Chapter 456 – Advances

After three days of aggressively sucking in mana to raise his magic power, Damion was starting to go stir crazy. Both Phil and Nyx had advanced to A Rank, the dense mana of the forty-fourth floor appeared to be even more beneficial to his bound familiars than to him. It occurred to him that perhaps Peter might have benefited from the higher mana environment, but he disregarded that. The Wind Griffin was much too low of level to manage in an S Rank environment; it would do better with Elicia and would likely be able to rise up to C Rank fairly quickly.

“How goes things on fifty-two?” Damion asked Mage Teft after she reappeared from the passageway to the forty-fifth floor.

The S Rank group of mages had managed to take down the SS Rank guardian of the fifty-first floor and proceed deeper into the labyrinth. Unfortunately, the very next floor was another SS Rank floor. However, among the number of S Rank mages that had answered Damion’s call, several had already made use of the SS Rank mana density of the fifty-first floor to advance to SS Rank themselves.

Mage Harris, Mage Moretti and Mage Levine each had made the leap. With three new SS Rank mages the peak of humanity’s power had risen to a new level as well. Mage Moretti, while one of the noble families, had never been openly hostile with Damion, and with Atlantis’ own Mage Levine advancing, he was sure that no one would be pushing the Moretti family to move against Atlantis once word of his advancement spread.

“They have nearly cleared the way to the guardian,” Mage Teft reported. “I am just making my weekly trip between floors to ensure no guardians have been reborn and then I’ll head back up as well.”

“Are there a lot of S Rank Demonic Beasts on those floors?”

“Yes, the lowest Rank Demonic Beasts we have encountered so far on the SS Rank floors is A Rank. I surmise that with the mana density so high, only A Rank and above are able to withstand it. Have you had word of any A Rank mages advancing?”

“There were a few that came through the day before last. They were peak A Rankers that came from Green Zones. Probably the noble families worked to keep them out of the other labyrinths, so they were not able to advance.”

“Yes, I met them when they advanced to the SS Rank floors to join the clearing team. Tyler Addison, Wind mage, Erika Padget, Wood mage and Rowlin Morelli, Earth mage. Three new S Rank mages. Once word spreads about them advancing in the Avalon labyrinth our popularity is going to sore even higher.”

“We didn’t exactly have anything to do with it, other than that we gave them the opportunity to do what they could already do."

"True, and every mage at B Rank or above knows that. However, the common people don’t and many of them will see Atlantis and Avalon as an even more mystical place after hearing the news.”

“I guess the construction on the next wedge of the city needs to hurry up then. Sounds like we are going to have another wave of immigration coming our way,” Damion joked.

“You are probably right, though with all of the city’s high Rankers challenging the labyrinth, there really aren’t many who can answer those requests.”

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“Do you think any of the other S Rank mages will advance?”

“Possibly but reaching the peak of S Rank is not a simple matter. We are lucky three were able to, it has given us the chance to proceed with more certainty. Sadly, the fifty-first floor did not turn out to be the midpoint, now we must push on and see if this floor or maybe the next is. If they aren’t then I fear your plan will end in failure.”

“We still have some options left.”

“You mean have Mage Fletcher Exile herself?” Mage Teft questioned, disbelief in her voice that Damion would suggest such a thing.

“That is one, but if I can get strong enough, I should be able to open a Portal back there as well. Or if another mage can do what Visneer did and pass me mana to assist in the casting.”

“Let’s just hope it doesn’t come down to those options. Forcing a Portal open when you can’t supply the mana yourself is not a wise move. Anyone going through it risks being lost forever if the Portal collapses before they reach their destination. When traveling around Nerotath, that isn’t really a problem, you just end up short of your destination. I don’t even want to think of what would happen to a person left short when traveling between worlds.”

Damion shuddered when he thought about it. Would a person just get left drifting out in space? Or would they become trapped in whatever interdimensional plane that Portals traveled through? It was a disturbing notion.

"You don’t think Mage Fletcher would be able to open a Portal back if she were to Exile herself?”

“There is no clear answer. Until she tries, there is no way to know. If you at low A Rank were able to open a Portal between Nerotath and the Mother World with assistance, then perhaps she can open one on her own, but if she cannot, then she would be trapped there, just like you were for several months.”

“In that case, I hope we are able to find the midpoint soon.”

“Hold the line,” Mage Harris called out.

The wave of S Rank Demonic Beasts rushing towards them could easily fill anyone’s heart with doubts about survival. The creatures were Wood Elks. Each stood between five and ten meters tall at the shoulders and had an impressive set of antlers on them that could easily skewer a human. These several hundred S Rank Demonic Beasts were closing in on the four dozen human mages on the fifty-second floor and if it was not for the three mages that had recently advanced to SS Rank, they all would have fled back to the fifty-first floor.

Luckily, these were the peak of humanity and they knew how to coordinate their assaults. Torrents of water flowed forward between jagged spikes of earth and stone that were erected. Making the floor of the labyrinth itself turn into a spearline to skewer the charging Demonic Beasts. Not that the rows of spikes were enough to stop the Demonic Beasts.

The spikes were there to slow them, to bunch them closer together. The water flowing between the spikes softened the ground, soaking it thoroughly, as well as drenching the hundreds of beasts. The next wave of magic attacks from the mages were a series of Chain Lightning spells and a couple of tier 5 Storm spells.

The Chain Lightning spells caused lightning bolts to flash between Demonic Beasts. With so many beasts in such close proximity, and the muddy ground they were charging through, the tier 3 spell was devastatingly effective.

More effective though, was the Storm spell. Seldom used by Lightning mages because of its indiscriminate nature, the Storm spell created a lightning storm in an area that rained down bolts of lightning on anything within its area of effect. Given the size of the Demonic Beast horde heading their way and the lack of anything remotely friendly in the vicinity, Mage Levine felt it was a good time to try out a spell she was seldom able to use.

Between the bolts of lightning flashing between the Demonic Beasts and the lightning raining down on them, the majority of the horde died within a few seconds of the onslaught. Those few that managed to push through the barrier of earth and stone spikes were slowed by Mage Harris’ Slow spell, which slowed time in a certain area. This allowed the other mages to quickly take them down with Fire Lances, Whirlwind Spheres and other single target spells.