Advent of the Archmage

Golden Plains

Before Link could answer Elovan's question, another voice rang out. "Of course we'll kill you all to avenge for my race!"

It was Avatar, the Beastman king.

He'd used up almost all his power in the last attack. Now, panting heavily, he dragged the obsidian broadsword as he slowly walked out of the grass.

"You pointy-eared elves from the Isle of Dawn will do anything for your goal. We are thousands of miles away from the Isle of Dawn but still angered you somehow. Now, you've lost. I'll make you taste the most horrible punishment in this world!"

When he finished, he was already beside Elovan and placed the sword on the elf's neck.

The skin on Elovan's neck twitched, but he still kept staring at Link. "Ferde Lord, don't forget that your territory is less than 500 miles from the Isle of Dawn. You won't be able to keep this a secret. You will be declaring war on the Isle of Dawn!"

Avatar scoffed. "This has nothing to do with Ferde. I'm the one killing you." With that, he looked at Link. "Master, will you stop me?" he asked coldly.

Link shrugged. "I want to because that High Elf is right. This may very possibly spark a war between Ferde and the Isle of Dawn. But seeing our relationship, I can't force you to listen to me."

Knowing that Link agreed, Avatar chuckled. He applied pressure, and his blade turned, glinting. With two sounds, Elovan's hands dropped from his body.

Avatar's cutting style was very unique. Rather than using the blade's sharpness to cut off the hands, he used the reverberations of the sword's body to forcefully rip the hands off the wrists.

It was impossible to imagine how painful such a method could be!

"Ow! Ahh!"

Elovan had wanted to show his courage, but his eyes almost popped out of their sockets immediately. A gurgled cry left his throat.

Beside him, Milose heard it and shivered. He yelled to Link in panic, "Ferde Lord, stop this Beastman!"

Link shook his head and gazed at Milose. "When Ariel chose to use the lives of the human merchants to force me out, there was no more room for negotiations."

With that, Link turned around, not wanting to see the tragic scene anymore. He focused on casting the antidote spell for the merchants from thousands of feet away.

From here, one could see beams of silver moonlight falling from the sky and entering all of them, driving away the poison.

They were all regular folks with the most powerful only at Level-4. Link didn't use more than ten points of Realm Essence for each person. There were around 300 people, so it only cost around 3000 points. With his current power recovery rate, he recovered fully within half a minute.

The entire process only took a minute.

During this minute, he kept hearing Elovan's distorted cries. He just pretended not to hear them. When he finished and turned around, he saw that Elovan's body was practically shattered. Avatar had ripped off his limbs by each joint. Now, his one arm lay scattered on the ground in 20-some pieces.

He wasn't dead though. Seeing Link turn around, he immediately cried, "Lord! Lord! I'm begging you to forgive me. Please forgive me. This is all Ariel's idea. I'm just a follower, really. Please, save me…"

At the end, he actually started crying.

Beside him, Milose's eyes widened at this. He couldn't say anything. During this, Elovan suffered physically, while Milose suffered psychologically with every second. He knew that once Elovan was tortured to death, he would be next. He almost went crazy when he thought of how this cruel fate would befall him.

Often times, being tortured wasn't the scariest. The worst part was the waiting.

This was worse for High Elves. Since birth, they'd lived on the peaceful Isle of Dawn. They mostly came to the mainland after having powerful abilities. Though they'd experienced some things, they were very rarely at a disadvantage. They'd never had emotional trauma. Even if they'd gone through hardships, they'd just grow a thicker skin.

Faced with this bloody scene, that skin had cracked. Elovan had broken down, and Milose was close.

By now, Avatar was tired from it all. He'd been exhausted originally and now broke Elovan's arms and legs into dozens of pieces. Panting heavily, he paused.

Seeing Elovan's teary and snotty face, a large portion of his anger was gone. He stabbed his sword into the ground and rested against it. At the same time, he scoffed coldly.

"I thought you were powerful, but I guess you're just some kids."

He glanced at Link. "Alright, I've vented my anger. Master, how do you prepare to punish them?"

Link had already thought of it. Seeing how Elovan had broken down, he got another idea. Of course, he couldn't say it aloud now.

He pointed in Mara City's direction. "They released the poison and have infected almost the entire city. Thankfully, the poisoned Beastmen haven't spread out due to the surrounding magic seal. We must cure them promptly, but it's too slow with the two of us. We need their help."

Curing the poison was the most important task at hand.

Avatar was instantly enlightened. He hit his head in annoyance.

"I cut off this guy's hands and feet. Now we have one less person. It'll slow us down!"

"It's alright. Broken bones can be reconnected."

Avatar didn't believe this. "They can be reconnected?"

So Link started using the Magician's Hand. First, he collected all the pieces of limbs and arranged them in the right order. Next, he used the Magician's Hand to connect them in the right shape.

Then, Link took out the Song of Tomorrow magic sword. He drew runes in the air around the arm. He was so fast that the sword tip just quivered and countless runes lit up in the air before sinking into the body parts.

Something miraculous happened. When the runes entered the arm, the bloody marks at the cut faded, faded, and finally disappeared. The skin just melded together like that.

But that wasn't all.

Link didn't stop and kept drawing runes. When he stopped after more than ten minutes, Elovan's hands and feet had recovered their original appearance. The only difference was that one could see many faint magic veins on the skin.

After that, Link said, "Stand up and try walking."

Elovan cautiously stood up. He stretched his arms, shook his feet, and walked around. Then he said to Link, "Lord, there are no more problems."

As a fellow Magician, he was familiar with this spell. Technically, it came from the flesh magic puppet spell of the High Elves. However, Link's spell for making magic puppets had been developed to another level. He'd added many of his own innovations too. For example, his feet and hands felt just like the original. This was something the High Elf spell couldn't do.

Of course, there were still side effects. The biggest one was that he couldn't add Natural Power to his extremities anymore. After influence from great power, his power might even stop working.

Avatar made noises of appreciation. He'd fully witnessed the power of Magicians today.

As a king, today's experiences made him realize how important magic was. A race that didn't know magic might be eliminated, but his race barely had any Magicians.

My race must have our own Magicians, he thought. Shamans aren't enough. Otherwise, if something like this happens again, would I have to ask for help outside again?

On the other hand, Link obviously didn't know what Avatar was thinking. Looking to Milose, he asked, "What about you? Do you need King Avatar to pick apart your limbs and then come help or help now?"

Milose scrambled up from the ground. "I'll help now. I'll help now."

"Oh, you're very smart." Chuckling, Link said, "Then let's start."