Age of Adepts

A massive arcane tower was flying through the skies!

It was something unimaginable in the World of Adepts.

A standard small adept’s tower typically had five to seven surface levels and two basement levels. Every level was around eight meters tall. When necessary, they could even be expanded up to twenty-five meters tall.

Adept’s towers were forged of unique stone materials that were further reinforced with magical runes. Mithril, platinum, magical gemstones, and other adept resources were used in many core areas. In addition to the necessary magical golems and facilities, an adept’s tower easily weighed over four hundred tons.

To lift such a heavy and massive object into the air and allow it to move and fly around freely was unimaginably difficult. Just the thought of such a colossal task would leave one speechless.

However, such a miracle was presenting itself before Greem and the other adepts. They had no choice but to believe that this was reality.

The arcane tower currently flying in the skies was visibly different in appearance to the last one they had conquered.

There was a broad, flat stone base, the silver body of the tower that slowly rose from the bottom, and the glowing arcane rings that surrounded the tower itself. It was obviously a small security tower specialized for aerial combat.

Unlike an ordinary arcane tower, this security tower was devoid of most living and research facilities. Instead, a tremendous amount of lightning towers, flame towers, storm towers, and tidal towers had been added within. These strange elementium towers, one-meter in diameter and five meters in height, were scattered all over the security tower.

Whenever the arcane rings rose from the bottom of the tower to the very top, a blinding radiance would radiate from these elementium towers.

The security tower had been hovering above a quiet and unpopulated valley. It used its strange lightwaves to scan the land below when it detected a weak magical fluctuation in the forest five kilometers away.

Like a hound that had smelled blood, light shimmered on the tower’s wall. It quickly flew to the location of the signal, leaving behind a trail of light.

The arcanist in the second level of the security tower in charge of scanning activated the arcane crystal with experienced movements. He began to search for the source of the abnormal flux.

He subconsciously believed the magical flux to be an aftershock from a fight between magical creatures. However, the moment he activated the arcane crystal, a crimson spot of light abruptly appeared in the air, taking up all of his vision.

“Enemy assault.”

The arcanist’s panicked roar instantly rang out throughout the security tower. In the next second, the arcane barrier around the security tower thickened by over three times.

The tower’s defense had just been adjusted to the highest level when a colossal metallic figure crashed into the barrier.

A deep, muffled boom rang out.

The security tower trembled violently and spun as it fell backward through the air.

A human-shaped dent appeared on the five-meter-thick arcane barrier. Cracks could be seen at the bottom of that dent. Pieces of arcane light peeled off from the barrier, scattering into the air and slowly dissipating away.

The astral construct in which Holly was hiding was also quickly falling backward. He had been stunned by that reckless charge from earlier as well, and stars were flying in front of his eyes.

While the security tower and the metallic golem were knocked away from each other on impact, the small elementium towers on the surface of the security tower started charging up magical energy for the four elements.

The next second, countless lightning bolts, swerving fireballs, giant boulders, and clusters of frost enveloped the astral construct even as it continued to spin wildly across the sky. These elementium attacks turned into a torrent of arcane magic, repeatedly assaulting every part of the construct’s body.

The astral construct that Adept Holly was piloting was also rapidly melting away from the attacks.

It was a primary characteristic of the arcanists’ attacks!

They did not like to chant spells as the adepts did, nor use powerful high-grade magic to overwhelm and kill the enemy. Instead, they preferred to compound a large number of weaker, smaller spells to penetrate the opponent’s defense.

It wasn’t a particularly fancy method of attack, but it was just as terrifying!

After all, there were over a hundred elementium towers scattered all over the security tower. The arcane torrent formed from the combined might of all these elementium towers was definitely not something an ordinary person could hope to survive.

Adept Holly was slightly surprised at this. He started to move and dodge in the air rapidly, all while mentally requesting help from Greem.

Holly raised his hands, and beams of starlight fell from the sky, quickly assimilating with the astral construct. The astral construct that had been somewhat worn down by the attacks thickened once again.

Meanwhile, the security tower had just stabilized itself and was about to turn around to pursue the astral construct. A loud explosion rang out as a series of Blazing Fireballs erupted against the security tower.

The vicious flame shockwaves knocked the security tower around, making it difficult for the tower to stabilize itself. Seven or eight arcane guards that had been circling the security tower were caught in the sea of flames. They were blown to countless tiny pieces and fell from the skies as a rain of broken parts.

“Enemy assault…enemy assault. Discovered second target!”

The tower spirit of the security tower quickly locked onto the new opponent, revealing the two enemies to the arcanists of the tower.

No one knew when, but a gigantic flame giant had appeared in the forest below.

It was this giant that had flung a series of fireballs and bombarded the security tower while it was trying to pursue the other enemy.

“Dammit! Just as we expected! Those adepts are here. Hurry up and contact Security Towers 27 and 35 to hurry over!” The Fourth Ring arcanist stationed in Security Tower 22 started shouting upon seeing the two fearsome adepts appear one after another.

“We have sent the message. The security towers are on the way. Estimated time until arrival is 127 nasos.”

Naso was a unit of time in the Arcane Empire that translated to approximately thirty-two minutes!

A trace of joy finally appeared on the face of the Fourth Ring arcanist when he heard his subordinate’s reply.

The enemy might be powerful, but the sturdy security tower protected them. They should have no problem defending for 127 nasos. As such, the Fourth Ring arcanist’s concern wasn’t whether the security tower could hold out, but whether they could keep the enemy occupied here until their companions arrived.

The Fourth Ring arcanist quickly looked at the two adepts that had appeared and chose the fire giant as their target without any hesitation.

That astral construct could summon starlight to repair its damage. An enemy like that could not be defeated quickly. Meanwhile, the fire giant was over a dozen meters tall. Even the tall, ancient trees only reached its waist while it stood in the forest.

However, the Fourth Ring arcanist felt no fear of this massive creature.

Elementiumized body, gigantified body. These were not techniques unique to the adepts. Almost every single high-grade caster could master such abilities. That said, very rarely did people use these abilities in battles against enemies of the same level.

There was a simple reason for that. A gigantified body might seem majestic and domineering, but without a large amount of elementium energy to sustain that form, it was no more than cotton candy. A few attacks would break the body, making it a wholly unintimidating paper tiger.

Moreover, one’s defense would also be stretched thin due to the massive increase in size. There would be weaknesses and gaps all over the place.

Gigantification might be incredibly effective when used to crush weaker planar natives, but it was little more than arrogance against a Fourth Ring arcanist protected by a security tower!

The Fourth Ring arcanist instantly assumed the opponent to be an inexperienced rookie. He smiled wickedly and drove the security tower straight at the flame giant. Meanwhile, the arcane guards around the tower swarmed at the astral construct in an attempt to stall it.

The Fourth Ring arcanist intended to defeat the adepts one by one, starting from the weakest first!

Greem stood tall above the forest.

Blazing fire shrouded his massive body, and rivers of flames coiled around him. Every tree within a kilometer of himself had ignited the moment he appeared, and the fire quickly spread outwards.

Fire burning upon flames, flames growing upon fire!

Every substance within sight was quickly ignited.

A strange Heart of Principles beat fiercely and rhythmically inside the fire giant’s thick and firm chest. A golden fire of surprising heat would spew forth every time it pumped, and tiny golden vortices of flame would be left behind in core locations all over the giant’s body where the golden fire spread.

These golden flame vortices were like miniature elementium portals. They directly connected to the Fire Elementium Plane and drew an endless supply of fire energy from there to replenish the consumed energy. There were over a hundred of these elementium channels simultaneously refreshing Greem’s body with fire energy. It left him with no possibility of ever running out!

A very human smile appeared on Greem’s fiery face as he looked at the approaching tower. He lifted his left hand, creating a massive Lava Shield over it. He then raised his right hand, causing the fire coral staff to manifest in his grasp.

The first was naturally a magical creation, while the latter was magical equipment that had been converted into an energy form: half material and half ethereal.

It was a new way of using magical equipment that Greem had recently discovered.

After all, most magical equipment was crafted with an adept’s human form in mind. Upon elementiumization and gigantification, the original staff would become as tiny as a beanstalk. Even pinching it with his fingers would be difficult.

However, if he placed the magical equipment inside his gigantified elementium body and supplied it with a constant amount of fire energy, he could materialize energy equipment of the right proportion, with all its original traits.

As Greem’s Heart of Principles operated at full capacity, the Fire Throne Set and Sodden’s Holy Ring also started to appear on his colossal body.

Greem looked at the approaching tower and chuckled. He lifted his staff, and a massive meteor crashed down from the skies, swerving unnaturally towards the enemy.