Chapter 253: The Vault
Sylas West was startled by the sudden wail, so much so that he nearly lost his concentration and almost botched the spell he was chanting. He barely managed to finish the incantation, but just as he was about to cast the spell, another thunderous crash echoed—boom! The Thunderbird Chief smashed heavily into the ground...
The whole world fell silent in an instant...
With that, the battle was declared over. The Thunderbird Flock, having lost their chief, were thrown into chaos. Under the counterattack of the United Exploration Team, they scattered like headless flies, completely disoriented. The team's warriors charged back and forth, easily splitting the flock apart. With the help of several Archmages and three Master Archers, a single volley brought down three or four Thunderbirds. The United Exploration Team then widened the breach, pressing the advantage. The fight quickly became one-sided. Within minutes, only a couple of Thunderbirds managed to escape...
"Lord Sylas..." At that moment, Leon Merlin flew over from afar and landed beside Sylas. "I just spoke with President Lance. It seems the situation is far more complicated than we imagined..."
"Oh, oh..." Sylas repeated, his gaze never daring to meet Leon's eyes.
Because Sylas suddenly realized that this young Archmage standing before him had become utterly unfamiliar...
Now, Sylas finally understood why, that night after a long talk with Caron, when the possibility of a fight came up, Caron only smiled and, apart from advising against it, said nothing more...
Back then, Sylas thought Caron was worried for him—afraid that if he hurt the young Archmage, it would provoke Star Sage Joey's revenge, or even bring down Nolan's wrath...
But now, Sylas finally understood. Yes, Caron was worried about him, but not because of what would happen if he hurt the young Archmage—rather, Caron was worried that Sylas wouldn't be able to hurt him at all...
A dignified Title Archmage, unable to harm a Ninth-Rank Mage—if Caron had said this just minutes ago, Sylas would never have believed it. But now, Sylas believed...
Because just now, Sylas had witnessed with his own eyes: this Ninth-Rank Mage, with a mere gesture, had brought down a Level 25 Thunderbird Chief. The sheer power shown in that moment was simply breathtaking!
Indeed, along the way, Sylas had already realized that the true strength of this young mage far surpassed his apparent rank. But Sylas never imagined it would be by so much. In the entire United Exploration Team, only Sylas had truly seen what happened in that split second...
Thunderbirds are spirits of lightning. Every feather on their bodies is charged with the power of thunder, especially after reaching Level 25, when their innate spell, Endless Thunder, awakens. Each feather can become a bolt of lightning. When hundreds or thousands of feathers fell, even a Title Archmage like Sylas had to avoid the onslaught.
Yet, that young mage flew straight into the storm of lightning. Sylas truly thought he was done for. But in that instant, the mage found a tiny gap amid the endless bolts and slipped through. Sylas was so stunned he almost forgot to breathe. That kind of control was terrifying. And the mage wasn't even using true Flight—he was piloting a flying magical relic, something no one could precisely control.
As a Title Archmage, Sylas knew all too well the difference between a flying magical relic and the Flight spell.
One is a spell you fully control; the other is power granted by a relic. The gap between them is immeasurable. In fact, any mage who can handle a flying magical relic with decent skill would be as agile as most flying magical beasts when using Flight.
And yet, his control over the flying magical relic was far beyond 'decent'...
It was, in fact, extraordinary...
Sylas saw it clearly: even with the Flight spell, he wouldn't have dared slip through that gap. But the mage forced his way in using a flying magical relic.
What did that even mean...
Such control—Sylas had never even imagined it possible...
Then, Sylas watched as the mage summoned a burst of flame...
If the control the young mage had shown before was merely shocking, then the flame he summoned next truly terrified Sylas...
The power of that flame was absolutely on par with a Title Archmage. With a single, effortless strike, it blasted through the Thunderbird Chief—from belly to back. In that instant, only one thought filled Sylas's mind: Essence Relic. That had to be an Essence Relic...
The sheer force was terrifying...
After the fight ended, Sylas kept asking himself: if he had been in the Thunderbird Chief's place, would he have survived...?
The answer was deeply discouraging—he wouldn't have survived, not a chance...
Thinking back to the standoff in the camp, if Caron hadn't shown up...
Just the thought sent a chill down Sylas's spine.
At this moment, Sylas felt almost defeated. He'd always thought himself the highest-ranked and strongest among the United Exploration Team, naturally taking the role of leader. Even after the four of them got separated from the rest, he kept assuming that dominant position—he truly believed he had both the right and the duty to do so...
Looking back now, Sylas could only feel his face burning with embarrassment.
The crushing sense of disparity made Sylas feel like a clown—so sure of himself, saying so much, only to realize in the end it was all a joke...
"Lord Sylas..." By now, the power of the Lava Dominator had run out, and Leon Merlin had landed, rejoining Lance and the others. After a brief exchange, he spotted Sylas still in a daze and called out to him from afar.
"Ah..." Leon's shout snapped Sylas back to reality. He shook his head, pushing aside the chaotic thoughts, and slowly descended from the sky.
By the time Sylas arrived, Leon had already spoken briefly with the others. Everyone had a rough idea of their current situation and were all voicing their opinions at once.
"What's wrong, Archmage Merlin...?"
"Here's the situation, Lord Sylas..." Leon repeated his earlier conversation with Lance.
At first, Sylas seemed distracted, but as he listened, his expression grew more serious—especially when Leon mentioned that Lance and the others had been wandering here for three months. Sylas's eyes widened in shock...
"This is a Time Prison!"
"That's right..." Leon nodded. Sylas called it a Time Prison, and Leon actually knew about it too. Legend has it that peak Grandmaster Alchemists can use alchemical arrays to manipulate space and time—these arrays are called Time Prisons.
But Time Prisons are the stuff of legend. Even Leon, who came from thirty thousand years in the future, had only read about them in books. As for what a real Time Prison looked like, not even Leon could say for sure.
Yet everything Lance described matched a Time Prison perfectly. It was as if they were all trapped in a rift in time, a blind spot in the river of time itself. The flow of time here was completely different from outside: maybe a year outside was just a day here, or maybe a day outside was a year inside...
It could even be completely frozen, or change unpredictably...
In short, inside a Time Prison, anything was possible.
But why a Time Prison...?
This was what Leon really wanted to know. Even for Grandmaster Alchemists, creating a Time Prison wasn't something done lightly—it touched the deepest rules of the world, required immense resources and time. Without a compelling reason, who would pay such a huge price to set up a Time Prison?
And Leon knew...
Despite its name, a Time Prison isn't really a prison. In Northend, thirty thousand years in the future, it's also called a Time Barrier. Because the flow of time inside and outside is different, any force applied to the Time Prison dissipates before the power of time itself. This means it's nearly impossible to break in from the outside.
Leon remembered clearly: the defense system of Sanctuary Tower was built around a Time Prison.