Age of Adepts

Fire Throne.

Since returning from Morrian Plane, Greem had spent his time hiding in his tower, other than that one trip to space.

His soul was now damaged and crippled. It was the best time for enemies who wished to take vengeance on him!

Greem would never take a single step out of the tower if he could. He would never give his enemies the chance to lay traps or assassinate him.

Unfortunately, though the tree wishes to rest in silence, the storm never stops!

On the seventh day after Greem obtained Shadow Demon, a faraway guest shattered the quiet of Fire Throne, forcing Greem to emerge from his laboratory and meet them on the second level of the tower.

The first person that Greem saw upon entering the meeting hall was the familiar Vice-Chairman Mirva.

It had been a while since they last met. This sly and cunning Vice-Chairman appeared older and frailer than before. It was almost as if Greem could see the signs of aging on his body now.

That was not a common occurrence!

At the level of Fourth Grades, there were all sorts of spells and magic that allowed one to revert to their youthful forms. If the spells didn’t work, one could simply use physical modifications to fix their appearance and figure at their peak condition of beauty and style.

It was only when a Fourth Grade adept reached the ends of their life and when their magic power and Spirit began to shrivel that these uncontrollable signs of aging would emerge.

Greem had a feeling that Vice-Chairman Mirva would not be able to live more than a hundred more years!

Greem’s gaze lingered momentarily on Mirva before shifting to the other Fourth Grade adept.

He could sense that this unfamiliar Fourth Grade adept was the real guest here today. Mirva was only here to accompany him.

“Welcome, welcome. It’s rare that Vice-Chairman Mirva is willing to visit my humble abode. I am incredibly honored by this visit!” Greem greeted Mirva with a big smile on his face and naturally directed the flow of conversation towards the other adept. “I don’t believe I know you. May I know your name?”

This foreign adept clearly didn’t belong to the Zhentarim Association. He wore a purple robe and had a kindly, composed face. He looked like a middle-aged man and wore the unique emblem of the Adept’s Association on his chest.

The Adept’s Association. Greem’s eyes narrowed. He roughly knew what the man was here for today!

“You must be the famous legendary fire adept, Sir Greem! Just as everybody says, you’re young, capable, and talented. I am Beluni from the Adept’s Association. I came here today because I have some questions that I need to ask you!” A gentle smile appeared on Beluni’s face, but the sharp glint that inadvertently shone in his eyes revealed that he was not a pushover at all.

“Since the two of you have something to talk about, I won’t be staying here much longer!” Mirva was an old fox. Even though he was the one who accompanied Beluni over here, he didn’t want to be involved at all. He said his farewells to the two adepts and turned to leave.

When Greem and Beluni were the only ones left in the room, Beluni spoke once again.

“Sir Greem, I’ve heard that Adept Mangus of our Association was a companion of yours in Morrian Plane and that the two of you returned together. Is this true?”

“Indeed!”

“Which is to say, Adept Mangus was alive before teleporting back from space, yet he abruptly died during the teleportation process. Moreover, his death is related to you!” Beluni continued to ask with a smile, but a sharp edge could be seen gleaming between his words now.

“He self-destructed, and his purpose in self-destructing was to kill me. I believe you should have been able to figure this out from your investigations with the other returning adepts.” Greem calmly replied.

“Of course, we have done our investigations, and the results are as you say. Judging by the situation, it is certain that Adept Mangus was the one to initiate the attack. No one can entirely blame you for his actions. However, what we are more interested in…is why he did it? Did he have a grudge against you, or did he do it because someone controlled his mind? This is the focus of our investigations currently!”

“You must have had some results if you’ve already investigated for so long! You can’t possibly suspect that I charmed Mangus into almost killing me, do you?”

“Of course we don’t suspect you, Sir Greem. However, we must find the true killer behind the scenes. Adept Mangus might not be all that impressive when it comes to fighting power or connections, but he was a high-grade adept officially registered with the Adept’s Association. It doesn’t matter who killed him and how. We of the Adept’s Association have the responsibility to investigate the cause and exact punishment!”

“The mastermind in the shadows can freely take control of a Fourth Grade adept. They must certainly be one of those ancient relics enjoying their time in the realms beyond. Are you sure you have the ability to exact punishment against someone like that?” Greem narrowed his eyes, not a smile on his face. His tone was solemn and stern.

“That’s not something for you to worry about!” Adept Beluni had a ‘sincere’ smile on his face. “After all, it’s not like we of the Adept’s Association aren’t backed by Great Adepts of our own. We can manage anything that happens in the World of Adepts and anything that happens outside. We only need to report to our superiors, and people of the corresponding caliber will attend to the task. I only need a name to verify the results of our investigations. I am sure that Sir Greem wouldn’t mind naming the person who wished to kill you, would you?”

Greem gave it a long thought before finally squeezing out that hated name from between his teeth.

“Maysa!”

Greem was naturally more than happy to deal with Great Witch Maysa with the power of the Adept’s Association. However, this would introduce a significant variable in the conflict between Alice and Maysa. Even Greem couldn’t tell if this would negatively impact Alice in the long run.

The battle between the Fate Witches was too strange and unusual!

Great Witch Maysa had an overwhelming advantage over Alice in every aspect.

However, in all of their previous conflicts in the past, Great Witch Maysa had made mistakes. There were all sorts of loopholes and flaws in her death traps, uncharacteristic of her status and power as a Great Witch.

The reason all this happened was due to her brazen interference and intervention in the flow of the river of Fate. The stronger she was, the more she intervened with Fate, and the more severe the Fate backlash she would incite.

Without Alice’s existence, Great Witch Maysa’s control over Fate would not be so severely affected. However, for the sake of keeping Maysa in check, the planar consciousness of the World of Adepts was biased towards Alice in this battle of Fate.

Whenever these two powerful witches versed in the flow of the river of Fate fought, the trajectory of the future would be thrown into utter chaos.

In general, Great Witch Maysa was more powerful and had thousands of years of perspective and planning, giving her the crushing advantage in most situations. However, even though Alice lacked the ability to make broad arrangements in Fate, she could still disrupt Maysa’s plans and cause destruction.

Even a gigantic metal golem could malfunction due to a tiny pebble stuck in its core components. Alice was just like that. She might not have the power to challenge Maysa over the control of the river of Fate, but she could still create tiny destructions here and there. She could cause Maysa’s plans and constructions to collapse completely due to small, insignificant ‘accidents.’

She was more than capable of that!

That was how Alice had managed to survive at the hands of Great Witch Maysa, despite the numerous schemes targeted at her.

However, this was a double-edged sword!

Alice’s own intervention in Fate had caused her assistants and allies to suffer a decent backlash from the plane as well.

The reason Alice spent most of her time in the Tower of Fate and isolating herself from the rest of the world was to avoid the Fate backlash from involving her friends and family.

In all honesty, anyone who had bad luck in life would probably die an ugly death if they became too closely associated with Alice! Greem had made many enemies over the years and had been involved in one massive war after another, often thrown into a trial of life and death every few years.

That was the fundamental reason for all of this!

Fate was unpredictable.

Fate was capricious.

It was precisely because of how unpredictable Fate was that Greem hesitated in revealing Maysa’s name to the Association adept.

“So, it is her.” Adept Beluni wasn’t surprised to hear Maysa’s name. After exchanging a few more words with Greem, he got up and left.

Once Beluni had departed from Fire Throne, Greem remained in the room for a short moment before returning to the upper levels of the tower.

The experiment was very successful!

Neither the sly and cunning Mirva nor Beluni from the Adept’s Association had discovered Shadow Demon’s existence. Of course, this also had to do with the fact that they were in Greem’s private tower and were intentionally avoiding the use of their Spirit to sense their surroundings.

However, the fact that the Shadow Demon possessed such outstanding stealth already made Greem overjoyed!

After returning to his laboratory, Greem communicated with Gargamel mentally and received more good news.

The Crimson Clan had signed a trade agreement with Molten Fire City. From now on, the Crimson Clan would be able to use dragon blood, dragon bones, dragon crystals, and other high-grade resources to trade for the Queyras alloy produced by Molten Fire City.

Given the amount agreed upon in the negotiations, Greem estimated that they could construct one magic generator furnace every two months from now on. That also meant that the Crimson Clan would gain a new mothership every two months.

It was incredibly significant for the expansion of the Crimson Clan’s power and influence!

However, just as Greem concluded his communications with Gargamel, the spirit of the tower sent him a warning about an intruder.

A strange ‘bug’ had entered his tower and was looking for something in the lower levels.