Advent of the Archmage
chapter-587

Forest

The figure behind the trees was just as how Link had estimated. She was around five feet tall and was slim. There were a clean ponytail and a pair of pure eyes with complicated emotions in them. There was confusion but also the fatigue of having seen too much.

She wore simple leather armor. Its style and color were very strange. It didn't look like the Firuman style or the Araguan style that Link had once experienced. There was a sword at her waist. The hilt was old, and the handguard had many small nicks.

Link had great vision. He could see instantly that the sword had gone through countless battles. The nicks had resulted from collisions with enemy weapons. He could see from the runes that this was the main weapon he'd once made for Nana—the Last Nightmare.

"Master," the girl said while walking forward and lowering onto one knee before Link.

"Master?" Milose was very shocked. The change was a bit drastic, and he couldn't process it.

Eliard recognized Nana and explained softly, "She's Nana, the first Legendary Magician and had once killed a dark divine gear."

"Ah." Milose was even more shocked after hearing this name. Wasn't Nana in the Aragu Realm? Why did she appear in Firuman?

Link ignored his surprise. Through his contract with Nana, he was sure that this was still his Nana. He walked up and hunched to help Nana up. "Why did you return?" he asked.

Nana rose and pouted in a human-like way. "Princess Milda knew about Ariel. In the end, she agreed to fuse the two realms. At the same time, she had sent two Tier-5…or Level-14 Inferno Warriors to the Isle of Dawn. She's now the priestess of the Fire Sect and has many Inferno Warriors around her. She doesn't need Nana's protection anymore, so Nana came back."

Her voice was still a bit mechanic, but it was very faint, and most people wouldn't be able to tell. She didn't look like a magic puppet at all.

Link looked at Nana's arm and then the sword at her waist. His eyebrow quirked. "You're hurt. Who injured your waist?"

Nana's armor wasn't damaged, but Link was extremely sensitive. He was also a martial artist himself. Especially after practicing the battle technique from Avatar, he became even more sensitive.

Link saw a flaw in the power circulation in Nana's waist when she had knelt and later when he helped her up.

Nana lowered her head and didn't speak.

Link didn't need her to speak. Using his thoughts, pure Realm Essence surged and formed a dot of light in the air. It circled Nana. Three seconds later, it brought the information it gathered back to Link.

Now, he knew Nana's situation. She was at the pinnacle of Level-13. This wasn't very powerful in Aragu, but her power was very pure. It was only a bit weaker than Link's Realm Essence.

The pureness meant high control. Nana's battle techniques must be intimidating. However, there was a bit of foreign power at her waist.

"It's a sword injury with a bit of Fire elemental power. It's very powerful, at Level-19, but it's faint. Did an Inferno Warrior of the Fire Sect hurt you?"

"Yes." Nana nodded.

Link's thoughts whirred; he'd guessed most of it.

"You and Milda had an argument… No, you wouldn't do that. She didn't want you to return, but she couldn't convince you, so she sent people to kill you. Is that right?"

Nana's expression turned a bit sad. She sighed and nodded lightly. "I can't fool Master. She…she's not like before. After 113 years, she's completely into the Fire Sect now, becoming the ambassador of the god in the mortal world. She…is drunk on the ultimate power. She's completely forgotten Master."

"Oh." Link nodded. This change was expected. If he left Celine for more than 100 years, he would probably forget her too, let alone Milda. This was how people were.

Since Milda was now the ambassador of the Fire Sect and had ruled it for more than a century, she must be a mature politician now. It would be laughable to talk about romance with someone like that.

It wasn't hard to understand her actions towards Nana.

Thinking of this, Link asked, "You went between the realms. Did people pursue you here?"

Nana shook her head. "No. Nana killed all pursuers… Nana's weakness now is from passing through the realms. Fighting against the chaotic currents in the Sea of Void used up much of Nana's power… After entering Firuman, Nana appeared in the Hengduan Mountain Range and traveled quickly. Nana didn't expect to meet Master here."

Link now completely understood Nana's situation.

After spending a century in Aragu, Milda had changed, and Nana had changed. Both had changed a lot, but the one thing that remained unchanged was that Nana belonged to Link. To her, Link was always her master. Thus, when Milda sent Inferno Warriors against Link, she was willing to end the relationship with Milda and hurry back to Firuman.

Judging from her actions, Milda was also important to her. Unfortunately, Milda had betrayed the thing most important to Nana. Thinking of this, Link sighed inwardly. Everything changed with time, and people's hearts couldn't be trusted. The only thing he could trust was the magic puppet he'd created.

Patting Nana's shoulder, Link smiled. "It's great that you're back. Your protection mission is over. Come with me now."

"Nana understands." Nana went behind Link. Her position was exactly the same as 100 years ago.

Nana was a great helper, but her power hadn't recovered completely. Link prepared to rest for a bit. Since the Orida Fortress happened to be nearby, he said, "Let's go to the Orida Fortress now."

Eliard and Milose had no objections. Nana obviously didn't either. The group turned and hurried toward the Orida Fortress.

Because Nana was weak, Link traveled slowly. Along the way, he learned about the Aragu Empire from her. Nana obviously told him everything she knew, telling him about what had happened over the century.

The Aragu Realm hadn't been quiet for the hundred years. It had changed drastically too. The once-powerful Aragu Empire collapsed 15 years after Link had left and split into two. In one, the Araguans, Laguans, dwarves, and other races that believed in the Fire Sect formed a new empire—Yan. The other group of Araguans inherited the empire and continued the Aragu Empire.

The two empires were in the state of civil war and constantly had battles. The longest period of peace was less than two years. Both sides put their all into the war, even going past their bottom line at times. Not only were the people tormented by war, even the realm was hurt.

The injuries were caused by the curses of Magicians. The countless curses might have angered the realm's conscience or changed the laws. For whatever reason, the Mana density decreased greatly. It was less than one-fifth of what it had been!

The direct change was that the strong figures lessened. Their rate of strengthening decreased as well. Add to that the fact that many older ones had died in war, the strongest person in Aragu now was the Fire Archmage who was trying to become a god. After that was the Snow Mountain Archmage. These two were protectors at Level-19. Below that, there was a break, jumping from Level-19 to Level-16.

A hidden change was that time was flowing slower now. Of course, very few knew about this. Now, Aragu was only around 1.5 times faster than Firuman.

Milda was now at Level-16. Other than the two Level-19 Archmages, she was the strongest in the mortal world. The other was Saroviny. She was now completely following the Fire Sect. She was the Black Flame Envoy and the commander of the Inferno Army.

For this century, more than 50,000,000 lives had died because of her and her army. In Aragu, she was also known as the Black Blood Rose.

Here, Eliard suddenly asked, "Nana, you didn't talk about yourself. What was your status in the Yan Empire?"

"Nana's status?" Nana chuckled wryly. "My power rose too slowly. At first, Nana was head of Milda's guard. As Milda had more trusted people, Nana was pushed to the side. Before returning, Nana was only one of Milda's 12 Holy Yan Warriors."

"Really?" Milose felt something wrong. "If you were pushed to the side, why would she send people to kill you when you wanted to leave? That means that you're still important to her."

"Maybe she didn't want Nana to notify Link?" Nana said.

This made sense; Milose and Eliard believed her. However, Link felt that Nana was hiding something. No, she wasn't hiding it. Rather, she thought it wasn't important, so she didn't mention it.

Link felt that Nana's position in the Fire Sect wasn't as low as she said. Of course, this was just his gut feeling. He had no proof.

Thinking of this, Link didn't continue asking. Since Nana was back, she had nothing to do with the Fire Sect anymore. She was his own Nana.

"The Orida Fortress is before us," he said. "We can go see General Kanorse… Nana, your power is recovery a bit slow."

Nana nodded. "That is Nana's biggest flaw. I am not living flesh, and my body isn't perfect. I need a long time to recover after using up my energy."

Link thought a bit and said, "That's okay. I'll check your body. Maybe I can find a way to improve you."

Eliard laughed at this. "Be careful of Celine if she finds out…" Link glared at him before he could finish and he quickly changed the topic. Chuckling, he said, "Nana, you're lucky. Link's magic improved tremendously these years. He can probably even use magic to create a person. He can definitely fix your problem."

Nana smiled. "Nana's owner has always been the most powerful Magician!"