Age of Adepts

No matter how ferocious and intense the battle was, the outside world remained utterly unaffected.

When Mary forcefully Embraced Nightmare Castle Kerslin and gained control of it, Greem’s mental consciousness was instantly rejected by the Nightmare Domain by a powerful force.

It was the same room in the actual Nightmare Castle. Greem opened his eyes, and Mary followed soon after.

Greem frowned, but Mary had a big smile on her face.

“Did it work?” The question had just left Greem’s mouth, and he immediately knew it had been an unnecessary one.

In fact, Greem didn’t even have to see that gleeful expression on Mary’s face. He immediately knew what had happened when he sensed the strange resonance between Mary’s soul and the Nightmare Castle.

The moment she emerged from the Nightmare Domain, Mary’s soul had been bound with this Nightmare Castle. Strands of crimson energy flowed between them, and this monstrosity of alchemy and flesh whimpered before Mary’s authority, as gentle as a puppy.

The forcefield pressure that had been weighing on Mary and Greem all this while also vanished instantly.

Powerful crimson energy replaced the castle’s life force, becoming the Nightmare Castle’s source of energy to maintain its functions.

“We should return the Gem of Power to Kerslin, shouldn’t we? Otherwise, its home-field advantage will be limited to within the castle. With the Gem of Power, it can extend its Nightmare Domain over a thousand meters away. When that happens, everything within one and a half kilometers of the Nightmare Castle will be Kerslin’s home field!” Mary asked impatiently.

Even though she had the Gem of Power with her, she still had to respect Greem’s opinion on how she should use it.

“It’s your pet. You decide!” Greem smiled, but his tone clearly approved of Mary’s idea.

Mary gladly took out the Gem of Power. Surges of crimson energy appeared around her, turning into a red pillar with an indentation upon it. Mary put the Gem onto the pillar, and it retracted into the ground.

A short moment later, the Nightmare Castle glowed brightly with crimson light. Layers of forcefields expanded from the heart of the castle, expelling all elementium energy that did not belong to it. In the blink of an eye, countless energy forcefield layers once again engulfed the Nightmare Castle, turning the whole area into Kerslin’s home-field once more.

Greem estimated that Kerslin had reached an advanced Fourth Grade level after falling under Mary’s control. It had yet to reach the level of a forbidden lifeform. Meanwhile, Freed had been sacrificed in the blood ritual and became a Fourth Grade spirit bound to the Nightmare Castle. However, his powers had degraded to that of a beginner Fourth Grade.

“How is it? Do you feel any improvements to your power after gaining control of Kerslin?” Due to the existence of the energy forcefields, even Greem could not obtain detailed information on Kerslin. He could only ask Mary.

“Not really. It’s just the addition of an advanced Fourth Grade subordinate!” Mary smiled brightly and seemingly bragged in a cheerful tone. “However, if the battlefield is within Kerslin’s radius of effect, I would have the confidence to fight you ultra-powerhouses!”

That meant that the combined power of Mary and Kerslin could reach peak Fourth Grade!

Unfortunately, the mobility of the Nightmare Castle was terrible. Mary could only fill-in for the role of a defense ultra-powerhouse. It wasn’t the perfect conclusion, but Greem still nodded in satisfaction.

With this, the foundations of the Crimson Clan were truly secure!

Zhentarim had been thoroughly shaken by Greem’s appearance as a pseudo-ultra-powerhouse. The ripples spreading across the land had not ceased, even now. Schemes and plots from the regions around Zhentarim also started to press forward.

This time, the Crimson Clan would have to push forward regardless of what happened.

If they could not survive this ordeal, then the only future they would face was extermination. Greem might be able to escape unscathed due to his status as a Fourth Grade adept, but the other members of the Crimson Clan would have a hard time ever living in the Central Lands again.

Now that Mary had gained control of Kerslin, her prowess had improved tremendously. She could even rival ultra-powerhouses in some respect.

That was undoubtedly a firm anchor for the Crimson Clan, that now found itself on the edge of a ferocious storm!

There was no need to fight any battles or to put on an intimidating front. All they had to do was release a little news about Mary’s improvement, and they would be able to scare off many of those malicious enemies stalking in the shadows. It would save the Crimson Clan a lot of trouble.

It was precisely because Greem had considered this question thoroughly that he suddenly smiled.

“Then, as a celebration for obtaining the Nightmare Castle, let us host a banquet here! There have been a lot of clan representatives visiting recently anyway. We might as well have an audience with them with the banquet.”

“Hmph! I know the banquet’s just an excuse. You just want to frighten those messengers, don’t you? Alright, we will make it tomorrow night. I will give you a huge surprise then!” Mary grunted, clearly having seen through Greem’s plans.

The two of them smiled at each other, a light of anticipation in their eyes.

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

The second day.

Nightfall.

All the clan messengers who had been waiting in the vicinity had received notifications from the Crimson Clan. They slowly began to return to Kerslin Castle.

The past few days they had spent in Kerslin Castle had completely changed their understanding of the castle.

It was obvious that a blood ritual had just taken place in the castle not long ago. As the numbers and prowess of the adepts involved in the ritual were horrifying, the entire castle had been shrouded in permanent resentment and the scent of blood.

However, this time, as they arrived at the castle on their mounts, they immediately noticed the atmosphere had changed.

The resentment lingering in the air was gone. The smell of blood had thinned, turned into a light mist that resembled blood energy.

Meanwhile, the people who greeted them at the castle’s doors were none other than the vampires subordinate to the Bloody Queen. The men conducted themselves eloquently, and the women were incredibly pretty. All of them were dressed in fancy dress clothes and behaved in an elegant fashion, managing the banquet in an orderly manner.

Apart from the high-grade vampires, many of the higher-ups of the Crimson Clan were also here.

Just the ones that could be seen at the banquet included Fire Dragon Adept Meryl, Mystique Emelia, Emerald Dragon Iritina, Bug Adept Billis, Goblin Sage Snorlax, Split-Brain Sock, Goblin Adept Locke, and Magical Goblin Leader Gonga.

After so many years of trials and tribulations, these veterans of the Crimson Clan who had followed Greem for hundreds of years had mostly reached Third Grade as well. As for those who couldn’t keep up? They had either been eliminated from the core group or had simply died of old age. Either way, those people would not be able to appear at such an event!

However, that wasn’t the truly shocking part of the banquet. What stunned the guests more were the servants weaving their way between the crowd.

Every messenger who could attend the Crimson Clan’s banquet was someone of importance, a Second Grade adept at the very least.

The major clans might only send a single adept as a messenger, but that person would be no lower than Third Grade. Meanwhile, the smaller clans often only had one or two Second Grade adepts across the entire clan. As such, the clan leader themself would have to be the messenger.

As high-grade adepts, all of them had attended countless adept banquets. However, none of them had high-grade spirits as servants like the Crimson Clan did now.

The servants holding silver platters as they weaved between the crowd were not humans or vampires at all. Instead, they were pretty female spirits with seductive figures– dream enchantresses.

Dream enchantresses, also known as night enchantresses, were strange creatures of unusual seductiveness. They had wings and a tail. Their greatest ability was the ability to drain the life essence of intelligent creatures through dreams.

That was why they were often noted as exceptions from ordinary monsters and spirits in many books. However, no matter how you categorized them, it was obvious that they were not ordinary intelligent lifeforms but terrifying and dangerous creatures of an unusual sort.

The fact that the Crimson Clan could tame dream enchantresses and use them to serve adepts was more than a sufficient demonstration of their power.

These dream enchantresses were all fearsome Second Grade spirits. Left in a small adept clan, they could easily wipe out every single living being. Here, they were no more than humble servants working their best to fulfill the needs of the adepts.

The only problem was that when the dream enchantresses walked past the guests, the weaker Second Grade adepts would show signs of being charmed. They could only subtly add a few layers of magical protection to themselves and put some distance between them and those monsters.

The Second Grade adepts were impressed by these insignificant matters, while the Third Grade adepts noticed far more shocking details!

The more powerful of the Third Grade adepts had already started delving into research in the laws. They might not be able to come into contact with the laws or attempt to grasp them, but they could still imitate the laws’ effects through their magic.

That was why the Third Grade adepts were fixated on Kerslin Castle while the Second Grade adepts were distracted by the dream enchantresses.

How strange, how unusual, how odd.

For some reason, Kerslin Castle felt completely different from a few days ago. The aura it radiated was utterly unfamiliar, such that they were confused.

Did they sense wrongly, or had something strange really happened to Kerslin Castle?

While everyone was confused, the hostess of the banquet arrived. Bloody Queen Mary stepped down the stairs in her clicking heels, wearing a scarlet dress.

The confusion on everyone’s faces turned into utter and inconcealable shock when she appeared.

This...how could this be possible?