NOVPUB"Ohhhhh, they’re here" from the side of the window Bartholomew mused. Alerting Leon and Liana to look up at the window.
A carriage with a blue flaming bird insignia had stopped before the gate.
Outside the Dojo
A carriage stood opposite the gate, and before the carriage were about three men. Two were middle aged and the last was a youngsters about Leon’s age.
—weeee
The gate swung open as 3 other figures made their way out..
"Sir Bartholomew!!!" Upon seeing the 3 figures emerge from the gate, the ones at waiting at tne carrige bowed.
"At easy...." Bartholomew said casually..... Naturally as a level 4 warlock he commanded this level of respect from his lessers. Not everyone was as disrespectful as Leon and liana.
Most would grovel to be at his presence even if it was for a minute.
"How did it go? Were you able to find the reason for the collap?" after scanning them casually Bartholomew asked. A few days ago one of the tunnels leading outside of the undercity suddenly collapsed.
It caused a massive commotion so Bartholomew had to send his men to investigate, as he was the closest powers in the region close to the collapse.
"I went around to the Northern Hemisphere and exited the undercity to do some findings. Apparently, the collapse was caused by an attack presumably one from an exalted level 4 magic user" the man in front of Bartholomew was aged, his skin was slacked. And he had on him a pure white robes that was clean as snow.
"Ohhh...I thought so" Bartholomew mused while stroking his chin softly. The amount of power needed to collapse the tunnel in such a small amount of time. It could only be a level 4 magic user.
And only one came to mind....the only person that had visited him that day marquee cane.
He was a very spiteful person and would do the most petty things to get back at whomsoever offends him. Blowing up the tunnel that led out of the undercity was not beyond him.
Of course, what Bartholomew didn’t know was that. The marquee didn’t do it on purpose.....they were ambushed by Arians father on their way out of the undercity.
"There’s also another issue...." The aged man in the white robes looked hesitant
"What is it ?" Bartholomew looked nonchalant, the old man was always worried about everything, it was probably nothing.
"I think it’ll be best if you see it yourself....." Beside the aged man the young one who seemed to be around Leon’s age spoke.
"Is it that bad?" Bartholomew frowned. Normally he would receive reports and give commands. He was a level 4 warlock after all, but they were requesting him to come over himself? What could have happened?
"It is" the aged man responded. They wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t really bad.
"Okay," Bartholomew nodded and soon borded the carrige along side Leon and liana...then they proceeded to ride deeper into the undercity.
The undercity was actually a small place compared to the whole of duan city. The undercity only covered the distance from the four entrance tunnels from each part of duan city.
So even though it was small it was very versatile and useful for traveling from one point in duan city to the next.
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"It’s over here"
The carrige carrying Bartholomew and the rest soon came to a gradual halt in front of a massive tunnel. This was one of the tunnels that led outside of duan city.
It wasn’t the one that got blown up by the marquee and Arian’s father. This was the one facing the north of duan city.
"Why is it so desolate?" Bartholomew frowned. The closer he got the more the number of people deceased until finally there was not a single person in sight.
It was bone chilling.
They got down from the carriage and started inspecting.....the scene was very strange. Normally you wouldn’t be able to clear out a neighbour like this without alerting others.
waking up one day and realising that your neighbours had gone missing was a big red flag and could have easily caused havoc, but this was not the case. It was like those in the neighbourhood had not noticed at all.
"Here it is....." The young man in the group called Bartholomew and the rest over before opening a door on the side of the building.
—squeeeckkk
"Oh my..." behind the door were bodies. There was no blood, no sign of struggle.....the people here had been drained of their most essences....they had scribble up and died.
"This is truly odd" Bartholomew mused.
Meanwhile at the back, Leon’s eyes were widened with shock. However he was quick to hide it. This scene, he recognised it....the look in their eyes, Leon had experienced it before. Their souls had been sucked out. 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝒄𝙤𝙢
This was the work of the sorcerer.
(It makes sense, if he needs soul energy to recover, he will have to get it from a place no one really cares about....where better than the undercity)
Leon thought in his head. The sorcerer was no fool, he was just ill informed. because if he had known that the undercity which was once a cesspool for the rejects of society, was now a heaven for warlocks and the powers behind them, he wouldn’t be so open about sucking souls.
"Their souls were forcibly removed....what could have done this?" Not even a second later Bartholomew was on the right track. He was very sensitive to energy as a level 4 magic user. He could sense the undulations and differentiate between them.
"It doesn’t seem like it went into the city though.....maybe" Bartholomew looked up the tunnel and mused. Maybe whatever or who ever had caused this had gone into the tunnel.....if not the bodies would be much more.
"Liana, be a dear and go along with Fern here and patrol the area.....Leon and Winder, you two will have to come with me to see the city above" Bartholomew spoke causally while walking forward causally.
Liana and fern were both peak level 3 warlocks. They were enough to patrol and look for any sign of the perpetrator of this horrendous crime. As for him? He would take the more likely area.
The tunnels.....
—tup
—kluo
—tup
The sound of people walking down the deep dark tunnel of the under city resounded.
"Why does he need us here?" Leon complained with a flaming torch in hand. The both of them were level 2 warlocks....they definitely weren’t equit to battle against the sorcerer. Even though Bartholomew didn’t know for sure that it was a sorcerer....he still needed to be careful.
"Don’t speak to me kid, just keep walking" the warlock beside Leon responded snappily. He could understand Bartholomew asking him to come along, after all they were family.
But why was Leon here?
"Ohh" Leon frowned, the kid was quite rude. Leon couldn’t tell why this was. If only he had been an active member of the warlock community, he would have know the reputation of this kid beside him.
Winder Yander, The bother of Bartholomew yander. The blue devil.
Yes, this kid was the little brother of Bartholomew and one of the top 10 geniuses of the warlock clan so far.
Leon didn’t know this, but the kids arrogance was earned. So they kept on walking not even bothering to speak to each other once.....until Leon heard a voice
...a familiar one.
"Hey kid, what are you doing walking around in the dark?" The voice was dreamy and silent. No one else here could hear it except for him.
This voice belonged to the sorcerer.
Yes, they were right. He wad hiding out in the darkness of the tunnels while slowly feasting on the souls of passerbys.
"What do you want?" Leon created a bit if distance between himself and the rest of the team and asked in a similarly quiet voice.
"Hehe, you are asking me? I thought I gave you a mission kid? Do you take me for someone who is all talk? You realized that I could have killed you a second ago right?" The sorcerer whispered from no particular direction.
He had given Leon a Misson and Leon was here gallivanting around the undercity for more than a week. Did he take his threats as a joke?
"I will do the job when I’m ready" Leon snorted. He knew the bastard was close by and was prepared to defend himself at any given moment. If the sorcerer thought he could get one over on Leon he was mistaken.
"Kill him in a weeks time...I can’t wait forever....else I’ll start killing off your little subordinates" the sorcerer whispered before slowly fading away.
Meanwhile at the front Bartholomew had stopped walking at the entrance to duan city.
"You can only try" Leon smiled bitterly then he started jogging forward to met Bartholomew.
