Age of Adepts

“Chairman Freed, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Greem stood forward and smiled gently at the opponent.

“Sir, what is your purpose here today? Is it to mediate? Or is it to help Adept Kerala in this war against us?”

A stern expression appeared on Freed’s face when he heard Greem’s mocking question.

“Greem, don’t you forget. Your advancement to Fourth Grade was only possible due to the efforts of everyone present here. Since you’ve asked, I will give you a proper answer. As long as you guarantee that the Crimson Clan will not take over any region apart from Ailovis and Arash from now, I will convince Adept Kerala to pull out of your territory. The association will also compensate for any losses the Crimson Clan has suffered thus far!”

“What about it? Those are very generous conditions! All you have to do is agree to these terms, and the war will end. Everything will go back to normal, and you will still rule over the two wealthiest pieces of land in the Central Lands. These are the best terms we can offer you!”

Greem fell silent for a second when he heard Chairman Freed’s conditions for a truce. He then burst out in laughter.

Freed’s expression was first one of confusion when he heard Greem laugh so brazenly. His face then turned dark as he shouted, “Greem, I hope you don’t walk down the wrong path! There are seven Fourth Grades here on our side. You only have three. Even if we count that metal golem, that’s only four Fourth Grades. Are you that confident…that confident in obtaining the final victory?”

Greem finally shed his smile and looked at Freed as he said calmly, “Chairman Freed, if you were firmer in your attitude earlier and refused to offer any compromise to us, I might have retained a shred of respect for you. Things have already reached this stage, yet you are still dreaming of a peaceful reconciliation? No wonder the Zhentarim Association remains a hollow shell even after so many years of management. You…are not fit to lead the Central Lands!”

“You…” It was the first time in his life that Freed had been insulted and humiliated in this fashion to his face. His face turned the color of a pig’s liver as veins appeared on his forehead. His expression twisted into a vicious snarl, “Good, very impressive. Well then! Let me see just how capable you are today!”

Freed was an old man who was well-versed in the ways of the world, after all. Even as furious and upset as he was, he resisted the impulse to storm forward and start the fight immediately. Instead, he returned and stood behind Adept Kerala, seemingly subordinate to the Dener Clan in this war.

“If it’s a war you want, then let there be war! Save the words and our time!” Mary could no longer suppress the boiling passion in her blood. She flared her wings and turned into a crimson blur as she charged at the enemy.

Of the seven Fourth Grades on the Dener side, only Fabres was a body-refining adept. However, Mornashen Gaia possessed a Gold Titan bloodline and had mighty prowess in melee combat as well.

These two adepts looked at each other and stepped forward to intervene with Mary without any hesitation.

“Go, Arms. Let us work together to deal them a vicious blow!” Greem had never fought at full-strength since he obtained the two Fifth Grade artifacts.

Today, his will to fight had been stimulated by the enemy’s overwhelming spiritual pressure. For the first time since he achieved such power, he went berserk without holding back.

Flames flared as golden fires burst out of every pore on Greem’s body. He instantly transformed into a five-meter-tall giant flame humanoid shrouded in law fires.

Meanwhile, Arms’ body was as large as a mountain. Thousands of chains of lightning crackled around him as he rushed at the Dener adepts with Greem on his back.

With Arms as his ride, Greem did not need to dedicate any part of his mind to defense. Shadow Demon was prepared to strike as well, hidden in Greem’s shadow. The Tome of Corruption at his waist flew into his hands automatically as the pages started flipping.

Fourth Grade Spirit of Pestilence Remi cackled wildly as he appeared in the air. In the next instance, he wholly vanished out of sight.

A Burning Domain engulfed the battlefield. Every substance and creature within the domain began to burn from the intense heat and flames.

Greem tapped his staff, and four fire runes flew into Mary, Arms, Remi, and Shadow Demon’s body. With this fire rune, they could move freely within the Burning Domain without being burned.

Just as Greem finished his combat preparations, four terrifying spells blasted towards him.

Skyripper Twister- it was Chairman Freed’s Fourth Grade wind spell, which possessed the ability to both trap and attack the enemy!

Seal of Darkness- a unique spell unleashed by Adept Kerala. The moment the victim triggered the Seal of Darkness, a portion of their powers would vanish instantly.

Streaming Waterfall. Elder Nicolas was a water adept. His attack was understandably the weakest of them all.

Otherworld Summoning. Elder Matthew was a summoner and could call contracted creatures from other worlds to aid him in battle.

Apart from the long-ranged spells, all the Fourth Grade adepts also had several pieces of magical equipment and scrolls. They began using these tools without holding back, and their numbers started to grow at an increasing rate. In the blink of an eye, their formation almost seemed crowded.

Amongst them, Elder Matthew undoubtedly did the most summoning. As a summoner, he had conjured up three Fourth Grade creatures from alien worlds: a man-faced serpent, a beholder, and a devourer.

The man-faced serpent was a strange monster over twenty-meters-long and with a human face on its serpentine head. It had a resilient life force and an agile body, as well as paralyzing attacks. No creature could escape unscathed if the man-faced serpent managed to wrap around them.

The beholder was an unusual magical creature that typically lived underground. Its body was a massive eyeball, five meters in diameter with a total of seven agile eye-stalks growing out of it. At the end of each eye-stalk was a strange eyeball, each able to fire a magical beam of a different attribute.

Meanwhile, the devourer was an exceedingly tricky creature to deal with. It did not have an actual body. Most of the time, its only tangible manifestation was a bloody maw with two wings on it. Any being the devourer bit could instantly die by having their soul crunched to pieces.

Apart from these three Fourth Grade monsters, a red-eyed monkey also climbed out of Adept Kerala’s sleeve. This monkey quickly transformed into a Redeye Tyrant, a berserk ape with tremendous fighting power.

As all this happened, Adept Mirva took out golem talismans and released two mithril statues.

Compared to Greem and his forces, these veteran Fourth Grade adepts that had ruled over the Central Lands for the past few centuries all had powerful aces of their own. When all these aces were put together, they instantly formed a powerful squad formed solely of Fourth Grade creatures.

However, before this squad could unleash any devastation, Arms arrived in front of them with Greem on his back.

The next second, the entire battlefield was devoured by wild lightning.

Countless writhing silver serpents of lightning weaved between these Fourth Grade creatures amidst the blinding lightning storm. Extreme currents surged violently through their bodies.

In the blink of an eye, several of the summoned creatures were already howling in agony and attempting to flee out of the storm.

Before they could make it too far away, Greem raised his staff, and a blinding halo of fire bloomed on the battlefield. Where the halo traveled, all adepts and foreign creatures were knocked off balance and off their feet.

This fire halo contained the law of Fire’s Blast, which allowed it to penetrate the opponents’ magical defenses and apply the effect of the Halo of Repulsion.

While the enemy was still struggling within the flames and lightning, a roaring meteor crashed down upon the battlefield. An even more ferocious shockwave of fire engulfed the enemy along with thousands of meteorite shards, forcibly knocking them back.

The Orb of the Fire God was truly a treasure perfectly compatible with Greem’s soul origin. Greem would not have been able to cast two such powerful spells containing fire laws so quickly without its help.

Moreover, the Orb was a Fifth Grade artifact. It possessed a natural grade suppression effect against Fourth Grades. Otherwise, an even more powerful fire spell would not have been able to achieve such a tremendous result.

Only the man-faced serpent and the redeye tyrant survived this wave of attacks. The beholder and the devourer whimpered and dissipated into sparks before they could even demonstrate their abilities.

Still, there were also individuals on the battlefield who were unaffected.

The two eight-meter-tall mithril statues slowly pressed toward Greem and Arms with heavy steps. They were metal golems and were naturally unaffected by debuffs and charms.

While Greem and Arms were unleashing attacks with all they had, the enemy’s offensive spells were also inflicting damage upon them.

However, as a Fourth Grade dragon, Arms was protected by his scales and possessed enormous resilience. He grunted in pain but stood his ground. Meanwhile, layers of fire laws surrounded Greem. Even though multiple spells struck him, he was entirely unharmed and untouched.

It was a sort of law defense that the Chip had carefully constructed in the most optimal structure and combination of the four fire laws.

It was impossible to penetrate such a law defense with ordinary elementium magic!

Only law powers could penetrate his defense of fire laws to wound him. And that…was the fundamental reason why high-grade adepts were able to crush adepts of lower grades so easily!