Age of Adepts

The bright light of the teleportation array slowly faded away from the room.

Six vague silhouettes slowly turned solid and appeared before Greem.

”Welcome... Lady Endor!”

It was obvious that Greem had hesitated with his choice of title. That was why he was staring right down Mary’s amused eyes when he straightened his body and looked up.

Six people had teleported to Fire Throne. Poison Witch Endor, Bloody Mary, her three Blood Knights, and that old fox Vanlier. Even though they looked completely fine on the surface, Greem could see, through countless minor details, the grievous wounds that Mary and Endor had suffered through.

Poison Witch Endor, in particular, was in a terrible state. Shadow substances had severely corrupted her body during her lengthy detainment in the half-shadow space that was the Dark Mirage. It seemed Endor would have to take a long time off to treat her body before she could regain her former strength.

”Kid, it seems this old hag’s gonna have to stay here at your place for the moment.” Poison Witch Endor’s spirits were high despite the damage to her origin powers. A trace of compassion surfaced on her hideous and sinister face.

”Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome. Please, treat this place like your own home! I have already arranged everything.” It was only a few words, but sweat had already started forming on Greem’s forehead.

The adepts were cold and unfeeling people by nature. They were selfish and prioritized profits in everything they did. Even the always composed Greem felt kind of awkward with the sudden appearance of a relative in Endor.

”Mm. Then, I’ll be going down ahead to rest!” One could see that Endor’s Spirit had been exhausted after this long-range teleportation. Her Spirit was almost at its limit now that she had finally reached a safe haven.

”Gargamel, please escort Lady Endor to her room!”

Gargamel, who had been waiting by the side, immediately escorted the Poison Witch away with a fawning smile.

Greem’s demeanor became much more natural once only Mary and her subordinates remained in the room. He looked at the crimson-armored girl and put on a sincere smile.

”What, don’t you want to ask what’s happened to Alice now?” Mary’s skintight armor put her perfect figure on full display. She raised one charming eyebrow, and a playful smile appeared on her face once again, ”Don’t worry. Alice was still perfectly fine when we left. She seemed to have reached an agreement with the witches. That is why the Dark Witch can’t touch Alice as long as she doesn’t get caught with any incriminating evidence.”

”I’m not worried about her, but you,” Greem smiled as he took a step forward, ”It’s not an easy thing to break into the Dark Mirage. I can see your internal wounds aren’t light either. Why don’t I take a look at them for you.”

Mary’s body froze. She rolled her eyes at Greem unamusedly and waved her hand without turning her head.

”Sir Greem and I still have something to deal. You guys go walk around the tower as you like! Remember, don’t start any trouble for me!”

”Yes!”

The three Blood Knights bowed in unison. Soros and Vanlier’s eyes quickly swept past Greem as they silently exited the teleportation room.

”Come on; didn’t you say you wanna take a look at my condition?” Mary smiled seductively, ”Why don’t you let me take a look at you in the meantime and see why your Spirit suddenly turned so weak?”

…………

Three hours later.

After an intense tussle, the satisfied couple finally stopped. Their limbs intertwined together as they laid in each other’s embrace on the bed. It was now that they started the actual communication.

In truth, even Mary only knew bits of Alice’s plan.

She knew that Alice had no choice but to hurry to the location of the Witch Council and summon the rest of the witches to draw away Dark Witch Leader Circe. This plan had been very effective. Alice had successfully managed to get Circe out of the Dark Mirage.

And it was thanks to the absence of Circe, the owner of the tower, that Mary was able to break into the tower by taking advantage of the SHadow Tide’s surge. She had slaughtered her way into the prison and successfully brought Poison Witch Endor out with her.

Even though Greem already knew Mary had succeeded, listening to her first-hand account of the whole thing still caused Greem’s palms to sweat. He realized something through those simple descriptions.

Foresight!

Prediction!

First, the Dark Witches always swept through Shadow Valley right before the Shadow Tide arrived. They would then temporarily cut off the connection between the origin tower and the World of Adepts. That would then eliminate all chance of enemies from the World of Adepts sneaking into the origin tower. In this manner, they would be able to deal with the challenge of the Shadow World without any distractions.

However, Alice had predicted this. That was why she had instructed Mary to sneak into Shadow Valley one month beforehand and hide from the Dark Witches’ searches.

Consequently, when Fourth Grade Circe was gone, and the main forces of the Dark Witches were all assigned to the Shadow World, Mary was able to immediately kill her way through the weakest defense point of the origin tower. That was how she had made it to the underground prison.

Under normal circumstances, breaking into the prison would have been the limit of Mary’s powers. Taking someone out with her under those conditions was virtually impossible. After all, that place had temporarily cut off its connection to the World of Adepts; ordinary teleportation spells would not have been able to get them out.

However, this didn’t stop Alice’s incredible means.

Alice had given Mary a round silver stone before she left. When Mary found Endor, she didn’t need to bring her along and break out once again. All Mary had to do was take out the silver stone and chant the required words. The silver stone would then successfully bring them back to the Tower of Fate.

Naturally, Mary didn’t know what that mysterious silver stone was, but Greem couldn’t help but let out a knowing smile when he heard all this.

Alice had fully demonstrated the strong ability of foresight throughout this rescue mission. Every move of the enemy, along with every layout, had been entirely within her control. She was able to utilize all resources and opportunities around her to their fullest extent and pave a path of success for herself.

The power of her talent for fate was evident from this!

Of course, the strength of one blessed by fate never came from themselves. Instead, it manifested in their deep understanding of the world’s rules, and in their ability to maximize the use of the resources at hand.

Without someone like Mary, who would listen to all her instructions and flawlessly execute them, Alice would have been hard-pressed to carry out her plan, regardless of how good it might have been.

It was like a fight to the death between two boxers. One boxer possessed the ability to sense fate and could foresee the landing points and stances of his opponent’s next three punches. He could perfectly avoid and counter-attack when the opponent launched his first punch.

When that happened, a tiny alteration point would occur in the path of fate.

After the outcome of the first punch had been altered, would the opponent still stubbornly launch the same second and third punch that had been determined by fate?

No. At this moment, the ripples of fate would shift the development of the future out of the hands of Fate and into the hands of the fixed rules that hid beneath the world. It was only when Fate’s ripple effect slowly calmed down that this small moment in the world would once again rejoin the tracks of Fate, rumbling forward at full force.

It was Greem’s respect and fear of the powers of Fate that made him care so much about Alice’s identity as the Witch of Fate. And now, Alice had indeed demonstrated the talent and ability she should possess as the Witch of Fate.

More importantly, their relationship was still incredibly close!

That was obvious from Alice’s plan.

Poison Witch Endor could be considered Alice’s last living relative. Alice was even willing to clash with one or several Fourth Grade witches for her sake. Now that she had sent Endor to Fire Throne, and into Greem’s hands, it was clear that she didn’t believe Greem would use Endor as a hostage.

This fact was what put Greem in such a good mood!

However, even though he basically knew all of Alice’s plan now, he still didn’t understand how she had managed to make Mary submit to her. Greem understood Mary far too well.

Mary had specially come over to his tower to fight him all for the sake of being the leader of their faction.

Moreover, Greem believed that Mary would still leave all the administrative and leadership tasks to him, even if she had won. She just wanted to obtain the title of being the boss to fulfill her deeply ingrained mindset of might makes right.

That was why conventional techniques of persuasion and offers of benefit were ineffective against Mary.

The only way to win Mary’s respect was to fight with her.

She would only settle into the position that she should be in once you demonstrated the strength that a leader should possess. Otherwise, Mary would forever waiver between obedience and rebellion, making it hard to predict what she would do.

Thus…

Greem was extremely curious how Alice had managed to deal with Mary!

After several influencing techniques of all sorts, Greem finally managed to pry out of Mary’s mouth the trade that had transpired between her and Alice.

Bloodline Imprisonment!

Greem slapped his leg hard when he heard how Alice had managed to make Mary yield.

Dammit! Why didn’t I think of that!?

However, he knew very well that there was nothing he could do, even if he had thought of that weakness of Mary’s. Did he have Alice’s means to find that vampire successfully?

Those with strength used strength, and those without would have to rely on their minds!

He had no such tricks up his sleeves, so he could only make Mary submit through pure force. Yet, Alice had managed to deal with Mary with just a couple of words.

Perhaps this was how the Witch of Fate dealt with things on a daily basis!

Greem couldn’t even imagine what was happening while he was ’enjoying time’ with Mary. Far away, in the Tower of Fate, Alice was looking up at the sky full of stars as tears streaked down her cheeks.

The beautiful light of the stars fell upon her and illuminated her delicate and pretty face, along with her long silky hair that was half-silver and half-white.

Nobody knew when, but almost half of her long hair had turned white.