Chapter 128: The Man Closest to God

Chapter 128 -127: The Man Closest to God

A Forbidden Mage in his twenties!

Elise Green gathered the hem of her skirt and gave Li Ye an elegant curtsy. “My name is Elise Green, a Water Mage. Greetings, Your Excellency, the esteemed Forbidden Mage. Please forgive our previous disrespect.”

‘He’s really a Forbidden Mage?’

‘So, what he said was true.’

‘Did he really come to this world from several hundred years ago because he was researching Forbidden Magic?’

Linton was stunned. For a moment, he even forgot to bow to Li Ye.

Elise glanced back at Linton. “Your Excellency, this is Linton Donald. He is a Great Swordsman and our captain.”

Linton snapped back to his senses and hurriedly bowed. “Your Excellency, I am Linton. Please forgive my previous offense.”

“Augustus, at your service, Your Excellency.” The minotaur followed, also bowing. Though most minotaurs were impulsive and reckless, they weren’t fools; they could read the situation.

“I am Dean Booker, Your Excellency. Thank you for healing me,” the Assassin said.

“I am Seth Gobert, Your Excellency.” The now-lucid elf also bowed to Li Ye, but her eyes were still fixed anxiously on the massive Fireball in his hand, terrified it would explode and destroy the forest.

She could perceive the emotions of plants, and she could clearly feel the trees’ terror.

Filled with fear and trepidation, they all bowed to Li Ye.

The strong are respected.

Li Ye had decisively proven his power.

Forbidden Mages were among the most powerful beings on the continent. No one dared disrespect them.

“Li Ye, why didn’t you let me stop her bleeding? I have that function!” Scroll clamored in Li Ye’s mind. “Blood can dye me red. I like red…”

‘See?’

‘That settles the question of my identity.’

‘Just as I thought. Power solves everything.’

Li Ye smiled faintly and retracted the Fireball from his palm back into the six-pointed star in his Dantian.

Watching the giant Fireball shrink, eventually turning into a tiny flicker of flame that dissipated in Li Ye’s palm, Elise’s eyes grew even wider, her heart pounding. “You… You can actually retract Magic that’s already been cast?”

“You can’t?” Li Ye gave Elise a strange look and frowned. “Don’t tell me that a few hundred years from now, Magic has regressed so much you can no longer command it at will?”

“Command it at will?” Elise was stunned.

“Yes, commanding it at will. It is the highest realm of Magic.” Li Ye chuckled. A Fireball appeared in his palm, then vanished. It was followed by a sphere of flowing water, a miniature tornado, a bolt of crackling lightning…

Finally, the Seven Magic Elements formed a rotating ring in Li Ye’s palm before he retracted them one by one.

In a display akin to juggling, Li Ye had demonstrated to Elise what it meant to command one’s magic at will.

Elise was dumbfounded. “A… A Full Element Mage… You… you can use magic of all seven elements at once?”

“Correct. I am an All-Element Forbidden Mage.” Li Ye smiled at Elise. “In my era, I was known as the man closest to the Gods.”

‘The man closest to the Gods?’

‘What an arrogant title!’

Everyone jolted, staring at Li Ye in utter disbelief.

Linton’s expression was conflicted.

‘But thinking back on everything Li Ye has done since he appeared—his mastery of All-Element Magic, his speed that surpasses an Assassin’s, his strength greater than a barbarian’s…’

‘Most importantly, he looked to be only in his early twenties, while the youngest Forbidden Mage on the continent was over seventy years old.’

‘The man closest to the Gods?’

‘It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him a Divine Spirit walking the mortal world… ‘

‘The world can be saved.’

‘No, wait.’

‘How could a Forbidden Mage so young, one who shines as brightly as the sun, not have left any record in the annals of history?’

Linton swallowed hard and asked cautiously, “Your Excellency, since you claim to be the man closest to the Gods, why is there no record of you in the history books?”

“That is precisely what I find strange,” Li Ye said. “My teacher is the Legendary Mage Gandalf, yet in the documents I found in the Land of the Dead, even my teacher’s name is missing.”

“But Gandalf was a Mage from ten thousand years ago!” Elise exclaimed, her eyes wide.

“Ten thousand years ago?” Li Ye froze, and this time, he wasn’t acting.

‘Ten thousand years. That number feels significant. Did this world also suffer a cataclysm ten thousand years ago?’

‘If this world also had a cataclysm ten thousand years ago, then that seems to line up with what Scroll said.’

“Yes. Ten thousand years ago was the Twilight of the Gods. The heavens fell and the earth shattered; the Gods perished, and the world was destroyed.” An unbelievable possibility dawned on Elise, making her heart race. She looked at Li Ye and said cautiously, “The Legendary Mage Gandalf is said to have fallen during the God War.”

“He liked to lean on a staff, wear a pointed blue hat, a gray cloak, and a silver scarf, and was fond of wearing black boots?” Li Ye asked, looking skeptically at Elise. “Is that the Gandalf you’re talking about?”

“No one knows what he looked like. The scattered records only say he was an incredibly powerful Mage who was also skilled at wielding a Two-Handed Sword and a Magic Staff in close combat…” Elise looked at Li Ye, her doubts about his identity completely gone.

After all, Li Ye had also demonstrated formidable close-combat abilities.

“Fighting with a Two-Handed Sword… yes, that’s definitely him,” Li Ye said. “He required every one of his disciples to have a strong physique to compensate for a Mage’s shortcomings in close quarters.”

“So, the Forbidden Magic I was researching didn’t send me a few hundred years into the future, but ten thousand years? This is the world ten thousand years later… No wonder I can’t feel the power of the Gods…”

GULP!

The sound of everyone swallowing nervously filled the air.

‘He’s really a being from before the fall of the Gods?’

‘The disciple of the Legendary Mage Gandalf, the man closest to the Gods…’

‘Those titles were simply terrifying.’

Linton’s mind went blank; he was incapable of thought.

“The Gods have fallen?” Li Ye asked.

“Yes.” Elise looked at Li Ye and answered honestly. “Ten thousand years ago, during the great war of the Gods, fire rained down from the sky, floods ravaged the Mortal World, and giant beasts devoured humanity…”

“The heavens collapsed and the earth shattered; civilization was destroyed in an instant. Your Excellency Aragon, our current civilization was rebuilt upon the Ruins of the old. After the cataclysm, Priests could no longer feel the Divine Spirits, nor could they borrow their power.”

“The Gods… actually fell!” Li Ye looked up at the sky, his expression vacant with a hint of sorrow. A single tear rolled down from the corner of his eye. “So, Gandalf is dead, too?”

“Lord Gandalf must have fallen,” Elise said. “Your Excellency Aragon, even if your teacher did not fall, ten thousand years have passed since your time.”

“When my teacher met me, he had already lived through three eras. He had mastered incredible Magic; without an accident, he would not have died…” Li Ye’s sorrow was uncontrollable. He wiped the tear from the corner of his eye and shook his head. “But never mind. If even the Gods have fallen, I suppose it’s impossible that he survived.”

“Your Excellency, please accept my condolences,” Elise said. “At least you were fortunate. You escaped the war of the Gods.”

“Escaped the war of the Gods?” Li Ye frowned. He looked up at the sky again and murmured, “Teacher, you were the one who had me research Forbidden Magic. So, did you foresee your own fall? Did you send me away on purpose?”

“…”

Elise held her breath, staring at Li Ye in disbelief as her mind raced. ‘To protect his beloved disciple, did Gandalf foresee the danger and use Forbidden Magic to send him ten thousand years into the future?’

‘What a profound bond between a master and his disciple!’

‘And were Mages of the Ancient Era truly that powerful?’

‘Could the Forbidden Magic they researched really traverse time and space to send someone ten thousand years into the future?’

“Your Excellency, the dead are gone. We must look to the future. You shouldn’t let your teacher’s painstaking efforts go to waste,” Linton said.

‘Knowing Li Ye’s identity, had he suddenly seen a glimmer of hope for defeating the Undead Calamity?’

‘This man was the disciple of a Legendary Mage!’

‘Just casually revealing a few magical secrets from the Ancient Era would be enough to advance this world’s knowledge immensely.’

‘Moreover, perhaps Gandalf not only foresaw the fall of the Gods, but also the Undead Calamity, and deliberately sent his disciple to this era to save humanity!’

The more Linton thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

“…” Li Ye was silent for a moment, then muttered to himself, “No, that’s not right. The old man never did anything without a reason. He must have had a purpose for sending me ten thousand years into the future.”

“Since I came here using Forbidden Magic, I must be able to return to the past.”

“Yes, that must be it. I have to find a way back, stop the Twilight of the Gods, and save my teacher.”

Elise’s heart beat faster and faster, the adoration in her eyes practically overflowing.

‘He truly is the man closest to the Gods!’

‘Look at his ambition! He casually talks about going back ten thousand years to stop the Twilight of the Gods…’

‘Compared to him, they were so insignificant.’

…

Li Ye seemed to have made up his mind. He looked at Linton again and asked, “Linton, what is this Undead Calamity?”

“To answer Your Excellency,” Linton, hoping to use Li Ye’s power to save the world, replied with the utmost respect, “Four years ago, a new Skeleton Monarch suddenly arose in the underworld.”

“It slew the previous Undead Monarch, Lian Del, swiftly unified all the races of the underworld, and then launched a surprise attack on humanity.”

“The Undead Magic it commands is bizarre; it can reawaken nearly one hundred percent of those it kills, turning their corpses into its minions. And those corpses retain the strength they had in life.”

“Under the power of such potent Undead Magic, the Undead Army only grew larger with every battle, and humanity suffered a crushing defeat.”

“In just three short years, the Undead Army has occupied two-thirds of the Ounide Continent.”

“Humans, elves, and beastmen were forced to form an alliance and retreat to the northwestern corner of the Ounide Continent. The allied forces are using the Dragonbone Mountain Range to temporarily halt the Undead Army’s advance.”

“But the Undead Army is too numerous. The Dragonbone Mountain defensive line is in jeopardy and could be breached at any moment.”

“The astrologer, Floyd, said that ten thousand years ago, when the Gods fell, the Divine Format of the Archangel Michael scattered across the Morion Continent. If all the pieces of Michael’s Divine Format are gathered, an Angel’s glory can be restored in the Mortal World, and the Undead Army can be defeated.”

“Our mission is to venture deep into the heartland of the Undead Army to search for the fragments of the Angel’s Heart.”

“Just the few of you?” Li Ye asked, looking doubtfully at Linton and the others.

“Your Excellency Aragon, of course it’s not just us. There are thousands of teams like ours,” Linton said, glancing at Elise with a sorrowful expression. “Only the purest of Magic Girls can sense the fragments of the Angel’s Heart. With most of humanity dead or wounded, there are not many pure maidens left…”