Advent of the Archmage

The Inferno Archmage Sastor had appeared before Link in person, stopping him in his murderous tracks at that moment.

His appearance had left everyone in the temple in a frenzy.

“Our almighty master has graced us with his presence once again!”

“You are the sun that warms my soul, almighty one!”

“Demon, you’re in big trouble now!”

Some of them immediately knelt before Sastor, their mouths filled with praise for him. Others, emboldened by their master’s arrival, began cursing at Link, as if Sastor’s presence had lent them his invincibility.

Naturally, Link ignored them. The words of insects meant nothing to him. The power that he had absorbed from his victims was now overflowing out of him in the form of churning black smoke. Flashes of electricity appeared in it from time to time, giving him the appearance of a powerful demon from the pits of hell.

There was not a hint of fear in him when Sastor appeared before him. He had attained Level-18 pinnacle power and was moments away from reaching Level-19 himself. Despite being somewhat inferior to the Level-19 Inferno Archmage in terms of power, Link still had a few tricks up his sleeve!

There was a chance Link could come out of this victorious.

“Sastor, you’ve allied yourself with the devourer of realms. There will come a day when you yourself will be devoured by him, along with the entire Aragu realm. Your cowardice has spelled the end of this world!”

Link’s voice rang out loud and clear throughout the whole city. His words were immediately met by outrage from all of Sastor’s followers.

Sastor was standing at the entrance of the temple with a grave expression on his face. He then retorted, “Demon, you bring with you nothing but lies, destruction, and chaos! No one here will believe a word from your mouth!”

“Hahaha!” Link let out a hollow laugh. He then held out a hand, setting ten more souls ablaze and converting them into power for himself. “Isn’t your Dark Knight, Saroviny the same kind of demon that you’re describing? That’s a bit hypocritical, condemning the very people that you’ve associated yourself with, don’t you think?”

His words had left everyone speechless.

Saroviny’s notoriety had spread across the entire realm. Though she had only ever targeted the empire of the Light, her methods were known to be extremely cruel. Her order of Dark Knights were something of a taboo among the inhabitants of the Aragu realm.

Saroviny had earned the moniker of “demon” even among the followers of the Fire Sect. None of them could come up with a proper retort to Link’s words at that moment. Even those who had been quick to boo and hissed at Link were at a loss for words before the uncomfortable truth of their alliance with a demon like Saroviny.

Sastor’s face contorted in annoyance. “Save your breath, demon. Today is the day you die!”

Link chuckled at this. “Haha, hypocrite, you plan on attacking me here? Aren’t you worried everyone in this city might be caught in the crossfire? Mortals, take a good look at who you’re really worshipping! See just how black and twisted his soul really is!”

Sastor narrowed his eyes at Link. In the corner of his eyes, he could see that all of his followers were now gazing at him hopefully, hoping that he would be able to protect them all from Link. However, they were all mistaken.

His opponent was a Level-18 pinnacle master. Even though the Archmage believed he could easily take him down at his current power level, he also knew that he could not afford to be distracted by anything in the middle of a duel of this scale. There was nothing he could do for his followers. Collateral damage was almost always inevitable when two titans danced.

Sastor let out a deep sigh. “Some sacrifices have to be made. I wish there was more I could do for you, my loyal subjects.”

At that moment, Link knew that the Archmage was about to make the first move. Activating the Dark Thoughts effect, he immediately leaped into action, beating his opponent to the punch.

“Die, hypocrite!”

Silver-black rings of light had appeared around the Ode of a Full Moon sword. In an instant, copies of the sword materialized in the air and hurtled towards Sastor like a tsunami.

This was the technique that Link had come up with back in Girvent Forest. It had originally been a Level-16 spell. Since then, he had made continuous improvements on it with the aid of the Dark Thoughts effect. Only God knew just how powerful this spell had become at this point.

Link had named this technique “Infinite Blades of Time.”

Infinite Blades of Time

Level-18 Pinnacle Spell.

Description: Summons an array of swords from an infinite number of parallel universes.

(Unblockable!)

At the same time, Link diverted the Mana overflowing from his body into the Crown of Eternal Night.

Strictly speaking, this overflowing power was not a part of his Level-18 power reserve. In theory, the thousands of souls that Link had absorbed could push him up to the pinnacle stage of Level-19. However, the diversity of powers swirling inside him right now had prevented him from using them efficiently in such short notice.

At that moment, Link had decided to redirect into the Crown of Eternal Night all this excess power, which had far exceeded the proportion of power that Link could use.

Unlike Link’s body, the Crown of Eternal Night was not too picky about what kind of power it was fed with. In fact, it sucked up all the power overflowing from Link’s body even more readily than a sponge would water.

In the blink of an eye, it managed to absorb all the excess power from Link. Not only was its power replenished, but it had also leveled up.

Crown of the Eternal Night

Level-20 Divine Gear (Maximum level it can reach is Level-29)

New special effect, Authority of Darkness: Its user’s attacks will have Level-20 Dark Power splash damage.

(Note: The crown’s wearer will be forced to shoulder the Realm Rejection that the crown itself will be subjected to due to its high level.)

The crown had gained a new special effect. Its rather simplistic description belied its devastating effect, which would allow Link to damage anyone below Level-20.

The downside to such a powerful effect was the Realm Rejection he had to bear. As soon as the crown leveled up, Link immediately detected a sudden drop in his power recovery rate.

In other words, he no longer had the ability to replenish his power reserve naturally. If he wanted to return to full power, he would have to use the Flame of the Soul technique and absorb the souls of others.

The Inferno Archmage did not seem overly concerned about Link’s Time Swords when they first appeared. He simply cast a Level-19 multidimensional Inferno Shield around him, confident that it would be able to hold out against his opponent’s attack.

However, as soon as Link’s attack reached the Archmage’s Inferno Barrier, the Crown of Eternal Night leveled up just in time, giving each of his Time Swords Level-20 Dark Power splash damage.

Link had intentionally delayed the crown’s level-up in order to lull the Inferno Archmage into a false sense of security.

At first, every Time Sword was a shade of silver-black. After the crown’s level-up, there was now a pristine black gleam on each of them.

Upon receiving divine power from his crown, Link’s Time Swords were now able to easily break through the Inferno Barrier!

The tsunami of blades blasted past the Archmage’s barrier at a frightening speed as if it were a piece of paper. Before he realized what had happened, it was already too late.

The Time Swords rained down on Sastor’s body. Before impact, each of them seemed insubstantial. However, as soon as the blades reached their mark, they immediately solidified, causing the Archmage considerable damage.

Sastor was completely defenseless in the face of such a barrage. He simply stood there as Link’s Time Swords penetrated his body. Three seconds passed. The Ode of a Full Moon sword’s illusions vanished. Sastor remained standing at the temple’s entrance, his body completely perforated by Link’s attack.

He was still alive, his eyes fixed firmly on Link.

“I never would have thought that I would die at your hands. I have always thought I would be killed by Iyr in battle someday. He was after all the only being in this realm whom I truly feared. You have never been anything more to me than an insect waiting to be squashed… until today.”

The fight had ended in an instant. Not much damage was done to the city. Most of Sastor’s followers were still alive. However, they were all stunned into silence by such an outcome.

The demon named Link had vanquished their god. This was truly the end of days.

Cries of despair pierced the air in the temple at that moment.

Ignoring the chaos that was unfolding around them, he asked, “Any last words?”

“I’ve battled against Iyr for most of my life. I only wish that my remains be buried alongside his.” There were no signs of grief on his face. Rather, it seemed as if a heavy weight had been lifted off his mind.

“I will.”

“The Void will soon descend into darkness, where only one ruler will reign supreme. Perhaps death isn’t such a bad thing after all, hehe.”

When he finished, Sastor collapsed to the ground.

Just as Sastor drew his last breath, a thunderous roar rang out from the Temple of Creation in the Fedaro realm.

“Lord of Ferde, our fated battle is upon us!”

With a boom, a huge shape burst out of the Fedaro realm, scattering the dark green mists outside the realm behind it. Soon after its departure, the realm began to collapse and break apart until it dissolved completely into the dark green mists.

It was the Ruler of Light and Darkness. He had consumed all of Fedaro’s Realm Essence.