Chương 467: Chapter 466 – Fallen

The call for a healer brought out the few S Rank healers in the expedition, Mage Chaparro among them. Damion also rushed forward, ignoring Mage Teft's warning about going too close. Given the speed of his Ice Sword, Damion was able to reach the retreating SS Rank mages faster than most. The only person to reach them faster was Mage Fletcher, who used Blink to appear beside them.

"The guardian is dead," Mage Levine announced.

"If you aren't a healer you need to be cleaning up the weaker Demon Sunflowers." Mage Levine's stern voice caused most of the S Rankers who had been on their way to see who had been injured to turn and resume their cleanup efforts. Damion, however, was not deterred. He could see Mage Levine was not injured and neither was Mage Moretti, which left only one SS Rank mage, the Time mage, Donald Harris. Mage Chaparro was led up to the base of dead guardian's stalk and Damion followed along. There, Mage Harris rested.

He had a hole in his left side, likely the work of a mithril seed that had torn its way through his armor and body alike.

"What happened?" Mage Chaparro asked as she began casting her best healing spells.

"I'm not entirely sure," Mage Levine answered.

"One moment we were all fighting it, and the next he was injured and the guardian was dead. I think Mage Harris froze time or something, but the guardian was able to still wound him."

"I traded blows with the beast. It seemed to be the only way," Mage Harris rasped.

"Its magic power was greater than ours, only by fooling it were we going to be able to deliver a killing blow."

"You were successful," Mage Levine gently told him.

"Now rest. Let them heal you."

"It is too late," Mage Harris struggled to say.

"Even if my body can be healed. My life is spent. I… the last of my strength is leaving me. Axton, Damion stay. The rest of you withdraw." Damion was surprised by Mage Harris asking him to stay, but even more surprised to see Mage Veers appear next to the frail Time mage and hold him tenderly. Everyone else withdrew, even the Light mages who were not pleased to be forced to abandon a patient. Despite their reluctance to give up, Damion could tell it was too late for Mage Harris.

As he looked on, the magic power of the once strongest human mage was quickly falling.

"Take my hands, each of you," Mage Harris whispered.

"There is not much time left, but Thresbane told me how to do this." Damion and Mage Veers did as instructed, each taking one of the Time mage's hands in their own. A moment later, they could feel magic power being pushed into them. Pulling up his status in the Magic System, Damion could see his magic power quickly rising. As shocking as it was, Mage Harris was passing on his magic power to both him and Mage Veers.

"Why are you doing this?" Mage Veers asked.

"Why not pass on your magic power to Mage Levine? She is a supporter of Atlantis. Choosing her would have let us elevate a mage to a much higher level." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Those steeped in the old ways must not advance too far, for all our sakes. Even those who are now allies. I need you, Axton, to be strong and look after Damion as he grows the rest of the way. And he needs to grow faster, or he will not succeed in the task of stopping the Realm Breaches." Despite his rising magic power, Damion was still a good distance from S Rank, but in the last 30 seconds he had doubled his magic power and in another minute he might just be knocking on the threshold for the next Rank.

Ding {Essence transfer detected.} {Preparing to absorb affinity.}'System? What is going on?' Damion mentally asked. {Human mage identified as Donald Harris is transferring his essence to you which allows for the transfer of magic power. System is able to also acquire the affinity of the being performing essence transfer.}'So, I could have gained magic power and affinities like this all along?' {Affirmative, however, conditions were never met previously.}'Conditions?'

{Essence transfer requires the other party to initiate and results in the death of the initiator.} Damion opened his eyes and looked into Mage Harris' as the man lay there. The man was quickly running out of life. The flow of magic power had slowed, and he was no longer sure if he would be able to reach S Rank before the Time mage died.

"My tablet," Mage Harris mumbled, his voice barely audible.

"Repository… make sure it…" Before Mage Harris could finish his last words the failing grip of his hands in theirs went slack and the slow stream of magic power flowing into them ended. The Time mage, who had led the S Rank Assembly and humanity for generations, had fallen. Ding {Congratulations host on acquiring the Time affinity.} The congratulations from the Magic System soured Damion's stomach. Gaining the Time affinity was an unexpected bonus, but he would rather have Mage Harris.

The older Mage's experience and wisdom would certainly have been useful when facing the unknown hazards of the Mother World. Mage Veers took a bracelet off Mage Harris' wrist. True Sight told Damion it was a spatial artifact, and likely where the Time mage had stored his repository and other treasures.

"You hold onto this," Mage Veers said, passing the bracelet to Damion.

"Atlantis seems the most likely place to find a suitable successor." As Damion knelt there, holding the spatial artifact, he struggled to resist the urge to take out the repository and begin learning all the Time magic seals he could.

"Are you sure?" Damion questioned.

"I can't think of any in the S Rank Assembly that won't want Mage Harris' spells."

"Which is why they are better off with you. Besides, with that boost in power he just gave you, it shouldn't be too much longer before you join the Assembly." Damion closed his eyes for a moment and called up the Magic System status to check how high Mage Harris' essence transfer had pushed him.

[Magic System] [System Level: 4] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 20] [Magic Talent: EX] [Magic Affinity: Ice EX, Water E, Poison D, Spatial EX, Fire EX, Earth EX, Shadow EX, Holy C, Light E, Wood A, Wind A, Time A] [Mana: 67, 020/62, 693] (15%) - 72, 096 [Magic Power: 868, 679] (15%) - 998, 980 [Mana Recovery: 382 P/S] (15%) - 439 [Strength: 246] [Dexterity: 238] (15%) - 273 [Vitality: 929] [Intelligence: 153] [Experience: 9, 300/50, 000] [Store Credits: 8, 383, 790] He had risen quite high in such a short amount of time.

Damion had the briefest thought to purchase upgrades from the Magic System to boost him the rest of the way to S Rank. Now would be the perfect opportunity. Mage Harris' sacrifice would provide the perfect cover, but he resisted the thought. He still felt it would be better to save those upgrades for a bottleneck and even though he had never had a bottleneck in his training before, that did not mean he would not encounter in the future.

"I'll keep it safe," Damion told Mage Veers as he pretended to slip the spatial artifact into his pocket while actually storing it in the Magic System Inventory.

"Good," Mage Veers said.

"Now that you are almost S Rank, perhaps you should stop pretending you are limited to Ice magic."