Age of Adepts

Fire Throne.

Inside the most secure magical room of the adept tower.

Space tore apart as a gigantic fish-shaped starbeast emerged from the rift. The creature collapsed and rolled over on the cold and hard floor.

It was a starbeast of a bizarre appearance.

From its head to its tail, from top to bottom, this creature resembled a bighead carp. It was ten meters long and five meters tall, but it seemed like it was composed entirely of a head and a tail. There was barely any portion that could be called a ‘body.’

At the moment, the strange fish seemed to have devoured an entire sun. Endless ht and heat radiated from the fish’s gigantic maw, turning the room into a massive oven.

The fish was struggling wildly, its organs on the brink of being cooked by the ‘sun’ it had swallowed.

Even so, the magical fish gritted its teeth, refusing to let the rampaging sun rush out of its stomach. At the same time, the fish quickly drew on the tower’s power and summoned incredibly pure elementium water from the Water Elementium Plane to fill the entire room.

The fish then started devouring the elementium water wildly in an attempt to extinguish the struggling ‘sun.’ Water and fire clashed within its stomach. The elementium explosions from the conflict of the two elements caused the fish to writhe in agony.

No matter how painful or arduous it was, Greem refused to open his mouth and spit out the divine authority fragment that contained Sinai’s will. Meanwhile, the unique Physique and innate ability of the devouring fish was working at full power to wear away at the crystal’s wild and unruly will.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Several dull thuds echoed throughout this empty adept tower. The tower itself trembled and quaked from the impact.

The conflict between Greem and the remnants of Sinai’s will caused Fire Throne’s surroundings to deteriorate rapidly. Fire Cave started to quake and collapse as surges of lava blasted out from underground, shooting over a hundred meters into the air before raining back onto the ground.

The magical creatures and beasts that had been living peacefully around Fire Cave fled their lairs in a frenzy as if they sensed the arrival of doomsday.

Soon, the magma swelling out of the cracks in the ground had engulfed all the land within five kilometers of Fire Cave. The magma quickly started fires, which then spread even further into the distance. The forest beasts that did not manage to flee in time were instantly devoured by the rain of magma and fire from above.

Finally, an earthshaking explosion could be heard as all the ground around Fire Cave sunk a dozen meters downward, forming a giant basin in the area. The red magma and viscous lava rushed up from below, quickly filling the basin and turning it into a deadly lava lake that no creature could hope to approach.

Fire Throne was history!

…………

Greem had chosen to flee immediately after devouring Sinai’s fire clone, leaving behind a total mess for the Adept’s Association to deal with.

Inkdeep Valley had been thoroughly destroyed!

Moreover, the damage was irreparable.

After all, the one that had been fighting earlier was a fire clone that the powerful Fire God Sinai had split off and stuffed into the World of Adepts. The upper limit of its power might be peak Fourth Grade, but the tremendous quantity of energy reserves within it was superior to the average Fifth Grade!

Such a powerful being would not be at a disadvantage even if it had to fight against a dozen ultra-powerhouses at the same time. In fact, it would be able to dominate the battle through its mastery of the fire principles and understanding of the higher powers.

It was the fundamental reason why Sinai dared to charge recklessly into the World of Adepts, even though he knew numerous formidable opponents were waiting inside like ravenous wolves!

If the adepts were wolves, then Sinai was a tiger. Even if a tiger was kept in a cage and sapped of most of its strength, its savage instincts and past hunting experience still made it superior to a pack of wolves, both in mentality and aura.

However, what Sinai never expected was for the legendary fire adept to be such an unusual individual.

According to the grade classification system of the adepts, Greem was still only an advanced Fourth Grade adept. Under the combined effects of his principle power and bloodline power, he had managed to gain mastery over the Undying Flames principle ahead of time.

This lethal ace up his sleeve made him a Fourth Grade adept unlike an ordinary Fourth Grade adept. While other adepts were still using elementium, energy, laws, and other low-level powers, he was already blasting away with the bazooka equivalent that was the principles.

These two individuals with powers that exceeded the plane’s limits might have only clashed for a brief instant, but their conflict had still inflicted devastating damage to the surroundings. More frightening was the damage extending deep into the principle level, scarring the laws and principles and throwing them into terrible chaos.

Inkdeep Valley no longer existed. All that remained was a spatial void. Any material substance that found its way here would be ground to unrecognizable dust by the turbulent energy storms. Even the law chains were torn apart here. They could not accomplish their effect of stabilizing the planar space.

The spatial rift that hovered amid the energy storms and chaotic principles stood in the middle of the void. Energy spacestorms occasionally entered through the rift, making the area more chaotic and dangerous than before.

Pieces of the continent were still peeling away and disintegrating from the magic energy at the storm’s edge. All substances dragged into the storm instantly disintegrated into the most primitive particles and vanished without a trace.

With a breach like this, the World of Adepts was probably losing several tons of substance per day!

Naturally, the planar consciousness was furious upon discovering a ‘bleeding’ wound like this. It repeatedly called on the law chains to extend toward the energy storms, repairing the planar laws and restoring the turbulent principle powers bit by bit.

However, even as powerful as the planar consciousness was, it would take hundreds of years to fully heal from this scar.

Moreover, the presence of such a place within the Adept Association’s territory was undoubtedly an unstable factor.

The repeated destruction and damage inflicted on this area had caused the planar barrier to become unprecedentedly vulnerable. The spatial rift was also large enough that otherworldly creatures of peak Fourth Grade could freely enter now.

Without the planar consciousness’ blessing, fighting here would be a massive risk, even for the most powerful of the Fourth Grade adepts. After all, without planar suppression or blessings, human adepts were still far too fragile compared to starbeasts, disaster creatures, and the abyssal demons!

As dangerous as it was, the Adept’s Association had no choice but to accept their tragic fate and plug the hole. After all, the rift was in their territory. If some formidable enemy emerged from it, they would be the first one to fall victim to it.

Fortunately, upon sending the ultra-powerhouses to investigate, they discovered that the enemies that had been waiting outside the rift were gone. It provided the Adept’s Association with a relatively ‘safe’ environment in which to patch the hole from the rift.

Large groups of Association adepts put up barriers, enduring the destruction of the energy storms as they toiled around the spatial rift like hardworking ants.

Setting down sealing arrays to prevent more spacestorms from entering, then purifying the environment inside the plane world. Calming and taming the turbulent elementium energy.

There was all sorts of work to be done, all of it equally necessary and crucial. It was the only way to provide the planar consciousness with the best conditions to mend the damage to this world. Otherwise, the law chains would be torn apart by the energy storms from space right after they started to recover.

If that were the case, then this scar upon the land would not heal, even after a thousand years!

With this incident, it was obvious why the planar consciousness was so eager to banish all ultra-grade creatures from its world. The reason was simple. The damage that every one of their actions inflicted on the world was too horrifying.

If they were allowed to use their powers as they wished, the entire planar world could be disintegrated and broken down into the most fundamental particles and energy. When that happened, the World of Adepts would lose its most fundamental function of nursing life and carrying on the legacy of the adept civilization.

It was precisely because the Great Adepts understood this that they willingly left the World of Adepts to search the galaxy for a place to host their power.

The disaster creatures had been beaten back, Greem had killed Sinai’s fire projection, and Sinai’s clone had gone missing.

It was only now that the battle finally came to a conclusion of sorts.

The Silver Union and the Northern Witches bade a simple farewell and hastily returned to their territories. Meanwhile, the six Fourth Grade adepts of the Central Lands, having lost their leader, scurried away under the cold and accusatory gazes of the Association adepts.

It couldn’t be helped. Everyone clearly saw the great battle today with their own two eyes.

Greem had played the Adept’s Association for a fool and used it like a tool. He had borrowed the Association’s power to sink his fangs into the fire projection that Sinai cast into the World of Adepts.

The reason Inkdeep Valley had been reduced to such shambles was intrinsically tied to the legendary fire adept.

The Adept’s Association would probably have to continually pour resources and manpower into the restoration of this place if they didn’t want the void to expand any further. Moreover, to prevent any new enemies from entering through the rift, at least one peak Fourth Grade ultra-powerhouse would have to be stationed here all year round.

With all this effort required, the Adept’s Association had been put in a terrible position!

Given Domhnall, Ainley, and Gloria’s viciousness in the past, they would have lashed at the six Fourth Grades of the Central Lands as retaliation, giving them eternal sleep in this broken land and wounding the Central Lands badly.

However, if the Adept’s Association really did so, they would be tearing up all facade of niceties with Greem.

If such a powerful adept were to make a fuss, even the planar consciousness would be frustrated, let alone the more ‘insignificant’ existence that was the Adept’s Association.

Having stolen the divine authority fragment inside the fire projection, no one could predict how fast the legendary fire adept would grow henceforth. For the sake of their futures and safety, the Adept’s Association had no choice but to swallow their resentments and watch as Kerala and the others left.

Once news of this spread throughout the continent, it caused tremendous commotion across the World of Adepts!