Age of Adepts

What did it feel like to witness a fire adept transform into a Flame Fiend right before your eyes?

No one understood the feeling better than Sabrina!

Just a moment earlier, a muscular young adept had stood beside her.

The next instant, overbearing flames surged from within his powerful body as if there was portal to a fire elementium plane hidden within him. The wild elementium flames blasted out of every orifice. His eyes, his ears, his mouths, his nose, and even every single pore on his body radiated heat. The scalding fires forced Sabrina to retreat. Otherwise, she would also have been swallowed and consumed by this explosion of burning waves.

Red flame shrouded Greem’s body. A dominant will guided them and forced them into the shape of a delicate armor. Savage flames roared and roiled beneath this armor of fire. They mixed with black and red lava to forge a horrifying magma body.

Greem’s majestic figure continued to increase size as the fires billowed. Soon, he was twice the size of his human form. A smoldering magma hand grabbed at the forest spirit, bringing with it an endless cloud of fire as it whistled through the air.

”Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” The forest spirit cursed as she dug into the ground with her roots. She tried her best to stop her body’s momentum while whipping her vine arms at the magma hand.

The terrifying hand of magma clashed with the hand of vines. The sizzling sound of burning echoed throughout the cave.

The forest spirit screeched and frantically backed away from the giant cluster of fire.

Her forearms had turned to charcoal in a matter of seconds. Black ashes fell to the ground as she retreated.

The towering Roaring Monster had also intercepted Gargamel.

Gargamel had turned invulnerable to all poisons after drinking the Aggressive Poison Potion. His every blow and strike also carried lethal toxins and venoms with them. The toxicity of these poisons and venoms were so potent that even elementium creatures fell prey to it!

Gargamel turned into a cloud of black smoke and hurriedly struck at the Roaring Monster from every direction. His black ghost-like hands would leave a black claw mark every time it touched the monster’s thick stone armor. Stone dust fell from its body, blackened from the corrosion of the poison.

The slime-like Decayer barraged Gargamel with a storm of Acid Arrows and Poison Halos. However, none of these attacks had any effect on the incarnation of poison that was Gargamel at this moment. The golem could only try its best to help the Roaring Monster intercept the adept.

Sabrina, who had been cautiously fighting with the summoned beings, was immensely glad to see this turn of events, and it roused her spirit. Countless robotic arms and crescent blades emerged from her body, successfully slicing the two earth elementals into pieces.

However, the two storm elementals still possessed pseudo-adept level abilities. Moreover, they had a fast flight speed and a fearless style of combat. It took all Sabrina had to hold them back and prevent them from interfering with the adept’s battle.

”Goddammit, Gargamel! What kind of monster did you bring back for me?” The forest spirit tried her best to avoid the thrashing fire whip as she moved around Greem’s massive body, ”Didn’t you say that he was only an ordinary adept? Why can his Spirit rise so sharply to allow him to break through the effects of the runic array?”

Gargamel waved his hand and deflected an acid arrow from the Decayer. He then held up a black shield and endured the heavy stone fists slamming down from above.

The savage strength was still enough to blow him away. If it weren’t because of the Aggressive Poison Potion’s effects, he would have broken several bones. The potion’s stimulating effects also caused his body’s attributes to rise sharply. Even so, Gargamel had still taken damage. He coughed up black blood and appeared to have weakened.

”Hang on a little longer,” Gargamel took this chance to shout out to the forest spirit, ”This is a temporary power boosting spell of his. Hang on until it ends and he…”

Greem let slip a cold laugh. A human expression of disdain appeared on the face formed of fire.

”Trying to drag it out until I revert from this form? Hahaha,” Greem laughed without restraint, ”Well then, I’ll let you guys witness my true form!”

Greem had only activated the powers of his magical tattoos during the earlier Transformation. He had not unsealed the Flame Fiend’s Heart yet. The flood of fire energy from the heart every thirteen seconds was enough to allow Greem to sustain the Flame Fiend’s Transformation perpetually.

To crush these adept-level opponents as soon as possible, Greem unsealed the Flame Fiend’s Heart without any hesitation. Finally, he began his second Flame Fiend’s Transformation.

This time, the surging abyssal fires were not limited to three meters around his body. Instead, they rapidly enveloped the cave, along with the Ring of Fire that suddenly emerged from his body.

The underground cave was a place that Gargamel and the forest spirit had specially created to hunt down lone adepts. Consequently, it was natural that there wasn’t too much space. Greem’s Ring of Fire extended for a radius of a hundred and twenty meters. It enveloped everyone in the cave.

Gargamel’s violent poison body was immediately shrouded in flames. The terrifyingly hot fires ignited his long robes, showing that his magical defenses were no longer capable of keeping the flames at bay!

The massive cave descended into a sea of fire. Even the forest spirit had no choice but to erect a green barrier and hurry towards the exit. The two storm elementals screamed as they were ripped into plasma and burnt to ashes within a mere five seconds.

Sabrina shrunk into a corner, her face pale white. The flames surrounded her and formed a dazzling prison of fire. Amazingly, these flames seemed to be capable of differentiating between friend and foe. The raging streams of fire split near her and circled the prison of flame. They didn’t harm her at all.

Greem stood in the sea of flames like a mighty deity surveying his godly kingdom. Every spark of fire in this place was his eyes, and every stream of flame his body. Greem’s form only stopped for a moment when he sensed the forest spirit fleeing the cave. His entire existence then teleported to the entrance of the cave.

It didn’t matter whether the forest spirit drew upon the souls she had assimilated or her powers of nature. She was utterly incapable of enduring the continuous burning flames that reached a hundred points in strength.

However, just as she was about to charge out of the sea of fire, a towering body of flames arose out of nowhere. The flame giant stood in her way and grabbed at her neck with its blazing magma hand.

The forest spirit wanted to avoid the giant but suddenly felt her body tighten.

Several chains of fire emerged from the sea of flames and completely bound her translucent body. The large magma hand grasped her torso as she tried to find a way to break free of her restraints.

Sizzling sounds, thick black smoke, and a burning smell emerged from her body when the black and red hand touched her.

This experience was no different from cruel torture by fire!

After all, the forest spirit was ultimately a semi-tangible magical creature. Much of her translucent body evaporated in an instant. Her weak Strength didn’t allow her to break free from Greem’s grip. She howled in pain and anguish, but there was nothing she could do!

”Let her go!”

The sea of flames parted as Gargamel emerged from within, his face utterly black from some magical effect. A weird black smoke continuously billowed from his body, spontaneously extinguishing all the fires in a ten-meter radius around himself.

He raised the prisoner in his hands and shouted at Greem, ”You let Eva go, and I’ll let this apprentice go!”

Sabrina was limp in Gargamel’s grasp. Her face had turned completely black. It was clear that she had been poisoned.

”You intend to use an apprentice to trade for the forest spirit in my hand?” Greem laughed coldly and tightened his grip. The forest spirit once again started screaming in agony.

A wicked and determined expression washed over Gargamel’s sinister face when he saw his threats fail. He reached into the air and dragged the black cat out of the space.

”Don’t. Don’t. Please don’t...” The black cat seemed to have an idea of what Gargamel wanted to do. It struggled frantically in an attempt to escape, but, as Gargamel’s accompanying beast, it was at his mercy.

”Sarikas, barter of equal value.”

Black light flashed in Gargamel’s hands as he quickly chanted the words of his spell. The black cat disappeared, supplanted with the poor forest spirit. A black cat had replaced the forest spirit in Greem’s grasp!

Greem was shocked, but he quickly balled his hand into a fist. The black cat that was trying to turn incorporeal immediately cried out in pain. The magma hand squeezed slightly, and the sound of a cracking skull rang out.

”Wait, please.” The forest spirit that had just managed to escaped shouted from behind Gargamel.

Greem stopped applying pressure with his fingers. Instead, several fire runes enclosed the black cat and sealed away any chance of its escaping. Greem turned towards the two people twenty meters away from him after doing this.

”Could you please not kill the black cat? The two of us are willing to sign subordinate contracts with you. We will serve you in exchange for the black cat’s life. Would that be fine?” The forest spirit stuttered with fear plastered to her face.

”No, Eva. Leave me, run! You can turn your body incorporeal and escape from here. Quick! Go…” Gargamel’s withered and wrinkled old face appeared to be unbelievably emotional at this moment. His expression when looking at the forest spirit contained an immensely pure love.

”No, Black Cat is far too important to you!” The forest spirit rebutted furiously, ”You sacrificed way too much of your Spirit to obtain it. You will turn mad if it dies! Do you intend to abandon me...and our child?”

Greem was completely stunned!

If it weren’t because of the tense face-off they faced right now, Greem would likely have taken out a wooden stool and enjoyed this sappy romance drama between an adept and a magical creature. It was particularly so when Eva mentioned the child. Greem felt like he had been struck by lightning. He almost went insane from the comprehension of what was happening.

His eyes floated towards the forest spirit’s translucent abdomen.