Age of Adepts

The Flame Fiend of Terror had been beaten beyond recognition, yet it still clung onto Artes’ heavy right arm with its crippled body. Three six-meter-tall fire giants were entangled together, rolling around and fighting in the magma pool.

Greem took advantage of the Flame Fiend dragging down Artes’ arms to lean in toward the enemy. He then used his burning hands to stab the massive crater on the Fire Lord’s chest. Shattered stone dust from the hole fell as Greem pierced with his hands as the cracks started to spread further throughout Artes’ body.

Artes began to struggle and resist with increasing intensity as if he sensed the threat of death. His powerful stone arms pummelled the Flame Fiend furiously. The Flame Fiend’s elementium body finally dispersed, incapable of enduring any more punishment.

The crystalline magical golem core fell into the pool and vanished within, only leaving behind a few bubbles.

It was already the third time the enemy had destroyed the Flame Fiend of Terror while it was summoned!

As Greem’s enemy increased in strength, even a Second Grade Flame Fiend of Terror could not last until all of its energy was exhausted. Moreover, summoning a Second Grade magical golem took up too much of Greem’s Spirit, making it difficult for him to call up a swarm of golems to surround the enemy like he used to do in the past.

With the Flame Fiend removed from the battle, only Artes and Greem were left in the fire pool.

Fire Lord Artes’ massive magma fists thudded against Greem’s body, and Greem’s Inferno and Lava Shields exploded into shards within a second of their formation.

The heavy blows made Greem dizzy. His entire field of vision was filled with splashing red lava, and his body was breaking at places, giving him trouble maintaining the stability of his form. However, Greem was already absorbed in the fight. He ignored the torrent of strikes and stabbed at Artes’ chests desperately.

The crack there was growing larger and larger.

Artes, given his strength, could have blown away Greem with a single punch. However, Greem had turned his left hand into a fire whip and wrapped it around Artes’ waist to prevent this situation from happening. This way, he would be able to attack Artes’ chest with his left hand, even if the Fire Lord’s fists were also disassembling his body.

Both of the giants rolled throughout the pool trading blow for blow. The ferocious battle threatened to raze the entire place to rubble.

At this moment, Second Grade Molten Giant Firerend had already rushed into the fire hall and was attacking the Fire Prison with all he had. As expected of a Second Grade, the power he possessed was far beyond the total of those four First Grade molten giants. The destructive power of his strength was also incomparable.

The Fire Prison was being taken apart at a visible pace.

At this intense moment of the battle, a crisp cracking sound came from the crater on Artes’ chest.

Greem had finally pierced through the half-meter thick magma shell!

Greem’s ferocious fire hand instantly stabbed into Artes’ chest and grabbed onto a fire core that was the size of a human head. As fire energy with violent, destructive powers surged into Artes’ body, a series of explosions occurred within. Greem’s fire energy took the opportunity to enter and successfully restrain Artes’ soul consciousness.

A soft sound rang out.

Greem pulled out his right hand, and Artes’ massive fire core turned dark red in his palm before cooling into a gray heart of stone.

The surroundings turned silent.

The molten giants stopped their attacks and looked at the stone heart in Greem’s hands with expressions of shock and surprise. They had lost all desire to fight, in addition to the ability to think clearly.

Their lord had died.

All the molten giants dejectedly looked at this sight as the sentence echoed throughout their minds. Finally, Firerend was the first to wake up from the shock. His dimmed eyes turned bloodshot once again as he pointed at Greem and roared, "Kill him!"

It was only then that the other molten giants recovered and roared in unison, "Kill him; avenge our lord!"

The next moment, the Fire Prison collapsed under the stone fists of the molten giants, exposing the ravaged fire pool.

Greem quickly stored the stone heart that contained Artes’ soul and rapidly reverted his transformation. By the time he regained his appearance as a two-meter-tall human adept, the molten giants had already arrived in front of him.

Greem was on his last legs as well now.

The battle against Artes had been brief, but shockingly intense; it had drained him of almost all the fire energy within his body. There were at least two dozen molten giants surrounding him, and one of them was Guard-Captain Firerend, whose grade was the same as his.

There was no meaning to any further combat now that he had accomplished his mission.

As such, Greem dove toward the bottom of the pool, picked up the golem core, and made his way toward the crack below, swimming away like a fish.

Firerend’s mad roars of fury rang out from behind him.

Greem ignored all of this and quickly swam away against the current of lava.

Fifteen minutes later, Greem emerged from a crack with much difficulty. This place was one and a half kilometers away from Dustfire Valley. One could only vaguely see the dust and fire of the valley from this distance.

Mission accomplished. Finally, the mission had been completed!

Greem’s eyes turned wet, accompanied by a sudden sense of ease and relaxation. He had never doubted his ability nor his luck along the way. Now, it seemed fate was on his side. Otherwise, sneaking into a higher plane to assassinate a powerful elementium lord that was just as powerful as himself would have been no more than a dream.

While Greem reveled in his victory, a strange voice rang out from beside him.

"You human adepts truly have some skills! To think you would be able to kill an actual Lord with a body as weak as yours. Hehehe, it seemed I’ve underestimated you as well."

Greem was terrified by this voice that had come out of nowhere. It wasn’t until he turned around that he saw the flaming tiger crouching idly behind him and staring at him with his fierce eyes.

"Cin...Sir Cindral, should ’t you...be waiting for me near the coordinates of my tower?"

"Hehehe, I had nothing to do anyway. So I followed you and watched how you killed that Artes. Not bad, not bad. Your plan was perfect, and you gave it your all as well. It was fairly interesting!"

It was fairly interesting...

Greem’s eyes couldn’t help but turn wet again.

How could it just be ’fairly interesting’? It was such a big thing. If his luck or power were slightly worse during that fight, then he would have received the tragic fate of death in another world. Yet, such a life-and-death battle was only ’fairly interesting’ in the eyes of this Cindral.

The look in the Third Grade tiger’s eyes didn’t change at all. He didn’t seem moved by Greem’s self-mockery.

"My mission here is complete! Then, for the rest of the trip, I welcome Sir Cindral to visit my private adept’s tower." Greem shook his head and cast away these pointless thoughts. He forced himself to put on a smile and respectfully extended an invitation at the tiger.

"Let us set off then!" On the contrary, Cindral was very interested in this topic and immediately stood up to leave.

Greem had no choice but to follow after closely him.

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

Lance. The Metal Fortress.

An impatient dragon was pacing around the metal hall.

Finally, Arms could no longer suppress his frustration and stopped his pointless pacing. He roared angrily at the empty hall, "It’s been eleven days. It’s been eleven days since I came here. Why has your human master not appear yet? No, I must see him immediately. At once...immediately."

A short moment later, Gazlowe’s strange voice rang out in the metal hall.

"Sir Arms, I apologize for this matter, but there is nothing I can do. From what I understand, Lord Greem is currently traveling in a different world and will have trouble returning in the short term. Even if I could send news of you to him, he couldn’t possibly abandon his mission for something as minor as this. As such..."

"Minor...minor," Almost as if he had been infuriated by this word, Arms voice immediately turned an octave louder, "My woman has almost been taken away by someone else, and you call it minor. Believe me; I can turn this place into a sea of fire with a single dragon’s breath!"

Arms was practically threatening at this point.

"I really can’t do anything, Sir Arms. Judging by your description, this matter involves a terrifying Fourth Grade dragon. An individual of this level exceeds my authority. I have to wait for Lord Greem to return to make a decision, regardless of how worried you are!"

After the catharsis of yelling, Arms once against started pacing in the hall.

Wait, wait, wait. What else could he do apart from waiting now?

Arms felt like his heart was being boiled in oil whenever he thought of his pretty lady-dragon crush in the arms of another dragon at this moment. He couldn’t sit still at all.

That damned Greem, where did he go?