Strongest Warlock - Wizard World Irregular

The moment Ethan saw the heart made up of ice, he knew right away that this heart belonged to the Progenitor of Ice, Baradiel.

The little girl, who was none other than Nicole, approached the Altar cautiously, afraid that a ghost might jump out of nowhere before she reached the altar.

Finally, she was in front of it, and she looked at the Ice Heart with wonder.

The heart was slowly rotating, like some kind of priceless jewel put on display for everyone to see.

After observing it for a few minutes, Nicole gulped down and reached out for it.

"Don't touch it!" Ethan couldn't help but shout. Despite knowing that this had already happened in the past, he couldn't help but still warn the girl who would suffer a very pitiful fate in the future.

Nicole jumped up in fright, having heard Ethan's shout.

Suddenly, she clasped her chest as she struggled to breath.

Ethan's eyes widened in shock because Nicole looked like someone who was suffering from a heart attack.

At first, he didn't want to believe it. After all, she was still very young, not even ten years old.

Little did the young man know that although it was extremely rare, children could suffer from heart attacks as well.

'Dammit!' Ethan cursed internally as he reached out to grab Nicole, whose face had already contorted due to the pain in her chest.

But, before Ethan could even come close to the girl, the heart made up of ice flew into the little girl's chest, merging with her body in an instant.

Nicole, who was about to collapse, suddenly found herself perfectly fine.

Just before she was about to faint, she saw the heart flying in her direction, so she knew what had happened.

After making sure that she was truly fine, Nicole started to pat her chest and even pulled out her dress a bit to look at the place where the Ice Heart merged with her earlier.

Ethan, who saw all of this happen, had a weird expression on his face.

No matter what angle he looked, wasn't he the one who caused the Ice Heart to merge with Nicole's body?

Of course, since this had already happened in the past, Ethan thought that no matter what he did, Nicole was fated to acquire Baradiel's Legacy.

Even so, he couldn't shake off the feeling about the "what if?" scenario that this memory, which he hadn't seen when he absorbed Nicole's Origin Crystal, had actually happened in the past.

It seemed that this particular memory was erased after Baradiel merged with Nicole's body.

If this was the case, then it was indeed understandable that Ethan didn't see it.

"Mr. Ghost, please don't scare me again," Nicole said anxiously as she looked around her. "I almost died earlier!"

"Sorry," Ethan replied subconsciously, making Nicole look in his direction.

The young lady's eye widened in shock before she pointed her shaking finger at Ethan.

"G-Ghost!" Nicole stuttered before her eyes rolled over as she fainted on the ground.

This time, Ethan properly caught her, but he was surprised when he realized that Nicole's body was very heavy. Stay tuned for updates on empire

It was as if he was holding onto a whale.

Ethan used everything in his power to slowly lay down the girl on the floor, preventing her from suffering any damage from hitting her head directly on it.

"Just what in the world happened?" Ethan muttered while looking at the unconscious girl on the floor.

For a brief moment, Ethan tried to experiment and "open his eyes."

The moment he did, he returned to the pitch-black world. But something was different.

The faint flicker of light that resembled a candlelight was much closer now.

Ethan tried to walk toward it.

But, just like earlier, he remained where he was, despite doing his everything to reach the source of light.

Left with no choice, he once again closed his eyes.

Just like he thought earlier, he reappeared beside Nicole, who was now starting to stir.

A moment later, the little girl opened her eyes.

But as soon as her gaze landed on Ethan, a scream escaped her lips, and she fainted once again.

The young man pinched the bridge of his nose before lightly shaking the little girl awake.

When Nicole opened her eyes, a frightened look appeared on her face. But this time, she didn't faint.

Perhaps she had already reached her fainting limit for the day, so she just stared at Ethan in horror.

She was unable to move because she was paralyzed from fright.

Since that was the case, she did the only thing that kids her age could do.

She cried!

And she cried so sadly that Ethan felt very guilty of scaring her.

"Wuwuwuwu!"

Ethan pondered a bit on how to better approach this situation. After nearly a minute of pondering what to do, he suddenly got an idea.

"You don't have to be afraid of me," Ethan said. "I am a friendly ghost. I don't hurt children."

As if he said the magic words, Nicole paused her crying and looked at the ghost, though she still sobbed from time to time.

"You won't eat me?" Nicole asked.

"No, I won't," Ethan replied.

"You won't pull my hair? You won't hide my shoes? You won't eat my food? Oh, and you will not pull pranks on me? My cousins do that to me almost every day."

When Ethan heard her words, he immediately felt like finding those cousins of hers and giving them all a good spanking.

But he reigned in his anger and crouched down so that he could see eye to eye with the frightened girl.

"I won't," Ethan replied. "In fact, I can be your friend."

"My friend?"

"Yes. Your friend."

Nicole pondered a bit before nodding her head.

"Then, Mr. Ghost, what is your name?" Nicole asked.

Naturally, Ethan said his name, or at least he tried to. But the moment he tried to say it, he was unable to do it.

After trying several times he decided to choose an alias.

"Just keep calling me Mr. Ghost," Ethan replied because he couldn't think of what name to use.

"Okay, Mr. Ghost!" Nicole suddenly felt much safer after talking to the friendly ghost in front of her. "By the way, don't tell anyone that I've been to this place, okay?"

"How did you even find this place anyway?" Ethan asked.

"I saw it in a dream," Nicole answered. "There's a lady in my dream who said that if I want to be strong, I should come to this place. She even handed me the key by placing it on the bed where I was sleeping."

Ethan frowned because it seemed that the one that called out to Nicole was Baradiel herself.

"What else did you see in your dream?" Ethan inquired.

"It stopped after I touched the Heart of Ice," Nicole replied. "The lady in my dream didn't lie to me. I now feel stronger. But… I still don't think I can beat my cousins. They know how to use swords, and they are good at magic."

"You'll get better than them," Ethan said with confidence. "I guarantee it."

"Really?"

"Really."

Nicole smiled sweetly, making Ethan feel his heart melt. The Nicole in front of him was still innocent, and her smile was like that of an angel.

However, her next words made Ethan's body stiffen.

"Mr. Ghost, can you teach me how to fight?" Nicole asked. "Can you teach me how to cast magic?"

Ethan then felt a tug in his heart, and mind. Before he could even consider the little girl's request, his lips moved and answered her before he could think.

"Yes," Ethan replied. "I will teach you how to fight."

The little girl's face brightened as if she had found the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ethan, who saw her expression, couldn't help but sigh internally.

He didn't know why or how he ended up in this place.

The young man still thought that everything he was seeing wasn't real.

That he was just in some kind of illusion that might have been made by Baradiel, who was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

However, since he was already here, he decided to just go with the flow and teach the little girl on how to fight and protect herself from the world that wished to cause her harm.