Age of Adepts

Unlike in the battle earlier, everyone gave their full effort from the very start this time.

The invading magical creature leaders had no way out now.

The first earthquake had destroyed all the underground tunnels. If they wanted to run, they would have to use their own bodies to carve out a path through the layers of shattered rock.

Moreover, they would undoubtedly be pursued by the human adepts, even as they tried to make their difficult escape.

That was why the other magical creature leaders didn’t follow after the Dark Tentacular and the Wyvern King. Instead, they chose to charge towards the tower.

In their eyes, the adept’s tower was their only chance of survival.

Anyone could tell that the tower had been severely damaged by the forceful extraction of lava from underground. As long as they were able to push inside and slaughter all the adepts and apprentices within, they would be able to take over the entire place.

They would have a place of shelter from the flood of lava.

Yet, at this moment, three human adepts stood in their way.

Three accursed adepts who stood in the way of their survival!

That was why it turned into a battle of life and death immediately.

Greem endured the discomfort and unsealed his Flame Fiend’s Heart once more.

A tall and impressive figure emerged under a rain of lava and fire. Magma and flame composed its wicked and resilient body. Strange runes floated around it, and sharp magma spikes covered the monster’s shoulders, elbows, knees, and back. The ends of the spikes were glowing red from heat. It was frightening to look at, even from a distance.

When the burning figure finally stood up, the lava beneath its feet all flowed up towards its body as if the substance had sentience. A thick layer of magma armor formed wherever the lava flowed.

Several shields made of fire materialized around the Flame Fiend’s body and started orbiting him. An even denser and broader magma shield appeared at the same time. The fifty-centimeter thick magma still dripped with lava.

Let alone touching these shields, just getting close to them would make one feel parched and dried out from the heat.

Behind the shield, a pair of glowing red eyes shone in the Flame Fiend’s crimson head. Greem held the Blaze of Destruction in his left hand and a flame whip in his right. He opened his large mouth, and white steam came surging out as he let out a warning roar at the magical creatures.

All the magical creature leaders who locked eyes with Greem couldn’t help but feel fear creep up their hearts.

This…this bastard turned into a terrifying abyssal flame fiend?!

At this moment, Greem was not doing well either. The red alerts from the chip had filled his consciousness.

”Second phase transformation complete.

”Signs of assimilation of the body of flames detected. Source of foreign energy has been identified as the Flame Fiend’s Heart!

”Current assimilation progress: 3%……

”Host transformation complete! Physical strength significantly increased! Bodily attributes significantly increased! Elementary immunity to electricity, acid, fire, and poison obtained. Magical resistance increased! Physical damage taken reduced by 15%. Obtained part of a Flame Fiend’s innate abilities.

”Abnormal changes to host’s attributes observed. Strength +3 | Agility +1 | Physique +3 | Spirit +2.

”Host’s current attributes are as follows: Strength 11 | Agility 7 | Physique 12 | Spirit 16.

”Chaotic flux patterns have emerged in host’s Spirit. Effects manifest as bloodthirst and battle hunger. Initial estimates suggest abyssal corruption as the cause. Requestion instructions from the host. Expel abnormal spirit aura?

”Host’s Spirit is being suppressed by the world consciousness. If the host is unable to expel abyssal aura within fifteen minutes, host will be judged to be an otherworld creature by the world consciousness. Planar backlash will be incurred by the host. Requesting instructions from host.”

A series of warnings and alarms filled Greem’s mind. At the same time, a surge of power ran through his body. He had never felt so much power as he did now.

This strength was extremely overwhelming!

Greem’s rationality had been affected by the immense power coursing through his body. The desires he had buried deep in his heart were being uncovered by the mysterious power, like rotten mud that had settled at the bottom of a pond for a thousand years. Even Greem couldn’t tell if those were his own delusions and fantasies, or strange thoughts that the mysterious power was feeding into his mind. His spirit consciousness wavered.

However, when three magical creature leaders finally shattered the Magma Shield, Greem’s survival instinct quickly brought him to his senses.

He opened his eyes and realized that he had charged all the way into the middle of the three magical creature leaders; they had surrounded him. Greem had been using his robust body and savage battle fever to exchange blows with the enemy, trading wound for wound.

Dammit! As expected, the abyssal aura was not a good thing at all. To have driven him to fight in such a reckless manner without any reason!

Greem immediately contacted the chip in his brief moment of clarity and once again regained control of his body.

Without any hesitation, Greem activated the purple Ioun Stone circling his head. He erected a tough defensive barrier around his soul and kept that primal blood-red constriction in his mind at bay. Even though Greem had the presence of mind to exterminate this abyssal aura right now, it would severely affect the bonuses brought on by the Flame Fiend Transformation.

Why were abyssal demons so powerful? It was because of this trace of violence, cruelty, and chaos.

If he cut away these traits, his physical attributes would suffer. Thus, Greem had no choice but to allow the abyssal aura to continue ravaging his mental world. He needed this additional piece of strength. With the mental barrier’s protection, he was not going to lose his mind in the short term.

Time was limited!

Greem took advantage of his considerably boosted attributes and changed his combat style without pause.

His innate talent was for fire spells, yet in that moment of chaos, Greem had been foolish enough to start a melee with the enemy. He had to correct this idiotic behavior of waving a staff like it was a wooden bat!

The very next moment, Greem cast Fire Teleportation and flashed away from the enemies’ surrounding him. He appeared behind the agile figure of the giant berserk gelada.

Bind!

Ignite!

Greem pointed with his staff the moment he appeared, and two demonic fire spells immediately took effect upon the gelada.

Greem’s flame whip split into eight chains of fire the moment he used Bind. They lashed towards the gelada and wrapped themselves around the gelada’s legs. The chains quickly extended up the gelada’s hairy body, winding around various parts of its body. Soon, the chains had utterly constricted the monster.

The red and burning fire chains sizzled and burned away the hair wherever they touched. They scalded the skin and pressed into the gelada’s flesh.

A pungent odor of burning flesh filled the air!

The berserk gelada howled in pain. It grabbed the chains of fire with its hands that were as black as steel. It used every single fiber of strength in its body in an attempt to tear them apart.

However, Greem’s second fire spell, Ignite, had arrived.

The giant gelada’s body spontaneously combusted.

It wasn’t just its hair and its skin. Even its organs and flesh had ignited under the effect of this strange spell.

The berserk gelada immediately turned into a flaming primate!

Greem wouldn’t have been able to do this so smoothly if they hadn’t been fighting in this environment. However, while they were here, Greem could instantly turn an elite-level monster into a sacrifice to the sea of lava.

The caverns had halfway submerged into the slowly rising sea of lava. The concentration of fire elementium in the remaining space had reached shocking degrees. Every one of Greem’s spells was twice as effective. The strength of the spells and the damage they inflicted had reached a horrifying peak of one hundred and seventy points.

It was said that only Second Grade adepts could cast spells with two hundred points of power. Greem’s attack was undoubtedly remarkably close to that of a Second Grade adept.

The berserk gelada was an earth-attribute magical creature. If there had been sufficient earth elementium here, it might have been able to draw upon the earth elementium to suppress the raging fire elementium within its body. However, that was an impossible feat in this environment!

It struggled for a dozen seconds before falling from the ceiling with an excruciating howl. A muffled splash rippled on the surface of the lava, sending fire flying in every direction.

The gelada’s body quickly sunk into the lava and was never seen again!

While Greem had been dealing with the gelada, Tula and Dana were throwing everything they had at him, as if they had gone mad.

Spiderwebs?

They were all burned to ashes by the Burning Domain before they could reach Greem.

Indeed, with the exponential increase in all of Greem’s abilities, his Ring of Fire had been temporarily replaced by the Flame Fiend’s unique Burning Domain. All opponents that stood within his Domain would have to endure a maddening eighty points of fire damage per second.

That was the highest amount of damage that a newly advanced adept could hope to muster!

Even Meryl, who was three or four years deep into her advancement, had to go all out if she wanted to deal that much damage. However, at this moment, it was passive damage being dealt to everything within a hundred meters of Greem.

Poison balls?

They were instantly vaporized by the heat the moment they formed.

Snake arrows?

The Medusa’s snake arrows were already broiled red when they reached within a hundred meters of Greem. When they came within fifty meters of Greem, they sizzled and turned into black ash before falling into the lava beneath him and vanishing without a trace.

As for the Medusa’s unique Petrifying Gaze? Apologies, but an innate ability with only a five-meter attack range was utterly useless when pitted against Greem’s Burning Domain. Unless Dana wanted to take the risk of moving in close to Greem’s side, she could do nothing but swear.