Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  "Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome. Please, treat this place like your own home! I have already arranged everything." It was only a few words, but sweat had already started forming on Greem's forehead.

  The adepts were cold and unfeeling people by nature. They were selfish and prioritized profits in everything they did. Even the always composed Greem felt kind of awkward with the sudden appearance of a relative in Endor.

  "Mm. Then, I'll be going down ahead to rest!" One could see that Endor's Spirit had been exhausted after this long-range teleportation. Her Spirit was almost at its limit now that she had finally reached a safe haven.

  "Gargamel, please escort Lady Endor to her room!"

  Gargamel, who had been waiting by the side, immediately escorted the Poison Witch away with a fawning smile.

  Greem's demeanor became much more natural once only Mary and her subordinates remained in the room. He looked at the crimson-armored girl and put on a sincere smile.

  "What, don't you want to ask what's happened to Alice now?" Mary's skintight armor put her perfect figure on full display. She raised one charming eyebrow, and a playful smile appeared on her face once again, "Don't worry. Alice was still perfectly fine when we left. She seemed to have reached an agreement with the witches. That is why the Dark Witch can't touch Alice as long as she doesn't get caught with any incriminating evidence."

  "I'm not worried about her, but you," Greem smiled as he took a step forward, "It's not an easy thing to break into the Dark Mirage. I can see your internal wounds aren't light either. Why don't I take a look at them for you."

  Mary's body froze. She rolled her eyes at Greem unamusedly and waved her hand without turning her head.

  "Sir Greem and I still have something to deal. You guys go walk around the tower as you like! Remember, don't start any trouble for me!"

  "Yes!"

  The three Blood Knights bowed in unison. Soros and Vanlier's eyes quickly swept past Greem as they silently exited the teleportation room.

  "Come on; didn't you say you wanna take a look at my condition?" Mary smiled seductively, "Why don't you let me take a look at you in the meantime and see why your Spirit suddenly turned so weak?"

  …………

  Three hours later.

  After an intense tussle, the satisfied couple finally stopped. Their limbs intertwined together as they laid in each other's embrace on the bed. It was now that they started the actual communication.

  In truth, even Mary only knew bits of Alice's plan.

  She knew that Alice had no choice but to hurry to the location of the Witch Council and summon the rest of the witches to draw away Dark Witch Leader Circe. This plan had been very effective. Alice had successfully managed to get Circe out of the Dark Mirage.

  And it was thanks to the absence of Circe, the owner of the tower, that Mary was able to break into the tower by taking advantage of the SHadow Tide's surge. She had slaughtered her way into the prison and successfully brought Poison Witch Endor out with her.

  Even though Greem already knew Mary had succeeded, listening to her first-hand account of the whole thing still caused Greem's palms to sweat. He realized something through those simple descriptions.

  Foresight!

  Prediction!

  First, the Dark Witches always swept through Shadow Valley right before the Shadow Tide arrived. They would then temporarily cut off the connection between the origin tower and the World of Adepts. That would then eliminate all chance of enemies from the World of Adepts sneaking into the origin tower. In this manner, they would be able to deal with the challenge of the Shadow World without any distractions.

  However, Alice had predicted this. That was why she had instructed Mary to sneak into Shadow Valley one month beforehand and hide from the Dark Witches' searches.

  Consequently, when Fourth Grade Circe was gone, and the main forces of the Dark Witches were all assigned to the Shadow World, Mary was able to immediately kill her way through the weakest defense point of the origin tower. That was how she had made it to the underground prison.

  Under normal circumstances, breaking into the prison would have been the limit of Mary's powers. Taking someone out with her under those conditions was virtually impossible. After all, that place had temporarily cut off its connection to the World of Adepts; ordinary teleportation spells would not have been able to get them out.

  However, this didn't stop Alice's incredible means.

  Alice had given Mary a round silver stone before she left. When Mary found Endor, she didn't need to bring her along and break out once again. All Mary had to do was take out the silver stone and chant the required words. The silver stone would then successfully bring them back to the Tower of Fate.

  Naturally, Mary didn't know what that mysterious silver stone was, but Greem couldn't help but let out a knowing smile when he heard all this.

  Alice had fully demonstrated the strong ability of foresight throughout this rescue mission. Every move of the enemy, along with every layout, had been entirely within her control. She was able to utilize all resources and opportunities around her to their fullest extent and pave a path of success for herself.

  The power of her talent for fate was evident from this!

  Of course, the strength of one blessed by fate never came from themselves. Instead, it manifested in their deep understanding of the world's rules, and in their ability to maximize the use of the resources at hand.

  Without someone like Mary, who would listen to all her instructions and flawlessly execute them, Alice would have been hard-pressed to carry out her plan, regardless of how good it might have been.

  It was like a fight to the death between two boxers. One boxer possessed the ability to sense fate and could foresee the landing points and stances of his opponent's next three punches. He could perfectly avoid and counter-attack when the opponent launched his first punch.

  When that happened, a tiny alteration point would occur in the path of fate.

  After the outcome of the first punch had been altered, would the opponent still stubbornly launch the same second and third punch that had been determined by fate?

  No. At this moment, the ripples of fate would shift the development of the future out of the hands of Fate and into the hands of the fixed rules that hid beneath the world. It was only when Fate's ripple effect slowly calmed down that this small moment in the world would once again rejoin the tracks of Fate, rumbling forward at full force.

  It was Greem's respect and fear of the powers of Fate that made him care so much about Alice's identity as the Witch of Fate. And now, Alice had indeed demonstrated the talent and ability she should possess as the Witch of Fate.

  More importantly, their relationship was still incredibly close!

  That was obvious from Alice's plan.

  Poison Witch Endor could be considered Alice's last living relative. Alice was even willing to clash with one or several Fourth Grade witches for her sake. Now that she had sent Endor to Fire Throne, and into Greem's hands, it was clear that she didn't believe Greem would use Endor as a hostage.

  This fact was what put Greem in such a good mood!

  However, even though he basically knew all of Alice's plan now, he still didn't understand how she had managed to make Mary submit to her. Greem understood Mary far too well.

  Mary had specially come over to his tower to fight him all for the sake of being the leader of their faction.

  Moreover, Greem believed that Mary would still leave all the administrative and leadership tasks to him, even if she had won. She just wanted to obtain the title of being the boss to fulfill her deeply ingrained mindset of might makes right.

  That was why conventional techniques of persuasion and offers of benefit were ineffective against Mary.

  The only way to win Mary's respect was to fight with her.

  She would only settle into the position that she should be in once you demonstrated the strength that a leader should possess. Otherwise, Mary would forever wa
iver between obedience and rebellion, making it hard to predict what she would do.

  Thus…

  Greem was extremely curious how Alice had managed to deal with Mary!

  After several influencing techniques of all sorts, Greem finally managed to pry out of Mary's mouth the trade that had transpired between her and Alice.

  Bloodline Imprisonment!

  Greem slapped his leg hard when he heard how Alice had managed to make Mary yield.

  Dammit! Why didn't I think of that!?

  However, he knew very well that there was nothing he could do, even if he had thought of that weakness of Mary's. Did he have Alice's means to find that vampire successfully?

  Those with strength used strength, and those without would have to rely on their minds!

  He had no such tricks up his sleeves, so he could only make Mary submit through pure force. Yet, Alice had managed to deal with Mary with just a couple of words.

  Perhaps this was how the Witch of Fate dealt with things on a daily basis!

  Greem couldn't even imagine what was happening while he was 'enjoying time' with Mary. Far away, in the Tower of Fate, Alice was looking up at the sky full of stars as tears streaked down her cheeks.

  The beautiful light of the stars fell upon her and illuminated her delicate and pretty face, along with her long silky hair that was half-silver and half-white.

  Nobody knew when, but almost half of her long hair had turned white.

  Chapter 479 Dominant Descent

  The battle in the night raged on.

  Both parties were already fighting with all they had, and neither side refused to back down despite the heavy losses.

  From an overall perspective, the Aba Beemen still held the initiative on the battlefield. The wandering squads of beeman soldiers were continuously attacking stray ogres with their poisoned arrows and spears. On the other hand, the ogre soldiers relied on their tough skin and tremendous regeneration to bulldoze through the attacks. They didn't fear the poison arrows at all. Instead, they roared and picked up large boulders to throw at the beemen.

  Whistling arrows and crashing stones flew across the woods. Beeman soldiers kept being hit and knocked down from the canopy. The already tough skin of the ogres started glowing with an intimidating red light under the effect of Mage Zac's Bloodthirst. They waved their sticks and charged towards the defensive lines of beeman soldiers while enduring a rain of poison arrows.

  The power gap between the individual troops was far too broad. Even two or three beman soldiers together couldn't fend off a single ogre. If it weren't for the beemen's absolute numerical advantage, Zac might have been able to break into the nest with the four dozen ogres behind him.

  These wild ogres were all at least three meters tall and built like true savages. They didn't wear any armor or clothing, and apart from a crude piece of hide wrapped around their waist, there was no protective gear anywhere on their body.

  Every time Mage Zac let out an angered roar from the back, these ogres shook their sticks and crashed against the battleline of beeman soldiers. They didn't even try to dodge the rain of poison arrows. Instead, they would charge forward with their simple weapons, using their thick left arms to cover their more vulnerable heads.

  The tough skin of the ogres mostly deflected the poisoned arrows. Only a select few managed to pierce through the skin and embed in the flesh of the ogres. The ogre warriors couldn't care less about these little arrows. They continued to advance as if they had wings on their back.

  Their muscular bodies gave them powerful physiques. These poisoned arrows that crippled ordinary woodland creatures could only make an ogre warrior to feel slight dizziness. When Mage Zac's Bloodthirst engulfed their bodies, the exponential increase in their resistance and the enhancement of their bodies made them immune to that sliver of dizziness that they felt.

  All the ogre warriors advanced furiously. They attacked madly, crushing all of the beeman soldiers in front of them into meat paste.

  The only ones that could deal with the ogre warriors were two strange bugs.

  These strange bugs looked like a cross between locusts and bees. They were two meters long and had two pairs of semi-translucent wings on their backs. Their most distinctive trait was their lightning-quick speed in flight, as well as their frightening jaws.

  They were so fast when flying that they would leave behind a trail of red light and appear before an ogre warrior in an instant.

  Their sharp limbs could stab right into the ogre's muscular arms. The moment they managed to cling to an enemy, they would use their massive jaws to tear apart the throats of the enemy immediately.

  If the ogre continued to resist, the bug could even sever their neck in half with a single bite.

  The ogres might have powerful regenerative abilities, but that didn't help them against such horrifying destruction.

  One could see two trails of red light flashing and blinking throughout the forest. Every place the two bugs visited would shortly be followed by the death of an ogre warrior, howling and yelling as they collapsed.

  The speed at which the ogres slaughtered the beeman soldiers wasn't slow at all. Still, the bloodlocust bees were even faster at slaying the ogres.

  It was as if both parties were engaged in a killing competition. A storm of blood had descended upon the forest.

  The two bloodlocust bees had eleven points of Strength, eight points of Physique, and thirteen points of Agility. In a situation where their Strength was no less than the ogre's, their terrifying thirteen points of Agility allowed them to crush any ordinary ogre completely.

  However, they were aware of Two-Headed Ogre Mage Zac's might as well. That was why they only attacked regular ogres and avoided where Zac was. Zac might be called a mage, but sadly, he was a mage that leaned towards strength as his primary form of power.

  It didn't matter whether it was Bloodthirst, Attack Speed Increase, or Brute Force. All of them were enhancement-type spells meant for physical fighters. In a situation where they couldn't catch up to the two bloodlocust bees, the ogres were helpless, despite their terrifying and savage strength.

  That was why one could occasionally hear Zac's furious roar on the battlefield, loud as a drum.

  While the Aba beemen and the ogres were sending blood flying everywhere, a wretched and sinister form was crouching in the shadows, watching the carnage with inexplicable excitement.

  Billis' power had drastically increased after this period of bloody slaughter. His current self had already reached the peak of an advanced apprentice. He was only one step away from becoming a pseudo-adept. That was why he had come here despite knowing that there was a risk in doing so. However, his desire for more power compelled him to come here without any regard for his personal safety. He was taking advantage of the ignorance of both parties and silently pilfering spoils from the place.

  He watched the battlefield closely. The moment an ogre warrior fell, he would immediately instruct his sting scorpions to tunnel their way there underground. Then, Billis would find the right moment to have the sting scorpions burst out of the ground while no one was noticing. The scorpions would then grab the corpse and drag it back into their tunnel.

  Corpse stealing!

  Only someone like Billis, whose and personality were completely twisted, could perform such an unscrupulous act. Any other apprentice would never have committed to such a dangerous course of living on the edge of a knife.

  However, Billis suddenly shivered in the middle of his happy harvesting. He turned and looked towards the southwest.

  Just then, a bug scout he had placed at the perimeter had caught sight of a strange figure.

  Crimson armor, unfurled bat wings, a curvaceous figure, and an incomparably arrogant expression.

  For some unknown reason, an inexplicable sense of fear and terror surged out from the depths of Billis' heart the moment he laid eyes upon that red silhouette. It was almost as if he was facing his natural predator. Billis was trembling unc
ontrollably from his body all the way down to his soul.

  Who was this person?

  Why did this body of his fear her so much, even though he didn't know her?

  While Billis was shocked into paralysis, Mary had dominantly descended upon the battlefield with her four subordinates.

  Mary flapped the big wings on her back and descended from the skies like a breathtaking goddess of war, accompanied by ear-piercing screeches and falling leaves. She levitated five meters in the air.

  Three towering and fully armored knights silently stood behind her. Their bloodshot eyes swept past every single lifeform present on the battlefield as their red-lined black robes fluttered behind them.

  The old fox Vanlier still dressed as a middle-aged noble. He stood on a thick branch atop a tree, excitedly looking down upon the battlefield. In his eyes, every life on the battlefield was a decent treat for him.

  "Human adept, you've overstepped the boundaries!" The Two-Headed Ogre Mage Zac couldn't help but emerge from the crowd when faced with the intimidating newcomers. He roared in dissatisfaction at Mary.

  "Tsk! Since when did you magical creatures start playing by rules as humans do? Don't forget; this is the Black Forest! Whomever's fist is greatest is righteous!" Mary's crimson eyes turned increasingly brighter as dense blood mist seeped out of her body.

  "Tremble, magical creatures! Scream! I, Mary, will be the ruler of this place from now onwards!"

  Having given her declaration of war, Mary folded her wings. Her entire body turned into a beam of red light as she immediately lunged and appeared beside Zac.

  The fearless Zac roared. A red light appeared on his body, and the thick wooden club in his hand crashed towards the light, screaming through the air.

  With the help of Attack Speed Increase, Zac's movements were several times agiler compared to before. However, this speed was utterly insignificant when faced with Bloody Mary's high Agility.