The First Archmage

Interlude II – Panic of Ilinia

(At the Capital)

In the vast forests of the continent of Sougol, in the region ruled by the Ilinia, panic ran rampant throughout the trees. At the very heart of the Kingdom of Ilinia, in their Capital, three million Elves prepared for the battle they knew was coming.

In the heavily-fortified castle built into the largest tree at the heart of the fort, the nobles and advisers of Ilinia gathered around a large, circular table of polished wood.

"Latest reports?" A tall, brown-haired elf asked. The crown atop his curly locks denoted him as the rule of this kingdom – this kingdom that had angered some foe they could not trace. "Any news on this invading force?"

"No," a woman stands. "Whatever this force is, they've never been spotted. This morning, a scout said they caught sight of someone soaring over the treetops, but before they could send the image, communications ended."

"How much longer before the ring around the nation has been completed?"

The Ring of Violet Ice, as the Elves had taken to calling it. From what they could tell, it was a series of near-spherical spells of ice, not a single, long stream. However, instead of being perfectly spherical, they were crystalline in shape, as if exploding outwards from a single force to form.

It was an ice their magicians had failed to discern the secrets of, and one that failed to melt, no matter the heat applied to it. Had they not known better, they would have assumed a Dragon had appeared.

There were two vital differences between a Dragon's attack and this. The first difference being the shape of the ice itself. A Dragon's breath would become more rectangular, more wall-like, instead of the spherical shape this ice took on. The second difference was that a Dragon wouldn't bother cutting off a single nation, and simply attack everyone and anyone. It wouldn't fly from border fort to border fort, turning them into a living prison, then moving on to the next one, leaving behind its wall of impossible ice.

"Whoever this force is," an elf in flowing, blue-green robes speaks up. "They are able to take out two border forts a day. In the last two weeks, they've taken out twenty-eight total. It's safe to assume they've already hit one today, though. In addition, it seems they know when we are moving forces to escape this barrier, and intercepts them. Whoever they are, they have forces positioned at all anticipated flee sites. There are only four more border forts left, or three, if they did hit one, so tomorrow will likely be the last day of this."

The Elves began discussing various reports. Anytime someone laid eyes on it, it was reported as a single person soaring above the treetops, but no descriptions ever made it – the scouts ceased communication shortly after.

"What I want to know," Isan, the King of Ilinia, strokes his chin. "Is how many of them there are. At minimum, at least seven, based on our reports. I also want to know their plans, after they finish sealing us off."

"They have," the elf in the robes, Kain, the Royal Mage, says. "At least six fliers. Outside of that, their forces are virtually unknown. They use a mix of fire magics and that strange, electrically-charged violet ice on the cities and the border."

"The ice is charged with electricity?" Another elf speaks up.

"Lightning, more precisely," Kain nods. "However, it's only within, not without, so the forests don't have risk of burning. Once a fort is sealed off, they then begin assaulting with with ice and fire. Whoever they are, they are careful not to risk damaging the environment too harshly. The most damage they're doing is this barrier of ice. However, it's likely… shit."

"What?" Isan asks.

"The ice doesn't melt," he says. "Their forces can safely use fire within the fort without burning the forest around it."

"And?" Isan asks. "What does that mean?"

"Shit!" Another elf yells, rising to his feet. The only muscular Elf in the room, Lucius was one of the rare few who went down a melee path. "They're going to burn Ilinia! The ice is to ensure the flames don't spread to outside nations!"

"Very good," a voice speaks up, and the Elves turn to face the speaker, who stood in a corner. A tall figure wearing a cloak woven of a deep black thread that defied light itself, creating the appearance of emptiness. "The assailant does, indeed, plan on burning Ilinia to the ground."

The Elves look nervous, only noticing this newcomer for the first time. Who was he? How did he get here without being noticed? How did none of them notice him before?

"Are you sure?" Isan asks, his lack of fear and shock not from his Level 4 Acting Skill, but from having known the cloaked figure might be there."

"Indeed," the figure responds. "Lady Imisa confirmed it to me not long ago. He is here on a Divine Quest to kill every last Ilinia. His mission is to free the Kemmel. Once he's secured them and made sure they are safe, he will begin to destroy Ilinia."

"He?" Isan asks as the others whispers among themselves. "Are you sure it's a single being? No Adventurer could be powerful enough to perform such a feat."

"According to Lady Imisa," the figure responds. "It's a single being, though she could be wrong. She says that her goddess only referred to a single entity, the Archmage."

"Where is Imisa, now?" Isan asks.

"Hidden," the figure answers. "She managed to escape the Kingdom. She-she's under attack!"

His voice sounds panicked.

"I can see it," he says. "It's a human boy! Strange… since when do humans have blond hair?"

The elves began whispering to each other.

"She's holding her own against him," he says. "She… communication lost."

The Elves look at each other nervously. They all knew of Lady Imisa, as she was their nation's greatest witch, and their only Blessed. She had gained special powers from the Goddess of Elven Magic, and they put her far above any mortal spellcaster.

At least, they should put her far above any mortal spellcaster. Her spells are affected by their respective stats by a factor of four. If it was based off of INT, her INT counted four times, not once.

"She's back," the figure says. "He disrupted her barriers with a powerful Dispel, and it cut her communications. She's currently flying away, but he's keeping pace with her. He's casting both spears of a violet ice charged with lightning, and flames. When the spear strikes something, it rapidly expands into ice. The lightning dancing around it on turns what it touches to ice, though she says its electrical power is still present in the magics. It also pierces right through her barriers. The flames seem to be ordinary, though they switch between ordinary and violet. The violet doesn't seem to be different, other than color."

"Who are you?" Nil, the Royal Ranger Corps Chief, speaks up from his seat, dagger in hand. "I've never known you before, and you presume to tell us-"

"Enough, Nil," Kain says. "Our guest is one of the few people that Lady Imisa trusts. She is in constant communication with him. He isn't people-friendly, though, and uses invisibility to remain out of sight. His Majesty and I are likely the only ones in this room to have ever seen him before, though one or two of you might have caught word of him."

"Continue," Isan gestures to the guest.

"She managed to hit him with a spell," the guest continues. "Or at least, she thought she did. He didn't evade or throw up a barrier, like he normally did. His lightning-ice spear has a several-second cast time, and she managed to time the spell just right to hit him during it, at a point where he seemed too focused to be able to defend."

"She thought she did?" Kain asks. "He managed to deflect it?"

"No," the guest responds. "She says that a snake appeared on his arm and consumed the spell. Then promptly ate its tail and vanished from sight. She didn't even notice it was there before, and says that she can't sense it, now."

"That sounds like an ouroboros," Kain says. "But I've never heard of a variety that can eat magic or turn invisible. They do have a tendency to eat their tails when they aren't hunting, and most varieties of them can't be sensed. This is troubling news. A single magician, able to take on Imisa by himself, and the source of this strange ice, having a creature that can consume magic thrown at him aiding him? He's essentially a one-man army."

"One-boy," the guest corrects. "She says he's roughly twelve or thirteen in looks, though judging by his his sheer power, his stats likely give him a more youthful appearance, so he's likely fourteen or fifteen, possibly sixteen. However, his sheer power belies that age, and he might be even more powerful. She says it's possible he's a demigod, and an old one. However, she cannot detect a trace of Divinity within him, not in the slightest. He does, however, possess a Blessing."

The guest falls silent.

The Elves begin discussing what this could mean. A single boy, capable of such powerful magic, is beyond anything they know of. He appears to be a powerful demigod – or possibly a low-level god, even, but bears no traces of Divinity, meaning he couldn't be.

Unless, of course, the guest was lying – a notion their King put an end to the moment it came up. He had full confidence the guest would never lie, though he'd never tell them why.

The Elves have been summoning all able-bodied fighters and magicians to the capital, as well as citizens. Their goal is to create an impenetrable fortress the army of magicians assaulting them couldn't handle.

Finding out it's a single person, and one able to handle a demigoddess like Imisa on his own without being a demigod, himself, is among the worst news they could handle.

An army, they could handle. A single person? A lone target is much harder to strike, and his magic seems to ignore barriers. They would need to strike those spears with their own magic before they reached the city.

"Lady Imisa," the guest speaks up, interrupting their conversation. "Has confirmed that hitting his spears with her own magic causes them to react. However, it requires a powerful spell to do so – small ones only add to its power. No barrier she has tried has successfully stopped them. Also, his flames managed to hit one of her legs. The violet ones, that is. The moment they touched her, she knew they were different, despite not seeming so in sense. She said that if she were to survive, it would be a long time before that healed, and she would likely be left scarred."

Demigods and demigoddesses don't scar, except in rare and extreme circumstances. If that flame could cause her to scar, then it could likely do far more damage than the magician was performing.

"He's using his flame in the forest?" An Elf named Kaiser asks. "I thought he was trying to protect the outside forests from when he came to burn Ilinia?"

"He chased her back into Ilinia," the guest responds. "It appears that he finished sealing us off this morning. All forms of escape, except for flight, are out."

And only two Elves in all of Ilinia had the power of the Flight Spell, one of whom was currently engaged in battle with their enemy, and the other standing in a corner, wrapped in a cloak that ignored light.

"She has now added," the guest says, interrupting the silence that fell when they realized that unless they killed this foe. "That he is killing off Elves that are nearby their fighting. He ignored them while they were outside of the Kingdom, and has left the Kemmel alone. Even from their distance, he shouldn't be able to differentiate between them, yet can."

Three of the Elves in the room came to the conclusion that this Archmage possesses the Eyes of Divine Targets. Normally a Skill held by demigods and demigoddesses, it causes all 'higher' beings to appear as dots in the wielder's visions. Any nearby, that is.

Any enemy would appear as a red dot, and targets for a mission would have special-colored dots. For the former, they would only appear at all distances if part of a Quest, while the latter would always appear, regardless of if Quest-granted, a regular mission, or otherwise, no matter the distance.

"Why don't we kill off the Kemmel?" One of the Elves asks. "Put an end to his rescuing them."

"If we do that," Isan says. "He will likely continue to kill us. In addition to that, genocide will earn any behind it or participating in it a Taboo. The moment that appears, every Hero in the world will sense it, and see the sources as a red dot in their vision. If that were to happen, then every Hero in the world would come seek us out, and likely aid our assailant."

"Won't he receive a Taboo?" The elf asks. "If-"

"No," the guest speaks up. "If he is here on a Divine Quest, it is likely that any and all gods that would take issue of a genocide have already been satiated for this, and that he will suffer no ill consequences."

The Elves finish their discussions about preparations after that, then leave, the King and the guest remaining behind.

"Can you take him?" The King asks.

"Possibly," the guest responds. "However, he is clearly no ordinary mortal. It is likely he has a Bloodline not seen in a very long time, and several Levels in it. It is the only explanation I can think of as to how he could be this powerful, yet not be a Divine."

"What Bloodline?" The King asks.

He, himself, had only recently unlocked his own Bloodline, which gave him a small boost to Agility, Strength, and Intellect, but knew how powerful it could make someone. With the guest's aid, Imisa had unlocked it as well, though it wasn't publicly known.

"Dekami," the guest responds. "The most powerful Bloodline of them all. If I am correct in this guess, then he is a far more powerful foe than one could fear. According to Imisa's senses, he has awakened five Pools within him, and three of them are monstrous. He… communication lost."

"So even your victory is unsure?" The King asks.

"Had he not that ouroboros," the guest says. "I could win easily. However, I will have to rely on physical attacks to take him. She confirmed that physical attacks aren't bothered with by it. However, his stats are immense enough to stop them with ease. It's likely he's either fully Leveled, or nearly done so, his Bloodline. Had he not, things might be easier. No, I can, indeed, take him – he's flying this way, rapidly."

Crimson runes began to glow around the room as an alarm began to sound through the city, and the guest disappeared, leaving the King alone, with the parting words of 'he will die'.

Though the people of the Royal City of the Elven Kingdom of Ilinia could not see the target that set off their alarms, they knew it was there. A scout in a tower of the castle spotted a speck in the sky first, descending rapidly towards them.

Then, others began to spot it, and all attacks missed. The alarms and defensive magics faded, as if shut off, confusing the people.

Then a scout saw what was dropping towards them.

"IT'S LADY IMISA!" He yelled.

The Elves began working towards stopping her momentum, the magicians succeeding only just before she landed on the ground.

Within minutes, the Elves determined that their most powerful witch had passed away, her dress and jewels destroyed or lost in the battle that covered her with cuts, gouges, and burns.

The nobility immediately put a handle on the situation, doing their best to keep word of her death a secret, but within a week, word had spread no just throughout the city, but through all of their cities of her death at the hands of this mysterious Archmage.

Any settlement with Kemmel found itself under assault, its Elves slain and the Kemmel relocated to an area sectioned-off with sparking, violet ice.

Within a month of the Archmage beginning his assault on their Kingdom, the 19,874,617 Elves of the Ilinia Kingdom found themselves at only 12,789,415 members.

Of the near-thirteen million Elves left, roughly ten million had managed to escape to their capital, where such a powerful being would stand no chance against the millennia-old fortifications, magics, and defensive measures, as well as the Group Magics of the Elves within.

Right?