‘Ungrateful kid…’ Henn sounded a bit unhappy upon hearing what Angele said. ‘Alright. Come on, I’ll transfer the soul pattern and mentality wave modification method to you.’
Angele was not concerned. Standing amidst the strong winds, he raised his right hand.
A small white light ball was conjured atop his palm. The ball of light looked like a translucent spinning glass ball and there was a strange black insect inside it.
The insect looked identical to a scorpion. It had two claws and one needle on its tail. The only difference it had were the black spikes on its back.
Angele narrowed his eyes and observed the glass ball.
‘What’s this?’ he asked.
‘It is called Spike Scorpion, just a specimen. This scorpion is easy to find in the wild, but it has many different forms. A part of the boy’s soul was trapped within this specimen. Actually, it’s not really a scorpion but just a symbol now.’ Henn responded immediately.
‘In other words, this is the soul mark of her son. I had lost my physical form, but I had instead gained the ability to separate souls from its vessel. So what do you think?’ she continued.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele’s eyes. He quickly scanned the scorpion using his chip to make sure that it was not a threat.
‘Let me control this thing myself. I think I can do it.’
‘Sure.’ Henn chuckled, and she stopped talking.
The glass ball slowly landed on Angele’s palm and the white light faded.
He looked at the glass ball. Hesitating for a second, he tapped on the ball with his finger.
*CHI*
The glass ball sank into his finger right away.
Angele shook his head, feeling dizzy.
Zero’s mechanical voice echoed in his ears.
‘Unknown energy detected trying to enter your brain, eliminate?’
‘Yes.’ Angele gave the order.
The blue light dots flashed in his eyes and his eyeballs looked like two perfect sapphires.
‘Elimination failed. The energy particle is unknown. Try to interrupt it with mentality waves?’ Zero reported back after several seconds.
Angele was surprised. It was the first time in a long time that Zero found a new type of energy.
‘Yes, use the mentality wave.’ He closed his eyes and modified his mentality frequency right away in order for Henn not to discover what he was up to. Not only that, he also began to inspect the properties of this unknown energy.
‘New type of energy detected. Please name it. The energy particles are blocked by the mentality wave.’ Zero brought the good news to him.
‘Name it "Soul Power".’ Angele preferred using straightforward methods.
He could feel something cold moving inside his brain.
‘Soul power consumed. Mentality increased to 77.5.’
After about half an hour, Angele finished the simulation of the soul power. His eyes were once again surrounded by a golden glow.
‘Alright. You should have realized by now that I did not lie to you, right?’ Henn spoke at such a perfect time.
‘I’m just being cautious. Don’t think too much about it.’ Angele pursed his lips into a smile. ‘What should I do next?’
‘You see those smoke coming out of the magma chamber? Touch it with your hands.’
Angele stared at the thick, white smoke coming out of the crater. He could smell the sulfur in the air. As he stepped forward, he finally felt the heat.
He raised his right hand and touched the smoke screen.
‘Can you feel it? Pull it out!’ Henn continued.
Angele moved his hand around and found a long stick that looked like a vein.
He held the vein tight and pulled it out. Some smoke left the smoke screen with the vein and it disappeared into the air right away.
‘Alright. You can just stay here and wait. Someone will come to pick you up, but you might face some kind of trouble. I must cut the connection for now so that no one will know I’m still alive. You’re a smart kid so you ought to
know what to do. Only answer the questions that will help you prove your identity, though you can still say you’re from the west coast and you were once a mortal. It doesn’t matter anyway since you already have the soul pattern. Also, check the detailed information on her son that I transferred to you just now. Good luck.’ Henn cut off the connection right after she finished saying these.
The information Henn transmitted to Angele was quite complicated. He stored it in the database.
Angele’s expression turned solemn. Quietly he awaited there, unsure of what was about to happen.
Suddenly, a stone pillar slowly arose from the ground right behind him. The stone pillar barely made any noise.
The stone pillar was about two meters high.
*KA*
The pillar cracked open, revealing nothing but darkness within.
A woman wearing a long robe of whiteness stepped out of the cracked stone pillar. Her face was clean and attractive and dark blonde hair, silky smooth and shiny, trailed over her shoulders.
Angele heard this noise, causing him to turn around as the woman’s cold gaze fell on him.
"Who are you and why are you here?" The woman was speaking in a rather cold tone and her voice crisp.
"I’m the ninth student of master Henn, who asked me to come here." Angele politely bowed to the woman. He noticed the white robe that the woman was wearing had no decorative patterns of any sort, only plain white.
‘Henn…? Master Henn?’ The woman glared at Angele with her eyebrows knitted. "What’s your name?"
"I’m Angele Rio, you can just call me Angele." Angele looked at the woman’s feet as he responded.
She was wearing a pair of long white boots. For some reason, no noise was produced when she stepped on the white snow.
"Follow me." The woman turned around and vanished into the darkness inside the stone pillar.
Angele followed suit quickly. The small space inside the stone pillar easily fitted two adults. The inside was pure darkness and dead silence, however.
The stone pillar slowly sank into the ground and disappeared into the black rocks.
Angele felt as if he was standing in an elevator. Moreover, different from what he had expected, the space inside was actually much larger.
The woman stood beside the wall, the distance between the two about one meter.
The stone pillar was quickly descended albeit the slight tremors.
Angele felt as though gravity had disappeared for a second.
"I’m Vivian Fenrir. You can just call me by my name directly if you are master Henn’s student. However, I must first test you. You should know what will happen once I find out you lied to me.’ Vivian looked at Angele.
"I didn’t lie to you." With a flick of his finger, a small ball of purple flame appeared on the tip of the index finger of Angele’s right hand. He slightly waved his finger and yellow flames came out of the purple fireball.
"This is a basic application of the fire stacking technique master Henn taught me," Angele said right after the fireball vanished into the air.
"Your foundation is strong. How long have you been practicing it? Ten years?" Vivian’s expression loosened.
"11 years actually. I have put a lot of effort into it." Angele had no idea how to continue this conversation. He had learned the fire stacking technique not so long ago when Henn asked him to master this, being it the requirement for the level 2 spell. With the assistance of the biochip, he mastered this technique in several days. Henn would’ve been surprised if she had witnessed what Angele had done.
The descending speed of the stone pillar was slow. Although the woman still continued to ask a series of questions, she had already begun to trust Angele after she saw him perform the fire stacking technique.
Henn had long transferred the detailed information to him, and Angele had no problem answering all those questions.
Vivian was no longer talking to him like a complete stranger.
"I’m sorry. But for some reason, it doesn’t feel like this is our first time meeting each other. You remind me of someone…familiar…" Angele now spoke the line they had prepared.
"Huh?" Vivian suddenly began to show hesitation.
*PA*
The stone pillar reached its destination and landed on the ground. The crack Angele had seen earlier was actually a door and there was a long crimson tunnel right in front of him.
The rotten-egg-like stench of the sulfur was far stronger in the tunnel than outside.
With creased forehead and brows furrowed, Angele followed Vivian out of the stone pillar.
"To be honest, I’m having that same feeling too." Vivian slightly nodded as she advanced. "This is the place where master Henn taught me everything. But now, I’m the only one left…" She looked a bit depressed.
"I learned a lot from master Henn, but I also lost so many things over the course of my long journey. It is unfortunate, yet it may happen to you, too…"
It seemed that Angele’s plan was working.
Angele did not reply. He could feel Vivian emanating a horrifying mentality wave. It was not considered strong to him, but it gave him the chills. Angele was certain that if she had the intention to kill him, it would be impossible for him to retaliate. He had also felt a similar feeling when the airships had been attacked by the lord of the storm spirits.
The temperature in the tunnel increased as they kept moving onward. The air was thinning out, and Angele noticed a strange yellow mist floating around.
"This is the place." Vivian turned left and stepped into a black stone gate.
Angele’s face turned red. Zero began to send warning messages upon detecting the temperature that was now over 50 degrees Celsius. The sulfur in the air was so dense he was now having problem breathing. Angele thought he was going to faint.
However, he felt refreshed after following Vivian into the stone gate. The air was nice and clean.
Angele took a deep breath, now feeling much better. The tunnel was almost like a different world to him.