Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 89 Imago

[[[3 hours later.]]]

"Stop salivating already." Alex said as he let out a sigh. "We are in a place of knowledge here, so you should keep it in your pants!"

"But look them! They all look like total beefcakes!" Simon replied as he furtively looked around, with a hint of drool rolling down of his chin. "I mean look at that guy! Daaaaamn!"

"Hey, look at that apparatus! Will it explode if I touch it?" Alice seemed to have ignored what Simon was doing as she seemed to be immersed in her own world. "Will it go kaboom?"

"Hey, no touching too!" Right now, Alex felt like he was an older sister, busy on disciplining two rowdy kids.

"Hehehe, that's what you get for impersonating someone else…" Asteria said as she giggled at Alex. "Now, suffer the hardships of babysitting!"

"..." Alex looked once more at Simon, who was now looking at the behinds of every male Mage that passes by, and to Alice that was now ogling at a tank of corrosive elixir.

"F**k, it seems like I got the worse of it…" Alex muttered to himself as he slumped his shoulders in despair.

****************

"Umm… are you Teresa Glaivewood?" After 3 hours of excruciating wait, Alex finally heard someone calling out Teresa's name.

"Yes, Teresa Glaivewood right here." Alex raised his arms slightly in order to get the attention of the one that called out to him.

"Oh, there you are…" Alex heard some slight swishing of robes, and before he knew it, he was now face to face with one of the thinnest persons that she saw.

"Hello there, Mage Apprentice Fred." Alex said as he looked at the mage that appeared in front of him.

"And hello to you too, Golden Knight Teresa Glaivewood." Fred said as he swept his eyes at Alex and his companions. "You seem to have brought some companions here."

"Oh, my father allowed them to join me." Alex said as he heard the suspicious tone in Fred's voice. "Just treat them as friendlies."

"Friendlies. Got it." Fred tucked his long, wiry arms at his back as he turned around, and using his legs to walk away. "I have set up your meeting with my master, so we should not waste time here. Please follow me."

"Ok, ok." Alex muttered to himself as he pulled both Alice and Simon with him.

"You two should behave later..." Alex hissed to the two as he casted a sideways glance towards Fred. "If my guess is right, the Mage that we will meet later is a bigshot."

"What kind of bigshot are you talking about?" Alice interjected as she looked at Alex with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"I am talking about Divine Mage kind of bigshot." Alex replied with a deadpan expression on his face.

"Coool!!!" Simon immediately used his hand to cover Alice's mouth, effectively muffling her shout. "Fred's master is a Divine Mage?"

"Yes, and from what I know, this Divine Mage is the Divine Mage Imago." Alex said as he observed the walking silhouette of Fred.

"Divine Mage Imago? The creepy one?" This time, it was Simon who talked, and from the timbre of his tone, it sounded like he was somewhat scared. "We are about to meet with that guy?"

"Hey, don't say it out loud!" Alex gave Simon a glare as he pointed his chin towards Fred. "He might hear us!"

"Um, I can perfectly hear what you guys were talking about." Fred said as he continued on walking. "But don't worry, I know how creepy my master is, and I can say that your fears are all justified."

"Now ain't that fun…" Alex thought to himself wryly, as he looked over Teresa's memories about Divine Mage Imago.

From what the original Teresa knew, Divine Mage Imago was the type of mage who likes to experiment on different kinds of Monsters.

Breeding, cross-breeding, selective mutation and sometimes even cloning, Divine Mage Imago had done all these stuff already.

The notoriety of all the stuff that Divine Mage Imago did was so great that some of the Divine Knights and Mages actually wanted him gone.

Well, Teresa's father was not one of them, but even he was also wary of the mentioned Divine Mage.

"Stop right there." Fred's voice jolted Alex from his musings, as he and the others found themselves standing in front of a magical circle etched on the ground.

"That magical circle will teleport all three of you towards my master's office." Fred said as he gave all three of them a narrowed look. "Just step on the circle, and then I will activate the formation with my blood to send you there."

"Wait, your blood?" Alice interjected as she gave Fred a curious look. "Why your blood?"

"Because my master told me that it will be better that way." Fred said as he gritted his teeth.

"But-"

"No more questions, okay?" Fred said, forcefully interrupting Alice. "Just step on the magic circle and get done with it!"

Alice actually became slightly timid as she followed Alex and Simon on stepping on the magic circle.

"Remember, don't make my master angry, or he might do something bad to you three." Fred said, with most of his gave concentrated at Alice and Simon. "Don't f**k anything up, ok?"

Fred then slashed his palm with a knife, which brought out a steady flow of blood.

The magic circle glowed at the instant that the blood dripped on it, signifying its activation.

"Hong~"

Before Alex could know it, his surroundings shifted, which was accompanied with a lurching sensation.

"I need to puke…." Both Simon and Alice said as they clutched their stomachs, looking both pale and miserable.

Luckily for them, there was a trio of empty buckets nearby. The poor duo staggered towards the buckets before emptying their breakfast on them.

"Guoh…"

Alex just looked away from the sight, as he focused on observing his new place.

"..." As Alex spent more time looking around, he realized something wrong.

No matter where Alex placed his eyes, all that Alex could see were large glass containers, and each of these containers contained something.

And Alex was serious when he said that the containers contained something, as even he was not sure on how to describe the contents of the container.

"Are these organic creatures or something? Ugh, now I feel sick too." Alex thought to himself as he stepped out of the magic circle.

"Clap, clap, clap." Alex suddenly heard some clapping sounds behind him, prompting him to look back.

What Alex saw a well-built man, wearing glasses that perfectly fit his eyes.

The man's hands were covered with gloves, and unlike the other mages, the man in front of him only wore white lab gown.

Add the creepy smile that the man was wearing, and Alex felt weirded out by this man.

"You are one of the few who did not feel sick after getting teleported here. That, little girl, is actually impressive…" The weird man said as he extended his left hand towards Alex, as if he wanted to do a handshake.

Alex looked at the hand warily, as he saw some slimy liquid dripping down from the extended hand.

"Umm, are you Divine Mage Imago?" Alex asked as he did nothing to shake his hand. "My father told me to come here and get a check-up or something…"

"Oh right, you are that Teresa girl, the one kidnapped by two Visitor Monsters." The weird man said as he retreated his hand. "Welcome to my office then, Teresa Glaivewood. I am Divine Mage Imago, and you will be in my care today."

"...." Alex was not sure why, but he felt trepidation as he heard what the Divine Mage said. "Um, I will be in your care then…"

"Good." The Divine Mage nodded, as if he was satisfied with that Alex said. He then looked at his side, noticing both Alice and Simon, who were still busy puking on the buckets. "And these two are?"

"Um, they are my companions here." Alex said as he gave the Divine Mage an apologetic smile. "Surely, there is no problem if they stay here, right?"

"Oh, there is no problem at all." The Divine Mage said as he looked back at Alex, decisively ignoring the other two. "As long as they do not interrupt us, then it will be fine."

"Umm, then I guess we should get started now?" Alex inquired as he felt more and more creeped out with the Divine Mage. He realized that the earlier he gets out from here, the better it will be.

"So you are the excited type huh. I like it." The Divine Mage smiled as he snapped his fingers.

"….." Alex waited for a few seconds to see what would happen next, and he was certainly disappointed with what he saw.

Alex saw a large human-sized capsule appearing in front of him.

Alex shivered as he saw countless tubes and pipes running around the capsule, with liquids of different colors flowing inside these tubes and pipes.

What made it worse were the sounds that Alex could hear coming from inside the capsule.

These sounds are not the sounds that should be heard by a normal person.

"Um, what should that… thing do?" Alex slowly asked the Divine Mage as he looked at the capsule with trepidation. "I will not go inside that, right?"

"Oh, that is what you will exactly do." The Divine Mage replied cheerfully as he placed his slimy hand on Alex's shoulder.

"Once you are inside the capsule, it will monitor all your vital signs, including your power and abilities. If there is nothing wrong with you, then the capsule will let you out. But if you are hiding something… then my capsule will temporarily restrain you…"

The Divine Mage then loomed all over Alex, as he gave him another smile. "Teresa, surely you have no problems on entering the capsule, right?"

"Umm…" Of course Alex has numerous problems with entering the capsule itself. But he cannot just say that, or else the Divine Mage will force him inside.

"Even if I have no problems with the capsule, there is no way that I will enter that monstrosity!" Alex thought to himself as he started to think of the excuses that he can make to avoid the Human Capsule treatment.

"…."

"Since you have nothing to say, then I guess I should place you in there already." The Divine Mage said as he tightened his grip on Alex, showing his intention of not letting him go.

But before the Divine Mage could raise Alex's body, the magic circle suddenly glowed, which was accompanied by the appearance of a person inside the magic circle.

"What are you doing here, Fred?" The Divine Mage said as he and Alex saw Fred appearing inside the magic circle. "Didn't I give you an important task to do?"

"Yes master, I know about that task, but there is something big happening right now!" Fred shouted as he approached his master instantly.

"From the panicked look on your face, it seems like what you are about to tell me is extremely important. Out with it then." The Divine Mage said as he loosened his hold on Alex.

Fred tried to maintain a calm visage as he slowly said,

"Master, a huge army of Monsters suddenly decided to invade one of the Human Kingdom that was near at the outskirts."

"Oh, its just an army then. What is the problem with that?" The Divine Mage said as he gave Fred a dismissive look. "There have been lots of Monster invasion before, and most of them usually fails."

"But Master, this time, the army was being led by 5 General Class Monsters!" Fred shouted out as he gave his master a panicked look. "Master, that surely is a bad new, right?"