Chapter 83: Artifact Of The Wandering Sage

Glowing golden chains then immediately come out from the magic circle, and they quickly wrap themselves around Azrael's body. The chains restrict his arms and legs, and Azrael is not able to break himself free.

Binding Chains is a supreme-tier spell that will guarantee to work on the target no matter how fast they are moving as long as the caster sees the target. It immobilizes the target to a certain extent; only the caster can undo it.

Once his movements are restricted, the golden chain chasing him quickly wraps around Azrael several times before it tightens up hard and binds him completely.

It won't budge a bit.

Azrael scans the area to find who cast this spell. Shortly after, a cloaked man wielding a wooden staff walks into Mors's side. He is apparently one of the magic casters who attacked him earlier, triggering that explosion.

When Azrael reads his mana, he discovers that the mage has a purple core. Azrael estimates that he has more than a million magia points, around the level of an archdragon.

He remembers that he had a blue core before. Azrael speculates that this man got the same sudden power-up as the man he is fighting.

Azrael knows no spell that can do such things. There may be support spells to buff one's allies, but not to the point that it artificially raises one's mana capacity. The only thing that Azrael can think of is that this has to be the work of an awakened ability.

"That was a nice clutch, Hald. It looks like you have finally awakened your blessings."

"It was no ordinary experience, but it was totally worth it, Mors," the ginger-haired mage says while undoing his Binding Chains to save his mana. "The boss would be delighted with my awakening."

"Yeah, he would."

The boss? He might be the one who gives them those powers.

Azrael might have found a clue to the person behind this. If this boss was the one who buffed these two, Azrael is afraid that he might have somewhat involved himself with an awakener, a powerful one at that.

He does not know whether they are working as a small group of a large organization. One thing he is certain of is that the number of problems he has to face keeps getting higher.

"Well then," Hald shifts his gaze at Azrael, who is binding by solid and magical golden chains. "I guess we have successfully fulfilled our mission, though it costs quite a number of our men."

"Resources can be restocked. Nevertheless, those ones are weaklings, by the way. They don't deserve to be in his grace."

In his current form, Azrael cannot do anything to these chains, especially the chain Mors is wielding. For now, he can just pretend that he has been incapacitated for him to extract as much information from them.

"I can't move! What the hell is this chain?!"

"Shut up. Resistance is futile."

"Guh!"

Mors then throws a punch at Azrael's left cheek, causing him to lose balance and collapse on the ground.

"This thing will not break no matter how much you struggle."

"So this is the thing that the boss handed to you." Fascinated, Hald says that as he holds his goateed chin. "This thing is capable of rendering a person who not only survived our combined attacks but was also able to fight toe-to-toe with you in your full power as well. Now I am curious what this thing actually is."

"He did not disclose that many details about it, but he said that this thing is one of the artifacts of someone called the Wandering Sage."

"Wandering Sage? Who's that?"

"No idea. Must be some sort of ancient mage."

Wandering Sage? I think I have read about it before.

Upon hearing that familiar name, Azrael recalls that he has seen that name on one of the books in the library of the undead's castle. He read a little about him, but according to the legends, the Wandering Sage was a powerful individual that roamed the world tens of thousands of years ago, way before the arrival of the two gods.

Only a handful of people prior to Veleriz's era have their names remembered in history through tens of thousands of years. Their common denominator was that they were revered as legendary or godlike beings.

If what Mors said was true, then Azrael might be in real trouble. Articles that are related to a legendary being tend to be broken or overpowered.

He fears that this chain might actually be indestructible, so there is a chance that he might not be able to break free of this chain even if he used his full power. Given that the chain can chase its target, the artifact is highly likely to be a genuine ancient relic connected to this sage.

"The boss is so thoughtful that he lent you this weapon," Hald says as he crosses his arms. "He knew how dangerous this man can be."

"Yeah. Anyways, let's get him and bring him to the boss."

After that, Mors coils the remaining length of the chain around Azrael, securing the restraints even more.

"Let go of me!"

Azrael tries to struggle as Mors is grabbing him by the hair, but to no avail. When Azrael is brought to his knees, he senses a few powerful magical signatures near their location.

"If it isn't Mors, the leader of the adventurer clan, Black Hounds, I saw a large explosion and came here. It seems like you caused massive destruction here."

"Aamon..."

Suddenly, a man clad in mithrill armor arrived on the scene alongside several people behind him. There is also a female imperial knight among them. The presence of this man catches the attention of Mors, making him let go of Azrael.

Aamon... If I remember correctly, he is currently the strongest adventurer in the Siafran Empire.

"Surrender now, Mors!" The female knight exclaims. "Not only are you one of the responsible for the missing adventurers in the middle, but you committed this mass murder as well!"

"The knights already figured it out? Well, it doesn't matter now."

Aamon then notices him, and he is wondering why he is in such restraints. Aamon then concludes that he might be the one Mors is hunting.

"What are you going to do with him, Mors?"

"It's none of your business, Aamon," Mors warns. "I advise you and your party to leave here."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I can't let you leave after all the things you have done."

Once Aamon draws his six-inch-wide mithrill broadsword from his back, the six members of his party, the Swords of Justice, prepare themselves for a fight.

"It looks like the knights have arrived as well, Mors," Hald remarks.

"This is getting more troublesome," Mors says. "The longer we stay here, the more obstacles will arrive to stop us."

"A battle is inevitable, and I must participate in it."

Hald turns to Azrael to cast Binding Chains on him once more. Glowing golden chains then rise from a magic circle anew and pin the Wandering Sage's item to the ground. By doing that, no one would be able to unwind the chains out of Azrael.

"That should be enough."

"Alright." Mors then clasps his fist. "I have many unsettled accounts with Aamon, and I will finish with it today."

◆◇◆

"Ahh!!"

Crash.

With a single punch, Mors sends one of Aamon's colleagues flying to a wall. He is the party's tank. His tower shield is easily folded by that punch, and he goes unconscious after slamming into a wall hard.

"He is too powerful, Aamon!" The party's female mage complains. "We cannot win this!"

"Let's keep going!" Aamon lets out words of encouragement. "We are going to find a way to defeat him! Ha!"

Shortly after, Aamon lunges himself toward Mors and swings his giant blade at him. However, Mors is just too fast for him, and his attack is simply blocked by his gauntlet.

Clink!

"Lightning Strike!"

Seizing the moment, the mage quickly fires a high-tier spell at Mors. A bolt of lightning comes out of her staff, and Mors cannot just outrun it.

"Kah—!"

The lightning slithers without his body, and he is left paralyzed for a brief moment. At that moment, the knight captain, Alicia, lunges at the immobile target as fast as she can as she thrusts her rapier at him. However, due to his massive power-up, Mors immediately recovers himself, and he is able to move again.

"Don't try to get sneaky!"

"Aah!"

Mors just swings his arm to fend off the knight to the side. Alicia is flying in the air for a second before she hits the ground and rolls over towards Azrael's spot.

Alicia forces herself to get back, but her body has suffered serious injuries from absorbing that impact. Using her rapier as a cane, she painfully pushes her body up just to stand. She cannot even take a step.

"That man is too powerful for all of you to handle. Your attacks and tactics have no effect on him." Azrael suddenly voices his opinion, which is basically the truth in this case.

"What...what are you talking about? Are you suggesting that we cannot defeat him?"

"Yes, and it's true," he immediately replies. "If you want to defeat him, do something about these chains, and I will defeat him."