Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The dragon lords were all there. You could freely capture them as you pleased. Capture them, and the dragon belonged to the witch, while the lair and land belonged to the Crimson Clan. All the witch had to do was pay an additional sum of magical crystals as compensation.

  It was a profitable business with no cost at all, no matter how you looked at it!

  Once the agreement was signed, Alice finally revealed all of the information on this time’s target– Wings of the Azure Sky, Krille. With a ‘traitor’ like Arms, all of the secrets of the higher dragons were no longer secrets to Greem.

  The division of elemental dragons was different in the World of Adepts compared to the other worlds.

  The so-called Wings of the Azure Sky Krille was actually a blue dragon, which was the wind dragon that the adepts so often spoke about.

  These dragons excelled at manipulating the forces of the wind and were the fastest at flying among all the dragons. The first thing that one needed to think about when attempting to capture or hunt down a wind dragon was how to limit its movements and terrifying speed.

  However, it was no longer Greem’s problem to ponder. Instead, it was a question posed to the witch leaders now.

  Dark Witch Circe and Pale Witch Silvia chose to give up on Krille after obtaining the detailed information on it. Only Death Witch Khesuna’s eyes were still gleaming with interest.

  Since this Fourth Grade dragon was not their preference, both Circe and Silvia left, one after another. Still, they both left their respective contacts before leaving. Naturally, Circe preferred shadow-type dragons, such as nightshade dragons, black dragons, or void dragons. On the other hand, Silvia preferred frost dragons and spectral dragons.

  Before she left, Dark Witch Leader Circe turned and gave Alice a long, meaningful look. She then whispered with a secret mental message, “Though I don’t like you, I won’t have a hand in the battle between you and the first Fate Witch from now on. You will no longer need to worry about me doing anything to you henceforth.”

  Having said that, Circe turned and left without looking back.

  Alice’s tightly gripped fists finally loosened when she heard this.

  She had always been careful and on guard against moves from the other witch branches all this while. She couldn’t easily trust any of them, even those who were outwardly friendly toward here.

  The main reason for that was the existence of the first Fate Witch!

  According to the path of the past Battles of Fate, Alice had been destined to die inside the Tower of Fate. Everything she owned would then have become the nutrition that the new Witch of Fate’s clone required to grow. However, it was the existence of a variable like herself that caused the ten-thousand-year plan of the First Fate Witch to come up empty.

  She had already become an annoying prick in the eyes of a major character somewhere in the outer realms ever since she had become the official leader of the Fate Witches. If it weren’t for the protection of the World of Adepts’ world consciousness, Alice would already be a pile of bones. She would have fallen to the schemes of the immensely powerful first Fate Witch.

  The fact that Alice was still alive wasn’t because she was smart, or because the enemy couldn’t do anything to her. It was because the enemy needed her alive!

  One could imagine that if the first Fate Witch used her methods to kill Alice, then the massive amount of Fate power that Alice had gathered would return to the World of Adepts. It would not benefit the First at all.

  However, if she allowed Alice to grow up, Alice would eventually ascend past Fourth Grade and be forced to step out of the World of Adepts. When that happened, Alice would be a ripe, fresh fruit. All the First had to do was pluck it, and she would obtain everything that Alice currently possessed.

  The plan might have deviated from the original, but the final result was the same.

  As such, the first Fate Witch had been secretly manipulating and guiding Alice’s development over the past few years, with no intentions of killing her yet. However, the witch of the outer realm was unprecedentedly wicked and vicious against all variables that could interrupt the trajectory of Alice’s growth.

  That was obvious from the disasters that had befallen Greem!

  Since Circe had already expressed such sentiment, it meant that the entire Dark Witch faction would no longer interfere in the internal struggle between the two Fate Witches. That was great news for Alice!

  If she could remove the influence of the first Fate Witch within the World of Adepts, and perhaps even turn it around, she could regain a certain degree of initiative in this severely imbalanced match.

  Alice finally let out a heartfelt smile with a guarantee like this!

  Khesuna had no interest in Circe and Alice’s secret. She was more interested in the internal environment and foreign laws of Lance. Only by taking these factors into consideration could she maximize the chances of capturing the Wings of Azure Sky.

  Alice introduced Khesuna to Greem without any hesitation!

  Chapter 804 - Preliminary Cooperation

  Lance. The Metal Fortress.

  As a blinding white light shone from the teleportation room, an intense spatial flux started to wash over everything within the room. However, this energy was blocked by the metal boards containing magical energy and couldn’t spread any further outward.

  By the time the ultra-long-range teleportation was complete, two silhouettes slowly became visible inside the array.

  “Greetings. My greetings to Lady Khesuna’s arrival at our metal fortress!”

  As the owner of this place, Greem naturally had to be the one to welcome the Fourth Grade Witch.

  Greem couldn’t help but feel his scalp buzz at the sight of the two Fourth Grade witches in the teleportation array. Even his breathing turned short and unmeasured.

  The one in front was none other than Death Witch Leader Khesuna, who Alice had introduced to him. The one behind her was the Fourth Grade Death Witch Deputy-Leader Felmyst.

  In all honesty, this was Greem’s first time seeing a legendary Fourth Grade witch. There was a surge of irrepressible excitement, even through the anxiety and nervousness.

  Khesuna was a powerful Death Witch that had long since made a name for herself. She didn’t look ugly at all. There was even an indescribable beauty to her looks. She had white, smooth skin, a delicate but cold face, flowing long silver hair, and light leather armor on her body.

  One could hardly tell that she was an old lady several thousands of years old just based on her appearance. If Greem ignored the chilling powers of death that this Fourth Grade witch possessed, then he could easily mistake her for a witch only several years older than Alice.

  Felmyst, who followed behind Khesuna, looked just as lovely and cold. Her entire body was shrouded in a cloak of alienating power of death. It seemed Felmyst walked the path of an undead summoner. She wore a robe of cloth on her body and a small bone staff at her waist. The death aura emanating from the staff was suffocating.

  Greem could sense that the temperature of the environment had fallen by a minimum of seven degrees Celcius since the Death Witches had arrived at the Metal Fortress. For some reason, Greem was feeling chills run down his spine continuously.

  That was especially the case when Khesuna stared at Greem with her pale white eyes void of pupils. He could feel a thoroughly chilling aura throughout his entire body.

  [Beep. Detecting intense negative energy radiation source. Host is enduring negative-energy corrosion. Mutation reaction will occur to host in approximately 3 minutes and 26 seconds. Please leave as soon as possible.”

  Greem looked at the perpetually rising negative-energy radiation value that the Chip was projecting in his mind. The blood-red digits had already exceeded three hundred and were showing no signs of stopping yet.

  Three hundred points?

  The entire space within a hundred meters of the Death Witches was being assaulted by negative-energy corrosion of three hundred points. Th
is intensity was nearly identical to the radiation value of nuclear reactors back on Earth.

  Moreover, this wasn’t the peak intensity of the Death Witches, only the reaction from the death energy that they were unintentionally emitting. Just from this alone, one could easily imagine how terrifying an all-out attack from them would be!

  It would probably be no less potent than the detonation of a small nuclear bomb!

  Greem put on a resigned and bitter smile.

  Leave?

  He was the owner of this place. If news of him running when the Fourth Grade witches came on a visit were to get out, he would turn into a joke among all of the Northern Witches.

  Fortunately, the witches didn’t seem to have any intention of embarrassing Greem and knocking him down a peg. After assessing Greem for a while, they finally controlled their leaking magical energy and started surveying this towering metal fortress instead.

  With Khesuna’s powerful Spirit, she almost instantly realized the oddity of this fortress.

  The entire metal fortress was charged with an indescribable magical energy aura.

  This energy aura wasn’t the sort that was radiated by ordinary magical equipment. It was more like the energy that flowed through a person’s veins and blood. It was energy that filled every inch of the metal’s space. From inside to out, top to bottom, this entire metal fortress was like a strange lifeform of its own. There was a rhythmic beat to the surge of magical energy in the fortress.

  Like a human’s breath and pulse!

  “Hmm? Could this metal fortress be a metal lifeform?” Khesuna looked around her and finally couldn’t resist the urge to ask.

  Khesuna had seen plenty of things. She had explored hundreds of planes with different environments, creatures, and resources, and she wasn’t particularly surprised by this strange lifeform of a creature.

  What she was curious about was how a mere Second Grade male adept could have a perfect metal lifeform as his subordinate. How exactly did this male adept manage to make a strange metal lifeform like this submit?

  Greem put on a forced smile when Khesuna raised this question. He shouted, “Gazlowe. Since Lady Khesuna has already discovered you, you might as well show yourself now!”

  As his voice reverberated throughout the metal fortress, the walls beside them split open, and Gazlowe’s split-off brain Gru stepped into the metal hall.

  Though the Crimson Clan had already decided to work together with the witches to excavate Lance, some secrets still had to be protected. Apart from Third Grade brain monster, Gazlowe, the most important secret of the clan in the fortress had to be the magic generator furnaces that provided the fortress with its endless magical supply.

  At the very least, before the Crimson Clan had the absolute power to defend themselves, Greem did not intend to reveal the existence of the magic generator furnaces to other adepts. Magical machinery that could endlessly extract magical energy from the planar void would most definitely attract the attention of countless high-grade adepts.

  If the high-grade adepts possessed such technology, they could easily forge tens of thousands of magic generator furnaces in combination with their immense knowledge and resource reserves. When that happened, the Crimson Clan would not even have a chance at picking up the leftovers.

  As such, the one stepping forward this time was only Gazlowe’s split-off brain Gru. The energy source of Gru’s magical mechanical body was no longer a magic generator furnace either. It was just a hive-array of magic energy batteries.

  Such technology and technique might have its uniqueness, but it wasn’t advanced enough to incite the greed of other adepts.

  Meanwhile, Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe hid deep underground with the magic generator furnaces. To ensure that they weren’t discovered, Gazlowe even put up a mental barrier outside the magic generator furnaces. This, in combination with the layers of metal walls and thousands of meters of rocks, was what prevented the Fourth Grade witches’ probes.

  The two Fourth Grade witches quickly lost interest in researching the brain monster when they saw Gru’s clumsily large form and its power that was only the peak of Second Grade.

  “Felmyst and I need a room to rest in. Apart from that, I need more detailed and comprehensive information on the Wings of the Azure Sky. Send these things to my room!”

  Gru led Khesuna and Felmyst to a quiet room.

  They might be Fourth Grade witches, but they still required a period of time to recover from Lance’s planar suppression. At the same time, they needed to digest the newest information on Krille and come up with a comprehensive plan of capture.

  If their plan failed, the target would be much more alert, and their subsequent attempts would be much more likely to fail. As such, the two witches had no choice but to be as cautious and careful as they could be!

  A Fourth Grade dragon’s power in the plane world that he resided in was most definitely beyond an ordinary Fourth Grade adept. Though Khesuna was no ordinary witch, she was still in Krille’s territory and Krille’s world, while also enduring immense planar suppression.

  Under such circumstances, even she didn’t have a guarantee of gaining the upper hand against a Fourth Grade dragon. Thus, after some thought, Khesuna brought along a Fourth Grade deputy leader from one of their lesser planes.

  This way, with the cooperation of two Fourth Grade Death Witches, their chance of success was much higher!

  …………

  It was said that Wings of the Azure Sky Krille lived in a place known as Tempest Keep.

  A towering peak several thousands of meters tall stood there. There were hardly any lifeforms, though. The air was thin, and even the mightiest of hawks could not fly against the fierce winds.

  Apart from some dragonborn servants, there were also some mutated wind spirits guarding Krille’s palace and lair.

  As a Fourth Grade dragon, Krille not only possessed a territory of his own in Lance but also vast lands in three other smaller planes. In fact, Krille had even become a guardian lifeform with devoted followers in an exceptionally small plane.

  That allowed him to possess some degree of control over the power of faith!

  Every year, on the fifth day of the eleventh month, the three lesser planes would open planar portals and offer their offerings to the great Wings of the Azure Sky. Apart from many fruits and treasure, there were also plenty of exotic native beauties.

  Natives from other planes had to endure terrifying planar backlash and harsh environmental conditions when they arrived at a place as harsh as Tempest Keep. Only a third of every one hundred beauties could live beyond ten days.

  The rest would die tragically in constant work and pain, turning into poor souls lost in an alien world!

  With the robust Physique of a Fourth Grade dragon, there was no way Krille would ever favor these tan, rough-skinned native beauties. Even if their pretty looks and figures managed to attract the Fourth Grade dragon, they would still die when servicing him in bed after he had turned into a ferocious human male.

  There was no way ordinary human women could deal with the strong Physique of a Fourth Grade dragon!

  Chapter 805 - Forceful Assault

  Tempest Keep.

  Standing below the steep cliffs of the mountain, one could hardly see the extravagant palace in the clouds, even if they raised their heads and looked.

  The seven-man party that included Greem had traversed multiple mountains and had finally arrived at this isolated peak. It would be another three thousand meters from here before they could reach the palace of the Fourth Grade dragon.

  “We will be going ahead! Remember to act according to the plan.” Khesuna coldly said. She then raised her hand and summoned a Beginner Fourth-Grade corpse dragon to carry her and Felmyst to the top of the peak.

  After seeing the Fourth Grade witches leave, Greem calmly said, “Arms, it’s about time we left!”

  Arms, who was in his human form, was extremely reluctant, but he knew that they co
uldn’t dally any longer. Once the Fourth Grades started fighting, anyone near the battlefield would become victims of their fight. The main reason he had come along was the need to restrain the Third Grade emerald dragon beauty, Iritina.

  Iritina had been staying in Tempest Keep all this while. Arms had not managed to lure her to a different place, regardless of what he tried. However, he had no choice but to try again, as today was the day when the Fourth Grade witches were going to try and capture the dragon. There would be no unharmed eggs in an overturned nest. If he didn’t come with the adepts, there was a high chance that Iritina would become a victim of this battle!

  Thus, Arms let out a roar of unwillingness before his body started gaining in size. In just five seconds, he had transformed from a two-meter tall young man into a thirty-meter-long thunder dragon.

  Greem, Mary, Zacha, and Tigule climbed onto his back and held onto the one-meter long spines there.

  Aooooo!

  A dragon roar rang out as Arms extended his twenty-meter-wide dragon wings and beat them with all he had. With a powerful kick from his hind legs, his large body rose from the ground with four people on his back. Arms hurried after the corpse dragon–now a tiny black dot in the distance–and ascended toward the peak.

  To avoid prematurely alerting the security around Tempest Keep, Greem and the others were going to assault the Wings of Azure Skies in the most direct fashion.

  The two dragons flapped their wings and lunged toward the palace at a straight angle, one after another. As a dragon’s flight speed was simply too fast, Greem could only barely hold onto the thunder dragon’s spine as he billowed in the wind like a flag on a pole.

  Mary knew how to fly as well, which made her more well-adjusted in this scenario.

  Zacha and Tigule knew neither how to fly or be blown in the wind. They could only hang onto the spines for dear life, shutting their eyes as they felt the chill winds whistle past their ears.

  Since this peak was the private property of a Fourth Grade dragon, the entire road winding up toward the palace was guarded by many dragonborn. They were stationed in caves dug into the cliffs. Naturally, when they saw two dragons dash past their eyes and toward the palace, they started hollering and ringing their bells before gathering in groups and rushing to the top.