“Good day. I am the stationed adept sent by the Association to oversee the Nisara Dukedom. Who might you be, sir?”
Adept Jenna secretly looked at the City of Nero below her as she spoke.
At this moment, the beautiful and peaceful city had now turned into an apocalyptic scene where dens of the virus where everywhere, making for an unbearable view to witness!
“Since you are an Association adept, you may leave! I wish to borrow the people here!”
“My lord, there are also a few people in the city that I wish to take away with me. What do you think?”
“Are they members of the Association?”
“No. However—”
“Then I will make sure none of them escapes! If you don’t leave now, even you will have to stay here forever.”
Adept Jenna could only shake her head and leave dejectedly after hearing Remi’s somewhat impatient words.
When she turned to leave, she could very clearly see a pack of hideous and vicious creatures charge out of the palace. Parts of a purple lace dress were still attached to the body of one of these monsters.
At the sight of this, Jenna’s last bit of hesitation was completely severed. She gritted her teeth and flew into the distance without looking back.
Seeing that the plague army beneath him had started to achieve a sizeable scale, Spirit of Pestilence Remi used his authority as their master to command them towards the battlefield in the distant north. He continued to ride the mountain eagle southwest.
There was another city there, eighty kilometers away.
It was a place that he had to go harvest personally.
Remi also sent newly evolved Plaguebringers to the six or seven human towns and villages along the way, all for the purposes of gathering more troops. It was this small accumulation, bit by bit, that allowed Remi to pull together a massive plague army in just ten days.
…………
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While the north of Nisara Dukedom was being ravaged by plagues, and the fight raged on in Gordon Highlands, the Zhentarim Association was already in an uproar.
Even though the Bluesea Plane wasn’t considered a particularly important resource plane within the Association, it was a good place for leisure and holiday. Right now, over one-fifth of the Nisara Dukedom, the largest of the plane, had been invaded by the plague. All surviving civilians had also turned into ugly and hideous plague creatures.
Was the Association still intent on sitting by and watching the Spirit of Pestilence wreak destruction under such circumstances?
The Association adepts had split into multiple factions over this matter and were engaged in a passionate argument.
The more radical called for the Association to punish this damned fire adept who had dared to allow his contracted spirit to freely slaughter the people and destroy the Association’s property.
Some of the others were more conservative. They believed that the Association was the one to place the battle in that location, and Greem’s actions were a means of magic, making it understandable for him to do whatever he was doing. All they had to do was warn him and have him compensate with some resources at the end of the fight.
Many sat on the fence, not particularly expressing their opinion towards one or the other. These people were both dissatisfied with the brazen attitude of the Spirit of Pestilence, but also didn’t want to appear too particular about the rules and too much of a miser. Counting the losses of every single planar native would be a little selfish.
As such, the opinions could not be reconciled, and the various parties quickly came into conflict.
However, this was the opinion and attitude of the low-grade adepts, after all. Compared to them, the high-grade adepts of the Zhentarim higher-ups appeared to be extremely calm and composed, almost as if they weren’t fazed by the temporary chaos that had spread in this tiny little resource plane.
On the contrary, some high-grade adepts even unexpectedly praised and acknowledged the legendary fire adept’s unscrupulous behavior.
Chapter 1044 - The Clash of the Two
Regardless of how complicated the situation was on the outside, there was only bitter fighting on the battlefield.
That said, the one doing the bitter fighting was Scarface Gallow alone. Greem was as leisurely as he could be.
He stood above the mountain of corpses with fearsome poison zombies swarming all around him. The zombies might not be all that powerful, but their endless tide kept Scarface Gallow trapped in place. Even taking a step outwards was incredibly difficult.
He answered the ceaseless charge of the zombies with merciless butchering and wild slaughter!
One wave of zombies would rush forward, and in the next instant they would be gone, their bodies rolling down the corpse mountain amidst even more growls and waves of sword auras. Their tattered remains became a part of the corpse mountain, causing it to grow further in height and width.
Gallow was still as ferocious and mighty as when he had started, even after slaughtering nearly 600,000 poison zombies. Every punch, kick, slash, and roar brought devastating damage to the poison zombies around him.
Gallow was a bloodline adept, after all. His vicious power and tremendous Physique were all a blessing from his bloodline. He did not cultivate his body and strength the way body-refining adepts did. As such, while body-refining adepts desired endless stamina above all things, bloodline adepts desired unlimited bloodline power.
Unfortunately, there was a limit to human effort. Many things could not change simply because of willpower!
Perhaps having absorbed a lesson from Sanazar’s defeat, Gallow stopped using the more powerful sword techniques that exhausted more of his bloodline powers after a few failed attempts at breaching the encirclement. Instead, he started using more plain slashes to slowly wear down the number of poison zombies.
The large area-of-effect sword waves from earlier might have been quicker and more efficient at exterminating the poison zombies than the regular cuts and slashes he was using now, but they required the use of his bloodline powers. With an undead body, Gallow rarely faced the issue of running out of stamina.
As such, if Gallow didn’t want to end up like Sanazar and suffer defeat after having his bloodline powers exhausted, his best bet out of this situation was to treasure every bit of his bloodline power.
This was a foreign plane that neither of them was familiar with. The ‘raw material’ for these newly constructed plague beasts came from the planar natives. Gallow didn’t believe that his opponent could have found an inexhaustible supply of natives to create these plague creatures in just ten days.
After giving up his impractical thoughts of quickly escaping the encirclement, Gallow accepted his reality and started making preparations for a drawn-out battle.
He would avoid using bloodline powers if he could and use mundane attacks to cut down these poison zombies instead. Once in a while, when sufficient poison zombies had gathered around him, he would use his sword technique to clear the area and reduce their numbers.
This moderate pace of using his techniques provided him enough time for his bloodline powers to recover.
Gallow didn’t believe that there was no end to this. The legendary fire adept couldn’t possibly turn all the natives of Bluesea Plane into poison zombies, could he?
Even after giving up on using his sword waves and fighting using only his body and combat instincts, Scarface Gallow was still as fearsome and powerful as ever. It didn’t matter if you were a low-grade poison zombie or an evolved wight. With a single slash from Gallow, you would be cut to pieces. There was no chance of survival at all.
Moreover, with his Strength and Physique, he could maintain this rate of slashing twice a second for several months to come. He did not need to worry about exhausting the bloodline powers within him.
After watching from the side and realizing that Gallow’s bloodline powers were
not wearing out at all, Greem immediately joined the fray with the elementium magical machine.
The horde of poison zombies might not be able to exhaust his bloodline powers, but a Third Grade legendary fire adept and a Third Grade elementium magical machine should!
After these two entered the battle, the somewhat dull fighting immediately erupted with vigor once again.
The elementium magical machine was sufficiently powerful, but that was only relative to an ordinary Third Grade adept. Since their opponent was Scarface Gallow, who stood at the peak of Third Grade adepts, Greem was worried about letting the magical machine charge forward alone.
Scarface Gallow might have held back on using his techniques against the poison zombies. However, if it were the elementium magical machine he was facing, he would most definitely use everything within his power to immediately destroy Greem’s strongest aide.
Thus, the roles were completely reversed in today’s battle. The elementium magical machine stayed behind and became the cannoneer, raising the magic energy ray cannon and firing shots at Gallow as fast as it could. Meanwhile, flames rose around Greem and turned him into a three-meter-tall flame giant. He slowly walked towards Gallow.
This strange scene not only confused Gallow, but the many adepts gathered in Kerslin Castle as well.
Shouldn’t an elementium adept…be hiding in the backlines where it was safe to barrage the enemy with spells? Since when did elementium adepts fight at melee range?
What would happen when a bloodline adept with 39 points of Strength clashed with an elementium adept with 39 points of Spirit?
Everyone couldn’t help but wait with bated breath.
Almost as if sensing the wild killing intent that had taken over the battlefield, the horde of poison zombies finally stopped their suicidal charge. They gathered around the corpse mountain and raised their head to silently watch the clash between these two powerhouses that represented the apex of Third Grade in the World of Adepts.
Scarface Gallow was caked in blood. His entire body was covered in a layer of purple-black liquid, and pungent black blood constantly dripped from his armor and skin. His feet were also buried beneath a pile of corpses. Every movement he made would send a small avalanche of body parts down the mountain.
He was not wearing any metal armor, nor too many pieces of magical equipment.
For Gallow, his Physique and magic resistance already provided such extreme defensive power that his body itself could rival the best Third Grade armor available. Out of confidence in his own body and Strength, Gallow never wore any sort of armor.
Even the leather armor he currently wore only had some simple magical effects like Levitate and Cleanse. Their defensive power was about as close to zero as possible.
Perhaps Gallow was only wearing them to hide his terrifying body.
Now that he was so close to Gallow, Greem finally had a good look at the true appearance of the longsword in his hand.
It was a fearsome magical longsword containing a strange power!
The blade was nearly half a meter wide, and a slight protrusion ran down the spine, extending all the way from the hilt to the tip of the sword. Who knew what materials Gallow had used to forge this magical sword? The entire blade was pitch black, with all sorts of profound and incomprehensible runes carved on it.
Every time Gallow gripped his magical sword, the runes and carvings on the blade would light up, one by one, until it radiated an indescribably scary aura.
Greem assessed the sword as closely as he could. Judging by its energy radiance, the magical sword was undoubtedly only a Third Grade magical item. However, compared to ordinary Third Grade magical equipment, it was more powerful and carried with it some slight indication that it was becoming animated.
Greem was sure that if Gallow was fortunate enough to advance to Fourth Grade, and continued to cultivate the sword patiently, it would have a chance to advance and became one of the extremely rare Fourth Grade magical items.
When that happened, Scarface Gallow would have a Fourth Grade magical sword that was perfectly compatible with him. He would be able to square off with veteran Fourth Grade adepts with such a weapon.
From this perspective, this Third Grade magical sword had more development potential than Sodden’s Holy Ring.
Of course, this wasn’t saying that the Holy Ring was of inferior quality. Rather, Sodden’s Holy Ring was completely forged in accordance with the strengths and attributes of a holy knight. Naturally, in the hands of a fire adept like Greem, the Holy Ring could not obtain sufficient nourishment of holy light power. In the hands of an incompatible owner, it did not have a chance to continue growing.
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Gallow looked at the flame giant standing thirty meters away from him. A stiff smile finally appeared on his stitched face.
“Good…very good. For the first time, you have won my respect! Regardless of the results of today’s battle, I will acknowledge you as a friend, just for this courage of yours!”
Gallow’s figure trembled. Incomparably violent force swept through his whole body like a halo of light. The blood and minced meat covering his body were shaken off by force, diced into a fine mist of blood and blown away into the distance.
In that one instant, when the blood mist obscured both of their visions, Gallow stomped against the ground with two feet. A pungent wave of blood several dozen meters tall rose into the air. His body charged towards Greem at breakneck speed from the counter-force.
The strange magical sword let out an unprecedentedly massive sword halo that quickly wrapped around Greem’s body of flames.
“Die for me!”
An earthshaking battlecry rang out as the black blade of light devoured all of the flames.
The adepts crowded in front of the screens couldn’t help but become nervous at this sight. In particular, the Crimson adepts, led by Mary and the two other girls, clasped their hands in anxiety. Their faces flushed red, and their eyes opened wide as if they could hardly breathe from the anticipation.
The legendary fire adept couldn’t have been killed by a single strike in one moment of carelessness, could he?
While everyone held their breath and waited, a wild pillar of fire rose into the sky, and Greem’s familiar body of flames appeared once again.
Chapter 1045 - Origin Fire
How could Greem not have been aware of his opponent’s sudden assault with how cautious and careful he was?!
Greem blasted away with his Boots of Ash without hesitation after emerging from the pillar of fire. His body had just moved from his prior position when an incomparably violent blade of light caught the pillar of fire and cleaved it into countless sparks.
Greem’s body of flames stepped upon the uneven pile of corpses and quickly dodged about the battlefield. Two blinding streams of fire spread out around his back like a cape of flame. He deftly dodged around in the narrow space with the pushing power of the fire jets, avoiding all of the sword lights that Gallow sent at him.
If Greem were running with his feet alone, his twelve points of Agility would not have allowed him to escape the slashes, even if he were to run as fast as he could.
However, with the use of his magical powers and his mind, Greem was growing increasingly skilled at controlling the flames. He came up with this new means of movement that was compatible with his skills.
After creating magma armor with his flames, he could manipulate violent fire energy to shoot out of small holes on the back of it, driving his entire body to glide forward explosively.
Greem had even ordered the Chip to spend a vast amount of time and computing power to design a whole new magma armor for him for this express purpose. The unique aspect of his magma armor wasn’t its defensive protection, but the small holes that were spread all over the middle and surface layers.
Greem could adjust the angle and direction of his glide by changing the path of the jet st
ream and the hole from which the flames were expelled without moving his body.
At the moment, Greem’s body moved in a strange fashion. He faced towards Gallow while several dozen streams of red flames of varying thickness, force, and shades of color shot out from all around him.
He moved through the air quickly and in strange ways that seemed to defy the laws of motion. Even as the black blades of light swung all around him and seemingly cut off all paths of escape, Greem remained unfazed and easily dodged the attacks after a few rapid turns.
Naturally, the berserk Gallow would not give up on this rare chance at a ‘fair’ duel with Greem. He stomped against the corpse mountain, every step leaving behind a bloody crater as his body rushed toward the fire adept at a shocking speed.
Extreme Strength was everything!
Gallow might only have seventeen points of Agility, but his thirty-nine points of ferocious Strength allowed him to have bursts of speed that could rival Mary, who had thirty-seven points of Agility.
The only difference was the amount of control in their movement. Mary could easily change her trajectory and direction of motion even when moving at such speeds, fluently and without causing a mess. Scarface Gallow, on the other hand, relied on raw strength. He had to exert an even greater burst of strength to barely stop his uncontrolled movement.
Thus, as Gallow slashed and leaped with violent force, the blood, flesh, and strangely-shaped limbs flew everywhere from this massive twenty-meter tall mountain of corpses.
The two Third Grade adepts started a chase in this horrifying and sinister environment, assaulting each other with wild blades of light and torrents of invisible flames.
Meanwhile, the elementium magical machine stood a kilometer away, bombarding Gallow rapidly with a ray-beam shot every seven seconds. Even though Gallow was moving and running without stop, the magic energy ray beams were always locked onto his back.
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