Age of Adepts

The sudden plague on the outskirts of the city further emphasized the critical nature of the situation.

The higher-ups of Haisas had only theorized that the companions of the witch might attempt to save her, but that theory had now turned into bloody reality.

In a single night, over a dozen towns had been infected with a deadly plague.

The disease came with such ferocious momentum and intense infectiousness that even the rulers of the nation were shocked to hear of its symptoms.

Ordinary medical officers could not do anything about the plague. They couldn’t even protect themselves from being infected by it. The only means of curing and removing the plague spores were the holy knights’ Light’s Healing.

However, a divine spell such as Light’s Healing was demanding. Even the First Grade Iron Knights could only cast the spell five times a day if they pushed themselves to their limits. Meanwhile, the many trainee knights in the city would exhaust all of their divine power after a single use of the spell.

Faced with such a situation, the leaders of Haisas could only selectively send the holy knights to the towns and villages whose residents were suffering the most from the plague. Still, could droplets of water ever hope to extinguish a blazing inferno?

In just a single day, the number of infected quickly rose from a thousand individuals to ten thousand. The epidemic was showing signs of spreading to Haisas City.

That horrified the commanders of Haisas!

At the moment, Haisas housed many true nobility of various ranks within the city, apart from the powerful and influential holy knights. These nobles might have always relied on the power of the holy knights to maintain their rule, but when they were faced with the threat of the plague, their voice couldn’t help but go against the holy knights.

The many nobles that lived in Haisas requested that the city gates be sealed and for the infected to be kept out of the city. Meanwhile, the low and intermediate-grade holy knights hoped for Haisas to accept more refugees to shelter them beneath the glory of the great Holy Light.

The nobles and the knights, who had always worked together seamlessly, finally had their first severe ideological conflict. A small misunderstanding even broke out near the city gates!

For a moment, chaos broke out in Haisas City, and even the Holy Light Chapel itself was surrounded by the lower nobility.

After a series of negotiations and discussions behind the scenes, the nobles of Haisas reluctantly agreed to open up the eastern areas of the city to the refugees. The Holy Light Chapel would also station a certain number of holy knights in the noble’s area to ensure that the plague would not spread to them.

Thus, Greem had the fortune of becoming a personal bodyguard that the nobles were fighting over!

As the disturbance grew, the Holy Light Chapel hastened their interrogation of the captured witch.

They quickly obtained detailed information on the two other adepts from her. A large group of Iron Knights was then sent to nearby villages to search and hunt for the adepts.

Of course, given how terrifying the Third Grade fire adept had been, the Holy Light Chapel sent two Third Grade Gold Knights to the surrounding areas as well, accompanied by a significant number of Second Grade Silver Knights. It would allow them to exterminate the adepts if and when they found them.

The tremendous force that the Holy Light Chapel had put together was unknowingly divided and weakened!

However, the scheme that Greem had arranged had affected someone else’s plans. It had forced the other Deceit Witch out of hiding, despite her seamless disguise.

The Third Grade Deceit Witch Italil had also gone into hiding in the outskirts of Haisas, with similar intentions as Greem. Unfortunately, due to their mutual distrust, she had no means of communicating with Greem in time.

When Greem’s plague was put into action, the massive army of Iron Knights unexpectedly found Italil in cooperation with the local garrison.

Both forces broke out into a terrible fight in a place known as Redwood Village. Third Grade Italil demonstrated her might and decimated the holy knights that had attacked her, along with the one hundred villagers that lived there.

She had prodded the hornet’s nest now!

The already furious holy knights started to gather at Redwood Village, along with the two Gold Knights that had been sent out of the city.

There were no weaklings among those who could become Third Grade witches. Moreover, Italil was a famous tower owner even amongst the Deceit Witches. Rena had brought her here precisely because of her tremendous martial prowess. It was unfortunate that they had been separated during their travel here. Otherwise, with Italil’s protection, Rena would never have ended in such a tragic situation.

Indeed, how could a powerful witch like this ever be forced into retreat over mere natives!

Witch Italil had broken out into a guerilla war against the holy knights pursuing her, making for a game of cat-and-mouse around Haisas City. With the exceptional shapeshifting and deception abilities of the Deceit Witches, Italil moved about like a phantasmal spirit, always appearing with a different form in a different place.

She intentionally avoided the two Gold Knights, choosing the Silver and Iron Knights as the targets of her wrath. In this three-day-long pursuit, she alone forcefully killed over a few dozen holy knights above First Grade.

The tremendous pressure of the conflict left the Haisas Holy Light Chapel with no option but to send another Gold Knight to participate in the witch hunt.

With three against one, the holy knights finally managed to find the perfect opportunity and cornered Italil in a town known as Sea’s Bounty. The town had a population of over a thousand. Italil managed to severely complicate the holy knight’s search by hiding in the crowd with her shapeshifting abilities.

After waiting in Haisas City for five days, Greem finally found the perfect opportunity to strike.

Only two Gold Knights were left in the Holy Light Chapel.

Witch Rena was imprisoned in a hidden confessional room in the Chapel, guarded by a Third Grade Gold Knight known as Kennet. On the other hand, through his observations, Greem noted that the magical array materials were most likely in the hands of a holy knight commander known as Lambert.

Lambert was also a Third Grade Gold Knight!

Of the two Gold Knights, one had been assigned to watch over the witch, and the other had been assigned to protect the materials. Such an assignment perfectly distributed the risk that each knight had to bear. Thus, Greem put into action the operation that he had planned for so long!

…………

Nightfall.

Haisas City.

Greem pushed open the wooden window of a luxurious room in the noble’s area in the western area of the city.

The curtain of night hung low, and the stars were dim. Even the moonlight cast upon the earth carried a faint hint of crimson.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

Soft knocking sounds came from the door.

“Sir Eadric, it is time for dinner!” The maid’s voice came from outside the door.

“Tell your master that I will be praying for the Holy Light for the entire night tonight. I won’t be joining him for dinner. Do not let anyone come in and disturb my prayers!” Greem rejected in a stern voice.

“Yes, sir!”

Soft footsteps rang out, and it became quiet once again.

Greem lifted his head and looked at the faintly crimson night sky. He raised a finger and slowly started to gather the fire elementium in the air.

Radiant fire elementium was stripped from the colorless air and gathered at Greem’s fingertip, causing it to glow brighter as it turned hotter and hotter. It seemed as if it would burst into a great flame at any moment.

At this moment, an intangible yet firm power appeared above Greem’s head and started to extend toward his position.

Holy Ward!

The fire elementium Greem had gathered upon his fingertip had reached a threshold. Any more and it would instantly burst into an actual elementium fire. When that happened, the Holy Ward that enveloped the entirety of Haisas would be triggered, and the holy knights at the Chape would be alerted.

The holy knights of Henvic walked the path of faith, and their only mastery of magical powers was through the singular form of the Holy Light. However, thousands of years of development and focus had allowed them to discover alternative uses of the holy light.

For instance, this Holy Ward that covered the city of Haisas!

Using the sensitivity and exclusivity of the Holy Light, a gigantic Holy Ward had been erected around Haisas. Any active or passive gathering of magical elementium within this barrier would trigger and activate backlash from it. Fortunately, Greem was only gathering the fire elementium on a small scale and had not allowed it to turn into an actual fire.

Otherwise, even an apprentice-level spell would have resulted in backlash from the Holy Ward.

Apart from monitoring and detecting magical energy fluctuations, the Holy Ward could also create a single-elementium environment. It was also a trap that the holy knights had left for the adepts.

If any adepts were to think too much of themselves and broke into Haisas City alone, the holy knights controlling the Holy Ward from the Chapel would switch the state of the barrier from passive to active. When that happened, all other magical elementium apart from holy light would be restricted within Haisas City.

It was incredibly terrifying for otherworldly adepts who were now neck-deep in enemy territory!

As such, apart from gathering information over the past few days, Greem had also continuously been testing the reactions and mechanisms of the Holy Ward. Through the Chip’s examination of the power flux, he had confirmed the exact location of the holy array.

Greem would first have to dispel this ward if he wished to assault the Holy Light chapel.

He would never be as foolish as to battle two Third Grade Gold Knights under the suppression of the Holy Ward.

Greem sorted out his emotions beneath the crimson moonlight and once again reassessed his combat plan. After confirming that there were no flaws, he finally released an order to attack to a specific remote place in the distance.

The Holy Ward might be exceedingly sensitive to magical elementium, but it clearly could not obstruct the faint connection between souls.

With Greem’s orders given, the Spirit of Pestilence Remi finally put the plans into action!