Age of Adepts

Alice placed her hands together in front of herself in a cup, as if holding a lotus in them.

As her magic power surged, the initially flat marble floor started to shine with intense magical light. Powerful magical energy surged out from within, drawing a massive and complex array in the air around Alice.

As the astrology ceremony began, a vast stream of star power poured down from the skies above, filling the entire platform with strange lights and rapidly flickering projections. Yet, when one tried to focus and look at the images in closer detail, they would have trouble understanding the meaning the images were trying to express.

[Beep. Detecting the presence of planar laws. Initial estimates suggest them to be the powers of Fate.

[This is an exceptionally powerful and mysterious force. It would even be considered a higher force among the laws. Data currently being gathered.]

Greem looked around him. The entire platform had been completely engulfed in this strange power of Fate, giving the place an ancient feeling of age and passing time.

They were no longer in the astrology platform at the top of the Tower of Fate, but in a vast and boundless desert.

Look into the distance, and all you would see is fine, dirt-yellow sand and golden light shining from the sun above.

Only Greem and Alice were present in this vast desert.

“Where is this?” Greem picked up the sand beneath him and rubbed it between his hands. It was coarse and hard. It wasn’t an illusion, but something that existed.

“I don’t know!” Alice sighed sadly as she said, “The power of Fate is too mysterious, and I still can’t harness this power. That is why I have no choice over where it brings me most of the time.”

“It?” Greem replied with a question.

“It!” Alice put her hands behind her back and smiled lightly, “When a plane develops to its limits, the Planar Consciousness will awaken, and a great will is born. Most of the planar worlds we have seen so far have only given birth to a vague and undefined Planar Consciousness. Those consciousnesses are constrained by the lack of plane resources and are unable to continue growing. However, the world we live in, the World of Adepts, is already qualified to rise from a Planar Consciousness to a World Consciousness. That...will be a World of Adepts with its very own will!”

Greem listened closely.

As an adept that had advanced to this point from a low-grade, he naturally possessed a reasonably deep understanding of the concept of a Planar Consciousness. However, the matter involved higher mystic knowledge, and he could not learn many of the world’s secrets.

Now, Alice was giving him a lesson, providing him with the most accurate picture of the planar world!

The World of Adepts had already given birth to a Planar Consciousness and was preparing to grow into a World Consciousness!

Such a secret would never be written in any magical tome and would never be learned of by low-grade adepts.

“You mean to say we live in a planar world with its own mind and consciousness? Can it hear and sense all thoughts and actions of any creatures within itself?” Greem felt a chill run down his spine.

Alice smiled slightly as she said, “Don’t think of the Planar Consciousness as a crude awareness much like us humans. It is more the combination and amalgamation of the consciousnesses of billions of lifeforms and substances within the plane. That amalgamation of consciousnesses is too vast and complex. It has no chance of gaining direct awareness.”

“Then what does it possess?”

“Instinct!”

“Instinct?”

“The instinct to survive, to develop, and the instinct to grow stronger.”

“Isn’t that just the same as feral beasts?”

“That is how it should be. The Planar Consciousness has always been so simple. It can never gain complex and sensitive emotions or consciousness like humans can. It is like a barely month-old baby, desperate to grow but with no means of expressing its thoughts.”

“When you put it that way, it feels like the Planar Consciousness is very frail.”

“It is not frail in any manner! It might not have a clear consciousness and mind, but it has tremendous power. It controls the laws, the plane, power, and us who live within it.”

“Why did you want to bring me here?”

“Because only here, engulfed in the power of Fate, can our conversation be completely secure. We can only avoid being listened in on by that ‘person.’”

“That ‘person’?” Greem started thinking.

“Yes, the First Witch of Fate, Maysa. She is already a Seventh Grade witch!”

“Seventh Grade.” Greem sucked at his tooth gum. He felt his head hurt, “You mean to say that she’s our enemy now?”

“She’s my enemy!” Alice placed extra emphasis on the word ‘my,’ “However, if you choose to help me, she will probably also include you on her list of enemies.”

“Can I ask a simple question? Why is she our enemy?” Greem’s tone also turned solemn.

“Because her power is far too great, and because she dreams in vain of robbing the authority of the World Consciousness. Because she has disrupted the flow of Fate in the World of Adepts. All this while, she has been relying on her strange abilities to steal the power of Fate from the World of Adepts. It has severely affected the birth of the World Consciousness. That is why the Planar Consciousness is furious, and that is why it has chosen me!”

Greem listened quietly and couldn’t help but draw in a deep breath of air.

Alice might not have said much, but every word revealed some deeper secret of the World of Adepts. Without her analysis, he would probably have spent his entire life unknowing of this reality of the world, hidden deep behind the scenes.

“You mean to say that the Planar Consciousness can no longer tolerate Witch Maysa, and that is why it has launched the Battle of Fate and plotted a way to make Maysa’s plan fail? Your choice and your growth were all under the manipulations of the Planar Consciousness?” Even Greem couldn’t help but shudder when he reached this point.

If...if that Planar Consciousness was indeed like an almighty ruler, always observing everything within the plane, then was there still privacy in front of it? Were there still secrets?

“Where have your thoughts gone,” Alice couldn’t help but lash back, “The Planar Consciousness is not as tasteless as you, alright?! It just instinctually dislikes Maysa’s frequent interference in the fate laws. As such, it repeatedly launched the Battles of Fate. Then, it tried to create variables that Maysa cannot control within these Battles.”

“You and I are these variables!”

“Indeed!” Alice said in agreement, “However, this doesn’t mean that we now have someone backing us. The Planar Consciousness does not have a clear enough mind to distinguish between ally and foe. It might have pushed me forward as the hand to disrupt Maysa’s plan and control over the fate laws in the World of Adepts, but it has no concern for my safety or life. It will not mourn for me even if I fail, nor shed a single tear. It will simply push forward another champion of Fate from the plane.”

“You mean to say that we have become the tools of the Planar Consciousness pushed forth to fight against the Seventh Grade Witch Maysa, and we will receive no special reward or authority for this?”

“Yes!” Alice nodded and said, “The Planar Consciousness might have given me the title of the champion of Fate, but it has no intention of standing on my side. I might enjoy some convenience and privileges when it comes to the use of the powers of Fate, but it is still far from enough to fight against a Seventh Grade witch. So, it’s not that I don’t want to jump into your embrace. It’s just...are you sure you want to bear this heavy burden on your shoulders?”

Greem couldn’t help but betray a bitter smile when he heard this.

He was already in a lot of trouble. Who knew Alice’s problems were even more extensive and numerous than his own?

While Alice was drowning in her sorrows and hesitation, Greem suddenly stood before her. He took her into his arms and gave her a fierce kiss.

A good seven minutes later, Greem finally let go of Alice’s somewhat swollen lips. He looked into her eyes and said, “From now on, you are mine. Only I can bully you from today onwards. Anyone else who wants to bully you will have to go through me!”

For some reason, warm tears started to well out of Alice’s amber eyes when she heard Greem’s simple and even crude words. Her nose was sour, and her vision was already blurry from all the tears. Her beautiful eyes were even swollen red from all the crying.

She had been so, so lonely all this while!

At least, in the past, she’d still had Endor at her side to comfort and encourage her.

However, with Endor’s death in Faen, she had lost her only relative. She had no one to turn to, even with all the complaints and lamentations in her mind. She could not find a companion to bear her burden with her.

That was why the walls that Alice had so painstakingly built around her heart instantly crumbled to dust when she heard Greem’s genuine words.

Her soft arm wrapped about Greem’s neck, and for the first time, she offered up a kiss. She then leaned against Greem’s ears and mumbled, “You will make me fall in love with you this way, you big bad guy.”

This simple sentence instantly incited Greem’s lust.

Amidst some wild tussling and wrestling, the two silhouettes finally merged as one.

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

Outside the astrology platform, the hard-headed Fairy Helen was abnormally quiet.

She bit at her slender finger lightly as she silently spied on everything happening in the hall.

She was clearly having trouble understanding some actions of humans.

Even though the emotions transmitted over from the soul contract were those of joy and pleasure, she was only hearing moans of ‘agony’ and seeing requests for mercy.

Meanwhile, that big bad guy was giddily and very excitedly enjoying the situation. He had almost bullied Alice to death now.

The two of them were obviously fighting, but why were they fighting in such a weird fashion?

Moreover, Alice clearly wouldn’t like it if she broke in and interrupted them.

With a bit of disappointment, Helen flapped her translucent wings and flew back to her lair.

Perhaps she could get some guidance from her companions!

Helen silently thought to herself.