Age of Adepts

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The other two battles ended swiftly as well.

Apart from the Druid Master of Talon that had succeeded in fighting their way out of the siege with some of the druids, the remaining elves had all fallen into the hands of the adepts.

That included the three unicorns.

After all, they had no wings. They couldn’t transform into birds and fly away as the druids could. Their only option was to break through the siege on land.

However, the defensive lines that Greem had laid down were dense and concentrated. He even actively sacrificed three of the sword and shield magical machines to push back against the furious charge of the unicorns. He then gathered the firepower of the Fate Witches and knocked down the unicorns.

The battlefield statistics quickly surfaced with the dispersion of the smoke and flames of war.

The battle at Jintha’Alor had yielded the adepts two hundred and forty-one ordinary elves, six elves with combat professions (First Grade), a Druid Master of the Claw (Male, Second Grade), two adolescent unicorns–one male and one female (Second Grade)–and one unicorn foal (First Grade), a weapons master (Male, Second Grade) and an elven deadshot (Female, Second Grade), and so on.

The number of murdered forest elves totaled two hundred.

There had been no choice. The elven warriors and archers would not easily give up their weapons as long as they could still fight back. Moreover, their bodies were far too frail. Even a stray bullet scratching past them would inflict severe wounds.

When the wounded ones were elves with combat professions, the witches didn’t mind healing them to ensure that they maintained their highest value. As for the ordinary elves? They were left to die a painful and agonizing death.

After all, the price of interplanar teleportation was far too high. The lives and cost of these elves might not even be worth the healing potion used to save them. Thus, out of consideration of their profits, the witches would only save the more profitable ’spoils of war’!

As a training camp set up by the elves near the southwest shore, Jintha’Alor also had plenty of high-quality elven weapons in its storage apart from these elves. In particular, those enchanted explosive arrows that detonated upon contact were exceedingly numerous.

The adepts would not need such an item, but they were decent lethal weapons when distributed among their followers and guards. Amongst the elven weapons, the one that most surprised Greem was a sort of elven longbow. The bow had been enchanted with two magical effects– Gale and Pierce.

The former allowed the arrows shot from the bow to fly faster and further, while the latter allowed the bolts to break through thick and heavy armor.

There were as many as twenty of these longbows!

It was clear evidence that the elves of Garan had exceptional talent and unique insight on the subject of enchanting items.

Of course, apart from the weapons, the Crimson adepts also found a unique plant seed inside the warehouses of the elves. Upon appraisal, several witches agreed that this was a legendary moonwell seed.

Moonwells were both plants and buildings!

They could gather the pure moonlight during the night of Garan and combine it with the aura of its environment to condense and produce the miraculous moonwater.

Here in Garan, a magical reservoir as wondrous as the moonwell would typically only appear in elven cities. It would serve as a companion plant to towering Trees of Life.

Jintha’Alor was only a training camp and not an elven city. Usually, a plant-type elven building like a moonwell shouldn’t appear here. The appearance of this moonwell seed was most likely a strategic logistical reserve that the elves had prepared in advance.

Once the southwest shore broke out into war, Jintha’Alor, as a forward base, could immediately plant the seed and cultivate it into a true moonwell. That would provide wounded elves with a method to quickly recover from their injuries!

However, what the elves would never expect was a fearsome adept squad crossing five hundred kilometers of sprawling woods skipping seven or eight elven villages, all for the sake of assaulting Jintha’Alor. Otherwise, the forest elves would never have left such a valuable vital resource here for the adepts to get their hands on!

Obtaining so many elves and spoils in a single battle instantly caused the witches to erupt with excitement. In particular, that moonwell seed held within it mysterious and profound secrets of the forest elves that outsiders didn’t know of. If they could thoroughly analyze the seed, part of the forest elves’ secrets–though not all of it–would be exposed to the eyes of the witches.

Still, the Dark Witches would never dare to break off their friendly relationship with the Fate Witches for the sake of this elven treasure, regardless of how much they wanted it. After all, they still needed the help of the Fate Witches and their flying ship to transport so many elven prisoners back to their safe zone.

The Dark Witches had no problem taking out an elven village on their own with their overwhelming strength. The only problem was their inability to digest the spoils even if they could devour an entire town.

They couldn’t transport several dozen or even hundreds of elves across the vast Fantasy Forest, filled with the ears and eyes of the elves. That…that was an impossible task!

That was why, for the past month or so, the Dark Witches had no choice but to take piecemeal bites at the elves and receive bits of spoils at any given time.

It was difficult enough to find the elves in this vast forest of trees. It was even more improbable to take all the elves when they discovered them. It was a problem that had plagued the dark witches for a long time. However, all those problems were no longer problems now.

Rare smiles finally appeared on the faces of the Dark Witches when they saw the rows of elves escorted onto the flying ship by the magical machines.

Apart from the prisoners and the items, the search party also brought back two pegasi and one hippogryph used for training.

These were the most commonly seen support units in the elven army; figuring out their racial traits and biological construction as soon as possible would be a great help in future battles.

It was only natural that Greem happily took all these spoils for himself.

Of course, Greem had even let out the Spirit of Pestilence and the Stitch Ghost Golem near the end of the battle earlier.

They were only at the pseudo-adept level currently and were of no help to him in battle. However, they were both magical creations with the potential to grow that Greem had painstakingly raised. As long as he was willing to put in the effort and invest resources in them, their power would eventually rise.

That was why Greem released them into the nearby woods to search for those elven survivors in hiding. They could only improve and develop further through sacrifices of blood, flesh, and slaughter.

By the time all this work concluded, the large and brilliant disc of the moon had risen into the sky, casting its crisp moonlight to every corner of the Fantasy Forest.

Alice had already retreated into the flying ship under the excuse of inviting Uzzah to tea. At this moment, only one out of the two of them who had been struck with the Moonshade Curse–Greem–stood upon Jintha’Alor. He was silently waiting for any changes to come.

The brilliant and chilly moonlight fell upon the forest. Mysterious shifts started occurring when the gentle moonlight flowed past Greem’s body.

Layers of moonlight enveloped Greem. It looked like the shimmering surface of the water as the light rippled and trembled.

Greem stood proudly under the moonlight, using the Chip to monitor all changes within himself. He could very clearly sense faint surges of magical energy entering the mysterious rune upon his forehead alongside the moonlight.

With the nourishment of the moonlight’s essence, the divine rune suddenly activated!

Indeed, it suddenly came alive!

The divine rune that had remained motionless for so many days without so much as a movement was now burning like a red-hot brand. It protruded from under Greem’s forehead, appearing as scarlet as it was striking. Along with the divine rune came a subtle, obscure, and strange divine flux.

[Beep. Detecting strange energy flux.

[Source of energy flux is identified as the divine rune. The method of energy dissemination is unknown. The method of energy resonance is unknown. The nature of the energy is unknown.

[Further reminder: this energy flux has reached the level of laws. It belongs to the category of advanced planar knowledge. No matching data can be found in the database….]

Greem listened to the series of notifications from the Chip. He had no intention of interrupting these strange energy changes.

In truth, this was the first time he had personally experienced how divine power functioned. As such, the research value of this experience was unprecedentedly significant for Greem!

Greem knew what was happening due to his understanding of the primary functions of the divine rune obtained from Alice. He had let go of all irrelevant concerns. At this moment, he was working in full cooperation with the Chip and extending detailed monitoring of this process of the divine rune from silence to activation.

Divine power was a potent strength that could compare with the forces of law in the World of Adepts.

At its very core and essence, the traits of its power were far superior to the elementium skills that Greem currently commanded.

Even though divine power had always been at odds with magic, and Greem couldn’t possibly change professions and turn into a spiritualist, divine power still had irreplaceable research and reference value as a higher form of energy.

That was why Greem remained unmoved even as he was placed in danger by the divine rune as it slowly pushed him into a death trap. He focused all of his attention to the calm feeling and monitoring of every change in the rune.

A strange energy flux stirred the planar laws and rippled outward on the level of the laws.

Law movements like these were utterly unnoticeable to ordinary beings. Only talented individuals and certain spiritualists could successfully decipher these movements through the planar laws by borrowing the strength of the gods.

…………

Garan Continent. Central Mountains.

The Goddess of Moonlight’s main temple.

Intense golden radiance suddenly emanated from the statue of the goddess standing on the moon-white platform within the spacious hall.

Temple Officiate Aurora and the two female priests who had been kneeling before the statue raised their heads in surprise.

”There’s activity from the divine rune.” One of the female priests couldn’t help but blurt out. Her face beamed with joy.

”Hurry up and inform God Messenger Xenia,” Officiate Aurora turned her head and ordered without any hesitation, ”Also, gather all the temple guards in the main temple here. Prepare for a large-scale prayer ceremony. The goddess will be personally using her divine power to open a spatial corridor to the blasphemers. It will be our time to serve the goddess then!”

With the last sentence, a trace of fervent passion attached itself to the tone of this usually cold elven officiate.

A short moment later, the surroundings of the Goddess of Moonlight’s temple turned lively!