Advent of the Archmage

"Someone brought him away. Look at the traces, he was brought in that direction."

At the Yabba Craftsmen Treasury entrance, Link inspected the ground and saw traces of blood as well as faint footprints. He traced it along for about 150 feet before it suddenly disappeared.

"It's that Agatha Naga that escaped. She's crafty!" Link said to the rest of the Yabbas following him.

Elin could not wrap her mind around it. "Don't tell me he is planning to revive Akensser? But even his brain is smashed. Is his corpse going to be of any use?"

She knew that the enemy was backed by a god who could probably revive the dead. But even then, wouldn't Akensser just be revived as a headless zombie?

Link had no way to accurately determine the actions of the God of Destruction. He thought for a moment before saying, "It doesn't matter what methods he uses, he has one objective: He wants to bring more Nagas into Firuman, and Lariel City is an excellent place for him to start his invasion as it contains many resources. Therefore, we must move out these resources."

Before they were killed, the Nagas were preparing to move the Black Kun Rock to the center of the magic net. This showed that Akesser was able to manipulate the magic net in order to open up a dimensional portal.

Some of the other Yabbas might not be able to comprehend the depth of the danger they were facing but Elin could. In this short night, she had come into contact twice with the god hidden in the void… Anyway, no matter the case, they couldn't stay in Lariel City anymore. Even if they managed to repair the airships and the magic net, they still couldn't stay here.

She turned to Link and said, "After the magic net was destroyed, the Mana density here has been increasing, making this place unsuitable for living. Lord, let us quickly head south."

Franklin looked around forlornly. After a long moment of silence, he nodded. "Elin, you were right, we should have listened to your advice. We're going to head south now," he said.

He turned to Link. "Lord, you have fulfilled your promise, so we Yabbas will keep our side of the bargain and move over to your territory. I heard from Elin that there is an island off the coast of Ferde…"

Link smiled and replied, "Elin is very familiar with this, you can check the details with her."

Elin nodded and took out a book filled with her notes and handed it to Lord Franklin. These notes were created during the time she spent with Link in the Dragon Valley.

Franklin looked through it carefully before nodding his head. "I've no issue with this, let's go!"

The Yabba craftsmen were gathered beside him. Franklin turned to them and instructed, "We will get rid of everything here. Those that can be brought with us, bring them, those that can't, destroy them. Once we reach south, we will rebuild what we have. The Lord has promised us a territory on an island where we can live and manage ourselves."

That being the case, the craftsmen had no other disagreement. They began to discuss the details on the clearing out operation.

These details were naturally something that Link was not familiar with and did not need to bother with either. It was better for him to stay out of it and do something else. Since he was bored, he decided to inspect the Yabba's Saint statue.

The statue was made of a material that could be used to make a permanent magic portal. They obviously could not leave it here for the enemy. The Yabbas were prepared to dismantle the statue and bring it with them to the south.

In fact, the Yabbas were even prepared to destroy the mine where the materials for this statue had come from.

Watching them struggle with the work, Link decided to help them.

He figured that he could use some spells to speed up the process. Thinking about it for a moment, he decided to use the Demon Slaying whip. After instructing the Yabbas to keep their distance, he unleashed the Demon Slaying whip. A thin gold and red strand of silk appeared which began to wrap itself around the statue, turning it into molten rock.

"Break!"

The crystal red silk suddenly tightened up, and the statue was sliced into sheets not more than half an inch thick. Once the sheets crashed to the floor, they shattered into tiny pieces that weighed not more than 22 pounds each.

"Alright, let's move it," Link said to the stunned Yabbas.

Not long later, all the Yabbas were helping out with the moving effort. Even Link and Riel were helping out. The Yabba craftsmen were in the process of repairing the flying airships, and the worked without rest. Even when Link and Riel had stopped to rest, they were still continuing with their work.

This lasted for three days. After three days, the Yabba craftsmen actually managed to completely repair a full medium-sized battle airship, as well as over 20 small airships. This allowed the Yabbas to regain a significant amount of their fighting strength.

At the same time, the 200,000 Yabbas inside Lariel City were like a swarm of ants, clearing out the entire city and turning it into a ghost town.

Everything that had value or could be used were taken away.

After another two days, besides the Yabba craftsmen who were still hard at work repairing the planes, the rest of the Yabbas had started their journey on the road south.

From a piece of high ground outside of Lariel City, Link, Riel, and the Yabba commanders were watching the migrating Yabbas.

Link said to Franklin, "The situation in the south is not that good either. Necromancer Andrew is attacking Girvent forest. Most likely, Hot Spring City will also have fallen. As you guys move south, don't go too quickly. We will first liberate Orida Fortress from its siege. Once we do that, the alliance army will head over to your assistance. I estimate it will take ten days."

"Understood," Franklin nodded.

Of course, the south was also not at peace, but no matter what, it was better than the situation in the Hengduan Mountain Range. Most importantly, in the south, there was Link, a Legendary level expert standing guard. This gave everyone a greater sense of security.

Originally, Riel was planning to return with them to Orida Fortress to get his vengeance on the demons. However, due to the Yabbas relentless pleading as well as a couple of beautiful Yabba girls who had come to entertain him, he gave in and agreed to escort them south. Riel could not resist the bright and beautiful Yabba eyes with the pleading look in them.

As for the situation at Orida Fortress, Riel knew that Link could handle it on his own. At this time, a small airship flew towards them. Lannie was piloting it, and as she neared them, she curved in a slight arc, bringing the craft to a gentle stop.

The airship cover opened up and Lannie's baby-like face beamed. "Lord, this craft has been modified to fit two people. Let me take you to Orida Fortress first," Lannie said.

Link took a look and saw that as Lannie had said, there was now a space with a nice comfortable chair. Link had no reason to refuse. Turning to Franklin, he said, "Then, I'll make a move first."

"Be careful," Franklin said.

"Lord, come back quickly," Elin couldn't help but say as well.

"Link, help me thrash those dogs of demons," Riel shouted. He waved his warhammer ferociously. Evidently, Riel was still itching for a fight.

"Don't worry, I will," Link replied.

Link laughed and climbed into the airship. Zip. The cover of the airship closed and Lannie shouted, "Okay, taking off!"

Link suddenly felt his body getting heavier before they shot off into the sky. Only after they reached a height of 9000 feet did the airship stop ascending and turn towards Orida Fortress.

The airship was pretty fast, traveling at about 900 feet per second. Furthermore, it was traveling in a straight line directly to Orida Fortress. It was the perfect mode of transport for rushing about.

Lannie adjusted the spell formations controlling the airship and laughed. "In three and a half hours, we will be at Orida Fortress."

"Marvelous," Link praised. The interior of the airship was actually pretty spacious. He could lie back comfortably in the seat and relax. Lannie was focused on piloting the plane, and Link was bored, so he took out a textbook and begin studying.

He was looking at a book titled Essence of the Flame. Previously, there were many areas in which he did not understand. Now that his power had attained the Legendary level, some things which he did not understand before now began to make sense.

Once one possessed enough strength, some things would come naturally to you.

He got more engrossed the more he studied the book, deepening his understanding of the essence and the laws of fire. As he read, he took notes. Every now and then, he would get a flash of inspiration and would draft out designs for new spell structures.

Time flew by quickly.

As he was getting very engrossed in his work, Lannie's voice suddenly reminded him of the present situation. "Lord, we're reaching Orida Fortress in a bit."

"Oh, that's fast!" Link reacted. He stretched out his head to take a look and realized that the yellow barrier around Orida Fortress was still intact. That told him that the fortress had not been breached. He exhaled in relief, before looking towards the demon army around the fortress.

After looking for a moment, Link frowned.

Six thousand miles away from Orida Fortress, Lannie could just barely make out the fortress but could not see the actual situation on the ground. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"It looks like the number of demons has decreased by a lot."

At a glance, it was clear that the number of demons had gone down by about half. Where could they be? Did they go back to the Black Forest? Or did they proceed south?

Link considered many possibilities.

There would certainly be no issue if they went back to the Black Forest. However, if they had proceeded south, there would be trouble. The path towards the south was obviously defended. However, most of the troops garrisoned there were called towards Orida Fortress, leaving the defenses weak. The demons would be able to break through easily.

As he thought of this, Link saw about six demons running out of Orida Fortress and heading back towards the Black Forest.

These demons weren't moving in any coordinated manner. It was obvious that they were running separately and without any semblance of order. It was almost as if they were deserting the army. Looking at this, Link exhaled in relief. "It seems they're in chaos because of the loss of their commander."

Saroviny was trapped in Aragu. That was a good thing.

Thinking about this, Link said, "Let's descend here. There are about 20,000 demons outside Orida Fortress. We mustn't let a single one escape."

"Lord, that is 20,000. Are you sure? Lannie was shocked. She had assumed that Link would head directly into Orida Fortress and lead the Warriors from inside out to do battle with the demons.

She had never even considered the possibility that Link would… decide to do battle all by himself. It was incomprehensible.

"Don't worry about me. Just descend here and stay hidden. I'm going to begin my sneak attack," Link said. He drew out the Dragon King's Wrath sword.