Beside the sewage cesspool
Link walked back to the passage and took down the spatial barrier.
"How is it?" Lannie asked.
Link didn't say a word but stepped aside, letting Lannie see the headless black and blue demon corpse lying in the passage entrance.
Lannie exhaled slowly and unclenched her fist. She said excitedly, "Master Link, you're amazing!"
Behind her, the Yabba people were too happy for words. Many cried in relief. On their way here, one brave Warrior after another had stood up against it, but none manage to kill it. The demon would appear like a specter of death, and every time it appeared, the Warriors were forced to use their strongest suicidal attacks in an attempt to take it down.
Everyone had been despondent.
Now that the demon was dead, it felt like a large weight was lifted from their hearts. Some people ran past Link and stopped next to the demon, kicking and hitting its corpse, crying all the while. Many others ran up to Link and knelt before him, thanking him.
There was a mother that walked over with her child and said emotionally, "Lord, my child is only half a year old. His father died in battle and never got the chance to give him a name. Would you please name this child?"
Link knelt down and looked at the child not much bigger than his fist. The infant was not in good condition. Perhaps he was frightened from the battle, or perhaps, being on the run, his mother could not take proper care of him. Link reached out and touched the child's skin. The infant's body was burning hot. The baby's face was also twisted in pain, as though it wanted to cry but couldn't. It must have been suffering.
Thinking for a moment, he placed his hand on the infant's head and channeled in some Dragon Power. This Dragon Power could greatly increase one's vitality. Instantly, the infant's expression calmed down. Then, Link cut a slit on his finger and drew out some blood which he used to draw a complex pattern on the infant's head.
He was not able to use any spells. Nonetheless, his blood was very dense with power. The inscriptions he made would definitely have a large effect.
It was as though the infant could feel much more comfortable. Its crystal-like eyes opened wide, and it moved its body, turning towards its mother's chest. It was hungry.
"What a cute little thing," Link said gently. "He will be the hope of the future. We shall call him Fain."
"Many thanks, Lord," The Yabba mother said, before moving to the side.
It was now time to settle important matters. Link asked Lannie, "What about delivering the message?"
Lannie slapped her forehead. "Oh right! I almost forgot. Master Green should know what to do, come with me."
Lannie grabbed Link's hand and ran forward with her short legs until she exited the passage.
Magician Green was resting by the side of the cesspool. When he saw Link, he quickly got up to greet him.
Lannie was like a little bird. She chattered on continuously, telling Magician Green all about Link's intentions.
When she was done, Magician Green asked Link, "Are there really so few of the Black Army left outside Lariel?"
Link nodded. "I realized this when I came here. The truth is, three days ago, Orida fortress was engaged in a bloody battle. The alliance killed 80,000 Dark Elves and 40,000 demons. Of course, we had great losses as well. Right now, we are only left with about 10,000 Warriors. We are surrounded on all sides by the remaining demons... We need reinforcements urgently."
Magician Green slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "If only we knew that there were so few people outside the city! We wouldn't have stayed holed up inside. We must quickly get this news through the barrier. There's no time to waste!"
He thought for a moment and said, "If we want to pass the news into the city, we need to use the statues. There should be many left in the outer districts."
Link knew about this method too, but unfortunately, most of the statues had already been destroyed completely. That level of destruction was not something that could be fixed easily.
Link said helplessly, "Unfortunately, I don't think that will work. Before we came here, we saw that many of the statues were already destroyed.
Lannie also nodded, "All the statues are destroyed and in pieces. I didn't manage to see an undamaged one either."
As he heard this, Magician Green frowned. He thought that there would definitely be some statues left and never expected that the situation would be so serious.
"This must be the work of that traitor, Akensser! Well then, the only way we can send a message through is to build another transmitting statue. But to do this, we'll need to go to the magic net's node," Green said.
"Magic net node?" Link asked.
Green nodded. He explained, "Underneath Lariel City is a giant magic net. We used it to create many things, including defensive barriers and offensive spells. Actually, the whole of Lariel City is just like your human magic towers."
"I understand; how do we find it then?" Link asked. As expected of an ancient race, their secrets were extremely well hidden.
"I know the positions of all the nodes. The nearest one is just one and a half miles away from us. We can get there using the underground passages. Let's go now!" Green exclaimed.
The moment Green finished speaking, a message appeared in Link's vision.
New Mission: Deliver the Message
Description: Find the magic net node, build the statue and form a connection with the Yabbas inside Lariel City.
Mission reward: Assassin Boots (Epic)
Link immediately accepted the mission and said, "Let's go then."
"I'm going too!" Lannie said, clutching the musket under her arm. "I'm a very good shooter!"
Green nodded and said, "Lannie is the clan's greatest shooter."
Link assented. "Then, will these people have enough food here?" He asked.
"They do. There's enough to last at least a month. After we go out, we'll seal the entrance. That will keep this place safe," Green replied.
Then Green and Lannie said a few words to the survivors and instructed them on various things to take note of in the underground. A few minutes later, Green came back and said, "We can go now."
The three of them followed the passage back to the entrance. After 300 feet, Link used his magic sword to carve an inscription on the ground. He explained, "This is a spatial rune, it can completely seal off the passage."
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. Very soon, the walls and floor were covered in runic inscriptions. Half a minute later, he was done. He said to Green, "The Void Aura is disrupting the formation of my Mana into spells. Green, could you provide the Mana for this formation? Lannie, come over to this side."
Green obeyed and channeled his Mana into every rune. After every rune was lit up, the space shuddered for a moment. Then, it went back to normal. Nothing looked out of place, and the runes on the floor and walls had disappeared.
"What happened?" Green asked Link.
"This is an infinite loop of space. Lannie, walk in and try it," Link instructed, smiling.
"Doesn't look like much," Lannie shrugged. She walked in. After a moment, she reappeared in the passage, walking normally. Once she caught sight of Link, she exclaimed, "Hey! I was walking in that direction all this time. How come I see you guys?"
Green understood quickly. He said to Link, "This is amazing, but if there is only one looping door, it will only return the victim to his original location. It will be easy to see through the trap."
Link agreed. "That's right, so we're going to set up one more a little further ahead."
The group continued walking forward. After three hundred feet, Link stopped again to carve the spatial runes. When he was done, Green helped to supply the Mana.
This time, the spatial runes simply disappeared. The passage looked as normal as ever.
Link explained, "The entrance to the loop space is over at the other end. When someone walks through this door, nothing will happen. Only when they enter the other door, then they will be transported back to this place and continue walking in an infinite loop."
Green thought about it for a moment and couldn't help but clap his hands in admiration. "Spatial Magic is truly amazing; its secrets are far too profound. My old bones can't handle this many surprises."
When Link guided him in constructing the Spatial Barriers earlier, the first one was alright, but the second one had really drained him mentally. He felt like his mind would not be able to handle it. Therefore, he was truly impressed by this level of magic.
Link laughed. "By the time these runes lose their effectiveness, we should be done with the enemies. Let's go."
"Okay."
The three of them continued walking onward. Three hundred feet later, they encountered a secret door and continued walking forward. Another 150 feet, the road started to fork into multiple paths.
"This way," Green said, guiding the group onto one path.
They were headed for a node in the magic net. There were many demons above ground, so it was obviously easier for them to travel underground.
Link walked in the lead. He said, "This area will likely have quite a few demons, be on your guard."
"Okay," Green replied, raising his wand on standby.
"Okay! I'm going to let them have a taste of my bullets," Lannie said, brandishing her musket.
The underground passages intersected many times, just like a maze. After walking for about half a mile and getting rid of over ten lost demons, they could finally detect a dense aura of Mana up ahead.
Up ahead, small motes of light appeared. The Mana density in the space was greater than in other areas by about three times!
Link felt his Dragon Power recovery rate increase to about 30 points per second. In other places, it would only be about 20 points per second.
Green said, "Up ahead is the node… Be careful, I feel that something isn't right."
Link felt it too. He listened intently with his ears. "I felt it too, it's a strange aura, not like that of demons or Dark Elves. It's weird, I've never encountered anything like this before."
The more Link tried to sense what it was, the more confused he got. He didn't know how to describe this feeling. Although it was definitely a new type of feeling, there was something familiar about it, like he had seen it before.
He thought about it for a while. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. "I remember now! This was the feeling I got when I was crossing through the Void. Green, did something like this happen to the magic net before?"
When he didn't get a reply, Link turned to look at Green. However, he found that Green's eyes were blank. He stood there unmoving.
"Green? Magician Green? What's wrong?" Link shook Green's shoulders. However, the Yabba Magician showed no signs of responding. It was as though he had lost his soul.
It was at this point that Link felt that something was not right. He turned to look and realized that Lannie had raised her musket, targeting it at Green, looking ready to fire.
Link was shocked, and he quickly stretched out his hand, clasping it over the musket's muzzle.
Bang! Nonetheless, Lannie had fired anyway. Her face carried expressions of fear. Her eyes were wide open, as though she had seen something fearsome. It was exactly like Green's eyes. They both had a blank look, as though they were stuck in some dreamland.
After her shot was intercepted by Link, she retreated quickly. As she retreated, she raised her musket and pointed it at Link, shrilling, "Demon! Don't come here! Stay away!"
Link frowned. He was ready to snatch Lannie's musket away from her when he felt some Mana fluctuations beside him. He turned and saw that Green had raised his wand. On his wand, electricity crackled.
"Demons from the abyss, go back to where you came from!" Green shouted.
Link immediately recognized the spell. It was a Level-6 spell, Lightning Tempest. If this spell was cast, Link would suffer small injuries at most. However, Lannie would be fried to a crisp by it.
Link quickly snatched the wand away from Green and smashed his hand onto Green's neck, knocking him out. Then, in one big stride, he appeared next to Lannie and snatched her musket, before knocking her unconscious too.
Although he had successfully restrained the two Yabba people, Link couldn't understand what was going on. What's happening? Why did these two suddenly go crazy?
The crucial thing was that Link did not detect the mysterious aura of Mana.