When A Mage Revolts

The cave that they were in did not look too sturdy. Under such immense impact from the explosion, could it possibly…...

Thinking about it made Benjamin’s hairs stood on ends.

"Quick! Retreat! Retreat into the secret tunnel!"

He shouted at his mages while summoning even more water films, this time setting them above their heads.

Seconds after he said this, the entire cave finally seemed to no longer be able to withstand the impact and started to collapse.

Stone and earth started crumbling and dropping from the ceiling. If not for Benjamin’s preparation of the water films, they would probably have been buried under all the earth.

However, the extra burden put immense strain on Benjamin.

"Go out, quickly! I cannot hold it much longer!"

The world around them was intensely shaking and their ears were filled with an almost deafening rumble. Practically no one could maintain their balance under such a situation. Benjamin was forced to summon even more water vapour and used it as a violent wind to help push the people out as they ran.

"What about Scarlett and the..." The King turned his head as he was being pushed out by the water vapour.

But all he saw was a screen of dust. The dirt was thick in the air and he could barely see a few feet ahead of himself.

"Leave them! I cannot save them!" Benjamin urged in a loud voice.

With the entire cave shaking so badly, the King was soon falling left and right, and could not even run properly. Benjamin was doing his best to use magic to pick up as many of the soldiers as he could before attempting to fly out himself.

However, there was another blast.

There was a sharp pain in Benjamin’s head, as though thousands of kilograms was pushing down on top of him. He lifted his head to look and saw that the debris from the collapse was not just rocks and stones anymore. The walls of the cave themselves had given way and were now pressing down on the water films. Benjamin's vision started to become blurry from his fatigue.

Damn…... damn it, he felt as though he could not hold on any longer.

He did not know how much weight he was holding up now with his magic, but he was pretty much holding up a mountain at this point.

He used his last bit of energy to drag a few members of his party away as he flew out of the cave himself.

At the same time, the ground under their feet suddenly split open, revealing a bottomless pit. The soldiers who had been running for their lives suddenly found that they no longer had any footing; they fell into the dark abyss, their screams echoing their fate.

Benjamin’s vision darkened as his consciousness started to fade.

Why... haven’t they reached the end yet…

They had considered the cave to be rather small when they first entered, but in this scenario, it seemed almost endless.

Benjamin surrendered. With his last bit of energy, he cast a giant water ball spell, attempting to bundle everyone up inside of it. Then, he stopped supporting the walls.

The humongous water ball, with almost a hundred people inside it, began to fall downward at high speeds, quickly disappearing into the darkness. At the same time, the walls of the cave came crashing down above them. In seconds, the entire cave was filled up with debris, as though it had never existed in the first place.

The undergrounds once again returned to silence.

After some time.

"Hey, wake up! Wake up quickly!"

"Uh..."

"Benjamin, open your eyes quick, if you continue to sleep you’ll get washed away. Hey! Do you hear me?"

Benjamin suddenly awoke with a start.

He abruptly sat up on the ground, feeling dizzy and lightheaded; he was confused and found that his entire body was mysteriously soaked in water.

"Snap out of it, let’s get moving quickly." The System urged in his mind.

Benjamin rubbed his temples and took a deep breath, slowly coming back to his senses. He recalled the moments before he had lost consciousness. The water ball had fallen fast and he remembered his sight being completely washed over with darkness. After that, he did not remember anything.

He did not fall to his death or anything like that. He had only fainted.

So... What now?

He stretched his aching body for a while. There were no major injuries nor did he suffer any blood loss. The bubble he had created before he had fainted turned out to be quite useful.

However, he still could not get over what had just happened.

Who would have thought that the magic casting of a group of mages could cause such a frightening changes in the elemental energies? After a chain of explosions, the entire cave had collapsed on itself.

He really wanted to ask the System whether that was the so-called ‘backlash’? Did this rascal know what the word ‘backlash’ even meant? But, Benjamin did not bother asking – he didn’t have time to deal with the System’s witty replies.

The System had not deceived him for quite some time now. He was a fool for thinking that he would not deceive him anymore.

Shaking his head, he stood up and began to observe his surroundings. He was still underground, it was just that the space here was much narrower than the cave from just now. Glowing moss covered the walls, glowing dimly and acting as this subterranean world’s only source of light. He felt the rush of liquid around his legs and looked down to see an extremely shallow underground river.

Had he fallen into an even narrower underground world?

Benjamin felt slightly uneasy. The underground cave just now was already very deep. How long had they fallen for after it had caved in? Could they even still return to the surface anymore?

He was not too worried about the safety of the others.

Under the light cast by the glow of the moss, he could faintly see that there were many people lying in along the underground stream. One, two... He was not sure about the soldiers, but the mages that Benjamin had brought were all there. Some of them were slowly being carried away by the water current so Benjamin hurriedly dragged them up the banks. The figure of the King was also in their midst, twitching, but alive.

Thank goodness.

Benjamin heaved a great sigh of relief.

What had just happened was very much an unexpected disaster; the Queen’s mages casting their magic had caused them to suffer losses too. Because of this, Benjamin summoned some waterballs of healing and smashed them one after another into the people around him who were still unconscious, hoping to help them wake up sooner.

However, very quickly he realized that something was amiss.

Amongst the mages... It seemed that there were not only his men but also some unfamiliar faces.

"This mage is one of the Queen’s underlings, yes?" Benjamin furrowed his eyebrows, pointing at an unfamiliar mage wearing a magical robe and asking in his heart.

"Erm," the System said, "Not just this one, but the one on the left... And the two up front, they are all under the Queen. Can you use your eyes when rescuing people?"

"I thought that they had all been blown apart in the first elemental energy explosion."

"They are extremely lucky I guess."

"..."

Benjamin looked at the few mages.

The mages that belonged to the Queen were visibly in much worse condition; there were many wounds on their bodies, probably caused by the violent stirring of the elemental energy. Nevertheless, the most important point to focus on was the fact that they were still alive.

If they were still alive, it meant that the Queen was also still breathing – they would surely put her life ahead of theirs.

How was it even possible to have survived that explosion?

Benjamin was somewhat in awe.

After the elemental energy had exploded, smoke and dust had filled the air and nothing could be seen. Even his water elemental sensing technique had been limited, so he did not know what had happened on the other side. He did not understand how the Queen had survived.

However, the layout before him told him that the Queen and her mages had probably fallen down here as well.

Arriving at these thoughts, he immediately scanned his surroundings. If he could find the unconscious Queen and get her under control, he would, in turn, gain control over the entire Icor and they would not have gone through all of this for nothing!

However, he could only detect a hundred or so unconscious men in the vicinity, the Queen was nowhere to be found.

"While I was falling, did you notice the Queen?" He asked the System.

"No, I did not see her." The System answered, "She might have fallen to a different location, or might have been washed away by the water, who knows? The few enemy mages you have just rescued were also brought here by the currents."

"...Alright."

There was nothing Benjamin could do. He could only give up on the idea of holding the Queen captive and continue waking people up.