It was a small raven statue with a black body and a pair of green eyes. It seemed like the eyes were made of emeralds.

"No, not the statue. Look at its shadow on the ground," Stigma advised.

Angele heard the word and looked down.

The raven’s shadow twisted on the ground, it looked like a living bird that was swinging its wings.

Angele looked at the statue—it was not moving at all.

The raven’s shadow on the ground was trying to leave Angele’s hand.

"The hell... Don’t tell me this is..." Angele’s expression changed.

"Yeah. This is a shadow fiend that comes from the abyss..." Stigma confirmed Angele’s assumption.

"A shadow fiend from the shadow realm..." Angele blocked the sunlight above the statue.

Suddenly, the raven’s shadow jumped out of the statue and it started moving around Angele on the ground.

*CAW*

The voice of the raven was loud and terrifying. It jumped straight into Angele’s shadow.

Angele’s expression turned serious, he knew that he could not let the raven touch his shadow.

With a flick of his finger, a ray of fire energy particles hit the raven’s shadow with precision.

*BAM*

A small hole appeared on the ground.

*Crack*

Countless tiny cracks appeared on the raven statue in Angele’s hand. Several seconds later, the statue turned into a pile of stone debris and dropped to the ground.

"Fairy’s realm... and now it’s the shadow realm... It seems like the wizards in the central continent are trying to study the ancient world..." Angele muttered.

"Yeah. I heard that there are wizards who can enter other realms using the world stones as portals so it’s possible that those wizards brought the shadow fiends to our world. Maybe the wizards who ambushed our teachers were related to the shadow realm," Stigma spoke in a deep tone.

"What if those wizards are from the shadow realm?" Angele narrowed his eyes. "What’s your plan? Any advice from your master?"

"Well, we need to rank up fast." A bitter smile appeared on Stigma’s face. "No matter how perfect my plan is, I can’t win a fight against someone with extreme power."

"How strong were the ones who ambushed you?" Angele questioned.

"Three rank 3 wizards and two rank 4 wizards."

"What?!" Angele gasped. "How did you survive the ambush? Is that even possible?"

Stigma sighed. "Arisma saved me. Otherwise, I’d be dead. However, her soul form was almost destroyed by those wizards. They knew how to deal with strong opponents."

"That’s a problem." Angele narrowed his eyes. If Henn could not protect him under a similar situation, he was not sure if he could survive the attack. "Do you know why they put so much effort into finding Arisma and Henn?"

"According to the words said by one of the rank 4 wizards that attacked me, I think there’s a person named Alicia that can communicate with the living beings of Shadow Ream and she’s behind the whole thing," Stigma explained.

It seemed like the situation was much more complicated than Angele thought.

"So, we probably should..."

"What? Alicia?!" Henn’s voice interrupted, "So, it is her... the lord of the shadow, Alicia... It was a possibility, but I didn’t think she would do something like this..." Henn’s illusion visualized behind Angele.

It was a beautiful lady with long dark hair and a tight silky black dress. The woman was attractive and mysterious. She was wearing a pair of long black gloves and the brooch on her chest that looked like a lightning.

For some reason, Angele thought he was looking at Vivian. The two women gave him a similar feeling but Henn looked more attractive.

Angele had thought Henn was an old woman, it was the first time he saw Henn’s appearance.

A woman with a pair of green eyes appeared behind Stigma slowly, she was wearing a long white robe and her face was covered by a silky mask.

"Long time no see, old bastard." Henn pursed her lips into a cold smile and stared at the woman behind Stigma.

"Henn, the invincible banshee from the hell... Ha... What a joke. Your soul power is weaker than me right now. How sad that is." Arisma’s voice was soft and gentle but her words were quite heavy.

"Cut it out. We are no longer who we used to be. I think you’re the reason why Alicia is going after us. What’s your plan? You need to bring this to an end." Henn was not mad about what Arisma just said at all. She just looked Arisma in the eyes.

They were both in the soul form and there was not much they could do. Angele and Stigma were the only two that could see them.

"Come on. It’s not all my fault. The lord of the shadow was one of the strongest wizards in the world. I don’t understand why they ambushed us. She can kill us in a face-to-face battle. She’s one of the three lords from the Anfaria High Council. We stand no chance against her in the soul form," Arisma explained.

"What about the other two lords? She can’t decide the future of the council and she can’t break the balance. That’s the reason why she ambushed us. Whatever, just tell me about your plan."

Arisma shook her head. "I don’t have a plan. I can’t wait for Stigma to rank up and fight for me. I suggest we go to a different area. They’ll find us soon or later. I think Alicia did not expect us to turn ourselves into soul form, but now she knows and she will send assassins to kill us."

"So, the best plan is to..." the two strong female wizards exchanged eye contact but did not finish the sentence.

"But, it took me years to find a body to live in..." Henn hesitated. The woman had an attractive appearance but her voice was hoarse.

"It’s fine. Let’s enter the Thousand Shadow Orb. Stigma found two orbs from the ruin," Arisma advised.

"The Thousand Shadow Orb?" Angele interrupted, "Master Arisma, it is the item that can separate the souls from the living beings’ bodies, right?"

"Yeah, however, we are like symbionts and the orb can’t separate us completely. We can still use the orb to recover. Also, the orb will remove my mentality wave completely from this world. The only downside is that I can only wake up once every ten years," Arisma responded. Her personality was much better than Henn.

Arisma cleared her throat and continued, "Let those two kids progress in the next 100 years. I need time to recover. Also, it’ll be great if Alicia thinks we’re dead."

"She’ll kill the two kids to ensure that we’re dead." Henn shook her head.

"She won’t send strong assassins just to kill them... Well, I don’t know. It’s our destiny. We’ll die sooner or later. I don’t think they can win the fight against rank 3 and rank 4 wizards yet. Alicia is... smart, but her strongest servants are important people to many large organizations, and they can’t reveal the truth to the public," Arisma said slowly.

"That’s why you’re called wizard of destiny, huh? I’m not going to let destiny control my life. I will make the decision myself." Henn’s illusion slowly landed on the ground.

"I shall fight till my last breath."

"Good luck then." Arisma nodded, then she turned into countless green light dots and sank into Stigma’s body.

Henn stood beside Angele and put her hands on his cheeks carefully. Angele was a bit confused, he was not sure why Henn could touch him.

"Look at my eyes, young man..." her voice was no longer hoarse, it was crispy and gentle. "What do you think? Do you like me...?"

She leaned against Angele’s body and it looked like Henn was trying to seduce Angele. He could not even turn his head away from the woman.

"Relax... Young man... I’ll teach you how to enjoy your life..." Henn’s eyes turned from dark red to scarlet.

"It won’t take very long... I’ll be your woman for the rest of my life... No matter where you are and what you do. You’ll become part of my... body... Don’t you want to live a happy and peaceful life...?" Henn’s voice slid into Angele’s ears.

Angele stared Henn in the eyes with a blank expression on his face. He opened his arms and grabbed Henn’s waist tight. It almost looked like he was trying to drag Henn into his body.

The fragrance of Henn’s body rushed into Angele’s nose, the soft touch on his fingers was hard to give up.

*WOO*

Angele’s eyes slowly turned from black to scarlet. They were glowing and the feeling was hard to describe.

Henn’s voice echoed in his ears. It felt like she was talking to Angele from the sky and it sounded like a siren singing.

"Come to me... Let me tell you what is the ultimate happiness in life..." Angele whispered, his voice somehow sounded like a young lady’s.

Henn’s expression changed. She wanted to push Angele away but she could barely lift her arms. Henn was surprised, she just stood there and let Angele hug her tightly. Her head was dizzy and she had no idea what was happening.

"Damn!" she quickly turned her head to the left and avoided eye contact with Angele.

*Crack*

Henn’s body turned into red light dots and returned to Angele’s body.