Age of Adepts

The atmosphere instantly turned solemn and awkward with Lich Kanganas’ arrival.

Neither of them was a good person to begin with. The only reason the alliance had been formed was due to an agreement of interests. Now that the matter had settled, the deeper conflicts behind it finally surfaced.

Kanganas’ cold, chilling gaze slithered around Greem’s body, over and over, as if he was assessing how much he could trust Greem’s words while at the same time wondering if he should start another battle.

If Greem were just an ordinary Fourth Grade adept, Kanganas would have started the battle without any hesitation. After all, adepts had the best Physique among all spellcasters. They were the best candidates for making undead servants.

However, after the battle earlier, Kanganas had a basic understanding of Greem’s terrifying power. He was genuinely pondering if he should fight Greem.

Given his current equipment, power, and the lack of his undead army, taking down the fire adept would be somewhat difficult. The flames that the fire adepts controlled and used were very unusual. They contained many strange law powers, making it exceedingly difficult to deal with the fire.

If the other two adepts were to come over and help, they just might be able to turn the tables against him.

When that happened, it wouldn’t be a matter of whether Kanganas wanted to fight, but whether the three adepts were willing to let him leave!

The smile on Greem’s face was unchanging even as he silently sensed the powerful spiritual pressure emanating from the lich’s soulfire. However, the air around him had already started distorting slightly. Layers of translucent flames had spread across his entire body. All it would take was a single thought, and they would turn into a ferocious, violent tide of blazing flames.

During this moment of glaring tension, the lich took a step back and dispelled the overwhelming spiritual pressure he was unleashing.

“Let’s properly reacquaint ourselves, shall we?! I am Kanganas, a member of the Great Pan-Universe Alliance of Liches, intermediate Fourth Grade, now residing in the Skeletal Plane. Proficient in potion brewing and undead modifications.” Lich Kanganas bowed elegantly and introduced himself once again.

This action of his indicated very clearly that he now regarded Greem as a ‘client’ or ‘companion’ of equal status.

It was somewhat unexpected, but Greem returned the gesture with a smile.

“I am Greem, a new elder of the Zhentarim Association in the World of Adepts. Beginner Fourth Grade. I own a human kingdom known as the Crimson Dynasty, and I typically reside in my Fire Throne adept tower. As for what I’m proficient in…that would be golem creation and magical pattern carving!”

“Your power has won my respect. You have the qualifications to be my ‘friend’. Here is my contact. Perhaps we might have much-needed goods we could exchange with each other after this war is over. If you have any particularly excellent goods in your hands, I am confident that my treasury will be able to offer a satisfactory item in exchange!”

Having said that, the lich raised his right hand. The jade-white ring finger abruptly broke off and flew towards Greem under the guidance of an unknown power.

Greem still had a smile on his face. An unusual blue light flickered briefly in his black eyes, quickly scanning the fingerbone and making sure there were no offensive spells, curse spells, or magical traps contained within. It was only then that he grabbed the fingerbone with his hand.

[Beep. Detecting unusual spiritual brand. Energy aura matches that of the lich. It can be used for ultra-long-range spiritual communication. No unusual attachments.]

Greem toyed with the bone for a moment. After the Chip ensured that there were no hidden risks, he put it in his pouch and took out a fire crystal.

Greem’s finger started moving through the air, creating blazing fire runes that rapidly spun around the fire crystal. When all the runes were completed, they glowed with a bright red light. These fire runes had formed a three-dimensional fire array according to some profound principle and slowly entered the crystal.

“This is my contact. I look forward very much to the next time we meet!”

Lich Kanganas took the newly enchanted fire crystal, gave Greem a deep look, and finally turned to leave.

When the lich’s chilling aura vanished from his spiritual senses, Greem’s Spirit finally relaxed. He let out a long breath of air.

One had to admit; you had to be incredibly careful when dealing with these ancient relics. Even a slight moment of carelessness could land you in a horrible fate. They had only been talking for fifteen minutes, yet Greem already felt his Spirit on the verge of fatigue.

Not to mention, he had been fighting, running, and moving ceaselessly for the past two days and nights. That contributed to his lethargy as well. Even though his forty points of Spirit allowed him to go weeks without sleep, the fatigue to his Spirit would continue to accumulate and pile up.

He was likely to make a misjudgment or a mistake if he was put in a dangerous situation in his current condition. It was time to find a place to have some proper rest!

Greem sent out several messages.

A short moment later, Adept Holly and the two-headed siblings hurried over and met up with him.

The three adepts didn’t dare stay too long in the ruins of the floating city. They decided on a direction and hastily left the area.

…………

Morrian Plane’s sky had turned blood red.

The plane trembled, and the laws were in chaos.

Endless fires and fearsome spacestorms ravaged the land on every piece of ground below the vast skies that stretched on for millions and millions of kilometers. The closer the regions were to a floating city or a famous arcane tower, the more obvious the destruction and the more damaged the environment.

Nearly one-third of the floating cities in the plane had crashed to the ground as flaming fireballs. Another half had been invaded and brutalized by otherworldly invaders, their inhabitants slaughtered, leaving only floating wastelands drifting through the air.

Less than one-tenth of the citizens of these floating cities had survived the calamity.

Without the support of the system of arcane energy from the floating cities, the arcane fortresses outside the planar barrier stopped functioning as well.

The arcane war finally came to an end after a hundred and seventeen years. The Arcane Empire had been defeated!

With this, the homeland of the Arcane Empire, Morrian Plane, would be invaded by countless otherworldly races. These invaders would rush all over without end, brazenly slaughtering people and raiding for loot and slaves.

That included powerful individual beings like the disaster creatures, the starbeasts, various space creatures, and the elementium lords, as well as intelligent races such as the adepts, the underminers, the ironforged, and the shadow creatures.

The former had come to the plane for a feast. They had slaughtered without worry or care, just to taste fresh meat as well as collect some delicious planar origin substance along the way. The latter was more concerned with the knowledge and civilization of the Arcane Empire, as well as rare resources and materials that were harder to find outside of Morrian Plane.

The reason they were so audacious in their actions was that Morrian Plane had quickly begun falling apart over the past week.

With the Arcane Empire’s defeat, countless rifts of various sizes had been torn into the firm planar barrier of Morrian Plane by the invading forces. The vicious spacestorm outside the barrier had thus descended into the plane, disintegrating everything within into tiny, invisible particles and scattering them into every corner of the plane.

Greem and the other two adepts avoided the hotspots. They walked between tall mountains and deep valleys. It was apocalypse wherever they looked.

Large and small rifts could be seen in the sky. Some unusual creatures of unnatural size were crawling in through these rifts, flapping their wings and screeching as they charged all over the plane.

Greem and the other two adepts might have hidden themselves very well, but they failed to escape the unusual senses of these exotic creatures. They screeched as they dove down, trying to turn the adepts into their food.

Unfortunately, they came, and they stayed forever!

The three adepts each used their magic and brutally massacred these otherworldly creatures. It was only then that the monsters realized the terror of these beings. A short moment later, an otherworldly powerhouse appeared in front of the three adepts, riding on the back of a flying dragon.

“Adepts? It seems like you people are an assault party that snuck into the plane ahead of everyone else! You must have a lot of loot if you’ve been able to survive so long. Hurry up and hand over all your spoils. This way, I, the great Lord Valkbar, might just let you live. Otherwise……”

Greem looked at the sky and evaluated the enemy when he heard his arrogant words.

This ‘Lord Valkbar’ and his kind were strange humanoid creatures that resembled bone fiends. Their lower halves were fused as one with the dragons beneath them, while their upper halves were pale-white armor of bones. A series of hard bone spikes ran down their spines from the top of their heads. Each was a meter long, with wisps of black smoke trailing from the ends of the spikes. It seemed like these spikes had some sort of unusual power.

They had no nose and no ears, only a terrifying mouth and countless compound eyes all over their faces. Their four armored arms were slender, and each held glowing bone spears in their grasp.

“Do you know what race they are?” Greem asked in a soft voice.

Adept Holly and the siblings shook their heads.

Their efforts in the past had mostly been focused in their labs on magic research. They did not know much about the boundless galaxy and the innumerable foreign creatures living throughout it. As such, they couldn’t figure out the opponent’s race or combat abilities in this sudden encounter.

Lord Valkbar became furious when he saw his ‘prey’ whispering in front of him as if taking him as a non-existent threat. He waved his hand, and the flight of dragons dove at the three adepts.

A battle broke out just like that!