A Sorcerer’s Journey

The ninety-ninth floor of Black Isotta was a familiar sight.

During the territorial academic battles of his apprenticeship, they entered the mysterious realm of the Black Isotta by batches. When they came back, this was the place they were sent to.

A magical chandelier swayed continuously under the effects of the space-time distortion. Grimm stood behind Master Peranos on top of the hexagram platform. Memories of his youth came gushing back to him.

Whoosh!

The magical array lit up, followed by some sort of distortion beneath their feet. It felt as if their bodies were about to be stretched into long strands of noodles. After some distortion, Grimm and Peranos arrived in a dim world that had no cycle of day and night.

The familiar law of the sorcerer’s world was still intact. This was the mysterious realm of Black Isotta.

As Grimm thought about this, he waved his hand casually to tear open a dimensional gap. A violet key appeared, glowing faintly. Somewhere, a will had been connected.

“Grimm, you’ve come to the mysterious realm of Black Isotta?”

This voice…

There was no doubting it. Grimm could never forget. It was during the battle with Bell Master Hill Wood that he almost ran out of energy. It was the great will from this key of stigmata friendship that guaranteed his sweeping victory across the five participating apprentices from different territories.

The huge bird that had an extremely high constitution was perhaps one of the great Black Isotta’s highest level of soul slaves.

Grimm replied respectfully. “Yes, I would like to meet the great Black Isotta.”

“Oh…I see. I thought you wanted to summon me unto the sorcerer’s world. I’m so sleepy. I’ll continue my slumber.”

After finishing its words, the giant bird became silent. The Stigmata Key of Friendship stopped glowing and fell upon Grimm’s palm.

A high-level creature like this probably had the same concept of time as Master Peranos. They calculated time by the centuries.

More so, some alien creatures of the foreign worlds did not even have an epochal limit like the sorcerers, so much so that they wouldn’t even care about the passage of time.

“Come now… this way.”

Peranos led Grimm and flew toward the distance at high speed. The dark waters of the vast ocean were turbulent. Occasionally, columns of water would spout out from the surface, reaching hundreds of meters in height. They appeared to be an exclusive phenomenon of this fragmented world.

After a few hourglasses of high-speed flight, a blurry dark figure appeared above the seas. Master Peranos turned behind and said, “We’ve reached the Maglev Island. The great Black Isotta resides above water the whole year-round. It’s all yours from now.”

Grimm held his breath as he looked across the horizon.

It was a huge island that was levitating above the sky taking the shape of an inverted pyramid. It was hundreds of times larger than the shadow-world conquering void fortress!

It was as if the levitating island was from out of this world. There was a faint sense of rejection toward its surrounding principles as it hovered across the sky.

“This was once a void meteorite. It is one of the very few materials of the boundless world that is known to be unaffected by the cosmic energies.” Master Peranos explained to Grimm as they flew.

After half an hourglass of time, Grimm and Peranos had finally reached the edge of the Maglev Island.

The island was lush, a tropical green with dense vegetation that covered the island and gigantic trees that soared hundreds of meters high. There was a strong, unabashed sense of life in its surroundings.

But what made Grimm truly shudder was the subtle aura of the “master of the island” that was leaking out. It was as if a huge magnetic field covered the entire island, warning outsiders of a terrifying entity living within.

“Master Peranos, what is it?”

An energy ball suddenly appeared. Before Grimm had the time to react, the energy ball split into two and in a flash, formed two magical hexagram arrays beneath their feet.

Whoosh! The magical array then caused a distortion in space-time.

There was a flash across Grimm’s eyes. In the next moment, he reappeared halfway up in the air in a strange land. The distance between him and Peranos remained unchanged.

This…

From what Grimm could see, there was a huge, open book that was about a hundred meters in length and width. An old sorcerer in a black robe was half kneeling on the middle part of the book which was empty, writing grain-sized runes with a quill while lowering his head.

Countless runes filled the page like the infinite stars above.

The book had a thickness of ten meters. It appeared that half of the book had been already filled with runes.

The space around the old sorcerer’s body was collapsing layer by layer as if suppressed by some kind of pressure. Streaks of dimensional gaps spread out like numerous tentacles as they were repaired again by the world’s principle. The old sorcerer somehow looked very faint. It was extremely difficult to tell apart the weathered, wrinkled skin of the old sorcerer from his black sorcerer’s robe.

Filled with an air of mystery, the old sorcerer looked up. Streaks of dimensional gaps varying in length flickered and emitted low rumbling sounds as if a slumbering giant was letting out a snore.

“Hmm? Peranos, why have you brought your disciple here?”

The old sorcerer looked toward Grimm, a little bit startled but quickly continued. “Nightmare Shadows?”

While Grimm was still caught up in disbelief, the claw-marked purple bruise on his skin fell off like a piece of paper with a pinch in the air. It levitated in mid-air and was whisked away toward the terrifying old sorcerer. It became trapped within the seal of a black energy sphere on the old sorcerer’s hand.

The bruise was clawing around in the black seal, but its struggles were in vain.

The purple claw-marked bruise tried to ram the interior of the black seal. Bam! Bam! Bam! It had tremendous force, but the energy seal remained calm without a ripple as if they were in two different worlds.

An advanced sorcerer’s spell in the eyes of a low-level sorcerer always seemed mighty mysterious and unbelievable.

After a while, the claw-marked bruise gave up its resistance. It became deformed like a melting ice cube. Amidst the transition, a hideous, ghastly face appeared.

“Roar!”

The ghastly face seemed to be the head of some kind of primordial undersea creature. A disc-shaped suction mouth took up half its face. It had no eyes. It roared at the old sorcerer, but the black energy seal still remained calm.

“Tsk tsk tsk…just like the drawings, the void shadows of a bunch of nightmares. They live off the dreams of their hosts. Interesting, very interesting…”

After that, the old sorcerer pondered for a moment before single-handedly tearing up a dimensional gap. He threw the shadow claw into the gap and looked back at Grimm.

“A Rank 3 honor badge? Not bad, little one. Peranos sure found himself a good disciple again.”

Grimm wasn’t in his sorcerer’s barriers, yet the old sorcerer knew about his honor badge.

As he finished his words, the old sorcerer stood up from the huge book. The quill in his hand disappeared into thin air. He stroked his chin and grumbled. “Since you were previously Peranos’s disciple, and that you’ve found coordinates of an unknown world for me two hundred years ago, it would only be natural that I lift the curse of Nightmare Shadows for you. But…”

Peranos quickly interrupted the old sorcerer’s words. “Tower Master, Grimm did not carry the Nightmare Shadows from birth. He was infected by an ancient alien ruin.”

Grimm took a hint from his master. He too quickly explained. “Great Black Isotta, the master had informed me of the Metal Destroyer civilization. He too understands, that to seal the Nightmare Shadows now would affect the outcome of the coming war. But I would like to think that if you could reach the ancient ruins, the benefits would outweigh the losses from sealing the curse of the Nightmare Shadows.”

Infected by an alien ancient ruin?

The old sorcerer observed Grimm for a while and mumbled. “Hmm, so many? Looks like the ancient ruin must be rather large.”

Grimm dared not speak anymore. He felt like he was standing at the toe of a thousand-meter giant. If the giant relented for a moment, his inconspicuous presence could be trampled by mistake.

Hence, was an immense amount of pressure from a being that was nearing its limits in the hierarchy of life.

Quite a while later.

Buzz…rumble…

As the hundred-meter book was closed, the Black Isotta stuffed the massive book in its entirety into an unknown gap and made a humorous remark. “Seals, seals, seals. Hmm. Really, stop looking at me with the grudge of an old wife! I can’t stand it, little Peranos! I’ll just take it as collecting some specimens. Now, little one, show me where the ancient ruins are.”

Grimm breathed a sigh of relief. He now wore a relaxed smile on his face.