Age of Adepts

“Hmph! You people must have laughed at me plenty before you arrived! This is just my response to that.”

Katherine was clearly acquainted with the three adepts and immediately replied.

Two of the new adepts were female, while the last one was a male.

The leader was the male adept, dressed in a long purple robe, and possessing a snake’s head instead of a human’s head. A snake’s tongue could be seen flicking from his mouth as he spoke, though the hissing made it difficult to understand him. A pair of strange green eyes with reptilian pupils gleamed coldly on his head, making for an intimidating sight.

He was a serpentine adept whose origin bloodline had manifested.

Of the other two women, one had a head full of white hair, a face full of wrinkles and spots, and wore a black robe. She leaned against a pitch-black wooden stick even taller than herself, her back almost bent at a right angle. The other woman appeared cute and pretty. She was dressed in an exceedingly seductive manner, and a purple crystal was embedded in her forehead. Her every move and action carried with them a distinctive charm.

The three adepts violently coughed as they emerged from the smoke and dust. Regardless of how they had looked like before, their faces were now all black and their bodies coated in dust and soot.

“Katherine, you bastard, you dirtied my face.” The pretty witch valued her looks tremendously. As such, she was far more furious that her two companions.

As she shouted, a shapeless wave radiated from the purple crystal on her forehead, causing the other three adepts to become somewhat absent-minded. At this moment, every smile, chuckle, frown, and wrinkle on this young witch’s face tugged at their heartstrings and teased their minds.

Even dying at this very moment would be worth it if they could win her fancy and time!

However, this instant of wavering in their minds only lasted for a single second. Katherine let out a cold snort and extended her arms. Two sharp metal spikes appeared in her palms.

“Benija, you whore. Use your spiritual magic on me again, and I will kill you.”

The young witch known as Benija smiled faintly as layers of thin yet firm telekinetic barriers shimmered out of her purple crystal and protected her.

“Kill me? Come on then; we will see who will be the one doing the killing!”

The other old witch cackled sinisterly and shuffled to a side without making a sound, as if expressing her neutral stance.

The serpentine adept stepped forward between Katherine and the young witch as a barbaric and chilling aura abruptly gathering around him. A terrifying eight-meter-long serpent with indigo scales manifested above his head as his origin bloodline stimulated his magical energy.

“Enough! Put away your magic and spells! Don’t forget. We are not here to fight amongst ourselves, but to complete the mission that the Lady has assigned us. No one is to strike out against a companion before the mission is complete. Otherwise…”

One had to admit that the power of a bloodline adept was something that other adepts could not hope to compare to.

Disregarding everything else, just his ability of manifestation allowed him to suppress all the other adepts with his terrifying serpentine true form. Judging from the energy aura he radiated, he wasn’t far from peak Third Grade.

The old and ugly witch known as Guinevere was an expert at poison and an intermediate Third Grade adept. The young and pretty one was called Benija, skilled at spiritual magic and also an intermediate Third Grade.

If a party like theirs could cooperate seamlessly, then they would be able to unleash unimaginable power against their enemies!

However, as was their nature, every adept was selfish, sly, and cruel. To have them abandon all their prejudices to work together with all they had was no more than a pipe dream!

The three adepts were enduring fearsome planar suppression from their initial arrival at Henvic Plane. As such, they were in no hurry to move. Instead, they gathered together to listen to Katherine’s describe her experiences over the past month and the basic situation of their target.

The three adepts had initially been somewhat doubtful about Katherine’s description of the young fire adept. They felt as if she was exaggerating the opponent’s might to downplay her own carelessness in her defeat. However, their eyes filled with shock and terror when they saw the burn marks still left on Katherine’s body.

A brat that had just advanced twenty to thirty years ago could beat Katherine so severely?

A powerful Third Grade elementium magical machine. What was that? A new metal golem created by the Silver Union?

A Third Grade flaming tiger summoned from the Fire Elementium Plane; that was much more likely. After all, fire adepts had an incredibly easy time in the Fire Elementium Plane. Conquering a small piece of land there and befriending some Fire Lords was well within the imagination.

However, fire summons like these typically didn’t last too long. Moreover, all of these adepts had prepared Scrolls of Banishment. These scrolls were most effective against such otherworldly summons.

Meanwhile, the old poison hag, Guinevere, developed an interest in the Spirit of Pestilence that Katherine described as the magical pet of the fire adept. She somewhat suspected that the Spirit of Pestilence was likely the initial form of some powerful Soul Equipment.

If they could imprison the fire adept and find a way to peel the Spirit of Pestilence from his soul instead of killing him immediately, she might have a chance to research or experience the mysteries of Soul Equipment.

It was important to note that Soul Equipment was extremely rare and valuable even for high-grade adepts. In particular, Soul Equipment that perfectly suited one’s soul origin and elementium talent was something that could only come with tremendous luck.

Guinevere’s old and withered heart couldn’t help but start beating furiously again upon hearing of their target possessing a poison-attribute Soul Equipment.

Benija, who possessed Innate Charm, paid most of her attention to Katherine’s description of the young male adept’s appearance. Benija felt her entire body turn hot at the very thought of her enemy being a young, handsome, and powerful male adept. Her body couldn’t help but shiver and tremble.

She pinched her legs together and couldn’t help but start rubbing them together slightly. Lust spilled out of her eyes, scorching like fire as if she couldn’t wait to seduce the enemy.

Benija might have looked like a lusty woman on the outside, but she was, in truth, a classic poison widow with a dark, dark heart. She liked seducing and charming powerful male adepts before planting a spirit seed in their mental consciousness once she ensnared them.

Thus, the Spirit that the adept had so painstakingly obtained through meditation would be transferred to Benija.

Spirit that had been taken by Benija in this manner would never be able to be restored through sleep or meditation. The unfortunate victims would suffer a permanent decrease to their Spirit limit.

After a simple report, Katherine left the cave without any hesitation.

After leaving the task of hunting Greem to the three new adepts, she only had to deal with a Second Grade witch. This simple and easy task couldn’t make her any happier. Katherine was also secretly imagining the scene that would play out when her three companions ran into Greem.

If the three idiots ended up being as arrogant as she had been when she arrived, then they would be in for a surprise and a brutal beating. If, just hypothetically, that bitch Benija died on the battlefield, it would be the most pleasant thing for her.

Katherine continued to move toward the southwest of the Zambez Empire according to the Lady’s instructions, even as all sorts of thoughts ran through her mind. The disruption of Fate meant that even the Lady could not find Witch Rena’s exact location. However, she could still obtain a vague position and prevent Katherine from running all over the Zambez Empire without a lead.

Rena might not be powerful, but she was a Witch of Deceit after all. If she hid, Katherine had no confidence in finding her in a crowd, even if she was an entire grade above her.

However, with the Lady’s continuous guidance, finding this witch was not a difficult matter at all!

That was why Katherine was extremely relaxed now.

Yet, just after she crossed a stream with a smile on her face and traveled through a broad and empty area, she stopped before a cliff.

The trees nearby trembled as an army of knights in simple armor ran into her as they cleared the path with their swords.

Holy knights. Why did she run into a group of holy knights here?

The corner of Katherine’s mouth twitched. Was this damned streak of misfortune not over yet?

“Witch.”

“She’s a witch.”

Katherine’s strange appearance could not be concealed. Thus, the knowledgeable holy knights immediately recognized her identity.

Enemies with a grudge tended to clash violently upon meeting!

The holy knights raised their swords and shields, surrounding Katherine in a fan-shaped formation.

Katherine also gripped the metal spikes in her hands tightly, a wicked smile crossing her face. A cold, starving gleam of slaughter shone in her crimson mechanical eye.

In a single scan, she detected that this group of thirty to forty knights consisted only of weaklings. The most powerful of them were two Silver Knights, while the rest were only Iron Knights. Knights like these were cannon fodder in her eyes to easily slaughter and dispose of.

She had lost many of her metal blades in Hakans and suffered tremendous damage. However, sweeping aside such fodder was still no problem. More crucially, the humiliation and anger she had been bottling up from her encounter with the male adept could finally be released through this slaughter.

However, just as Katherine prepared to fight, the bushes behind the holy knights split apart, and another holy knight walked forth.

Katherine’s crimson eye swept over him, and she immediately bent over in pain from the blinding radiance. Her mechanical heart started beating intensely.

Dammit! It’s a Fourth Grade!