Adept Holly and Mangus exchanged a look when they saw Adept Roy warn them so solemnly. They couldn’t help but be exasperated.
A cruel lich? It seemed like the lich had been on relatively equal and amicable terms with Greem, almost as if they appreciated each other’s powers.
It seemed like Greem indeed hid his true abilities well. Even the elite adepts here had not realized his actual power and facade. They couldn’t afford to offend someone like him!
Holly and Mangus had long since been won over by Greem’s power during this journey. They started to obey by Greem’s instructions throughout unknowingly.
They weren’t too worried about offending the Dark Witches over this matter. The three of them belonged to different adept organizations, after all. The Northern Witches might be powerful, but they could not easily do anything to any of them. Moreover, offending a rising star with seemingly no limits for a dead adept was a foolish decision that neither of them was stupid enough to make.
After all, this Greem was a powerful man who could even talk with a lich as an equal! Others might not know all these subtleties, but the two of them had personally witnessed Greem’s unparalleled might as a fire adept. Naturally, they knew what to say and what not to say.
Fourth Grade adepts might be the pinnacle of power in the World of Adepts, but even Fourth Grade adepts were divided into different levels by their power. The legendary fire adept had far surpassed them. He was now a fearsome individual that they could only look up to from a distance.
Thus, it didn’t matter what the others thought. Holly and Mangus had both made up their minds. They would never make an enemy out of Greem for the rest of their lives!
Since the mission crystal had been examined, there was nothing to criticize about Greem’s party.
Though the Coldwinter Witch was still upset about this, she could not do anything without substantial evidence.
In the end, why did Dark Witch Shani participate in this planar war? What were her true intentions? And what happened between them?
The Coldwinter Witch had no answers to these questions. She was only trying to uncover the truth out of her routine defense of the united benefit of the Northern Witches.
Since she could not procure anything from the situation, she ceased her pursuit. Instead, she intended to inform the Witch Council of what had happened here once she had returned to her station beyond the World of Adepts. It would be the Council’s problem to deal with then!
The death of a Fourth Grade Dark Witch in a foreign plane would certainly cause waves among the Northern Witches. However, as a Fourth Grade witch stationed in the realms beyond, these things did not really concern her.
“Since everyone’s already arrived, we shall commence teleportation now! The war here has already escalated in scale and intensity. We could run into ultra-grade powerhouses at any moment. It is no longer safe to remain here. If nobody else has any concerns, then come closer, please!”
Adept Roy–who no longer wanted to remain in this ruined plane–stood forward. Seeing no objections, he took out a strange seed and tossed it onto the rocky surface before him.
This seed was not a seed of an ordinary plant. Instead, it was the seed of a magical plant that had been specially cultivated and sealed for future use. With the breaking of the seal, tender leaves began to spread out and expand in an almost human-like fashion. The equally tender roots pierced the stone like sharp daggers, quickly spreading and growing through the hill.
In less than a few minutes, the plant had grown into a massive forest. Strange, profound runes flowed on the green vines that now crawled all over the hill. The many complicated, winding roots formed a giant magical array underground.
Adept Roy stood at the center of the magical array, violent and ferocious magic energy pouring from his body into the array beneath him. Chains of runes and threads of energy appeared in the air as the energy aura grew in intensity. Soon, the power was blindingly bright.
“Come in, all of you! The teleportation will begin soon!”
The other nine adepts stepped onto the roots of the magical plant without any hesitation when they heard Adept Roy’s orders. They each found a place to sit, closed their eyes, and waited for the teleportation to commence.
Greem, Holly, and Mangus had become slightly more acquainted during their trip. As such, they stood somewhat closer to each other than the other adepts. In particular, Mangus stood right by Greem, as if he was subordinate to him and looking for his protection.
Greem knew that the siblings were weak and would probably face some difficulty with such intense interplanar teleportation. As such, he did not pay it much heed.
The blinding runic array soon flooded the hill, turning it into a sea of light. All ten adepts were engulfed in the light as a portal was torn open.
Due to the damage to Morrian Plane, the dying planar consciousness no longer had the power to suppress interplanar teleportation of this sort. It made the difficulty of tearing space apart far easier than when they broke into the plane.
When a black hole had been torn into space, an energy storm surged out from within the rift, assaulting the adepts. Activating an elementium shield at this moment was not a good idea. Doing so would throw the spatial energy into chaos, causing unpredictable and terrifying consequences.
The adepts could only close their eyes and endure, using their refined physical bodies and magic resistance to survive the corrosion of space energy. Everybody could feel their bodies mysteriously lengthening, contorting, and twisting. Gradually, they started to lose all sense of space.
Even with the countless improvements that the adepts had made to interplanar teleportation arrays, it was still difficult to minimize the danger during the process. Only high-grade adepts whose bodies had been greatly modified could endure such fearsome spatial change. An ordinary, low-grade adept would be torn to pieces by the violently shifting spatial powers.
The duration of the teleportation felt different for each adept.
Some adepts would only feel a slight daze, and the teleportation would be over when they opened their eyes. Their experience of the teleportation was only a brief moment. Meanwhile, some adepts with powerful Spirits could maintain sharp consciousness throughout the teleportation process. Teleportation for these adepts could be dozens of seconds, several minutes, or even fifteen minutes.
It was hard to tell who was right about the passage of time during teleportation!
Just as the energy in the array bubbled to a peak, Mangus suddenly opened his eyes. His eyes turned white, and his face suddenly contorted into one of pain and struggle.
“Get out…this…this is my body.”
He screamed furiously as if fighting or resisting against some unknown force.
In the end, he even roared and summoned the sleeping Cherisha to transform into their two-headed combat state.
Roar!
He roared unintelligibly, but his body suddenly trembled and calmed down.
Both Mangus and Cherisha’s heads turned towards Greem and looked at him. Mangus laughed coldly and said, “Brat, we meet again! I hope you like this present.”
Having said that, he lunged towards Greem. His entire body turned crimson as if he had drawn upon all of his powers in a single instant. Then, without any hesitation, he self-destructed!
Chapter 1140 - A Difficult Trip Back
It’s Maysa.
The First Witch of Fate who keeps fighting with Alice!
How…how did she do this?
Greem was furious and surprised, but there was no denying that he now faced one of the greatest crises in his life.
The enemy’s timing for this attack was incredibly well-timed. It was the most crucial moment in the interplanar teleportation.
Greem could only see crimson blood in front of him. He could faintly hear Adept Roy’s roars of anger, but his entire body was caught between the spatial energy and the violent, chaotic blood from Mangus’ self-destruction.
It was almost as if he had been caught in an invisible energy storm. He could only hear loud rumbling all around him. His defensive forcefield was under great strain and shattered almost instantly. Before he could cough up blood, the vicious energy pressing against him forced the blood down his throat.
Greem couldn’t worry about the now-disturbed teleportation. His entire body immediately turned into its energy state as he transformed into a fearsome flame giant.
Faced with the overwhelming tide of energy all around him, Greem knew he would not survive unscathed today. He instantly put away all his most crucial storage rings into the Heart of Principles. He then gathered his raging fire energy and charged at the energy tide.
It was an explosion from the self-destruction of a newly advanced Fourth Grade adept. As weak as he was in life, the power of the blast was still incredibly lethal.
Two energies of incomparable power clashed, compressed, and neutralized each other, all within this narrow space.
The shockwaves from the clash had nowhere to go and bounced within the space, repeatedly smashing Greem’s body of flames and causing him to shrink and erupt, over and over again.
Greem endured this extreme test of power and roared with all his might. He drew upon an immeasurable amount of pure fire energy from the Heart of Principles and laid down numerous layers of fire defenses around his body. A shield would appear the moment the previous shield was shattered. He forcefully protected himself against the corrosion and impact of the energy tide with his deep magic reserves.
It seemed like Great Witch Maysa was determined to blast Greem out of the teleportation space.
If that happened, Greem would either be torn to shreds by the spacestorms or be teleported to an unknown region by the chaotic space energy; neither option was desirable for Greem!
As such, Greem resisted with all his power. He refused to take a single step back, even if he had to endure an unimaginable torrent of energy. He refused to believe that Great Witch Maysa dared to push him towards death at the risk of killing everyone else in the party.
He endured, and he tolerated the pain. It would be worth it as long as he could stay inside the array until the teleportation completed!
After a dozen seconds, a light flickered before his eyes. It seemed they had arrived at their destination.
At that moment, the energy tide that had been bouncing around him seemed to have been channeled away by a different, powerful force. It caused Greem’s body to lose all tension, and he collapsed to the ground before everyone else, panting in exhaustion.
He had reverted from his flame giant form. His entire body was covered in wounds caused by the chaotic energy, and his Spirit had become extremely weakened. He didn’t even have the strength to stand up now.
“What happened? Why did someone die during the teleportation?” An overwhelming will descended on the spot, causing all the adepts in the teleportation array to hunch over from the pressure. They almost fell flat on the ground.
Apart from Greem, Adept Roy also suffered incredibly during the teleportation process.
He was in charge of managing the teleportation itself and was like the helmsman of the ship. This sudden incident and violent eruption of energy had brought about immense pressure on him as well.
Adept Roy let out a furious roar once the teleportation was completed. He, too, collapsed to the ground, his robe soaked in sweat. He was completely worn out. Even when faced with questions from his superior, he could not speak at all, no matter how much he tried to muster his strength.
The powerful will circled the teleportation array and picked up on the strange traces of energy aura that had yet to dissipate.
“Fate…this is the smell of Fate! Dammit! That bitch Maysa has stuck her hand into my affairs again.”
Soon, the terrifying will arrived above Greem.
“Kid, who are you? Why did Maysa launch a targeted attack at you? Hmph! Fortunately, the teleportation completed in time, or the entire party would have had to die along with you.”
Greem coughed violently and spat out all the blood that had been forced back down his throat.
Unavoidably, his entire body had now been invaded by violent blood energy and the incredibly unusual space energy. It was now extraordinarily frail and in shambles. It was fortunate that he had managed to protect himself promptly and protected the energy from seeping into his Heart of Principles. Otherwise, it would have been a tremendous loss for him.
Even so, his injuries were severe!
He could sense the signs of energy invasion throughout his body and even his soul. It was frightening for an elementium adept like himself. If he could not dispel the foreign energy, he would never be able to advance to become a principle adept.
Greem struggled for half a day before being able to sit upright. He then opened his mouth and started speaking.
“My lord, I am Greem, a newly advanced Fourth Grade from Zhentarim.”
“Of course, I know that. I know perfectly where you’re from. What I’m asking is, what is your relationship with Maysa?”
“My lord, I am not related to Great Witch Maysa in any manner. However, I am somewhat associated with the Witch of Fate, Alice,” Greem said with a few pauses along the way.
“Oh? A new Witch of Fate? You guys didn’t work together and kill Maysa’s Fate Clone, did you?” This mysterious individual seemed fairly interested in the topic, and his tone turned slightly friendlier.
“My lord is wise. I won’t describe the exact proceedings, but Alice and I were associated before everything happened. We then somehow found ourselves in the Battle of Fate, and then—”
“Then Alice became the leader of the Fate Witches? Hehehe. It seems like the planar consciousness can no longer tolerate that bitch’s brazen actions. To think that it would cut off her hands like this. Alright, I understand why you were attacked by that bitch now.
“Hehehe. It seems like you are pretty favored by the planar consciousness, brat. To think you survived an attack like that! Mm? The blessing of the Witch of Fate. Speak honestly, are you lovers with that Alice? Why else would she be willing to place such an important blessing on your soul?!”
“The blessing of the Witch of Fate?” Greem lifted his head with some difficulty, a look of confusion on his face.
“You don’t know, do you, kid? Your soul is protected by a layer of Fate power! It doesn’t matter where you go or where you are. Your luck will be hundreds of times stronger than the average person. No wonder you survived an attack like this.”
“My lord, are blessings like this very valuable?”
“Hmph! Do you really not know? Anything associated with Fate or fortune is an invaluable treasure. Even if that little girl has the might of a peak Fourth Grade, she would have to sacrifice half of her lifespan to achieve such a feat!” The will sighed in exasperation.
“And if she was Third Grade?” Greem’s body tensed up as he quickly followed up with a question.
“Hehehe. If she were only Third Grade, she would have to pay with at least eighty percent of her life.”
Greem’s face instantly flushed white, and his body crumpled to the ground again.
“It seems like there’s a story between you two. I couldn’t be any less bothered with it. All I know is that this operation was under my authority. If anyone reaches their dirty hand into my things, I will chop them off without any hesitation.”
These words were clearly not meant for Greem and the others. Instead, they were transmitted to a distant location by way of some powerful laws. A furious and unfeeling snort of disdain was the only reply.
“Very well, the rest of you survivors can go rest now! Roy, come to my office to give me a report in person.”
Having said that, the powerful will disappeared in an instant. The adepts could finally move and breathe freely.
“You all heard what the Lord said. Return to your shelters to rest!” As expected of a powerful adept, even amongst the elites, Adept Roy had recovered some
of his stamina and energy in just that short period. He could move as usual again.
He shot Greem a cold look. He felt nothing amicable towards this person who almost killed him. That said, since his lordship did not seem to assign any blame on Greem, he thought it best not to do anything as well.
He let out a muffled grunt and turned to walk elsewhere.
Greem shook his head and smiled bitterly. He rejected Adept Holly’s helping hand and stood in front of the dark red stain that had been left behind by the siblings’ death. He then slowly returned to the Association tower in Exodar Camp.
Greem stayed in Exodar Camp for only three days. After turning in all related missions and claiming the rewards, he returned to the World of Adepts immediately.
His first stop was naturally the awakened castle. It was the only interplanar teleportation array in the center of the continent.
The group waiting outside the array to welcome him was a very grand showing. There were six Fourth Grade adepts in total. They naturally included Chairman Freed, Vice-Chairman Mirva, Adept Kerala, Elder Nicolas, Elder Matthew, and Elder Mornashen Gaia, who possessed a Titan bloodline.
The other Fourth Grade adepts or elders were either too busy with experiments or stationed in the realms beyond. Otherwise, the welcoming party would only be grander and greater in scale.
Chapter 1141 - Everyone's Concerns
Greem’s successful return sent a fairly large commotion through Zhentarim.
The whispered certainties in the shadows that Greem would fall during this mission vanished instantly, replaced by rumors that Greem would soon become the most powerful adept of the Central Region.
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