Angor was wearing clothes. However, they were only manifestations created by him to hide his form; they couldn’t hide the strange green lines growing on his back.
The witch considered and made sure that whatever was growing on the boy would keep expanding as it drew more nightmare energy until it completely covered the entire back of that Nightmare Watcher.
Anything that lived inside Nightmare Realm knew about these “marks”. Yet the witch failed to recognize who left that one.
She might be the dominator of Witch’s Town, but there were way more terrifying presences in the other parts of Nightmare Realm. Just like how she failed to recognize the owner of the mark, she did not see a pure stream of soul energy slowly replenishing Angor’s soul, and that the source of the energy was connected to an unknown realm.
While providing energy for Angor, the mark also glowed brightly, which allowed certain beings to notice Angor’s position.
For example, there was a light spot emerging from boundless darkness, which was the center of Nightmare Realm. This area remained static and silent for gods-knew-how-long. Yet upon sensing Angor’s pulsing energy, it slowly woke up.
The manor that did not have any colors before gradually became vibrant.
Something started breathing inside a small room in the manor and was getting louder and louder.
The source of the noise came from a bed placed inside the room.
Precisely speaking, it originated from inside a blue ice coffin on top of the bed.
Squeak...
The coffin lid was pushed aside, and a slim, white arm reached out of the beautiful casket, together with an enchanting sweet smell.
...
Using the sequence of gravity, Angor dashed away from the terrifying cottage as fast as he could.
He ran for a long time. Under normal circumstances, he would have traveled for hundreds of kilometers. Yet there it was—the cottage, patiently waiting for him again.
The situation wasn’t so bad because he did not see the old hag chasing him.
But why?
His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the pain on his back returning. The “wounds” caused by crashing on the ground weren’t going away.
He rubbed his shoulder to soothe the pain just a little while he wondered whether he should check the cottage again.
Can I escape from this place by running around in the mist? Probably not. But going inside the cottage means I have to—
He hoped that Sunders would notice what was going on and that he would come to find him soon. Before this happened, he would stay away from the cottage and wait.
He didn’t care whether Sunders would come at all, but he didn’t want to think about it.
Without using the sequence of gravity this time, he walked slowly in the mist while hoping that he wouldn’t have to see the cottage too soon.
He hadn’t moved far when the mist covering the entire Witch’s Town started swirling like a tornado.
“Marked... I don’t care! I MUST go away first and no one’s stopping me!”
Before Angor could understand what those words meant, the old witch popped up in front of him, and all the mist changed direction as it began reaching for the witch’s position.
“You aren’t going anywhere...”
The witch then unleashed her aura around Angor without holding anything back.
Angor found himself being lifted into the air by something he couldn’t see. His sequence of gravity was useless against the witch’s dominant strength. Helplessly, he watched as the witch got closer, who then gave him another creepy smile.
Next, she reached out a skinny hand that looked like a bird’s talon and tapped at Angor’s forehead with a sharp finger.
Another unparalleled energy wave surged into Angor’s body.
It was the soul energy left by a wizard-level being, which attempted to force its way into Angor’s soul space.
Angor tried to resist the invasion only to realize that everything he did was useless. There was nothing he could do to fight off the seemingly invincible power.
As Angor felt his consciousness slipping, he heard someone snickering. It wasn’t the witch, but another individual standing behind her.
The old witch suddenly stopped her action and looked back in horror.
Unknowingly, someone in bright and shiny attire was standing right behind her back. This stranger’s long, blond hair that danced wildly in the raging wind covered most of his face. Yet those pair of glowing red eyes looked no less creepy.
“Your-your-Your Majesty!!” The witch shrank into her broken cape and fled toward the cottage by shooting off like a deflating balloon.
When the witch was gone, Angor fell back onto the ground. He had two different types of energy fighting against each other inside him. The foreign one sent by the old witch was trying to destroy the core of his soul.
Even if the witch only sent a tiny portion of her energy, Angor’s own soul was still defenseless against it.
As the hostile energy tainted more of his soul space, Angor found his vision falling into darkness.
Before he completely lost it, he smelled something familiar.
Is it... the purification aroma?
When the smell reached his soul space, the hostile energy gradually lost its power and began to back off.
It wasn’t long before the witch’s energy entirely disappeared.
Angor felt both glad and tired after spending much of his own soul energy to resist. Despite the “victory” in the end, he finally blacked out.
The last thing he could remember was that his arm was being grabbed by an ice-cold hand.
...
On the other side of Witch’s Town, Sunders stepped out of a small church and looked at the abnormal atmosphere while frowning.
The mist was quickly growing thinner. Sunders tried and failed to remember anything that might explain it even after considering all of his previous explorations in Nightmare Realm.
Whatever’s going on?
The next thing he felt was a strong energy wave coming from the distance.
That’s a wizard? No... it’s a truth-finder wizard.
But here? How?
Along with the overwhelming power, Sunders also sensed another insignificant one, like a small water stream flowing beside a large river. And as the owner of a gravity garden, Sunders immediately perceived the sequence of gravity.
Angor is in trouble!
Without hesitating, Sunders headed toward the source of the wild energy flood. With the mist gone, he could observe the layout of Witch’s Town better and saw many objects and buildings that he had never encountered before, such as a small wooden house that contained the recognizable power signature of a truth-finder wizard.
Angor’s trace came from right behind that house. Instead of feeling relieved when finding Angor’s location, Sunders was getting confused.
When Flora helped me clean this place out last time, we didn’t see such a cottage here... and why would Angor show up here?
It seemed that Angor would always attract trouble to himself. Back at Nether City, Angor was sent straight into the underground maze and bumped into Glutton Flowers and “Younger Sunders”.
And now this...
Is he downright unlucky or is it because of his Nightmare Form?
Sunders moved as fast as he could because that unknown aura beside Angor seemed extremely wicked. More so compared to certain villains who sought utter chaos and destruction.
Who in the world did that boy mess with?
When he arrived at the cottage, Sunders saw a “broken cape” diving into the house like an escaping balloon. Also, the hostile intention he felt earlier came from the escaping entity as well.
As soon as the cape entered the cottage, the evil aura around the area vanished.
Without minding the cape or the house, Sunders quickly moved behind the strange hut.
“Dear me. What is that?”