Age of Adepts

Lance, the Capital of Eternity.

A conversation was happening in a big hall inside the Capital of Eternity’s fortress.

“Judging from the information we have gathered, Greem appears to have completed his advancement and is in the process of stabilizing his mental consciousness. What do you think? Should we take this opportunity to do something?” It was Split-Brain Gru who was speaking. The squidlike brain contained in the chest cavity of the massive machine betrayed an expression of helplessness and frustration.

The gigantic brain floating in the murky liquid behind the semi-translucent crystal glass squirmed slowly. The light of thought flickered all over the grooved surface of the brain.

The hall, made of a special magical alloy, was filled with a rising and falling tide of Spirit while the giant brain was engaged in thought. No one could hope to obtain any valuable information from the hall through magical means while this strange tide was present.

This mental barrier was meant to deal with Alice!

Even though Gazlowe had significantly benefitted from his cooperation with Alice last time, it had also made him thoroughly cautious of her existence.

Even a Third Grade monster like Gazlowe could not do much against a person like her, capable of peeking everywhere through the powers of Fate. After all, every individual had their secrets. No one wanted a pair of curious eyes looking at them without their knowledge.

Perhaps it was his more sensitive spiritual senses, or maybe it was merely paranoia, but Gazlowe had been feeling a strange power around him for the past few years. There was no way to get rid of that power, and it felt like it was probing and examining him from every angle and every perspective.

Yet, Gazlowe simply could not detect the origin or even the actual presence of this strange feeling.

In all honesty, this feeling was terrible!

Tortured by this uncomfortable feeling, the brain monster had started experiencing nightmares. Gazlowe, the brain monster whose forte was toying with the souls, memories, and thoughts of his enemies, was experiencing nightmares.

It was almost unbelievable. With how much control the brain monster had over its mind, the fact that it would even dream as low-grade lifeforms would and the fact that these dreams would be ‘nightmares’ was unimaginable!

Regardless of how impossible it was, now that it had happened, there had to be an explanation.

Brain Monster Gazlowe realized that some powerful individual had set their sights on him. Moreover, this powerful individual also possessed strange abilities similar to Alice’s abilities.

The brain monster wasn’t foolish.

He extracted the corresponding information from his mind and compared it with the vague sensation he had been feeling. In doing so, he quickly understood that the person peeking at him from the shadows was none other than Maysa, the First Witch of Fate, and Alice’s greatest opponent in the World of Adepts.

If only there were a god who would take mercy on him! He wasn’t even a friend or subordinate to Alice!

His relationship with Alice was only one of mutual benefit. How did he attract the attention of that terrifying First Witch of Fate?

Gazlowe had wanted to have a proper talk with that Witch Maysa countless times after learning that she was looking at him. Unfortunately, he could not discover the means and methods by which Maysa was scrying on him. As such, despite his intentions, the brain monster simply had no means of communicating with Maysa.

Over the past few years, Gazlowe’s only choice was to protect himself firmly in this extremely exhausting fashion. It was the only way he could avoid that annoying gaze that he could do nothing about.

Today, when faced with Split-Brain Gru’s concerned and worried question, the brain monster’s hill-like brain squirmed slightly. He then used his mental powers to establish a connection with Gru.

“Prepare for war!”

Split-Brain Gru was stunned for a second and replied in shock, “What? What did you say?”

“I said, prepare for war! Isn’t this what you always wanted?”

“What are you talking about? Why is it that I can’t understand what you are talking about the more you speak?!” Split-Brain Gru spread his palms, confusion written all over his face.

“There’s no more need to hide. I have been sensing a different mental consciousness that does not belong to either of us on you these past few years. Your actions have become increasingly reckless under the guidance of this foreign mental consciousness.” The brain monster’s giant ‘body’ floated in the liquid, but a dominant mental power had already enveloped the hall. Over a hundred Second Grade magical machine warriors stepped through the entrance, pinning Gru and his dozen magical machine guards to a corner of the room.

“Main brain, have you gone mad? You…” At this point, Gru’s voice suddenly changed, turning into a sweet and crisp female voice, “…haha, I didn’t think a brain monster like you could detect my mental consciousness. Hey, little brain monster. If you’ve long since discovered my existence, why didn’t you exterminate the mental consciousness while it was still weak? Why did you watch and let it grow in strength?”

“You must be Lady Maysa! I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. I am thrilled to be able to speak with a person as important as yourself.” Gazlowe appeared to possess an entire capital and hundreds of thousands of magical machines, but he still had to lower himself before a terrifyingly powerful and scheming witch as Maysa.

Unfortunately, Maysa clearly had no intention of accepting the flattery.

“Haha, you are no more than a Third Grade mutated brain monster, and you wish to speak to my actual self? Do you think that you, a Third Grade brain monster, is worth the Great Lady Maysa’s time? To ceaseless scry on you? Hahaha, dream on. I, the one speaking to you, am only Lady Maysa’s 1376th Fate clone. My mission is to guide you towards conflict against Greem. Unfortunately, your performance has been far too terrible!”

Gazlowe’s mind trembled silently.

“Why? You shouldn’t have to tell me these things? If you are directly telling me this, doesn’t it mean that…?”

“Indeed, the only reason I’m telling the truth is that there is no more need for my presence here. Sixty-seven seconds from now, Greem will step into this hall. I am sure you understand perfectly what his arrival means for you. Submit or resist? I very much look forward to your choice.”

As the last word lingered in the room, the mental consciousness that had been manipulating Split-Brain Gru suddenly dispersed without a trace. Meanwhile, Gru shuddered as if he had just woken up from some terrifying dream. He regained his own consciousness.

“Main brain, what happened earlier? Why did I suddenly lose consciousness?” Split-Brain Gru shouted in a panic.

“Shut up, you fool. If it weren’t for you foolishly intervening in the matter over at the Goblin Plane, there would still be room for negotiation with the fire adept. What now? He’s about to arrive already. What should we do? Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Sixty-seven seconds. What can I do in such a short amount of time?”

Communication through consciousness was incredibly fast. Gazlowe and Gru were able to exchange thoughts hundreds and thousands of times in the matter of an instant. Gru immediately understood the situation they were facing.

Split-Brain Gru had ‘silently’ encouraged and manipulated the fools of the Magic Energy Association while Greem was in seclusion and incapable of being involved with clan affairs. The Magic Energy Association wanted freedom and independence, while Gru wanted the Queyras alloy stored inside the central tower of the City of Machines.

Given the Crimson Clan’s cautiousness of the brain monster and the Capital of Eternity, not a single trace of Queyras alloy was allowed to fall into their hands. As such, Split-Brain Gru pulled a small trick and aided the goblins in one pivotal moment, thereby quickly achieving his own goals.

Perhaps Gru might have thought of his achievement as a perfect operation owing to his ingenuity earlier. However, he now knew that what he believed to be his autonomous self had only been a puppet for the opponent to draw by the strings.

It had been the inception of an idea, the guidance of the train of thought. The fact that these familiar mental techniques that Gru so often used had been used on himself made him indescribably furious and frustrated.

Deep in his heart, Gru had already cursed and insulted every single female ancestor and relative belonging to that damned First Witch of Fate. However, this could not help them deal with the crisis that was about to descend.

The fire adept was arriving soon!

The fact that his first destination upon advancing to Fourth Grade was the Capital of Eternity in Lance was evidence of his utmost anger and cautiousness for the brain monster. There was no doubt that Gru played a large part in this result!

“Seal the teleportation array. Hurry up and seal the teleportation array! As long as the fire adept can’t teleport over, we will have more time to think and come up with a response,” Gru screamed wildly.

“It’s too late! That damned woman counted the time perfectly. The fire adept had already appeared in our teleportation array when she told us all this!”

Given Gazlowe’s control over the entire Capital of Eternity, he would never miss a detail concerning a place as important as the interplanar teleportation array.

The Capital of Eternity’s teleportation array was always open to the Crimson Clan while they were still allies on paper.

As such, while Gazlowe had been speaking with Maysa’s clone, a familiar silhouette had already appeared in the teleportation array at the top of the steel fortress. While the two brains panicked, that man slowly walked towards the hall down the winding metal corridors.

“Guards…guards, we must hurry and mobilize all the guards to stall the fire adept.” Gru shouted with all he had.

“I have already handed all authority over the Capital of Eternity to you. Go and stop the fire adept. I still need some time here to activate fully. You must stall him!”

“Understood. Leave it to me, Main brain!”

Perhaps the damned’s Fate clone was still affecting Gru’s mind, causing him to feel genuine hatred and malice for Greem. As such, encouraged by the Main brain, Gru took over all authority of the Capital of Eternity without any hesitation. He used his mental connection to mobilize the magical machines as he strode out of the hall.

An unusual battle quickly erupted the moment he stepped out of the hall!