Age of Adepts

“But I’m still bound by an Oath Contract. If……”

Adept Holly was still hesitating.

After all the difficulties he had been through, Holly had finally realized the terrifying might of that legendary fire adept. In all honesty, if it weren’t for his life being in the hands of another, he would never want to make an enemy out of Greem.

Before Adept Holly could finish speaking, he abruptly bent over and started coughing violently. A fountain of purple and black blood came spewing forth from his mouth. The blood appeared to be thick and viscous when it hit the floor, almost as if there were a large number of broken organ pieces and tissues mixed within.

His adept’s robe swayed as he convulsed, revealing his shockingly tattered body covered in wounds.

The werewolf and the foxgirl had left him with injuries that could not be healed in a short amount of time. Now that he was also beholden to Shani’s power, his condition was incredibly weak and pathetic.

Sadly, his life or death did not seem to be a concern of Dark Witch Shani.

Shani furiously argued when she heard Adept Holly’s mumbling. “Holly, you are a Fourth Grade adept that advanced a hundred years ago. Are you really unable to survive a little backlash from an Oath Contract? Here you go; with this Life Talisman, you won’t have to worry about the Oath Contract any longer!”

Shani took out a cross-shaped copper figure and tossed it to Holly.

Holly quickly caught the figure and carefully put in on his neck, close against his chest.

After being taken captive by Shani, his storage ring had also fallen into her hands. Most of the magical equipment he carried with him also, naturally, became her spoils. Shani also managed to arm herself once again by robbing Holly.

Though their attributes were not compatible, they would have to do. Shani had absolutely no possessions to her name, after all. Naturally, she had no right to be picky.

A few simple modifications to make the equipment barely functional would do!

In fact, the Life Talisman that Shani had passed to him was Holly’s talisman, to begin with. She had simply returned it to its ‘rightful owner.’

“Let’s go! That Greem seems to be busy with something right now. It’s the perfect time for us to strike in unison. I will strike first, and you will follow up with all you have. Tear him a nasty one. If everything works out well, I will return your freedom to you! If you still have this attitude when the fighting starts…hmph! You know how it will end for you!”

Adept Holly became dejected when he heard Shani’s threat.

His condition was already as terrible as it could be. The combination of external and internal wounds was on the brink of causing his body to fall apart. If it weren’t for all the magical potions he had consumed and all the magical equipment he was using, he would likely already be dead.

His body was like a rundown hut; it was barely standing. If the Seed of Darkness that Shani implanted in his body started causing problems again, it would be lethal for him. As reluctant as he was, Holly’s only choice was to obey Shani’s instructions.

…………

Inside the library.

Greem quickly broke through one arcane array after another, putting multiple arcane tomes into his Elder’s Ring.

While he eagerly collected the books, the Fire Eyes he had set up outside ahead of time seemed to have picked up something unusual. Several moving images were projected into Greem’s mind.

Holly and Shani.

It seemed like they had come for him after all.

A trace of killing intent appeared on Greem’s face when he saw the newly revived Dark Witch Shani.

Her foolishness and stubbornness had clearly angered him deeply.

This time, if he had the opportunity, he would not let Shani’s soul return to the soul energy pool again.

Greem didn’t know when it had happened, but the vast library had suddenly turned dim.

Several black vortices abruptly appeared in various corners of the library, slowly roaming.

Where they went, it was as if the light itself was sucked away, causing the space to turn darker and dimmer.

The arcane crystals embedded in the hall had initially been projecting bright and gentle light that illuminated the entire library. However, all of these crystals had turned lightless as the black vortices wrapped around them.

Greem had barely gone through one-hundredth of the entire library. He looked at the remaining tomes and frowned. In the end, he gave up on them all. It was such a shame.

The enemy had already arrived. The searching for loot had to stop.

In a while, this place would become a battlefield for multiple Fourth Grade adepts. Not many tomes would be able to survive the carnage!

Greem’s hatred for Shani grew exponentially at the thought of this.

In just a dozen seconds, the once bright library had turned completely dark, filled with a strange, thick shadow substance.

This strange substance pressed against Greem from every direction, lashing wildly like tens of thousands of monsters and ghosts.

“Hmph! Show yourself if you’ve come! What’s the point in all these theatrics?”

Greem let out a snort and lifted his right hand. A cluster of blindingly bright golden flames slowly rose from his palm, illuminating a few dozen meters around him.

When it entered his area, the shadow substance let out a strange sizzling sound resembling that of a fish dropped into boiling oil. Screeching could be heard from the shadows as the material quickly retreated beyond the reach of the golden fire’s light.

Judging from the behavior of the substance, these were many individual lifeforms!

Perhaps sensing that Greem had already prepared himself for combat, Dark Witch Shani simply chose to reveal her tall and slender body at the edge of the light. Her dark, black eyes stared unflinchingly at Greem, indescribable hatred contained within them.

“Good…simply too good. I truly never expected that a rookie that only advanced twenty to thirty years ago could beat me so badly. Me, Dark Witch Shani! You are very good. Today, I will wash away the hatred between us with your blood!”

Her voice landed, and all the shadows in the library went berserk.

Countless shadow arrows appeared out of thin air and shot towards Greem like heavy rain.

The golden fire floating above Greem’s palm released a blinding halo of light that burned away all the shadow arrows. However, there was still far too little power of laws contained within that small flame. It could not fend off a shadow assault of such magnitude.

The shadow arrows that exploded on contact with the light turned into black ink, quickly eroding the bright dome and forcing it to retract. The shadow arrows that managed to penetrate deeper almost came into contact with Greem’s defensive forcefield.

Greem did not panic at all in the face of this overwhelming offense.

He casually waved his hand and cast out several waves of fire that burned the shadows around him to a crisp. He then took out an unusual black stone.

Strangely enough, as the black stone appeared, all the shadow substance in the hall abruptly halted. All the shadow arrows exploded out of nowhere, reduced to chaotic, unordered shadow substance.

“The Orb of Shadows. You…how could you possibly be able to control the power of the Orb of Shadows?”

Dark Witch Shani couldn’t help but scream out in surprise when she saw the scene before her and felt the shadow powers break free of her authority.

To her understanding, a dark sacred relic like the Orb of Shadows would only obey the will of the Dark Witches. An outsider could not possibly control it.

Unfortunately, she did not know, nor could she understand, the power of the Chip in Greem’s mind.

It didn’t matter what power or attribute an item possessed. The Chip would always find a way to manipulate and use it!

Power was power. There was no elementium power in the world that belonged solely to an individual or a group.

Except for divine power, of course.

With the assistance of the Chip, Greem could use the Orb of Shadows for himself. Though he couldn’t use it as proficiently or as easily as the Dark Witches, merely controlling the power inside was still well within his ability.

Greem didn’t have to do anything against Shani’s attacks. All he had to do was use the Orb of Shadows to dispel Shani’s control over the surrounding shadows. With a single order from Greem, all of the shadow substance in the library surged towards the Orb of Shadows, like birds returned to their nest. The library once again returned to its normal state.

Cutting the river at its source.

Without the endless shadow substance, Dark Witch Shani was like a fish stranded on the shore. Not only did she lose the cover by which she could hide herself, but she also could not even cast most of her spells.

Dark Witches were an unusual occupation that was somewhere in-between a caster and an assassin. Now that Shani had been forced out of her shadows, she was far less dangerous and far less of a threat.

Shani let out a scream as thick black smoke appeared around her once again, attempting to engulf her figure.

Unfortunately, Greem simply lifted the Orb of Shadows and waved it at her. The black smoke was instantly sucked away, leaving Shani exposed once more while she was trying to escape.

“Bastard…you ought to die!”

Shani screamed wildly, but she could only rely on the shadow substance within her to summon a Fourth Grade shadow dragon and commanded it to attack Greem with all it had.

Unfortunately, even though shadow dragons had Physique and Strength that could rival ordinary dragons, there was simply too much shadow substance within their bodies. As long as there was shadow substance, the dragon could not escape the control and restrictions of the Orb of Shadows.

Greem stood proudly with the Orb in his hands.

Before the shadow dragon could reach him, the shadow powers from the Orb had already bound the dragon and restrained it entirely. Deep-black shadow powers stretched across the dragon’s body, turning into solid black chains and keeping it immobilized.

“Holly, if you don’t strike now, I will activate the Seed of Darkness!”

With the Orb of Shadows in Greem’s hands, none of Shani’s attacks were effective against Greem. As such, she could only resentfully cast all her hopes on Adept Holly.

As she shouted, the doors to the library split apart with a loud thud. A three-meter-tall giant humanoid in strange silver armor charged into the room.