It was getting dark and Anfey looked a little tired. He actually had never been tired before. After chatting with Christian for a while, he fell into a sound sleep. Christian did meditation for a while before he fell asleep. The chirping birds seemed to be influenced by them. They curled up in the corner of the cage and fell asleep.
After a while, Anfey and Christian both snored a little. A gold music box resting diagonally at the end of the bed suddenly moved. After a while, the top of the box opened. A pair of light blue light spots showed and then a small head peeked out from the opening.
At the same time, Anfey was talking in a dream and then turned over. His right foot accidentally pressed the top of the music box. The golden little puppet was stuck there. He could neither move back in nor come out. His hands waved in the air, trying to grab something. He also made a quiet but ear-piercing sound.
The little puppet seemed to receive an order from someone and suddenly stopped struggling. He lifted up his little head and looked at Christian across from him, and then weirdly turned half of his body to look at Anfey. Anfey was still sound asleep. The little puppet slowly held his hand out. There was a tiny fine needle on top of his finger, pointing at Anfey’s ankle.
Without any wind, the door to the room suddenly opened. A person walked in. As he walked in, a dim light underneath his foot spread throughout the room. The little golden puppet suddenly frozen there, and the needle was less than one centimeter away from Anfey’s ankle.
Another person quietly walked in. He looked at Anfey and noticed him still in sound sleep without knowing anything had happened. He could not help frowning. If they had been a little later, Anfey would surely have gotten hurt.
The person in the front waved his hand. The gold music box was lifted up by a layer of light and flew onto that person’s palm. When he had the music box on his palm, he suddenly turned to the south to look. Obviously, he had sensed who controlled this puppet in his hand and from where.
The next moment, the two people disappeared one after another. The door was closed, and the room became as quiet as before.
Some thick and tall oak trees quietly stood under the moonlight, not far from the House of Mages Hotel. If frequent customers of the House of Mages Hotel saw these oak trees, they would have been shocked, since there were no trees before, not to mention such big and tall oak trees.
"I heard that guy hurt many of our people. Why are we here protecting him?" A low voice came from an oak tree.
"This is the order of the master. If you do not want to protect him and disobey the order, you can try to see what punishment you will receive," another person answered calmly.
"Shut up. All be quiet." Suddenly there was an inpatient voice from underground. Those few oak trees became quiet. Only their leaves made some sounds in the wind.
Christian’s eyelids moved a little bit. He observed his surroundings with squinted eyes. He slowly sat up from the bed and saw Anfey in sound sleep. He tried to wake him up. "Anfey!"
Anfey responded to Christian just by moving his mouth and making some sounds.
"Man." Christian shook his head. If this had happened in the past, he would have barely notice anything unusual. He was experienced now and became very observant. Anfey had looked a little strange in the evening, so Christian had been suspicious and did not really fall asleep. Christian did not see the gold puppet because he only used his ears to listen to his surroundings. If he had known there was a puppet, he would already have killed it.
Christian rolled off the bed and walked up beside Anfey. He pushed Anfey a little. "Anfey, Anfey." Under the moonlight, he saw the cage on the floor. The two birds were sound asleep in very weird positions, curling up at the corners of the cage. Christian started to look serious and worried. He looked at Anfey and then at the two birds. He squatted down and poked one bird with his finger through the cage. The bird flipped over but still did not wake up.
Christian rushed to his bed and grabbed his wand. He rushed back to Anfey’s side again. He grabbed Anfey’s shoulder and shook him hard. "Anfey, wake up, wake up."
"You don’t have to wake him up now. Without being baptized by the sunlight, he will not wake up," a coarse sound arose.
Christian was frozen to the ground for a second. Even an immature kid would turn around to ask who he was or pretend to be calm and ask who he was, but Christian raised his wand without any hesitation. With strong magic surges, a big fire ball shot out at the black shadow. At the same time, Christian yelled, "Suzanna!"
Anfey believed in preemption. If others took preemptive action first, they would be at a disadvantage. People in his legion were definitely influenced by his principles to some degree. Christian was okay to fight. He felt there was no point in talking too much.
The big fireball hit the target and exploded. After the explosion, the flames swallowed the black shadow, but soon the black shadow walked out from the flame. There was thick smog on his body. Christian also smelled something burning in the air.
Christian waved the wand in his hand. An electric arc shot out from the tip of the wand and then released the magic dome immediately after that. Christian immediately chanted.
Christian heard Suzanna’s yelling and fighting sounds from the next room. It was obvious that Suzanna did not have the advantage in this fight. Christian’s heart dropped. From the casual look on that black shadow, he knew it would not be easy, but he did not expect Suzanna could not get out of the fight quickly.
"No point," the black shadow shook his head and said with a playful tone.
Christian snorted and hit his wand hard on the floor. A heat wave spread out. Where the heat wave passed, the floor and chairs had turned into ashes. Even the roof was burned. Glass items had all exploded. The black shadow shook a little bit before he could steady himself. The smog on him got even thicker. He made some sizzling sound like meat cooked on a grill. The sound made Christian’s hair stand up. Christian could even see some unknown liquid dripping from the black shadow.
"Move, Christian. I do not want to hurt you now, but only now," the black shadow said with a coarse voice. "My job is to take him with me. Don’t even try to stop me."
Christian looked at Anfey and said calmly, "No!"
"You are very stubborn. I will give you one more chance, and this is your last chance." That black shadow slowly took two steps forward.
Christian slid one step to the side and blocked Anfey behind him. He used his action to show his determination.
"This is so touching." The coarse voice showed his intention to kill Christian now. A weird bone spear appeared as the black shadow waved his hand. The spear hit hard on the magic dome. As the bone spear disappeared, the magic dome disappeared as well.
At the same time, with a huge collapsing sound, a big hole was blasted in the wall between the two rooms. Christian could see a gigantic brown bear fighting with Suzanna through the hole. That brown bear had a similar size with the bear in the temple. The only difference was this brown bear was covered with stone scales. Every time Suzanna hit the bear, a large piece of stone scale would get hit away, but it would grow back immediately to block the next hit. Suzanna could not use all her powers because she had to take care of Niya in the corner. The brown bear kept moving forward with his gigantic body and hard stone scales. His momentum was terrifying. Christian was startled by what he saw.
Christian lost himself in thoughts for a short time. A cloud of smog floated against the burnt floor towards Christian as the black shadow causally shook his hand. The shocking look on Christian’s face immediately disappeared. The magic dome radiant appeared and shocked the cloud of smog away. He pointed his wand forward. A wind blade shot out fast at the black shadow’s head. That black shadow was knocked back with a whooshing sound. A fishy liquid splashed from the black shadow’s head.
Christian waved his wand like he was twitching. Wind blades shot at that black shadow. Unfortunately, these attacks could not hurt him. A weird bone shield blocked him in front and absorbed the damage for him.
"Are you a necromancer?" Christian asked.
"You have made me very angry." That black shadow did not answer Christian’s question. In fact, there was no point for him to answer Christian. That black shadow’s voice sounded very cold.
"You are an unwelcomed robber and do not have a right to complain," Christian sneered. "Suzanna, don’t worry. I can handle this guy. You only need to take care of that stupid bear."
"You handle me?" That black shadow grinned. When he came here, he indeed did not want to hurt Christian. He only wanted to take Anfey with him, but Christian did not understand his intention and pissed him off. Now he did not care whether or not he hurt Christian.
"Ok." Suzanna yelled. Bright sword radiant showed around the sword. She swung hard at the bear’s head. The stone scales were hit into powder and splashed everywhere. She kicked the bear’s chest. Even this bear, over three yards tall, could not take such a powerful kick and fell backwards. The door and the walls next to the door were knocked down by the bear.
Christian had finished his chanting. Unexpectedly, his wand pointed at the bear. At the same time, Suzanna had leaped forward with her sword toward the black shadow through the hole on the wall between the two rooms.
The fallen bear struggled to get back up, but its paws lost the grip. Under the gravity magic, the bear’s weight increased several times to the point that the floor could not hold it. With a huge crashing sound, the bear disappeared.