Chương 477: Chapter 475 – Escape

On seeing Mistress Mirax fly across the battlefield and an A Rank human mage use Blink to teleport to her side and proceed to pummel her, Matron Jysella was enraged. Watching her second in command be out maneuvered by an inferior race only served to compound her frustration in this battle. Her army had successfully lured the Iblis forces in the region away causing them to leave Ardnet largely undefended before they revealed themselves.

Countering the Iblis' recent ability to track forces over long distances had forced her to be creative and develop a mobile method to prevent Portal from being used over a large area. Once her forces Portaled into an underground cavern safe from the detection ability of the Iblis artifact, her forces activated their jamming artifact and broke out of their hiding place.

The main Iblis force was thus forced to transit back the frontline by normal means giving Jysella the chance to march on Ardnet and destroy it before Visneer could come to its rescue. What she had not counted on was the arrival of human mages and their sneak attack on her backline.

Judging by the direction they came from, Jysella believed the humans had arrived on the Mother World through Exile and had either been called on to aid Ardnet, which spoke of a greater alliance than she believed existed, or had been unbelievably lucky in their timing. Judging by how Mistress Mirax was being matched by a weaker human true mage and how the SS Rank human Lightning mage was her own match, she believed firmly the Iblis had a secret alliance with the humans that was only just now being revealed.

Which meant it was not wise to linger. The delay in the march on Ardnet had already likely provided Visault a chance to return to the city. Soon enough he would lead his own forces out to join the battle. When that happened Jysella knew she had little chance at prevailing against two SS Rank mages. With a twist of her body, Matron Jysella used Blink to move away from Mage Levine and reappear near Mistress Mirax who was being thrashed.

The S Rank Alfar was not being defeated through the use of magic, but by physical force, which only compounded the shame of losing to an inferior. For a human true mage to have such high strength while still being A Rank was quite a surprise to Jysella. She had encountered humans in the past and had always found them lacking. In her experience their physical bodies were hardly able to contain their magic power. This young man having the strength of an S Rank at A Rank worried her.

If he was an example of a new method of human training, then she feared there could be more of him out there, which meant it was no longer wise to remain in enemy territory. Jysella had only a fraction of a second to strike at the human true mage. The blow did not land solidly, but was enough to send the human flying.

She would have liked to have eradicated the threat, pursuing the human mage and killing him, unfortunately, by the time she located where he Blinked to after she struck him, Jysella could feel the aura of another SS Rank mage moving closer. Reaching into her flowing robes she took hold of an artifact and crushed it. The destroyed artifact was the source of the Portal jamming signal.

With it destroyed she could freely open a Portal and escape, of course, no one else realized this and would only figure it out once she opened a Portal. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Grabbing the bloodied Mirax off the ground, Jysella opened a Portal and dove through. Not even bothering to order her forces to continue fighting. As the Portal closed, a bolt of lightning flashed towards it, but Mage Levine's attack was too late, the Alfar leaders had escaped.

Matron Jysella appeared in her fortress' safe arrival zone and proceeded to begin healing Mistress Mirax. The human had managed to break one of her arms as well as a number of ribs, not to mention the damage to her face as well. As her spells healed her second in command Jysella could not help but feel appalled at the damage done to Mirax.

"You saved me?" Mistress Mirax asked, startled by the revelation that her normally cold and unyielding superior had made any effort on her behalf.

"You have knowledge I require," Matron Jysella responded and ceased her healing spell. If Mistress Mirax was strong enough to speak, she was strong enough to heal herself.

"My knowledge is yours."

"The human true mage you were fighting, he is the same one you encountered before?"

"Yes, Matron."

"Our spies led us to believe the human had returned to his world. His appearance now suggests a greater alliance that has been kept hidden from us."

"I fear the situation is worse than that, Matron."

"Explain," Matron Jysella commanded.

"When I encountered him before, the true mage was only B Rank. Now he is upper A Rank. I have never encountered a human, goblin, Iblis or even an Alfar that could increase their strength so rapidly. And his physical strength, it exceeded my own and I am S Rank."

"Yes, it is concerning. How strong will this human become when he ascends to S Rank is hard to know."

"How should we proceed?"

"We must quickly regather our forces and I will consult with the other Matrons. The Iblis alliance with the humans was unexpected and spoiled the testing of our new strategy against the Iblis. Luckly, we now have the advantage over them."

"We do?" Mistress Mirax asked, confused how the Iblis gaining an SS Rank mage and a number of S Rank and A Rank mages translated into an advantage for the Alfar.

"Of course we do," Maton Jysella smiled, showing her sharp teeth.

"There is only one reason a human true mage would come here. This means we know exactly where he is going and what he is planning to do."

After a few seconds of confusion on the part of both human and Alfar in which the Iblis arrived, the Alfar realized that their commanders had abandoned them and began to open Portals to escape through. Most of the human mages were too exhausted to press their advantage, choosing to let the majority of the Alfar escape. As the Iblis rushed in they were able to intercept and kill a few of the Alfar before they could escape. Leaving the battlefield with only humans and Iblis standing among hundreds of Alfar corpses.

Damion quickly healed himself from the blow the SS Rank Alfar had landed on him. He ached, but luckily his stronger than average body and double layer of armor artifacts minimized his injuries. Looking around, he quickly spotted Visault and Visneer making their way towards him. Mage Levine, Mage Teft and Mage Veers quickly moved to join Damion. Despite his report of his interactions with the Iblis, the three were not wholly trusting of the Iblis.

"You returned, as you said you would," Visneer greeted.

"Just in time as well."

"It was not easy to return, but we managed to complete a labyrinth," Damion responded.

"Does the war go so poorly that the Alfar are able to easily march on Ardnet?"

"Our forces are still more or less evenly matched, though, with the presence of so many S Rank human mages the balance may now be tipped in our favor. Come, let us return to Ardnet and discuss plans for moving forward." As Damion conversed with Visneer in perfect Otash the rest of the human forces looked on in disbelief. Even though they had read the reports, seeing and hearing an Iblis standing there speaking their language was quite a shock.

The display forced them to reevaluate their long-held beliefs that the Iblis were just powerful savages to be feared.