The large-sized clans and organizations all held world coordinates of some dragon planes in their hands, but they chose to keep the wealth to themselves and would never easily let the resources reach the public. The other adepts could do nothing but watch, even if they wanted a so-called 'dragon pet.'
Many adepts who lacked strong magical pets or mounts were immediately intrigued when they caught wind of clues leading to dragons in the hands of a Second Grade adept.
Many powerful adepts turned their eyes toward the rural Black Forest after the conclusion of the battle at Fire Throne. However, the fight from earlier had already destroyed all paths leading to Fire Throne. The adepts had no choice but to suppress their impatient emotions and silently wait for the moment Greem showed himself once again.
They would purchase with magical crystals and throw mountains of resources at Greem. They didn't believe he would be able to remain unmoved in the face of such benefits.
Many adepts didn't mind using up their hundreds of years of savings if they could obtain a satisfactory dragon pet.
Power. In the World of Adepts, power was the fundamental force that decided everything else!
A mighty dragon pet would undoubtedly be a part of an adept's power.
…………
Fire Throne.
The tower itself was extremely lively, even as they ignored the commotion of the public outside.
Those that had been able to muster the determination to stay in the tower and face the challenge of fate alongside Greem when the vampires descended were going to become the future backbone of Greem's faction.
Gargamel did a count after the battle. No more than fifty-four people remained in the tower after the fight. Of these fifty-four, there were five adepts, twenty-nine apprentices, and twenty servants.
However, what moved Greem the most weren't the adepts or the apprentices. Instead, it was Medusa Dana, who he had recruited in the Black Forest.
Dana had led her snakefiend subordinates to reinforce Fire Throne without any hesitation when she had heard of the tower being attacked by another powerful force of adepts. Moreover, she had no prior knowledge of the existence of the dragonborn and the thunder dragon.
On the other hand, the other two subordinate forces of Fire Throne–the manticore family and the fiendhound tribe–were slow to act and behaved dubiously.
Fortunately, the manticore leader had done his duty in the battle within Fire Cave. He significantly delayed the assault of the First Grade vampires, and thus was considered by Greem as a hero who had contributed to the success of the battle. Three-headed Demonhound Unguja of the fiendhound tribe appeared to be a lot more indecisive.
He had already received his orders before the battle, yet he dragged his feet and only barely arrived at Fire Throne once the battle was well underway. It was only when the wind started to shift in Greem's favor, and success tilted toward them, that Unguja had hastily jumped out to clean up the battlefield.
Of course, Greem saw all of this as it happened.
Greem didn't say much on the surface, but he had already sentenced Unguja to a death sentence in his mind. The next time an opportunity presented itself, the risky and suicidal jobs of scouting and the like would certainly fall upon Unguja's shoulders.
The tower was a lot quieter after the victorious battle, but it was still lively and filled with a triumphant atmosphere.
Gargamel waved his hands, and the doors of the warehouse were turned wide open. Many wines and delicacies were taken out of the storage and used to reward these future backbone members of the clan that had resolutely stood on their side.
Gargamel was already utterly loyal to Greem now.
Gargamel had thought the lives of all within Fire Throne to be foregone when faced with this tremendous crisis. He had already prepared himself for the death of his body and the extermination of his soul. Yet, who had expected his fantastic master Greem to convince the dragonborn and the thunder dragon? Greem's actions turned them into the shock troops and powerful reinforcements of the tower at the most pivotal moment.
A Third Grade vampire couldn't possibly beat a Third Grade thunder dragon, no matter how strong he was.
Casually dispatching multiple human adepts of the same grade was no problem for a dragon, with the renowned individual strength of their species. In fact, the more powerful dragons could even challenge individuals of superior grades. It seemed to be an unbelievable feat that only powerful creatures like the dragons were capable of, even throughout the entire high-magic multiverse.
The crisis today had helped Fire Throne get rid of a spy among their ranks. That was unquestionably beneficial for the development of Greem's faction from here on out.
Rewards were naturally due after a victory. During the banquet, Greem personally declared that he would form a new adept clan and that everyone present was going to be core members of this new clan. That included Medusa Dana and the manticore leader.
They would cast away their identities as magical creatures and become official members of an adept clan. As long as the Zhentarim Association acknowledged this adept clan, they would also be granted the status of adepts.
Greem announced the name of this new clan before the eager and anticipative crowd– Crimson!
Greem was a fire adept and excelled at fire spells. Crimson was a fitting name.
Thus, Greem's name would be updated to the new Greem Crimson.
And he would become the powerful Crimson Adept!
…………
A secret room on the fifth floor of Fire Throne.
Greem had arranged the room into a proper scene for a mysterious ritual.
While the happy adepts and apprentices were still celebrating in the hall on the second level, Greem brought Mary and Leicester here. Waiting inside for awhile were Alice and her fairy Helen, who had specially teleported over from the Tower of Fate.
"It's you again, you heart robber. Can't you be satisfied with having Alice? To think you went and seduced another female vampire. Do you not know that all vampires are twisted and sick?" Helen immediately flew up to Greem when she saw him, drawing a ribbon light across the air as she did so. The fairy put her hands on her hips, pointed at Greem's nose, and started reprimanding him.
This sudden accusation caught Greem by complete surprise.
Right now, he was cradling the unconscious Mary in one hand, while dragging the bound Leicester in the other. He opened his mouth several times and had no idea how to defend himself against this righteous fairy.
"Helen, don't go flaunting your unreasonable theories! It's not your place to intervene in our relationship," The smiling Alice slowly stepped forward and took Mary from Greem's arm. She asked curiously, "What's happened to her?"
"She drank too much blood from the thunder dragon half a month ago. She's been sleeping like this ever since. I can't get her to wake up no matter how I shout at her." Greem awkwardly explained.
"The bloodline of the vampires courses through her body, and we still need some magical facilities unique to the vampires. Fortunately, I brought a Blood Coffin with me. Otherwise, most of the power would simply disperse. It would have been a great loss for her." In public, Alice still appeared to be as domineering as before she advanced to Witch of Fate. However, her behavior in private interactions was far more gentle and thoughtful than before.
Blood coffins were magical items unique to the vampires. They could help vampires concentrate and purify their bloodline. The only drawback was their high price, making it such that only high-grade vampires had the privilege of using them.
As the leader of the Witches of Fate, there was no doubt that the Blood Coffin she brought with her was of the highest quality!
Chapter 565 The Little Girl and the Blood Moon Prayer Ceremony
Mary couldn't be considered a pureblood vampire.
She wasn't created through a superior vampire's Embrace. Instead, she was born in the biology lab of an adept. As such, she more obviously suffered from
the limitations of bloodline shackles compared to true vampires.
Under ordinary circumstances, her advancement to Second Grade should have come way before Greem, considering her frenzied slaughter in the Knight's Plane.
It was the existence of the bloodline shackles that caused her power to remain stagnant for such a long time.
This time, they had successfully captured the source of her blood– Leicester. The shackles that bound Mary to the ground would no longer exist once she completed this blood transfusion and purifying ceremony. Advancing to Second Grade was a certainty with her talent!
Greem had initially intended to personally host the blood transfusion ceremony for Mary and witness her rebirth into a path without bloodline limitations. However, Alice was a far better choice compared to him when it came down to both experience or qualifications. Thus, Greem had no choice but to step down and hand over the hosting of the ceremony to Alice.
Greem retreated to a corner of the secret room and silently watched as the fairy waved her magic wand. Light shone in the room as Mary's armor was removed, and her naked body slowly floated into a semi-translucent casket.
The casket appeared to be carved out of a massive piece of emerald crystal. It shone with unmatched crystalline beauty.
Leicester, on the other hand, was placed above the cover of the casket. The four copper dragon heads on each corner of the coffin extended forward and took a deep bite into the vampire's body. The fresh blood flowed through the hollow pipes within the dragon heads and slowly filled the casket beneath.
The blood level in the casket rose slowly at a pace visible to the naked eye. It flowed over Mary's arms, stomach, breasts, and face. Soon, the peacefully sleeping Mary was completely submerged in blood.
Alice, who usually took great care of her appearance, untied her hair at this moment. She went barefoot and started dancing a strange and sinister dance around the blood casket with an odd soul lamp in hand.
This… why was this so different from the blood transfusion ceremony he read from the books?
Greem kept his doubts to himself while opening his eyes wide and enjoying this entirely different side of Alice. Of course, he didn't forget to turn on the Chip's scene memorization function so that he could refer to it in the future.
However, the small fairy Helen once again flew into his face with her hands on her hips the moment the ceremony started.
"Hey, shameless guy, what are still doing here?" The fairy seemed to be in this sour mood perpetually, "You want to watch two girls naked and dancing around in the room? Get out quick and don't disturb Alice's Blood Moon Prayer ceremony."
"Blood Moon Prayer ceremony? Isn't it a blood transfusion ceremony? Why did it turn into a Blood Moon Prayer ceremony? Are there blood moons in the World of Adepts?" There were a million things that Greem didn't understand right now.
"Hmph! If it was just an ordinary blood transfusion ceremony, even an idiot like you could do it. Why would Alice need to specially teleport here? This is a promotion ceremony that Alice specifically prepared for that female vampire. Also, isn't it a just simple thing if you wanted a blood moon? Alice is the Witch of Fate. If she says there's a blood moon now, then there's a blood moon now. What's strange about that?" A certain question seemed to have picked at Helen's wounds when the conversation reached this point. The fairy was still scolding Greem, but tears had welled up in her pretty little eyes.
Greem's expression dimmed. He nodded his head silently and quietly removed himself from the room.
Greem had heard of the Blood Moon Prayer ceremony before. It was a grand ceremony usually only held for high-grade dark creatures when they were advancing. Dark creatures that successfully passed this ceremony could possibly obtain special skills in addition to purifying their bloodline and advancing.
Moonstalking Stealth, Moonshade Messenger, Shadowblade, Moon's Illusory Wings, Moonlight Recovery.
These were all abilities that someone was most likely to obtain through the Blood Moon Prayer ceremony. They weren't incomparably powerful, but they were practical abilities that could be used in any combat situation. It didn't matter whether it was the ability to remain invisible in the night, the critical damage of Moonshade Messenger, the hard-to-defend nature of Shadowblade, the high-speed escape afforded by the Illusory Wings, or even the tremendous healing of Moonlight Recovery. Any one of these skills would significantly increase Mary's combat prowess in the night.
However, everything came at a cost!
A hefty price had to be paid to obtain these additional powers.
Apart from the massive amounts of rare resources that it required, the ceremony would place a considerable strain on the host. The World of Adepts had no blood moon. Alice needed to exhaust her powers of fate to make her prophesy a reality if she wanted to allow Mary to successfully complete the ceremony.
As the Witch of Fate, the only thing Alice could afford to pay were the powers of fate that she had gathered after so much difficulty, along with her life force.
The price was indeed a tremendous one!
While Greem was anxiously waiting outside the room, he suddenly stopped his footsteps and looked up. He cast his gaze through the solid walls of the tower and the two hundred meter layer of earth above to the sky in the distance.
It was supposed to be the dead of night right now. The moon should be high up in the sky, crowded with stars.
A thin layer of blood mist had somehow enveloped half the horizon, causing the silvery-white moonlight to turn into a dizzying and sinister crimson color when it shone down upon the ground.
The mountains were the color of blood, as was the earth, the trees, and even the giant moon in the sky.
The entire world had been turned into a blood-colored place.
This unique scenery only existed within five kilometers of Fire Throne. The black forest and the silver moonlight; everything was normal beyond this range.
While the people in the tower were celebrating, only Eva, Dana, and a few high-grade dark creatures vaguely sensed a trace of abnormality in the air. It felt as if their bodies were lighter, the flow of the energy within them smoother, and as if there was an indescribable fragrance of blood spread in throughout the air.
Apart from the few of them, someone else in a room on the third level of the tower sensed the change in the surroundings. A cute-looking girl climbed up a narrow stone window with much difficulty. She remotely sensed the brilliance of the moon shining down from the blood moon, even through the layers of the earth.
All the blood moon brilliance was being guided by a strange force and poured into the top level of the adept's tower. It seemed some sort of special ceremony was being held up there.
The girl looked to be only three or four years old, but she had a mind and intelligence that far surpassed her age.
The little girl tilted her face as she felt the pure inviting energy in the brilliance of the blood moon. She bit her white thumb as she thought to herself. Finally, the girl could no longer suppress her desire for the blood moon energy and waved with her hand.
The next moment, the blood moon energy that had been continually pouring into the top level of the tower like a beautiful ribbon suddenly split off into a much smaller stream. This smaller stream directed the energy toward the body of the little girl.
The girl immediately jumped up in joy with a huge smile on her face when the crimson light entered her body.
"The big sister on the floor above has such a good physique. I'm sure she won't mind if I take a bit of her stuff. If she really does, I still have dumb-dumb dad and silly-silly mom to help me gloss over the matter. Mm. I'm sure nothing bad will happen."
One couldn't be sure if the little girl was scheming or merely speaking aloud to herself, but she immediately started to absorb the energy with no restraint after some thought.
The change in the blood moon stream couldn't possibly have escaped the attention of Greem and Alice.
Alice was the host of the ceremony. Nat
urally, she had the clearest sense of the changes happening to the blood moon energy she was guiding. Alice raised her head and looked doubtfully into the horizon the moment the little girl started stealing the blood moon radiance. She then turned and looked toward the location of the girl.
After some thought, Alice chose not to take any direct action!
The other one to sense the changes besides Alice was Greem. As the owner of the tower, he was the most sensitive to all energy flows within it.
Greem immediately discovered the abnormality when the blood moon energy split off. He flew into a rage.
To think that someone dared to intervene in a magic ceremony that he was protecting!
Greem would be furious beyond belief if this interrupted the ceremony and caused Mary to fail!
Greem suppressed his emotions and had his Spirit follow the energy flow. He passed through the walls of the tower, made it past magical defenses, and quickly locked onto the strange little girl.
Who was she? Why hadn't he seen her before?
The question had just arisen in Greem's mind when he immediately understood the situation thanks to the Chip's reminder.
It was Eva's room, and Greem knew this girl as well, for he was the one who helped her deliver the child. However, ordinarily, the baby girl that Eva gave birth to should only be four to five months old. Yet this girl was clearly four to five years old.
If it weren't for the soul flux and mental consciousness information recorded by the Chip matching with the girl, Greem would have suspected the baby girl being swapped with another person while he was away from the tower.
What shocked Greem even more was the fact that the girl already possessed the Spirit of a pseudo-adept.
To possess pseudo-adept level Spirit a mere four to five months after birth! How shocking was this girl's talent!
Though the girl was odd, she was still Gargamel and Eva's daughter.
Greem understood this and had no choice but to suppress his anger. He used his authority as the tower's owner to cut off the blood moon energy that the girl had redirected toward herself.
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