Age of Adepts

“They have finished all the missions assigned to them and even assaulted a floating city. The images recorded in the crystal prove that they have indeed gone to the core area of the floating city and even retrieved valuable information!”

There weren’t too many images of battle recorded in the mission crystals. Greem had only used it to record some brief scenes of combat. In particular, there was the scene of Illhoof fighting against the Fifth Grade Great Arcanist in the arcane palace at the center of Reisin Graden.

Anyone who viewed the images would be able to estimate Greem’s position from the angle and distance from which the images had been recorded.

“I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it. How could they have entered and left the floating city unharmed with their ability? They must have cheated somehow.” The Coldwinter Witch was still pursuing the question.

Her gaze quickly landed on the weakest of the three of them– Mangus.

“Speak, Mangus, how did Shani die?”

Mangus’ eyebrow twitched. He lifted his head and said coldly, “You will have to ask Witch Shani yourself! We were a proper party, and still, she chose to work alone, simply because she’s powerful. Otherwise, she would never have been surrounded by enemies and killed alone!”

The Coldwinter Witch’s face turned dark.

However, before she could press the issue, Adept Holly spoke up angrily as well.

“Witch Shani died at the hands of the son of the God of Wisdom. I can attest to that as well. Moreover, we have already avenged her. We killed most of the believers of the God of Wisdom there! Even the god’s son has died!”

“Oh?” Adept Roy’s gaze sharpened as he turned towards Greem. “You people killed the god’s son?”

Greem shook his head lightly and replied with a bitter smile, “How could we beat him with our power? He has an artifact. The one that killed him was a lich. His name was Kanganas, and it seemed like he belonged to some unusual organization known as the Great Pan-Universe Alliance of Liches.”

“Lich Kanganas. He came to Morrian Plane as well!” Adept Roy seemed to know something about Kanganas. His expression turned solemn upon hearing his name, as if he was incredibly wary of the lich. “You are truly lucky to have survived after meeting Kanganas. Be careful the next time you meet that guy. He’s infamous for his cruelty and cunning. His favorite hobby is collecting the corpses of powerful casters!”

Adept Holly and Mangus exchanged a look when they saw Adept Roy warn them so solemnly. They couldn’t help but be exasperated.

A cruel lich? It seemed like the lich had been on relatively equal and amicable terms with Greem, almost as if they appreciated each other’s powers.

It seemed like Greem indeed hid his true abilities well. Even the elite adepts here had not realized his actual power and facade. They couldn’t afford to offend someone like him!

Holly and Mangus had long since been won over by Greem’s power during this journey. They started to obey by Greem’s instructions throughout unknowingly.

They weren’t too worried about offending the Dark Witches over this matter. The three of them belonged to different adept organizations, after all. The Northern Witches might be powerful, but they could not easily do anything to any of them. Moreover, offending a rising star with seemingly no limits for a dead adept was a foolish decision that neither of them was stupid enough to make.

After all, this Greem was a powerful man who could even talk with a lich as an equal! Others might not know all these subtleties, but the two of them had personally witnessed Greem’s unparalleled might as a fire adept. Naturally, they knew what to say and what not to say.

Fourth Grade adepts might be the pinnacle of power in the World of Adepts, but even Fourth Grade adepts were divided into different levels by their power. The legendary fire adept had far surpassed them. He was now a fearsome individual that they could only look up to from a distance.

Thus, it didn’t matter what the others thought. Holly and Mangus had both made up their minds. They would never make an enemy out of Greem for the rest of their lives!

Since the mission crystal had been examined, there was nothing to criticize about Greem’s party.

Though the Coldwinter Witch was still upset about this, she could not do anything without substantial evidence.

In the end, why did Dark Witch Shani participate in this planar war? What were her true intentions? And what happened between them?

The Coldwinter Witch had no answers to these questions. She was only trying to uncover the truth out of her routine defense of the united benefit of the Northern Witches.

Since she could not procure anything from the situation, she ceased her pursuit. Instead, she intended to inform the Witch Council of what had happened here once she had returned to her station beyond the World of Adepts. It would be the Council’s problem to deal with then!

The death of a Fourth Grade Dark Witch in a foreign plane would certainly cause waves among the Northern Witches. However, as a Fourth Grade witch stationed in the realms beyond, these things did not really concern her.

“Since everyone’s already arrived, we shall commence teleportation now! The war here has already escalated in scale and intensity. We could run into ultra-grade powerhouses at any moment. It is no longer safe to remain here. If nobody else has any concerns, then come closer, please!”

Adept Roy–who no longer wanted to remain in this ruined plane–stood forward. Seeing no objections, he took out a strange seed and tossed it onto the rocky surface before him.

This seed was not a seed of an ordinary plant. Instead, it was the seed of a magical plant that had been specially cultivated and sealed for future use. With the breaking of the seal, tender leaves began to spread out and expand in an almost human-like fashion. The equally tender roots pierced the stone like sharp daggers, quickly spreading and growing through the hill.

In less than a few minutes, the plant had grown into a massive forest. Strange, profound runes flowed on the green vines that now crawled all over the hill. The many complicated, winding roots formed a giant magical array underground.

Adept Roy stood at the center of the magical array, violent and ferocious magic energy pouring from his body into the array beneath him. Chains of runes and threads of energy appeared in the air as the energy aura grew in intensity. Soon, the power was blindingly bright.

“Come in, all of you! The teleportation will begin soon!”

The other nine adepts stepped onto the roots of the magical plant without any hesitation when they heard Adept Roy’s orders. They each found a place to sit, closed their eyes, and waited for the teleportation to commence.

Greem, Holly, and Mangus had become slightly more acquainted during their trip. As such, they stood somewhat closer to each other than the other adepts. In particular, Mangus stood right by Greem, as if he was subordinate to him and looking for his protection.

Greem knew that the siblings were weak and would probably face some difficulty with such intense interplanar teleportation. As such, he did not pay it much heed.

The blinding runic array soon flooded the hill, turning it into a sea of light. All ten adepts were engulfed in the light as a portal was torn open.

Due to the damage to Morrian Plane, the dying planar consciousness no longer had the power to suppress interplanar teleportation of this sort. It made the difficulty of tearing space apart far easier than when they broke into the plane.

When a black hole had been torn into space, an energy storm surged out from within the rift, assaulting the adepts. Activating an elementium shield at this moment was not a good idea. Doing so would throw the spatial energy into chaos, causing unpredictable and terrifying consequences.

The adepts could only close their eyes and endure, using their refined physical bodies and magic resistance to survive the corrosion of space energy. Everybody could feel their bodies mysteriously lengthening, contorting, and twisting. Gradually, they started to lose all sense of space.

Even with the countless improvements that the adepts had made to interplanar teleportation arrays, it was still difficult to minimize the danger during the process. Only high-grade adepts whose bodies had been greatly modified could endure such fearsome spatial change. An ordinary, low-grade adept would be torn to pieces by the violently shifting spatial powers.

The duration of the teleportation felt different for each adept.

Some adepts would only feel a slight daze, and the teleportation would be over when they opened their eyes. Their experience of the teleportation was only a brief moment. Meanwhile, some adepts with powerful Spirits could maintain sharp consciousness throughout the teleportation process. Teleportation for these adepts could be dozens of seconds, several minutes, or even fifteen minutes.

It was hard to tell who was right about the passage of time during teleportation!

Just as the energy in the array bubbled to a peak, Mangus suddenly opened his eyes. His eyes turned white, and his face suddenly contorted into one of pain and struggle.

“Get out...this...this is my body.”

He screamed furiously as if fighting or resisting against some unknown force.

In the end, he even roared and summoned the sleeping Cherisha to transform into their two-headed combat state.

Roar!

He roared unintelligibly, but his body suddenly trembled and calmed down.

Both Mangus and Cherisha’s heads turned towards Greem and looked at him. Mangus laughed coldly and said, “Brat, we meet again! I hope you like this present.”

Having said that, he lunged towards Greem. His entire body turned crimson as if he had drawn upon all of his powers in a single instant. Then, without any hesitation, he self-destructed!