Age of Adepts

Thirty minutes later, Greem blasted down the metal doors leading to the hall. He strode into the room, dragging Gru’s badly charred corpse behind him.

The steel hall was nearly a thousand square meters in size, but most of that space was taken up by Gazlowe’s big, ugly brain. Compared to the last time they met, Gazlowe’s brain had increased by at least one-third in size.

That also meant that Gazlowe’s powers had increased considerably!

Unfortunately, the aura radiating from the brain was only at the level of a Third Grade.

Moreover, he was facing a well-prepared Greem. Though Gazlowe’s mental powers were fairly unusual and subtle in their applications, it was still incredibly hard to take down a Fourth Grade fire adept.

Having considered all the advantages and disadvantages, Gazlowe made up his mind the moment Greem stepped into the hall.

A small white flag was wrapped in the grasp of one of the brain stems beneath Gazlowe’s massive brain. It was lightly waving the flag at Greem through the translucent crystal glass.

[Beep. Detecting data connection request. Requesting instructions from Host. Authorize request?]

Negotiations now that he had lost?

Greem’s heart was filled with disdain, but he still chose to accept the mental connection from Gazlowe.

Gazlowe’s strange, sharp voice rang in Greem’s mind the moment the connection was established.

“Lord Greem, I am innocent! All of those things were done by my split-brain, Gru. I was in a deep slumber previously and relaxed my control over Gru slightly. That was how he was ‘misguided’ by someone else.”

Greem listened silently, his eyes narrowing into smiling arcs.

The more mysterious Greem’s attitude was, the more concerned Gazlowe became.

“Lord Greem, you must see the truth! I...I am truly innocent! If...if you don’t believe me, you can examine Gru’s brain. He...he appeared to have been enchanted by a witch known as Maysa.”

Witch Maysa?

Greem believed that Gazlowe wasn’t entirely lying when he heard this name. However, Gazlowe mentioned examining Gru’s brain. That meant that he would have to dissect the brain thoroughly. Only the two of them could fully understand what this truly implied.

Split-Brain Gru could do something behind the main brain’s back without his knowledge?

Greem might have been tricked by this ‘lie’ if he was still a beginner apprentice. However, the more he understood about brain monsters, the more he laughable Greem found the lie he had just been fed.

Split-Brain Gru might appear to have an independent consciousness and thought, with a personality very distinct from the main brain, but the two brains were connected to each other. Even across vast distances, in entirely different planes, there was an inseverable, intangible connection between the two of them.

The main brain was the primary stem, and the split-brain was only a branch that was created for ease of movement and activity.

If the split-brain died, the main brain would have only lost a capable puppet on strings. It wouldn’t suffer any loss personally. However, if the main brain died, the consciousness of all split-brains would be exterminated in a single instant. Not one of them would survive.

It was the existence of this trait that ensured that split-brains would never do anything to hurt the main brain.

Greem couldn’t help but choke up with anger when he heard Gazlowe use such a terrible lie as an excuse so that he could live. However, just as Gazlowe expected, Greem held no actual killing intent towards him. Greem only wanted to take this opportunity to give him a stern warning.

After all, he was a Third Grade brain monster. hH was a Third Grade brain monster capable of controlling a massive capital of steel. No one could bear to kill him!

All Gazlowe required at the moment was an excuse with which he could fool the outside world.

As long as Greem didn’t intend to kill him, he would accept the excuse, regardless of how terrible it actually was.

Greem was thinking silently.

He couldn’t help but feel a fire blaze in his heart when he saw Gazlowe’s submissive waving of the flag. It only got worse when he sensed how cautious and careful the mental appendage had been when establishing the connection.

Gazlowe might seem fearful and submissive, but Greem knew very well that he had calculated all this. He knew Gazlowe was just waiting for him to play his part in this facade!

All of his atrocities in the past could just be looked over with Gru’s sacrifice.

This plotting mind, this little trickery and pulling of the strings, was what disgusted and infuriated Greem the most!

Greem was deep in thought when his gaze ‘unintentionally’ landed on Gazlowe’s massive brain.

As dense fire elementium gathered around his eyes, two red dots appeared on the soft, jelly-like gray brain matter. Two small fires quickly ignited.

The fires were small, but they had the strange power of piercing straight to the soul!

Gazlowe’s mental flux trembled as his mental appendages started to curl. However, he sensed no danger coming from the aura that Greem was radiating.

He could not understand the intentions behind Greem’s actions in the slightest. He could only put out a mental barrier in an attempt to shield himself from the power projecting from Greem’s eyes. Meanwhile, he sent a fawning message to Greem, “Lord Greem, Lord Greem, your power is too immense. Could you restrain it a little bit? This humble one, this humble one...can hardly endure your power any longer!”

Unfortunately, Greem seemed far too deep in thought. His gaze started to wander about. The two red dots fixed on Gazlowe’s brain also started to roam all over.

The fire elementium power gathered in the red dots was far too intense. They sizzled when they landed on Gazlowe’s brain, easily leaving deep scorch marks upon the brain matter. These marks were all one meter deep and half a meter in width. All the brain matter along the path of the red dots was charred black, devoid of all life force.

Gazlowe was also screaming in agony from the burning sensation that pierced straight to his soul. He was suffering immensely, but there was no one he could speak to. The mental barrier he had put up couldn’t stop the fire elementium either, for some reason.

It was almost...almost as if Greem wasn’t actually projecting the fire energy with his vision. Instead, he was directly gathering the fire elementium on Gazlowe’s brain through some method unknown to Gazlowe, resulting in this effect similar to that of scorching fire.

It appeared to be some sort of strange principle power!

Could Greem have mastered and grasped a certain fire principle right after he advanced to Fourth Grade? That was unbelievable!

The red dots continued wandering all over the brain.

Messy, crisscrossing scorch marks akin to the random sketching of a child were left behind as the red dots moved. Gazlowe shuddered and shivered from the pain as wave after wave of mental ripples radiating outwards from his wrinkled brain.

Gazlowe’s cries for mercy became louder and louder.

After seven minutes, Greem seemed to have woken up from his deep brooding. His unfocused eyes suddenly became concentrated and animated once more.

“Ah...look at this. I was just thinking about the whole Witch Maysa affair, and I zoned out. To think, I unintentionally hurt your whole body. You wouldn’t blame me for this, would you?” Greem’s expression was lively and greatly exaggerated. His tone was sincere, but his eyes were filled with malice and ridicule. Anyone could see the very intentional facade he was putting on.

However, just as Greem didn’t want to tear down Gazlowe’s lies, Gazlowe didn’t want to shred this layer of a facade that the two of them were keeping up. Faced with Greem’s sincere ‘apologetic’ attitude, Gazlowe once again demonstrated his ‘generosity.’

“It’s nothing, nothing at all. Lord Greem, this couldn’t possibly be your fault. It is only...only my body that is lacking in training, which is why I couldn’t endure that slightly ‘hot’ power of yours!”

“I see, so that’s how it was! It seems I was overthinking the issue. Still, Gazlowe, you can’t just focus on expanding your mind and neglect improving your brain’s elementium defenses! That isn’t good. It makes you very likely to get injured on accident, you know.”

Gazlowe felt as bitter as he could be when he heard Greem’s mocking response, but there was no one he could tell it to.

His elementium defenses were weak? His Physique was frail?

In all honesty, even a Second Grade dragon couldn’t compare to Gazlowe’s elementium defenses! His mental powers could put up a special distorted space around his brain. Ordinary elementium magic and physical attacks could almost never reach his brain through this defense as long as his mental powers were not exhausted.

Only a strange technique similar to what Greem had used that contained a trace of the principle powers could have injured him so terribly. No other person could have survived the thousands of magic energy cannons installed in the Capital of Eternity. No other person could have shredded through tens of thousands of magical machines and hundreds of Second Grade machines. No other person could be unfazed in front of the dominant mental attacks of a Third Grade brain monster.

Talk not about injuring Gazlowe himself. There were probably less than five beings throughout Lance who could even get to Gazlowe with their own power.

As such, Gazlowe’s only response to Greem’s extremely malicious ridicule was silence. He could only swallow all his broken teeth and blood, lower his head, acknowledge his faults, and demonstrate his humility and servility.

The burning from earlier might have hurt Gazlowe badly, but it did not inflict substantial damage on him. His brain was far too large, after all. That amount of loss to his brain matter was nothing at all.

This whole performance had only been a show of attitude and intentions!

Greem had expressed what he felt, and Gazlowe had acknowledged these feelings.

It was a happy ending, and both of them were a loving family once again.

However, a new fire control-rune was unavoidable!

Gazlowe thought for a long while before finally and reluctantly releasing his mental defenses. He let Greem leave his brand on his soul origin.

The soul brand from before had been left there when Greem was Second Grade, after all. Gazlowe had already done away with the brand through some means long ago. The new fire control-rune might not be able to guarantee absolute loyalty from Gazlowe, but it was still an effective, short-term means of binding him to Greem’s service.

For the sake of his own life, Gazlowe had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure it!