Alice grabbed the staff and quickly cast a series of Fate sealing spells. After thoroughly mixing up the cause-and-effect behind that scene earlier, Alice let out a breath of relief.
With the Fate sealing spells she had cast with the Staff of Divination, no diviners would be able to look into what had just occurred as long as their power was insufficient to break Alice’s seal.
The disciples, Lucia included amongst them, appeared discouraged at the sight of that.
Their teacher was well-acquainted with Greem. Almost every single Fate Witch had heard of this rumor!
However, how well-acquainted they were and how intimate they were in private were all matters of gossip and curiosity for them.
Unfortunately, their teacher was undoubtedly the leader of the Witches of Fate. She was far more trained and precise with her control of Fate powers, never leaving behind any points of weakness they could take advantage of. It also caused the fire of gossip in the hearts of the Fate Witches to burn ever more furiously, though they never found a chance to satisfy their curiosity.
Their teacher’s moment of ’embarrassed fury’ definitely had something to do with the legendary fire adept…who knew what that guy had done to stir their teacher like that?
The witches raised their heads in confusion and looked at their teacher blushing as red as an apple. Their curiosity only grew stronger.
What exactly had that fire adept done?
…………
Alice’s casual little attack had been nothing to her, but it almost caused a tragedy on the other side!
The purple bolt cut across tens of thousands of kilometers, ignoring the layers of magical defenses around Annemdor Academy and exploding in Greem’s room.
The ferocious currents of electricity immediately left Greem fumbling all over.
This sudden ‘assault’ against him also caused an instantaneous and violent chain reaction.
Bug Adept Billis, who had been keeping watch outside, immediately sensed something wrong. He quickly issued a signal indicating an attack to the Crimson Fleet outside while collapsing into black beetles and crawling into the room.
Everything happening in Greem’s room undoubtedly tugged at the hearts of every Fourth Grade adept.
The moment they sensed shockwaves radiating from Greem’s room, every Fourth Grade adept couldn’t help but look toward where Adept Mirva was.
The Crimson Fleet instantly activated their energy shields, and the giant magic energy cannons were slowly extended and pointed at the academy.
The roaring sound of charging energy filled the sky!
Fourth Grade Thunder Dragon Arms cursed as he soared down from a Mothership and unleashed his dragon’s aura of might.
The entire academy was filled with tension!
Chapter 1339 - Trouble Returns
Greem coughed as he emerged from the thick, black smoke.
The surging tide of insects pulsed around him, the silhouettes of high-grade insect generals fading in and out of view.
“It’s a misunderstanding, just a misunderstanding,” Greem hastily explained, “A little accident happened during my experiment. There haven’t been any enemies. It’s all alright. You can all leave now!”
The Crimson adepts naturally had a hard time believing Greem’s explanation.
However, if their clan leader had already given them the order, their only option was to obey.
The energy charging within the giant magic energy cannons aboard the Mothership dissipated, and the Crimson adepts riding on flying magical beasts returned to their camps in an orderly fashion.
Arms, still crackling with glowing lightning, landed beside Greem, his entire body as large as a hill. After communicating with Greem briefly and confirming that there were no problems, he finally scattered the electricity and dispelled his aura of might. He then walked over to the Golden Plaza and went back to sleep.
The tide of black insects around Greem also gathered together, reforming into Billis, dressed tightly in his black robes.
It was then that Kerala and the Fourth Grade adepts finally flew up to Greem. They had arrived earlier than anyone else, but as they were not actual members of the Crimson Clan, they could only watch from the sidelines for the moment.
“Lord Greem, there’s nothing you need us to do, is there?” Kerala stepped forward and examined Greem curiously.
Everyone here was one of the most powerful adepts in this world. Some of them might be stronger than the others, but they all had an incredible breadth of knowledge and experience.
They could tell that Greem had been electrocuted and shocked by lightning judging from the burn marks on his body. However, given the severity of the injuries, the electrocution had been little more than a prank. That was because an attack like this could only make a mess out of Greem’s appearance, instead of being able to inflict any sort of injury on him.
If someone truly intended to assassinate Greem, they would never use such a pointlessly weak attack.
Even so, the color had faded entirely from Mirva’s face. His hands, hidden under his robes, were even trembling.
It was no wonder that he was so terrified. In that moment, should a conflict have broken out, Annemdor Academy would have been reduced to an artifact of history in a matter of seconds. The offensive power demonstrated by the Crimson Fleet made even a Fourth Grade adept like Mirva frightened to the very core of his being.
“Lord Greem,” Mirva stumbled forward.
There were many Fourth Grade adepts here, but no one would look down on Mirva for the moment of ‘weakness’ he was showing here. It was simple. This place was where all of Mirva’s trusted subordinates and family lived. If a battle did indeed break out, his clan would disappear in the blink of an eye.
It wasn’t just Mirva. None of the other Fourth Grade adepts here could bear the heavy loss of an entire clan’s extermination. Most of them had no hopes of advancing any further. Their clan and family were everything.
Fire blazed around Greem, and a large red robe was instantly draped over his body. He looked at the frightened Mirva apologetically and looked around at the other adepts as he said, “It’s no big deal…it was just a little backlash from my experiment. It hasn’t injured me at all. It’s quite late now. I think we should all return to our rooms and rest! We can talk tomorrow if there are any matters you wish to address.”
Since Greem had already said that, everyone else could only leave and return to their rooms.
That said, most of them probably wouldn’t be able to get a good, peaceful rest after what had just happened.
In truth, Annemdor Academy was a microcosm of what was happening across Zhentarim.
The entirety of Zhentarim had, in fact, been intimidated by Greem’s power as a pseudo-ultra-powerhouse. They might be reluctant to bend the knee, but they did not want to throw their lives away in a battle against Greem either.
Thus, Zhentarim and all its clans and adept towers had swallowed their disapproval and submitted to Greem’s power!
Due to the lack of time to improve their relationship, this new alliance of clans was hardly united. Most of the alliance members were also very hesitant and would not truly obey Greem with all they had.
Under such circumstances, it was crucial that Greem remained as powerful as he was!
As long as he remained the most powerful individual in the Central Lands, he could intimidate the opportunists and push them in the direction that the Crimson Clan’s revolution was working toward.
That was why Greem could not collapse nor fail at any time!
The moment he revealed weakness, this pack of wolves would turn on him.
Fortunately, Greem’s power was currently far beyond those of the Central adepts. The only opponents that could truly threaten him now did not exist within the Central Lands, but .yond……
Greem returned to his room, escorted by Billis.
Greem stood straight before he left and stared into the far eastern horizon.
/> There, a purple star close to the horizon glowed brightly, catching his attention.
Greem took a deep breath and suppressed the frustration that had risen in his heart.
Just a moment earlier, a mysterious chill had appeared out of nowhere and surged through his body. He could sense that this was a warning from the planar consciousness, conveyed through the fire laws he had mastered.
Danger from the east!
That was where the Adept’s Association was!
Could they still be unwilling to admit defeat even after Cerveris’ loss? Were they planning to send out someone new to find trouble with him?
Greem was no diviner, after all. He might have had some sense of danger before it arrived, but he could not extract more detailed information through the formless law powers. He would typically contact Alice during these occasions and obtain her genuine opinion.
However, he had also just recently ‘angered’ her. It would be best not to count on any advice from her for the time being.
Greem shook his head. He could only do his best to defend against any ambushes that would be coming his way.
…………
The instant Greem had felt that sense of danger was the instant Adept Gloria returned to the Adept’s Association through a portal.
The Tower of Observation, the seven hundred and twenty-first floor.
A light blue portal shimmered in a stone room, pretty ribbons of light drifting from within. The ribbons of light wandered through the room. Every time they came into contact with the stone wall, a spacetime barrier would glow around it.
The ribbons of light would retract and continue drifting listlessly around the room.
The Fourth Grade adepts waiting outside the room glanced at the light ribbons with fear and wariness in their eyes.
That was because these ribbons of light were the rumored time fluctuations. They often existed in the boundaries between two planar worlds of different attributes.
These light ribbons might look pretty, but they were horribly dangerous things.
Time fluctuations flickered in and out of existence as tens of thousands of years passed in a single second for them. The flow of time in these fluctuations was different from the rest of the universe.
Living beings dragged into these time fluctuation would be affected by the different flow of time. They might be frozen in time, trapped forever in that instant of time fluctuation. They could be swept into a backflowing current and revert to their selves at a certain point in their pasts, or experience ten thousand years in a single second, their short lifespans drained completely and being reduced to bones.
It was precisely because of the chaos and unpredictability of time fluctuations that planar creatures avoided them at all costs.
Even Fourth Grade adepts were likely to die if they wandered into a time fluctuation without preparation.
That was why these higher-ups of the Adept’s Association were so on edge at the sight of these drifting time fluctuations around the portal. They were fearful that something wrong might occur with the spacetime barrier on the walls.
An energy storm suddenly stirred in the teleportation room. The cerulean long-distance portal started to shake violently. Waves of spacestorms blew into the room through the blue portal. If it weren’t for the arrays in the room, the teleportation room and Tower of Observation itself would be ravaged by these spacestorms.
When the trembling of the portal finally reached a peak, purple light flashed all over the room. A humanoid figure passed through the gate and appeared in the room.
The purple light appeared to be the manifestation of some sort of unusual law. It not only kept the energy tides at bay, but was even able to protect its owner from the time fluctuations.
A short moment later, the humanoid figure managed to find their footing. They stepped out of the teleportation room and appeared in front of the other Fourth Grade adepts.
“Gloria, you’ve finally returned!” The one standing at the forefront of the group to greet the new arrival was naturally Domnhall, who was in charge of all the Association’s matters.
“Welcome back, big sis!” A petite girl threw herself into the arms of the glowing humanoid. Her tone was light, and it was obvious that they were intimately acquainted.
The other three Fourth Grade adepts nodded as well.
“Welcome back, Lady Gloria!”
“Welcome.”
While everyone was exchanging greetings, Maztan’s hoarse voice rang out from the tunnel in the distance.
“Gloria’s back, Gloria’s back…my darling, come here and let me have a look. Let me see if your skin has turned rough from all the spacestorms out there.”
Everyone’s faces turned dark upon hearing Maztan’s rude words.
Gloria had just dispelled all the spacetime turbulences lingering around her, as well as the protective purple light. Her face turned absolutely vicious and ugly.
The next second, she cast aside the sister in her arms and punched Maztan right in his big ugly face, blowing him into the stone wall. She then stomped on him viciously.
Dong!
The entire Tower of Observation trembled at the impact.
Everyone’s eyelids couldn’t help but jump slightly.
As usual, Maztan was utterly fearless and reckless, while Gloria was just as violent as always.
With this violent woman’s return, the Association would probably be quite ‘lively’ for the foreseeable future!
Chapter 1340 - The Lady Arrives
Chapter 1340 The Lady Arrives
The three major organizations kept each other in check. A sudden shift in power on any one side would instantly trigger a chain reaction with the other two.
As the second mightiest ultra-powerhouse of the Adept’s Association, Gloria’s return meant that the Association’s combat strength had increased considerably, making up for the difference caused by Cerveris’ injury.
Consequently, the Silver Union and the Northern Witches became slightly nervous.
It was said that the Speaker of the Silver Union personally approved recalling one of their only two ultra-powerhouses from the Vortex Tower– Mechanical Adept Stephen.
Meanwhile, the Northern Witches summoned the Witch Council. They unanimously agreed to send a witch of an ultra-powerhouse level to the Central Lands to ensure that the Northern Witches’ benefits were not infringed upon.
Naturally, this task fell on the shoulders of Death Witch Leader Khesuna!
It couldn’t be helped. There were only two ultra-powerhouses throughout the Northern Lands. One of them was Death Witch Leader Khesuna, while the other was Pale Witch Leader Silvia. Furthermore, of the two of them, Khesuna was undoubtedly stronger at offense and direct conflicts. She was the most suitable candidate for this errand.
Everyone could clearly tell that the once weak Zhentarim now faced a massive structural revolution. If this development were allowed to continue as is, it was likely that a new major organization would appear in the World of Adepts.
The appearance of such an organization clearly did not benefit any of the three existing major organizations!
However, if they were to intervene carelessly, the other two major organizations might be able to rob them of the most significant slice of the pie, thereby affecting the future development of their own organization. All three organizations took the same line of action despite not having discussed anything between themselves. They waited patiently to see what happened next, all while sending ultra-powerhouses in preparation for intervention.
The Silver Union and Northern Witches were even making contact behind the scenes, looking for a way to suppress the Adept’s Association and the Central Lands simultaneously.
Their ideal scenario was undoubtedly for the Adept’s Association to clash directly with the Crimson Clan, leaving them both battered and bruised. They could then rush into the Central Lands and sweep the battlefield.
However, when they heard that Gloria of t
he Adept’s Association had returned, they couldn’t help but become concerned for the Crimson Clan. If Gloria were able to defeat the Crimson Clan and wipe out the Central Lands alone, this well-cooked pot of rice would go straight into the maw of the Adept’s Association.
Due to this concern, the two major organizations had hastily sent out individuals with equal combat prowess in hopes of intimidating Gloria and keeping her from acting rashly. However, given Gloria’s typically brash and unreasonable personality, it was unknown how well this intimidation could work!
The three major organizations were practically intervening directly now, leaving the situation in the Central Lands even more unpredictable and shrouded in mists.
If it was impossible to predict, then there was no point mulling over it!
Greem, who had conquered all the Fourth Grade forces of the Central Lands, returned to Nightmare Castle without any hesitation and joined Mary once again.
Hiding back at one’s lair was probably the right decision in the face of impending danger!
However, Fire Throne was only a small adept tower, after all. Neither its offensive nor defensive power could match Greem’s current ability and status. Moreover, Fire Throne was truly not an intimidating structure given the power of his opponents.
That was why Greem instinctually chose to flee to Mary’s Nightmare Castle the instant he sensed danger approaching.
Greem’s injuries were still severe, and Mary had only just recently gained control of the Nightmare Castle.
Both of them might have power rivaling that of ultra-powerhouses, but they knew that they were still slightly lacking when compared.
However, their forces combined should be enough to ward off any malicious forces!
On the third day after Greem returned to Nightmare Castle, the enemy he had been awaiting finally arrived.
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