<strong>Chapter 434: Shadow’s Favor</strong>
At a small corner of Silent Hill, there was a patch of wastnd without any forms of life growing on it. A lone, strange-shaped wizard tower sat among a number of tattered boulders; the round moon was its only decoration.
The top floor of the tower had a brightly-lit firece that repelled all the bone-piercing cold, bestowing potent warmness into the room. Newborn fire sprites chased each other happily while they explored the world around them with great curiosity.
A series of footsteps suddenly scared all the sprites for good. They instantly swarmed back into the firece and pretended nothing happened.
The door was pushed open, revealing a man with a devilishly charming look.
He inhaled the warm air in the room and enjoyed it briefly. He then set his gaze upon the fire sprites who were trying to blend in with the fire by keeping their twinkling eyes shut.
“Jaja...” The man licked his lips with a long, serpentine tongue without minding the naughty creatures.
When they felt safe again, the sprites poked their tiny heads outside and looked at a workbench nearby.
A series of strange-looking materials scattered on the surface, along with a blonddy with blue eyes. She wasn’t moving.
The woman had a fishtail covered in silver scales as her “leg”. A mermaid.
The man was going to start reconstructing the mermaid’s body when he was stopped by another series of footsteps. The hasty frequency immediately reminded him of a young apprentice he found by chancest year—Toya.
As he expected, a short boy around the age of seven showed up at the door.
The chubby boy had dark skin and a feather headwear. He wasn’t wearing anything on top; a tiny skirt with colorful totems made from beast skin covered his groin.
Toya came from a primitive tribe n. He had been away from home for a year now, but the primordial and naive temperament on him was still clear to be seen.
The boy approached his professor on hurried steps, which caused his calves to jiggle. “Professor! Something’s happened!”
The boy’s clear eyes showed visible panic.
He then saw the naked mermaid on the workbench and blushed before he quickly covered his face.
However, his little hands didn’t do a good job at it. He was still peeking at the mermaid’s upper body between his fingers.
“Hey, get rid of your drooling.” The man in the room waved a hand at the boy.
With a start, Toya wiped his mouth, only to find nothing at all.
“You bamboozled me again, professor!”
“Now speak. What brought you here?” the man asked without stopping his work.
“Oh, right! It’s Mister Diablo. Dodo told me that he’s beaten up by Lady Isabe!”
While speaking, Toya picked up a tiny creature that had been hiding behind his back.
It was a cheetah cub that had a small horn growing on its forehead. However, at its current size, it looked more like a cat than a cheetah.
When faced with the red-haired man, the creature was clearly terrified. Its tail went stiff, and its ears fell t.
“Em? Diablo angered Isabe?” The man raised an eyebrow.
Isabe said Diablo’s a “coward”. Diablo’s only been back for a day, but she already approved that he got guts?
The man ced a glowing finger on Dodo’s head.
Green ripples emerged from the cub, which allowed him to read its memory fragments.
A momentter, the man grew excited as his tongue wormed around his lips faster and faster.
“Jajaja... look what I’ve found! A splendid specimen. Jajaja...”
...
Meanwhile...
Angor fell into a trance when hisst-resort move was easily countered by Isabe.
Not long ago, he was happily making ns for the remaining months of this year, but now, he was already wrestling with death...
He wasn’t prepared to experience such a drastic change of events at all.
He clearly knew that Isabe could easily end his life, but for some reason, he didn’t feel stressed at all.
He was only sad for his unfinished promises. There were still Krakoks inside his bracelet, who hoped to find a new home and start their new lives. Pity, they were going to die even though they had barely left their starting point.
After breaking Angor’s Nightmare Domain, Isabe began mming Angor’s body around using pure strength. It wasn’t long before Angor was tortured by a good number of wounds. Broken flesh and bones covered his form.
When there was barely any fine skin on Angor, Isabe finally dragged him closer to her face.
“Keep struggling, won’t you? Come on, keep it up. It’s more fun that way.” Isabeughed maniacally. Herughter gradually joined with her second, giggling “background voice”.
Angor hadpletely no strength left. He couldn’t even show his hatred to Isabe now. This was the fate of weaklings in the wizarding world—to be rotten bones with nothing to fight back.
Using what remained of his consciousness, Angor spat at Isabe’s face.
Something shed between them. The spit mixed with blood was blocked by a simple barrier and slowly dropped to the ground.
“That’s not nice.” Isabe kept smiling. “That’s all you can do to keep your dignity? How useless.”
She felt bored at Angor’s unresponsiveness. It was like beating up a dead pig. Pointless and unentertaining.
“Alright... Guess I’ve had enough.”
Isabe chopped at Angor’s neck with an enchanted w.
He saw the bloody attacking and closed his eyes as he waited for death to im him.
But even after several seconds, he still didn’t feel what he expected to feel. Instead, he sensed his body being tossed onto the ground again.
Calmly waiting for his death didn’t mean he’d give up all hope. He would like to stay alive longer, if possible.
The first thing he saw after reopening his eyes was the giant moon hanging in the sky.
Looking lower, he saw Isabe looking at someone with a surprised expression.
It was a beautiful figure who released a golden glimmer under the moonlight. The figure blocked Isabe’s previous attack with a round shield.
Someone saved me?
Before he could think further, Shadow suddenly rushed to his side and dragged him away.
“Now run! We’ll split, and you can use that skill to hide again!”
While not stopping his movement, Shadow looked back at the golden figure who held off Isabe bravely. “Keep her busy, Naga! For as long as you can!”
The man looked determined.
“Yes, Master.” Naga nced back. Her elegant and stern face contained a small trace of kindness.
Shadow’s eyes watered a little as he kept dragging Angor until they entered the woods on one side of the path.
Angor couldn’t move anything on his body since Isabe had misced a good number of his bones. Shadow kept running while casting Heal at Angor asionally.
Angor felt greatly relieved for escaping imminent death. At the same time, he couldn’t believe what just happened. He thought the only thing that prevented Shadow from killing him was the magic covenant, and he wasn’t expecting the man to save him for real.
“But what about Naga? There’s no way she can...”
“Shut up! I don’t want to hear it!” Shadow screamed.
There was no doubt that Naga would lose against Isabe sooner orter, and there was only one oue waiting for her.
Shadow inhaled to calm his mind. “Sorry for yelling... Just, don’t speak. Get up as fast as you can, and use your invisibility thing to get away.”
He believed that if what Isabe said first was true, Angor could escape safely if they didn’t use their Spirit Bond.
And since Angor still had hope, Shadow decided to sacrifice Naga to buy some time.
“... Thank you.” Angor nodded and gave Shadow a meaningful look.
“I said I owe you a favor for helping me get Naga, and I’m returning it. We’re even from today and on, ya know?”
Angor didn’t directly help Shadow with the mission, but the man knew that he would never seed if Angor didn’t get him out of the blood prison or prevent Felicia from destroying his n.
“Put me down, I’m okay now. Let’s split, now,” Angor said.
“Stay well. Don’t you die on me!”
Shadow began dashing toward the wizard tower of his professor, while Angor activated Infinite Reticence again and moved to the depth of the night.