Age of Adepts

The battle had already broken out by the time Greem showed up at the central mountains.

The thirty-meter-tall metal statue had become Host to God of Slaughter Garon’s divine soul. His vicious and savage attacks sent the Great Adepts, led by Briel, flying in every direction.

Several familiar figures danced and swerved around the temple as blinding bolts of light, but none of them could get any closer to the main temple.

Greem’s arrival drew everyone’s attention.

He had just stopped to survey the battlefield when Great Adept Briel’s mental transmission rang out in his mind.

“We will hold back Garon’s projection. You go and destroy the main temple!”

Greem glanced at that statue of Garon. The power level indicated by the Chip was actually at Sixth Grade. The color faded from Greem’s face. He didn’t dare set foot anywhere near that battlefield charged with terrifying energy.

Well, if he didn’t want to go anywhere close to the Sixth Grade projection of Garon, he should try his luck with the main temple!

Greem consoled himself and erupted into flames. The next second, he appeared above the main temple.

Perhaps this mission would be easier.

Before Greem could finish his thought, a strange sense of falling overtook him. He crashed from the skies like an out-of-control meteor, landing heavily in the plaza in front of the main temple.

It was fortunate that he was currently in his fire form, without a human’s fatal weaknesses. When he climbed out of the smoldering crater as a dozen-meter-tall flame giant, the damage to his body wasn’t too severe.

However, Greem frowned upon standing up.

He saw a dirt-yellow magical halo around him. The principle aura radiating from it was familiar and detested.

“Halo of Gravity! Dammit! So it was this kind of power.”

Greem’s expression suddenly turned dark as he investigated the reason for his body crashing to the ground. His body exploded into flames, just barely avoiding a giant stone hand reaching out from the earth.

Dong!

The giant hand slammed into the stone plaza, instantly shattering the tiles and leaving a two-meter deep handprint in the earth.

The next second, Greem reappeared three hundred meters away. He looked back, only to see a stone giant slowly climb out of the ground.

A large stone giant or a Rock Devastator? Perhaps an Earth Prophet?

Greem’s mind spun rapidly as the Chip shot out blue lasers to collect information on the opponent.

It was a giant stone creature measuring thirty meters in height. It had a humanoid form, but was composed of heavy steelrock, not flesh. Its legs were thick enough to require several people to wrap their arms around a leg to encircle it. The steelrock that formed its body was bound together with numerous dirt-yellow halos.

Apart from its terrifying weight and Strength, this stone creature also radiated fearsome earth elementium power.

Dammit! This stone creature also possessed spellcasting ability. It was an Earth Prophet!

Greem’s face darkened in an instant.

Of all the earth elementium creatures, these Earth Prophets were undoubtedly the most troublesome to deal with.

Other earth elementium creatures might be just as large and resilient, but they only had a select few innate earth powers. None of them actually possessed elementium spellcasting ability. Against big fellows like that, Greem could tear the lot of them apart just by kiting.

That strategy was useless against the Earth Prophet!

Earth Prophets possessed fearsome earth origin power, also known to the adepts as earth principle power. They could keep their enemies bound to the ground using Halos of Gravity, thereby saving them the embarrassment of having to chase after a flying enemy.

Meanwhile, the innate Mire, Earthquake, and Split Earth abilities they possessed were devastating to most creatures. If an opponent was caught and trapped by the earth principle powers, the Earth Prophet could simply finish the job with a savage strike of its giant stone palm.

Greem was unfortunate. He had been afflicted with the Halo of Gravity without being aware of it.

The Earth Prophet was a Fifth Grade elementium creature itself. Its Halo of Gravity was more than enough to keep Greem suppressed near the earth. He would no longer be able to return to the sky now.

“Die, evil adept!”

The Earth Prophet let out a booming shout from within its firm stone body. He strode to Greem’s side and lifted his right foot before stomping furiously downward.

Ugh!

A vicious gale pressed against Greem’s face.

An Earthquake ability of Second Grade accompanied the Earth Prophet’s every action. Ordinary creatures would not be able to stand up around the being, let alone do battle against it.

Boom!

Greem’s body scattered into flames and escaped in different directions.

Unfortunately, no matter how he split up his body, the damned Halo of Gravity continued to enshroud him. He was unable to move more than three meters from the ground.

There was another loud thud as the earth cracked once more; yet another gouge appeared on the plaza.

Greem didn’t dare drag the battle out against such a powerful opponent. The scattered flames reformed into four identical fire giants.

All four of the fire giants started chanting their incantations at the same time. A short moment later, four massive fireballs the size of boulders crashed against the Earth Prophet’s body from four different directions.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

There was a series of explosions, and searing flames engulfed half of the stone giant’s body.

Even the steelrock of the Earth Prophet’s body began to turn red and soften beneath the horrifying heat. It flowed toward the ground as half-molten magma. However, given the Earth Prophet’s thick body, these flames wouldn’t be able to burn through its four-meter-thick body even with fifteen minutes to do so.

That was why the Earth Prophet simply endured the flames and turned around. It strode toward the closest fire giant and swung its fist. A rain of rubble and a wave of earth spears struck the fire giant.

Greem frowned, and his expression turned solemn.

That fire clone had actually been exterminated before it could escape!

That might only have been a fire clone, but it possessed 30% of Greem’s fire damage, as well as all of his spells. It should not have been so easily destroyed under ordinary circumstances, given its ability to use Fire Teleportation.

Greem’s expression was dark. He asked in a solemn voice, “What’s the problem, Chip?”

[Beep. Halo of Slowing detected on Fire Clone 1 before it was attacked.]

“How am I unaffected, then?”

[Beep. Host is protected by the principle barrier of the Tome of Corruption from the affliction of earth principle power. The fire clones are only a projection of a portion of Host’s power. Deployment of fire principle power is required to resist the Halo of Slowing.]

“Dammit! This Earth Prophet is really difficult to deal with.”

Greem grumbled to himself, but he had no choice but to extend his fire principle power to the other two fire clones, shielding them from head to toe.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The mountain itself seemed to rumble as the Earth Prophet charged at another fire clone. It summoned a hail of earth spears and engulfed the fire clone in a cloud of dust.

It was a slow, heavy stone giant against a group of agile fire giants. A battle broke out just like that upon the broad stone plaza.

Simultaneously, Adept Rick–who had been off conducting a special mission just like Greem–arrived late to the battlefield.

Adept Rick chuckled coldly when he saw the Sixth Grade battle in the distance and Greem locked in combat on the plaza. He turned into black smoke and lunged straight for the orc’s main temple.

He could sense that only a group of Fourth Grades remained in the temple. Dealing with them was obviously much simpler than dealing with a Sixth Grade god projection or a Fifth Grade elementium creature.

Rick launched his attack against the main temple without hesitation.

Just as he reached the main temple, a horrifying and chilling dragon’s aura of might radiated out of thin air.

An exceptionally terrifying dragon’s head appeared. It opened its dark maw and let loose a two-meter-thick breath of black flames.

“A dark dragon.”

Rick instantly identified the enemy. He was absolutely horrified. His body erupted into black smoke, just barely escaping the dragon’s breath.

The black smoke that remained within range of the breath did not last a single second before it vanished entirely, leaving behind the screeching of a soul fragment.

Great Adept Rick reformed a thousand meters away and spat out black blood. His gaze at the dark dragon was filled with intense hatred and fear.

Dark dragons were unusually powerful evil dragons!

They were born with dark dragonfire, a flame that possessed the twin principle effects of corrosion and burning.

They were magical dragons and possessed shocking magic resistance. In addition to the dragons’ unique aura of might and their own darkness Physique, the dark dragons were infamous even among evil dragons.

The reason Rick was so fearful of the dark dragon was that he possessed a darkness Physique. Given their origin power similarity, the damage he could inflict on the dark dragon was far less than what the other attributes could do.

To be honest, even three Ricks put together wouldn’t be enough to beat this Fifth Grade dark dragon!

When he saw the dark dragon go invisible once more and rush toward him, Great Adept Rick had no choice but to flee in a flashy display of his powers.