Bangar City was located at the border between the Black Sota Wizard Academy of the 12th District of the Seven Rings Holy Tower and the Ivory Castle Wizard Academy. It was a well-known large city, bustling with merchants, knights, and adventurers, and the city was steeped in an atmosphere of inclusiveness, openness, and exploration.

This was an open city, its status and importance on par with famous seaports. On the wizarding continent, there were often two types of places where black wizards thrived: one was uninhabited areas, and the other was places like this, situated at the junction of two major powers.

Such junctions were places where all sorts of people mingled. Additionally, the local nobility was often descendants of wizards from different factions, usually accompanied by historical conflicts, making it an ideal place for certain black wizards.

Nidhogg sat in a tavern at the gate of Bangar City, like a statue, watching the constant flow of people coming in and out, sipping from a glass of fine wine. This was not a low-end tavern frequented by rogue knights; Nidhogg was in a refined standard private room, drawing no attention.

Suddenly, Nidhogg's eyes sharpened.

"Finally out," he murmured as he set his wine glass down and stood up, eyeing the familiar faces on the street.

There were Grizzly, Iron Axe, Iron Hammer, and Cobra, along with three new faces. Seven rogue knights surrounded a luxurious carriage as they headed out of the city.

Nidhogg had been observing from this tavern for over twenty days. When these knights and the young girl in the carriage had entered the city mysteriously three days ago, Nidhogg had only conducted a minor investigation, cautious not to delve too deeply. Otherwise, if there really was a gathering of black wizards in the city, Nidhogg would have been like a sheep among wolves.

But over the past few days, having confirmed that the girl’s attendants were not in any immediate danger, Nidhogg had formulated a plan.

With a slight smile, Nidhogg's face subtly changed to another appearance, and he left the tavern leisurely, quietly trailing the girl’s carriage. With his tracking ability, it was easy to maintain a few hundred meters' distance without being detected by the knights.

“I’ll see what these guys are really up to with their excursions!” With this thought, Nidhogg bided his time, not rushing into action.

After wandering aimlessly for five days, Nidhogg, tracking the caravan, realized from his instincts that the girl’s carriage had stopped and hadn’t moved for quite some time.

Carefully concealing himself, Nidhogg stealthily approached.

“Ah… you murderous bandits…”

A cry of despair echoed, and Nidhogg peered out from a nearby ditch, just in time to witness Cobra mercilessly slaying a village woman.

Then, without blinking, Cobra killed the crying infant in the woman’s arms, exhibiting a frenzied bloodlust. Nidhogg's pupils contracted.

“What… is happening? Aren't black wizards supposed to capture large groups of civilians for their experiments? Why would this guy just kill them outright?”

Years of wizarding life had numbed Nidhogg, but witnessing such senseless killing of innocent civilians still stirred anger within him.

Even though black wizards capturing civilians for dark magic experiments was something Nidhogg, from a wizard’s perspective, didn’t agree with, he could understand it.

However, this wanton slaughter shocked and infuriated Nidhogg.

After all, the foundation of the wizarding world was these ordinary people. Without them, it wouldn’t be long before there was no fresh blood for the wizarding world.

Seething with anger, Nidhogg witnessed something incredible.

After killing the woman and child, Cobra pulled out a black stone from his clothing and gently shook it, causing a subtle, mysterious energy fluctuation.

“That fluctuation must be a soul wave. Cobra is absorbing their souls?”

Nidhogg’s breathing quickened. Perhaps he had stumbled upon a significant secret.

Even a wizard apprentice like Nidhogg could only make simple use of souls; there was no reason a knight should have the ability to collect souls.

“Cobra, how much have you collected here?”

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At this moment, Nidhogg saw the young girl who had hired them to come to Bangar City. Now, the young girl, supposedly an ordinary human, was shrouded in a grayish aura, the same negative energy aura that black wizards had.

Nidhogg could hardly believe his eyes.

“In such a short time, she’s already become a black wizard apprentice? Impossible! Wizards are powerful because of their accumulated knowledge, fundamental to their strength!” Nidhogg, reasoning with himself, couldn't help but be shocked by the facts before him.

Suddenly, Nidhogg had a thought: “Could it be that this girl and the black wizard I killed earlier are both using some strange method to enhance their physical constitution and energy use with negative energy? Without even the basic leverage power of a wizard, such useless beings would be easily slain by a formal wizard.”

Indeed, even with Nidhogg's current control over magical power, lacking leverage, an attack might reach 10 degrees at best.

These pseudo “black wizards,” while peculiar in their use of negative energy and physically enhanced, could only exert energy up to around 20 degrees, with severely limited growth potential.

To the wizards in the wizard world, such beings had no room for development.

Creating such “monsters” in a short time—what force could do this? Black wizards?

Relying on his wisdom, Nidhogg pondered for a moment, then shook his head slowly, dismissing the idea.

Black wizards sought to dominate the "food chain" through slaughter, pursuing destruction's ultimate mystery; they wouldn't waste effort on such short-sighted, trivial “creatures.”

Even if black wizards wanted to harvest human souls, the most straightforward method would be to target a place like Nidhogg’s hometown, East Coral Island, and wipe out entire towns with broad-scale magic—far more efficient and faster.

After much thought, Nidhogg couldn’t deduce what was creating these strange pseudo “black wizards,” but he was certain they weren't genuine black wizards.

To become a black wizard, one had to be among the more intelligent elite of wizards; such oddities didn't match the intelligence a black wizard should possess.

Phew...

Nidhogg exhaled deeply.

In any case, whatever created these pseudo “black wizards” couldn’t be highly intelligent.

In the wizard world, lack of intelligence equates to lack of strong power. Without great power, there was nothing for Nidhogg to fear.

If Nidhogg were willing to invest significant effort, he might not be able to create many followers due to time, effort, and resource constraints, but they’d be stronger than these inferior “black wizards.”

While Nidhogg was lost in thought, the young girl left the village with Grizzly, Cobra, and the other rogue knights, leaving behind cold corpses.

Like a shadow in the darkness, Nidhogg continued to follow them.

Four days later.

Another village, another massacre. But this time, Nidhogg stealthily replaced the real Cobra with a fake Cobra. He chose Cobra because he was not talkative, making it the least likely for him to be exposed.

Playing with the black stone in his hand, even with Nidhogg’s knowledge, he couldn't decipher what it was.

However, judging by the faint soul waves emanating from it, Nidhogg estimated it contained no less than ten souls.

Before advancing to being a formal wizard, a wizard apprentice's soul was no different from an ordinary person's, so this stone had the equivalent of ten or more Nidhogg souls.

“Cobra, how much have you collected here?”

The young girl approached, her hands still stained with blood, her face alight with excitement.

Nidhogg glanced at the black stone and responded, “Thirteen, miss.”

Both his tone and demeanor allowed Nidhogg to pass as Cobra, as the girl wasn’t particularly familiar with him.

After pondering for a moment, the girl jumped up with childlike glee, “Great! With yours, we finally have enough to make a wish from the demon lord. I want to get rid of this uncomfortable gray aura, and next time, with five hundred more souls, I’ll become a stronger wizard apprentice!”

Nidhogg smirked inwardly: you consider yourself a wizard apprentice, but without leverage, you're hardly one.

Demon lord?

What kind of entity is this, some ancient wizard of the wizard world?

But…

The wizarding world held deep contempt for anything labeled “god,” associating it with superstition, ignorance, and none would bear such a title.

Furthermore, if this so-called demon lord was indeed powerful, why rely on such amateurish non-wizards to collect souls?

There was something fishy going on.

Nidhogg, still in his Cobra guise, followed the young lady and the rogue knights back to Bangar City. Along the way, the other knights were not suspicious of Cobra's sudden silence.

In the noble district of Bangar City, inside a vast estate.

Passing through layers of guarded checkpoints, manned by ordinary knights, to reach the entrance of an underground hall, Nidhogg squinted at the two black wizard guards. They were much stronger than the girl, managing at least 30 degree energy attacks.

Assuming they, like previous “black wizards,” lacked leverage application.

These “black wizards” seemed to lack the unique energy known as magic, and their methods were nothing more than using their enhanced bodies and crude handling of negative energy, considered rudimentary by any wizard.

“Hold! The demon lord is receiving other followers now.”

One of the black wizard guards stopped Nidhogg’s group. The girl waited silently.

A while later, a fourteen or fifteen-year-old male “black wizard” emerged, his intense negative energy nearly equal to the guards', far exceeding the girl's.

This boy exuded excitement and madness in his eyes, like a bloodthirsty young wolf, and left the hall without sparing a glance at Nidhogg's group.

“Let’s go in,” the girl said irritably, likely provoked by the boy’s arrogance.

Inside the vast underground palace, a 10-meter-high "mirror" loomed like a vertical water curtain, filling the space with a mysterious energy fluctuation, making the hall feel like a fragment of space linked to the wizarding world.

The hall was filled with strange, bizarre energy fluctuations: spatial distortions, negative emotions, souls, potential void phenomena, and some energies Nidhogg had never encountered.

“What do you seek, and what are you willing to offer in exchange?”

Suddenly, a solemn, majestic voice echoed from the mirror. Nidhogg’s eyes narrowed.

An amorphous elemental creature, like an enormous black flame, appeared on the giant mirror, speaking to the girl in an imperfect wizarding world language. Its two azure flame eyes seemed capable of piercing souls.