Age of Adepts

Giant Brain Gazlowe still underestimated Alice.

In all seriousness, the most powerful individual of Greem’s faction wasn’t Second Grade Greem. It was Alice, who only had the strength of a newly-advanced First Grade.

It was something that outsiders were unlikely to understand. Even within Greem’s faction, the only ones that understood this was Greem, Alice, and Mary.

The terror of the Witch of Fate’s innate abilities was something that could not be comprehended by someone who had not experienced it. They weren’t weak because the planar laws had robbed them of their ability to fight. Quite the contrary, it was because of how terrifying their innate ability was that the will of the world would not allow them to possess combat ability on top of their talent for Fate.

A profession that even the will of the world felt a need to place limitations on; did that still not make it terrifying enough?

The Goblin Plane had no similar profession, nor was the information that Gazlowe got from Sabrina’s memory sufficiently comprehensive. As a result, he used the same methods as he would use against an ordinary enemy to deal with Alice.

Alice casually avoided all of the enemy’s attacks with her rapid flashes of teleportation. Alice could only sigh and start working her magic when she saw the enemy wouldn’t play along.

She flashed and appeared behind a group of researchers. She opened her hands, and a delicate alchemical bomb appeared in them.

Alchemical bomb?

Gazlowe’s powerful Spirit quickly scanned and recognized the item in Alice’s hand. It was a small alchemical explosive unique to the Goblin Plane– an alchemical bomb!

This sort of alchemical bomb had no magic energy effect and couldn’t cause any elementium damage. The only things the weapon had going for it were shockwaves and shrapnel damage from its explosion. An initial estimation of its destructive power put it at five points; even lower than a spell from a beginner apprentice.

If it weren’t for the lack of a vocal organ, Giant Brain Gazlowe would’ve started laughing at the sight of the enemy taking out such a crude means of attack.

He was currently Third Grade, and five points of physical damage wouldn’t be enough even to scratch it. Disregarding himself, even the space furnace wouldn’t be afraid of such pathetic damage.

It was important to note that the Queyras alloy the space furnace was forged with had physical defenses that could tolerate attacks up to a thousand points. If one intended to use alchemical bombs to destroy the space furnace, they had best prepare a literal mountain of such explosives.

Just as Giant Brain Gazlowe let down his guard and was prepared to drown the enemy in a storm of attacks, Alice put her hands together. A familiar white light flashed as the alchemical bomb vanished.

Giant Brain Gazlowe’s control over the underground space had reached an almost perfect level after this buffer period. Thus, it managed to find the new location of the alchemical bomb in less than a tenth of a second.

Dammit!

Gazlowe’s Spirit immediately shifted to the inside of the space furnace; a small explosion had just ended in there. The spatial turbulence caused by the blast had resulted in the barely tamed magical energies going berserk once more.

The area within the space furnace was considerable. Turbulence caused by the alchemical bomb was like a tiny wave splashing in a raging sea. It was devoured by the flood of magic the moment it appeared. However, this backflow turbulence had still disrupted the changes to the energy tides within the furnace. It caused the magic energy’s regular impacts against the inner walls of the furnace to increase by just that much more.

Gazlowe had already assimilated most of the space furnace. This large metal cylinder had now become a source of endless energy for himself. It was much like a human heart, where even a slight backflow of blood would cause discomfort to the owner.

The explosion of an alchemical heart had to be somewhat stronger than a backflow of blood!

Twenty or thirty neighboring neurons in Gazlowe’s massive brain of a body were suddenly burned to ashes. He couldn’t help but grunt in pain. However, this was a small number compared to the millions of neurons in a brain. This much damage would be repaired in a matter of two or three seconds.

However, Alice couldn’t allow Gazlowe to call upon his life force and mend his brain so casually. She smiled coldly and waved both of her hands. She simultaneously threw five alchemical bombs into the space furnace.

That also indirectly reflected her power!

No other adept could do this even if they wanted to. Even Greem would first have to break that tough metal cylinder if he wished to attack the space furnace. Only Alice could so easily attack the space furnace through her strange spatial teleportation powers and her ability to use her Fate talents to lock on to a spatial coordinate within it.

Both of these factors combined was what allowed Alice to attack the magic energy inside the space furnace so easily. The magic energies were now equivalent to the ’blood’ in Gazlowe’s body.

Giant Brain Gazlowe was relying on his powerful mental consciousness and endless magic energy supply to successfully control the Steel Capital. Otherwise, he would never be able to move this giant Steel Capital that weighed over a million tons with just his mental powers.

He first needed to assimilate the space furnace and mark all of the magic energy being put out with his unique soul brand. As the magical energy seeped into every corner of the Steel Capital, he would be able to control this mountainous ’body’ as if it were its own.

Yet at this moment, something had happened to its most important heart. How could this not scare Gazlowe?

The multiple alchemical bomb detonations were like sharp needles, causing stinging pain right in his heart. Even though this amount of damage was yet insufficient to threaten his life, who knew what else the witch would pull out with her hands.

Just as Gazlowe was trembling with fear, Alice flipped her wrists. This time, it wasn’t an alchemical bomb that appeared in her hand. It was a fearsome explosive chicken.

If the alchemical bomb could only deal five points of damage, an explosive chicken could deal fifteen points of damage. If Alice were allowed to stuff this explosive chicken into the space furnace, it would no longer be needles stabbing at Gazlowe’s heart. It would be a gleaming dagger.

”Stop!”

Giant Brain Gazlowe’s released a loud and furious roar in the form of a mental fluctuation. Apart from Alice, everyone else in the underground hall was only a goblin researcher with beginner-apprentice level bodily attributes. They couldn’t possibly endure a sonic attack of this intensity.

Red streaks of blood crawled out of all of their orifices as they silently collapsed to the ground.

Gazlowe’s roar hadn’t been meant as an attack against the witch. He simply hadn’t managed to control the strength of the shout. However, his Third Grade strength made even the aftershock of his emotions intolerable for ordinary creatures like goblins.

”Are you talking to me?” Alice tilted her head and stared at the giant brain coldly, ”I really dislike your attitude, so… ”

The explosive chicken disappeared in a flash of white light.

The next second, Giant Brain Gazlowe grunted in pain. Deep inside his brain, away from the eyes of any other individual, nearly a hundred of the neurons that supported his massive mental consciousness exploded into blood paste.

How could Gazlowe take this lying down, especially after he had just gotten his hands on such tremendous mental powers? A massive tide of Spirit that was almost solid radiated out of his enormous brain-body. As he was trying his best to adjust his mental frequency and turn this tide of Spirit into a storm of psychic spells, his one dozen brain nerves suddenly froze in midair.

The mischievously smirking Alice stood in the distance and made multiple grabbing motions with her hand. Eight explosive chickens appeared all at once. These explosive chickens were all engulfed in a blinding blanket of white light. Any slight movement and there was no doubt all of these explosive chickens would appear in Gazlowe’s ’heart.’

Shit, damn, ****…

Gazlowe was choking in anger, but there was nothing he could do. He desperately wanted to curse at this witch with the most toxic and wicked swear words of the Goblin Plane. More than that, he desired to blast her into pieces with the mental spells in his ’hands.’ However, he had no choice but to slowly and carefully disperse the massive power he had gathered before mentally communicating with the witch with his calmest, most gentle tone.

No one knew how or what the two were negotiating, but even an outsider could tell that the discussion was going well. Sadly, there wasn’t a single goblin left in this room who could see this happening.

The brain and the witch seemed to be having an amicable discussion, but there was great danger lurking beneath.

She might have used this method to force Gazlowe to bow before her, but the giant brain still had immense power that distressed her. If Alice showed a single flaw, there was no doubt that Gazlowe would take full advantage of the opportunity. He would kill her in the shortest time possible, even if he had to pay a hefty price for it.

That was why Alice’s heartstrings were still suspended tightly, even after countless affirmations and promises on Gazlowe’s part. In fact, her guard against the giant brain had only grown even stricter.

As their battle took a temporary pause, the struggle in the ritual hall had also come to a conclusion.

Sabrina had died in front of Greem, the remaining flesh of her body burnt to ashes. Only some alchemical parts remained on the ground. The Second Grade magical machine that Tigule piloted had also been slagged into metal putty. A giant hole had been burned through the metal plate that protected the mechanic. Tigule lied upon the ground, charred black and unconscious.

The other goblins had also turned into minced bits and metal components.

On the other hand, even as a Second Grade adept, there was no way Greem could have come out unscathed in a battle against a fearless army of goblins. Not to mention the fact that a Second Grade magical machine and a powerful mechanical adept like Sabrina were mixed with the army.

As such, Greem had also sustained fairly heavy wounds!