Age of Adepts

“Old hag, what are you dragging your feet for? If we wait any longer, that fire adept will be long gone.” Natagu spoke coldly.

“You two, go ahead! I want to go take a look over there.” The old witch cackled wildly, “I can sense a sweet aura of plague spreading in that direction. The fire adept’s plague pet is over there!”

The serpentine adept hesitated for a moment, but nodded his head in the end, “Splitting up is a good idea as well! You chase after that Spirit of Pestilence, and we will chase after the fire adept. They will be meeting up eventually anyway. It gives us more insurance. Alright, let’s go!”

Natagu casually summoned a twenty-meter long Black Mamba and chased after the dense fire aura in the air with the psionic Benija.

The old witch laughed sinisterly and slowly walked into the darkness of an alleyway, her tall black staff tapping against the ground with every step.

The zombie horde in the city’s northern area was retreating.

After receiving Greem’s orders, Spirit of Pestilence Remi commanded the zombies to move out of the city immediately. The weaker zombies were abandoned, left to scurry within the city and occupy the holy knights.

Most of the zombies who were at the apprentice level or above rushed past the city walls towards the plains in the distance. There were a dozen among them who had successfully advanced to become First Grade Wights.

Compared to poison zombies, wights had more withered bodies, but their skeletons were larger. Their Strength, Physique, and Agility were also all greatly improved. Their muscles were tougher and denser. Even without protective armor, their bodies had as much defensive power as ordinary enchanted leather armor.

Their movements were more agile and flexible, while their limbs had evolved to include sharp claws, allowing them to climb along walls or ceilings easily. Their strange flexibility also allowed them to perform all sorts of unusual movements that humans could not.

As such, their means of slaughter were far more numerous and far more terrifying than the poison zombies!

Remi was one-meter tall and looked just like a boy of four to five years of age. He was sitting on the back of the strongest wight, leading all the feral undead as their swarmed past the city gates and the moat to make their way into the wild.

Remi looked around at the darkness surrounding him as he charged ahead on top of his servant. He felt as if a pair of sinister eyes were always watching him.

He was a unique lifeform evolved from a contracted spirit, after all. He did not have the systemic knowledge of the adepts and did not learn spells in the same manner. All of his current abilities were formed naturally and by instinct. It was almost as if he would unlock innate abilities whenever he grew stronger. Strange and unusual abilities would simply appear in his mind, carved deep within his soul.

Even without study or practice, he would be able to use them proficiently. Much like breathing and sleeping, it was merely an instinctual part of his being!

The innate ability Remi that obtained upon advancing to First Grade was Plague Spores!

Second Grade, Plague Halo!

Third Grade, Plague Modification!

Plague Spores allowed Remi to turn himself into an incubator, using his plague talent to produce and release terrifying plague spores continuously. Remi could further control these plague spores to allow them to either be more lethal, more infectious, or more painful.

Plague Halo allowed Remi to turn into a complete Spirit of Pestilence. Not only could his body rapidly spread plague spores, but all plague creatures fighting beside him would also spread plague viruses with their teeth and claws.

In all seriousness, Remi’s power only came to be after he advanced to Third Grade and gained the ability of Plague Modification.

In the past, creatures that died by his plague would not provide Remi with anything else apart from a bit of their life energy. However, with Plague Modification, all beings that died to the disease had a chance of rising under the control of the spores, becoming plague creatures under Remi’s command.

Moreover, these plague creatures could also evolve through bloody and cruel slaughter!

Their path of evolution was different from the worldly means of increasing in grade. They utilized a system of evolution by slaughter. Ordinary creatures would never be able to advance to First Grade in the course of a single night. However, seventeen of Remi’s plague zombies had advanced to First Grade wights after a single night of slaughter in Haisas City.

Of course, a big reason for their rapid evolution was because of their identities before their deaths. Most of these First Grade wights had been trainee knights or Iron Knights to begin with. Their talented bodies and the quality and quantity of the ‘food’ in Haisas made it more likely for the zombies to evolve shortly upon their conversion.

However, these plague creatures would never be able to escape their binding to Remi’s soul, regardless of how much they evolved and advanced!

They were dead creatures, after all– only resurrected by Remi’s strange powers. As such, Remi was the undisputed king to these seven hundred plague creatures. He was the ruler they would defend with their very lives!

From a certain perspective, plague creatures were almost the same as undead creatures.

However, the difference was in their source of power. Plague creatures were resurrected and sustained by the plague spores, while undead had their souls supported by negative energy.

The uncomfortable feeling in Remi’s heart grew as he continued escaping with his zombies.

He turned back abruptly, and his ghostly green eyes caught sight of a strange silhouette in the crimson night sky.

It was an odd witch riding upon a flying broom. She had a tall witch’s hat, a head full of white hair, sagging cheeks, wrinkles and spots all over her face, and a waist that almost bent at a right angle.

The old witch was flying in the sky right now. A large crimson moon hung behind her, making her figure seem all the more ominous and fearsome.

A Third Grade witch!

And a witch that specialized at poison!

Remi analyzed and determined the identity of the opponent in no time at all.

After all, they both used poison. That familiar scent could be smelled from hundreds of meters away.

“Kehkehkeh. To think, it was a contracted spirit that had evolved to Third Grade. I’m in luck. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You’ve even developed conscious sentience. It seems that little brat didn’t hold back on investing in you, did he?!” The old witch laughed sinisterly and started mumbling to herself as if Remi was not a threat at all.

She might be the only person here, but Remi was leading a small ‘army’ of his own. Yet, she still behaved as if victory was assured. It was pretty simple, really. This army of zombies had not truly taken shape yet.

A group of apprentice-level zombies and a dozen First Grade wights were no threat at all to a Third Grade poison witch like herself. They wouldn’t be a threat still, even if they grew to ten times their current number.

A Third Grade adept was no longer a being that could be worn down by mere numbers.

Killing any Third Grade required the proper conditions, geography, and a sufficiently large army of fodder. All three were necessary.

Meanwhile, the might of the Spirit of Pestilence itself was nothing in the eyes of the Third Grade poison witch. If it weren’t for her distasteful preference for torturing her enemies, Guinevere would have already struck at the Spirit of Pestilence.

Dammit. It was a poison witch!

“Hello, is something of the matter?” A sweet smile appeared on Remi’s dark green face. He blinked with his pale green eyes and looked at the old witch intently, seemingly full of curiosity.

As he spoke, a cluster of terrifying and tiny plague spores spread into the air, so minuscule they could not be seen with the naked eye. The spores quickly moved toward the witch, like invisible ink.

Two hundred meters was just a matter of six to seven seconds for strange plague spores like these!

“Heheh. Brat, trying to act cute in front of me, are you? Well then, let me show you the might of my poison techniques.” The old witch laughed sinisterly.

Remi’s green eyes saw a similarly invisible cloud of poison mist spread from the witch’s body, quickly colliding with his plague spores.

The two previously invisible poison clouds immediately appeared in midair. They tore at each other, devouring and consuming the other like two fighting beasts, trying their best to corrupt the other into their own.

The two clouds of poison mists were only clashing between Remi and the witch, but as time passed and the winds blew across the air, they started to spread outward until they covered the entire plains.

They bubbled and trembled, corrupting each other, devouring each other.

The poison zombies and wights caught in the mists immediately became the central battlefield where the poisons fought for dominance. Large areas of rot appeared on the body of any zombie that was caught in the fog, despite their tough skin. It was almost as if they had been corroded by acid, revealing their still-fresh flesh beneath the withered skin.

The two clouds of poison mists flew into a frenzy when they sensed the presence of blood and flesh. They surged into the bodies of the zombies, fighting for control in every muscle, nerve, and organ.

Whenever one side obtained an advantage, they quickly spread outward, turning more flesh and bone into their own kind. Black smoke rose from the orifices of the zombies, and their bodies quickly started to rot and decay.

In the blink of an eye, a zombie of apprentice level was reduced to a pile of spotted and corroded bones.

The newly gathered poison mists would join the fray, strengthening the might of their own side.

These poison mists were like the most oil-hungry machines, while the oil they burned was the flesh of any living creature!