A Sorcerer’s Journey

There was a pure white demon-hunter castle located about fifty thousand meters away from the Tree of Life.

Fifty thousand meters, or fifty kilometers, was the distance between the center of the demon-hunter castle and the Tree of Life. The whole area was shrouded by the powerful life force of the tree yet it was not covered by the shadows of the Tree of Life during the day.

The castle was about seventy to eighty meters high. In front of its entrance was a large piece of land covered in fresh green grass, while the castle itself was surrounded by colorful and blooming flowers. Crystal clear water streamed along the castle’s moat as butterflies danced gracefully around the place.

What a beautiful and relaxing view.

Dark spots were often found waltzing by. They were the shadows of busy sorcerers and machines, working their sweat out to complete missions for the Tree of Life and the Seven Rings.

“Hey, what’s up?”

A Demon-Hunter Sorcerer dressed in a loose black robe was holding a kettle, pouring water over the garden opposite a river. There were several female Sub-humans trimming the lawn next to it. It was a busy day indeed.

Glenn could never understand what the Demon-Hunter Sorcerer was thinking. Why did she not make her Soul Slave manage the garden, and choose to personally tend to it herself? It was such a waste of time. Glenn greeted his neighbor as per common social etiquettes, kept their encounter short and swiftly walked into his room.

Glenn was not entirely sure, but these two Sub-humans might have been the offspring of this Demon-Hunter Sorcerer. Regardless, sorceresses commonly treated their offspring the same way as their Soul Slaves, and not as their own children.

“Hey.”

Glenn responded to his neighbor’s greeting, headed back into his castle with no intention of making further interactions.

As Glenn strolled through the castle door, he spotted another two male sub-humans in his neighbor’s castle.

“Gosh, Dark Sorcerers are really boring,” the Demon-Hunter Sorcerer murmured to herself. She took a watering can from her female sub-human who was dressed as a knight, and continued watering her flowers while humming an unknown song.

She was a Light Demon-Hunter Sorcerer.

***

Glenn had seen various types of castles before. He found this castle to be simple and lackluster, hence he did not pay much attention to all the rooms.

Eh?

Glenn was uninterested in the other rooms decorated as laboratories with some precious experimental instruments. He was intrigued by the room at the highest level, decorated as an exquisite altar.

The altar was three meters tall with its foundation built using white skills. Some parts of the altar were made from rare magical ingredients, while some had a combination of symbols that Glenn could not read. The symbols were floating within the altar and flashed in dark green lights as if there was an actual heart beating within each symbol.

This altar should be the most precious tool in this demon-hunter castle.

An idea crossed Glenn’s mind when he was observing the altar. As he walked near the altar, there was a mysterious power being infused into his brain, and in that moment Glenn understood the function of the altar.

Under normal circumstances, Glenn would have to invoke and channel his Magic Power for a quarter of an hour to open a World Fragment’s space through his Soul Mark. At this altar, the channeling was done even though he had only taken several breaths.

Suddenly, the red and green Steel Emblem Myna appeared on Glenn’s shoulder after a spark ignited. Little Ba combed his beautiful red and green feathers while looking around the room. His gaze was set outside as he peered through the window.

“Eh? So this is the Tree of Life? ”

The nasty bird took a glimpse of Glenn, rubbed Glenn’s ear with his head and with a rather revolting look on his face as it quipped, “Oh, my beloved great master Glenn, I think you wouldn’t mind if your servant takes a tour in this Sorcerer World right?”

“Hmm.” Glenn looked at Myna and granted it permission to do so.

“Ha-ha, oh yeah…”

With that, the Steel Emblem Myna flew away with excitement.

Glenn did not really care much for the Myna. As long as Glenn still breathed, the Myna could not possibly die. Plus, he could summon it back to him from anywhere at any time.

If he could not do that, the nasty bird would not obey Glenn at all.

Silence filled the air as Glenn gazed upon the mysterious altar once more.

Glenn stood on the altar with his heart pumping with exhilaration. He could almost feel the tempo of all the beating symbols on the altar. The altar could not possibly exist individually. It had to be a living part of the Seven Rings Holy Tower that coexisted with the tower.

Could it be…

Was this altar the key node of the demon-hunter castle rune mentioned by his teacher Peranos when they were high up in the sky?

In the past, Glenn and Peranos were riding on the Snail Emissary outside the defensive barrier. When they had almost reached the same height as the clouds, Peranos asked Glenn about some kind of demon-hunter castle on the land surface. Glenn could not answer the question, so Peranos gave an answer related to something called the “Castle Rune”.

It seemed that Peranos’ answer was right.

Glenn put his focus on the altar. He channeled his magic power steadily the same way he would when using the Black Isotta Tower’s Friendship Key to summon a terrifying lifeform from another world. Deep down in his soul, Glenn felt a hidden seal reacting to the Seven Rings Holy Tower. After that, a dark crack ripped open right in front of Glenn.

Taken aback by the appearance of the crack, Glenn was sucked into it, powerless to resist. Yet, he continued channeling his magic power unperturbed by what was happening.

Glenn’s intuition told him that as long as he kept his channeling active, he would be sent back to his original location.

If he did not want to enter the black crack, he could simply treat the World Fragment in it as a space pocket.

***

The land beneath his feet was a solid black surface. There were sounds from a running stream somewhere far away.

Eh?

Glenn lifted his head. Thick light pillars were supporting a colorful sky. It was only five or six hundred meters high. Suddenly, there was tension in the air that stopped Glenn from breathing. It was the same feeling of trepidation when he flew into the center of the Black Sea whirlpool. It was the fear that the surrounding walls of water might collapse and bury him at any moment.

This time, it was fear of the sky collapsing on him at any given moment!

Rooted to the ground in terror, Glenn quickly adapted to the illogical form within this World Fragment. It was the special rule of the Endless Worlds. He turned his gaze downwards and stared at the black ground.

These black soils were exactly the same as the black clay on the back of the Celestial Cordillera’s shell. There was no difference at all.

As question after question ran through Glenn’s mind, his body gradually floated to the highest space possible.

Yes, it was a World Fragment!

Compared to the World Fragment of the mysterious realm [1] in Black Isotta Tower, this was way smaller.

Glenn speculated that this World Fragment had to be part of a sea back in the ancient times. After the world was torn apart by the war of the sorcerer civilization and other civilizations, this part of the sea must have become an unstable small piece of World Fragment.

The sky was a sloping line. The highest part should be in the Southeast, about seven hundred meters tall, and the lowest part should be in the South at about four hundred meters tall. The shape of the entire piece of World Fragment should be a polygon with multiple sides, a maximum diameter of about thirty kilometers and a minimum diameter of about ten kilometers.

This World Fragment was completely made of seawater. The land Glenn stood on was made by the Seven Rings Holy Tower later in time.

The black island was an uneven circular island with a diameter of about two kilometers.

There were only grass and some short plants on the island with no traces of animals to be found. The sea was motionless and dead without any sign of living creatures.