"I can't wait here any longer," A savage expression flashed across Uzzah's sinister face, "I won't stay here and die with you. We Dark Witches will be going ahead!"
Under her orders, the three remaining Dark Witches quickly gathered at Uzzah's side. A thick cloud of pitch-black darkness surged outward and enveloped their bodies, filling the corridor with strange and twisted gray shadows.
A few seconds later, the shadows dispersed and not a single Dark Witch remained.
It hadn't been long since the last surviving Fate Witch advanced; it was clear that she had not gotten used to situations like this. An expression of envy couldn't help but appear on her face when she saw the Dark Witches diving into the Shadow Plane.
Whenever she thought about the fact that she had to wait here for her leader that might or might not be alive, the young Fate Witch's face filled with panic and anxiety.
"What about you people?" Greem took in the expression of everyone present and asked very solemnly, "I won't force you to stay. Anyone that wishes to leave now may leave."
Wind Adept Deserra, Medusa Dana, Goblin Tigule, and Dragonborn Zacha bowed in unison beneath Greem's burning stare, respectfully giving their reply, "We will follow our Lord to our deaths!"
Meanwhile, the blood knights, the blood elves, and Vanlier all silently stood behind Mary. Their expressions were cold and unaffected as if they would do whatever it was that Mary asked them to do.
"What are you looking at me for?" Mary rolled her eyes at Greem unamusedly, "Of course I'm staying with you!"
Greem's tightly bound face finally relaxed a bit as he gravely said, "Two minutes!"
Time was slowly ticking away.
This insignificant time that no one usually took note of seemed so long and torturous at this moment!
Everyone held their breaths and silently listened for the rumbling coming from a place nearby.
The tunnel the Sword Saint was digging had made it through most of the mountain; it was piercing straight toward their location. Judging from the sound, it was only twenty to thirty meters away from where they were.
As the Sword Saint's violent strikes continued to assault the mountain, it began to shudder even more violently. The dust falling from above was almost enough to bury the adepts.
To avoid the Sword Saint picking up any elementium fluctuations, none of the adepts erected magical shields and instead chose to use their bodies to endure the falling rocks from around them. The air in the tunnel was becoming increasingly dusty. The suffocating dust was everywhere, making it almost impossible to breathe.
Fortunately, none of the adepts were weaklings. A couple of hours without breathing wouldn't kill them.
However, the anxious and uncertain wait made them feel even more pained. The adepts didn't know what it was they were waiting for– a successful escape, or a tragic death. The more uncertain the future, the more panic they felt!
"One minute!" Greem had used mental messages to speak to everyone this time.
With a loud crack, one of the stone walls exploded into pieces. A single brilliant blade beam shot out of the stone. The blade light silently cut through the crowd, piercing the body of a blood knight and slashing past Snowlotus' left arm.
The next second, blood was in the air.
The blood knight was instantly blasted into a mist of blood. Snowlotus' left arm also fell off without a sound. A warm fountain of blood surged from the wound.
Snowlotus let out a pained gasp but swallowed the sound before she could complete it. However, the thick scent of blood still diffused in the air and was quickly picked up by the Sword Saint who was searching for them.
"Attack!"
Just as everyone's scalps buzzed and they stood still at a loss, Greem shouted out loud. He was the first to gather a massive magma fireball in his hands and throw it at the wall where the blade radiance had come.
The next second, a barrage of spells landed on the stone wall in the distance.
The violent attacks had caused yet another series of rocks to fall from above. The adepts scurried in the narrow space, dodging the giant boulders falling from above. The process had been perilous, but they had finally managed to seal the Sword Saint outside.
Still, how many of the Sword Saint's attacks could such a slight mound of stone endure?
Just as everyone worried and stewed in their anxiousness, the long-shut door to the hall suddenly opened. A slender and elegant silhouette stood behind it, silently looking at all the adepts.
"Thank you, everyone!" Alice's familiar and cool voice rang out, "I have advanced! We can escape now!"
Greem stood forth and looked Alice in the eye. A smile of relief appeared on his tightly wound face when he saw her determined nod.
The next moment, Greem waved his large hand as six earth-yellow golem cores landed on the ground, quickly forming into six giant stone serpents.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry. All of you, get into the stone serpents. We will leave through the ground."
Greem had never really used these low-grade advanced apprentice level stone serpents after he advanced to an adept. Yet, at this moment, they were the most suitable choice as mounts to travel underground!
From the absolute despair of an impossible enemy to the joy of escaping their predicament, the adepts had absolutely no time to adjust their feelings before the stone serpents swallowed them.
The adepts still had some privilege and could have one serpent to themselves. Meanwhile, Mary's vampire subordinates had no such luck. They could only share the same snake.
After devouring everyone, the stone serpents dove into the ground below at Greem's command and started to tunnel wildly into the earth around the mountain. The last stone serpent remaining in the cave shook its massive body and slithered into the treasure hall. It greedily swallowed the piles of magical gemstones and glimmering magical weapons, one big mouthful at a time.
When an earthshaking explosion echoed from outside the cave, the stone serpent finally and reluctantly gave up on the rest of the dragon's hoard. It dove into a stone wall and madly tunneled after the others.
A few seconds later, Elven Sword Saint Agassi strode into the cave, shrouded in blinding golden light.
When he saw the six holes one meter in diameter and the empty den left behind, he let out a furious roar at the sky.
He had no interest in even looking at the shining golden treasure hoard of the dragon.
For the first time, the Fourth Grade Elven Sword Saint Agassi was astounded by the cruel and ferocious tactics of these otherworldly adepts.
…………
The stone serpents silently tunneled underground.
Through the cracks in its body, Greem could clearly see the harsh earth being smoothly parted to each side of its body. The stone serpents were like a fish in water, freely swimming between the rock layers.
Several large boulders would occasionally appear before being left far behind.
The stone serpents were only advanced apprentice golems after all, and they could not borrow too deep into the underground space. Otherwise, their earth elementium bodies would be crushed by the immense pressure.
After diving a certain distance along the rock layers, the stone serpents turned and moved diagonally toward the surface.
Greem and Alice were sharing a stone serpent.
Alice stood straight in front of Greem and silently watched the rocks, insects, roots, and other miscellaneous objects passing by.
"Endor is dead!" Greem finally spoke after a moment of hesitation.
"I know..." Alice's reply was cold, yet calm.
"You know?" Greem was stunned and blurted out this question.
"I knew before I advanced." Alice didn't turn back. Her tone was still as calm as before.
However, Greem knew Alice too well. He frowned, sensing the roaring rivers beneath the thick ice of Alice's composure.
Greem extended a hand and grabbed Alice's shoulder. He could feel her body trembling slightly.
"Just let it all out if you want to cry!" Greem said dejectedly.
Alice still didn't turn back. However, Greem could faintly feel the immense pain she was holding in her heart.
The path of pursuing strength was a lonely one!
Most of the time, they had to make great sacrifices for even a sliver of strength. Such a price was not something that anyone could bear to take on!
"Greem, can I ask something of you?" After a long pause, Alice finally replied sorrowfully with a question.
"Tell me."
"If, one day, you obtain enough power, I hope…you can destroy this plane for me!"
"I will!"
Chapter 711 Return to Shadow Island
Faen Plane, Shadow Island.
The island that had been quiet for some time had once again become lively.
The port stopped several sea ships that had returned full of loot at the western side of the island. Under the shouted commands of their supervisors, large groups of non-human laborers busily moving the heavy loads from the port to the massive stone warehouses near the coast.
This prosperous scene hadn't stopped since the Calamity of the Witches began.
The endless stream of goods being transported from the Faen and Garan Continents had almost filled all of Shadow Island's outer warehouses to the brim. Some of the warehouses near the center of the island even had to be put into use as prisons to jail the wealthy merchants or slaves they had abducted.
The successful headway of the war had allowed the witches on Faen Continent to join hands and conquer a small coastal duchy. They had then rallied lost nobles and bandits to their cause, forming an improper and chaotic 'Witch Alliance.'
No matter how one put it, the war perpetrated by the Pale Witches had now allowed them to establish a real foothold on Faen Continent. Even if the Witch Calamity were to conclude, the ruling forces of the continent would have a much harder time driving them away.
It was the witches' immense haul that naturally attracted all of the large merchant unions and slave traders of Faen Continent. Of course, the great merchant unions still had to protect their reputation. The ones they sent to trade with the witches were dark proxies that they controlled.
In conclusion, the Pale Witches were the ones who benefitted the most from this Witch Calamity!
No major breakthroughs might have happened on Garan Continent, but the place had still been thrown into utter chaos by the witches and was scrambling to reestablish order.
Disregarding everything else, just the one million undead that had surged out of the Death Scar in the central area of Garan had resulted in nearly two hundred thousand civilian casualties to the forest elves. The elven kingdom had sent elite armies and many elites to exterminate every last one of the undead.
However, the Fantasy Forest that had been ravaged by the undead was severely damaged. At least a hundred years was needed for a complete recovery.
Moreover, the Dark and Fate Witches had exceeded the quota of their missions, wrecking the elven kingdom's Pegasus Spring and Dragoncliff as they passed by. The Dark Witches stationed on the Echo Isles reported that the elven kingdom had forever lost the strange magical beasts that were the pegasi.
Moreover, they had also rent apart perpetually peaceful lives of the forest dragons at Dragoncliff. Nearly a third of the green and emerald dragons had been led away by a thunder dragon from another world.
To think that such a thing could happen. In all honesty, this exceeded the expectations of all the people and dragons!
It had been nearly six months since the start of the battle, and the conclusion of the Witch Calamity was quickly approaching. The witches that had completed their missions or those that desperately required rest all started to return to Shadow Island.
According to their agreement, the Pale Witches would only reopen the planar door and send everyone back to the World of Adepts on the eighth month after the start of the Witch Calamity. Consequently, the Dark and Fate Witches would have to stay on Shadow Island for two more months despite having completed their missions ahead of time.
The Dark Witches that had arrived back at Shadow Island before the Fate Witches met up with their companions that had just revived from the soul energy pool. Their ranks filled up once again. The witches from the other branches that had returned from Faen Plane were glad to see this happen. They quickly and expensively recruited the Dark Witches as hired hands for one last push before the Calamity ended.
As such, the Dark Witches quickly joined the ranks of the various witch branches after a few short days on the island, boarding ships that led to Faen Continent.
…………
Greem and his party finally arrived at Shadow Island.
The last time they had left, they had ostentatiously left on the flying ship. Now the group was much less conspicuous when returning this time, boarding a ship that was sending slaves to the island as their transport.
They stepped off from a dirty and stinking ship on a swaying plank and were immediately surrounded by a group of overseers and slaves upon setting foot on the stone port. However, the slaves immediately scattered to the sides when they saw the eye-catching adept's robe that they were wearing. They didn't dare to block the path of these esteemed adepts.
A witch in charge of managing the port hurried over and respectfully bowed when she saw Greem and Alice in the lead.
"Welcome back to Shadow Island, Lady Alice. Please follow me!"
As a territory of the Pale Witches, Shadow Island had been strictly divided into fixed areas based on social strata.
The twenty to thirty kilometers in the center of the island was an adept-only area. Only adepts and individuals they acknowledged were free to come and go.
Ordinary outsiders could never possibly get close to the place!
Meanwhile, the zones outside of the central area were split in four: the south, the east, the west, and the north.
In particular, the western zone was a port mainly used for transporting goods and functioned as a place for transitionary storage. The northern zone was the trading area, where all sorts of businesses and merchants set up shops and auctions. To the east was the magic area, responsible for selling equipment and items related to the supernatural. The southern zone was the slave area, where large-scale slave auctions were held daily.
The little witch led Greem and his party past the lively port and into the crowded warehouses before they finally reached the entrance to the adept's area after five kilometers on a path of gray stones.
Bloodsucking plants and terrifying magical beings filled the perimeter of the adept's area. Small entrances could only be found in some specific directions, which were guarded by both witches and voodoo armies.
This way, the enemy would have immense trouble sneaking into the adept's area, even if they managed to make their way onto Shadow Island!
The witches guarding the entrance shone a strange crystal stick at Greem and the others, only letting them into the adept's area after confirming everyone's identities.
Now that they were here, they could move about freely as they liked. There were no longer any limitations!
Greem and the other might have paid a tremendous price on this trip to Garan Continent, but their harvest was just as bountiful.
In terms of human resources, the Fate Witches, including Alice, had sent eight individuals, but only four had returned. Fortunately, Alice had successfully advanced to Second Grade, causing the pressing concern of her fading life to disappear entirely.
With the three to five hundred years of lifespan that a Second Grade adept had, Alice possessed plenty of time to slowly experience and comprehend the unseen benefits that the Staff of Divination had brought to her.
Meanwhile, on Greem's side, the losses were terrible!
First were the losses in manpower. Poison Hag Endor and Three-Headed Demonhound Unguja had both died on Garan. Mary had lost a blood knight but had also gained seven blood elves as her new subordinates; her str
ength had increased rather than decrease. Bug Adept Billis was still yet lost near Greenwater City. Though he was safe for the moment, he would not be able to return in the foreseeable future.
What came next were the resources, and those were truly a sea of loss.
The most significant loss had to be the flying shi, along with the one hundred magical machines and the fifty goblin engineers and technicians riding upon it.
Of course, he could compensate for these losses through the Goblin Plane. However, the space furnace that had self-destructed was one-of-a-kind. It was not possible to build any more such battleships until Greem found suitable magical alloy for its material.
Tigule's Goblin Shredder was also the only one remaining of the newly created magical machine warriors. The other pseudo-Second Grade Goblin Bomberman had been lost during the battle of the dragon's den, leaving Greem with a lot of regrets.
When all these things piled up together, their value easily exceeded a million magical crystals. It was difficult to recover these losses even if they were to sell every one of the abducted forest elves at absurd prices.
Fortunately, this interplanar war had allowed greater interactions and bonds between the Crimson Clan and the Fate Witches. From a neutral perspective, the Fate Witches had finally positioned themselves properly and were showing some signs of assimilating with the Crimson Clan.
That was undoubtedly the greatest bounty for Greem!
A Second Grade Witch of Fate that had cast off the shackles of her life force whom he could completely trust; perhaps Greem was the only one that clearly recognized that he was the greatest winner of the war.
In the history of the Northern Witches, the Fate Witches had been their 'eyes' that helped them explore and observe the external world. They bore the mission to look into the future and point them in the right direction!
That was why the Fate Witches rarely held excessive power and only relied on the protection of their witch sisters to continue surviving. That was also why their status among the witch branches was aloof.
Greem had actually intercepted Alice and pulled her into his faction. Given that to be the case, the Crimson Clan would have no troubles in the foreseeable future. They would be embracing a massive opportunity for development.
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