Advent of the Archmage

“How are you?” Link looked at Eliard with his pale face and cast Essence Vitality into him.

Eliard leaned against a big tree and took some deep breaths. He felt around his organs. “I’m okay. I’ve already recovered a lot, but I’ll need more than one hour to recover my spell-casting ability.”

This was the advantage of Sunlight Power’s great recovery ability. A regular Magician wouldn’t be able to move for a few days if they suffered this hit.

But one hour was still too long.

Judging from the previous situation, Lava Knight Mozur’s power was unbelievable. If they fought hard on, Link wasn’t his match at all. He could get killed with one mishap. He needed Eliard’s help.

But with Mozur’s power, if he chased with all his might, he could travel thousands of miles within an hour. He might not run to the Isle of Dawn, but no one knew what could happen along the way. For example, it was highly possible for the High Elves to provide reinforcement.

If Mozur had an additional helper—even if it was a Level-9 Magician—Link, who was already at a disadvantage, would truly have no chance of defeating him and getting the Divine Fragment back.

He couldn’t wait. He had to act now, and he had to do it alone.

After thinking quickly for a few seconds, balancing the odds, Link came to a final decision. He had to do everything to stop Mozur. He wasn’t Mozur’s opponent in a direct fight, but there were thousands of ways to defeat someone. Tricks and sneak attacks all worked.

Thinking of this, Link murmured, “Then you rest here. I’ll go stop him.”

Eliard knew how important this was. It affected the countless creatures on the Firuman Realm and Ferde’s future. He knew it was highly possible for Link to die, but they had no other choice.

“Be careful! I’ll go find you as soon as I can cast spells!” That was the only thing he could say.

Link nodded. White light already rose around him. An instant later, he disappeared and reappeared miles away. This repeated many times as he chased towards the Lava Knight Mozur with impossible speed.

Five transmissions later, Link found Mozur’s traces once again.

The other’s aura was very secretive and hazy. Link couldn’t pinpoint the specific location. Even if he completely focused, he could only narrow it down to a ten-mile range.

This range was too large, and he couldn’t determine where Mozur was hiding. This meant Link couldn’t attack secretively. Mozur was also a Level-15 fighter with sharp senses. Link couldn’t hide either.

Right now, Mozur must know Link was close. He might even be looking for a chance to attack.

To stay safe, Link kept his elevation at around 1000 miles and activated the Eagle Eye spell to observe the ground.

Different from before, this was a forest. The trees weren’t too dense, and there were scattered villages with small hills in between. Winding trails connected the villages. It was one or two in the afternoon now, and so many people hurried down the trails and in the fields.

Link could tell that this was the Whistling Hills in the northeast of the original Delonga Kingdom. It was mountainous, but the earth was fertile, and there were quite a lot of people. It was easy to hide here. In order to not hurt the innocent, Link couldn’t use a powerful spell to force Mozur out either.

Seeing this, Link sank into deep thought.

Ferde is up ahead. There’s the Divine Punishment protocol, so this guy won’t dare to go in. Then he can only go east into the sea. He’s only a Warrior and will need a ship… There must be High Elves at the coast.

Both Link and Eliard together had been defeated by Mozur alone. If he met with High Elves, then Link would have no chance by himself. If he was discovered, he could die.

Thus, he couldn’t let Mozur get to the coast. Then how should he force Mozur out of hiding?

Link thought back to how Dylosen had characterized Mozur. This guy was a genius and liked sneak attacks. He had explosive power and only cared about the Holy Maiden Milda. This could be used to easily anger the Warrior.

Milda, Milda, Link repeated in his mind. He thought of their experiences together in the Aragu Realm.

That night in the tree hole, the farewell before returning to Firuman, and the smiles and glances were right before his eyes. Sadly, hundreds of years had passed in the Aragu Realm. Milda was no longer the young and innocent High Elf princess from before. She was now the priestess of a cult and Link’s mortal enemy.

The changes in life were unpredictable. Right now, Link felt regret rather than anger.

Looking back at the ground, Link’s eyes had become emotionless. Since we’re enemies, then there are no taboos. Since Milda is your weakness, then I’ll use her against you!

After thinking carefully and confirming his battle strategy, Link cast a large-scale Soul spell: Soul Echo.

Soul Echo

Level-8 Secret Spell

Effect: Activate the soul’s power and create large-scale soul telepathy with no limit on the target.

The theory behind this spell was simple. It was Level-8 only because it had a wide range. It could stretch more than 20 miles, which was more than enough to cover where Mozur was hiding.

Focusing, Link looked down and sent an image with the Soul Echo. The image contained two people—one man and one woman—standing beside a tree. The man was Link; the woman was obviously Milda. Under the faint morning light, the beautiful High Elf Princess stood beside Link. She tilted her head to look at Link’s side profile, eyes filled with love and respect. She seemed to be talking. Her eyes never left Link.

To be honest, this was a very plain image. It was just a man and a woman talking on a forest path. At most, it would make people think of a couple dating. It was no big deal.

After this image suddenly appeared in the minds of the regular farmers, most were dazed. They found it strange that this image would jump out in their minds. Some guys had no reaction at all. They were exhausted from working in the fields. Who cared what they were thinking.

But to a certain person, this was a punch to the gut!

As soon as the Soul Echo ended, a fiery figure rushed out from the forest. Then a ground-shaking roar traveled into the sky. “Link, you’ve gone down the road of no return!”

The man had a gold-red battle robe and a Lava sword. Because of his fury, bloody rays of light shot out from his eyes. Flames flickered around his body. It was Mozur.

He’d voluntarily given up his chance at a sneak attack, but Link still wasn’t confident in defeating him. This didn’t sway him though. After coming to Firuman, he’d had countless battles. Ones that he was confident in winning were actually the minority.

Hovering thousands of feet above the air, he looked down coldly at the furious Lava Knight. “I’ve never gone down a path that I can return from,” he said indifferently.