Chapter 396 - Shadow in Prison
Angor would have already fallen if Felicia meant to get him for real. Thankfully, the witch never planned to use her wizard-level strength to stop the intruder.
The third butterfly she unleashed already contained most of her true power. It would have no problem destroying the entire lobby including that apprentice.
Felicia disliked Diablo’s mentor a lot, but she would admit that Puppet Master was very likely to become a “truth finder” wizard, which meant the same level as Sunders. Of course, that man would still be a lot weaker than Sunders even if he made it.
Felicia wouldn’t want anyone to intrude Dark Castle and disrupt Greya’s rest. However, she wouldn’t kill the intruder yet, considering her agreement with Puppet Master.
She wouldn’t stop Angor from saving Diablo... as long as Angor didn’t come and bother Greya first.
She lifted her crystal ball again to check the prison area.
Venees was walking down the stairs happily with an empty rope in her hand.
“Oh my. Venees just got bamboozled badly.” Felicia nodded and grew curious about the illusion used by the young apprentice. “No wonder Puppet Master asked him to assist Diablo,” Felicia murmured as she scanned around the prison and tried to find where the apprentice was hiding. And she was disappointed when she found no trace. “And nice hiding skill too.”
She was sure the young man was following behind Venees. She thought about using her “Butterfly Spirit” to track him down again but then decided not to.
Her Butterfly Spirit was a legendary artifact more powerful than wizard-level items. She couldn’t afford to waste the energy a second time just on a level-2 apprentice. That would be a joke.
It wasn’t like she could do anything to the apprentice even if she found him. She had no reason to bully an apprentice right now.
She simply decided to leave the matter aside. With a simple gesture, Felicia shut down all teleportations in Dark Castle.
The blood prison was inside the basement nine floors under Dark Castle. Without portals, whoever wished to come out would have to travel through several sections filled with deadly monsters.
This was to punish Angor for that naughty trick.
“If you can still make it out... you’re free to leave.”
...
Angor was following Venees while under the effect of Infinite Reticence.
During that small conflict, he was glad that the “white butterfly” only discovered the location of his image. It seemed the one watching him was fooled by that illusion.
This meant he could keep following Venees without worrying about being exposed. Angor used some nightmare aura to block Venees’ senses, so she never saw what happened around her and Diablo’s body.
Angor feared that those butterflies would come after him, which never happened until they traveled far down the stairs.
He assumed he was still being watched, so he used the same trick again—by placing his illusionary image nearby just in case.
The stairs ended at an ordinary-looking wooden door. A small hatch on the door allowed him to look at the dark and moist prison area behind it. The door wasn’t locked. A small gap was left open, from which came the smell of blood.
Instead of going for the door, Venees moved to the stone wall on one side. She put her hands on a brick and activated another glowing door on the wall.
Angor was no longer surprised by such traps now. He already assumed that the wooden one was fake.
I think they should change this place’s name into “Maze Castle” instead.
Across the real door, they first arrived at the small room which contained a large bathtub that was filled with hot blood.
Just like that concealed room he discovered previously, this had to be another “bathroom”. There were more woman corpses hanging on the ceiling hooks.
A charming woman with long black hair was washing her glossy skin inside the bathtub. She would look rather fine, if not for all the blood on her body.
Venees looked at the woman and briefly revealed the look of greed and enviousness.
“Look at you, still in here? Diablo’s escaped! Thank goodness I found him and brought him back,” Venees said while she showed the empty ropes to the other woman.
Angor already tampered with her voice. What she actually spoke was “that bastard hit me! I’m going to get some payback!”.
“Really now? Not because you want something else?” The woman in the bathtub scoffed. She knew that Venees was actually trying to seduce Diablo. Diablo was an apprentice at peak level, who also studied under a very famous wizard. He looked handsome too. There were many women who tried to get close to him. As a matter of fact, she was bathing to prepare her pretty looks just for this purpose. She didn’t expect Venees to beat her to it.
To Venees, however, those words referred to her plan of impressing Lady Butterfly for recapturing Diablo. It was true, but Venees was still irritated when someone pointed her plan out so openly.
“Heh, just you wait!” Venees blushed badly out of shame.
Venees proceeded ahead, while the bathing woman grinned at her successful taunt. She was confident that Diablo wasn’t interested in Venees’ flat chest.
Neither of them realized that with Angor’s manipulation, their conversation didn’t go where it should.
...
Venees stepped into the blood prison while she cursed her rival’s name in rage.
After taking several turns, she finally stopped in front of an iron door. Angor already heard someone cursing inside the prison cell.
“F*ck you, Isabella! F*ck you, you wrinkled, ugly hag! You deserve to be raped by a bloated frog!”
Angor tried not to laugh out too obviously.
Venees, though, grew really confused. “Someone’s in there? Wait, is that Diablo? But isn’t he—”
With that question in mind, she pushed the door open.
The interior of the room was a blood pool that was glowing slightly. A man was submerged in the blood with only his head exposed in the air, while several enchanted chains and hooks fixed him in place.
“Diablo? Why are you—” Venees called. She suddenly realized something and immediately turned to run away.
She didn’t get to run because she suddenly felt sharp pain coming from the back of her neck.
“Not there again... please...”
Thud.
Shadow stopped cursing and watched the strange sight. He couldn’t see anything else apart from the fainted woman.
“Gummy? Gao? Or... is that you, Mask?”
Even though he knew Angor’s real name now, he would still be careful in order not to reveal it to any strangers.
“But weren’t you really confident in your plan?” Angor chuckled.
Shadow widened his eyes. He also looked... passionate, somehow. “Mask! It’s really you?”
Angor slowly materialized but only as his illusionary image.
“Get me out of here, Mask! This blood stinks!” Shadow was excited now. “I never thought you’d come for me.”
“Answer me first. What happened to your plan?” Angor grimaced. “Did a wizard do this to you?”
“Yes, but she—” Shadow halted suddenly and displayed a terrified expression. “Get me out first! There’s... something! In this blood. I’m gonna die for real!”
Angor sighed. As long as their covenant was still in effect, he couldn’t let Shadow die when he could help him.
Using Hand of Spell, Angor dragged a chain and slowly pulled Shadow out of the crimson liquid.
As Shadow’s body came out of the blood pool, Angor quickly turned around to look away.
Shadow had been stripped clean. His “stuff” was dangling openly in the air.
Angor didn’t feel awkward because of this. He had no problem seeing another guy naked. The reason why he didn’t want to look was that he was trying to hold back his laughter for another reason.
There was a black tail sticking out of Shadow’s backside, which was wagging left and right.