Age of Adepts

In the end, as many as seventeen dragons chose to submit and follow after Arms.

There were two Second Grade dragons and fifteen First Grade dragons.

These dragons had lost a war and were abducted to the World of Adepts by the Adepts; they had already prepared themselves for death. The psychological impact of a dragon suddenly appearing and telling them they could return to Lance was immense.

It wasn’t just the inexperienced young dragons. Even the four Second Grade dragons couldn’t help but be moved at the offer and struggled immensely with their decision.

The first few dragons to surrender all followed behind Arms dejectedly after signing a contract and being released. It was apparent that their spirits had been completely broken. However, after Arms leaned by their ears and whispered, they immediately became much more excited and started to burn with will and determination once again.

A few of the captive dragons that were closer could clearly hear their conversation. The damned evil thunder dragon was actually encouraging the young dragons to immediately head to the lairs of the captured or dead dragons upon returning to Lance. They would most definitely make an unbelievable profit as long as they acted fast enough.

The other captive dragons immediately started roaring and creating a commotion.

The very thought of them being torn up for their tendons, skinned for their hides, cut up for their bones, and sliced for their scales; every single part of them turned into materials for the adepts’ rituals and experiments. That very thought caused the dragons to mourn in tragedy.

The other dragons hesitated even more when they saw the first few dragons released from captivity and eager to return to Lance. A few initially stubborn dragons became resentful at the thought of their hoard being taken by these cowardly bastards after their tragic death in another plane!

After thinking the offer over, they finally surrendered, reluctantly.

…………

Lance, the Capital of Eternity.

The spatial flux radiating from the teleportation tower had yet to settle down before several muscular and massive dragons flew out of the teleportation hall. These giant creatures started to circle in the sky.

The steel capital that had still been calm and orderly the previous moment immediately broke out into chaos the very next. All the planar natives that sought shelter in the Capital of Eternity hid within the buildings of steel as they looked at the dragons with looks of terror.

The massive tower of the Capital of Eternity immediately shut all exits and entrances. Black gun barrels reached out and started to charge energy as fast as they could.

Just as a battle was about to break out, a Third Grade thunder dragon with bright blue scales and a jade-green emerald dragon appeared in the skies.

“Lord Gazlowe, please do not open fire! These are all my subordinates. They can be considered a vassal dragon army of the Crimson Clan now.”

An entrance in the center of the tower opened up, and the three-meter tall Gru walked out onto a wide platform under the protection of a group of magical machine warriors. He lifted his head, looked at the dragons flying in the air, and roared with his squid-like brain.

“Arms, what are you playing at? What dragon army are you speaking of? Why have I never heard of this?”

“Gru, you have no authority to question this matter. Go tell your main brain that from now on, I, Arms, am one of the most powerful great dragon lords of Lance. Have your magical machine warriors observe. Do not disturb or harass any of my subordinates. From now on, any dragon that wears the Crimson Clan emblem is one of ours. None of your subordinates or you are allowed to take a single step into their territory!”

Having finished roaring, Arms beat his blue wings, leading the dragons into the sky and flying toward their temporary territory in the southwest.

The furious and angry Gru was left on the spot alone.

Once the dragonflight had left, Gru cursed and returned to the tower of steel. He got onto a floating metal disc and quickly arrived at the metal hall where his Third Grade main brain resided.

Though the Third Grade brain monster was hidden in this well-guarded metal hall, he had a perfect grasp of everything happening in the Capital of Eternity. As such, Gru was immediately reprimanded upon stepping inside.

“You had best treat Arms with a more friendly attitude in the future. Can’t you tell? They have already grown their wings. He is willingly becoming a nail of that male adept, hammered into our plane of Lance.”

“Hmph! There’s no way we could win such a spineless dragon to our side. Why don’t we find a suitable opportunity and secretly kill him!” Gru was still roaring resentfully.

“Killing a Third Grade thunder dragon?” The massive, hill-sized brain floating in the giant glass vat was clearly a bit bigger than before, “Unless you can get the Third Grade thunder dragon into this tower where I can personally suppress his Spirit, while you lead the magical machine warriors to snap off all his fangs and claws, it will be difficult. With our current reserve of military power, defeating him is easy, but killing him is near impossible.”

“Why…why?” Gru was still howling, “Why can that male adept start a war against the dragonflight? Why can he fend off a Fourth Grade dragon, while we can only hide within this city of steel and extend our influence to the dragon territories around us at a snail’s pace? What do we lack compared to him?”

Gazlowe fell silent.

After a long pause, he finally spoke once again, his tone heavy and dull.

“It doesn’t matter how many magical machine warriors we build, for there are only a group of warriors! What we lack is a general that can hold his own and a mighty fighter that can dominate the battlefield. Without a general and a powerful fighter, we can only remain on the defense, with no means of going on the offensive. That is, perhaps, our most significant flaw!”

Gru also fell silent.

He, who had stepped on the battlefield multiple times, knew the situation very well. Though he had participated in most of the planar wars in Lance, he had always been hiding within the army, heavily protected by a large group of magical machines and Crimson adepts. In the end, he was, at best, an auxiliary force.

His auxiliary powers were not sufficient to deal with a high-grade battlefield if the army was lacking in sturdy meat shields and fire cannons like Greem, the elementium magical machine, and the magical golem dragon.

As such, the Capital of Eternity could only start skirmishes when divorced from the power of the high-grade Crimson adepts, making some small profit off of the First and Second Grade dragons. Gru had no other method of dealing with a Third Grade dragon apart from holding his position and waiting for reinforcements.

“Big guy, maybe it is time for us to push forward with Project Titan!”

“Project Titan? Hmph! Do we have the ultra-large magic generator furnace required to activate the Iron Titan? Throughout the entire Capital of Eternity, this ultra magic generator furnace that I am attached to is the only thing that can barely activate the Iron Titan. If the Titan were to fight at full-force, it would be able to suck me dry within minutes.”

“If we throw in the furnace in me and the furnaces on the two Motherships?”

“There’s still an energy insufficiency of 57%. It won’t be enough to let the Iron Titan unleash its full power!”

“Cough.”Gru finally fell utterly silent.

…………

Lance started to become incredibly chaotic.

A group of dragon robbers that had emerged from nowhere was traveling everywhere, robbing one dragon territory after another, one lair after another. They called themselves the Black Wing Association.

Initially, these dragons that chose to rob their own kind had some degree of self-control. Their targets were only the lairs and territories with no owners.

However, after their first taste of success, their swelling greed caused the members of the Black Wing Association to break into the territories and lairs of actual dragons. They used their numbers to take down one dragon lord after another, sweeping clean their treasure hoards and lands.

For a moment, the dragons of Lance were on high alert. None of them dared to keep their treasures and resources hidden within their lairs. Instead, they split them up into troves and hid them in multiple secret locations. This event undoubtedly represented a tremendous safety risk to the hoards of the dragons.

Even some famous thieves and robbers throughout Lance became motivated and started to set their sights on the dragons’ treasures.

Conflict after conflict, robbery after robbery, all these caused the dragon lords a tremendous amount of work and frustrated them to no ends.

No one knew who spread the news, but it was rumored that one only had to join the Black Wing Association and obtain a Crimson emblem, and their territories and treasure would be free from harassment.

Dragon Lords without a leader and dragon lords who enjoyed secretly attacking others joined the Black Wing Association. This mysterious dragon organization unknowingly became a terrifying and massive entity!

…………

The World of Adepts. The Tower of Fate.

Several witches were gathered in a mysterious room, whispering amongst themselves.

Alice’s body had basically recovered after a month’s rest.

Though the shadow energy within her body had been completely removed, her flesh and Spirit that had been corroded required a long time to recover slowly. It was a process that couldn’t be rushed, making Alice’s face appear pale and haggard still.

“Snowlotus, these are your relatives, so you introduce them, please!”

Alice gently smiled as she looked at the two visiting witches.

As a Fate Witch, Icelady Snowlotus laughed slightly and gave a simple introduction, “This is the owner of our clan’s Italil Tower, and this is my mother, Rena!”

Snowlotus’ mother, Rena?

Alice moved her eyes onto that pretty and seductive witch and some vague Fate feedback appeared in her mind.

Loss of contact from plane…rebel organization…teleportation array opened.

It didn’t take long for Alice to gain a basic comprehension of the cause and effect of what had happened through all the vague information. Meanwhile, as she browsed through the news, an unexpected bit of detail caught her attention.

They had that over there.

Alice suddenly became overjoyed!