Advent of the Archmage

When Nana appeared, everyone except Link was stupefied.

What was happening? How did this delicate young woman come to the evil and sinister Black Forest?

Bruttan just waved his giant sword around and leered at Nana as if she was the most enticing thing he'd seen in a while.

"Hey! Look!" he said gruffly. "It's a pretty little doll! I can't wait to squash her to death!"

He then charged forward at Nana. His nearly 15-foot-tall body weighed more than a ton. Even his steps rumbled the bushes and trees around him.

Nana, on the other hand, was only slightly more than five feet tall. She was also slender and petite. She looked as if Bruttan could easily trample her to death without any effort at all.

The ghouls didn't even take any notice of Nana. They were waiting eagerly for Bruttan to finish her off.

Only Auselia sensed something out of the ordinary.

"Bruttan, be careful," she warned.

"Don't you worry…" said Bruttan with a grin.

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly heard a bang in the air. Soon, the young woman had vanished.

"Huh? Where did she go?" Bruttan's eyes widened. His expressions had changed. He finally felt that something was wrong.

Whoosh….

The leaves on the trees suddenly fluttered. Half a second later, Nana's body reappeared, and she almost caught up with Link now. Her sword's edge was on Auselia's forehead, but it was blocked by a layer of flowing black crystal.

It was the god-level device's protection.

Even so, Auselia was now frightened. She'd never expected the magic puppet to have such terrifying force. She had no time to respond to this attack at all, and if it wasn't for the Dark Serpent, she would surely have been pierced through her skull again.

That's impressive, Auselia thought. But it's still not good enough.

Auselia then pulled her whip back and struck it on Nana's body.

Bang!

Another air explosion, and right before the god-level device hit her body, Nana had once again disappeared, bringing Link, who was right beside Auselia, with her.

Half a second later, Nana and Link reappeared 300 feet away. Her hands were holding Link's head, and there was a magic force field around Link's body which protected Link's neck from breaking due to her sudden burst of speed.

"Master's life is safe," said Nana with that clear mechanical voice. "First part of mission completed. Nana will get Master out of the Black Forest."

Link was surprised. Is the magic puppet going to save him alone? That would be bad. He couldn't just leave Karnose, Felina, Annie and the rest of the scouts here to die!

"Go save them!" he immediately said. "This is my order!"

Nana was about to take Link away and run, but when she heard Link's words, she instantly paused.

"Analyzing Master's authority…" she said. "Authority level one. Nana will execute Master's order."

Boom!

The wind whistled, and Nana's body disappeared from Link's side.

"Be careful of her!" Auselia shouted. Her voice had a tinge of panic in it, and she'd long discarded that flirtatious tone now. This is normal, though. No one could stay calm when they could have almost died seconds ago.

Half a second later, Bruttan suddenly wailed in pain. His whole body was thrown out, and one of his legs had been snapped cleanly off from his body. His black blood was dripping from the wound.

Even demons were living things as well, so the amputated leg undoubtedly caused Bruttan excruciating pain. Bruttan held on to the wound and screamed as loud as he could, no longer able to fight.

Nana stood at the spot where Bruttan was.

"Target number two has been mutilated," she said. "Threat eliminated."

"Go stop her!" shouted Auselia. At the same time, Auselia instinctively stepped backwards and began to retreat.

Even the ghouls knew fear. They clearly saw how fast the magic puppet was. She was so fast that one didn't have even time to even react. How were they supposed to fight her?

But it was Auselia's command, so they had no choice but to charge at Nana and surround her.

Boom!

Nana vanished again.

A second later, four of the ghouls suddenly felt a mysterious impact on their bodies. They reached their hands out and grabbed their necks and slowly fell to their knees. After a second, a line of blood appeared on their necks, and soon, the heads of all four ghouls slipped off of their shoulders.

Nana appeared outside the circle of ghouls.

"Go to hell!" shouted Auselia with both shock and fury. She charged towards Nana while striking her whip at her.

Boom!

Another air explosion and the whip once again struck empty air. Nana escaped Ausellia's attack by a close shave. Half a second later, three more ghouls stopped dead in their tracks, and soon their skulls all fell off of their shoulders too.

"Aaaah!" screamed Auselia, frantically charging at Nana. She wasn't slow at all, at a speed of 900 feet per second. For a living thing made of flesh and blood, this speed was horrifyingly fast.

But Nana was still twice as fast as her!

Auselia's god-level device whip could almost destroy anything in the physical world, but despite all her efforts, she just couldn't hit the magic puppet.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

Four more ghouls were killed mysteriously. Every time Nana dodged Auselia's attack, she would the attack the ghouls at high speed. After a while, only ten ghouls were left in the forest.

These ten ghouls stared at each other. Although they were still obeying Auselia's command and was surrounding Nana, their steps had turned slow, their actions were hesitant, and their minds were in a state of panic.

This was a hopeless battle! They were no match for the magic puppet!

If this went on, the only thing that would happen would be them getting killed by this horrifying magic puppet. Perhaps even their great leader might not survive!

Auselia finally realized that she would never be able to catch up to this demon puppet. She was no fool; she knew it was time to change her tactics. She then changed her direction and charged towards Karnose who lay on the ground.

With a hostage, she might be able to force the magic puppet to confront her.

However, this idea was only good in theory, because reality turned out to be crueler than Auselia thought.

When she was 50 feet away from Karnose, she suddenly noticed a burst of explosive gas flow around her. Soon, Karnose had vanished from the ground. Half a second later, Karnose reappeared about 300 feet away.

The next one to vanish was Felina, then Annie followed, and finally the two surviving scouts. Not only that, but while the magic puppet saved those people, she had also killed all ghouls at the same time.

Auselia was always a step behind Nana. Her speed was just too slow for this magic puppet!

Now that the hostage strategy had failed completely, Auselia exploded in rage. Never had she ever been tricked and teased this way. She was the guardian of the god-level device! She would not be insulted this way!

She then shrieked with a voice that pierced through the air, and she pointed the whip in her hand to the sky.

"I won't let any of you escape!" she shouted. "You'll all stay here! Swallowing Storm!"

Swallowing Storm

Dark Magic Divine Attack

Effects: The Dark Serpent will open its mouth and begin to swallow the souls of all creatures with ten miles.

(Note: Once this spell is launched, the repulsive effects from the physical realm on the Dark Serpent will double, and the Dark Serpent's powers will be reduced by 80%.)

This was a mighty Battle Art, and it was an attack that no one could evade.

"She's lost her mind!" exclaimed Link when he realized what Auselia was doing. His face had turned pale.

There was such a move in the game as well, although it worked at the range of only 700 feet. The real version affected an enormous range of ten miles! With this degree of power, it seemed that there was nowhere to hide!

Besides, once this kind of attack was launched, the device in Auselia's hands would be virtually destroyed. If she wanted to restore its power again, then she had to summon the dark god's power by sacrificing more souls, and even then, she might not succeed.

This was because the realm of Firuman had marked the characteristics of this device, and so would reject it the moment it tried to cross the dimensional barrier.

The long whip in Auselia's hands became erect, and it stood straight towards the sky, shrouded in violent black flames. These black flames surged into the sky and condensed instantly to form the ghostly figure of a giant serpent. The serpent was about 300 feet long, and it opened up its wide jaws, looking as if it were about to engulf the earth.

Link immediately felt a strange pulling force, as if something was trying to tear himself out of his own body.

He turned to look at Karnose and the others. A faint shadow appeared around each of them, probably their souls. It seemed that the Dark Serpent would soon suck their souls out of their bodies!

This was the power of a god-level device, and no mortal could resist it! Link took out the Dimensional Scroll and directed his mana into it.

"Let's go!" he shouted.

Then, the entire world turned gray again, and everyone had reached the Soul Realm.

But to their horror, Link found that it was all in vain because even in the Soul Realm, there was a Dark Serpent so humongous that it covered the whole sky. Its jaws were also wide open, and it was swallowing all souls around him.

The same calamity was happening in this realm. That showed the sheer scale of a god-level device's destruction!

All realms were attacked at the same time, and there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide!

In the physical realm, Nana stopped and didn't follow the others into another realm.

"Target is using unlimited power," she said. "Threat level, six stars. Begin search for weaknesses…No weakness found…Begin inquiries into historical records of battle strategy…Strategy acquired…Begin execution."

After an explosion in the air, Nana's body vanished. She then reappeared near Auselia. The sword in her hand glowed with a blue electric spark, especialyl at the tip of the sword where the spark was blindingly bright.

Stab!

Nana pierced through Auselia's eyebrows.

The black flame flowed to Auselia's eyebrows, blocking Nana's attack.

But Nana ignored it and stabbed at the same position on Auselia's head. Then she repeated it for the third time, fourth time, and fifth time. Her movements were lightning fast as usual, stabbing Auselia more than a hundred times a second.

Two seconds later, something strange happened.

The black flame on Auselia's forehead became extremely thin as if it could be broken through soon.

Nana kept at it and continued to stab through Auselia's forehead with increasing frequency.

Auselia finally felt the vibrations on her forehead. It felt as if the god-level device would soon fail to block the magic puppet's attacks. The defensive shield around Auselia's forehead was about to be shattered.

"This is impossible!" Auselia exclaimed.

She dared not take any more risks. She looked at Nana and suddenly decided to terminate the divine attack of the Dark Serpent and used her whip to strike the magic puppet in front of her.

Bang!

Nana responded quickly. After the last stab of her sword, she quickly launched her body from the spot and escaped.

Crack!

The shield on Auselia's body was finally shattered by Nana's sword. Her forehead was now pierced through, and she collapsed to the ground.

Bang!

There was another loud crash. A large tree in the forest was broken in half by the impact of Nana's body. On her back, there was a huge whip scar, and around it, a crack began to spread across her body.

She didn't completely dodge Auselia's counterattack, it seemed. With just the slightest contact with the god-level device, her body had almost crumbled to dust.

She fell to the ground, and the clear, pure eyes of hers looked straight up to the sky.

"Mission completed," she said, her clear voice had turned hoarse. "The threat has been eliminated…Nana's body has broken down…Begin backing up information…Prepar—"

The crack in Nana's body expanded, and soon afterwards, Nana's whole body crumbled to the ground, leaving only a pile of metal fragments.