Age of Adepts

The God of Slaughter stopped chasing after fifty kilometers.

He could only curse furiously at Cinquera’s form as she slowly vanished in the distance, but there was nothing he could do.

Cinquera, who had managed to escape by the skin of her teeth, chased Greem for another five thousand kilometers. That was when she finally stopped at the peak of a mountain, roared furiously, and turned back to the dragon’s tomb.

Greem, looking rather ragged and worn-out, had just reformed his body on top of a mountain when Great Adept Windstern’s strange figure appeared before him. Following behind him were Poya, Catherine, and Tuncay.

They had obviously just arrived as well. Their cold glares shot past Greem and landed on the evil dragon Cinquera the moment they appeared.

If Cinquera were in her prime, she would have turned back and lunged at the enemy, even if the planar suppression was limiting her power and her opponents were a Sixth Grade and four Fifth Grades.

It wouldn’t matter if she won. What was important was to fight first!

All these so-called human adepts were just weaklings in Cinquera’s eyes. She didn’t regard any of them as an equal, even if they were the same grade.

Unfortunately, she had been badly injured at the hands of the Seventh Grade God of Slaughter, Garon. She needed to treat her wounds as soon as possible. If she were to fight these human adepts now, the results would be unpredictable.

That was why Cinquera could only give up in the face of these infuriated human adepts and turn to leave the battlefield. A rare occurrence indeed.

Great Adept Windstern secretly let out a breath of relief as he watched the evil dragon fly away. He then shifted his gaze to Greem, who still looked quite roughed up. He had nothing to say even after a long stare.

Attacking the capital of the orcs alone…even Sixth Grade Great Adept Windstern didn’t dare have such thoughts, yet Greem had actually done it.

Truly, the newborn calf did not fear the tiger!

If the orc capital was so easily dealt with, Great Adept Windstern wouldn’t have waited all this while.

Numerous orc powerhouses defended the capital. Moreover, this was only the most fundamental of defenses. The most frightening fact was the presence of the beast gods’ main temple. The orc gods could descend from their god kingdoms at any time.

Adepts like themselves had pretty good odds if they were only dealing with one or two god clones. However, to fight the gods themselves at their temple was a suicide mission.

That was why the adepts’ basic strategy when invading faith worlds had always been the same: wipe out the peripheral believers, reducing their numbers using large-scale means such as plagues and curses. Once the power of faith no longer sustained the temples, the adepts would launch a final attack and wipe out the enemy.

After all, most of the gods that faith worlds believed in were not native gods. To cast down their power across a galaxy’s tremendous distance required the support and guidance of faith from that planar world.

If most of the believers were already dead and the foundations of faith were destroyed, the gods would only exhaust their god kingdom’s power by descending. No god would ever do such a thing.

Meanwhile, here in Plane Gere, the adept faction had only taken their first step toward their ultimate goal. They were still at the stage where they built forward bases and establishing themselves on enemy ground. To attack the enemy’s capital and main temple while the foundations of faith had not yet been shaken was no different than rushing toward death!

That was why Great Adept Windstern couldn’t help but marvel at Greem’s tremendous luck as he watched the young adept bounce about spiritedly.

“Let’s go back! No need to stir any more trouble in this world…we are here to complete our missions. There’s no need to try too hard and put our lives on the line. You had best settle down for the rest of our mission!” Windstern sighed again as he said this before returning to Dun Modr.

The other Great Adepts also shot a few strange glances at Greem before turning and leaving.

Greem chuckled awkwardly and could only follow the rest back to the camp in his disheveled state.

…………

Greem was temporarily grounded after returning to Dun Modr.

In truth, even without Great Adept Windstern’s orders, Greem didn’t intend to step out of Dun Modr for the time being anyway.

Who knew whether that Sixth Grade dragon had actually left Plane Gere?

If that vengeful bastard were still lying in wait outside the camp, Greem would be throwing himself into her jaws just by running around!

Moreover, it wasn’t like Greem hadn’t obtained the spoils he had been looking for on this adventure.

When Greem ordered the adepts to retreat from the dragon’s tomb, he had also instructed them to bring the dracolich with them. In truth, Greem had given out that order with the slight intention of drawing the enemy away. He would have been able to escape easily if Cinquera had pursued the wyverns instead.

To his surprise, the evil dragon had locked onto him and chased him endlessly, forcing him to take the risk to lure her over to the orcs.

Still, the results were satisfying. At the very least, Greem had obtained a peak Fourth Grade dracolich. The spoils were more than worth the risk.

Greem started dealing with the dracolich after he returned to Dun Modr.

This place was a magical room deep underground.

The room was dark, humid, cold, and sinister.

Sickly green runes and magical lines ran all over the stone walls, ceiling, and floor. Rumbling magical energy flowed through these circuits, forming a completely sealed and isolated magic prison.

The dracolich, which looked like a giant, bipedal lizard, had all its limbs restrained by golden fire chains and was suspended in midair.

The golden fire chains were of an incredible temperature and crackled loudly as they licked at the dracolich’s dark bones. Moreover, the Undying Flames had seeped into its soul and was inflicting unbearable agony to it.

As an undead dragon, the dracolich should have no physical senses, much less a sense of pain.

Unfortunately for him, the Undying Flames had the principle characteristic of reaching the soul itself. This pain wasn’t one that spread from the outside in, burning through the physical body to the soul. Instead, it was a pain directly etched deep into the soul through the principle power.

That was why such torture on the principle level was horrifying for the dracolich, even with its undead body and magic resistance!

“Who would’ve thought…who would’ve thought…that you were a fervent believer of that Cinquera!” Greem strode slowly inside the room, ignoring the strained and twisted figure of the dracolich. “Tell me, how did you come to know her? I don’t believe that the dragons would so easily let Cinquera sully the dignity of the dragons!”

Greem’s word hadn’t come out of nowhere.

The dragons had always viewed oaths and dignity with the greatest esteem. They firmly loathed the reversal of the natural laws and the creation of undead creatures with the corpses of their kin. Be it out of consideration of the general good or their own private intentions, the dragons would never let an evil dragon freely control a dragon’s tomb.

Either this dragon’s tomb had been abandoned by the dragons, or an important dragon had intentionally covered up this incident. With his sharp senses as an adept, Greem could smell a scheme and conspiracy behind all this!

“Human adept, you had best let me go now. Otherwise, once Lady Cinquera finds this place, she will devour you in a single snap!” The dracolich was quite stubborn indeed. Even after enduring all that torture from the Undying Flames, it refused to reveal a single thing.

“You’re still waiting for Cinquera to save you? Heheh,” Greem couldn’t help but start laughing coldly, “If only you knew what dire straits Cinquera was in right now. If only you knew that she lost one of her wings, you wouldn’t be so stubborn!”

“Bullshit! That’s impossible…there couldn’t possibly be any person in this plane that could threaten the great Lady Cinquera. You’re lying!” A glint of scorn appeared in the dracolich’s ghostly green eyes. It was obvious it didn’t believe Greem’s words.

Greem didn’t waste words with it either. He lifted his hand and summoned a magic mirror. Lights flickered across the mirror as what had happened at Wintercastle was shown once again.

The dracolich’s face turned pale when it saw that barbaric and fearsome orc god shatter Cinquera’s wing with a single violent strike.

It wanted to rebuke the truth and claim that this was a fabricated vision. However, Sixth Grade Cinquera’s furious and anguished mental fluctuations emanating through the magic mirror were so, so real. It made the dracolich unable to say a single word of rebuttal as a believer of the evil dragon.

“Heheh, you are right. There’s no one in this plane that could threaten Cinquera. However, don’t you forget- there are still gods! I only pulled a small trick, yet I could lure her to the orc capital and force her into a fight with an orc god. Heh, now that Cinquera is grievously wounded, do you think she still has the ability to save you?” Greem struck at the dracolich’s psychological bottom line without holding back.

This unique magical room could isolate the faith coordinate in its soul. However, Greem would have no chance of enslaving this dracolich if he didn’t make it break down first.

Of course, it would have been an entirely different matter if Lich Kanganas was here.

The liches were the true masters of toying with the soul!

The dracolich lowered its head and said no more. Its soul was incredibly resilient, and it had obviously not been affected by Greem’s words.

Greem wasn’t bothered by this at all.

As a Great Adept, he had plenty of time to play with his toys. He wasn’t in a hurry.

Greem grunted and said coldly, “If that is the case, then rot here for a few more years! We can have a proper talk whenever you think things through.”

Having said that, Greem turned and left the room.

Golden flames flared around the chains that bound the dracolich, and screams of agony rang out from the room.

Greem turned and walked into the room beside the interrogation room.

The strange black stone he had obtained from the Boulder Fortress market was hovering above an array on an alchemy platform. The outermost stone shell had peeled off, revealing its true appearance underneath.