Age of Adepts

With the entrance of the Cenas adept, the situation that was starting to look good for the Crimson Clan quickly turned the other way.

Fire Throne had been slowly accumulating and gathering energy. However, it now had no choice but cast out a web of blinding red light, providing all the Crimson adepts and magical machines on the battlefield with fire protection. What immediately came after was the area-of-effect Meteor Shower that the tower had been charging up.

A large, flaming cloud mass suddenly gathered on the thirty-meter-tall ceiling of the Magma Hall. Blazing fires and lava bubbles roiled within those clouds, staining the entire space dark-red as if it was a realm of ghosts.

The adepts in the attacking party immediately used their tricks and exited the frontlines upon seeing this ill omen. Meanwhile, the four thousand soldiers and servants were abandoned on the battlefield as sacrificial pawns.

All the human warriors lifted their heads and looked at the massive boiling red clouds above them, terrified and concerned. As more fire energy surged from the tower to the clouds, they increased in size, filled with massive lava bubbles the size of watermelons.

Breathing became difficult for everyone beneath the oppression of the powerful fire elementium aura. What entered their lungs when they inhaled was no longer cool, fresh air, but surges of searing heat waves.

“Run!”

“We can’t wait here to die!”

As the fire elementium gathered at a frenzied pace, the warriors that had been driven mad by the slaughter immediately came to their senses and scattered fearfully in every direction. Even the horses they were riding had gone out of control. They would not listen to any orders and ran about blindly, biting and charging at each other.

The entire battlefield was instantly plunged into a scene of apocalyptic chaos!

However, before the mortal army of the Alliance could escape from the range of the fire clouds, a thunderous boom rang out from above. As the lava bubbles within the clouds popped, waves of fire started to fall from the sky along with countless drops of lava that freely spread red flames everywhere across the hall as they descended.

The lava bubbles spontaneously exploded into ferocious fire halos when they landed on the ground, engulfing everything within ten meters in a terrifying storm of golden flames. Lava bubbles that popped in mid-air were like beautiful fireworks instead, sending blinding flames scattering across the sky.

Everything and every being devoured by the flames would turn into black smoke in an instant, vanishing entirely from the mortal realm. The only proof of their former existence was a small pile of ash left on the scorched earth.

It was a Meteor Shower that Fire Throne had especially enhanced for the purpose of attacking their enemies. Judging by the radius and intensity of this spell, its effect was approximately equal to seven Second Grade Meteor Showers being cast simultaneously.

Mortals caught within the spell’s radius had no chance of survival. Even the First Grade adepts were very likely to die if they couldn’t dodge in time and were struck by more than three lava bubbles.

As such, nearly half of the Magma Hall turned into a blazing sea of fire with the descent of this ‘ultra’ Meteor Shower. Most of the soldiers and servants of the Andorra and Cenas Clan had perished. Even three First Grade adepts had died to the spell.

The few Second Grade Alliance adepts that were trapped in the sea of fire barely escaped after being surrounded by Mary and the others.

This Meteor Shower might be powerful, but there was still a ways to go before it could kill a Second Grade adept.

For a moment, the Alliance adepts and noble’s army struggled to escape from the sea of flames. They immediately collapsed from exhaustion after stepping out of the boundaries of the sea of fire, no longer able to get up.

It was at this moment that they thoroughly understood the terror of an adept’s tower.

Just a casual attack from the tower had exterminated the three thousand Alliance soldiers and forced the adepts of the Andorra Clan and Cenas Clan back to the entrance of the Magma Hall.

Supposedly, the Alliance adepts should be feeling upset and angered at having encountered such a terrifying assault. However, everyone only saw smiles on the faces of the Alliance higher-ups.

“Truly a group of people who can’t retain their composure!” Yurga smiled chillingly, “To think they would use such precious magical energy to deal with a mortal army with no offensive ability whatsoever. Aren’t they so willing to part with their reserves…”

“Truly,” Old Vampire Haines also smiled sinisterly, “If this much magical energy was properly used, it would have been more than enough to exterminate even a Second Grade adept. Yet, they use it to deal with cannon fodder. Hehehe, it seems we can think of ways to continue baiting more tricks out of them!”

The other Second Grade adepts present nodded as well, their faces full of joy.

Everyone here had spent a lot of time in their adept’s towers. They might not have an entirely accurate count of how much fire energy that spell had cost, but they had a pretty good guess.

If the Crimson Clan adepts had found a way to bait the Alliance adepts near the tower before striking with this thunderous attack, most of the Second Grade adepts would not have been able to endure it. However, the Crimson adepts had wasted such a fearsome attack on mere mortals. That meant the safety of the Alliance adepts had been further assured.

If such a scenario could happen two or three more times, the small adept’s tower would not have much energy reserves left!

If the power reserves of the tower’s energy room were exhausted, they would have to sustain the tower’s functions by consuming magical crystals. That would be an astronomical cost that even the adepts wouldn’t dare imagine. The Crimson Clan couldn’t possibly last long committing to such a wasteful act with their magical crystal reserves from only ten years of establishment.

The main reason why the Alliance adepts very rarely approached the tower, despite how long the war had gone on for, was out of fear of the tower’s retaliation. Even Third Grade adepts like Yurga and Haines were at high risk of dying if they were stalled at the tower by the desperate attempts of the Crimson Clan while being bombarded by the ferocious attacks of the tower.

The adepts all treasured their lives extremely. They would never be willing to set foot upon such dangerous ground that could threaten their lives. That was why they had sent so many soldiers to exhaust what remained of the tower’s magical power, even after cutting off Fire Throne’s connection with the lava sea below.

The high-grade adepts would only be willing to step on the battlefield and attempt to capture the tower its energy room had been depleted of half its power.

Without the blessing and protection of the tower, the small crew of the Crimson Clan couldn’t possibly be the match of the alliance of five clans. When that happened, the Alliance could seal off all paths of exits, and they might even be able to snatch the planar coordinates of the two lesser planes in the Crimson Clan’s control along with all the resources and materials stored within the tower.

It was said that one of those planes was a bountiful plane of dragons. There were plenty of dragons to rob in there, along with innumerable natives to enslave. That was the real reason that these five clans could unite as one.

Otherwise, no one would be as stupid as to throw away so many of their mortal soldiers all for one small tower that they couldn’t even take away with them.

The Alliance quickly made some adjustments while the sea of fire raged on in the Magma Hall.

The Andorra Clan that had suffered severe casualties retreated to rest, while the Cenas Clan chose another thousand-man army to fight during the next round. They would charge toward the tower once the sea of fire had been extinguished, and force the enemy to use the defensive powers of the tower once again.

The Crimson Clan also started making some slight adjustments beneath Fire Throne.

The Archers no longer stood at the front of the tower. Instead, their formation was pulled back, revealing the front of the tower to the opponents. The invaders would have to rush at the magical machine’s line of fire while enduring the tower’s attacks if they wanted to get at the Archers. Otherwise, they would have to endure the bullet storm from the Archers while assaulting the tower.

That would leave the Alliance adepts with no choice but to step within the attack range of the tower.

It would provide the Crimson adepts with an opportunity to retaliate with all they had.

Both parties were weighing the options available to them and trying their best to figure out how to wear down their enemy. Finally, fifteen minutes later, the deathmatch erupted once again!

The battle inside the Magma Hall was intense and bloody.

Armies of human warriors charged onto the battlefield and fell on their way toward the enemy. Their bodies were broken and twisted, quickly gathering into little hills of corpses. Then, a new group of warriors would step over the mountain of dead bodies, raising their shields as they silently and numbly pressed forward.

There were no battlecries or courageous roaring. It was almost as if all the soldiers knew their fate beforehand and only fearfully advanced forward under the urging of the adepts and nobles.

The Archers behind the tower had been reduced from their original thirty-five to their current twenty-two machines. The Alliance had also buried five thousand men in front of the tower. It was already the sixth group of soldiers charging now!

From the start of the battle, over twelve thousand soldiers and servants had died, while a total of seventeen First Grade adepts from the various clans had fallen in battle.

Meanwhile, the Crimson Clan were entirely unharmed apart from some magical machine losses!

However, leaders on both sides knew that the losses of the Crimson Clan were no less than the Alliance.

After all, the energy of the tower was the Crimson Clan’s lifeline! Now, the power had dropped to 57%; it was a hazardous level of energy for the tower.

Should the energy reserves of the tower no longer be able to pose a threat to Third Grade adepts, it would be time for Haines and Yurga to strike. Even with the blessing and protection of the tower, the Crimson Clan would have a hard time fending off so many Alliance adepts with their current military force.

The reason the Alliance adepts had waited so patiently was for the moment the Crimson Clan reached their limits.

Once the tower gates had been broken, it would be the moment for the Alliance adepts to go all out!

That moment slowly approached as the war continued.