Age of Adepts

Greem lifted an eyebrow when he saw Adept Holly suddenly break into the room. There was no sense of desperation on his face. On the contrary, there was a genuine, heartfelt joy.

Adept Holly roared as his massive astral construct lunged at Greem with lightning speed, propelled by several beams of starlight. Meanwhile, Witch Shani stepped back and started making gestures in the air as she prepared large-scale dark magic.

However, as Adept Holly lunged forward, he suddenly turned in mid-air. His steel fist punched towards Shani’s chest, engulfed in blinding starlight.

This sudden and unexpected twist caught Shani entirely by surprise!

The sinister smile on her face had yet to fade and was instantly replaced by a look of horror and shock.

Usually, Dark Witches like herself specialized in Agility and Spirit. There was almost no chance they would ever be caught in an ambush by the enemy. Even a strike at close range could not be faster or more subtle than a single thought of hers to teleport away.

However, at this moment, she had been fully committed to her spell and could not break her concentration. Moreover, all the shadow substance in the hall had been sucked away by the Orb of Shadows. Trying to dodge this attack with Shadow Teleportation was impossible under such circumstances.

Shani almost went mad with anger.

She forcefully stopped the spell she was channeling and raised her body with her incredible Agility, without pausing to quell the magic backflow that had resulted from the cancelation of the spell. In doing so, the punch just barely missed her chest and crashed into her stomach instead.

The wild, ferocious force and that fearsome starlight power instantly turned into a single surge of energy that penetrated through her abdomen. The iron fist reached through her body, and a purple fountain of blood splattered everywhere.

Shani let out a cry of agony. Her entire body abruptly erupted into black mist, shooting to a corner of the hall where it reformed into her battered and broken body.

Shani stumbled backward when she reappeared. She clasped the gaping hole in her stomach with both hands, but the purple-black blood and flesh continued to ooze through her fingers, slowly dripping to the ground and forming a murky pool beneath her feet.

Of course, if it had just been an ordinary punch with only physical force behind it, Shani would still be able to fight despite the severe injury. She could quickly recover from severed limbs and missing body parts with the high-grade potions and equipment she had taken from Holly.

However, what truly threatened her was the endless starlight power contained within the punch.

Its unusual and wicked power was like countless needles stabbing into her body. It was quickly consuming her tendons, flesh, and organs. Affected by this starlight power, Shani had already lost control over her damaged body parts. She could not channel any energy through them either.

Shani coughed as she limped forward. A fountain of blood continued to pour from her mouth. She could feel her strength fade away from her rapidly.

“W…why? Are…are you not afraid that…I will activate the Seed of Darkness…in you?” It was a simple sentence, but Shani paused again and again, having to stop to cough up the blood in her throat.

Holly stood in his place, slowly pulling his fist back towards himself. His merry laughter rang out from the astral construct, mixed with the boundless hatred he now held for Shani.

“Of course, I am! Of course, I am afraid! But Sir Greem has already assured me that your Seed of Darkness will never be activated while he’s around. Hehehe, tell me, do I still need to be afraid of you when I have his word?”

“Bull…shit. The Orb of Shadows is the sacred origin treasure of us Dark Witches. Only we know how to control and use its powers. It hasn’t even been a month since that bastard got his hands on the Orb. He…” Blood spilled forth from both of Shani’s gaping ‘mouths.’ She had a vicious and ugly expression on her face, one of utter disbelief.

However, while she was screaming with all she had, a black, radiant halo descended from above. The halo was filled with a strange energy and enveloped the astral construct. It was shadow power.

“Dark Sanctuary.”

Shani’s screaming came to a halt as she repeatedly mumbled the name of this spell to herself.

With the protection of Dark Sanctuary, Shani would not be able to remotely control the Seed of Darkness in Adept Holly’s body at all. It was impossible to reestablish a connection with the Seed of Darkness without breaking this Dark Sanctuary.

It was not possible to isolate shadow power with elementium of any other attribute, but shadow power itself could achieve this feat!

As such, when the badly bruised Shani saw this seemingly flimsy halo of shadows, her entire mental state collapsed into despair.

Her stuff neck slowly turned towards the young fire adept who was smiling coldly and giddily at her with the Orb in his hand. Mockery was written all over his face, and disdain was deep in his eyes.

“Just a few unimpressive dark spells. It wasn’t so hard to learn them after all. Please, Lady Shani, do tell me if there is anything dissatisfactory about this Dark Sanctuary of mine!”

Shani’s face instantly flushed wide as endless anger appeared in her eyes.

Dark Sanctuary? An unimpressive spell? Damned bastard! Dark Sanctuary was a Fourth Grade support shadow spell. Even Shani herself couldn’t cast it with such ease and speed!

Was he really a fire adept with elementium specialization? How…how exactly did he do it?

The smile on Greem’s face did not fade in front of Shani’s furious gaze. Instead, his smile became even brighter and gentler.

Due to his fire specialization, he should not have been able to use any shadow spells!

However, ever since Greem obtained the Orb of Shadows, he had ordered the Chip to rapidly analyze the dozen shadow spells in its data library.

After all these years of wandering the World of Adepts, Greem had traveled to the Silver Union, the Northern Lands, and most provinces in Zhentarim. The Chip had a catalog of over four hundred spells of the various attributes in its library.

That said, due to his specialization, Greem had not been able to use any spells other than those of the fire attribute. These spells in the data library were mostly used as samples and reference for the modification and optimization of his own fire spells.

Now that he had the Orb of Shadows, it was as if he possessed an adept with endless shadow power subordinate to himself. Greem only had to have the Chip construct the models of shadow, then direct the Orb’s powers into these models, and he would be able to cast shadow spells.

During this spellcasting process, the Orb of Shadows acted as the source of power, while the Chip in his mind manipulated the power. Greem only had to watch the entire process from the sidelines.

It was the method he had invented to use the Orb of Shadows for himself!

However, Greem made sure to put on a show of casting the spell itself, so that no one could see what he was really doing.

At this moment, Greem was unusually mysterious in the eyes of Holly and Shani. He had achieved the impossible! He had managed to cast spells beyond his elementium attribute!

Shani’s heart was in despair at the current situation, while Adept Holly simply justified Greem’s abilities as part of his unusual elementium talents. None of them suspected anything.

Greem alone was difficult enough to deal with, now that he had the Orb of Shadows. With Holly joining the fray with a burning hatred for her, Shani immediately knew that her assassination was doomed. She prepared to escape once more without any hesitation.

Since she couldn’t use Shadow Teleportation, Shani’s entire body instead erupted into black mist and shot towards the only exit of the library.

As Shani escaped, she also used all the shadow power within her body to form black, solid shadow arrows and fired them at the other two adepts. She was hoping the barrage of arrows could delay them.

Adept Holly panicked at the sight of this. He endured the barrage of arrows and charged at the exit, attempting to intercept Shani before she could escape. Meanwhile, the legendary fire adept remained rooted in place without moving a single inch. There was only mockery on his face as he looked at the fleeing Shani.

Shani’s heart trembled when she picked up on the fire adept’s behavior. An ominous feeling arose in her heart.

Dammit, the fire adept must have prepared something for this scenario. What could it be?

Just then, Shani abruptly stopped in front of the wooden doors. The black mist gathered, and she materialized once more, but she did not take a single step forward.

There, with the light shining behind them, stood a towering and ferocious figure.

Shani’s heart sank into the abyss when she saw that unusually familiar figure and the aura she was all so acquainted with. It seemed so difficult for her frozen heart to beat even once.

“Mangus…Cherisha.”

Shani spat out these two names with difficulty. She finally knew what the legendary fire adept’s last trick was.

The cowardly two-headed siblings!

Even though Shani regarded the siblings with disdain, they were a proper Fourth Grade adept after their transformation. In an actual fight in her peak condition, Shani had confidence in defeating and killing these barely-Fourth Grade siblings in just five minutes.

But now…

Shani despaired, sensing the nearly empty supply of blood and shadow power within herself, and sensing Adept Holly, who was quickly approaching with all his might and power.

Unless the God of Adepts himself descended at this very moment, she could not possibly make it past Mangus and Cherisha before Adept Holly reached her.

A violent surge of power exploded before the wooden door once again!

Caught in a pincer attack between Holly and the siblings, Shani was finally crushed into black mist once again. However, this time, Greem waved the Orb of Shadows before she could escape elsewhere and rematerialize. A giant shadow hand wrapped around the mist and trapped it firmly.