That was why the sudden explosion of shrapnel hit numerous fire crows. Dark blood splattered everywhere as the birds howled and crashed to the ground.
However, even more of the fire crows rallied in their fury, lunging at the exposed magical machines from every direction. Their napalm projectiles were fired before they even arrived!
A series of fireballs shot toward the magical machines.
“Activate your shields! Shields, everyone…remember to put up your shields!” Mané’s cries rang out in the communication crystals.
Several pieces on the magical machines’ bodies started flipping over, revealing rhomboid crystals that quickly projected energy shields around them. These shields were not very powerful individually. But when stacked atop each other in this fashion, they were far more resilient and provided a wider range of protection than just a simple magic energy shield.
While the energy shields protected them from the fireballs flying in from every direction, the magical machine squad retaliated with all they had. The magic energy cannons and rapid-fire guns unleashed energy fireballs of varying sizes, blasting the fire crows lunging at them into pieces. The ray guns on their arms repeatedly zapped, shooting down the fire crows with heat rays and frost rays.
The battlecries of the goblin mechanics filled the entire communication channel.
There was no need to think about complicated tactical maneuvers at this point. Unleashing all their firepower on their opponent was the only thing they could do!
Meanwhile, the chariots behind them had also turned their cannons around and were clearing the way for them with their own volley of attacks.
It was a bloody road paved with the blood and corpses of the fire crows!
The fire crows encirclement wasn’t without its results either. After all, the magical machines’ shields couldn’t provide complete cover after they left the energy barrier. Under the fire crows’ wild bombardment, a few of the magical machines had their shields eroded or destroyed. They could only continue forward while enduring the flames with the sheer sturdiness of the machines.
At this point, the magical machine had managed to make seven hundred meters of progress. They were deep in the midst of the fire crows and had shot down over three hundred of the creatures. However, they had suffered two casualties themselves.
Both of the machines were destroyed due to flames burning through and causing a massive explosion. Naturally, there was no hope for the goblin mechanics piloting them.
At this point, fewer than two hundred fire crows remained of the massive flock.
The fire crow king was visibly enraged. It led its personal guard and attacked the magical machines.
The flames it spewed were far more powerful and corrosive than the average fire crow. Flames burned through the hulls of two more magical machines before the pilots were sniped to death by a fire arrow from the fire crow king.
However, the fire crow king could not find too many opportunities to go on the offense with the goblin chariots and magical machines working in coordination. After all, a fire crow’s attacks only had a range of a hundred meters, while the magical machines could cover up to seven hundred meters of distance.
In fact, the goblin rocket’s maximum effective distance was 1,500 meters!
This tremendous difference in range meant that the fire crows had no option but to endure enemy fire to go on the offense. In the end, it was only natural that the fire crows were defeated!
The fire crow king eventually accepted their defeat and fled with the last thirty surviving fire crows, squawking as they did so.
The goblin chariots immediately gave pursuit to prevent these fire crows from causing trouble in the goblin cities. The battle continued even as they went on the pursuit.
The same scenario was happening all over the Goblin Plane.
Fortunately, the Goblin Plane was a classic low-magic plane. Even with the magic surge’s arrival, the planar environment was still very hostile toward magic energy; overly powerful magical creatures and monsters could not be bothered to come here. They had their sights set on the higher planes.
Moreover, there were far too few native magical creatures in the Goblin Plane to ever form a threat to the completely mechanized goblins.
Thus, when the magic surged erupted, large-scale massacres were all but avoided. Only individual towns and villages reported heavy casualties occasionally!
However, not all planar worlds were as fortunate as the Goblin Plane.
Almost every material plane faced threats on two fronts due to the magic surge.
There was the threat of intruding starbeasts, disaster creatures, and monsters from the outside, while magical creature stampedes threatened to break out from within. For a while, every single ruler across the universe was completely busy and occupied.
It didn’t matter how well they had set up their defenses. They could not stop otherworldly beings from invading or the magical creatures from storming out of their forests. The more incompetent rulers could only choose to abandon part of their citizens and land, concentrating what power they had on protecting their own assets.
The abandoned civilians could only pray!
After all, these civilians had no supernatural powers. Even a single First or Second Grade magical creature would be enough to cause an unimaginable calamity.
Moreover, in many of the smaller planes, the enslaved population would obtain opportunities to rise and rebel against their rulers due to the chaos sown by the magic surge. Internal revolutions broke out in numerous planes, causing a change in the ruling class.
However, no matter how hard anyone tried, the chaos and turbulence that engulfed every planar world broke out in full force!
Many scholars and sages across the countless planar worlds would all coincidentally refer to these chaotic times as the Dark Ages. Moreover, what truly brought them despair was the knowledge based on past experience that this Dark Age would last for a hundred years.
A hundred years. That would be an entire life for most planar creatures!
…………
With the descent of darkness, some suffered. Yet, some continued to live blissful lives!
At this moment, the civilians living in Ailovis felt even more grateful and blissful that they lived here.
When the magic surge erupted, there was news of intruding monsters from all over the Central Lands. There were even incidents where entire towns were devoured without a single trace.
All this news stood in stark contrast to the peace of Ailovis.
It was the Crimson Clan’s territory after all, and the soon-to-be heartland of the Central Lands. Consequently, there were far more top-grade adepts gathered here than elsewhere.
These powerful adepts kept a low profile. However, when danger truly arrived, their fighting force would be incredibly valuable.
Chapter 1363 - Trouble in the Central Lands
Chapter 1363 Trouble in the Central Lands
The eruption of the magic surge was like Pandora’s box had been opened. It unleashed tremendous disasters upon all the material planes.
Greem had no idea what arrangements the three major organizations had made in preparation for this event.
All he knew was that the Central Lands was truly in trouble now!
Ever since the first wave of the magic surge reached the World of Adepts, there had been over a hundred cases of otherworldly intrusion reported in the Central Lands every day. There were probably more that had slipped into the plane through more inconspicuous means and had yet to be detected.
The arrival of these intruders brought unimaginable turbulence to the Central Lands.
Most of these intruders had been randomly teleported to the World of Adepts after wandering into a spacetime vortex. Some malicious intruders had traveled the infinite vastness of space to take advantage of the weakness in the World of Adept’s planar barrier to raid and slaughter to their heart’s desire.
The unintentional intruders were ma
ny in number, but they varied in power. Most of them simply went into hiding in the World of Adepts, prepared to flee to another plane at any moment. Most of these unintentional intruders were not very powerful. They were also disorganized and without support- it was easy dealing with them. Almost every one of these unintentional intruders that had been discovered had been hunted down.
However, intentional intruders were much harder to deal with!
After all, they came prepared. These intruders were more familiar with the environment of the World of Adepts and were sometimes backed by even more powerful individuals. This particular kind of intruder was bad news for the adepts who ruled this plane.
Reports on seven cases of mass deaths spread across six regions lay upon Greem’s desk. Each file represented the fall and extermination of a human settlement.
“The Mysterious Deaths of Molten Fire City.
“A mass death event occurred today in the Skettis region. The location is to the east of the region, only a hundred and fifty kilometers away from Molten Fire City. All 416 mortals living in a town known as Maz died abruptly over a single night.
“Initial investigations reveal that the corpses of the victims remain untouched. None of their possessions have been touched either. The victims were spread all over the town. It seemed as if all of them had died at the same instant due to an unknown reason.
“All victims were smiling in their deaths. Their muscles were stiff, and initial dissections found signs of supernatural power on the corpses.
“Time of death is three days after the eruption of the magic surge.
“The case is currently being investigated and managed by Molten Fire City Second Grade Adept Freina.”
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“The Mysterious Disappearance of the Clarke’s Treasure Well.
“Clarke Alchemy Academy, located in the Ankala region, experienced an anomaly. The Treasure Well, one of the academy’s primary trial locations, was shrouded by a mysterious white mist.
“At present, the academy has lost contact with the eleven alchemist apprentice undertaking their trials in the Treasure Well. An official adept of the academy has also gone missing after venturing into the well to investigate.
“This incident happened on the third day of the magic surge eruption. Second Grade Adept Woodwhisker of the Entom Clan has gone to investigate.
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“The Plague of Entones City.
“On the seventh day of the magic surge, a mysterious plague broke out in Entones City of the Ailasia region. The plague infected over one-third of the city’s population upon breakout. The estimated number of infected then was approximately twenty-one thousand.
“The plague has been spreading rapidly toward the surrounding territories. At present, the three neighboring towns have been afflicted, and the scale of the plague continues to grow.
“This area is under the joint management of the local organizations Quirin Cottage, Mourning Bell Academy, and Morrin’s Stone Tower. They have sent out adepts to form an investigative team aiming to investigate and control the plague.
“Signs of taboo magic have been found in the plague viruses. The investigative team is currently pursuing the offending adept. Currently, there are no signs of otherworldly involvement.”
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Greem read the case briefs on his desk one by one, the frown on his forehead scrunching even further with each page.
In the past, all he had to do was manage the affairs of the Crimson Clan.
The dedicated Meryl and Emelia had also aided him. As such, he had never felt clan affairs to be a burden of a task.
As the Central Lands slowly fell into his control, there were 31 regions spanning 3,751 square kilometers containing 1,000 adept clans. All of them had become places and locations he had to understand and manage. A tidal wave of reports requiring his administrative and executive decisions flooded his office.
It was important to note that Meryl and Emelia had already helped him filter out most of the less urgent matters. The only reports that reached his desk either involved Fourth Grade adepts, Fourth Grade organizations, or were more complex than they appeared. Either way, they all required him to make a decision as the leader of the Crimson Clan.
Any one of these reports was enough to give him a headache for several days to come!
These days, all ordinary affairs had already been kept off his desk. Yet, these seven cases had still found their way into his hands. It was more than enough evidence that all of these cases were somehow related to the magic surge’s eruption.
These were many insignificant events. However, they were very likely hinting at the arrival of a powerful and cunning otherworldly creature in the Central Lands. These events were likely their doing and were, perhaps, the commencement of some ritual. Maybe they were just to satisfy their bloodlust.
Greem wasn’t too worried about the intruders that started a massacre the moment they entered the plane.
Intruders like that wanted nothing more than a feast. They would leave as soon as they filled their bellies. Greem’s attitude toward such intruders was to simply banish them.
After all, there were far too many otherworldly monsters these days. It was impossible to kill them all.
Banishing them from the plane after discovering them and sealing the rift they came in through was the best result with minimal effort that Greem could think of!
What really made Greem’s head hurt were the sly predators.
They would not start a massacre at a whim, as that would draw the adepts’ intervention. Instead, they behaved like chameleons, sneaking into the World of Adepts silently and hiding all traces of their existence. They would even disguise themselves and blend in among the local nobles.
They could go into hiding for decades for their secret plans, slowly corrupting the human settlements near them through their unique methods.
By the time they were exposed, they could cause casualties numbering in the hundreds of thousands!
The Adepts’ Handbook recorded the invasion of the sporepeople, the snakeskins, and the undead. There were signs of the intervention of a greater force in space behind each of these terrible historical events.
The World of Adepts was a famous planar world, after all. The quality of the human souls here was vastly superior to the smaller planes. Many otherworldly monsters worked in the profession of peddling the souls of creatures from the major planes.
By bringing souls from another major world back to their homeworld, they would be able to strengthen their homeworld and obtain feedback from the planar consciousness. It was one of the means by which the planar worlds strengthened themselves!
If the Central Lands had not effectively belonged to Greem now, he wouldn’t have bothered to worry over all these incidents.
Chapter 1364 - Greem’s Growth
While everyone was worrying about the otherworldly intrusions, an even more concerning matter occurred.
Information returned from various watchpoints revealing that the magical creatures residing in the depths of the Black Forest were rapidly gathering. It seemed like they were preparing for a stampede that was about to happen soon.
Moreover, these weren’t the actions of individual magical creature lords; it was a seemingly conscious act of mobilizing across the entire Black Forest. The magical energy entering the planar world during the magic surge contained traces of chaos and savagery. They had stimulated the magical creatures, turning them much more ferocious and vicious than usual.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen soon. Such terrifying magical creatures had all gathered together and would be herding an even more massive number of ordinary beasts forward. Their impact on human society once they charged out of the Black Forest would be immense!
If the adepts’ response was inadequate, it could shake the very foundations of the adept civilization.
Moreover, the unrest among the
beasts and magical creatures was not an independent, localized incident. Rather, every creature across the Black Forest of the World of Adepts was stirring.
The adepts had suppressed and slaughtered the magical creatures lords with far too much impunity in the past tens of thousands of years. With the aid of the magic surge, the magical creature lords finally believed it was time to wrestle back control from the adepts!
One had to admit that the adepts had been far too lenient in recent years. It had been a long time since they had exterminated high-grade magical creatures in the depths of Black Forest. Consequently, a new generation of magical creatures lords had grown and matured without their knowledge. These magical creatures were eager to advance and become rulers of the Black Forest.
Launching an assault against the adepts was the simplest and easiest way for these magical creature lords to establish themselves and become magical creature rulers!
Of course, they were careful about their choice of targets as well. The Adept’s Association was far too powerful to even think of touching.
The golem armies of the Silver Union were unbreakable, making them an unviable target.
The Northern Witches were slightly weaker, but they were incredibly unified when fighting against a common enemy. It was best not to attack them either.
Thus, the disunited Central Lands became the only target of the magical creature lords seeking to sharpen their fangs!
Even though stampedes also occurred with the three major organizations, their scale paled in comparison to those that would appear in the Central Lands.
Information relayed back from scouts who had risked their lives revealed that the scale of the stampede this time would be far greater than ever before. The number of magical creature lords that had come together was shocking. Once their numbers were sufficient, they would charge out of the Black Forest and inflict a devastating blow upon human society in the Central Lands!
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