Advent of the Archmage

Ferde Wilderness　　

Dorias bolted through the Girvent Forest with the Dark Prince Walter at top speed. He was extremely fast and covered more than 30 miles within 20 minutes. He was just about to head straight to Scorched Ridge when he heard trotting sounds in front of him.

Dorias was curious and accelerated towards the top of the hill. He then saw two women riding at full speed towards him.

He squinted his eyes and immediately recognized who they were. One of them had purple colored hair and wore a light brown armor. She also had a magic pistol hanging by the side of her waist—it was Celine.

There was also a young woman beside her with a ponytail. She looked innocent and wore an intricate armor. This was Link's magic puppet Nana.

The moment he saw familiar faces, Dorias was ecstatic. He bolted forward and dropped the Dark Prince right in front of them. The Dark Prince then grimaced softly, and a trail of blood appeared on his lips. It seemed like Dorias did not put him down lightly.

However, Dorias could care less and asked quizzically, "Celine, why are you here?"

This place was at least 30 miles away from Scorched Ridge. Even if Celine wanted to train her sharpshooting skills, she should not have come so far.　

Celine then took a look at the Dark Elf on the ground before a hint of worry appeared in her eyes. She then said, "If you are back with a hostage, I would suppose that Link is alone right now?"

Dorias seemed unworried as he said, "Yes, but it will be fine. Link is fighting them; they will not be able to win him."

Celine seemed to think otherwise and asked urgently, "Do you know which direction he went?"　

"This…I'm not too sure. It has already been 20 minutes since I left him."

Celine grew increasingly worried. At that moment, Nana spoke and pointed in the north-western direction, "Master is in that direction. He is heading towards us at high speed."

"Are you sure?" Celine was doubtful. After all, Nana was merely a magic puppet, how could she pinpoint Link's location so accurately?　

"Master's blood has a familiar presence. Nana can feel it."

The moment she said those words, Celine was immediately reminded of the situation when they first met Nana. Link suffered a blow from Nana at that time, and the micro-metal on her blade managed to fuse with his blood, allowing Nana to track him down. She even managed to run underwater while trying to eradicate Link.

It seemed that she still had that ability.　　

"There must be someone going after him if he is running so fast. Let's go! We will get him!" Celine waved her hands and charged forward, and Nana followed closely behind.

"Then what about me?" Dorias was left alone once again.

"Take that hostage back to Scorched Ridge," Celine said.

"Alright then," Dorias once again picked up Walter with his jaws and charged towards Scorched Ridge.　　

...

Soul Realm.

Link was running for his life while carrying Alloa on his back.　　

In this space, the power of ordinary spells would be suppressed while the power of the soul would be magnified. Link was somewhat familiar with this space. He could still run at a fast speed despite having an extra deadweight.

However, the people chasing him was fast as well. Amongst them, the most terrifying one was Wavier.　

His soul was unusually strong. Link glanced behind him and saw a huge shadow engulfing his sight. Even the sky was dyed a greyish-black due to the dark aura emanating from his soul.

Link was horrified as he said, "Tabinos is truly generous. To think that he would give Wavier such a huge boost to his soul power."

There were two methods to increase the strength of your soul in the World of Firuman. The first was through training. Magicians would meditate to strengthen their souls while Warriors would put in their sweat and tears to grind their tenacity. The strength of their soul would then grow as they develop their strength in the Physical Realm. The strength of a Level-9 Magician's soul could be around 1000 times stronger than an ordinary human. He could scare the wits out of an ordinary human anytime he wanted to.　　

The second method was through a divine blessing. Link had the blessing from the God of Light. This blessing, coupled with his training had granted him with an extremely strong soul.　

However, Wavier's soul was at least ten times more terrifying than Link's!　

It truly was infuriating.

Fortunately, while Wavier's soul was powerful, he did not seem to be used to wielding this power. He was also not familiar with the principles within the Soul Realm, which greatly diminished his traveling speed. He was only slightly faster than Link despite having a soul that was much stronger. Furthermore, Link was carrying a deadweight which reduced his speed.　

After Alloa heard Link's words, she spoke with a nonchalant expression, "Of course Tabinos will be generous. You have no idea what Wavier did."　

Link was startled for a moment before he asked, "How many people did he sacrifice?"　

In order to appease the demon god, one would have to make a sacrificial ritual. Furthermore, it had to be the sacrifice of souls.

"At least 50000!" Alloa reported a striking figure.　

Fifty thousand souls? Link was horrified.　

The Dark Elves merely sacrificed 15000 souls to get their Divine Gear. How did Wavier get that many souls to sacrifice in such a short period of time?　　

Alloa was extremely observant and could already guess Link's thoughts from his actions. She then snickered and said, "Why do you think the Delonga Kingdom and the Southmoon Kingdom are engaged in such a fierce war? The deceased Warriors and refugees all add up to an estimated number of 50000. This is already the most conservative estimate."　　

Life was truly worthless in times of chaos. One could only give an estimated number of the deaths in a battle, suggesting the cruelty of the war. However, Link did not expect such a huge motive to be hiding in the shadows behind the war.

At that moment, he had a deeper understanding of the darkness in the World of Firuman. In this world, strength would speak for itself. This was exactly why dark forces would easily go out of control, and eventually result in horrifying events.　

"This is preposterous! I did not expect such things to happen. Furthermore, it happened in the South, right where my territory is!"

It was no wonder the Delonga Kingdom refugees would seek shelter in his territory. Those ordinary people had no idea what was truly happening within the Kingdom. However, this did not prevent them from sensing danger.

Alloa then sighed as she said, "This is exactly why I wanted to escape from the Dark Elves. They are too scary and too insane. Their actions now will not only destroy their entire race, but also the whole of Firuman!"

Following which, she stared at Link and said, "I intended to approach you the moment I escaped the Dark Forest. However, I met with some accidents along the way and was intercepted by my pursuers the moment I reached the Girvent Forest. However, the result was still satisfactory. You still came to find me."　

"Me? Why me?" Link was perplexed. While he was speaking, he glanced behind him once again.

At that moment, he had already run out of the perimeter of the Girvent Forest onto the Ferde Wilderness. This place had unobstructed vision. He could clearly see that Wavier was merely 900 feet away, with Aymons being 15 feet behind Wavier and the undead knights being 80 feet away from Aymons.

Wavier was able to close the distance by 150 feet every minute. If they continued traveling at their current speed, Link would enter Wavier's spellcasting range after four minutes.

Link could at most cover three miles in four minutes. He was still some distance away from the Scorched Ridge and would not be able to call for reinforcements in time. However, he did not panic. He still had 7000 Mana Points remaining, which was sufficient to cast a Dimensional Leap spell. When Wavier was about to catch up, he would just use that spell to escape.

If they dared to chase him all the way back to the Scorched Ridge, Link would merely call for Nana and give them a taste of his prided magic puppets power.

Alloa then answered Link's question very seriously, "Because you know how to use spatial magic."　　

"Spatial Magic? What has that got to do with you?"

Alloa then nodded with a serious expression as she said regretfully, "It matters, it matters a lot. The things that I am researching on has already exceeded the wisdom of mortals. You are the only person in the World of Firuman that can understand my research. Therefore, you are the only person I can approach."

Link fell speechless. This woman seemed to be flaunting her wisdom and intellect as though she was meant to be superior to other human beings.　　

"What exactly did you figure out?" Link asked. He predicted that these findings would be a rude shock to anyone. This would explain why the Dark Elves would chase her all the way to the South and even send Aymons on this mission.　　　

As he speaks, he once again glanced behind him. Wavier was still leading in the race and was less than 600 feet away from him. Aymons, on the other hand, was already 60 feet behind Wavier.

If Wavier was alone, Link would have already engaged him in a fight. However, there were two Magicians on his trails. Aymons was also a terrifyingly strong Magician. Coupled with the Undead Knights, Link had no confidence in defeating all of them. Therefore, he could only run.

When Link spun around, he noticed a strange phenomenon. He felt that something was obstructing his view. Upon closer inspection, he was then startled. It was Alloa's chest.

He did not realize before, but Alloa had a pretty developed chest. This was especially so as he was running at full speed while carrying her, causing it to bounce invitingly with every step. Link averted his gaze and ran even faster after that.

On the other hand, Alloa did not realize Link's peculiar gaze as she was deep in thought. After around ten seconds of silence. She whispered, "My father is a member of the Silver Moon Family. Therefore, the Silver Moon blood also runs through my veins. However, since my bloodline is not pure, I was chosen to be the sacrifice, the vessel for the Dark Serpent."

"Then why are you? Did you bring the Divine Gear with you? But it doesn't look like it."

"I was indeed fused together with the Divine Gear. However, I created a puppet to go through most of the process in my place. Following which, I freed myself from the control of the Divine Gear. I this process, I discovered a principle governing the Divine Gear…And as you have witnessed, I became immortal while being untainted by the powers of darkness."

Link was dumbfounded upon hearing those words. It was amazing enough to free oneself from the control of the Divine Gear. To be able to discover a principle at the same time required wisdom that exceeded his wildest imaginations. 　

No wonder she would be revered as the Maiden of Truth and acted so intellectually superior. She was not arrogant per se. Her perspective of the world was merely too different compared to that of an ordinary mortal.

"Your motive for finding me is?"

"As you know, the Divine Gear possesses a Divine Skill that can devour souls. I have tried solving it but to no avail. I realize that it would be impossible if I try to do it myself. I need another person who has also exceeded the wisdom of an ordinary mortal to assist me. You are the first person that came to mind. Therefore, I brought with me a treasure trove of the Divine Gear's statistics."　　　

Link was taken aback, but this was followed by a wave of euphoria. He said, "Rest assured that I will ensure your safety!"

This was probably the reason the in-game system would issue a sudden mission that had a time-limit. Alloa indeed possessed such value. If he had known this would happen beforehand, he would gladly make another trip to the Dark Forest!　

Alloa seemed satisfied at Link's passion and nodded. She then said, "Enthusiasm is the best mentor. However, we have to first get rid of our pursuers. They are catching up."　

Link nodded and looked behind him once again. Wavier had already closed the gap and was only 150 feet behind. In a minute's time, Link would enter his spellcasting range.

Link did not dare to take the risk and immediately prepared to use Dimensional Leap to escape.　　

Dimensional Leap was a Legendary spell whose power was not constrained by the Soul Realm. This was also the reason Link dared to take Alloa into the Soul Realm to begin with.

However, a strange thing happened.

Upon seeing that familiar white brilliance surrounding Link, the black aura around Wavier suddenly increased in size as well. He then snickered, "Link, I knew you would use this dirty trick! Alas, my master had also taught me something. Let me see if you can escape after this!"　　

A black miasma rushed towards them at the speed of light, covering Link within its demonic grasp. After which, the white glow around Link was blown out like a candle flame in the wind. Alloa and he remained standing in their original position.　

Link fell speechless. He had made a mistake by underestimating Wavier's strength. He should have used Dimensional Leap earlier on when he was still in the lead. The situation was not looking good.　

"That should have been Demon God Tabinos' strength. He had sealed this entire dimension. You will have to defeat them to proceed," Alloa explained with a nonchalant expression, not showing any signs of fear and shock, as though she had already predicted this would happen. 　　

"It seems like it will be another tough fight." Link took out the dimensional scroll. Even if they were to fight, he would prefer it to be held in the Physical Realm. Only in the physical realm would he be able to unleash his full power.