Age of Adepts

The previously merry and rowdy Blueberry Villa had fallen completely silent.

As the magical barrier rose around the compound, the human servants ran into the buildings to hide, panicking and pale. The adept guests at the banquet took to the skies and observed the giant lake from within the barrier.

A large ball of fire hovered in midair above the water’s surface, standing off against the black and white halos.

The two individuals moved quickly across the surface of the lake, the fire and the halos colliding and clashing.

Every clash sent tremors through the air that shook the very space itself. At least half of the surface of the lake was now burning with fire.

However, even the most ferocious and violent of the flames could not suppress the black and white halos’ existence. The flames would disperse, and the fires extinguished where the two halos shone. It didn’t matter what form the flames took. They were shredded to scattered sparks by the halos and fell down to the lake below, making it seem as if the water itself was burning.

As Olivia’s friends, families, and subordinates, all the adepts present were familiar with that pair of black and white halos. However, no one had seen that formless, shifting golden flame.

The few Third Grade adepts that hovered in the air couldn’t help but cast their gaze at a strange adept hiding underneath a thick, black cloak. They then looked towards the young handsome adept standing beside that person.

Toyn. He was Olivia’s most trusted subordinate among them all.

Toyn could feel the burning gazes from his companions. He couldn’t help but bitterly smile as he said, “I only know that Lady Olivia’s guest tonight is that legendary fire adept, Greem, from the central lands. As for why they are fighting now? I have absolutely no idea. Judging from how things are going, it’s only a friendly duel rather than a deathmatch!”

“Greem? I seem to have heard of this name before. It seems like he’s fairly well-known over in the Central Region!”

“Mm, I have heard of him as well. Hah! I even heard that this Adept Greem advanced to Fourth Grade in just two hundred years after he started learning magic. I can’t believe those fools from the central lands actually dared to come up with such a laughable lie for the sake of making themselves look better!”

“Truly! Truly! Those weaklings from the central lands! How could they possibly compare to Lady Olivia. Hmph!”

Everyone present here was an elite adept of the Association. They had far too many means by which to investigate and obtain information from the other regions. Unfortunately, the ineffectual rulership of Zhentarim in the past had left too deep an impression on them. That is why they refused to believe these legends of Greem when they heard them.

Billis lifted his head when he heard everyone’s cold, mocking words. He gazed coldly at everyone present from under the shadow of his hood.

There were seven Third Grade Association adepts.

Judging from the nearly imperceptible energy aura leaking from their bodies, only one or two of them made him wary. The rest of them were easy prey. If there were no rules to the fight, Billis had confidence in devouring all of them in single combat.

That was why he felt a genuine hatred and disgust for the arrogance that they showed in their each and every action. If this weren’t the enemy territory, he would want nothing more than to start a slaughter and allow these arrogant Association adepts to witness the ferocity of Central adepts.

The Association adepts did not seem to care about Billis’ cold attitude. They continued to talk amongst themselves and mock all they wanted.

Suddenly, a middle-aged adept reached out with his hand and cast a spell. “Three thousand points…the intensity of their shockwaves has reached three thousand points of power!”

“What? That’s impossible. If the shockwaves are at three thousand points, this place would have been razed already.”

“Perhaps they are able to restrain their powers…can you guys see? The shockwaves of their attacks aren’t even radiating out of the lake.”

The Third Grade adepts obviously couldn’t believe that a Central adept could hold his own against their master. Each of them hastily cast their own spells to examine the energy levels in the distance.

“Three thousand one hundred and sixteen points of power at the edges of the shockwave.”

“Four thousand five hundred points at the core of the explosions.”

“I estimate the energy level at the moment of collision to be over five thousand seven hundred points.”

The adepts couldn’t help but break out in cold sweat as the numbers appeared before them. For the first time, they felt like this magical barrier around them was too thin and fragile.

Even though it seemed like both individuals in the fight were restraining their power and preventing the shockwaves from emanating beyond the lake, who knew what could happen? Who could maintain such precise control during such an intense and ferocious battle!

If either of them got too excited and failed to rein in their powers, it would be no more than a wave of their hands to destroy Blueberry Villa.

All the Third Grade adepts immediately started applying magical defenses to themselves without any hesitation.

Even Adept Toyn, who was in charge of Blueberry Villa, slowly turned the snake-eye ring on his little finger. He quickly gave instructions to the Second Grade adepts watching from below them to evacuate everyone.

Seeing how nervous the Third Grade adepts were, the other low-grade adepts immediately realized the danger of the situation. They retreated into the building and activated all the defensive arrays before finally being able to relax.

…………

The battle above the lake was still as dangerous and vicious as ever.

The two of them had gotten slightly too into the fight and were even starting to use some of their hidden aces.

Greem turned into a shapeless cluster of flames, continually circling around Olivia and attacking her with searing fireballs and devastating pillars of fire. A thousand meters away, a powerful centaur formed of black mist fought against Shadow Demon, who was flickering in and out of the shadows.

Meanwhile, Olivia was now surrounded by multiple black and white halos. They were of various sizes and thicknesses. Even their gravity effects switched and changed regularly in the blink of an eye.

Under her fine, minute control, the gravity halos could attract or repel at a moment’s thought. These traits could switch a dozen times in less than a second. Meanwhile, anything that got caught by her halos would be crushed, stretched, twisted, and deformed beyond recognition by the rapidly changing magnetic forces.

Naturally, there was no way Greem’s flesh body could have survived such devastating damage!

After experiencing the terrifying effects of turbulent gravity, Greem turned himself into flames and protected himself with the golden flames from the Heart of Principles.

As expected, once the fire laws protected him, Olivia’s gravity halos could not affect him directly anymore.

The battle between the two of them quickly turned into a clash of laws!

Olivia’s gravity laws were clearly superior to Greem’s fire laws. However, Greem had a far better mastery of his own laws.

Increased Fire Range, Increased Fire Effectiveness, Fire Penetration, Invisible Flames, Critical Fires, Fire’s Fragility, and Fire’s Resilience; Greem repeatedly switched between the seven fire laws. Every one of his attacks tested Olivia with a new law to deal with.

By the time Olivia started to get used to the frequency and effects of his different attacks, Greem began to use different combinations of his fire laws, imbuing his spells with wondrous might and power.

In all honesty, this was the first time in her life that Olivia felt genuine hatred and disgust for fire as an elementium!

With Fire Penetration, the elementium resistance that Olivia had always been so proud of was utterly useless. With Critical Fires, even the smallest spark of flame could inflict devastating damage to her. She had to constantly monitor every change in elementium around her for Invisible Flames. With Fire’s Fragility, trading hits with Greem became no more than a joke. With Fire’s Resilience, any fire that managed to catch onto her became unbelievably challenging to extinguish.

After realizing the might of Greem’s fire laws, Olivia finally put away the arrogance in her heart. She started to treat her opponent as an equal and quickly threw out her first hidden ace.

A centaur spirit that existed as both immaterial and material!

This Fourth Grade centaur spirit could freely shift between a material form and an ethereal form. It could dodge physical attacks from the enemy with its ethereal form before switching to its material form and stunning the enemy with a War Stomp. It could then expand on that opportunity and unleash a vicious flurry of attacks.

If Greem had not been prepared, Olivia and her myriad of techniques–combined with the barbaric centaur spirit–might have been able to knock him out of the sky.

Fortunately, just as Olivia had assistance, Greem also had an ally at hand!

Shadow Demon flickered out of his shadow, instantly fending off the centaur spirit’s attacks. The two summoned creatures then commenced charging all over the battlefield, constantly flickering as they struggled to decide a victor.

Seeing as his opponent had started using summoned creatures, Greem did not hesitate to do so as well. He tossed out a Fourth Grade golem core, instantly summoning a Fourth Grade Molten Giant standing at over thirteen meters tall.

The Molten Giant might only be a beginner Fourth Grade, but when its towering form crashed into the lake, it was still tall enough to attack Olivia with the upper half of its body. When the lakewater clashed with the Molten Giant’s violent flames, the entire lake started to bubble and boil.

The many aquatic creatures that lived in the lake now met with calamity. One by one, they were cooked alive. Their bodies floated to the surface and were reduced to cinders by Greem’s terrifying Burning Domain.

Olivia, who had been freely soaring across the air with her gravity halos, was wincing in pain from the endless barrage of fire spells. The gravity halos encircling her might be able to block all of the attacks, but the sparks from the shattered spells still caused her tremendous pain when they touched her.

Enraged, Olivia extended both hands, and countless gravity halos surged forward. The immobile Molten Giant was instantly riddled with holes. Its Lava Shields and Inferno Shields couldn’t have defended against those gravity halos.

Where the halos traveled, fire elementium was shredded to sparks by the turbulent gravity, leaving massive holes in the Molten Giant’s body.

This beginner Fourth Grade Molten Giant crumbled after just five minutes in battle, proudly sacrificing itself in the line of battle!