Age of Adepts

Shadow dragons. Just as the name implied, they were a sort of variant dragon.

They might be called dragons, but at their very core, they were more like powerful shadow creatures.

They had dark black scales, and their large and vicious bodies were always radiating dense and obscure shadow aura. They had black horns, black body, black wings, black claws, and a black tail.

Even their dragon’s breath was black.

It was this unique magical trait that made the shadow dragons one of the best at hiding themselves. They might look as large as a hill, but they could assimilate with a piece of shadow as small as a palm.

Very few people could notice them hiding in the shadows before they attacked.

However, Shadow Dragon Atlan’s luck was terrible today.

That was because he had chosen to hide in the shadow beneath Alice, the Witch of Fate.

His every action might indeed go unnoticed by most Third Grade creatures, but it could not get past Alice, who was standing near the main entrance.

Alice had long since discovered the existence of Shadow Dragon Atlan through her Fate Sense.

That was why she had pretended to be innocuous and stood alone by the entrance.

The moment Atlan entered the trap, Alice smiled and successfully cast her Fate spell with Helen’s help.

Fate’s Corridor!

It was a restraint-type labyrinth Fate spell. Alice could cast this spell as long as she was in contact with the target creature, trapping the victim in a mysterious, profound, and massive maze.

This maze would not harm the enemy in any way and would only trap them within for fifteen minutes. If the enemy could see through the secrets of Fate’s Corridor or had sufficient brute force, they had a high likelihood of escaping before the duration ended.

However, this much time was more than enough for Alice to do something!

Just as Atlan realized something was wrong and was about to erupt with all his power, a light flashed before his eyes. He suddenly found himself on a winding stone bridge. Mist shrouded both ends of the floating bridge as if it had been constructed on thin air.

Atlan looked around him. Apart from more winding bridges, there was nothing else in this vast space. Moreover, a door of light could be seen standing silently at the end of every bridge.

The doors shimmered with light, seemingly connected to each other.

Atlan paused for a moment and looked at the world around him once more. A sense of familiarity crept up in his heart. It seemed like…like a particular otherworldly space he had heard of in the past. Spatial teleportation and flight were restricted there, and the intruder could only attempt to escape by testing out the doors of light, one by one.

Atlan was shocked as he lowered his body in anticipation, but nothing happened.

Dammit, he could not sense the existence of the Shadow World from here!

Supposedly, Atlan’s Third Grade abilities should have allowed him to use his tight connection between his soul origin and the Shadow World to return to Lance, with the Shadow World acting as a springboard of sorts. However, strangely enough, he could no longer sense the Shadow World within this mysterious magical corridor.

Atlan tried beating his wings, but he could no longer go any higher after his body hovered a meter above the ground.

It seemed flight and levitation were all prohibited within this world.

Atlan’s face instantly turned dark.

He finally remembered what this place was.

Fate’s Corridor. It was Fate’s Corridor!

Without Fate’s guidance, anyone that entered Fate’s Corridor would have to silently wait until they were returned to their world.

Atlan finally crouched down in sorrow.

…………

Alice had been stunned by the roar of the shadow dragon before he was transported away. Her body was still shaking.

It took her a dozen seconds to barely break free of the overwhelming dragon’s aura.

Though she had used a small trick to trap the shadow dragon in Fate’s Corridor, the difference between their power was still present.

If Alice were Third Grade, she would be able to trap the shadow dragon inside Fate’s Corridor for an entire hour at the very minimum, unlike now where it would only last for a mere fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, the shadow dragon would be returned to wherever he had been through the power of Fate.

When that happened, a furious Third Grade shadow dragon would appear right beneath Alice in her shadow, and she would have to pray for herself!

Alice charged into the Mothership without any hesitation, quickly establishing communication with Meryl as she ran toward the lower levels.

“Quick, open the magical prison. I need to use it now!”

Alice was a frail Fate Witch, after all. All of her elementium powers had been sacrificed to the powers of Fate. It caused her Physique to be frail as well. If it weren’t for little Helen flying by her side and enhancing her with Windwalk and Bull’s Strength, Alice wouldn’t even be able to make it to the magical prison at the lowest level of the Mothership in time.

The Crimson Clan had come here for the dragons specifically. For the sake of capturing even more of them, a magical prison used to imprison and seal the dragons had been specially constructed in the Mothership.

The place that Alice was hurrying toward was a cell used for imprisoning high-grade dragons.

“……”

Alice ran as fast as she could as she checked the time left, running past corridor after corridor. She even occasionally had to sprint down flights of spiral staircases.

“68, 67, 66…”

“32, 31, 30…”

When Alice counted down to fifteen, the magical prison was finally within sight. Some magical machines had already opened the doors to the cell, and a few Crimson adepts were hastily activating the sealing arrays within.

Alice ran into the prison in a single breath and stood in the slowly activating array in the center. Meanwhile, Helen waved her magical wand, activating all other arrays in the prison and connecting them with one another.

“8, 7, 6, 5…”

Little Helen waved her limbs about and chased all the Crimson adepts and magical machines out of the room. She then proceeded to assume full control over the control panel of the prison.

“4, 3, 2…”

The wand in the fairy’s hand glowed with blinding white light. All of the sealing arrays were raring to go but were made to remain in a state of preparation.

Only a high-grade elementium creature like Helen could do something like this. An ordinary adept would not be able to manage so many complex sealing arrays with such ease and control.

“1…”

As Alice let out one last shout, power erupted from her shadow as a massive draconic creature abruptly emerged from within.

“You, di…”

Atlan, having been forcefully contained within Fate’s Corridor for fifteen minutes, was beyond furious now.

He, a proper Third Grade dragon, had fallen face-first into the trap of a mere Second Grade female adept. How could this not make him rage, not make him roar in anger?

The moment Atlan sensed the flux of spatial power and the witch’s aura right above him, he immediately…

Before his overwhelming shadow power could truly burst forth, his tremendous spiritual senses swept across his current environment.

Dammit, this…this is…

Before he could even finish his sentence, an immense sealing power washed forward, sealing him along with the Second Grade witch within the magical array.

It didn’t matter how strong a Third Grade dragon was; they could not fend off a sealing array.

Moreover, it was the large magic generator furnace of the Mothership that was powering the sealing array, while the host of the formation was a high-grade elementium fairy. As such, Atlan’s roars immediately fell silent. His entire body, as well as his shadow power, spiritual flux, and his mind itself, were all instantly restrained.

To fully capture this dragon, Alice had willingly sacrificed herself and sealed herself within the array as well.

Helen looked at Alice and the dragon, frozen within the array like wooden sculptures. She let out a sigh and carefully sealed the array and shut the prison doors.

It was the best she and Alice could do with their powers.

After all, they were dealing with a Third Grade dragon.

Being able to seal a Third Grade dragon at the cost of Alice’s immobility was already an excellent result!

The rest would fall upon Greem and whether he could rescue Alice without releasing the Third Grade shadow dragon. Otherwise, a single mistake in his actions could cause Alice’s death and the extermination of her soul.

When little Helen beat her wings and returned to the command center, the first thing she ran into was Meryl’s questioning eyes.

“The Third Grade dragon has been sealed,” Helen said, dispiritedly.

“That’s good…good. Speaking of which, where’s Lady Alice?” Meryl patted her chest in relief before asking curiously.

“She’s sealed together with the dragon!” Little Helen pouted and darted about the air anxiously, “Alice is trying too hard. To think she would choose such a dangerous method. What’s good about that big guy? Making her risk her life to capture a shadow dragon, hmph.”

The little fairy got angrier the more she rambled. She even waved her wand and made a miniature version of Greem in the air, before lunging forward and beating down on the model. Meryl was speechless.

At this moment, the battle on the Mothership had also started to reach the boiling point.

The shadow dragon had yet to return since his departure, and nothing seemed to have happened within the ship either.

That undoubtedly made Water Dragon Dominier increasingly frustrated and suspicious.

After a few rounds of bloody exchanges, Dominier had to admit that he was no match to this strange golem when it came to melee combat.

The golem was superior, with a sturdier body and greater strength. In addition, there were annoying magical machines around them and a series of metal turrets all raining down on him. Dominier was actually losing to a strange golem in melee combat.

The water dragon frantically peeled away the magical machine and turned to run.