Advent of the Archmage

Creation Hall

"Come, come, Link. Tell me your idea now." Red Queen Gretel had some knowledge of spatial singularities and knew the difficulty in restricting the power. Thus, she was interested in Link’s idea of control.

She pulled two chairs over and placed them beside each other next to the long table in the center. She sat on the one on the right.

Link thought this wasn’t suitable, but he had no need to mention these small details to the queen. He sat onto the chair on the left and took out his notes. Opening it, he gathered his thoughts for a bit. Then he started writing his specific train of thought for the control.

After writing for a while, he felt something on his right arm. Something soft was pressed against it. He also smelled a vague fragrance. It was soft and sweet, making him want to keep smelling it.

Link groaned inwardly. He didn’t know if Gretel was doing this on purpose or not, but she was leaning against him to look at his notes. He couldn’t focus like this at all. His pen stopped moving unconsciously.

"Hey, continue. Why did you stop?"

Gretel’s voice rang right in Link’s ear. A warm breath touched his ear too. Link felt that if he turned his head, his lips would be less than ten centimeters from her face.

After freezing for a moment, Link slowly sighed. He collected his mind bit by bit. A few seconds later, he exhaled softly. No distractions remained anymore. No matter what happened in the outside world, he would be focused on his thoughts.

Slowly, Link forgot about the Red Dragon Queen beside him. He was completely immersed in his world of magic. With magic runes, he described a huge yet detailed magic building.

Seeing him like this, Gretel pouted a little. She felt bored. Flirting was only fun if the other party reacted, but Link had turned into a piece of wood now. She couldn’t do anything to wood.

However, this was just a fleeting moment of interest. Her focus was quickly attracted by the magic thoughts that kept flowing out of Link’s pen.

According to Link, this was a spell that could control explosive energy. Based on regular logic, one needed to construct energy, or object that could be even more controlled or consolidated to control this energy.

There was a problem.

Gretel was clear that a singularity’s explosion was probably the most terrifying explosion of power in a realm. There was nothing more powerful than it in the world. In that case, nothing could control it.

Thus, a singularity’s explosion was destructive and using this method was like a suicidal attack.

She wanted to see how Link could control it.

As she kept reading, she felt something off. In the notes, Link didn’t build a power that surpassed the realm’s limit to forcefully control the energy of the explosion. He used a strange thought—so strange that she couldn’t really understand it.

Though she couldn’t understand it, she could still clearly feel that the magic building Link described was beautiful. All Mana formulas were clear-cut. The logic of the entire process was impressive too. After reading it, she subconsciously felt like this was the truth of the world.

Link took three hours to write his thoughts clearly on paper. When he was finally done, he breathed deeply and stretched. Looking at his product, he was satisfied.

Recently, he’d researched various magic books, and this idea had been turning in his mind. Using this chance, he organized them all and laid it all out on paper, creating a highly feasible control magic seal.

To be honest, he thought that his product was perfect after writing it down. He felt exhilarated, just like the feeling of using all his energy while exercising.

But his action caused a problem.

A soft sound came from his side. Then Link felt something touch his arm. Shocked, he turned his head and felt his lips brush past something warm and soft.

It was the Red Dragon Queen Gretel. She was still reading beside him, but Link had forgotten about her. His arm ended up touching her forehead. When he turned his head, his lips touched hers.

Link froze. It was just a touch, but his lips felt like it had been shocked electrically. They were numb, soft, and slippery. He could keep indulging in it.

"I...it wasn’t on purpose," Link hurriedly explained.

"Oh. So you don’t dare to kiss me anymore?" Gretel whispered in reply. Her red eyes were filled with ambiguous light.

What could Link say? He was so awkward he just stood up and moved to the side. Changing the topic, he said, "Your Highness, I wrote all my thoughts in this notebook. What do you think?"

Gretel cocked her head and supported it with her hand. Looking up, she smiled and said, "I read the notes already, but I don’t really understand. Come sit down and explain to me."

Link couldn’t sit there anymore. He wasn’t that innocent. If he sat down, something would happen. If he gave into his hormones now, he would be too ashamed to face Celine back in Ferde.

Sweating slightly, Link remained standing. "Your Highness, I remember everything in the notes. If you can’t understand something, just ask, and I can answer."

Seeing him like this, Gretel sighed. "If only I met you before Celine," she muttered.

With that, she stopped the flirting and stated, "I saw your magic model. Are you using the power of time?"

Now that they were talking about magic, Link calmed down. He nodded. "Indeed. Your Highness, look here. The flood of energy when a singularity explodes is already the limit of the realm. In Firuman, no power or object can restrain this flood. Not even space itself can. The only solution is to use the future to influence the present... No, more accurately, it’s using the future to restrict the present and use time to restrict the direction of this flood!"

Using the future to restrict the present sounded iffy, but this happened often in real life.

For example, if someone set the goal of becoming rich in three years, the future goal would continuously affect his actions now. Of course, this was the weakest type of influence. It could be interfered with or broken at any time.

Link wanted to use his knowledge of the time laws and continuously strengthen this restrictive power until it was strong enough to turn a singularity’s directed explosion into fate!

He couldn’t do this with his own knowledge, but it was okay. He now had a ready-made time tool. It was the thin piece of time Skinorse had given him.

With this piece as the core, Link would improve upon it and create a usable control magic seal.

Link explained all of this to Gretel. At the end, he took out the black piece of time. "Your Highness, look at this. This is the true core."

Gretel studied this pure black object. "According to you, this piece is too weak. Are you going to keep feeding it the Jogu you mentioned?" she asked.

Link shook his head. "No, not Jogus. Your Highness, look at the outer magic seal I designed. Most of it is used for strengthening the piece of time. Look here. After the singularity explodes, the horrible power will turn all existence into nothingness. Time, space, and material will all turn into pure energy. It won’t be distinguishable. I call this state ’chaos’!"

This was similar to the Grand Unification Theories from Earth. Link didn’t know why this would happen. He’d just calculated and naturally came to this result.

Gretel grew more interested. Her eyes glittered, totally different from the watery light when she was flirting. This was the desire for knowledge.

She sat up straight. "Chaos? Explain in detail."

Link thought a bit and used a metaphor, "Your Highness, it’s like stewing a pot of potato and beef stew. The materials are the potatoes and beef. Time and space are like the water in the pot. The energy from the singularity explosion is like the fire under the pot. When the fire is burning, and the temperature is very high, everything in the pot will turn into a thick stew. You can’t distinguish anything from each other. That’s the state the moment after a singularity explosion—an indistinguishable pot of stew."

"Oh, then what?" Gretel quickly asked.

"Then this extreme energy will expand and cool. Once it cools, things will change. The melted time will first become solid from the stew. This will happen one-billionth of a second after the explosion. That moment is the best time for control... Look at this magic seal."

As Link spoke, he quickly drew a magic seal in the air. "The cooled power of time will be detected by the magic seal and surge into the piece of time. Within one-millionth of a second, the piece’s power will multiply tens of thousands of times. It is enough to turn the slightly cooled explosive energy’s direction into an inextinguishable fate!"

This time, Link explained everything clearly, and Gretel understood. She was deeply impressed. "Then what level do you think this attack would be at?"

Link thought for a bit and said, "The power of time is the most mysterious type of strength. It is also the existence closest to the source of the realm. Applying the current levels, when it is heated to a chaotic state, it will definitely be above Level-29. When the explosive energy cools slightly and the power of time is isolated, it will be around Level-26. Thus, our final energy supply will reach Level-26. Even a god would fear this power!"

To a Magician, the levels of power were clear because any type of power, even a god’s power, could find its relative phenomenon in the world. It could even be calculated on paper with simple logic.

For example, the instant a singularity exploded, its power would technically be at Level-30. This was the pinnacle of the godly domain!

Of course, there was still a long way to go between knowing its existence and completely controlling and manipulating it. It was like how a mortal could see the sun and feel its mightiness, but they couldn’t become the sun.

Link being able to create a Level-26 attack wasn’t because he himself was so powerful. It was because of this piece of time in his hands that he couldn’t even comprehend.

Without this, everything Link had done would be all in vain.

Gretel knew this, but to her, Link was still amazing. Looking at the thin black piece, she asked, "If your idea can be realized, the spatial crack won’t be a threat anymore. However, I can feel that your model isn’t perfected. The details are rough."

"Indeed." Link nodded. "The most critical part is that we need materials with a very high heat resistance."

Gretel was confused. "High heat resistance... But nothing can stop a singularity’s explosion, right?"

Link shook his head and explained, "No, no, Your Highness. The material isn’t to stop the high temperature of the explosions. It’s just a buffer. It must buffer the energy for one-billionth of a second. Otherwise, I’m afraid the time piece won’t be able to absorb the power of time. It’ll evaporate instantly."

Gretel nodded. Thinking a bit, she said, "I know a place that will definitely have the material you need, but it’s dangerous."

"Tell me." Link’s eyes lit up.

"The Sea of Void. All types of astral rocks float in there. One of them will satisfy your needs."

"The Sea of Void... But I can’t go in now..." His dragon form hadn’t recovered yet. Without turning into a dragon, he wouldn’t have the Void Ferry. He could at most open a realm portal, but he wouldn’t be able to enter the Sea of Void.

"But I can go and take you with me too. The dragon form is the Void Ferry. There’s no problem in taking someone in," Gretel answered, smiling.

"How?" Link rubbed his forehead in confusion. The dragon form had completely fused with each person.

"You’ll see," Gretel said mysteriously.