Chapter Sixty-Two: "The Deathspeaker" Arvis

When Andy and Katherine returned and saw that Jera and Bill were nowhere to be found, at first they paid no mind. But as evening fell and there was still no sign of them, Andy began to grow anxious.

Later, Katherine discovered two letters in Jera’s room.

Bill’s letter was thick, almost like a novel, while Jera’s was a single, thin page.

Andy read both letters and was silent for a long time.

At last, he exhaled deeply and remarked to Katherine, “It’s true what they say—daughters grow up and can’t be kept at home, isn’t that right, Katherine?”

For some reason, learning that Bill and Jera had both left seemed to put Katherine in a good mood. She began chasing her own tail, playing merrily.

Seeing Katherine like that, Andy’s spirits lifted as well, though he still put on a sulky face and said to her, “Katherine, I’m feeling down. Comfort me, will you?”

“Meow?” Katherine didn’t use her mimicry spell, but after spending so much time together, Andy could already understand the basic meanings behind her cat sounds. He knew she was asking what kind of comfort he wanted.

“Why don’t you transform for me?” Andy smiled at her, though in Katherine’s eyes, that smile looked a bit sly.

When Katherine shook her head in refusal, Andy wasn’t ready to give up. He promised that if Katherine transformed, he’d tell her the story of “The Wolf Grandmother.”

Still, Katherine would not comply. Without another word, Andy lunged toward her.

Katherine didn’t dodge. Instead, she smiled like a mischievous cat, leisurely drew a circle on the ground, and tapped the center lightly with her small paw.

Suddenly, Andy felt dizzy, his feet slipped out from under him, and he tumbled to the floor!

Andy realized he’d been caught by one of Katherine’s spells. After all, she was now a full-fledged Bronze Witch. With her talent, she should have already mastered new spells.

Tough and sturdy as he was, Andy wasn’t hurt—just a bit disheveled. When he got up and saw Katherine snickering at his side, he couldn’t help but ask what spell she’d just used.

Katherine explained that it was a curse spell. Since advancing to Bronze Witch, she’d discovered a special talent for curses.

She had modified the models of several curse spells, changing them so they could be cast by drawing circles. The one she’d just used was part of her “Circle Curse” series.

Hearing it was a curse spell made Andy’s back go cold. Learning that she had an entire series of such spells made his scalp tingle. He couldn’t help regretting all the stories he’d told Katherine over the years.

……

As night once again fell over Dallas City, the pale, short, and thin man who had spoken to Jera at the tavern outside the city also arrived outside Dallas.

He wore a black cloak that covered his entire body, and his hunched posture made him look even smaller.

He was “Deathspeaker” Yalvis.

Like the masked rider “Schmidt,” he was a member of the Azure Phoenix Society, one of the three great wizarding organizations.

Unlike the Night Circus, which centered around commerce, and the Grim Academy, devoted to education, the Azure Phoenix Society was renowned for training spies, agents, and assassin warlocks.

Although the Azure Phoenix Society was the smallest of the three, it was not to be underestimated. In the Kingdom of Elan in particular, the names of many society members were enough to make children cry in the night.

The society’s leader was none other than the former Duke of Sain, Austin Sain, who, a century ago, led the schism of the Kingdom of Elan.

Though Austin Sain had already passed the dukedom to his descendants, he still wielded immense influence across the continent as a Gold Wizard and the head of the Azure Phoenix Society.

Under Austin’s leadership, the society had become the principality’s sharpest weapon against the Kingdom of Elan.

This time, Schmidt, operating in Dallas, had not reported in for a long while. Since Yalvis happened to be passing through, he was tasked with investigating what had happened.

Of course, Yalvis didn’t intend to linger in Dallas; he had more important matters. The organization had received crucial intelligence: a major upheaval might be coming to the politics of the Kingdom of Elan. As a result, many society members were converging on Prondra, the royal capital, ready to act.

Near Dallas, Yalvis quickly located the headless corpse of the masked rider Schmidt—for he possessed a particular talent for finding bodies.

Placing his hand on Schmidt’s corpse, magical power surged in his left hand. He whispered to himself, “A corpse can speak…”

The surface of Schmidt’s body rippled and shifted. Yalvis stood in silence, feeling the information emanating from the remains.

After extracting what he could, Yalvis muttered, “Damn it! Without the head, there’s almost nothing to be gleaned! All I know is he was killed by some kind of fire spell. Well, as long as I can confirm he’s dead, that’s enough to report. Investigating the cause isn’t my job anyway…”

“Hmm?” Just as Yalvis was about to set out for the capital, his nose twitched.

“What a strong scent of corpses!” His gaze turned toward the direction of the wizard tower.

Half an hour later, having dug a professional tunnel near the tower, Yalvis looked upon the thousand-odd bodies before him and sighed lightly, “Seems Schmidt wasn’t entirely useless after all. He certainly made a stir in Dallas.”

Yet he felt a pang of regret, for the majority of these corpses were ordinary people—worthless to him.

Still, he found some bodies of value. Among them was a headless corpse that had clearly possessed silver-level strength—the remains of Carol, whose head had been taken by Knight Barton to claim the reward.

Without the head, this corpse was of no use to Yalvis either, which left him somewhat displeased. But another discovery filled him with delight.

It was the corpse of Andy’s mentor, Stein!

Yalvis placed his left hand on Stein’s body. “A corpse can speak…”

After receiving what little information he could, Yalvis cursed inwardly, for this body, too, yielded almost nothing.

“Could someone have extracted the soul after death? Why is there so little information? At least I’ve learned a little—there’s still a lingering obsession?”

Yalvis quickly got to work. Producing an array of bottles and jars as if by magic, he set up a small sorcery circle around Stein’s body.

“Refine!” He bit his tongue, smeared his own blood onto his right hand, then pressed it to the circle and began channeling magic.

As the power surged, Stein’s eyes suddenly snapped open.