Age of Adepts

Uzzah stopped Alice in the dark underground corridor and complained with dissatisfaction in her voice.

"That flying ship has already been repaired for a long time now, yet we are not taking the chance to move. Instead, we are hiding on this godforsaken island. How long are we supposed to hide?"

One could easily tell that the twenty days of idle activity upon the isolated island had left the Third Grade dark witch anxious and frustrated.

All the witches carried on their shoulders the mission of their clans and the hopes of their people when they came to this other world. It had been almost two months since the activation of the planar gate. That meant that this trip to Faen was already a third of the way over. Yet, the progress of their mission was still minimal.

The mission of abducting a small-scale tribe of elves was practically finished for Uzzah. All she needed to do from now on was to visit a few more scattered villages, and she would be done.

However, the other mission of robbing the pegasus magic springs was still shrouded in mystery. No clues or plans were yet in sight.

Before she came to Garan, Uzzah had intended to rely on the power of the Pale Witches to snatch the pegasus magic spring from the hands of the elves. However, when she arrived at Garan, she had been disappointed to find that the elves had complete control and dominance over Garan. They had put together an Anti-Evil Alliance formed purely of Fourth Grade fighters and god messengers that were keeping the Pale Witches utterly locked out of the continent.

It had been so long since the eruption of the Witch Calamity, but Fourth Grade Pale Witch Rimura had yet to take a single step upon Garan. This...this was far beyond Uzzah’s expectations!

To prevent Rimura having her accompanying spirit sneak past Greenwater City and enter Garan, those otherwise unoccupied god messengers and Fourth Grade powerhouses would occasionally go and attack the Echo Isles.

Without her accompanying spirit by her side, Rimura herself didn’t have sufficient power to fend off the combined strength of multiple Fourth Grade powerhouses. Thus, through such a stupid method, the elves had forcefully managed to tie down Rimura and her accompanying spirit to the Echo Isles.

As long as the Pale Witches still wanted to hold possession of this ideal foothold off the coast of Garan, Rimura would have no choice but to remain stationed at the Echo Isles, bitterly waiting for those bastards to challenge her patience.

In all honesty, if the elves truly intended to raze the adept’s tower on Echo Isles, all they needed to do was set all five Fourth Grades of Greenwater City on the attack. Rimura wouldn’t be able to deal with such a massive power differential, even with the tower at her back and the tremendous teamwork between her and her accompanying spirit.

However, the elves didn’t do so out of their own considerations.

If they destroyed the Echo Isles and routed the Pale Witches, this particular Fourth Grade Witch would no longer have any obligations or concerns weighing her down. Provoking and infuriating the Pale Witches didn’t seem like a good idea when the elves didn’t have an absolute guarantee to exterminate them yet.

Fourth Grade strength was the limit of power within most planes!

Even if the gods themselves were to descend, they would not be able to exert more power beyond peak Fourth Grade. The gods didn’t have any dominating advantage over Fourth Grade powerhouses apart from more significant knowledge and technique.

As such, destroying the den of the Pale Witches and enabling them to break into Garan to murder and seek revenge as they wanted would only inflict even more severe and massive losses on the elven kingdom.

It was precisely out of this consideration that the kingdom chose to take the strategy of sieging the high-grade witch and continuously challenging her.

The result of this strategy meant that the Echo Isles of the Pale Witches had virtually turned into a training grounds. A fearsome battle between Fourth Grade powerhouses would break out over the islands every so often. Without exception, every fight would end with casualties, but never severe enough to cripple either side.

The frequency of these events and the passage of time quickly caused Uzzah to lose interest in these almost scheduled fights. What worried her more was the loss of time!

Alice returned Uzzah’s questions with a sweet smile.

"Witch Uzzah, you should know as well that our previous activities have already drawn the attention of the elven goddesses. Before they shift their gazes away, any reckless actions on our behalf will only spell doom for the entire group."

Uzzah fell silent for a moment before finally speaking again.

"There’s no need for us to lie to each other anymore. Was the descent of the Moonlight Goddess last time your doing? Why else would it have been such a coincidence? Those spiritualists descended upon us right after our battle concluded!"

Alice smiled again.

"We are already allies? Why would we ever try and trap our allies? Not to mention, we fought till the very end during that last incident. The price we paid was even more severe than that of you Dark Witches. Or do you think I would push my own subordinate Fate Witches to their death?"

Uzzah was speechless in front of Alice’s questions.

The Dark Witches had suffered a lot of casualties and deaths during the last battle. Still, apart from two of those casualties that had been directly exterminated by the god messenger along with their souls, the others had all revived on Shadow Island.

In comparison, the Fate Witches were far more tragic. Their numbers had been cut down to half the original!

That male adept had spent a great deal of wealth to summon a Third Grade dragon. Even the flying ship had been functioning at maximum capacity.

It was all these factors that caused Uzzah to be unsure of their motives, even as she had her suspicions. Moreover, she was currently asking for a favor from them. Uzzah had no choice but to gloss over the issue and not pursue it any further.

"Alice, you are the leader of the Fate Witches. I wish to borrow your power of divination to investigate some things." She was bowing her head and asking for a favor from a tiny First Grade witch. It was only natural that Uzzah was hesitant in her speech.

Alice’s heart moved slightly. The smile on her face grew even brighter.

She had been curious about the goal of the Dark Witches in leaving the larger party for Garan all this while. Understanding this would be advantageous for her grasp of the situation’s future developments. Sadly, these Dark Witches kept a tight lip and didn’t allow Alice to get any information out of them.

Now, the leader of these Dark Witches personally intended to tell her.

No matter how you liked at it, this was good news!

That said, the more that this was the case, the more important it was for Alice not to betray her enthusiasm.

"You want me to divine? This is an otherworldly plane, you know? I am not being supported by an astrology platform either. The price I would have to pay for a divination would be far too large!" Hesitation appeared on Alice’s face.

"Don’t worry about that. I understand the rules of Fate Witches. I will definitely be able to afford a reward that will satisfy you."

"That is good! Then why don’t we go to my room?"

The two witches walked as they talked, their voices gradually vanishing down the dark and damp corridor.

............

The pursuit and slaughter in the woods were still ongoing.

Both sides were giving it their all, but the battle still seemed bloody and worrisome.

Squads of elves leaped through the dense trees of Fantasy Forest as if they were flying, weaving between the top of the ancient trees as agile as monkeys and apes. Several blade dancers with long sabers and naked upper bodies fully covered in elven combat tattoos ran beneath them, sprinting past the bushes below like flashes of lightning.

They were giving chase, and they were fighting.

The targets of their pursuit were those flocks of crimson bats flying and swerving between the trees at extreme speeds.

These bats were blood red, be it their bodies or their hair.

A single look at these creatures would fill people with a strange, sinister feeling of dread!

These odd bats were not creatures commonly found in Fantasy Forest. Every one of them seemed to have extreme intelligence, occasionally splitting up and escaping while also gathering together to retaliate. Every one of their movements and attacks was so surgical and trained that it was impressive.

The pursuing elves knew very well that these bats were not forest creatures or magical beasts. Instead, they were a sort of unique witch creation that had never before appeared in Faen Plane.

Indeed, they were not natural magical creatures, but magical creations produced by those evil witches through the use of their fearsome magic.

Their name was...vampire!

Each crimson bat was a vampire of its own.

They had two completely different forms, one being their current bat state that allowed them to easily fly, escape, and hide. The other was their human form.

Their human forms were so ordinary that most elves had trouble picking up on their abnormalities, at least until they revealed their bloody fangs and crimson eyes.

Much like ordinary humans, they did not have scaled skin and very rarely wore metal armor. That caused their physical defense to be extraordinarily low, so much so that they were incapable of defending against any physical or magical damage. Yet the strange and terrifying thing about them was their ability to regenerate through sucking blood.

It didn’t matter how severe the wound was. All sorts of injuries would heal completely in a matter of seconds as long as they could get a few mouthfuls of blood. Even those vampires that had been reduced to ashes would be able to revive in a surge of brilliant crimson light as long as there were vampires wildly ingesting blood nearby.

It was these two racial traits that allowed the weak vampires that lacked any ranged spells to be able to hold their own against the pursuing elven army. It was more than enough to illustrate the terror of vampires!

Even more horrifying was the fact that a group of Second Grades hid amidst these vampires.

These Second Grade vampires were like the rulers and controllers of the flock. They hid in the shadows, commanding the vampires to strike and retreat as they played a game of guerrilla warfare in the vast Fantasy Forest.

As an elven army sent out by Skywater City, these elves were not weaklings either.

Be it the melee warriors that were the blade dancers, or the long-ranged attackers that were the elven archers, the elves came in numbers of hundreds and thousands. There were plenty of specialized professions like druids, casters, and tamers within their ranks as well.

With all these advantages on their side, the elven army kept a close pursuit on these accidentally exposed vampires, playing a game of cat and mouse in the boundless and complicated Fantasy Forest.