Advent of the Archmage

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Argh!!! No!!!”

In the quiet bedroom, Celine, who was fast asleep, suddenly let out a cry. This startled Link, who had been studying a time magic book at his desk.

He placed a paperweight on the page he was reading and turned down the brightness of the magic lamps in the room. He then walked over to the bed where Celine slept. However, her sleep seemed troubled. From time to time, her brows would furrow, beads of sweat glistened on her forehead, and her hands were gripping tightly on her sheets.

Must be having another nightmare. Link sighed inwardly. He sat beside the bed and held Celine’s hand gently.

This was one of the major side-effects that came with Celine’s clairvoyance. She was just about to transcend Level-9, and her ability to foresee the future was becoming even stronger. Nevertheless, she still could not master this ability. As the situation on the continent was becoming even more complicated, her prophetic nightmares became even more frequent.

These nightmares suggested that danger was imminent, but the core Magicians of Ferde did not need a clairvoyant to tell them what they already knew. The ship that was Ferde was now already sailing across stormy waters.

There was an air of tension among Ferde’s high-ranking Magicians as they braced themselves for war.

Usually, Link only needed to hold Celine’s hand in order to calm her down. This time was no different. After holding her hand quietly for ten minutes, Celine’s brows relaxed. Her breathing was steadier, and she slept soundly once more.

Link did not move away from the bed. He took off his robe, leaned back against the headboard and beckoned at the desk. The magic book on it floated obediently towards him.

He then turned on a magic lamp beside him and continued reading the impossibly difficult time magic book.

The three main pillars of the realm were space, time and energy. Link already had a profound understanding of space and energy. Only the mysteries of time remained uncracked by him. He was still a beginner at this stage.

As he was absorbed in deciphering a magical formula, Celine, who had been sleeping beside him, suddenly turned around. Her hand touched Link’s waist, and she spoke, “Still awake?”

Link closed the book and asked, “Did I wake you up?”

“No, I just had a dream. I was woken up by it,” said Celine lazily. She took the book from Link’s hands and looked at its cover. “Is this book that hard?” You’ve been studying it for more than two months, and you’ve only finished the first chapter.”

Link’s head was already on the verge of bursting. When Celine snatched the book away from him, he decided not to read it any longer. He massaged his throbbing forehead and laughed bitterly.

“It’s not just hard; it’s very, very hard. It’s way past my power level. I may need to reach Level-14 first if I hope to make any progress in my research.”

Back in the game world, the first time spell available to a Magician was Time Acceleration.

All the spells a player had acquired before Level-14 were incompatible with time spells. Spatial spells were incredibly difficult to master, but time spells were a hundred times even more difficult. Time spells involved complicated calculations of causality, logic arrays and time ripples, which were enough to cause Link’s brain to overheat.

Despite noticing the tired look on Link’s face, Celine did not tell him to get some rest. Instead, she steered the conversation towards another topic that required less brainwork. “How’s the Naga?’

“The Naga?” Link smiled. “Progress is going smoothly. Vance and the others have found a reliable way to put her under our control. The only problem we’ve encountered was her Spear of Victory, which was built to automatically defend its mistress. But the weapon’s power is limited. I estimate that it would use up all its power in a week.”

“That sounds great. But I just had a dream that was related to the Naga. Do you want to hear it?”

“Tell me.”

Celine placed the time magic book on the bedside table. She then sat up and leaned against Link’s shoulder, before saying, “The dream was a blur, and it was mired in metaphors and symbolism, but it was also strange and frightening.”

Link never dared to take Celine’s dreams lightly. He listened attentively.

Celine closed her eyes as if trying to recall the dream she had. A moment later, she said in a low voice, “In the dream, I saw my father. Ever since I had my Demon Power suppressed within me, this was the first time I had seen him in one of my dreams. In it, I saw a figure heading towards Ferde from the ocean. The figure was strange. There was blood gleaming off of it. From afar, it looked like a High Elf. But up close, it looked like a girl with a pair of goat horns on her head. The girl’s face was indistinct. As she reached Ferde’s port, I think she saw me. I then heard her saying something to me. It was clear and distinct, like it was real. She said, ‘Big sister, Father misses you.’ When she was done, she suddenly transformed into a man shrouded in shadows. Even though I couldn’t see his face clearly, I knew deep down that it was Nozama. He spread out his wings and grabbed me with a huge claw…”

Celine’s dream sounded outlandish, as if it was simply the stuff of her overworked imagination. But what she had described was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

“Nozama, a High Elf, the glint of blood, you being called sister, this is just a bit too eerie to be a simple dream. Why don’t we pay Elin a visit? She’s not called Lady Fortuna for nothing. She specializes in dream interpretation, so she’ll probably be able to tell us something we don’t know about your dream.”

At the mention of Celine’s younger sister, Link immediately thought of Saroviny. But she was supposed to still be in the Aragu realm.

Saroviny had probably spent a few hundred years in Aragu by now. Could it be that she had attained enough power to break free from the realm? Or could it be that Nozama had found her there and proposed an alliance with her?

All these scenarios in his head made Link a bit jumpy.

“Alright, I’ll go with you. But it’s already getting late. Get some sleep, try not to worry too much about it.” Celine tugged against Link’s arm, trying to get him to lie down.

Link allowed himself to be pulled down by her. He lay back on the bed, relaxed himself and before long, fell into a deep sleep.

The night passed by without a word from either one of them.

The next day, Link went to check up on Katyusha’s condition. Making sure that everything was progressing smoothly, he brought Celine along with him to the Yabba people’s Blue Stone Isle.

The island was originally an uninhabited island, but after a year of development by the Yabba people, the island was beginning to look more like a city.

When Link saw the island in the distance, he began to slow down and lower his altitude. He then used Void Walk to complete the rest of the journey and finally came to rest on an airship platform by the docks.

When the airship supervisor saw Link landing on the platform, he immediately went out to greet him. A small airship was prepared for him immediately after Link told the supervisor where they were going.

Link and Celine got on the airship. The vessel took off and flew low in the sky. Five minutes later, they reached an elevated region on the cliffs near the sea, where a small Mage Tower stood. This was where Elin resided—the Tower of Fate.

Link and Celine walked towards the tower. Before they could even knock on the door, it opened. A 12-year-old Yabba girl stood at the threshold. She looked at Link with a pair of emerald green eyes and said with a high-pitched voice, “My lord, the prophet has said that she’s prepared afternoon tea for the two of you on the balcony. She’s been expecting you.”

Link and Celine looked at each other before entering the Mage Tower. The tiny Yabba girl led the way, skipping and hopping all the way to a great hall on the third floor. Outside the hall was a balcony. Elin was standing beside a round table outside, smiling at them.

When Link and Celine stepped out onto the balcony, Elin said to them, “Welcome, my lord and lady.”

Though both of them still had no plans for marriage, everyone knew what sort of relationship they were in. Link intended to officially marry Celine once they had defeated the Army of Destruction. Everyone knew about this as well. As such, Link and Celine were both fine with Elin calling Celine “lady.”

All three were seated around the table, and before Link even had the chance to speak, Elin said with a smile, “Not a word. First, let’s draw two cards out, shall we?”

Elin then took out a deck of tarot cards and lay them out across the table.

“My clairvoyant ability is now one with this deck of cards. My lord, just like before, think of the question that you want answered, and the deck will give you its answer.”

Link nodded and focused on the dream that Celine had described to him the other night. He then drew out two cards.

Seeing that there was no one else on the balcony other than the three of them, Link flipped them open.

What they saw shocked the three of them.

There was nothing but a grey blur on the two cards that Link had drawn out, absolutely nothing for Elin to make a prediction with. Upon a closer look, they noticed that there was, in fact, an image on each of the two cards. There was an indescribable power obscuring the images, making it impossible to decipher their meanings.

Sensing the strange power around the two cards, Link jolted up and recalled something he had read in the time magic book: a Time Veil!

A Time Veil was what would happen when a future chain of events sent out time ripples so violent one’s premonitions would be severely distorted by them.

Link’s face grew solemn as he saw the fogged-up cards. He sensed that the imminent danger they were about to face this time was unlike any other they had faced in the past.

“What happened?” asked Celine.

Link looked at Elin as well, expecting an answer from her.

Elin was shocked as well. She took the cards and gently felt the patterns on the backs of both cards. She had familiarized herself with every card in the deck. By feeling for the patterns’ subtle differences, she was able to tell the cards apart.

A strange look came over her face when she felt the backs of the two cards. Her mind suddenly went blank as she tried to figure out what the images on the two cards were.

Finally, she gave up. She then said, “Forgive me, my lord, but it seems to me that whatever you want a prediction is completely beyond my clairvoyant powers. I think you should tell me everything yourself.”