Douglas canceled his communication spell and immediately looked at Qetesh.
“Do you know something about all this, Qetesh?” He sent Qetesh a voice transmission when the others were distracted by the parasites outside.
Qetesh was also greatly shocked by what was going on in the area. He was rather confused upon hearing Douglas’ question. “What-what do you mean, my friend?”
“I wish you tell me the truth, Qetesh. You know full well that there’s something you should tell me, which you haven’t.”
“Huh? Well, I’m not the mother of these little shiny f*ckers! How should I know where the hell they came from?!” Qetesh was too stressed that he lost his temper for a moment.
Douglas remained calm. “Doctor Anglo mentioned something else, and he told me that you should know.”
In fact, Douglas did not know for sure whether this was the case, so he tried to alter Anglo’s words with the hope of forcing Qetesh to spill. Douglas didn’t wish to suspect his colleague, yet sometimes, the instinctual theory of a prophet was too important to ignore.
His attempt successfully scared Qetesh a bit.
Qetesh wasn’t sure what exactly Douglas was asking about. After all, he was at a loss regarding the current situation just like the others.
When Douglas requested so, Qetesh wondered if he should reveal what he knew about nightmare aura and how he assumed there was a nightmare tunnel somewhere in the darkness.
He didn’t intend to hide it. He had not explained it yet because it was his presumption, not a fact.
Douglas saw Qetesh faltering and immediately established a “safer” connection by sending a Spirit Bond to Qetesh.
“This will probably determine whether the city will survive! Doctor Anglo told us to evacuate ALL from the city. Do you know what that means?!” Douglas questioned Qetesh while pretending that he was looking outside the window so that no one would notice them. “If Sleepless City is gone, the glory that we have been working so hard for, the one we have been building in the past centuries, all of it will crumble along with the city!”
Qetesh flinched.
Is the whole matter so dangerous now?
A wizard with a colossal body build and snowflakes drifting around him entered the hut. He then removed his “snow barrier” and moved to Douglas on quick steps.
“What’s going on, Douglas?”
“That’s Mister Payne!” The other wizards noticed him and all looked his way.
“Did you finish your seclusion, Payne?” Douglas perked up a little and addressed the big wizard, while Qetesh sighed and followed behind.
“Those little dots have sneaked into my chamber and turned my students and slaves into some clowns. If I don’t do something fast, the city will have to change its name to ‘Sleepless Circus’!” Payne bellowed as more freezing air came from his body.
The onlookers felt the chilliness and trembled as if the coldest winter came too early.
“Iceborne Sorcerer” Payne was the third leader of Sleepless City. He was the youngest but was believed to be the one who had the biggest potential among all three leaders.
Payne had become a level-2 truth-finder wizard before hitting the age of 300. He was probably stronger than Douglas and Qetesh combined together, which granted him an influential position in the city. However, compared to fighting for political power, Payne was more interested in inventing new spells. This was why he usually stayed inside his soundproof chamber and rarely showed up in front of people.
But this didn’t mean that he would keep away from public sight at all times. When he decided to do something, the other two city leaders had to obey him.
“Ah, so Qetesh’s here too? Good. Now tell me, what are those things outside? What’s that black barrier around the outer city?” Payne sounded extremely impatient.
Douglas sighed and extended his Spirit Bond to Payne.
“Mystery? Strange spots?” Payne scoffed after listening to Douglas’ words. “A perfect bait that has attracted so many flies to our city.”
Next, Douglas mentioned Anglo’s prediction as well as the suspicion regarding Qetesh.
Payne did not seem too anxious when he heard how the city was in great danger. “It’s fine. As long as we have people, we can build a new city somewhere else. But this didn’t mean I’ll get forced away by these things so easily. Otherwise, others will think of me as a defeated dog!” Payne frowned as he spoke, “I’ll be the one to decide what happens next.”
Qetesh’s expression changed many times during their conversation as if he was trying to decide something.
“It’s high time you tell us what you know, Qetesh,” Payne said.
Qetesh chuckled helplessly. “I won’t lie about it, but I really do not know much more than you do. The only thing is... there is nightmare energy in the darkness. Trust me, that’s all I can say.”
To prove his credit, Qetesh fully opened up his mind space so that anyone could check him using truth-detection spells.
Payne frowned again and looked at Douglas.
Douglas shrugged. “Well, Doctor Anglo did not suspect Qetesh directly. I was simply trying to learn the truth, by any means possible.”
Qetesh sighed in relief.
“So, nightmare energy...” Payne considered. “But how? Is there really a nightmare tunnel?”
All three of them felt something getting restless in their minds upon hearing about a nightmare tunnel. This was because the tunnel meant a chance for them to go after priceless treasures.
“But aren’t all such tunnels very brief?” said Payne. “Even if there was one, it should be gone by now. Wizards from Starliege Temple once said that Nightmare Realm holds energy of higher levels than the wizarding world. To avoid getting involved in a plane fusion and being devoured, the world’s consciousness will always prevent the existence of such tunnels.”
“As I said, I don’t know anything other than these, but...” Qetesh intentionally stopped his words so that he could draw Payne’s attention. “But I think Sunders might have something useful. All his spells are related to nightmare energy, and he’s the only truth-finder wizard who came here to check the incident. I’ve asked him though, and he just won’t tell me.”
“Wait,” Payne looked around the room and said, “Mister Phantom came? Where is he?”
Douglas and Qetesh realized that they had not seen Sunders in a while. When they checked, they saw Sunders’ student was absent as well.
“Where did Mister Phantom go?” Douglas asked the other wizards.
No response. No one knew.
Payne frowned and immediately readied a spell called Remove Delirium. In his view, the movement of people in the room slowed down until they came to a complete stop. Next, time flowed backward and allowed Payne to see what happened recently.
Including how Sunders and Angor left through the door.
Payne canceled his spell and stepped out of the hut.
“What did you see, Payne?” asked Qetesh.
“... Mister Phantom entered the outer city. He went inside the darkness.”
“He did? Alone?” Douglas came out and heard their words.
“He took that boy.”
Payne wasn’t interested in the apprentice boy right now. He only wondered what Sunders was up to.
“He did so because he knew how to resist the light spots out there. There must be something in the outer city which is of great interest to him.” Qetesh grimaced.
“Well, you should have said so earlier!” Payne glared at Qetesh.
“I... I didn’t know! It was an assumption!”
“What should we do now?” asked Douglas.
“If he can survive, I can,” Payne said as he narrowed his eyes. “We’re both truth-finders, and I wish to find out how strong he really is.”
Qetesh and Douglas exchanged an uncertain look. They both knew Payne had great ambition and considered Sunders as a rival. They stayed quiet as they didn’t wish to get involved in their competition.
“A wizard is affected!” A guard not far away from them yelled and drew everyone’s attention.
“What’s the deal?! Didn’t we tell them to be wary of the flying spots?” Douglas quickly looked that way.
Even if there were too many spots, they would not break a wizard’s defense too easily because wizards usually had enough mana to sustain their protection for a long time.
“A wizard brought an affected apprentice too close so that he could examine him, then someone got careless and let a spot sneak into his body!”
“Idiot! How did someone so sloppy and foolish become a wizard in the first place?!” Douglas couldn’t help but curse loudly. “Who is it? Which organization sent that b*stard?”
The guard stuttered but did not say anything.
“Are you deaf or what? WHO THE F*CK is it?” Douglas bellowed.
“It’s-it’s one of our wizards, sir, someone from Sleepless City.”
“WHAT?!”