Age of Adepts

These demons had long, thick serpentine tails for a lower half, with four muscular arms- two extending from each side of their upper body. They were covered in fine, dark green scales, flickering their crimson tongues from between their mouths full of fangs. Their red eyes glowed with a sinister light as they assessed their surroundings.

These high-grade mariliths intimidated all the demons around them the moment they appeared. The weaker, lower-grade demons moved aside, clearing out the battlefield’s flattest and widest area for them.

However, it wasn’t over yet.

As the mariliths parted, an exceptionally enchanting six-armed marilith appeared before everyone.

It was a female Fourth Grade marilith!

Her upper half alone was over four meters tall, making her a gigantic beauty.

Her perfectly shaped face, that smooth white skin, those moving almond eyes, and that strange braid of brown hair that moved about despite the lack of wind. Unfortunately, her naked upper half was covered in a layer of violent scales, preventing anyone from witnessing the tremendous beauty that lay beneath.

Whenever this female marilith slithered forward with her dozen-meter-long tail, her breasts shook along with her movements, drawing everyone’s gazing toward her chest. The numerous intricate metal bracelets she wore on her arm clattered as she moved, making a crisp ringing sound.

Inexperienced apprentice adepts would often have trouble differentiating mariliths from medusas. That was only natural. After all, medusas had an inseparable bloodline tie to the mariliths.

Mariliths would invade and raid material planes every chance they had. Consequently, they left behind many descendants with the bloodline of demons. For instance, there was the Demonspawn, a demon-human descendant.

These demonspawn looked like humans, though they were often incredibly tough and strong upon reaching adolescence. Moreover, individuals with a concentrated bloodline would often manifest magical patterns on their bodies and could even draw upon the racial traits of their parents.

There was a subset of these demonspawn whose fathers were high-grade adepts. The mothers were lowly succubi or some other female demons.

Most of these mixed-blood descendants did not have very good fates.

The limit of a demonspawn that manifested magical patterns as a child was Third Grade. In the World of Adepts’ history, there had never been a demonspawn adept that had managed to advance to Fourth Grade.

The reason for it was simple. The planar consciousness was hostile toward these demonspawn and actively suppressed them!

This group of high-grade mariliths surrounded the Fourth Grade six-armed marilith as they marched onto the battlefield.

It was important to note that mariliths often took up the role of strategic planning among the abyssal demons. They were among the rare few demon species capable of rational thought and planning.

Of course, due to abyssal demons’ chaotic nature, there wasn’t much point in handing out excellent strategies for them to execute. Any subtle schemes would eventually end up in a chaotic brawl.

Of course, the demons were experts when it came down to an all-out fight!

Most of the time, Fourth Grade six-armed mariliths had no choice but to step on the battlefield themselves to ensure their plans were carried out successfully. They would dice their enemies with their numerous sharp swords.

Moreover, this Fourth Grade marilith was clearly of equal standing with Demon Lord Fernus. She was able to pick up on the decisive factor influencing the trend of the battle the moment she set foot on the battlefield.

She led her two dozen marilith subordinates, herding the hordes of low-grade demons toward the magical machine army. Once the magical machines and war towers’ fire was drawn toward them, the mariliths instantly activated Bladestorm and Pinpoint Teleportation to arrive right in the middle of the magical machines. A storm of carnage was instantly unleashed.

Bladestorm was the terrifying ultimate skill of mariliths.

They could use magic energy to form multiple magical weapons around them and make them spin wildly. Every time a marilith activated Bladestorm, it meant that they were ready to charge into enemy ranks.

The long and thin blades they held with their slender-yet-strong arms, and the storm of weapons spiraling around them turned every one of them into walking incarnations of destruction.

Even if the enemy had surrounded them, the mariliths would be able to gracefully and elegantly walk through them as if taking a stroll through a garden. Where their blades were pointed, they were uncontested. The only things they left behind were the shredded remains of their opponents.

If a marilith were to rush into a horde of voodoo beasts with Bladestorm activated, it would make for an impressive sight!

Blades flying everywhere, blood splattering across the air, limbs falling here and there as beast after beast was beheaded and diced into a thousand tiny pieces. To step onto a battlefield where a marilith was present was the same as stepping into a slaughterhouse. Torn pieces of flesh and bone would be everywhere around you.

However, when these mariliths rushed into the ranks of the magical machine, they became stuck like a dull knife in a log. They were not unstoppable as they should be.

Neither their Bladestorms nor their swords worked. They only created sparks of fire when they slashed the machines, leaving behind deep cuts but inflicting no further damage.

The tremendous shock of the blows also caused the mariliths’ wrists to hurt. The swords in their grip rang loudly as they struck metal.

They couldn’t...couldn’t slash through!

While the mariliths were momentarily surprised, the magical machines’ retaliation gave them a good taste of pain.

There was no fear of friendly fire at all. The rain of energy beams and goblin rockets instantly enveloped the mariliths. The horrifying elementium might of the energy beams and the endless barrage of metal bullets riddled them with holes.

Mariliths might be high-grade demons with exceptional combat technique and offensive power. However, their slender bodies meant that they were best suited as agile warriors. Even the scales on their bodies were mostly light and thin.

These scales were effective defenses against light slashing weapons like swords and daggers. In addition to their agile figures, they could avoid and neutralize most melee attacks. Their only weakness was a lack of defensive power!

A lack of defensive power!

If their enemies were weaklings like the voodoo beasts, rushing in with Bladestorm was the best course of action. However, the moment their offense stalled, then their act of charging the enemy would be nothing short of suicidal.

After the first wave of bullets, seven of the Second Grade mariliths shrieked and collapsed to the ground, dead and riddled with holes.

However, the five Third Grade mariliths and the Fourth Grade marilith were still as vicious as before. As high-grade demons, their offensive attacks were beyond the limits of what the magical machines could survive.

Six miniature storms of blades raged on among the magical machines. Where the mariliths passed, the PG-52 magical machines were disassembled, cast in every direction as fragments of metal and pieces of gear.

You could still see sparks of electricity crackling between the broken pieces as they went flying.

High-grade demons were truly high-grade. If they were to go all-out, they could easily slice up these machines made out of magical alloy ten times tougher than steel.

After just a single encounter, seven mariliths had died, while the magical machines had suffered over thirty casualties.

Perhaps sensing the threat of these mariliths, the war towers turned around and started blasted bolts of lightning down at the demons. The mariliths twisted and vanished from the spot under the command of the Fourth Grade marilith, dodging the numerous magical attacks.

The Fourth Grade six-armed marilith herself ignored the bolts of lightning. She erected an elementium barrier to protect herself and continued to hunt down the magical machines, which were now spreading out.

Where her six strange blades reached, the machines were sliced apart like butter. She continued forward without stopping, no machine able to stop her from advancing.

The machines around her continued to attack, but their beams and bullets were all stopped by the barrier and her scales. Even the occasional attack that penetrated could only inflict a light wound on her body.

Fourth Grade demons were truly horrifying!

“Hmph! A little too arrogant, aren’t we! Prepare the giant cannon. It’s time we show her something colorful,” Commander Locke of the Versailles was furious. He gave out orders loudly.

Soon the giant magic energy cannon had recharged, and everyone could hear the terrifying roaring sound of gathering energy.

The marilith could sense the source of emergency ahead of time with her exceptional sense of danger. When the barrel of the cannon lit up and a black beam of light shot toward her, the marilith pointed forward with her six swords. Her slender body cut a snow-white line across the battlefield as she abruptly appeared a hundred meters away.

This hundred-meter dash allowed her to dodge the energy beam successfully. At the same time, she had sliced up the eleven magical machines in her way.

The entire battlefield fell dead silent for an instant.

Even Mary, who was sitting in Nightmare Castle and resting, couldn’t help but open her eyes. Her gaze landed far away on the unstoppable six-armed Fourth Grade marilith.