Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Zhao Manyan was still wondering if he had seen it wrong when he landed in the hands of the soldiers. When they tossed him back up into the air, he activated his golden wings and stopped up there.

Zhao Manyan beat his wings to soar higher into the sky. He swiftly reached a height of a hundred meters and stared in the same direction to get a better look.

The dust that was drifting in the wind gradually cleared up. The enormous silhouette that left Zhao Manyan in great astonishment was still there…

“Is that a person’s face?” Zhao Manyan stared into the dust-shrouded distance, trying hard to get a closer look.

Amid the dust was an enormous human face, hanging at the same height that Zhao Manyan was at. It was more than a hundred meters in the air!

A giant face over a hundred meters up?

Zhao Manyan only knew of the Tyrant Titans possibly being that huge. However, he was confused, as he could not see its body.

The dust in the distance did not clear up entirely. Zhao Manyan could only see a face hanging in the sky. The enormous silhouette was something that Zhao Manyan had imagined subjectively. The truth was, he could not see the creature’s outline, as if its body was hidden behind the dust.

“What is it?” Commander Ye Hong asked. He had shown up on his Lightning Swordbird.

The commander could easily see that Zhao Manyan was behaving strangely. He was worried that the fortress was still being threatened.

“Can you see it? The human face?” Zhao Manyan pointed into the distance.

Commander Ye Hong followed Zhao Manyan’s finger. He shook his head after a while. “I see nothing!”

Zhao Manyan was a little confused. He soon guessed that the Blessing of the God’s Seal had made his eyesight better than others.

As a matter of fact, Zhao Manyan was feeling some fear, especially when the face was looking at him. He could feel himself freezing in place, barely able to move his finger. It was a natural fear when a living thing was facing a greatly superior existence!

Zhao Manyan gathered his courage to look at the face again, but it had vanished into the dust.

The dust slowly faded away, returning to them a clear view of the vast land. Zhao Manyan was now able to see a great distance, yet there was no sign of the human face.

Its disappearance left Zhao Manyan extremely worried!

“Was it something terrifying?” Commander Ye Hong asked in a serious voice.

“The word ‘terrifying’ wasn’t enough to describe it,” Zhao Manyan replied softly.

Zhao Manyan had seen the Black Totem Snake, and had even lived close to a Supreme Ruler like Baxia. The fear that the face floating in the dusty sky gave him was no weaker than them, which meant it was something that was countless times stronger than the Underworld Monarch Frog!

The Commander-level had different levels. Using Mo Fan’s strength as a standard, he could kill weaker Commander-level creatures instantly with his lightning. However, he would have to work with Mu Ningxue to barely handle a strong Commander-level creature. As for some Supreme Commanders, similar to Little Flame Belle’s current level, even Mo Fan would not stand a chance against them…

The same thing applied to Ruler-level creatures. The difference between strong Ruler-level creatures and weak Ruler-level creatures was extremely huge. The Underworld Monarch Frog was clearly at the bottom of the Ruler-level, while the Black Totem Snake and Baxia were both among the strongest existences among the Ruler-level creatures. Normally, Ruler-level creatures comparable to the Black Totem Snake and Baxia were extremely rare in this world; the mysterious human face of an unknown creature was such an existence, and it was only ten kilometers away from the Northguard Fortress!

It did not approach the Northguard Fortress. It was like an emperor casually observing the work of its men. It could not care less about their deaths, since they were nothing but its lackeys.

Zhao Manyan was struggling to identify if he was afraid of the unknown and was imagining things in his mind, or he was actually terrified from the pressure that the creature had put him under. He was extremely cautious even when he was breathing.

“What exactly happened?” Commander Ye Hong asked solemnly.

“We only thought those things were from Egypt…” Zhao Manyan replied.

—

—

Fenna finally obtained the information Lingling had asked for. She e-mailed everything she found to Lingling.

The information was all very mixed-up. Lingling had to filter the information according to the situation that had occurred at the Northguard Fortress. Many were ancient legends in Egypt. Some of them were real, from undisclosed records. Some were just stories that the locals came up with after seeing some natural phenomena, thus only some part of the stories were true. It was necessary to filter out irrelevant information.

The majority of the history was speculation. As a result, historical records and artifacts were extremely meaningful, as they were the only evidence to prove what was right!

Egypt’s history was extremely complicated. The creatures of the Underworld closely followed the changes of their dynasty, to an extent that there existed two kinds of status in Egypt; one was their status when they were still alive, and one was their status in the Underworld!

“Underworld Monarch Frogs, the most ancient creatures of the Underworld. They used to be the Pharaohs’ mounts. They can carry an entire city while traveling across deserts and oceans…”

“The Yoked: loyal, passionate, and vicious slaves of the Underworld Monarch Frog. They are only a bunch of lost souls if they are separated from the Underworld Monarch Frog. They were placed under the Pharaoh’s Curse when they were alive, so they cannot find peace after they died. The stronger the grudge they were holding, the greater the power they would receive from the Underworld Monarch Frog. In addition to that, they can obtain more power through killing, too.”

“The Triangle Void Mirror, an artifact that originated from the legend of Osiris and Khonsu…” Lingling quickly read through the legends of ancient Egypt and records that had been verified.

“Long ago, it was proven that the Triangle Void Mirror did not exist. It was just a story that someone had come up with, to direct the hatred of Egypt’s people toward the mirages to someone that did not exist. Khonsu was just a sacrifice that the ruler used to put the blame on.

“The Triangle Dimensional Mirror is an artifact forged by an unknown master, with the ability to combine two kinds of Dimensional Magic. It has the power to reflect an object beyond the limitations of space and distance. Since the energy that it requires is said to be evil, an ancient Magic Association dismantled it. Its parts were kept in different Magic Associations and the method to reassemble them was lost.”

Lingling read the story while flipping through some of the records.

There was indeed a document that proved the Triangle Dimensional Mirror had been dismantled. The document had the symbol of a Magic Association, and to Lingling’s surprise, the symbol actually belonged to a Magic Association in China, the Potala Palace Magic Association!

“One of its core components is kept inside the Sacred Hall of Liberty. The Research Union is conducting experiments on it to discover its secrets…”

Lingling suddenly recalled something.

When Mo Fan was attacked by an Executioner in New York, the people of the Black Vatican had used the opportunity when the Mages of the Sacred Hall of Liberty were busy searching for the Executioner, stealing something from the Sacred Hall of Liberty!

“Could it be that the Cold Prince found the descendant of the person that forged the Triangle Dimensional Mirror? Was he using the opportunity to steal the core component of the Triangle Dimensional Mirror?” Lingling slowly pieced the information together.

Lingling had not put much attention on the stolen item. The Sacred Hall of Liberty did not say a word, either. They never told anyone what the missing item was.

“Maybe they didn’t think someone would know the method to reassemble the Triangle Dimensional Mirror, so they didn’t really care when it was stolen, since it wasn’t something that is used commonly,” Lingling reasoned why the Sacred Hall of Liberty did not treat the stolen item seriously, but she was very displeased by them.

If the Sacred Hall of Liberty had not hidden the truth, perhaps they would have found out what the Cold Prince was up to earlier!

“That means the Cold Prince has reassembled the Triangle Dimensional Mirror! He’s moving a pyramid from Egypt to here to open up an entrance to the Underworld,” Lingling conjectured.

The answer was fairly obvious… but how could they possibly stop it from happening?

The Cold Prince was nowhere to be found, nor did they know where he was going to use the Triangle Dimensional Mirror next. It even felt like they were already done with the plan. What awaited the Northguard Fortress were the endless creatures of the Underworld!

Lingling smiled wryly upon having the thought.

It felt like it was meaningless to learn everything, since there was no way they could stop it from happening!

“The Underworld Monarch Frogs are the pack beasts of the Underworld. An Underworld Monarch Frog can lift and drag a small pyramid…” Lingling continued to read. She suddenly paused in the middle of her sentence.

Zhao Manyan was standing beside Lingling. His thoughts were preoccupied by the monster with a human face. He did not really hear what Lingling had said. When he saw Lingling staring at him with a terrified expression, he asked nervously, “What’s wrong?”

“Have you seen the pyramid?” Lingling asked.

“What pyramid? I didn’t see one,” Zhao Manyan replied.

“The record says the Underworld Monarch Frogs are the carriers of the Underworld Palaces! An Underworld Monarch Frog can carry a small Underworld Palace. These Underworld Palaces are similar to the pyramids. In Egypt, whenever an Underworld Monarch Frog shows up, it means a pyramid is being moved. The whole country would go into Red Alert!” Lingling exclaimed.

The pyramids could be moved, but the only way to do so was the Underworld Monarch Frogs!

“No, we didn’t see any pyramids. The chains on the Underworld Monarch Frog disappeared on their own after it died,” Zhao Manyan said.

“The Underworld Monarch Frog wasn’t carrying a pyramid on its back…” Lingling had a terrible look. She finally blurted out, “Which means there isn’t only one Underworld Monarch Frog moving it!”

Zhao Manyan dropped his jaw. His mouth remained open for some time.

The Underworld Monarch Frog was dragging a pyramid with its chains?

The same pyramid that contained countless undead and served as the gate between the living world and the world of the dead? The terrifying place not a single person had come back alive from!?

Zhao Manyan was there when the mirages appeared. He clearly knew the destruction that a small pyramid could bring…