Age of Adepts

Annemdor Academy.

Inside a dark, dim room.

Mirva, who had not shown himself in days, was communicating with someone in a soft voice through a magical mirror.

The mirror was the only source of light in the room and glowed with a sickly green light. Not only did the light not illuminate the space, it even filled the entire room with a sinister aura.

The magical mirror was split into several different screens, with an individual appearing on each of those screens. If one were to zoom in to one of those screens, they would be surprised to find that all these people were Fourth Grade adepts famous throughout Zhentairm.

All of these individuals had enjoyed fame and glory in the past. Each and every one of them was an important character that could send tremors throughout the Central Lands with a single stomp of their foot. At this moment, they appeared as nervous and anxious as rats in a sewer.

Adept Matthew, with his sparse hair and swollen eyes in a corner of the mirror, asked in an anxious and soft voice, “Has this news been verified? It had best not be false news released from Greem in an attempt to sow disorder amongst us.”

In another corner of the mirror, Nicolas spoke solemnly with a grim expression, “I just sent off Declan. He came here to persuade me to surrender!”

The other adepts in the mirror couldn’t help but start cursing when they heard that name.

“Declan is a spineless bastard.”

“Hmph! He must have said that because Greem controls him.”

“We can’t trust his words!”

……

Mirva said bitterly from his room, “It was Alfred who came to see me!”

The adepts in the mirror fell silent and cast their gaze toward Mirva.

“What did Alfred say?”

“You’ve always been on good personal terms with Alfred. Could it be…did he say the same thing?”

The expression on Mirva’s face grew even more bitter when he heard everyone’s questions.

“This is no longer just a rumor, but the truth! Apparently, those who experienced Mary’s Nightmare Domain on that night weren’t just Kerala, Declan, and Alfred. There were also two Silver Union senate members present.”

“How powerful was she?”

Mirva inhaled deeply and said, “Enough to rival an ultra-powerhouse. Naturally, she would have no trouble with ordinary Fourth Grades like ourselves!”

The room fell silent.

Everybody lost interest in speaking any further, and the atmosphere turned dreary and heavy.

After a long pause, Adept Nicolas finally spoke again. He posed a question to Mirva, “Mirva, what do you think we should do next? Freed…is gone. We…we……”

Everybody in the mirror looked at Nicolas with looks of sympathy.

It couldn’t be helped. Of all the Fourth Grade clans apart from Kerala’s Dener Clan, Nicolas’ clan territory was the closest to the Crimson Clan’s Ailovis region. If Greem refused to stop here, his next target would either be Vice-Chairman Mirva for his position in the Zhentarim Association or Nicolas for his proximity.

That was why the threat of doom was far more imminent for the two of them compared to everyone else!

Nicolas’ question was very vague, but everyone understood what he meant.

In fact, everyone also wanted to know Mirva’s choice. He was the only one who could lead them now that Chairman Freed was dead. Should they fight, or should they surrender?

If everyone stubbornly insisted on resisting the Crimson Clan to the very end, then Greem would still have a tremendously difficult time unifying the Central Lands. Don’t forget, the other name for the Central Lands was Zhentarim!

Zhentarim. The name itself held a meaning- it referred to the unique and scattered distribution of clans in the Central Lands.

Divided regions, and forests of adept towers.

There were many adept clans in the Central Lands. The rise and fall of clans were a common occurrence.

Every time an adept war broke out, no one cared about the change in borders of worldly territories. Adepts were only interested in control over the adept towers.

A small adept clan might be weak, but all they had to do in the face of an invasion from a superior force was to retreat into their tower. With the aid of their adept tower, they could repel a siege from enemies many times their number.

Moreover, if the invading force was unable to conquer the tower, then all the worldly territory they had seized would be in vain.

After all, they couldn’t possibly siege the opponent’s tower indefinitely. Once their armies retreated, the clan would be able to project their influence and forces across their territory once again. All the land and population that had been seized would return under their control, with only the loss of some resources!

That was why trying to completely pull an adept clan up by its roots and exterminate them was an arduous task in the Central Lands. There was no way you could possibly chew down an adept tower without the courage and determination to break most of your teeth.

Greem’s Crimson Fleet might have demonstrated power enough to conquer an adept tower, but their flaws were also revealed.

Multiple high-grade adepts were required to be present during the siege, and powerful war machines like the Motherships or the golem dragon were needed. Even with all these conditions, the casualties suffered by the invading side were still terrifying!

That was why the Fourth Grade adepts here would still be an incredible nuisance for Greem if they insisted on opposing the Crimson Clan to the very end.

Greem’s Crimson Fleet might be fearsome, but there were only three Fourth Grade commanders who could truly hold the line in a conflict: Greem, Mary, and Arms.

They couldn’t possibly always be on the frontline, personally leading fleets to conquer one tower after another, could they? Without them to protect the Crimson Fleets, a single Fourth Grade adept would be enough to devastate the army.

When that happened, the Crimson Clan’s unification would be delayed indefinitely.

That would give everyone the confidence to wait for a change in tides!

They firmly believed that the three major organizations wouldn’t sit by and watch Greem devour all the sheep in the Central Lands and take the fattest piece of meat for himself.

The reason everything seemed so calm at the moment was because the Crimson Clan had erupted with unexpected fury and ferocity. The three major organizations had been entirely unable to react.

Wars occurred far too frequently in the Central Lands in the past. However, those wars were often long, drawn-out, and boring. Cutting across vast lands to attack the enemy’s base and ending a war with an arrow straight through the heart, though……

In all honesty, such an adept war had never occurred in the history of the Central Lands!

Consequently, the three major organizations had been unable to predict how quickly events would unfold after the internal conflict of Zhentarim finally broke. Everything soon spiraled out of their control.

What determined the victor in an adept war wasn’t the number of low and intermediate-grade adepts, but the rare few high-grade adepts!

At the start of the war, the three major organizations had sent out ultra-powerhouses to witness the battle, with plans to turn the tides if required. They had believed those plans and preparations to be sufficient.

After all, the last time Greem appeared at the Adept’s Association, his power was only on par with the Adept of Torture. He was certainly powerful, but he still had some way to go until he could reach the ultra-powerhouses.

What they had never expected was for the legendary fire adept to improve so tremendously in just a matter of years. Not only was Greem able to forcefully wear out the Gold Titan Mornashen, but he was even able to severely injure Curse Adept Cerveris in a ‘fair’ duel.

That…was all clearly beyond the Adept’s Association’s expectations!

If even Cerveris had been defeated by Legendary Fire Adept Greem, then they could only send more powerful ultra-powerhouses after him now. However, these individuals were either exploring the depths of endless space or shut up in isolation conducting their own important experiments.

The Adept’s Association might want to summon them, but even if these people with their unique personalities were willing to give up on whatever important tasks they had on hand, the time and cost required for them to return from space were tremendous!

If these powerful individuals could not be mobilized, then all that was left were their armies.

However, the vast and dangerous Black Forest itself was a natural barrier that prevented such maneuvers. The Adept’s Association might not have much trouble teleporting a few powerful individuals using teleportation arrays, but attempting to teleport entire armies was no more than fool’s talk.

Mobilization through aircraft?

Even if they could gather all the flying ships required for the task and properly organize the logistics, it would take them over two months to accomplish such a job! Given the speed at which the Crimson Clan had managed to take down the Entom Clan, two months would be more than enough for them to eliminate the most stubborn opposition and stabilize the situation in the Central Lands.

When that happened, what were the Association armies that had traveled all this way supposed to do?

Moreover, how would the Northern Witches and the Silver Union react once they had mobilized several Association armies? The intertwined politics of the three major forces meant that even more time had to be wasted on explaining the purpose of their mobilization.

By the time the three major forces came to a conclusion, the Central Lands would probably already belong to the Crimson Clan!

The point was that the Crimson Clan’s hidden power was so immense that even the three major organizations could not react in time when it was finally revealed.

However, while the three major organizations’ main concern was what benefit they could gain from the chaos in Zhentarim, what was presented to the Fourth Grade adepts of Central Lands was a life-and-death choice!

Their eyes flickered, and their expressions were stern yet filled with sorrow and tragedy.

Once upon a time, they had been feared gods of the Central Lands, who could shake the world with a single move. However, ever since they ran into this demon god that was even more unreasonable than them, they had no means of venting their frustrations apart from grumbling to themselves.

Frustrated. Indeed, they were all incredibly frustrated!

In all honesty, the reason Greem was able to become Fourth Grade so quickly was due to the aid of everyone present here. Yet, they had now been cornered by this much younger adept. In fact, they might even have to bend the knee to him in the future.

Nicolas, Matthew, and the other Fourth Grade adepts all felt so upset at the very thought that their heads just might blow up any next moment!