Throne of Magical Arcana

874 Unexpected

Time Stop took effect. The brightness of the moon faded, the darkness was gone, the bolts of lightning were frozen in the sky, and the rainwater crystallized into peace. The whole world had nothing but vague grayness left. Alfonsol was like a bug frozen in ice when he was in the range of the spell, keeping the weird posture.

Right then, a crack passed through the stopped time and entered Douglas’ ears. Then, the grayness broke inch by inch like shattered glass. The world immediately fell apart.

“Who is it?” Ever since he picked up the ninth-circle spell, Douglas had never met such a situation when he performed Time Stop. An external force had broken the effect of the spell! Even though he was good at controlling himself and had enhanced himself with many spells, he was still quite shocked.

The pieces of ice flew away, and Alfonsol was back to normal. However, the bolts of lightning were still slowed down, and the rainwater was still almost stopped. The only thing new was a glittering river from the sky that ran as unstoppably as time.

The overwhelming river of time woke everyone in the effect of Time Stop and broke the ultimate silence. Covering the forest within dozens of kilometers, the ripples made everything hazy as if they were below the water.

Arnold, Douglas, and Fernando, who were near, and Nielson, Congus, and Amanata, who were further away, all seemed to have been thrown into a transparent amber. They moved toward the river of time at the center slowly but surely. Their faces were different, with some angry and some shocked, but none of them could control themselves, just like no intelligent creature could resist the passage of time!

“Kritonia!”

Priscilla, who was in the Tower of Destroyers, was in better condition. She discovered, to her shock, that the source of the river of time was a fuzzy young man. His black hair danced crazily, his hands and his longsword were all watery, and he was looking down below with his blue eyes in mockery and pride. It was exactly “Heart of Time” Kritonia!

But according to the intelligence, Kritonia was still being distracted in the south!

After his sword slashed, the servant of death ahead of the river of time was cut from the middle without a sound, and the rotten pieces of flesh turned into ashes. His skull, hands, and ribs fell apart.

One attack of his sword was already so intimidating!

“Heart of Time?”

“Kritonia!”

“How could this happen?”

“How could he be here?”

Congus, Nielson, Douglas, and the rest of them all looked at Arnold. Hadn’t he sent League to distract the man in the south? Wasn’t he confirmed to be in the south from various sources?

While they looked at Arnold, they were also performing magic to free themselves. However, under the influence of the river of time, their movements and their minds had been slowed. They couldn’t cast any spell quickly!

For a moment, everybody was grasped by fear, confusion, shock, and desperation.

“It’s you?” Priscilla almost heard a long sigh from Arnold.

“It’s me.” Someone showed up behind Kritonia. He was wrinkled with a hawk nose. It was League, the deputy president of the Union of Sorcerers, and the archmage who was dispatched to distract Kritonia!

His face was as gloomy as before, but he now put on a vicious and delightful smile. His voice echoed inside every soul. “I only sold some intelligence for my benefits, and I never thought to destroy the organization. However, you sent me on such a dangerous mission. You are to blame for your situation right now!”

“Haha. Thanks to League’s intelligence, there’s finally a chance to completely destroy your organizations!” Alfonsol laughed cruelly and gloatingly. The red robes and divine knights nearby quickly approached and protected him.

“Goddamn traitor!” It was the first idea that Priscilla, Nielson, Congus, and Amanata had in mind.

Fernando even roared aloud, “Old man, filthy traitor!”

Time saturated the valley and the forest like water. All the sorcerers within the range had so many mistakes casting their spells that they could not escape at all. They were devastated and frustrated. The senior-rank sorcerers like Congus began to prepare to destroy themselves in order to be resurrected in other places.

After chopping Arnold’s servant of death and limiting everyone’s operation, Kritonia raised his long sword again, and everybody heard his clear voice. “It’s a pity that there are only a few archmages…”

Faint pride could be felt in his tone. He did not consider Arnold, Douglas, or any of them to be important at all.

Everybody looked gloomy as if death was at hand, except the lich who only had bones. The intimidation of a level-two legendary knight was not to be underestimated!

Hardly had Kritonia finished his remark when a face suddenly erupted from the darkness behind him. The face was enormous and covered in a black hood. His eyes were two pale fires, and he opened his mouth letting out syllables that nobody else could hear, as if he were the God of Death reincarnated!

A black swirl emerged from the bottom of Kritonia’s feet and enshrouded him and League.

The swirl was as blurry as smoke. Dozens of clerics and night watchers below the senior rank did nothing except to watch it, but their bodies quickly decayed into skeletons at a loss!

The bones of the servant of death that Kritonia minced just now exploded and released pale smoke that instantly consumed the forest and the valley. The skull, on the other hand, sprang and fell at the center of the enormous face, forcing a tall, slim figure with a long black robe behind in midair. The faces of souls surrounded him and cried miserably, as if they were praising and singing for him!

The figure was very similar to the servant of death just now, except that the black scythe had been raised, as if it was ready to reap lives.

“Ahh!!!”

In the pale smoke, a red robe suddenly screamed. His soul was extracted from his shell and melted into the smoke.

The souls of many other reverends, bishops, night watchers, and divine knights also flew out and joined the carnival of spirits in the smoke. Trees withered, and creatures decayed. Except for the sorcerers and few clerics, the place was already a lifeless realm of the dead!

The pale smoke began to constrict, and the fuzzy faces of pain and fear drifted in it, constructing a cage that trapped the black swirl.

A crack suddenly appeared on the black swirl, and the watery ripples spread out. In the meantime, a red robe and a divine knight behind Alfonsol suddenly went on a rampage. One of them summoned a firestorm, and the other destroyed himself. Alfonsol, caught unprepared, was shattered into pieces.

“You?” Alfonsol, who was still gloating, did not see it coming at all. Vague shock was left behind even though he was dead.

Kritonia, with the longsword of time, broke out of the black swirl and happened to catch the scene. League, however, had been transformed into a dry corpse that did not have any water. He fell from the sky, and none of his life-preserving spells proved useful. Disbelief and fright were frozen on his face.

“Brain Scourge, Memory Meddling, Death Storm, Fog of Spirits…” Kritonia mumbled something first before he looked at the mysterious person outside of the mist in solemnity and surprise who was being “admired” by the souls. “Tannanois…”

While he talked, his body became fuzzy, and he flashed forward unpredictably with his longsword, as if he were traveling in different spaces, to avoid the blockage of the Fog of Spirits.

The changes happened so fast that Priscilla, Nielson, and the rest of them did not realize what was happening at all until they heard Kritonia’s words.

“The Liege of Death!”

Nielson couldn’t have sounded more delighted.

“The Liege of Death!”

Congus, Priscilla, and Amanata, on the other hand, were so surprised that they found it hard to believe.

Douglas was the first to come back to himself, but he did not intervene a moment ago because he realized he wasn’t capable enough to be involved at all!

At this moment, he looked at Arnold in confusion, amusement, and shock. How did his servant of death turn into “Liege of Death” Tannanois, who was the top legend in the past and the last consul of the Asso Empire? How many things had the guy kept a secret?

“Old fox, what is this all about?” Fernando roared, feeling that he had been tricked. His participation in the operation mattered little!

Arnold did not seem surprised at all. He coughed and said, “Let’s get out of here first. Or maybe, do you want to be involved in a battle of legends?”

As he spoke, a colorful rainbow flew out of his hands and exploded into brilliant fireworks in the sky.

Having no time to inquire and “beat” Arnold, Priscilla glared at him and let the Tower of Destroyers run. Congus, Nielson, and Amanata turned around and left on their own for the rendezvous that they agreed upon earlier.

Douglas and Fernando followed Arnold to escape through the forest. Suddenly, they sensed something and raised their hands, only to discover that a gap was ripped in the sky of the battle, and a slim old man walked out with his eyes closed. From the north, a cold and beautiful girl who looked like an ice sculpture was also approaching.

“Mental Storm!”

“Aurora Wall!”

Two sophisticated voices came from far away. Fernando glared at Arnold. “So, the real target of the operation is actually ‘Heart of Time’? What was League all about? Has the Liege of Death been restored to level three?”

“Cough. As I said before, sometimes, the traitors are more valuable to us than they are to our enemy.” Arnold looked at him with a smile.