Age of Adepts

Fortunately, the damned cannon fodder had all died in flames.

Otherwise, this clash of the powerful would have wiped out everyone else and turned that battlefield into a death zone.

The Fourth Grade adepts and Fourth Grade demons scurried away amidst the ferocious shockwaves. They each used their own means to flee the battlefield as quickly as they could.

The most unfortunate individual on the battlefield had to be the Fourth Grade hezrou.

It had never excelled at speed to begin with, and it had even been badly injured in the fighting earlier. Consequently, it was much slower at fleeing compared to everyone else. Before it could escape the range of the fight, the force shockwaves and golden flames caught up with it.

When the force shockwave came crushing toward it, the Fourth Grade hezrou was flattened as if an invisible hand had wrapped around it and was gripping as tightly as possible. The hezrou’s body was twisted beyond recognition, and fountains of purple blood came spilling from its body.

Despite the terrifying injuries inflicted to it, the hezrou managed to survive with its resilient Physique and stubborn life force. However, just as it reached out to the flame fiend–its closest ally–to call for help, a golden ripple washed across its body.

Flames burst forth from its heart as the golden ripple ignited the hezrou’s magical energy. A fearsome Undying Flame burned from within its organs, causing it to howl and yelp in agony.

“Izal, save me!

“Tyria, give me a hand, and from now on, I……”

Regardless of how the hezrou screamed and pled, its demon companions simply fled even faster.

Finally, the Undying Flame penetrated the hezrou’s organs, dissipating from its orifices and the pores of its skin, transforming the hezrou into a blazing torch. It stumbled around the battlefield howling in pain.

A short moment later, its life force was exhausted, and it crumpled to the ground like a piece of rotten wood. It never got up again.

The adepts and demon lords all felt a chill in their hearts.

That…had not been an ordinary abyssal demon! It was a Fourth Grade demon lord, a god-like deity that was capable of world destruction in any other world.

Here on a battlefield of the World of Adepts, it had died like a dog.

The psychological gap was enough to make everyone who witnessed its death feel sorrow, even if it had been their enemy! After all, that demon could easily have been themselves.

In all honesty, the hezrou might have been stronger than most of them. Yet now, it had become a sacrifice to the shockwaves of a battle between two truly powerful individuals.

How powerful were the two individuals currently locked in combat, exactly?

After fleeing all the way back to the Ahlden Clan’s adept tower, the Fourth Grade adepts finally had a reprieve to observe the battle in the distance.

The earth shook, and the tower trembled.

The entire battlefield was covered in force shockwaves and golden flame ripples. The adepts’ Spirits couldn’t even infiltrate the battlefield to observe what was happening.

Matthew was old and elderly. He had even been wounded badly by the Butcher Knife earlier. Though the voodoo doll had saved his life, the impact from the slash had severely damaged his Spirit.

As he fled into the tower panting, he turned back and took one last glance at the thousand-meter-tall figure of Greem. An unspeakable fear crept into his heart, and he was momentarily lost in thought.

After all the events that had happened in the Central Lands, his relationship with Legendary Fire Adept Greem was still very tense. He had hoped to form a small group with Mirva and Nicolas that would have secretly gone against Greem and his decrees.

However, upon seeing Greem’s might and witnessing his own pathetic display earlier, Matthew felt his ambitions crumble and die. The reluctance and resentment that had always burned at the bottom of his heart dissipated silently.

He did not want to die.

He still had many clan members that required his protection and thousands of descendants that needed him alive.

If he died, these clan members and relatives of his would face terrible persecution and revenge. He could imagine that outcome even if he was thinking with his toe.

He did not want to fight any longer.

He had resisted for so long, yet Greem was only improving. Now, Greem had reached a level where they could only look up in awe. Meanwhile, they were as pathetic as dogs roaming the streets.

Let him be if he wanted to unify the Central Lands!

At any rate, with his remaining fame as a Fourth Grade, his clan could still enjoy another two or three hundred years of respect and glory. For Matthew, whose path forward had come to an end, this was enough.

Matthew stared at the battlefield in the distance, the thoughts in his mind flickering like a candle in the wind.

While he was lost in thought, an earth-rending boom rang out in the distance. An even more violent and ferocious storm erupted in the center of the battlefield, with sparks of golden flames blowing in the wind. It swept across the horizon, destroying everything in its path.

The remains of the two dozen war towers that had been razed in the past month of fighting had remained on the battlefield. Though the war had left its mark on the base of the towers, they had remained there, covered in rubble and dust.

At this moment, even those tower bases had met their end!

When the vicious storm rushed across the horizon, every last piece of evidence of their existence was wiped away.

The violent force shockwave destroyed the adept towers’ forcefields in the distance, while the golden flames caused magic energy turbulence wherever they landed. Seas of golden fire erupted here and there.

Two fearsome powers dominated the entire battlefield. They tore and lashed at each other, occasionally erupting into violent energy storms when both powers clashed with each other.

Though it was impossible to sense the exact energy level of the storms through the adept tower defenses, the adepts had a good estimate just by how much the tower was quaking.

This was no longer a battle at the level of peak Fourth Grade!

Could it be? Had Greem advanced to Fifth Grade? Every adept wondered to themselves, but they quickly dismissed the idea.

The World of Adepts was a very strict major planar world. Peak Fourth Grade was the limit of power here; no power beyond peak Fourth Grade was allowed to exist. That would trigger severe reactions from the planar consciousness, even to the extent of backlash.

As for Fifth Grade creatures? They weren’t even allowed to exist inside the plane. They would endure endless planar suppression, causing them unbearable agony at every moment.

Yet, the scene unfolding before their eyes was beyond their comprehension!

Were they simply outdated in their understanding? Or was the world too wild for their comprehension?

For a moment, many of the adepts became dispirited and lost in their thoughts.

More than their own musings, they were more concerned with the outcome of this battle.

And an outcome arrived soon.

Battles between high-grade creatures always concluded quickly.

The reason fights between low-grade adepts lasted so long was that their offensive and defensive powers were all within a limit.

Even when there was a difference in their powers, it wasn’t easy to build up an absolute advantage quickly. They could only slowly wear down their opponent’s strength and find an opportunity to deliver a lethal strike.

Such problems did not exist between high-grade creatures!

At their level, they had already improved their powers to a horrifying extent. The dispute between them was an all-encompassing conflict that involved their bodies, Spirits, souls, and principles.

Consequently, it was more dangerous and more terrifying.

Unexpectedly, it was the Fifth Grade pit fiend Meillerie who was defeated after several clashes.

Clad in abyssal fire, it howled and fled from the blazing golden giant. It dove into the mega-rift and vanished without a trace.

When the pit fiend fled, everyone could clearly see a trace of gold mixed in with the purple abyssal fire around him. It was obvious that Greem’s principle fire had managed to reach him.

However, despite defeating the pit fiend, Greem didn’t seem to be doing too well either.

His thousand-meter-tall body glowed with lights of two different colors. They flowed slowly across his skin.

One layer was the light from the Tome of Corruption’s enhancement, while the other was the fire energy provided by the Orb of the Fire God. In addition to Greem’s own Undying Flames, these two powers gave him three layers of protection on the principle level.

Due to these protections, Greem was able to endure the pit fiend’s ferocious melee attacks and heavily wound Meillerie with his principle fire.

The fact that he had managed to defeat a Fifth Grade while being a Fourth Grade was due to many factors!

The first was the restrictions from the planar laws.

This place was the World of Adepts, Greem’s origin plane.

Naturally, he was blessed by the planar consciousness while he was here. The pit fiend, on the other hand, had to endure tremendous suppression.

This difference in treatment from thar plane consciousness kept Meillerie’s power limited to peak Fourth Grade.

The second factor was Greem’s superior equipment.

Pit Fiend Meillerie had no other high-grade equipment other than his Butcher Knife.

One could claim without mistake that every individual that emerged from the abyss was broken beyond compare. Their powers were built entirely upon their Physique and their combat abilities. The only equipment demons possessed were those they robbed from others!

In striking contrast, the Fourth Grade Greem was equipped with two Fifth Grade divine artifacts. In particular, the Orb of the Fire God was origin equipment that was perfectly compatible with his soul origin and adept talent.

It provided him with terrifying benefits in combat!

Apart from these, Greem had also unexpectedly formed his principle fire– the Undying Flame. It became the key to deciding this battle.

At the very least, it gave Greem a powerful means that could threaten the Fifth Grade pit fiend.