Once they were moving towards their destination, Angele started analyzing the Dragon Perfume. He wanted to solve the questions he had about the Nightmare Realm.
He had noticed that the location would change when he entered the realm from different areas, as if the main world had some connections with the Nightmare Realm.
The mansion area was much safer than the other areas; thus, he wanted to find a way to make it his permanent entering location in the Nightmare Realm.
Stigma’s matter had been resolved and he wanted to focus on some of his own things.
The progression of Molten Core River was slow but steady. There was no shortcut to complete the fourth stage.
‘The biggest problem is that the shadow lord and I need to lay low for now. I don’t have much information on the structure of her organization. If Henn can’t be separated from my body completely, I’ll have to find a way to deal with the shadow lord. I must be careful as I don’t want to bring Vivian any trouble,’ Angele thought. Nothing happened on the rest of the trip, and he was able to return to the mansion safely.
However, he received the messages from Vivian’s students right away: they wanted him to attend the meeting at the headquarter and it seemed like there was a problem.
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The headquarter of the Elemental Hand.
Several humongous white and black owls slowly landed on the white platform on the side of the mountain of the headquarter.
Several young men and women jumped off the owls. They were wearing black outfits with dark red decorations around their neck and were all releasing strong mentality waves.
"Seth, you can go with Milan first. I still need to report to headquarter," a man with short brown hair said in a light tone. He was a muscular man with long and sharp ears, almost like that of an elf. The man had a long face and there was a cold expression on his face.
"Fine, Morrian." The man handed the rein over to a worker that had just approached him. "I haven’t seen Angele for a while. I need to ask him for more of that worm meat, that thing is addicting… Damn…" The man had short black hair and he was wearing a golden headband. He did not seem to care about what the others thought of him.
"Alright, hurry, we’re here for the serious business. Don’t waste too much time. We’ll wait for you at that place." The last one was a woman who had her face covered with a purple silk mask. Her eyes were clean and there was a purple earring with a black gem on her right ear. The gem was about the size of an egg and looked quite heavy.
"Alright then, I’ll go report to headquarter now. See you soon." Morrian nodded and left the platform, he headed to the main gate of the headquarter right away.
Two silver and black carriages were waiting to be inspected by the apprentices that were guarding the entrance.
Morrian walked to them and showed the two apprentice a brown wooden sign.
"The symbol of the elders. Master, please follow me." One of the apprentices bowed politely. He turned around and led Morrian into the entrance.
The apprentices and wizards in the carriage nearby looked at Morrian curiously.
"Who’s him? Why can he enter the headquarter without undergoing security check but we can’t?" A chubby white robe questioned the apprentice that was doing the inspection.
The apprentice smiled and explained, "That master is related to the elder’s council and he had the badge that would only be given to people like him. He will still go through a security check, but the process will be done by wizards in the headquarters."
It seemed like the wizards in line did not know too much about Elemental Hand’s system.
Seth and Milan watched Morrian enter the headquarter from the platform. They wiped the dust off their robes and started heading to the snow mountains in the other direction.
"It has been a while. Maybe Angele is already waiting for us in the volcano ruin." Seth smiled and gazed at the blurry snow mountains.
The mountains were hiding behind the thin white clouds.
"Yeah, me too, it’s the first time I’ve visited this place in years." Milan looked at the tips of the snow mountains. "Angele is Vivian’s only son and this is the first time I’ll see him in person."
"Umm… He doesn’t like to chat just like the other wizards. You’ll know when you see him." Seth started heading to the ruin.
Milan shook his head and followed after Seth.
They quickly disappeared into the large forest at the foot of the mountain.
*******************************
The clean sunlight reflected on the surface of the snow, but it did not bring any warmth to the land.
On top of the snow mountain, the smell of the sulfur from the volcano permeated the air.
A woman with long blonde hair was talking to a man beside the volcano. She was wearing a long red robe, and the man had dark red hair.
It seemed like they did not care about the thick smoke coming out of the volcano.
"It seems like Shozo already declared that he wanted to quit so he’s no longer one of my students. I only have four students right now and they’re like your brothers and sisters. You can tell them what you need and the problems you need help with. If they can’t solve the problem for you, just come talk to me."
The woman was Vivian. Invisible flames surrounded her body, and they were dancing in the air. The light and air around her were twisted, and the scene was quite strange.
The man standing beside him was around 20 years. He had an average looking face but his behaviors were gentle and elegant. It was Angele, and he just arrived not so long ago.
"Understood, thanks. I’ll let them know." He nodded slightly.
"Shozo and the Black Earth haven’t declared the war against us yet so it shouldn’t be a problem. Also, Shozo probably won’t attack you even if the war starts. I need to take care of the people from the alliance and you better stay in the organization’s territory before the problem I solved. Also, you won the fight against Shozo and the inheritor’s bodyguard because you caught them off guard. The power of master Henn is limited and she can only help you defeat the average rank 4 wizards. Also, if you meet a wizard that has a lot of practical experience on the battlefield, you’ll be in trouble."
Vivian stopped for a second and continued, "Also, although you didn’t report the situation back to me on time, you made a right decision in the air transportation city. You left right away as the members of the shadow lord’s palace appeared in the city. The war already started, they started battling the underground races and some of them were killed. They traded their lives to kill an important leader of the underground races. The situation escalated quickly. Thank God you left the city in time."
Angele was a bit surprised. "So, I was just lucky. I didn’t think it was the start of a full-scale war."
"You’re right. I’ve already said this several times but let me know if you want to leave the organization’s territory. There’ll be trouble anywhere you go to." Vivian rolled her eyes. "Alright, I have to leave now. I’ll inform my students and you can go wait for them now." Vivian looked at the right and moved her lips, it seemed like she was talking to someone.
*CHI*
Vivian turned into a distorted energy wave and disappeared into the air.
Angele took a deep breath, turned around, and walked to the edge of the mountain top.
The volcano was the only area that wasn’t covered by the snow. The surface of the black rock was bumpy and the light reflecting on the white snow outside the volcano was eye-blinding.
Angele walked to a cliff by the edge of the snow mountain.
The chilling wind brushed over his face. It felt as though there were knives slashing his skin. He could still feel the freezing air even with a high-temperature force field.
His long leather boots left deep footprints on the snow as the snow was above his ankle.
Angele stood on the cliff and looked down. In his view, it was a sea of white clouds and he could barely see the trees in the forest down below.
Several minutes later, Angele saw two black shadows climbing up the mountain slowly from the narrow path beside the cliff.
Seth was on the in the front, his short black hair and his signature golden headband were hard to miss.
A young woman with a purple mask followed after Seth and her egg-sized earring was eye-catching, as it was pulling her earlobe down.
"Hey! Angele!" Seth already saw that Angele was standing on the cliff.
"Seth and Milan, you’re finally here." There was a gentle smile on Angele's face, he walked to them quickly.
"It has been years but it seems like nothing has changed," Millan sighed and glanced around after arriving at the top of the mountain.
"Let’s enter the ruin first. You have can have some rest after the dinner. There’s no maid or worker here, so we have to do everything by ourselves," said Angele while walking to the volcano.
"My last visit was decades ago and I’m forgetting things." Milan shook her head.
Angele chuckled softly and started talking about his progress of Molten Core River. They also chatted about the important events that happened recently.
He already scanned the two using the biochip as they approached.
Seth was still a rank 2 and his attributes did not change, but Milan was a strong rank 3 wizard. She already reached the last part of Molten Core River’s fourth stage, but she was having trouble completing it.
They did not try to hide anything when the topic switched to their ranks. Angele thought he should tell them the truth as well and said that he was already a rank 2 wizard.