Advent of the Archmage

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

The Flying City airship continued flying forward.

“My lord, the realm crack is 200 miles up ahead. We’ll reach our destination in five minutes,” reported Merlin.

Link nodded. His eyes were glued to the windshield, intently watching the ground getting closer in front of the airship.

Half a minute later, he heard footsteps coming up behind him. It was Celine.

“There’s something strange about all this,” she whispered.

Link’s eyes did not budge one bit. In truth, he had already sensed that something seemed wrong as well. The demons setting a village on fire and the summoning ritual that the Dark Elf Magicians were conducting earlier all seemed to point to the fact that the enemy had a good idea where Link and his lot would be.

The Army of Destruction had made preparations to deal with them. The first two incidents had been harmless distractions, but it was possible that they heralded something grander and more likely to kill them all.

The main problem was, what did the enemy have in store for them?

As the airship flew forward, Link began to feel even more anxious. They were now flying over the Korora Mountain Range where the sun was shining and the trees grew abundant. From above, the forest on the mountain range was a magnificent sight to behold.

However, to Link, the sunlight was of a cold pallor. The leaves were a sickly, rotting green. The whole mountain range was a bleak grey, and the whole world seemed deprived of all life. In Link’s eyes, it was a scene not unlike hell.

Something big will happen a few minutes from now, thought Link. Whatever it is, it will pose a huge threat to my life. It’s even managed to mess with all my senses!

Link’s time magic book stated that time was multidirectional and that in reality, the concepts of past, present, and future were mere constructs conceived by intelligent life on Firuman to make sense of time itself.

As no natural law dictated that time should move only in one direction, it was possible that both the past and future would be able to affect the present. The time magic book also dealt with the subject of cause-and-effect cycles. Discussions on the subject were carried out on the assumption that the past and future assumed causal roles, while their effects were expressed in the present.

These concepts of time introduced by the book were extremely esoteric. The effects brought upon the present by the past and future differed from each other in some respects, and the magical concepts underlying these effects were especially complicated. Link had been studying the time magic book for a long time, and he barely scratched the surface of the subject. At the moment, he only had a general idea about time magic.

My life’s in danger, and I have no idea what form this threat will take. There’s not much else I can do about it, other than heighten my vigilance for now.

Link had a general understanding of how time worked. He knew that time itself was replete with variables, and that however right his actions might seem at the moment, there was a real chance they might set off a chain of events in the future that would ultimately end in his death.

Right now, he would be better off thinking up a couple of countermeasures to deal with the imminent danger rather than trying to change the current course of his actions.

The more countermeasures he had in hand, the more likely he would be able to survive the impending threat.

Link checked the number of Omni Points he had in hand. He still had 750 Omni Points and 23,000 Realm Essence Power points remaining at the moment. This was enough for Link to cast a Level-13 Legendary offensive spell or a Level-15 supplementary spell.

Link continued observing the scenery in front of the airship in order to divine where the danger might come from. In the span of half a minute, the anxiety intensified in him as the sky had darkened considerably from his perspective.

The world darkened even more with each passing second around Link as if all hope had fled off in the face of this danger.

Link took the encroaching darkness to mean that the danger was drawing closer than ever towards him and that the time he had to react to it grew even shorter. It seemed to Link that the approaching danger was something he would not be able to handle alone.

This was the first time Link had encountered such an ominous sign.

“Link, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. It’s as if my whole world’s completely engulfed in darkness!” said Celine. Her voice sounded distant.

Link turned around and saw her standing stock-still behind him. Her pupils quivered uncontrollably. She was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance. Though it had its benefits, the effect it had on an actual clairvoyant was ten times worse than that received by a non-clairvoyant as an imminent danger approached!

Most clairvoyants had been driven mad by their own visions of the future. This was the price that came with such a double-edged gift!

Link looked at the other Magicians. They were all above Level-8. Still, they appeared ill at ease as well.

The only person who was still able to remain calm was Nana.

Though she might look like a living being on the outside, she did not have an actual soul inside her physical body. As such, she was not as capable of any form of precognition as a Magician would be.

All of a sudden, a thought flashed across Link’s mind.

Is waiting the only thing I can do in the face of this danger? No, there should be something I can do about it!

The game system was his only hope of salvation at this point.

Link then gave his order. “Power, I need power. Magicians, prepare your nodal magic seals this instant!”

“Yes, my lord,” said the Magicians of Ferde in unison, and they all began carrying out his order.

Nodal magic seals were a technique developed by Ferde to concentrate power into a single point. Through these seals, weaker Magicians would be able to pool all their power in one place and then purify it to produce a steady flow of Realm Essence Power for the use of high-level Magicians.

The seal was structurally simple, and all Magicians in Ferde were required to be equipped with it at all times so that it could be used anywhere in the world. At Link’s order, the Magicians onboard the airship began channeling their power into the signets they were wearing around their fingers.

The power inside their signets was then purified and redirected into Link’s own signet.

A moment later, Link’s signet turned transparent. The space around it was visibly distorted by the high concentration of power in it. Golden ripples of light began radiating from his ring as well.

As power flowed into his ring, Link quickly read through all the available Legendary spell cards in his mind, some of which were as high as Level-15.

With his power alone, he would be able to cast a Level-15 Legendary supplementary spell. However, with the added power of six other Magicians, Level-17 Legendary supplementary spells would definitely not be beyond his power.

In his vision, these high-level cards shimmered with an assortment of colors. There were purple Secret spells, iridescent Elemental spells and Spatial spells which were enveloped in rippling light. Finally, Link’s gaze settled on the darkest spell card in the collection.

The card was so dark that its edges had merged completely with the darkened background in front of Link. An eye was traced out with silver lines on the card.

Looking at the eye, Link took a deep breath. It was the highest-level time spell in the game: the Eye of Agramma.

The Eye of Agramma (Oblivion-type spell)

Level-18 Legendary Supplementary Spell

Initial casting cost: 30,000 points

Subsequent cost: 500 points per second

Description: Invented by the Time Magician Agramma. With this spell, the caster will be able to peer into the most profound secrets of time magic.

Side-effect: Due to the immense power this spell holds, when it is cast, the disturbed flow of time will return to normal. The caster will completely forget the existence of this spell and will be punished by the realm itself.

(Note: The world may not hold any secret from me, but curiosity still kills the cat.)

In the game, Link had always thought that this spell served no purpose whatsoever and that its cost was also way too high. Its effect, which supposedly would allow the caster to look into the future, was simply impossible to activate in the game world. In reality, almost all time spells in the game could not be activated due to the fact that influencing the flow of time was just impossible back on earth.

However, in Firuman, time magic was powerful enough to turn the whole world on its head, which was why the realm would only allow such a spell to be activated once. Once a time spell was cast, the laws of the realm would undergo a drastic change. If one wished to continue using it, he or she would need to rewrite the laws governing the realm in order to allow the spell’s continued use.

The Soul Dominator had once said that mastery of Prophecy Magic could only be obtained through the realm’s blessings rather than one’s efforts. The same could be said for time magic.

It certainly held incredible power, but the use of time magic always came at a high price.

Once he selected the spell, Link whispered, “Acquire.”

There was a bang, and suddenly, the Eye of Agramma card dissolved into countless points of light. A second later, a new spell settled in Link’s mind.

At that moment, the nodal magic seals were almost done channeling the Magicians’ power into Link’s signet. The total amount of Realm Essence Power points he could use right now had reached more than 40,000 points, which would be enough for him to cast the high-cost time spell he had just acquired.

Link’s sense of foreboding was now screaming at him. He felt as if he was at the bottom of a mountain, and an avalanche was thundering down the slope in his direction, moments away from swallowing him whole.

“There’s no time to lose.” Link activated the Eye of Agramma spell immediately.

In an instant, the whole world went black. Countless shapes of light floated in front of him. Some of them seemed immaterial, while others showed clear images which played out before Link in the blink of an eye.

“These are strands of timelines!” said Link, understanding what was going on. He then composed himself and closely observed the shapes of light playing out in front of him.

At that moment, the airship was now 30 miles away from the seal surrounding the realm crack. They were about to reach their destination soon.

On the ground, Molina had seen the airship which was hurtling through the air at top speed. She breathed in deeply and then stabbed her Staff of Destruction into the ground.

“Divine Retribution: Dawn of Darkness!”