“The Eye of... Judgment?”
Angor failed to find anything in sight and looked back at Madelyne, only to see that Madelyne looked a little pissed off. It wasn’t Madelyne only. Everyone waiting on the island seemed displeased.
It seemed the Eye of Judgment was here to thoroughly examine every passenger on the Frozen Wing, except for Sennefer.
“The entrance to the Sin World is located at the bottom of an underwater volcano.” Madelyne glanced in one direction. “The Sin World is basically the headquarters of the Supreme Cult. That’s why we’ll run into lots of cultists here.
“As you already know, the cult’s main priority is to cleanse the wizarding world of creatures from other planes. Of course they’ll keep the Frontier Island heavily guarded so that people don’t smuggle otherworldly slaves or something like that through here. The Eye of Judgment is the primary tool for detecting hidden foreign invaders.”
Madelyne looked at Angor again. “I heard someone saying that Mister Monkey asked your professor to go to the Abyss because the Eye of Judgment can’t see inside a Sorcerer’s Garden.”
Angor nodded as he remembered Sunders mentioning something about “smuggling”. Earlier, he heard another rumor from Dave that no wizards from other organizations tried to sabotage Sunders’ Sorcerer’s Garden because Mister Monkey strictly forbade them from doing so. This meant Sunders had agreed to assist Monkey for many different reasons.
“The Eye of Judgment is not the only security measure,” an old man spoke as he approached them. “The bell sound you heard was also a trick of the cult, called the ‘Knell of the Exorcist’.”
It was Vifet, who was slowly coming to Madelyne with the help of a walking cane and a large sand rat.
“Greetings, sir.” Angor showed his manners and took a step back carefully.
Beals already told him that Vifet was aware of the fact that he had “Time Thief’s Blessing”, which usually attracted lots of attention from curious people. As an apprentice, he had to avoid falling under the mercy of someone who would like to study the blessing.
Vifet saw Angor’s wary look but did not do anything in particular. “The knell has no effect on us. But on the other hand, it’s a deadly weapon against creatures that originated from other planes. Thirteen strikes are usually enough to eliminate weaker beings once and for all.”
Angor suddenly recalled what he just went through in Brofen’s lab. As he remembered, Brofen looked quite desperate when the knell sound was heard, by which time the unknown creature in the secret room made some moves and forced Brofen to tend to it.
Was that an otherworldly creature in that room?
He was distracted from his thoughts when he saw a group of people wearing silver armor completely surrounding one of the waiting wizards.
Beside the group, another middle-aged wizard in a priest robe was chanting something under his breath while his ear stud glowed slightly.
Vifet answered Angor’s unspoken question, “An unlucky b*stard is carrying an otherworldly thing on him. Heh.”
Angor gave the old wizard a cautious glimpse but didn’t say anything.
“Can I ask why you look so... skeptical, in front of me?” Vifet frowned.
Angor revealed a fake smile. “That’s not the case, sir. I’m fine.”
“Beals told you something, didn’t he?” Vifet moved closer to Angor as his eyes glimmered. “Is it about Cassi—”
Madelyne moved between them. “Let’s go and check the Wizard Fair at Frontier Island, Angor. The cult has their power over everyone around here, but we can sometimes find good stuff from the Abyss if we’re lucky.”
She gave Vifet a warning look and turned away, while Angor quickly followed.
Vifet smirked. Just now, he received instructions from Gauss. He did not have to get a direct answer from Angor.
...
Angor and Madelyne had yet to leave the waiting area when they suddenly sensed a shock wave coming from not far.
“Get out of there!”
Madelyne grasped Angor’s collar and leaped into the sky.
The land beneath them cracked up and sank. Several apprentices who couldn’t move fast enough were left bleeding on the ground.
Angor took several deep breaths to calm down.
That attack came from a wizard, no doubt.
He looked toward the source of the shock wave and saw the wizard who was being inspected by the armored cultists earlier confronting the priest.
Madelyne explained, “The one in a black priest uniform is a Black Bishop from the Supreme Cult. The Eye of Judgment must have found foreign traces in someone’s storage, so the cult is here to check it. Obviously, their negotiation did not end peacefully.”
Angor nodded in acknowledgment. Should anyone ask to check the content of his bracelet, he would resist too.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be settled soon,” Madelyne added.
As Angor watched, the Black Bishop suppressed the suspected wizard almost instantly and forced him to open his personal storage.
Next, the bishop dragged out a trembling, palm-sized fairy from the storage, squeezed it to bloody bits, and flew away, laughing.
“The cult only allows truth-finders to act as bishops. Ordinary wizards have no chance against them.” Madelyne looked at the victim of the conflict and shook her head. “That guy must be new. Only a fool will test the authority of the Supreme Cult like that.”
Angor also looked that way. But he was watching the bloody remains on the ground rather than the wounded wizard.
The horrible sight reminded him of Jon.
If the cult found out about Jon... No. They didn’t need to. The sound of the knell was enough to destroy Jon, body and soul.
As Angor tried to recover from his depressing ideas, he saw himself casting a second shadow on the ground as if another light source just popped up behind him.
He turned back and realized it was the Frozen Wing that had been glowing unnaturally. Also, the light appeared to be the same as what happened to the bishop’s ear stud, when a foreign creature was detected.
The bishop stopped moving and turned to look at the vehicle in the distance.
“Ha! I’m going to find your guilt this time, Moonfrost Union...” The bishop immediately moved toward the Frozen Wing at full speed.
...
“Huff, huff...” Brofen swept several drops of sweat off his head and spoke to a figure standing in front of his secret room. “Thanks for helping, honestly. Or that thing will go rampaging in my workshop for sure. F*ck it. I was too careless and was hypnotized, so I forgot to check the time. I didn’t know we arrived at Frontier Island already.”
“Careless?” The second figure humphed. “What I heard is that you were distracted because you had some dirty plans for Angor.”
Brofen chuckled embarrassingly. “Eh? What do you mean, dirty plans? We’re both dudes.”
“If you say so.” Sennefer turned around and walked to the operating table, where some of Angor’s bodily hormones were left.
“Oh, come on. I didn’t do anything to him yet!”
“What’s gotten into your head, making you do stupid things to him so openly?” Sennefer scolded. “I already warned you. Should he get even a tiny scratch under your watch, both Mister Rein and Sunders will come and demand your head delivered to them in a bag.”
Brofen threw his hands up and moaned, “I did nothing. Nothing! Well, I saw his right hand covered in an illusion or something, so I used True Sight to look through. Then I saw that hand bigger than the other one for some freaking reason. And there was some green stuff all over it. It displayed some amazing properties. As soon as I looked away, I would forget about ever seeing it, so I want to like, you know, cut off a bit of it and do some experiment. I never wanted to hurt him!”
Brofen explained what interested him in detail because he hoped to get Sennefer’s curiosity up as well, so he had more reasons to “cut a small bit from Angor’s hand”.
To his great disappointment, Sennefer wasn’t interested in the “green stuff” whatsoever.
“If you learn how to switch that thirst for other people’s secrets onto somewhere else, like finding the path of truth, you’d have become a truth-finder already,” Sennefer scoffed.
As she believed, everyone’s path of truth was unique and should be explored independently. Whatever Brofen was talking about might be Angor’s exclusive business and should not concern others.
When Brofen wanted to retort further, the power of the Eye of Judgment made a full scan across the Frozen Wing.
A bright light came from the secret room.
Brofen immediately knew what just happened, and he didn’t know how to cover up. They were staying right beside the HQ of the Supreme Cult. There was no way he could keep the cultists away by force.
He gave Sennefer a pleading look, who answered his expectation with complete disinterest.
“Well, I told you the crazies will be here, and you won’t listen. Now it is too late.”
“I-I’ll be careful next time!” Brofen almost cried. “If there is a next time...”
“Sigh... D*ckhead. Just this once!”