Advent of the Archmage

Buzz! With a soft sound, Link, Eliard, and Dylosen appeared miles away.

The southern forest surrounded them. It was extremely dense and covered almost all the space. There was swampy patch below with grass growing on it.

The three appeared a few feet above the ground. When they appeared, Link and Eliard adjusted how they stood and landed steadily. Dylosen had more trouble. His body was black and smoking. When he appeared, he dropped down like dead weight.

Link’s heart jumped. He knew that the situation was bad and Dylosen would most likely die this time. Using his mind, he cast a low-level force field and caught the falling man.

He and Eliard quickly steadied themselves. Eliard went up to check Dylosen’s state. “It’s bad,” he muttered. “He’s practically baked!”

Link had stopped the sneak attack midway, but Dylosen still couldn’t dodge it. He was hit so badly that he was awaiting death. The Level-15 Lava Knight was clearly powerful.

Link also went up to check Dylosen.

From three feet away, he could smell the pungent fragrance of baked meat… His injuries seemed grave. Getting closer, Link saw that Dylosen’s robe was practically all gone. Only a shred still stuck to his flesh. His body was charred, and almost all his skin was gone.

He put his hand to Dylosen’s nose but could barely feel any breathing. His pulse was just as weak. Everything showed that Dylosen was at the brink of death and could die at any time.

Link immediately cast the Dragon Essence Vitality at Dylosen. A few seconds after the Mana surged into Dylosen, he suddenly opened his mouth and let out a gust of scalding air. Then his breathing strengthened.

A while later, he opened his eyes. His first sentence was, “They took the Divine Fragment!”

Link had noticed, but they’d been in a hurry, and the transmission didn’t work on the Divine Fragment. He had to give it up to save Dylosen. They could worry about it later.

“You almost died, and you still worry about that?” Eliard said.

“No, no, it’s okay if I die. The Divine Fragment has to get to the Snow Mountain Archmage or else everything will be over. Hurry, Ferde Lord, you must get it back!”

Dylosen’s burnt face cracked open, making him look horrifying. He was panicking and his features twisted. He looked like a demon. Regular people would probably get scared to death, but Link and Eliard weren’t regular men. Their hearts were heavy. To Dylosen, the fragment was more important than they’d imagined. Without it, everything would be over.

However, the Lava Knight’s power was also unimaginable. Judging by the sneak attack, that guy wasn’t stupid either. Now that Dylosen was hurt like this, Link and Eliard weren’t his match alone. It would be suicide if they went to steal the fragment.

Dylosen realized this too, of course. He breathed and said with difficulty, “I know that Lava Knight. His name is Mozur. He’s known as the Explosive Duke. His fire power is really domineering and has explosive strength. Less than ten people in all of Aragu can block his sudden attacks. He has weaknesses too though.

“The first is that his explosive power is hard to maintain. He needs at least two seconds to re-accumulate power. Second, he loves the Fire Sect Holy Maiden and doesn’t let anyone insult her. You can use it to easily anger him.”

Knowing that his explosive strength couldn’t last was important. Link could create a tactic to escape from a full-on hit. As for the second point, this was an even more fatal flaw to an advanced Warrior. This meant his emotions could be swayed and utilized by the outside world. Emotions were representations of the ripples of one’s soul. Mozur’s weakness was basically a flaw in his soul.

A Soul Magician could easily influence his soul after knowing this weakness. Even if he wouldn’t die, his combat ability would be greatly reduced.

Coincidentally, Link had made great strides in the Soul field after studying the Book of Revelation. He was now a good Soul Magician.

After hearing this, Eliard looked at Link. He thought that they might have a chance to defeat the Lava Knight and get the fragment back. To be honest, this was important to Ferde too.

The realms were fusing, and the Holy Maiden of the Yan Empire was Princess Milda of the High Elves. They would obviously be on the Isle of Dawn’s side. That gave Ferde an unimaginable enemy. If they didn’t have the Snow Mountain Archmage’s help, there was no way for Ferde to face a Level-19 Archmage who was about to become a god!

There was a way to turn the tides now. They could risk their lives.

Link didn’t hurry to decide. He continued asking, “Does Mozur have other famous tricks?”

“Yes, I was about to tell you!” Dylosen took a deep breath. “He already used his scariest one. It’s the sword that cut your spatial barrier, called Lava Fire. It can destroy practically any defense spell under Level-16. If you add his powerful burst, even a Level-16 spell can be destroyed. He also has the Lava Double.”

“Lava Double?” Eliard asked. “To die in his place?”

“Yes…” Dylosen broke off to gasp for breath. His state was really bad now. His exhales were all hot steam. Firelight flickered within his burnt and cracked flesh. He looked scary.

“How are you?” Link cast Essence Vitality for him again.

With the dragon recovery spell, Dylosen recovered a bit and continued, “There’s no time… His sword is called Boiling Lava. The so-called Lava Double is that the sword could die in place of him. So…gasp, you have to kill…gasp, kill him twice!”

The Essence Vitality effect only lasted a few seconds. Dylosen started panting again, breathing out hot steam. A bad feeling rose up inside Link. Lava Knight Mozur’s fire was abnormally powerful. He actually couldn’t repress it. It seemed that Dylosen had to die.

His breaths were now basically fire. It was as if his flesh and internal organs were burning now. He was like an active volcano.

“I… I’m going to die. My things…take them. Wh—when you see the Snow Mountain Archmage, tell him…I tried my best…” Whoosh.

Fire spewed out from Dylosen’s mouth. Lava-like fluid poured out of the cracks all over his body. The fluid bubbled and evaporated. Dylosen’s body burned away in the blink of an eye. All that remained on the ground was a man-shaped scorch mark and a spatial ring. This was Dylosen’s legacy.

“Such powerful fire!” Link sighed. If he’d been hit, he would probably die too. Bending down, he picked up Dylosen’s ring and checked it. It contained some spell-casting material, a magic notebook, and the Chaotic Moon divine gear.

Even though Dylosen gave them three Level-19 divine gear, the other two were only auxiliary items. For example, the Battle Horn could raise soldier morale and even make them go crazy. It could affect up to one million people and was a great weapon in a battle between two armies, but it was useless in an advanced fight.

The Chaotic Moon was nice, but they could only use it one month from now.

In other words, if they wanted to defeat the Lava Knight and get the fragment, Eliard and Link could only depend on themselves.

Eliard chuckled wryly. “It’ll be more dangerous than our fight against Morpheus.”

They could still escape if they couldn’t have defeated Morpheus. But if they couldn’t defeat Mozur, they would end up like Dylosen.

“There’s no other solution. The enemy might have a territory, but he’s only a Warrior. We might not lose!” Link smiled faintly, but his eyes were abnormally cold.

Seeing him like this, Eliard knew that his old friend was ready to risk it all. Composing himself, he murmured, “For Ferde!”