Advent of the Archmage

"Run?"

When the dark figure laid its eyes upon Link, it let out a hollow laugh. "Run! Run if you can! I love hunting my prey! Kukukuhahaha!"

Skinorse immediately moved in front of Link to block him, facing off against this fellow shrouded in black mists. His heart was thumping, and he whispered to Link, "Lord, I feel like the moment we move, we’ll be killed."

Link was a Level-7 expert and was definitely one of the strongest among the human race. Facing off against an otherworldly demon, that however meant nothing. He could be killed in an instant.

The difference in power was so great that it could not be made up with Battle Art or tricks.

The demon’s hearing was excellent, and it was also in no hurry to attack. Laughing, it mocked, "At least you’re clear on your situation, smart man. However, that’s still not going to save you. DIE!"

Suddenly, the demon commander attacked.

Skinorse watched as the demon commander raised a finger and a streak of black light appeared in the air, flying towards his forehead.

If it hit, Skinorse’s head would definitely explode, and he would die.

Fortunately, Link was as fast as the demon commander. The moment the demon commander stopped talking, Link noticed the Mana fluctuations coming from him. In that instant, Link had prepared his defenses.

A dimensional ball was flung over by Link, meeting the streak of black light in mid-air. Bang! As the two collided, they exploded just hairs away from Skinorse’s body.

Link did not dare to hold anything back. In that instant, he expended 5000 Mana to cast the Spatial Shackles spell, causing it to reach the peak of Level-8 and approach the strength of Level-9.

However, a skill flashed by in that exact instant.

This skill looked completely pitch black, as black as ink. On the surface, it looked somewhat translucent. The moment it collided with the Spatial Shackles, Link felt the shackles shake violently. Moments later, the Mana within it was disrupted and burst into chaos, collapsing the spell.

The Spatial Shackles spell which cost 5000 Mana could not even block the demon’s casual attack for one second.

This was the strength of a true Level-9 demon!

Furthermore, this demon was a fallen angel and was one of the strongest. Its total strength placed it among the top three demons, the Three Great Gold Demons.

Lord of the Deep, Nozama, was a mixed blood demon. Half of his blood came from a fallen angel. It was because of this that Celine’s demon form possessed black wings.

Link already knew that he could not hold anything back nor did he have time tangle with the demon. The only thing he could do was try his best to escape.

Thus, as he released the spatial skill, he was also multitasking on other things.

The moment the spatial skill was broken by the demon, Link’s mind was racing through multiple courses of action.

His black eyes lit up with threads of cold white light. This would only happen when a calm person pushed their soul to the limit, causing it to emit soul light.

Rustle. The Demon Slayer Whip appeared, and red colored light flashed. The whip lashed out and curved back to hit towards the back of the fallen angel’s head.

This was not all!

Multitasking two things was not Link’s limit. While simultaneously controlling these two spells, Link prepared one more skill: Dimensional Jump.

As the Spatial Shackles and the Demon Slayer Whip appeared, a white column of light enveloped him and his team members.

One second later, the Spatial Shackles was destroyed. Nonetheless, that was enough to give Skinorse some time to react.

His Battle Aura exploded out, drawing his dagger and holding it in front of himself.

Clang! A sharp sound rang out. The Demon Slayer Whip was destroyed by the fallen angel. Against a Level-8 attack, this expert merely needed to raise his hand and flick a finger to destroy Link’s attacks.

However, that gap was enough.

The next instant—whoosh, a sound rang out. Link, Skinorse, Nana and the rest of them disappeared. The fallen angel’s attack arrived the moment they disappeared, but it was nevertheless too late and only hit air.

"That’s fast! HA, they’re going to be worthy prey!" The fallen angel was excited. He could already detect Link and the rest, in another passage a few hundred feet ahead. He rushed forward.

Meanwhile...

Link had already planned out where to teleport them to. He could not teleport them out of the cave. The outside was definitely surrounded by demons already. They could only proceed further into the cave.

As the teleportation ended and the group of them appeared, Skinorse coughed up a mouthful of blood. Both of his arms were trembling like mad, and he struggled to maintain a firm grip on his daggers.

Just before the teleportation activated, he had clashed once with the fallen angel’s attack. Just that one attack which had already been diffused by Link’s spell caused his arms to hurt as though seriously injured. The shock of the impact went all the way to his chest, and his internal organs were rattling.

"Level-9 demons are so powerful! What a bitch!" Skinorse laughed bitterly.

"Stop whining, mortal. It’s fortunate enough that you’re still alive." The black cat had at this point stuck out its head. It had a never-before-seen serious expression on its round face. It turned to look at Link and asked, "Hey, do you have any idea how to escape?"

It knew that it could no longer sit around without caring. Link had once said that if he died, it would die too.

Link took a deep breath. His head throbbed, but he could still go on.

"I’m fine. I’ve got a plan to escape. Just follow my lead."

He inserted the key into the keyhole of the first magic door and turned. The door disappeared. It was opened! Once again, it led into an empty space.

Link could feel the aura of the fallen angel nearby. After pausing for a second, he instructed, "Go in, go in!"

They ran in through the magic door and once again found themselves at the Door of Lies.

At this point, the fallen angel arrived at the spiral staircase. He looked down and saw the spiral staircase surrounded by numerous magic doors as well as the footprints on the floor. He immediately appeared outside of the first magic door and drew out a curved black knife, slashing at the magic door.

Dense energy rushed into the knife, causing the knife to glow with black energy. Wham! The magic door was blasted open.

Behind the door was a wide space filled with earth puppets. Link and the rest were nowhere in sight.

"Damn it! It’s a dimensional spell!" The commander immediately knew what he had gotten himself into.

However, he once again felt for his prey’s auras and realized that they were back at the Door of Lies.

He immediately turned back to give chase.

After passing through a passage, he caught sight of Link’s party. More accurately, he caught sight of a group of figures surrounded by a column of white light. "Don’t run!"

The fallen angel dashed over in an attempt to stop them from disappearing.

However, Link had already estimated the time he would take. They vanished just as the fallen commander reached them and once again appeared at the spiral staircase.

The first door that had been destroyed appeared again.

Inserting the crystal key, Link turned it again, and the door opened. This time, they were lucky. There was no empty space or earth puppets. It was just a one-way looped space.

This was another special feature of this magical array. Different ways of opening the door would lead to different portals. Using the key to open the door would have a much higher likelihood of reaching the true exit as compared to smashing it down.

Link waited patiently. After about three seconds, when he could feel the fallen commander approaching, he instructed, "Enter!"

Whoosh. Once again, they reappeared at the Door of Lies.

The fallen angel learned from his previous mistake. Instead of smashing down the door, he turned back, heading for the Door of Lies. However, the moment he laid eyes on Link’s party, they once again disappeared in a flash of white light.

He felt intense anger rising up from the depths of his heart. He felt like he was being led around by the nose by Link.

"Stop right there! I dare you to run again!" The fallen angel’s voice boomed like thunder, reverberating throughout the mountain.

Link ignored him.

This time, he arrived at the second magic door, and as usual, inserted the key into the keyhole and turned. The door opened, and once again, it was an empty space. However, Link had the feeling that on the third try, the true exit would once again reveal itself.

After waiting for the fallen angel to rush over to them, he instructed the rest to enter the door.

The fallen angel immediately turned around and, without any hesitation, dashed towards the Door of Lies. He knew that any magical spell would consume Mana, and that was especially so for a big spell like group teleportation. He didn’t believe that Link could use it often.

When Link arrived at the Door of Lies, he looked backwards. As expected, the tunnel appeared.

He had 4600 Mana points remaining as well as 700 Omni points. That was more than enough to use Dimensional Jump again. The walls of this tunnel out were also covered in lines, clear evidence of a Spatial Slicer Trap. Link didn’t disrupt the trap but simply used teleportation instead.

Whoosh. They disappeared, and the next time they reappeared, they were in the inner region of the tunnel.

"Come on, let’s go," Link urged. He looked back and saw the fallen angel rushing towards the tunnel entrance. When the fallen angel caught sight of Link, his bloodshot eyes turned even redder.

"Brat, you’re not running this time? Have you run out of Mana?" He stared at Link, walking forward with big strides.

Link watched as the fallen angel approached Spatial Slicer Trap. Then, in order to distract him from noticing, Link suddenly turned around and taunted the fallen angel, "Look at your wings. Are you a bird? Or a person? Or maybe a bird person?"

The fallen angel’s eyes became more bloodshot. "Hmph, your self-confidence is puzzling."

He strode forward, entering the tunnel.

Slice. All of a sudden, the fallen angel’s body was sliced by the Spatial Slicer trap.

Link watched as the black mist around the fallen angel’s body suddenly contract, before dissipating. The red color in the fallen angel’s bloodshot eyes also lightened.

No matter how strong an expert was, as long as he was caught off-guard, even a normal knife would be able to cut him. There was no need to talk about the Spatial Slicer Skill, which was famous for cutting through anything.

The fallen angel was distracted by Link’s taunts and got himself injured by the Spatial Slicer Trap. If not for his quick reactions, jumping back the moment he noticed the trap, as well as his strong demonic life force, he would have been cut into slices of meat by now.

Even if he didn’t die, his injuries would not be light.

He retreated to the entrance of the tunnel with black blood dripping off his body. His hollow voice sounded out. "Magician, well done, you tricked me. But don’t think you’ve won! You’re still going to die today!"

The fallen angel suddenly knelt onto the ground. Instantly, blue flames emerged on his body, surrounding him and burning every inch of flesh on his body.

The black cat immediately called out, "He’s using Soul Recovery! Let’s go!"

Soul Recovery

Angel Bloodline Ability

Effect: Burns a portion of soul energy to heal any injury.

(Note: Cause a permanent decrease in angel’s power.)

Link knew the side-effects of this spell used by angels. However, a Level-9 demon, even after it had its power reduced, was still extremely dangerous.

He immediately turned and ran. As the group of them rushed through the tunnel, emerging into a big hall, the door to the tunnel closed. The fallen angel inside the tunnel disappeared from view.

Skinorse laughed in delight. "Ha! He’s gone. Now he won’t be able to find us."

In order to escape through this space, they had expended a lot of energy. Skinorse did not think that the fallen angel, being the coward he was, would dare to open each of the 50 doors to find the tunnel again.

Melinda also exclaimed, "God of Light, we managed to escape from that demon!"

The black cat’s voice shook them out of their excitement. It coolly said, "This may not necessarily be a good thing. Look ahead. This place belongs to somebody."

They were in a big, resplendent looking hall. The hall was very wide and was about 300 feet long, covered in rich decorations which were almost all made of gold.

In the center of the hall, there were many lifelike gold sculptures with strange expressions on their faces. Most of these expressions were twisted in fear, giving people the impression that they were fleeing for their lives before falling to a magic spell that turned them into gold.

At the very most center of the hall, there was a golden throne. The throne was made of pure gold, and on it were carved lines and words of epic stories. On the throne sat a man.

He wore a gold-colored mantle, as well as an eye-catching crown. However, his body was very thin, and he looked like a bag of bones. Even his skin was a dull gray.

"That is an undead!" Skinorse said under his breath.

The undead had its had lowered. One hand supported its forehead, while the other was busy holding a piece of gold in the shape of a rose.

Upon hearing the disturbance, the man’s body didn’t move, but a deep, magnetic voice called out, "My love, did you return?"