Advent of the Archmage

On the sea

As soon as Bryant finished speaking, there were three poofs. Three dark red beams shot out from the sea, coming at him from different directions.

Each beam was extremely consolidated and as thick as an arm. At a glance, they looked like three dark red crystal thorns. Not only were they attacking Bryant, they also sealed all of his escape routes.

At that moment, Bryant felt a wild and destructive energy coming at him. It felt like he had been struck by lightning and was immobilized. He couldn't even think properly.

All that remained in his vision was boundless red light. He only had one thought: So the God of Destruction really exists.

Only a god could have energy like that.

Faced with the attack, any delay was fatal. Bryant was about to hit, but then a misty ripple suddenly erupted thirty feet in front of him. The three beams buried into the ripple almost simultaneously and slowed down.

That was when Bryant finally reacted. His body transformed into a haze with a whoosh, and he put his all into running from the path of the red beams.

Crack, crack. Behind him, it sounded like crystals were being shattered. He looked back and saw that the spatial magic had shattered. The three beams shot through the place where had just been.

So close! Bryant couldn't help but feel belated shock. He really had brushed shoulders with death.

Immediately after, he looked in another direction. There, a black-haired youth in a dark blue robe hovered in the sky. He hadn't put away his magic sword yet; the white glow around him hadn't faded either.

It was Link. He had arrived and saved Bryant.

Why did he do that? Doesn't he know that I've always wanted to kill him? Bryant was utterly confused.

"Don't hesitate!" Link yelled. "That's the servant of the God of Destruction! We must fight together!"

As he spoke, he glanced at his vision and chose to accept the mission. It was a follow-up mission to the last one.

Reinforcement

Mission Content: Help the High Elves defeat the servants of the God of Destruction. Protect the Silver Storm Sparrows from damage.

Mission Reward: 20 Jogu

Additional Reward: The player will receive five Jogu with every Silver Storm Sparrow saved.

Link was too lazy to do something as unrewarding and difficult as protecting the Silver Storm Sparrows.

In reality, he'd already arrived when the servant of the God of Destruction had attacked the first Silver Storm Sparrow, but he'd just watched. He gave up on the additional fifteen Jogu.

When the three Silver Storm Sparrows all sank and the servants prepared to attack the surviving High Elves, Link pretended to have just arrived and saved Bryant.

Link wasn't a nice guy, and the High Elves weren't either. Bryant thought that Link had killed his granddaughter and probably wanted to take revenge.

But now, the God of Destruction's servants had appeared. Link guessed that they wanted to destroy the fleet to intensify the conflicts between Ferde and the Isle of Dawn. Link could use this chance to make the High Elves realize how powerful the God of Destruction was—to let them know there was a terrible enemy lurking in the shadows. That way, they wouldn't keep bothering Link.

As for whether the High Elves would suffer great casualties, Link didn't care. As far as he knew, there were more than forty Silver Storm Sparrows. Losing three would just make the lesson memorable.

These thoughts were all running through Link's mind. No one knew. Judging by his actions, he had shown up to help at the most critical moment.

On the other hand, Bryant seemed to wake from his trance at Link's words. Faced with this big enemy, he had no other thoughts. He could only choose to ally with the human. "I don't know where he's hiding!" he yelled.

The most awkward thing was that he wouldn't fear these enemies if they were face to face, but they were hiding in the sea for surprise attacks. Their hiding techniques were advanced, too. He had no target at all; he was a sitting goose.

As he spoke, Link moved his force field to approach him. He took out his magic sword and pointed at the sea's surface. "I'll save the people first. Watch out for me."

Spatial Distortion: Symmetrical Gravity Force Field!

A huge force field spread out, pressing down across thousands of feet of water.

Something strange happened. Under the force field, the seawater became concave, dipping down dozens of feet. It looked like a basin in the middle of the sea. The High Elf survivors in the area felt the opposite force. They had been struggling to escape from the scary silver fish but now, they floated into the air.

From the beginning of the attack to then, only around eighty High Elves were still left. The enemy was obviously very skilled.

When they floated in the air, the fish in the sea tried to jump up to attack. However, the force field acted on them, multiplying their weight.

Plop, plop. Two fish burst from the sea but were forced back down before they could reach thirty feet above sea level. They couldn't catch up with the floating elves.

This scene was too astounding. All the High Elf Magicians, including spatial Magician Vonhelon, were all dumbfounded. They couldn't believe a Legendary Magician could have such mind-blowing power!

"Take them away!" Link roared.

As soon as he spoke, there were small poofs from the sea. Some dark red beams shot towards him. They also contained horrible destructive intent, trying to crush Link's will.

However, he was different from Bryant.

Legendary Dragon Power coursed through his veins. He also had the Heart of the Dragon. His soul was protected by layers of Dragon Power and wasn't affected at all. This was a dragon's natural advantage. Otherwise, they wouldn't survive the chaos in the Void when they entered the Sea of Void.

Link didn't move, but he was multitasking. Poof, poof, poof. Three balls containing black vortexes appeared before him. They were Despair Balls.

However, the three destructive beams didn't hit the Despair Balls because they were stopped halfway through.

A watery shield more than fifteen feet wide shot up before Link. The watery surface crystallized, turning into a smooth mirror. The next moment, the beams hit the mirror. Poof, poof, poof. The shield melted, but the beams reflected back into the sea.

Bryant had acted.

At the same time, the other Magicians, led by Vonhelon, reacted too. They started to help the survivors Link had pulled into the air.

There were more than thirty Magicians and they were all above Level-7. Vonhelon was at Level-9. Helping the survivors was an easy task. They quickly grabbed them all and started retreating.

Link deactivated the large scale force field. During this process, his eyes remained on the sea. He had the Vision of Truth; this was his greatest advantage. The enemy couldn't hide when he had this vision.

The sea didn't exist in his eyes. He had confirmed the enemies' locations during the last attack. Under the Vision of Truth, he saw three light spots hiding in the water. They looked like Agatha Nagas.

"I see them," he called to Bryant. "They're 300 feet deep. I'll point them out and you attack!"

Bryant shook his wand. The silver leaf flew out and floated beside him, waiting for Link to point out the targets.

Link focused his gaze and pointed the Dragon King's Fury sword in the air. "Despair!"

Poof. A Despair Ball appeared before Bryant. He'd seen this spell before. After a moment of hesitation, he shot the leaf into the ball.

At the same time, another Despair Ball opened up beside a Naga. The silver leaf shot out and buried into the Naga.

The Naga had a sturdy divine shield. When the silver leaf collided with it, there was a bright flash. After a tenth of a second, the leaf dimmed and returned to Bryant. The Naga's shield had thinned too. Only one more hit was needed.

"Despair!"

Another Despair Ball appeared before Link. He stabbed his sword in. Poof! The sword tip was behind the Naga. It easily broke through the thin shield and stabbed into the Naga's head.

"One down, two to go. Again!"

Link tossed another Despair Ball to Bryant. This time, Bryant didn't hesitate at all. He shot his silver leaf in, his intensity at least ten percent stronger than before.

Boom!

The leaf fought with the divine shield again. Waves tossed, and the shield was destroyed. The Naga was hit by the leaf, too. She didn't die, but she became dazed. Link stabbed again and easily took care of her.

Two of the three were killed almost instantly. The third felt something amiss and fervently swam deeper. At the same time, two large silver fish swam towards her to protect her.

"One more. She's about to escape. I'll force her out and you get ready!" Link called.

Poof! A Despair Ball appeared. It was more than thirty feet wide and used up more than 2,000 Dragon Power points. At the same time, another six-foot-wide Void Destructor fireball appeared on his other hand. He waited instead of rushing the attack.

When the Naga and two fish grouped together, he tossed the Void Destructor into the Despair Ball.

Boom! Bryant saw a huge flash under the water. The entire sea turned crystal red. After that, the sea started swelling up from the fireball's force and became bloated.

In Link's Vision of Truth, he saw that the three guys had the daylights blasted out of them. The two fish and Naga started floating up. The divine shields were mostly gone, too.

"Now!" Link yelled.

This time, Bryant saw the enemies. They were semi-conscious; it was the best time for an attack.

His silver leaf pierced the sea surface. It shot through the Naga and then towards one silver fish. It buried into one of the fish's eyes and out the other, then it went towards the second one, hitting its head in the same way.

Whoosh. The leaf came back out, returning to Bryant's wand.

The servants of the God of Destruction had all been killed. The sea returned to silence.

Link looked to Bryant and smiled thinly. "Do you feel the power of the God of Destruction now? He's been watching us from the darkness, trying to make us fight. That day at the lighthouse, your daughter used similar power to kill me. After she failed, she suffered from the backlash of the power."

Bryant looked to the ruins of the fight in silence. After some time, he asked, "Why did you save me?"

He could tell that Link could easily kill them all. The other High Elves were still alive and could attest to his innocence. He hadn't had to save Bryant at all.

If Bryant had been in this situation, he would have watched Link get killed without any hesitation, then come out to save the others.

Link smiled. "I want to see if the human hero from 300 years ago really lost his conscience."

With that, white light flashed, and half a second later, Link disappeared. Only Bryant remained, hovering silently above the sea.

After a while, Vonhelon rushed over. "Prophet, are we safe?" he asked.

"Yes. The servants are all dead. Those are the corpses." Bryant pointed at the Nagas floating on the surface. "Take them back so we can study them."

"Our ship is gone. Where do we go?" Vonhelon asked.

"Go back to Ferde. We'll ask the lord for a ship."

"Will he try to negotiate?"

Bryant frowned slightly. The High Elf's words suddenly felt jarring to his ears.

In the current situation, the Ferde lord was no longer their enemy. They had a mutual enemy—the God of Destruction. Since Link had saved them, why would he pull tricks for something as small as a ship? And even if he did, so what? He had just saved them. They had to repay the act anyhow.

"So what?" he retorted. "Do you have any other ideas?"

"I understand." Vonhelon turned back. He grouped the survivors and flew towards the mainland.

Bryant didn't speak during the trip. No one knew what he was thinking about.