The purple flame was extremely powerful. Angele’s finger was crystalized within seconds, he could barely feel his index finger now. It was almost like his finger was cut off without any pain.
Angele watched the body melting in the purple flame. His expression changed several times before the flame disappeared completely. He walked to the white platform and lowered his body.
He extended his left hand to touch the remains.
‘The flame is… interesting…’ Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele’s eyes. However, Zero did not find any valuable information even after scanning for a while.
‘It’s just the remains of the dead body, but I didn’t expect the purple flame at all. She must have been a strong creature before death. I should probably check that area again…’ Angele walked to the window and looked over the forest on the other side.
Strong creatures had to possess special bloodlines. Angele knew that he should try to extract the bloodline from the creature.
There was excitement in his eyes.
Angele cleaned the platform and found some helpful tools. He left the reading room and locked the door.
He went to the garden and played with Freia for a while. Angele returned to the living room and started meditating again after checking the matrixes.
**************************
The night fell.
Angele slowly woke up from the meditation and checked the surroundings.
The whole mansion was deadly silent and it was cold.
Other than the wind and rustling trees outside, silence ruled everywhere.
The chilling wind came from the opened main door, causing it to clatter along with it.
The only light in the living room came from the moon. The blue moonlight illuminated the living room’s floor.
Angele stood up from the sofa and wiped the dust off his robe. He walked to the second floor and stopped by a room on the left.
He raised his right hand and pressed on the door.
*Crack*
The door was unlocked with a crisp sound.
The bedroom was dark and there was a ball of fiery golden light standing quietly on the bed. The light ball was jumping around and there was a long tail on its back. The ball was the only source of light in the room.
The light ball was a red bird—it was Phoenix. The bird had been taking care of Freia for days.
Freia was sleeping on the large white bed and Phoenix was scampering around her. Angele could see the blue veins on her clean skin. Freia’s brow furrowed, it seemed like she was having a bad dream. There was an anxious look on her face and she was struggling.
Angele walked to the bed and rubbed Freia’s cheeks slightly.
The anxious look disappeared from Freia’s face right after Angele touched her cheeks. She quickly calmed down as her expression relaxed.
The girl was breathing at a steady rate.
Angele covered Freia with the blanket and waved his right hand.
Phoenix flew into the air and landed on Angele’s right shoulder, it started cleaning its feathers again.
Angele turned around, left the room, and closed the door.
He walked down the stairs and left the mansion.
The white mansion was surrounded by darkness; the blue light from the sky went through the thick clouds and illuminated the mist. It looked like the sun was about to rise.
Angele tightened his robe as it was a bit cold. The only light around came from the glowing crystals in the mansion. The visibility was low outside due to the thick blue mist.
He stepped on the wet and freezing grass.
*PA*
With a flick of his finger, a pink energy wave appeared around his body and started expanding right away. The energy wave disappe
ared into the air seconds later.
The circle warmed up his body and Phoenix was relaxing on his shoulder. The bird released a thin red glow to brighten up the surroundings.
With the help of Phoenix and the high-temperature force field, Angele walked through the translucent barrier with no hesitation.
*CHI*
The bird and the wizard passed through the defensive barrier with no problems and stepped among the black vines.
Angele entered a small forest beside the mansion after passing through the vines. He checked the map using Zero and turned right.
The chilling wind blew on the tree leaves, making a loud noise.
Angele walked in the forest, checking the map several times. He asked Phoenix to double-check the direction and increased his pace.
He returned to the location where he found the dead body quickly.
It was an enormous tree with a wide tree trunk.
The tree was about four meters wide and there was a black cave under its root. It seemed like the cave lead to a dark tunnel, but Angele could not see anything inside.
The tree was relatively short when compared to the other trees in the forest—its height was about half of the other trees, but it was extremely wide. There was not a single leaf on the tree’s thin branches.
Angele walked to the cave and crouched to its right.
‘That was where I found the dead body.’ Raising his hand, he pressed on the grass slightly.
The green grass was also painted in light blue and Angele checked the marks on the ground.
The only thing he found around the cave was his own trail.
‘If it was not related to the spells, the body probably dropped to the ground from the sky.’ Angele raised his head and looked around.
Some bloodstains were left on the branches above and there was a broken branch shaking in the wind.
Angele looked around as blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes. He used the biochip to scan the area. ‘There must be something here…’
Suddenly, his pupils constricted.
He noticed a trail of small footprints behind the footprints left by him, it seemed like they were left by a female.
Angele walked for a while in the deadly silent forest, but he did not know that someone was following behind him.
Goosebumps rose on Angele’s skin. He recalled the words Todd told him—that anything could happen in the Nightmare Realm.
‘Damn it!’ Angele knew that he might be in trouble. The footprints meant that someone was following closely behind him when he was walking among the tall trees.
Raising his left hand, the Light of the Thorn started releasing the golden rays and they brightened up the surroundings.
A golden ball of light appeared in the dark forest and the area around the cave was brightened up.
Angele glanced around cautiously and stood there for a while. He felt relieved after realizing that there was no one around him.
He told Frey not to leave the mansion during the nights when the young man was still here. Angele chose to explore the Nightmare Realm at night because the world was so different when the night fell.
Many things would only happen during the nights in the Nightmare Realm.
Todd had never left the basement during the nights as he knew that the night in the Nightmare Realm was much more dangerous than the daytime.
Angele turned around and looked at the grass again. He noticed that there was a trail left by the body on the right, it was marked by Zero.
‘The thing dropped to the right of the tree at an angle, which means she came from that direction…’ Angele turned to the right.
There was nothing in his sight due to the low visibility.
Angele looked at the black tree cave again. He thought for a second and slowly took out a test tube full of pink liquid.
He removed the wooden stopper carefully.
*CHI*
Red mist spurted out of the tube.
The red mist landed to the right of Angele and turned into a large, blurry human-shaped shadow. The shadow was much higher than Angele, it had the size of a small giant.
The shadow man was surrounded by the red mist and his eyes looked like two small rubies. The man had no mouth or nose, but he had a muscular body and there were red flames burning on his shoulders.
"My pleasure, master." The shadow man bowed to Angele and put his right hand in front of his chest. The man’s voice was deep and hoarse. He was speaking the universal ancient language with a strange accent.
Angele nodded and pointed at the cave. "I’m counting on you," he responded in the same language.
"No problem." The shadow man hit its chest and entered the cave.
Seconds later, Angele heard some creature grunting inside the cave, but nothing else.
The shadow man left the cave and it looked like his size shrank.
"There were several guards guarding a wooden door and it looked like a tomb," he reported back in a low voice.
"Thanks, come back now." Angele nodded and unsealed the tube again.
"Understood."
The red shadow man turned into red mist and returned to the tube. The mist turned into pink liquid quickly.
Angele sealed the tube with the wooden stopper carefully and returned it to his pouch.
It was a summoner spell he learned after advancing to rank 2 and it was called the Blood Giant.
The body of the giant was made from toxic and acidic blood. The giant had low intelligence, but it could follow basic orders.
The creatures or puppets that contacted the body of the giant would be damaged by the strong venom. If the blood giant killed a creature with blood inside its body, he would absorb all of the creature’s blood and use it as fuel.
The blood giant’s body size would keep increasing as long as it could collect enough blood.
The largest blood giant in the history had a height of more than ten meters. His one footstep could crack the land. The only problem was that the blood giant was hard to craft and a lot of rare resources were required.
Angele was working in the human resources department and he accepted some expensive gifts from the wizards who wanted to join the Elemental Hand. He spent years crafting the blood giant using the resources he purchased and was sent by Vivian.
Angele looked at Phoenix after taking care of the guards. The bird twittered and flew toward Angele, sinking into his chest.
Angele started chanting the incantation with a low voice and created a translucent fire barrier around him.
He also formed a thin layer of metal barrier on the surface of his body and his skin turned silver.
There were two twisted, long daggers in his hands, they were also created with the silver metal.
Angele stepped into the cave after everything was prepared.
The golden light from the Light of the Thorn brightened up the cave.