Advent of the Archmage
chapter-532

It was nighttime, and the dark sky was dotted with stars.

The wind howled past as Evelina soared through the night sky with Eliard in tow.

She had sealed up the two wounds on her body with her ice spells in order to stop the bleeding. But her internal injuries were severe, and the vines that had struck her were poisonous. Their poisonous thorns remained still within her body.

She had taken some Elf Nectar, a High Elf medicinal specialty, but the antidote only prevented the poison from entering areas of her body that were not yet damaged by it. Its effect would not reach parts of her body that were already touched by the poison. As a result, it would not be able to neutralize the poison itself. The vines' poison and thorns were effectively disrupting her body's ability to heal.

At that moment, her Natural Dragon Power swirled rapidly within her body. Due to her injuries, she was forced to endure incredible pain every second.

She was holding Eliard in one hand. At first, Eliard did not know what was going on. After a few minutes, he suddenly felt a sudden chill on the back of her neck. He reached around to touch it and realized that it was water.

Where did it come from? He turned around strangely. With the magical light swirling around them, he was able to make out Evelina's form.

Her face was pale. Beads of cold sweat seeped out from her forehead. What startled him most was her chest area, where two large holes had been torn on her clothes. The fabric around the two holes was drenched in her blood.

Shocked by this, Eliard shouted, "Hey, how did you get those wounds? Aren't they supposed to be your comrades?"

He had heard a commotion outside and figured that they had started fighting. Judging from her movements before, he had assumed that she was still alright. He did not expect that she would be so severely injured.

Evelina squeezed out a bitter smile. "Before, yes. Now, not so much. They're coming to kill me soon."

Finishing her sentence, she let out an uncontrollable cough. Eliard could smell the thick, metallic odor of blood. He also saw traces of blood on the corner of her mouth.

Eliard was stunned speechless.

He had been listening to Vance's stories about the High Elves for a period of time and noticed a trend in them. The High Elves placed great emphasis on their traditions and customs that were passed down for thousands of years. They tended to straighten out those who did not abide by them.

For instance, any half-elves conceived from a union between a High Elf and a non-High Elf would be exiled from the Isle of Dawn. Other examples of their conservatism include the fact that the High Elves would do anything at all costs to eliminate any variables that could upset the strategic balance they had worked hard to maintain on the continent, like Link himself. They also did not tolerate traitors and rebels in their midst.

Their adherence to traditions bordered on extremism. If they could not rectify an irregularity through normal means, they would most certainly resort to violent measures without any mercy.

It would seem that Evelina had no way of reconciling with the Isle of Dawn.

"How many are there behind us?" Eliard asked. He sensed that things had gone awry for them. Ferde and the Isle of Dawn had not been on good terms recently. There had been a few clashes in the magical equipment business between both sides. Eliard figured that if those High Elves caught up to them, they would most probably not survive the encounter.

"There are three of them." Evelina turned around a few times to look behind her. She could now sense her pursuers' auras. They were gaining on them, including Elovan.

Even though he was hurt badly, Elovan was a Legendary master as well. With the medicine he had in hand and the aid of his companions, Elovan would soon be able to restore his combat capability.

Eliard shivered and said, "To be able to beat you up like that... are all three of them Level-10 masters?"

"Bingo."

"Do you think you'll be able to ditch them?" Eliard drew in the cold air.

"I don't know, guess we'll have to find out..." Before she could finish, Evelina's body suddenly lost its balance. She wobbled a few times in the air before finally regaining her balance. She almost crashed into a tree in front of them.

Petrified by their close shave with death, he quickly asked, "You're badly wounded. Can you still go on?"

"Even if I can't, I still need to keep on flying. If they catch up to us, we're dead," said Evelina through gritted teeth.

Eliard was able to sense the approaching powerful auras behind him at this point. Panicking, he said, "You don't seem sure that you'll be able to shake them off. Why don't you find someplace to hide? I may be able to help you with that."

"You?" Evelina looked sideways at Eliard. "You can't even escape me before, how do you expect to help me escape now?"

"That was different." Eliard quickly tried to explain himself. "I did not expect to be confronted by a master like yourself. I was caught unprepared. If I had made preparations beforehand, you would not have found me back then."

"What do you have in mind then?" Evelina was now starting to believe him.

Eliard's forehead was now sweating profusely. He turned around and saw that three small green points had appeared behind him and were steadily getting bigger.

"Link had given me a runestone. Release me from your restraints. With this runestone, we'll be able to escape the High Elves."

Evelina was silent for a few seconds. She then released him. "You go then. I don't want to get you killed."

Eliard was stunned for a moment. "You're not coming with me?"

Evelina laughed and looked at him. "You really are greedy. Saving your own life should be more than enough, now you want to bring me along with you? Besides, we're still enemies. This is a perfect chance for you to flee now."

Saying this, she let out another uncontrollable cough and a spurt of blood from her mouth. Eliard was shocked by such a sight, but he knew that Evelina was right. He was already released by his captive, and there was no need for him to bring her along with him.

However, Eliard was not comfortable with abandoning her here to meet her fate.

Under the current circumstances, he did not have enough time to think things through. He took out the runestone, embraced Evelina and let his power flow into the runestone.

Hum... There was a soft white light around them. The two of them instantly vanished. A few seconds later, they had reappeared a few thousand feet from where they were before, in the middle of a tropical jungle.

The moment they reappeared, a faint red light shone out from the runestone. It flashed out, covering the trees and rocks around them with a layer of magical runes. The runes flickered for a moment and then vanished.

Soon after, Evelina felt that the energy ripples around her had finally subsided, as if nothing had happened there.

"What is that?" asked Evelina, surprised.

The runestone had teleported them across a few thousand feet and smoothened out all energy ripples at the same time. It had also formed a perfect invisibility barrier around them. The runestone was the ideal magical artifact for narrow escapes.

Eliard was a bit pleased with himself. "It's a defensive runestone that Link had given me. I'll bet those three won't be able to find this place."

Evelina was still incredulous about this. She walked around the rune barrier, carefully feeling it. Astonishment gradually came over her face until finally, she let out a sigh.

"I'd heard from the High Elf elders that Link was an absolute magical genius. I wasn't convinced back then, but it's clear from this that his magical achievements are equal to none. My abilities can't even compare to his. Those three will surely not be able to find us here."

The rune barrier gave off large amounts of Law Magic, which included the enigmatic Time Power. She had seen the whole thing and was only able to understand half of it. It might take her a few years to fully comprehend the whole rune barrier.

Evelina figured that not even Bryant or the three upstarts pursuing them would be able to decipher the barrier. In other words, both Evelina and Eliard were safe in it for now.

She slackened her shoulders in relief. As a result of this, waves of pain washed over her from her injuries. Her vision blurred, and the world spun around her.

Before she hit the ground, she saw Eliard running towards her. She felt a sudden relief. Even though they were enemies, she did not feel the least bit worried at the sight of him. For some reason, she believed that Eliard would not harm her.

True enough, before she fell, Eliard managed to catch her in time.

"What's wrong... hey, what did you do?" The concern in Eliard's voice suddenly turned into a mix of confusion and anger.

What he received from her was not a response, but a sudden rush of power from Evelina, which once again sealed up his own power.

"Hehe." Evelina chuckled evilly in Eliard's embrace. "Little one, here's a lesson for you. Never feel sorry for your enemies. Now help me over to that tree. Don't try to think your way out of this, or I'll show you what I'm really capable of!"

Eliard was taken aback. "You still haven't given up on your mission?"

"Of course not. I already promised Morpheus that I would bring you to the South. There's no going back now. I simply saw the opportunity, and I took it. Also, I still haven't received my reward."

When Evelina reached the tree, she lied back against it. Not at all bothered by Eliard's presence beside her, she pulled off her clothes and revealed her snow-white skin. She then began treating the wounds on her chest.

Eliard blushed and turned away immediately from her.

"Hey, don't just stand there. Give me a hand here. There are still a lot of poisonous thorns inside my wounds. I need your help extracting them out."

Eliard now harbored no good will towards her after what she did to him. He replied coldly, "Aren't you supposed to be the better Magician? You deal with it yourself."

"Come and help me, quick. Or I'll really die, and I don't intend to die alone here," said Evelina.

Eliard had no choice. He turned around and made a conscious effort not to look at her pristine white body. He then stammered out, "What should I do?"

"Use your hands. Clean them first, then reach into my wounds and pull the thorns out."

Eliard lowered his eyes to look at her wounds and was shocked to find two bloody holes, each as big as a fist. He was momentarily shocked. "Are you out of your mind? You'll die for sure if I do what you asked. Can't I just use the Magician's Hand?"

"Won't work. These thorns are immune to spells below Level-10. Quick, I won't be able to hold out much longer."

Eliard was left with no other choice and did as he was told.

When he reached into her wound, Evelina let out a pained moan. She pulled out a root nearby and bit on it hard. Sweat now flowed down her forehead like a waterfall. Her body was also slightly trembling from the pain.

Eliard was also trembling. This was just too much for him. He had never done anything like this.

"Stop dawdling and hurry up! I can't take any of this much longer," urged Evelina.

Eliard quickly tried to calm his nerves and began pulling out the thorns one by one. Each thorn was at least five inches long. There were barbs on each of them, which drew even more blood and torn flesh out of her wound every time he pulled a thorn out. The sight was horrifying.

He looked at Evelina and saw that she had been biting hard on the root throughout the process. Her eyes had glazed over.

At this point, he did not know what to feel. His hatred towards her had faded somewhat and was now replaced by respect and admiration for her tenacity.

She's truly a remarkable woman. If only she had sided with Ferde and not the Syndicate... Eliard sighed and resumed pulling out the thorns.

After much effort, Eliard managed to finally pull out the thorns from Evelina's body.

"You alright?" he asked.

There was no response. Eliard looked at her and saw that Evelina had lost consciousness. Startled, he tried to feel for her breathing from her nose. It was faint. He then pressed his ear against her chest to listen for her heartbeat. It was faint as well. She had probably fainted from the extreme pain.

Eliard heaved a sigh. He did not know what to do at this point. His power was sealed off by Evelina, which rendered his spatial gear unusable. He had at first thought about using the communication rune in it to contact Link, but now he could not even take it out from his spatial gear.

As he thought about this for a while, he pulled Evelina's shirt back up. He had heard that patients who had sustained severe injuries and lost a lot of blood were especially susceptible to the cold. He then took off his robe to cover her body.

He then waited.

Before long, midnight came. Exhausted, Eliard laid against a tree and was just about to doze off when all of a sudden, he was woken up by a peculiar sound.

He strained his ears. In an instant, fear gripped him. It was the High Elves. They had managed to track them all the way here without the aid of any spells.