Advent of the Archmage

"Link, what happened?" Felina landed.

"I killed Todelron," Link said the good news first.

"Huh? Wasn't he killed long ago?" Felina still hadn't processed everything.

"I really killed him this time. I stopped Isendilan from resurrecting him, and now he has his eyes on me." That was the bad news.

Felina gulped in shock and repeated, "You said the duke has his eyes on you now?"

"Yeah, let's go now. As fast as possible." Link climbed onto Nana and realized that Nana's backside was much softer now. Before, she'd been soft metal but still felt uncomfortable after a while. Now, she was soft, comfy, and even a bit warm, practically like a real human.

Not bad, not bad. The Red Dragon Queen's life essence is really an amazing thing, Link couldn't help but think.

Felina was speechless. She didn't understand how Link could be so calm. Being targeted by a legendary dragon was basically death.

However, she'd fought together with Link many times now. They'd faced enemies with Divine Gear in the Northern Black Forest, faced Level-9 undead High Elves, and fought with Osiris. She knew that if Link acted this calmly, it meant he already thought of a solution.

As expected, Link said, "Don't worry. I can escape from him, and he won't be able to find us."

As he spoke, Isendilan's voice continued to ring in his mind. Mortal, you can't escape. I'll burn your soul with fire.

Mortal, you don't know who exactly you've offended! Let me tell you, it is I, Isendilan, the king of the Red Dragons chosen by God!

Mortal, stop now. Stand there without moving and wait for my judgment!

Mortal…!

The voice kept going. As time passed, it became clearer and clearer. This meant that Isendilan had left his castle and was coming after them, closing in on them. However, this was okay. Nana was very fast and could run 650 feet per second while carrying Link without using all her strength.

If Link didn't cast a defense spell for himself, he'd probably get killed from the wind.

With this speed, Felina could barely keep up, using up a lot of her physical strength. She transformed into a dragon and followed close behind in the air. The three ran crazily like this and Nana brought Link past 30 miles within five minutes. This speed was wild.

"Alright, let's stop now," Link said. The voice in his mind had become clearer again, but overall, it was okay. Isendilan wasn't as fast as Link had expected.

Nana came to a stop. Link took out the Breakpoint dagger. Feeling around with his eyes closed, he suddenly sliced the air.

Mortal, I see you—

With the small slice, Isendilan's voice disappeared completely from Link's mind. Then, the indescribable terror was reduced until it was extremely weak. This meant Isendilan was still looking but had lost him.

"Felina, come down. We're safe," Link called to the air.

Felina flapped her wings and landed in the grass. She gazed curiously at Link. "Safe? Why?"

She didn't feel any change.

"I cut the spirit sensory between us," Link explained quickly. "He doesn't know where we are now and the Golden Plains is so vast. If we're careful, there won't be any problem."

Felina only received a shallow explanation. Cut the spirit sensory? How? She didn't know how reliable this was, but she trusted Link. Since he said it was okay, then they were definitely safe.

Link climbed down from Nana's back and said, "Isendilan still knows where we are now so we must leave quickly."

"Master, should I continue carrying you?" Nana asked.

"Not for now. We'll use a new way." As he spoke, Link activated the Dimensional Jump. White light blanketed all three of them, and they moved half a mile after a soft buzz. It wasn't far away enough though, so Link used the spell again, and they teleported again.

Link now had up to 17000 Mana Points. He used the spell five continuous times without worry and used up 9000 Mana Points. They moved three miles in three seconds.

This wasn't all.

Dimensional Jumping was a legendary spell, but they would still leave ripples in space while moving. Others could use these traces to find them.

Link wouldn't have to worry about being discovered by regular opponents, but Link was willing to use all his power against someone legendary like Isendilan. He couldn't be too careful.

After stopping, he used his understanding of space and began erasing the marks in the spatial structure bit by bit. It looked complicated, but it was just like a fox using its tail to sweep the snow, getting rid of all evidence and making it impossible to trace them.

Around two minutes later, Link said, "Felina, don't fly anymore. You're too obvious of a target."

"I understand." She didn't dare fly around when the situation was unclear. If she ran into Isendilan in the air, she would be dead meat.

Link then cast an invisibility spell on all three of them so Isendilan wouldn't be able to see from the sky.

After all this, the last bit of terror disappeared. This meant they'd completely escaped from Isendilan's eyes. Turning towards Nana, he said, "Continue carrying me. This time, charge at full speed. Yes, just like that."

Nana moved at full speed. Her speed had increased to a stable 1000 feet per second. Felina almost couldn't keep up. Rather than telling Nana to slow down, Link cast an acceleration spell on Felina. She instantly sped up and was right behind Nana.

"Link, we've already lost him so why do we still have to go so fast?" Felina still felt that she was using up too much energy.

Link obviously had thought deeply about this. "Isendilan had always been pursuing us, and he's familiar with our speed," he explained. "Even if he can't find us, he can still guess our approximate location. At that time, if he uses a wide-range search spell, we'll be revealed. Running like this can make him miscalculate. As long as he can't find us with a search spell, we'll be truly safe!"

All this made Felina's head hurt, but thankfully, she understood. Gritting her teeth, she followed right behind Nana.

"Master, where are we going?"

"White Cloud City…but don't go directly south. It'll reveal our target. Go east first, and don't worry about leaving behind traces. We want to leave some marks to fool Isendilan. When we cover enough distance, we'll turn back."

If they cared about their trail, they wouldn't be able to run quickly. If Link left some marks, Isendilan would definitely be tricked. This didn't mean he was stupid. It was because he could only find these marks so he would be forced to follow them. This was an overt trick.

"Got it," Nana answered and immediately changed her direction.

After traveling 65 miles, they'd gone around 70 miles with the distance covered before. "Okay," Link said. "We can slow down now."

Felina let out a breath of relief. Even with Link's spell, she was still exhausted from running at full speed for so long. She glanced at Nana and saw that she was still composed. Felina had to admit that the magic puppet's speed was just crazy.

On the other hand, Link activated the Dimensional Jump without hesitation to go south. He still had more than 8000 Mana Points now. After drinking the perfect Mana potion, he recovered 2000 points and jumped five times quickly.

After wiping the traces like before, he finally took a breather. "Okay, now we should be able to go south slowly. Just be careful, and it'll be okay."

…

Not even five minutes after Link left, a huge figure appeared in the sky. He came like a streak of dark red lightning, instantly hovering above where Link had used the Dimensional Jump.

He was almost 200 feet tall, comparable in size to the Red Dragon Queen. Dark red smoke wrapped around him. His eyes were blood red like burning fire. Here, he dove down and vaporized when he was 300 feet in the air.

The ball of vapor landed on the ground gently. When the fog dissipated, a man in a dark red Magician's robe appeared.

He had dark red hair, and his eyes gleamed red. His pale face was very handsome and ageless. He could be 20 years old, but his aura was like a timeworn elder.

He was the first traitor of the dragons—Red Dragon Duke Isendilan.

Standing in the grass, Isendilan looked around. This guy went from here so there should be footprints, a smell, or something, right?

A few seconds later, he indeed found footprints. There were three sets. One set was thin and looked like a girl's, but she was abnormally heavy—more than 200 pounds. Another set was wide and obviously a dragon. The last set was plain with average body weight. From the smell left in the air, it was probably a human.

Earlier, Isendilan could only faintly sense their location and send some threats, but he didn't know too much about the specifics.

Theron came back and said there's three of them. One is a Level-8 human Magician, one is an unbelievably fast human girl, and there's also Felina. It's a strange group.

Isendilan looked around. He tried to find the footprints of them leaving, but this time, he failed.

There aren't any departure marks. They just disappeared without a trace. Huh, this is annoying. Isendilan furrowed his brows. Pondering, he reached out. A golden glow shone from his fingertip, and he pointed in the air. It was the Spatial Eye.

Spatial Eye

Legendary Detection Spell

Description: The spell-caster marks the subtle energy in the surrounding space so the spatial structure will show more clearly. This spell effectively helps the spell-caster track targets who use spatial magic to escape.

(Note: there is no way to hide!)

The air surrounding Isendilan shimmered, and the air within a 300-foot radius seemed to turn into water. There were various streaks of light and shadows that sketched out an accurate spatial structure.

Isendilan inspected carefully for a full two minutes. His brows started furrowing. These three really did use a spatial tunnel to escape, but the Magician's understanding of space is comparable to me. He even wiped all traces.

What kind of enemy was the most difficult in the mortal world?

The first one was spatial Magicians. To these guys, space was a sea. Whenever needed, they could go into the water and either escape to somewhere far away or stay hidden for a surprise attack. They were unstoppable.

Isendilan's traces were all cut off. He had no way of following them. The human Magician's tricks were too frightening, and he could even decode the resurrection technique. Isendilan must find him!

Thankfully, he had a more basic approach!

He used a teleportation spell, but it's an ad hoc teleportation, and they can't travel far. The limit is five miles. From their earlier speed, they could only go around 40 miles at most during this time. I'll look for them within a 60-mile radius!

With this thought in mind, Isendilan sat onto the ground and closed his eyes. A few seconds later, black-red light streaked across him for a few seconds. Then the light trembled violently and spread out at an unimaginable speed.

After around five seconds, an image appeared in Isendilan's mind.

No one in the east but there are signs of high-speed movement in the grass. They went east!

Isendilan opened his eyes with some fatigue. Searching within 60 miles was very consuming, and he was tired out. He still didn't find them, but he cackled.

Tricky Magician, you held back your speed earlier. Nice tricks and calculations but unluckily, I'm your opponent!

He stood up, transformed into a dragon, flapped his wings, and hurried east.