Age of Adepts

Shadow Demon silently snuck away.

By the time it left, Mary and her vampires already held the absolute advantage in battle.

Even though the vampires were suffering heavy losses as well, taking down the Feathered God would give Mary a chance at reaching Fourth Grade and also allow the several veterans at Second Grade to advance.

Thus, Shadow Demon silently left after accomplishing its objective, departing right at the eve of the major battle that was to come.

Some more attentive vampires might wonder why the Feathered God was badly injured even before their arrival. However, which vampire could keep calm and attempt to find the truth with all the blood being shed around them?

Shadow Demon was quickly weaving through the shadows like a fish in a vast ocean, free and unbound.

It managed to cross a thousand kilometers in half a day.

However, when it arrived at the singularity where it would retreat from Seawoods Plane, it suddenly stopped and went into hiding.

The bright sun shone in the sky.

A warm breeze caressed the trees.

The trees swayed in the wind like green waves, rustling as they did so.

A cluster of black smoke was present at the tiny singularity ahead. It was so conspicuous that it would be hard to ignore it.

It might look like ordinary smoke to an outsider, but that smoke represented an extreme danger to Shadow Demon and Greem.

The aura emanating from the smoke was very familiar.

Shadow Demon could even see the tall and slender finger at the heart of the coiling shadow substance.

As expected: play nice, and you would be bullied. Ever since they found out about the injury to Greem’s soul origin, these enemies had been sprouting out again and again.

Greem was resentful, but Shadow Demon still emerged from the shadow beneath a tree. It glared at the smoke before resentfully speaking, “I am very honored to see you here, respected Clan Leader Circe!”

The smoke did not scatter. Instead, it gathered together and formed a strange black armor around the body of the witch that had now appeared.

Blinding sunlight cascaded from above, shining on her shadow-clad body.

It didn’t matter how bright the sun was; her silhouette was still faint and obscure. Greem couldn’t clearly see her brows or her skin. All he could see was a slender profile.

“You’ve improved again!” Witch Circe sighed from the darkness. “It’s only been such a short while, yet your Spirit has increased again. It seems like we really have underestimated you! You…honestly, have the most talent of all the people I have ever met in my seven hundred years of being a Dark Witch!”

A smile appeared on Shadow Demon’s cold metal face. It looked around before its gaze returned to the Dark Witch.

“Clan Leader Circe, you snuck into this plane and intercepted me, just to make these comments? Where are your subordinates? Why don’t you have them come out as well.”

Circe’s laugh was cold and distant.

“Enough, legendary fire adept, Sir Greem. There’s no need to try and probe me. There is only you and I here today and not a single other Dark Witch!”

“Oh?” Shadow Demon’s eyes rolled around. Obviously, Greem’t didn’t fully believe her words.

“Who would’ve thought that you would run around with the Orb of Shadows even though you know it’s a sacred artifact that the Dark Witches are determined to retake. If you had just stayed quietly in your tower, we might not be able to do anything, but now…” Having said that, Circe extended her arms. Two shadow daggers slowly appeared in the air. “Hand over the Orb of Shadows, and I’ll let you go. Otherwise……”

Shadow Demon smiled. The blades on its claws clashed together and caused several sparks.

“Call out your subordinates, won’t you! Save us all some trouble.”

“As I said, there’s no need to probe any further! I am Circe, leader of the Dark Witches. I don’t need any help to fight against a Fourth Grade rookie like yourself!”

“Hehehe! You are worried that Alice will be able to sense it if you brought more people along, aren’t you?” Shadow Demon still had a teasing expression on its face. “You Dark Witches never change. Even though you’ve already signed an agreement with Alice, you still come here and cause trouble. Aren’t you worried that I will destroy this Orb of Shadows out of anger?”

“Hmph! The Orb of Shadows is a sacred shadow artifact. As long as the Shadow World exists, it will never be destroyed. Destroy it today, and it will reform in the Shadow World in less than a hundred years. Ignorant man.”

“Hehehe. I might be ignorant, but I know this. If the Orb of Shadows is to reform, do you think it will still fall into the hands of you Dark Witches? Without the Orb of Shadows, can your Shadow Expansion plan still proceed smoothly?”

Circe’s eyes glowed in the shadows.

“Good. Simply amazing. To think even an outsider like you knows so much about us Dark Witches! Today I’ll see if this shadow puppet of yours can escape my pursuit.”

Having said that, the two individuals vanished simultaneously, reappearing in another shadow a hundred meters away.

There were no battlecries or probing of each others’ abilities. There were only two vague silhouettes leaping from shadow to shadow, clashing with their blades and daggers as they attacked each other. Despite how often they were parrying each other’s attacks, there were no sounds from the clashing metal.

The same techniques and similar abilities were displayed as the two masters of darkness chased after each other in close quarters. An incredibly dangerous melee was unfolding.

The claws clashed continuously with the daggers.

Sinister, unusual shadow energy would disperse as quickly as it appeared. As the two fighters continued to unleash their abilities, more and more attacks began landing on their opponents, always inflicting some degree of damage in the process.

The greatest strength of shadow energy was its ability to ignore defense and its incredible corrosive power.

However, when both fighters were experts at using shadows, these advantages no longer existed. On the contrary, physical attacks were what inflicted the most damage now.

There was no doubt that Shadow Demon held the absolute advantage in this!

In the blink of an eye, the two of them had traded over a thousand strikes. They both realized how difficult of an opponent they were up against. They each leaped towards a different shadow, standing still as they stared coldly at each other.

Circe and Shadow Demon took full advantage of this breathing room. Shadow energy quickly gathered around them and healed their wounds.

Both of them were rulers of the shadows. They both had tremendous resistance against shadow damage.

Shadow Demon was also a magical machine, making it immune to some physical attacks. Its physical defense was incredibly formidable. It was also protected by the Orb of Shadows, rendering all shadow magic ineffective against it.

The fact that Circe could still be on equal standing against Shadow Demon despite these advantages was more than enough evidence of her own tremendous mastery over shadow magic.

Shadow Demon had been fighting by its instincts all along. Greem might have an abundant wealth of combat experience, but in this environment of shadows, where everything flickered by so fast without any sound, he could not see any of Circe’s movements at all. Naturally, he could not instruct Shadow Demon on how to fight within the shadows!

As they were thinking about their next step, Shadow Demon felt something unusual beneath it. It looked down, only to realize several strands of gray smoke were radiating from the shadow beneath it. They silently circled and wrapped around its legs like a rope.

Rope?

The thought had just entered Greem’s mind when the gray smoke turned solid and firmly bound Shadow Demon’s legs.

At the same time, Circe screeched, and five unusual runes glowing with purple and black light appeared behind her. As Circe raised her daggers, the five runes rushed into her weapons, causing them to glow with blinding light.

“Seal of Darkness: Annihilation!”

The three pieces of magical equipment on Circe’s body glowed at the same time, quickly projecting power onto her.

Circe’s face flushed white as her right hand vanished into thin air along with the dagger she was holding.

Naturally, with how bold Circe’s movements had been, Shadow Demon had noticed what she was doing.

However, by the time it drew upon the Orb of Shadows’ power to absorb the shadow energy of the ropes and turn them back into smoke, it was already too late!

A pair of daggers emerged from empty air and stabbed into Shadow Demon back. They sunk all the way to the hilt.

At the same time, surging shadow energy flooded into Shadow Demon’s body, exploding and producing a bloody hole the size of a fist.

There was no blood.

Shadow substance, as thick as black goo, flowed out from the gash, mixed with several glowing pieces of metal. Through the hole, one could see the fine mechanical gears and axles spinning in Shadow Demon’s body.

This severe damage caused the orderly gears to malfunction. They creaked as several components burst out of the hole.

What a terrifying attack.

This compound strike had at least 5000 points of power!

An attack of this intensity would be very likely to injure even a Fourth Grade dragon severely!

If it weren’t for Shadow Demon’s exceptional physical and shadow resistance, it would not have survived. An ordinary Fourth Grade adept would have died on the spot.

Even Greem felt cold sweat run down his face, despite only his consciousness being attached to Shadow Demon. He hastily ordered for Shadow Demon to retreat. Shadow Demon was very decisive in its escape. It hurled all the high-grade shadow magic it was capable of using at Circe in an instant before flickering away into the distance.

The Fourth Grade shadow assassin and the lightless dagger might not be able to do anything to the Dark Witch leader, but they could still stall her for a few seconds.

While Circe was busy defending herself, Shadow Demon flickered and escaped several kilometers away. It then fled towards the distance without turning back.