Merna stayed in the basement of the Mage Tower for around two hours. Then she heard a soft click. The magic door’s aura disappeared.
They lowered the security! Merna was overjoyed. However, she didn’t hurriedly act. Instead, she remained in the corner. It was most likely a trap.
This didn’t mean that they’d found her. Instead, they didn’t find her yet but wanted to use this to lower her guard and make her come out of her hiding place. Thus, she kept waiting quietly. After another hour or so, she finally snuck out of the spot.
There were detection runes hidden all over the storeroom, but Merna’s body shape was her advantage. She also had great vision. Even the most hidden runes were visible to her.
Carefully, she walked in the blind spots of all the runes. Three minutes later, she successfully got to the second basement floor.
Here, her detection earring vibrated faintly. This meant she was getting closer to her target. It was less than 60 feet away!
Merna was overjoyed. Only a bit more. If I find the right location, I can save her!
Now, another thought appeared in her mind. It’s been more than three hours. We agreed that I’d contact that old guy once I got in. Should I send a signal?
This idea circled in her mind before she scrapped it. The Mage Tower is too scary. There might be other detective methods. I shouldn’t risk it at the most critical part. Let’s figure out the situation first.
Composing herself, Merna continued feeling her way forward. A while later, she was at the entrance to the third floor. Her detection earring was vibrating more strongly now. Katyusha was right before her!
Merna repressed her excitement and continued. After a while, she saw a magic door.
This magic door was different from the ones that had appeared because of the security alert. This one was semi-transparent with many magic runes overlapping on the surface. Looking through the tiny cracks between the runes, Merna saw Katyusha.
The Naga was curled up inside a circular pool, bathed in red light. This red light came from the Spear of Victory in her hand instead of from herself. There were many faint purple runes outside the light. They constantly corroded at the red light, trying to get inside Katyusha’s body.
Even further away stood three Magicians. They guided the Secret runes forward. Under their effort, the Spear of Victory’s red glow was already very dim and at the brink of defeat.
Merna was shocked. It’s Secret magic. Ferde wants to control Katyusha!
She wasn’t a Magician, but she was still familiar with each type of magic so she wouldn’t get fooled by others. For example, she didn’t make a rushed decision after this initial conclusion of the current situation. She started distinguishing the runes carefully. After five or six minutes, she finally concluded that it was true.
Katyusha can’t hold on for longer. I must alert that old guy!
Merna left the magic door and retreated to her safe corner in the second floor. She took out a small silver ring and started adding power in.
Her father had given this to her. It wasn’t that powerful, but it had a unique technology for sending messages. It was very secretive.
Merna sent out everything she’d seen in detail. Because it had to be secretive, she sent the messages slowly. What he didn’t know was that five pairs of eyes in the Mage Tower were watching her every move—Link, Eliard, and the three Legendary High Elf Magicians.
“It’s contacting its owner, but the method is very secretive. I can’t trace it. Who could it be?” Eliard whispered.
Link already had a candidate—Bryant. However, he couldn’t be completely sure, so he didn’t speak.
“The method is quite powerful,” Evelina said. “I can’t detect the signal at all.”
“Judging by its make, I think it’s from the Abyss.” Elovan stared at the ring in the fuzzy mouse’s front paw.
At that time, Celine’s voice sounded in Link’s mind. “Bryant moved. He’s coming towards the Mage Tower!”
Alerted, Link replied, “Don’t hesitate. Shoot!”
By now, the entire Scorched Ridge was still in high alert, and Bryant was walking towards the Mage Tower which was out of ordinary. Even if he wasn’t responsible, his actions now were going to get him killed!
Simultaneously, Link started directly controlling the Mage Tower’s Divine Punishment protocol. He set the target, adjusted the Mana, and gathered power in one smooth action, activating the Level-19 Divine Punishment laser.
Boom! A soft sound came from the balcony. Celine had fired at Bryant. Link saw fire streak past the corner of his eye.
Almost at the same time, the Divine Punishment laser appeared too. Whoosh! An almost invisible beam of light shot out from the tower towards Bryant.
If Bryant wasn’t prepared, he would definitely be dead. Even if he’d escaped from this, he would die under Celine and the Mage Tower’s later attacks. But in that moment, Link suddenly felt something strange, along with an indescribable feeling of danger.
His focus sharpened to an unprecedented level; his thoughts whirred. In his eyes, time slowed down and almost stopped.
At the same time, Link felt the world change oddly. The light outside the window and room dimmed and dimmed.
What’s going on? Dark magic is swallowing light… No, it’s not dark magic. It’s time magic. Even the speed of light is slowing, freezing. Less light is reaching my eyes, so the world is darkening!
Spatial magic could restrain practically all existences in the world, but other than singularities, it couldn’t affect light. So even though Link used spatial magic to seal Katyusha, she didn’t turn into a shadow. One could still see her clearly because light could still travel freely within the frozen space.
But not even light could escape from the effects of time on this realm. When someone froze time, everything there would look dark.
Light was dimming quickly, but Link’s thoughts were still burning brightly. So that divine rune freezes time. What a great method!
As that thought flashed past, he focused on his neck. There, a pocket watch-like thing hung from a Mithril chain. A runestone was hidden inside the watch. It was the Order Compass that he had made to defend against time attacks.
Realm Essence followed his thoughts and entered the Order Compass. That instant, Link’s entire body, and soul shook. Then a gold thread appeared from his chest.
The thread organized itself, instantly forming the apparition of a gold pocket watch. There was a clock with one hand. The needle measured milliseconds. Each circle was one millisecond.
Before, the hand had spun extremely quickly. Now, Link saw it tick by bit by bit. It was so slow but was still getting slower.
Time is freezing! Link’s heart shook. The world in his eyes was already very dark. In this darkness, he saw Eliard, Evelina, Elovan, and Milose.
These four were all Legendary or close to it. Faced with this kind of change, all of them had reacted. Shock was written in their faces, and their eyes were all trained on Link.
Under their gazes, Link’s thoughts focused on the millisecond hand on the Order Compass. It was still slowing down. Link had to speed it up.
He forced Realm Essence onto it. Move!
Click. The hand quickened only a tiny bit, but Link had used all his might. One-fifth of his Realm Essence had been burned.
It wasn’t enough. The divine rune’s power was too strong. His power wasn’t enough alone.
He gazed at the four Magicians. They were looking at him too. For people at their level, they could completely figure out each other’s thoughts by applying their gazes to the current situation.
The four Magicians couldn’t move, but power extended from their bodies. They snaked to the needle on the Order Compass and applied force to move it.
Link did the same.
At this moment, the five strongest Magicians in Ferde put their powers together.
Click, click, click. The needle moved much faster. The ticks were like cracking ice in everyone’s ears.
The five continued to use their power. Click, click, click. Time had stopped slowing and was regaining speed, recovering back to normal. The room brightened again.
This didn’t mean that the Order Compass was more powerful than the divine rune. Instead, it was that the five Legendary Magicians working together surpassed the level of the small divine rune.
If one’s power wasn’t enough, they would fail. This was the basic law.
No matter how many tricks one had, if they didn’t have enough power, it would be useless. They still wouldn’t be able to change the world.
The divine power inside the rune still wasn’t enough. Paired with the repulsion that Firuman had against divine objects, Link’s group won this battle.
What had been frozen went back to normal. What followed was the chilling alarm ringing throughout the Mage Tower.
“Alert! Alert! Invader discovered! Invader discovered!”
Bryant was inside the Mage Tower!