Advent of the Archmage

The officer's words shocked everyone inside the command cabin. Link rose immediately and walked to the window to look down at Lirico City.

He saw a glowing white net slowly form on the surface of the city. It became brighter and brighter while the Mana density shot up.

Master Franklin also moved the wheelchair over and looked down. He was both shocked and furious. "Akensser must have done this! But how is he this powerful?"

The magic net was the crystallization of millenniums of Yabba wisdom. Every generation would work on refining it. Even if Akensser was an advanced craftsman, even if he had hundreds of followers, the core was inside the city protected by the Light Wall. How could he control the entire net?

Franklin couldn't figure it out.

By now, the magic net had become even brighter and brighter. Horrible Mana rose up from it. Many white spots of Mana light appeared in the air, even inside the command cabin.

From afar, it looked as if it was snowing in Lirico City. But instead of floating down, the "snowflakes" rose up from the ground as if time was reversed.

Elin suddenly clutched her head and screamed, "Hurry! Hurry! I sense destruction and death!"

This time, Franklin didn't hesitate. "Hurry out of here!" he immediately ordered.

Whoo, whoo

The entire magic wind seal of the airship fleet sped forward at full speed. Then it accelerated, leaving Lirico behind.

The airships were extremely fast. Even the huge ones could reach 650 feet per second. After 20 seconds, the entire fleet was out of Lirico City's range.

"Not enough! Keep going! Hide behind the mountain!" Master Franklin continued yelling.

The fleet continued forward and soon passed over the tall mountains to the south of the city.

"Quickly reduce elevation! Hurry! Now!" Franklin yelled.

The fleet immediately went lower. When they reached 65 feet in elevation, Link's heart clenched. Then he saw a thick wave of faint purple Mana seep over from the mountains, coming straight for the fleet.

He also saw that on the other side without the mountains as a barrier, the Mana wave was already dark purple. If it washed over a regular person, even if they didn't die, there would still be horrible lasting effects.

"The airship will be destroyed! Get ready!" commander Merlin exclaimed.

Whoosh! The Mana wave washed over the airship fleet, and the entire magic seal became effective immediately. The fleet started falling.

Thankfully, they were only around 60 feet in the air and were already close to the ground. It was a forest below them as well. The trees were a few dozen feet tall. The airships dropped down and crashed into the trees within half a second.

Crack, crash! Countless trees were flattened, and the Yabbas inside the airships swayed violently.

Just as the ship was about to land, Link grabbed Elin and Franklin and kept them beside him. At almost the same moment, there was a huge boom. The ship hit the ground and shook violently. Many people fell down, rolling around on the ground. The various things in the cabin fell and smashed against people.

Link hunched over, protecting Elin and Franklin in his embrace. At the same time, crystal-red Dragon Power emerged from his body. With the burst of power, he stood stably.

In the mess, things smashed against his back, hit his arm and head, but Link used Dragon Power to force them away.

The commotion lasted for five or six seconds before silencing.

Link put Elin and Franklin down. Looking around, he saw that the command cabin had become a mess. Various moans and wails reached his ears. The weak Yabbas were strewn amongst the ruins. The elevation wasn't too high, so most were only injured. Some unlucky ones had been hit in the head.

The smell of blood filled the cabin.

Master Franklin stared at this in shock. Then he coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of blood. He wasn't injured—he was just furious.

Elin was also dazed. She stood there dumbly and then ran over to help people. Link went too. He lifted the objects away, dragging out the trapped Yabbas.

He was very fast, and the survivors were quickly taken to safety. There were more than 3000 people and 2800 survived with around 100 dead. That wasn't too bad.

Link went to the other ships.

Some were in good shape. They'd landed before the flagship and were already on the ground when the Mana wave came, so no one was hurt. Others though were much worse. They had been around 100 feet in the air. To the weak Yabbas, even one foot higher would cause the death toll to stagger upward.

Link didn't have time to think. He focused on helping them. The Yabbas who were less injured also started helping others.

Chaos lasted for a full three hours. The survivors were all saved. Less than 800 people had died, which wasn't much. However, the biggest loss was that the magic airships had all lost their effectiveness.

Mana was a strange type of energy. It was highly penetrative but wasn't too harmful towards living beings, especially stronger ones. The wave of Mana only caused people to feel a bit dizzy. Weaker ones would get a headache, but that was it.

However, this energy completely destroyed the Mana machines that the Yabbas relied on. Other than the simpler magic muskets, everything else had become ineffective.

After a while, a craftsman reported the losses. "Master, the Mana pools of many airships are completely destroyed. We can fix at most half of them, but it'll take three months."

Franklin nodded. "That's alright for now."

The mountain only provided limited resistance against the Mana, but if not for the mountains, not even half of the airships would be salvageable. In addition, everyone would suffer a higher intensity of Mana and have more side effects.

At this, Franklin sighed and glanced apologetically at Link. "Ferde Lord, you see how it is. We cannot help the Orida Fortress anymore."

This was indeed bad news, but Link wasn't at a dead end yet.

If the Yabbas couldn't do it, he could go find the dragons or the High Elves. He could even go straight back to the Orida Fortress with Riel. Once the Mana aura disappeared from him and he recovered his magic, he could charge with Riel. Unless there was more than one demon also in the Legendary level, they could definitely defeat them all!

However, he still had many suspicions.

Firstly, how exactly did Akensser destroy the magic net? According to Franklin's reaction, he shouldn't be able to do so.

Secondly, why didn't the game system give any response to this sudden event?

For the first one, Link had no guesses. He wasn't familiar with Lirico City's magic net system. But if Franklin could be so shocked, this must be something uncommon.

The second suspicion gave Link a really bad premonition. In a way, the game system represented the power of the Light Army. In the past, it often used missions to remind Link of dangers that may occur. This time, there was no warning.

There was no reaction at all.

Link checked the mission he now had. It was "Reinforcement Request," and it was still incomplete. The current status bar had become red, meaning he'd failed it.

Did this mean the game system would not give him any more warnings? Or did something block the sensory of the God of Light? The former wasn't quite possible. Since the God of Light wanted Link to save the world, giving some warnings wasn't too much and shouldn't be revoked. Link thought further and felt that the latter was more possible.

This meant something was helping the traitor Akensser. Not only did it provide the way to destroy the magic net, but it also did so without anyone realizing. Who could this be?

The Spider Queen Lolth? The God of Destruction? Or was it the Travel Magician Aisenis? Or some completely unknown powerful entity?

Link didn't have enough information and couldn't hypothesize at all.

On the other hand, Master Franklin saw that Link wasn't speaking and thought he was upset. Franklin sighed and didn't speak either.

At this time, the Yabba scouts came back from the mountain with news about Lirico City.

"Master, the Light Wall is still there and is still complete. But from the openings, we can see that it's dark inside the city. The Mana tide destroyed most facilities, but the residents should be okay. We saw many torches lit inside."

The defense shield of Lirico was completely independent and very reliable. Even if the magic net was compromised, the shield could still be maintained. However, this wasn't significant anymore.

The magic machines were all destroyed. The Yabbas were instantly thrown into a horrible situation. If demons returned to attack them, they could only use simple muskets for defense.

As for the magic cannons, their energy supply was connected to the airships. With the airships damaged, the cannons wouldn't work either. They could be repaired but required time.

The situation was as bad as it could get.

At that time, an extremely loud voice called, "Link, how are you?"

Link looked over and discovered Riel. He'd been hiding in the cave, and after all this time, his power had recovered more than Link. Now, he ran down the mountain at extreme speed.

The Yabbas and dwarves were quite close, and Riel, the King of Mountains, was well-known amongst the Yabbas. Seeing him come, all the Yabbas greeted him, though they weren't very lively because of what had just happened.

When he arrived, Riel bowed to Master Franklin and comforted him. "I was in the cave and saw the magic net collapse. I knew it would be bad. But now, it seems alright. All that matters is that you're all alive."

Franklin shook his head with a wry smile.

"But I just saw Akensser," Riel continued. "He brought some… weird things in the direction of the Light Wall."

Link was shocked. "Weird things?"

Franklin and the other Yabbas perked up too.

But no one discovered that when Elin heard this, her small frame shook violently, and her face paled. She seemed to sense something terrifying.