Of course, this was most likely because she didn’t have the chance to do so!
After all, even when the ‘battle’ was at its most intense, Greem was still keeping over eighty percent of his attention on her.
However, both Greem and Katherine couldn’t help but betray hesitation and lick their lips when they saw this pure, holy light left behind by the devoted and courageous Second Grade Silver Knight.
This wisp of pure, holy light was a branch of a completely different power system. It was utterly distinct from the adept path of knowledge and modification and was a lot more similar to the faith system of the World of Gods. However, most planes that belonged to the Gods worshipped an actual, existent deity, while the bone-headed knights of Henvic Plane worshipped an intangible sort of spirit or belief.
The Light? A sort of light that was filled with sublime and holy ideals?
What was the purpose of worshipping such a thing? Could this light listen to the prayers of its believers and grant them all sorts of blessings?
Out of the natural contempt that the adepts held for the Gods, Greem didn’t think highly of the Holy Light faith of the natives here. However, a loyal and pure believer of the Holy Light had now died in front of him. His body had turned to ash, yet the last traces of his soul rested within a cluster of bright white light that was now hovering before his eyes. The mental impact of this discovery was tremendous to Greem!
This wisp of holy light was far too frail!
If Greem retracted the Burning Domain, even a slight wind from the wild would cause the holy light to vanish without a trace. However, Greem had a feeling that the holy light and the soul attached to it wouldn’t just disappear like that. Instead, they would probably be guided toward a specific place by the planar laws and become part of a greater consciousness.
It was a strange and unjustified feeling, but Greem was confident in his intuition.
The source of his confidence was the Chip’s analysis of the Henvic Plane.
Greem was not powerful enough to decipher even the most surface-level laws of this planar world. As such, the Chip mostly performed investigations into the effects and use of the planar laws. There were still countless unachievable thresholds to cross before they achieved actual control over the laws.
The faith of Holy Light was undoubtedly one of the few higher powers of Henvic Plane. The value of researching it was most definitely above the basic planar laws.
Now, here was a shortcut to examining the power of Holy Light faith standing right before him. It might be entirely different from the source of the adepts’ powers, but it was still a precious research subject.
[Beep. Presence of pure spiritual energy detected. Said energy can be captured, absorbed, or destroyed. Please make your decision.]
Greem could understand capturing and destroying it. However, what was the purpose of absorbing it?
“Chip, what are the effects of absorbing this Holy Light?”
[Beep. It is a kind of extremely pure and refined Spirit energy. After extracting the spiritual impurities within, it can rapidly increase the host’s Spirit attribute.]
Increase the Spirit attribute?
All of Greem’s hairs almost stood on their ends.
Ever since becoming an adept, he had searched countless times for ways and items to increase his Spirit quickly. Unfortunately, there were no other methods available apart from the meditation techniques of the adept system.
Of course, some exceptionally rare adept resources could achieve the same effect. For instance, the Holy Water of the elves in Faen, the Spirit mixture sold by the Silver Union, and the giant’s brain that often appeared in adept markets worked. Unfortunately, these items were often high-grade resources belonging exclusively to adepts of Fourth Grade and above. They were way beyond Greem’s league.
What was the most significant factor limiting an adept’s ability to advance? Naturally, that would be the speed at which their powers improved.
Greem was currently walking the path of an elementium adept. His primary focus was, therefore, Spirit.
Even after he advanced to Third Grade and experienced a period of rapid Spirit improvement, his Spirit had only gone from thirty-one points to thirty-two points. The rate at which his Spirit increased had gradually slowed down since he reached thirty-two points.
Greem figured some estimations. Given the current rate of his improvement, it would take ten to twenty years of grueling training and continuous meditation to increase his Spirit by a single point. Moreover, the increase in Spirit always became slower and more difficult when you reached the peak of the grade.
Many adepts exhausted their entire lives and remained unable to raise their Spirits to the threshold for advancement.
If adepts could successfully advance by hiding in their towers, there wouldn’t be so few Fourth Grade adepts throughout the World of Adepts. If they didn’t find ways to obtain resources that could expedite this process, most adepts would only die in their towers of old age and in despair.
That was why even the calm and composed Greem couldn’t help but fall into a daze when he heard the Chip’s notification.
In his absent state of mind, he impatiently reached out to grab this wavering wisp of light.
The fire beside him dimmed as sharp and howling wind screeched across the air.
Greem didn’t know when it happened, but Blade Princess Katherine had crossed the two hundred meters between them and appeared beside him. She held two metal spikes in her hand and had already severely dented the semi-translucent flame barrier between the two of them. Meanwhile, the five metal discs had wrapped around to his back and were slicing the barrier from multiple different angles.
Regardless of how powerful a Third Grade Flame Barrier’s defense was, they could not possibly endure the all-out attack of a Third Grade mechanical witch. It lasted only 1.7 seconds before it shattered completely.
After the barrier was reduced to sparks, it was Greem’s defensive forcefield that was under attack.
It was his last defense, a forcefield formed of Spirit and fire energy!
The elementium magical machine that was still chasing after the Saint Martin knights let out a howl and hastily rushed toward the fire. Meanwhile, the Spirit of Pestilence swaying its legs on Greem’s shoulders unleashed a Death Curse upon Katherine.
One was a hundred and twenty-meters away, incapable of solving the imminent danger at hand. The other was only Second Grade and incapable of blocking the attack of a Third Grade mechanical witch.
The only one that could save Greem was himself!
A single second of absent-mindedness had brought about a crisis of death upon Greem. It was more than enough proof of the savagery and terror of a duel between high-grade adepts.
The two metal spikes were still piercing forward, striking straight at Greem’s brows.
The distance between the two of them was less than half a meter now.
The Sharpness and Penetration spells enchanted upon the spikes were still in full effect, shattering the barrier and the energy forcefield into sparks and cinders. Katherine’s own thirty-one points of Strength allowed the metal spikes to continued forward steadily. Otherwise, the elementium turbulence caused by the explosion of the Flame Barrier and the energy forcefield would have been sufficient to disrupt any follow-up attacks.
The all-out Death Curse of the Spirit of Pestilence turned into a cloud of gray smoke and entered Katherine’s body, causing a smudge of gray to appear on her face of flesh and steel. However, her thirty-six points of Physique allowed her to endure the first wave of effects from the Death Curse and push the spikes steadily forward.
The gleaming points of the spikes were no more than five centimeters away from Greem’s eyebrow now.
The last defensive forcefield was badly indented now, the surface filled with fine cracks as if it was about to shatter in the very next second.
Once the energy forcefield was gone, his death would be sealed. He would hav
e no chance against a hunter adept like the Blade Princess with his crude melee skills.
Crack!
A faint crackling sound came from a withered branch in the bonfire beside them.
The steadily blazing flame erupted as a giant flame humanoid formed from the red flames.
The light flickered on the spot, and Greem mysteriously swapped positions with the towering humanoid figure.
The defensive forcefield shattered, and the spike drove into the head of the flame humanoid, blasting it into cinders and sparks. Katherine’s spikes and metal disc-blades slashed, and the humanoid figure was completely obliterated.
Greem’s pained and angered howls abruptly filled the air.
The next second, the humanoid figure in the flames took on Greem’s appearance and threw two giant fireballs towards Katherine.
Dong! Dong!
The massive fireballs exploded on the scene, and Katherine let out a tragic cry. Her entire body turned into a whirlwind of blades as she backed away from the ravaging firestorm. She flickered, and her entire body appeared a hundred meters away. Katherine flashed once more, and she was already at the edge of Greem’s vision. Another second later, she had vanished without a trace.
Chapter 949 - Furious Pursuit
Katherine finally knew how terrifying a rabbit’s retaliation could be when it was backed into a corner!
She had always maintained the absolute initiative in her battle against Greem.
As a mechanical adept, all of her combat techniques required next to no incantations or handsigns; all of her magical abilities were used to enhance her combat abilities and offensive options. As such, she was most capable of countering elementium adepts in melee combat, where their powerful elementium spells required more space to unleash.
Greem might be a deviant even amongst elementium adepts with melee combat abilities that were nearly on par with his fire spells, but he was still no more than a rookie when compared to Katherine.
Without the elementium magical machine’s assistance, Greem would have long since died to her compound, three-dimensional attacks. She would only need to suffer some heavy losses in return.
Of course, this had only been Katherine’s understanding of the situation!
Now that she had ambushed Greem and destroyed the wisp of holy light as she did so, she had incited Greem’s wrath.
The typically calm and composed fire adept exploded with anger. Greem pursued Katherine unrelentingly with the elementium magical machine.
It didn’t matter how quickly Katherine scaled the mountains, crossed the rivers, and traversed the woods. Greem might be momentarily lost, but the horde of low-grade wind spirits in the air allowed him to catch up quickly.
The Blade Princess finally realized the severity of the situation after spending most of the night fleeing from Greem.
That damned male adept had plenty of elementium golems as his mounts. He only needed to sit upon them and order them to charge ahead. Meanwhile, Katherine had to run on her own two feet with her strength.
If she were in perfect condition, her Physique would allow her to easily persist in this chase for three days and three nights. However, she was currently covered in wounds and gravely in need of rest and treatment, not the reckless pursuit of a fire adept.
Healing would exhaust her stamina and fleeing even more so. Yet, rest was the only thing she had no time for. Moreover, she had also taken the poison attack of the Spirit of Pestilence head-on during the battle earlier. Though most of the poison damage had been rendered immune by her tremendous Physique, the remaining poison continued to destroy and wreck her body.
Katherine had taken some potent antidotes along the way, but the poison that the Spirit of Pestilence had planted in her was a compound curse of the most complex sort. The poison would never be completely cleansed unless she first lifted the curse.
However, Katherine could not even spare five minutes to do so. She had no choice but to continue running while enduring the suffering of curse and poison!
Of course, Katherine had also been plotting retaliation as she escaped. Unfortunately, the male adept seemed to have learned his lesson. He never let the elementium magical machine leave him, constantly keeping it at his side as his guardian.
Even Katherine didn’t dare to turn and fight under such circumstances. Her only option was to grit her teeth, keep her head down, and continue running away!
Thus, the two adepts continued in this pursuit and unknowingly traversed over three hundred kilometers of land. Meanwhile, their reckless pursuit and escape had naturally attracted the intervention of the Zambez Empire’s standing army.
Hakans.
A peaceful city sat upon a vast and wide plain.
As the capital of the Northern Regions of the Empire, Hakans was famously known as a military stronghold.
Thousands of merchants and travelers moved through her daily. The number of carts and carriages was innumerable and kept the path to Hakans congested continuously.
However, as the long line of traffic slowly moved forward, dust clouds arose on the distant plains, followed by an immensely tragic howling. An intangible commotion spread from a distance toward the city, slowly affecting every individual in the traffic.
The travelers and merchants all felt an ill omen within their hearts. They lifted their heads and looked toward the source of the disruption. Some more crafty people had already left the line and were starting to flee into the surrounding plains.
While the crowd was confused and started to break into a panic, an indescribably terrifying spiritual pressure washed across them, accompanied by howling winds.
No one could discern the identity of the golden silhouette that had flashed past them. They didn’t even have any idea if it was a person or an item. However, the sharp sound caused by the howling winds in the shape’s passing forced everyone to clasp their ears and let out agonized moans as their bodies shivered and trembled.
Blood was streaming from everyone’s ears and eyes while the winds passed by. Their faces were stricken with horror, totally clueless about what had happened.
While everyone was caught in fear and panic, some individuals that had recovered from the scream suddenly pointed into the distance and let out a heartrending yell.
The crowd turned and looked, only to see two giant creatures charging toward them, one large and one small.
The larger creature appeared to be a massive serpent formed purely of stone. It crushed countless carriages and carts along the way and continued forward without delay. Beside the stone serpent was a towering metallic giant whose body spewed forth blinding red light. It was also striding with rumbling steps.
Any man or vehicle in their way would be instantly crushed like insignificant earthworms upon the ground. Horses whinnied and collapsed where they went, the cargo in their carts knocked down onto the road as their owners screamed in terror as they fled.
Those with sharper eyes could even see a red-robed figure sitting upon the serpent’s head, his eyes fixed in the distance blazing with fire and lightning, completely ignoring the chaos happening beneath.
Adepts.
Adepts from another world.
Naturally, some more knowledgeable people in the crowd immediately understood the identities of the pursuer and the pursued.
However, what could they do against a Third Grade adept from another world with their measly power?
When some unintelligent fellows picked up rocks and wooden planks to bash the slithering stone serpent, the crowd finally attracted the adept’s attention.
The next second, a faint-red barrier of flames quickly engulfed the entire area.
Almost at the same instant that the Ring of Fire enveloped the surroundings, the entire place transformed into a sea of flames.
Terrifying magical fires instantly ignited every substance within the barrier: carts, cargo, bags, planks, humans, grass. Even the black earth beneath their feet quickly started melting before the raging fires.
It was almost as if a dome-shaped furnace had been erected in the area. All life and substance were rapidly melted and turned into ash as the stone serpent charged forward.
All the people in the way of the Ring of Fire quickly escaped from their carts and ran as far away from the road as they could.
Frantic alarms also went off in Hakans in the distance.
As the most prosperous and vital central city of the northern regions of Zambez, Hakans was stationed with plenty of holy knights.
A group of holy knights had just reached the closest city gate on warhorses when they ran into the fleeing Katherine.
After attempting to flee in every direction and still being unable to escape from the berserk fire adept, Katherine had no choice but to draw him toward the most heavily guarded stronghold– Hakans.
Perhaps the dense crowd and the legions of ferocious hoy knights would allow her to escape the fire adept’s mad pursuit.
The most powerful of the holy knights that had hurried to the gates was also a Second Grade Silver Knight.
He had just arrived at the city gate and stopped his horse. He had not even identified the disorder in the distance when Katherine set her sights upon him.
The Blade Princess had already made contact with these holy knights. She had a perfect grasp of their strengths and weaknesses.
With sufficient time to bless themselves with holy light, every holy knight would become an iron can protected by layers of halos. All sorts of magical resistances and physical resistances would be present, making it exceptionally difficult to kill them. However, if they were caught by surprise and without the protection of the holy light, their divine armor would be fragile.
As such, Katherine struck to kill without any hesitation the moment she discovered these holy knights.
Her silhouette flickered as she instantly crossed the ten-meter-long iron gates of the city, appearing in the middle of the ranks of holy knights. Five metal disc-blades shot out of nowhere, turning into a formation of death that completely engulfed the nearby knights.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 584