The Black Forest of the World of Adepts was a treasure trove of magical creatures. There were creatures of every shape, size, and form in horrifying numbers.
Any individual magical creature lord among them were fearsome monsters. However, in the face of the magical machine army, they were reduced to small-fry that could hardly change anything.
Against Golem Dragon One that could uproot an entire fortress with ease, the magical machine army and their endless barrage of cannon fire, and the Motherships that dominated the skies. The magical creature lords were executed summarily by the giant magic energy cannons. The rest of the magical creatures fled after that, disappearing into the depths of the forest without ever looking back.
For a moment, no magical creature tracks could be found within 1,500 kilometers of the Black Forest northeast of Ailovis.
After chasing the magical creatures to distant lands, the magical machines stopped pursuing and instead returned to the clan. However, the Crimson Fleet had left behind a few well-hidden monitoring magical-arrays within the 1,500-kilometer area.
In doing so, the Crimson Clan would be notified of any future actions taken by the magical creatures.
The 1,500-kilometer buffer zone was more than enough for the Crimson Clan to survive this magic surge safely.
It wasn’t easy for the magical creature lords to organize a stampede either. After all, they had no concept of logistics, supply lines, or organization.
With their natural aura of intimidation as magical creature lords, they could suppress the beasts for two to three days. In that time, they would gather the animals and herd them toward the human settlements.
It was possible to take such complex maneuvers every so often. However, when the target of their attack was thousands of kilometers away, it was impossible to suppress the restlessness of the beasts and make them show up successfully.
After all, no high-grade magical creatures were willing to endure three to five days of hunger just to travel a thousand kilometers on a suicidal assault against a human city. It was particularly so when there was prey all around them to devour. If the high-grade magical creatures started preying on the weaker beasts, then the beasts would succumb to their natural instincts and flee immediately.
To some extent, a 1,500-kilometer buffer zone was already an impassable zone for a stampede!
Of course, this violent means of exiling the beasts was not a method available to any adept clan. They had to find the beasts’ gathering spot in the hazardous lands of the Black Forest and send a group of elites to hunt them down and exile them.
Accomplishing such a feat required a mobile group of elites that could fight regardless of the environment and geography.
Only a few adept forces amongst the Fourth Grade clans could barely meet this standard. The other adept forces were either not strong enough or lacked the flying mounts required to travel through the Black Forest quickly.
If they could not scatter the beasts with overwhelming speed and force, then a genuinely bloody war would break out in the dim and dark environment of the Black Forest. That was not good news for adept forces so deep in enemy territory.
Major clans had plenty of wealth and resources. They could maintain the upkeep of several adept forces at the same time. However, most of the smaller clans only had a single adept force that they had dedicated everything to.
If such an adept force was lost in the Black Forest, the clan would not be able to recover from the loss. They would forever be reduced to a third-rate organization.
Consequently, no adept clan would ever dare mobilize their most precious military force to assault the magical creatures without an absolute guarantee of victory. They preferred to wait silently in their adept towers, resisting the invasion of the stampede with war towers and voodoo beasts.
The magical creature lords lacked the power to destroy a proper adept tower.
As such, the safety of the adepts was guaranteed, and there was no risk of the adept forces being wiped out.
However, the swarming stampede could still devastate the clan’s territories. That was unavoidable!
In the eyes of the adepts, there was an evaluation that occurred. The official adepts and adept forces were precious assets that could not suffer losses. Meanwhile, the mortals in clan territories were little more than numbers on paper to the adepts.
Even though massive casualties were an incredibly annoying affair, there was no way the adepts would put their very lives on the line to protect these inconsequential ‘assets.’
‘Assets’ could always be recovered over time, but the loss of adepts from the clan was unbearable!
It was the adepts’ conservative and short-term perspective that made the stampedes so dangerous and lethal. They brought about tremendous danger and death to the Continent of Adepts.
Compared to the selfish governance of the Central Lands, the three major organizations displayed exceptional discipline.
The Silver Union was incredibly wealthy. In response to the magic surge, they had retracted the population in their territories, relocating all mortals to their inner lands, where it was safe from the spatial rifts and the Black Forest. Meanwhile, they filled the border towns and cities with large armies of metal constructs and golems.
These countless golems and constructs had helped the Silver Union fight off several stampedes from the Black Forest. Though they were suffering terrible financial losses, the safety of the civilians and their territories had been protected.
Chapter 1375 - Battle in the Northern Lands
Compared to the Silver Union’s wealth, the Northern Witches relied on individual courage to resist the magic surge.
Who would’ve thought that the ones who fought most ferociously, most simply, and most savagely throughout the World of Adepts, would be the witches? In the face of this catastrophic disaster, the Northern Witches demonstrated courage and bravery far beyond those of the male adepts.
They did not remain guarded within their clan territories. Instead, they walked out of their adept towers, rallied mortal armies from their lands, and marched into the few fortresses neighboring the Black Forest.
Mobilized by the Witch Council, many witch tribes that were not threatened by the stampede also sent out large numbers of witches and voodoo beasts to reinforce the border regions. They worked together, united, establishing a firm and layered web of defense on the edges of the Black Forest.
In this battle between humans and beasts, the various witch branches put aside their past rivalries and unleashed their own unique styles of combat upon the magical creatures.
Naturally, the ones that served as fodder for the battle were the undead armies summoned by the Death Witches.
These undead armies might not be as numerous as the undead armies of a lich, nor as complicated, but they were comprised of formidable elites. In particular, the undead pythons, dust sprites, boneclaws, and wandering spirits that made up the main force were all exceptional at melee fighting.
In addition, they all possessed the unique undead aura of rot, making them even more effective opponents against the living beasts and magical creatures in the forest. With these undead to sacrifice themselves in battle, the impact of the stampede was largely mitigated.
Thus, even mortal armies and voodoo beasts were able to hold the line against the charging creatures.
The Coldwinter Witches created massive blizzards on the battlefield. Though they did not kill many of the beasts, they inflicted untold agony and trouble.
Meanwhile, the Dark Witches had brought their shadow army with them.
These forces might not be all that obvious during the daytime. When night fell, the entire battlefield became the world of the shadow armies. These hordes of shadow creatures were active in every inch of shadow on the battlefield, slaughtering legions of beasts and monsters with their strange and sinister abilities.
The Agony Witches put up curse altars and cursed the magical creature lords over and over until their knee
s turned weak. Whenever this happened, the Pale Witches would send out their accompanying spirits to aid the Dark Witches in their assault of the magical creature lords.
The Deceit and False Witches were in charge of misdirecting and enchanting the stampede, causing them to scatter and fall apart amidst the myriad of illusions.
There was no need for the Fate Witches to step onto the battlefield in this war against the Black Forest stampedes. Their most significant value was in divining and predicting the next location in which the next wave of stampedes would appear, as well as the magical creatures’ target and scale of the attack.
The border of the Northern Witches that ran along the Black Forest was extremely long and winding. Without the Fate Witches’ guidance, the Northern Witches would not be able to perfectly defend their borders, even if they were to mobilize every single witch.
If the border were breached in any one spot, then what awaited the Northern Lands’ civilians would be a bloody and cruel massacre!
Ordinary civilians had no means of defending themselves against the magical beasts. Should the stampede reach a human settlement, the consequences would be horrifying, enough to make anyone break into a cold sweat at the mere thought of it.
The Crimson Clan had a piece of land in the Northern Lands. Though the land technically belonged to the Fate Witches, the actual authority over the territory resided in Meryl’s hand.
The Crimson Clan had assigned two Motherships, seven hundred magical machines, and Iritina’s green dragons to protect this land.
In all seriousness, it would be ridiculous if such a powerful and elite force was unable to defend the three-thousand-square-kilometer-wide land.
The moment the beasts in the Black Forest east of White Tower showed signs of gathering, the Crimson Fleet instantly routed them and sent them fleeing.
Ever since then, Meryl had been systematically and comprehensively eliminating the high-grade magical creature lords in the surrounding Black Forest. Without these magical creature lords serving as leaders, the beasts could not gather and form a stampede again.
As for the smattering of beasts and magical creatures that charged out of the Black Forest every so often? They were turned into a sort of trial for the low-grade adepts and apprentices.
Compared to the stern and murderous tension of the Northern Lands, White Tower was an unexpected paradise!
Perhaps sensing the Mothership’s significance in large-scale warfare, the witch higher-ups led by Death Witch Leader Khesuna and Dark Witch Leader Circe contacted Meryl in White Tower.
After a series of negotiations, the Crimson Clan sent out the two Motherships and four hundred magical machines in the name of ‘foreign requisition.’ They were mainly in charge of transporting the voodoo beasts of the Northern Witches, as well as the much-needed logistics. They weren’t actually taking part in the fighting in the Northern Lands.
Even so, the addition of the two uncontested tyrants of the sky allowed the tides of battle in the Northern Lands to change instantly. They went from stubborn defense to active offense.
One gathering of beasts after another was devastated by the Northern Witches in an overwhelming fashion. One magical creature lord after another was assassinated in their lair, and one region after another returned to peace and quiet with the descent of the Motherships.
One had to admit that the Motherships that the Crimson Clan had invented were like massive and mobile war fortresses. Except for their defenses being somewhat lacking compared to actual adept towers, Motherships were already infinitely close to perfect.
After working with the Motherships in combat several times, all the Northern Witches became incredibly interested in these silver fortresses that could fly through the skies.
The Northern Witches were not just a bunch of savages. Their grasp of high-grade magic, knowledge, and technology was extremely advanced as well. Naturally, they were extremely curious about the magic energy system of these flying ships.
The Northern Witches would have absolutely no trouble forging such metal ships given their knowledge, ability, and resources. However, the difficult part was the energy supply required to power such a massive construct. The amount of magic energy needed to keep it running would be extremely shocking.
If the Motherships had no external energy source and were powered entirely through magical crystals, they would burn through an entire mountain of magical crystals in just one month.
That was why the more knowledgeable Northern Witches paid close attention to the cores of the Motherships.
Finally, through their own unique magical means, they managed to discover the magic generator furnace’s existence!
These strange furnaces could pierce through the planar barrier and absorb wild, untamed chaos energy directly from space. They were then able to tame and convert the chaos energy into magic energy through their unique means.
Such technology and knowledge were clearly more advanced and profound than the elementium altars of adept towers.
The ability and means to create these magic generator furnaces were worth much more than these Motherships!
At this point, those who had looked down upon the rumored legendary fire adept finally corrected their attitude. They recognized that Greem was indeed a terrifying and talented prodigy of an adept.
Disregarding everything else, the ability to create these furnaces alone made him the most valuable and impressive prodigy in the World of Adepts!
Unfortunately, these magic generator furnaces were undoubtedly one of the most classified secrets of the Crimson Clan. The Northern Witches could do nothing but stare longingly at the Motherships and drool.
Khesuna had thought about negotiating with Greem through Alice in an attempt to obtain the magic generator furnace through a trade of resources. However, Greem’s response immediately cut off all such possibilities.
The conditions Greem offered were straightforward. The Crimson Clan would sell a batch of magic generator furnaces to the Northern Witches on the condition that the Witch Council permitted Alice to be married to him.
Upon hearing this condition, Khesuna decided to give up almost instantly!
The Northern Witches were an isolationist, localized adept organization, after all. They had always carefully maintained the matriarchy in their ranks, conservatively protecting their witch traditions throughout the ages.
To have Alice, the leader of the Witches of Fate, be married to Greem instead of the other way around was a challenge to the authority of the Northern Witches themselves.
It was impossible for them to ever agree to such a condition!
However, if it was the other way round, and the legendary fire adept married into the Tower of Fate as a subordinate of the Fate Witches, they would be more than welcome.
Unfortunately, given Greem’s current status and position, such a scenario was impossible.
The Northern Witches were ruled by witches, while the Central Lands were ruled by the powerful.
Should an ultra-powerhouse like Greem lower himself and become a subordinate of the Nothern Lands, then the tremendous organization he was putting together in the Central Lands would collapse overnight. The respect that Greem had worked so hard to command would vanish without a trace, and the Crimson Clan would become suspected and rejected by all Central adepts.
The world was simply so ridiculous at times!
Some things that sounded simple and hilarious became incredibly vital and crucial when it concerned specific individuals and characters.
Even the slightest imperfections could not be tolerated!
The Northern Witches weren’t the only ones opposed to Greem and Alice’s marriage. There were voices of opposition in the Central Lands and even within the Crimson Clan.
This romance that concerned two powerful organizations in two different regions could affect the balance of power in the World of Adepts. Such an important matter was no longer just a personal affair, but something that concerned the organizatio
ns they represented!
The Northern Lands was an organization built around the Witch Queen and the witches. Anyone who tried to challenge the witches’ position of authority would be met by the disapproval of all witches.
No one cared about how intimate Greem and Alice were in private. However, if they attempted to go public with their relationship, the ripples and aftershocks would be beyond their control.
Chapter 1376 - Colossal Berserk Ape
Chapter 1376Colossal Berserk Ape
Inkdeep Valley.
The commotion in the valley was still ongoing.
After many rounds of extermination, the intruders residing in the depths of Inkdeep Valley’s abyss had been mostly wiped out. However, the resulting planar law turbulence had turned the place into a land of death.
Ordinary creatures could no longer survive at the bottom of Inkdeep Valley for a single second. The environment and planar laws there were so harsh that they could no longer sustain the presence of organic lifeforms.
The consequence of this was the gradual degradation of the World of Adept’s planar laws within Inkdeep Valley as control was slowly handed over to the chaos laws. Chaos was the axis here now, and disorder the orthodox. Everything that the adepts were familiar with was now warped and distorted.
The adepts no longer had the advantage in such an environment. In fact, they even had to actively resist the suppression of the chaos laws. It was difficult for them to take a single step here. Danger lurked in every shadow.
In contrast, the otherworldly monsters who were already versed in the chaos laws were like fish in the water. They became even more ferocious and brazen in their actions.
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