Age of Adepts

Reisin Garden, a floating city.

As the largest floating city in Rian Province, Reisin Garden was the ideal holiday resort for all arcanists.

The Reisin Garden floating city hovered above the Crystal Lake, beyond the clouds. Below the city was the vast and boundless Flowertalk Plains, where one’s eyes would get tired just looking at the sheer space. It didn’t matter which corner of the Flowertalk Plains you were in. When the skies were clear, and the white clouds could no longer conceal the massive body of the floating city, you would be able to witness its sacred and beautiful outline.

It was currently the time of the day where the sun was at its brightest.

Sunlight spread a gentle warmth throughout the floating city through the arcane barriers.

It had magnificent gardens, pristine white arcane plazas, beautiful fountains that were the very epitome of arcane civilization, proportionate, unique, and elegant architecture, as well as arcane casters with books in hands that lingered around the gardens, marble paths, and fountains.

Anyone would instantly feel peace and calm at the sight of all this. They would feel the dense, mature academic atmosphere of the arcanists– ‘to pursue knowledge, to yearn for the truth.’

From a certain perspective, the arcanists were truly pursuers of knowledge and practitioners of truth!

At this moment, several high-grade arcanists were sitting solemnly before a long table in the central hall of Reisen Garden. Sorrow, frustration, and anger were written all over their faces. They were all dressed in light-blue arcane-robes with golden threads drawing all sorts of mysterious magical runes on the fabric.

Every single arcanist that could sit at this table was, without exception, a high-grade arcanist of at least Third Ring and above.

A pretty female arcanist with a golden headband sat at the head of the table. She had an arcane emblem on her chest in the symbol of an open scroll. Five miniature quill pens rested above the emblem, representing the arcanist’s profession and grade.

The open scroll meant that she was a scholar primarily focused on academic research, while the five pens meant that she had attained the Fifth Ring.

Much like the World of Adepts, the upper limit of power in Morrian Plane was also the peak of Fourth Grade.

As such, Fifth Ring arcanists like herself could only avoid backlash from the plane while she remained within the arcane barriers. Once she left the floating city and lost the protection of the barrier, most of her power would be suppressed, leaving her at the level of a Fourth Grade.

Fortunately, she would still retain her superior energy application methods and combat techniques. That made her remain more potent than most Fourth Ring arcanists.

It was also an important reason why the Great Arcanists were willing to enter the plane, even if they knew how dangerous it was to do so!

Great Arcanist Freila looked around her and cleared her throat. It was then that she announced the main reason for the meeting in her somewhat hoarse voice.

“We have completely lost all contact with Arcane Towers Four, Seven, and Nine.”

Cries of surprise rang out throughout the table the moment Freila’s words came out of her mouth.

Several arcane towers on the outskirts of Rian Province had gone offline during this moment of crisis for the Arcane Empire. It…it couldn’t help but cause the arcanists present at the meeting to have a bad premonition of what was to come!

“What are the astrologists doing? The floating city has been providing them with so many resources and so much wealth on an annual basis, and they still couldn’t predict such a significant incident on the outskirts?” A Fourth Ring arcanist furiously slammed his hand against the table.

“Indeed, indeed. Did Noyan not recently claim himself to be a master of divination? How did he not divine the enemy approaching us? Do we really have no clue who it is exactly that is attacking us?” Someone immediately stepped forward and voiced his agreement.

A bald female arcanist in a purple robe decorated with astral images opened her eyes and coldly answered her colleague’s demands, “The Empire’s central command has already given out orders. All high-grade astrologists were to head out to Gallan Province to aid in the war. Meanwhile, the astrology apprentices that remain behind cannot deal with the backlash from all the planar turmoil. The astrology platform has not been activated in the past few weeks.”

“We can understand being unable to predict the enemy’s invasion. After all, the plane’s river of Fate has already been stirred into a total mess by all the otherworldly beings that have invaded. No one can hope to see anything in all this fog. That said, the enemy has now invaded Rian Province and taken down three arcane towers. Are…are you still unable to see anything even under these circumstances?” Fifth Ring Freila was the one to speak this time.

The bald arcanist was only at the Third Ring, but her noble status as an astrologist allowed her to speak with Freila as an equal.

Upon hearing Freila’s question, she closed her eyes in pain and started to speak with much difficulty, “The enemy is split into three parties! An exceedingly mysterious power cloaks two of those parties. Our eyes of Fate cannot even approach them in the slightest.”

“And the other party? Who are they?”

“Adepts. They are evil adepts from the World of Adepts!”

The sound of everyone inhaling immediately rang out across the table.

The invaders were only adepts, which made them much easier to deal with compared to the rest of the otherworldly opponents.

However, that was only in relation to Reisen Garden during the peak of the Arcane Empire. The arcanists of Reisin Garden then would have had the power required to face off against the evil adepts. However, now that most of the Great Arcanists who were proficient in fighting had been drafted to the frontlines, there weren’t very many combatants left. The only Fifth Ring Great Arcanist remaining here was a scholar.

Under such circumstances, the conditions did not look good for Reisin Graden, even if the enemies were not the strongest of adepts.

After all, if the enemy had the confidence to sneak into the plane, then they were surely an elite group of high-grade adepts. They would be proficient in slaughter, plagues, curses, and ambushes. The floating city would have incredible trouble putting together a group of arcanists that could defeat them!

With the floating city and all its powerful arcane facilities behind them, the arcanists might stand a chance. However, away from the floating city and away from their arcane towers, the arcanists were not the opponents of the evil adepts, even if they were all at the same grade and had equipment of similar power. After all, the evil adepts specialized in combat and murder.

It was an iron truth that the arcanists had verified with the lives and blood of countless of their own!

“Can we determine their intentions?” Even the Fifth Ring Great Arcanist felt her scalp buzz at the mention of the name of the adepts. She couldn’t help but move the discussion forward.

“The other two parties cannot be tracked, so we cannot determine anything about their intentions. Meanwhile, the remaining party is formed by four Fourth Grade adepts. They have been slaughtering everything in their path towards us!”

“The floating city. Their target is the floating city?” Freila could barely believe her ears.

This place was the central control of Rian Province. It was Reisin Garden Floating City!

Had the evil adepts already become so brazen and fearless in their actions? To think they would dare to invade a mighty floating city with just four Fourth Grade adepts!

It was simply too unbelievable!

“Keep a constant eye out for these adepts’ position. Report to me if there are any movements at all. Furthermore, notify all arcane towers across the province: There is no need to be concerned about the energy reserves of the elementium pools any longer. Immediately go into the highest alert. The evil adepts must not be allowed to breach the arcane towers so easily again.”

“Understood!”

“Additionally, all arcane security squads are to mobilize immediately. They are to find the evil adepts as soon as possible and exterminate them on the outskirts of Flowertalk Plains. The three floating cities of Rian Province are responsible for seventeen percent of the arcane energy supply on the battlefield outside the plane. We must not allow the evil adepts to destroy our energy system!”

“Understood!”

Rian Province had three floating cities, and the enemy sent three parties of powerful adepts. The arcanists would never believe that there wasn’t a connection between these two factors.

The hearts of all the arcanists couldn’t help but turn heavy.

They had a feeling that these three adept parties were headed straight for the logistical energy supply of the Arcane Empire.

Once they stopped the energy transfer from the floating cities here, the Great Arcanists fighting against those powerful enemies beyond the planar barrier would lose their energy supply. When that happened, the Arcane Empire would no longer be able to stop all those evil creatures from invading Morrian!

While the arcanists were engaged in discussion, the entire floating city lightly trembled. A massive energy pillar rose from above the arcane tower at the center of the city. The column of energy pierced the skies and beamed towards a place beyond the planar barrier.

A massive floating fortress could also be found there, guiding the torrent of energy into its own dried-up elementium pool. The energy reserves of the floating fortress started to fill up at a visible rate.

Just two thousand kilometers away from the floating fortress was a space battlefield where flesh and blood were intertwined and where the distinction between life and death was nearly non-existent.

The hordes of strange monsters constantly clashed with the stubborn walls of the floating fortress. Energy pillars radiating destructive auras swept across the entire battlefield. Tens of thousands of creatures died wherever the pillars passed by, their flesh burned and carbonized to ash.

However, fighting in such a manner demanded a tremendous amount of energy from the fortress.

Every so often, a floating fortress the size of a tiny continent would retreat from the battlefield and descend close to the planar barrier of Morrian. They would then anchor their position and connect with a floating city within the plane and begin long-distance energy refueling.

Three floating cities hovered above leyline nodes across the vast continent of Kentos. They were taking on the task of concentrating and redirecting the arcane energy to the floating fortresses above.

Once the charging process was completed, the floating cities would fall into a short period of energy exhaustion. It was also the time where they were most vulnerable to enemy invasions.

To prevent the floating cities from being attacked by the evil adepts, tall arcane towers rumbled and flew away from Reisin Garden, heading somewhere toward the distant horizon.