Age of Adepts

”Everything that defies nature is fated to be abandoned by nature!”

The girl’s voice was crisp and clear. The prophecy she had cast was direct and straightforward.

The array trembled when she spoke the prophecy. Large amounts of rainbow light separated from the array and dispersed into the air. As the host of this prophecy, the mysterious girl also seemed to have been affected by this spell that had exceeded the limits of fate. She couldn’t help but cough out blood.

Still, the prophecy took effect. The spider golem that had been chasing after the mysterious girl and bombarding her with plasma was suddenly restrained by the strange lights spreading out in the air. The very next moment, the five-meter-tall, nine-meter-long, three hundred ton heavy spider golem and its large body forged from physical and magical resistant alloy instantly deconstructed!

In the blink of an eye, the powerful and mighty beast had exploded and disassembled into scraps and bits of scattered metallic parts. The metallic constructs and elements remained suspended in the air for two seconds before clattering as they hit the ground.

Alice, who had been safe in her metal cabin, suddenly sat on a pile of metal. She covered her head and screamed as the rain of metal parts pelted her.

Goblin-make pistons, Z-50 magic replenishing devices, elastic cushions, neuron springs, thought enlargement discs, agile deflector discs, force barrier generators, and all sorts of magical gemstones and strange components of various shapes and purposes fell.

Alice even saw the Eyes of Petrification, the red gemstones and parts of the Fel Cannon, in the rain of parts.

These things might have been able to threaten the mysterious girl when combined. However, now that they had been completely disassembled, they were just useless ’trash.’

Fortunately, Alice’s energy flux was faint. One look and the girl could tell that Alice was not a combatant that could threaten her life. The mysterious girl flew over her head and didn’t stop to waste another of her frightening prophecies on the harmless witch.

The group of witches fighting the mysterious girl started to falter in their cooperation now that the powerhouses among them had been crippled. Their firepower had collapsed, and everyone was at risk of death. They all wanted to try their best and use all they had to kill this annoying person, but they were also fearful of their powerful attacks drawing the attention of the girl.

Judging from the way the battle had gone so far, none of the people here were the match of the mysterious girl. If she seriously wanted someone dead, there was nothing anyone could do to stop her!

In a matter of fifteen minutes, the girl has reduced the passionate group of witches to two or three people. Apart from Alice, Sofia, and Snowlotus, everyone else had died at the hands of the mysterious girl. Their bodies burned to ashes, and rainbow light emerged from their bodies for the array to absorb.

A massive ball of light two meters in diameter had gathered at the core of the magical array. It spun around and glowed brilliantly. Dense, deep aura of fate radiated from the ball. Everyone saw it very clearly. Some clusters of prismatic light occasionally floated towards the array and were silently absorbed into the ball through several magical lines.

This was the advancement ceremony of the Witch of Fate!

Anyone who managed to step into the array and absorb the powers of fate gathered within would become the next Witch of Fate.

However, the witch that was hosting the ceremony would enter a vulnerable state where her soul would leave her body. It was effortless for other competitors to interrupt the ritual. The safest method to deal with this was to kill off all the other competitors and exterminate all possible danger.

And that was what the mysterious girl was planning!

The Tower of Fate was sealed shut right now. The laws of fate crushed all the competitors that had not managed to make it to the Tower of Fate in time and turned them into pure energy. This substance was then brought back to the array by the powers of Fate. Of course, their spiritual consciousness and souls were also disintegrated into nutrition to strengthen the new Witch of Fate further!

There were no more candidates left in the outside world. All of them had turned into the energy in the ball of light. On the other hand, the only surviving candidates in the Tower were the four witches here.

The mysterious girl, Sofia, Snowlotus and Alice were the last ones.

The mysterious girl was undoubtedly the most powerful amongst them. All the other witches were dead; dead, and part of the clump of light floating in the array. All because of this girl’s bloody and cruel prophecies.

Sofia was completely blinded. She could still fight, but she had to chase after the mysterious girl like a clumsy bear. She had smashed the floor to pieces, yet she hadn’t even managed to touch the girl.

The mysterious girl had severely suppressed Snowlotus’ ferocious firepower. Any spell that required chants and hand signs were impossible to cast. Every time she tried to channel a large scale spell, she would be interrupted by a simple spell from the girl. ’Headache,’ ’stomachache,’ ’Mute,’ and all sorts of other curses.

If it weren’t for Snowlotus’ resilient Spirit and the various spiritual defense tools she had on her, she would probably have been tortured and reduced to a terrible state! Pissing herself would have been the least of her troubles.

In comparison, Alice hadn’t received any attacks at all.

She had been the most powerful among the three favored ones. She had the Infernal Tyrant for offense and the spider golem as her bodyguard. Together, they were enough to even hold off both Snowlotus and Sofia at once.

But what now?

The Infernal Tyrant had been banished from the World of Adepts. It was going to be a long time before he returned. The spider golem had also been dismantled into a pile of components and spare parts by a single terrifying prophecy from the mysterious girl. The only price she had paid for this was a cough of blood.

Without these two guards, Alice was reduced to her original state. The witch candidate with no combat ability apart from ’Divination Arts.’ If it weren’t because of a few offensive magic scrolls she had prepared, she would be a harmless baby sitting on the sidelines.

The power demonstrated by the girl had been more than enough to crush the entire group of witches. Unless a miracle happened, every single one of the three remaining candidates was going to die!

Holding anything back at this moment of life and death was a foolish decision!

The three witches quickly communicated in secret.

”Quick! Use whatever means you still have in hiding! Do you guys intend to take your tricks to your graves?” Alice roared in her panic, ”My Infernal Tyrant will be able to break free from the banishment in another ten minutes, but I definitely can’t hang on until then. Left, left. Ten meters away from you.”

Alice didn’t forget to give the coordinates of the enemy to Sofia even as she grumbled.

”This goddamned bitch only knows how to dodge. I can’t catch up to her at all. Sofia hadn’t managed to even brush an inch of the girl’s skin ever since the start of the fight. It was undoubtedly a tremendous humiliation for a berserk witch that excelled at close combat. She was furious, ”Think of a way, quick! Even if you make me die along with that bastard, I’ll do it!”

”I have an organ transplant scroll over here. I can give you one of my eyes. It is an external insertion spell and won’t be affected by your magic resistance.” Snowlotus trembled as she floated in the sky. She used all her powers to discharge ice shards and frost breaths at the girl. She yelled even as she fought.

Her personality might have been cold and reserved, but that girl had also incited a rage within her. She was willing to risk everything just to bring the girl down.

”No! You can’t afford to lose any more of your combat ability!” Alice interrupted, ”I’m the most useless one right now. Pass the scroll to me. I’ll give Sofia my eye. She’s the only one who can help us take revenge!”

”Hurry up! I can tell she’s heading your way.” Sofia furiously roared as she chased after the girl.

The three mortal enemies had now given up all their hostilities under the pressure of a common enemy. They were wholeheartedly thinking of the team and the team only.

Snowlotus took out a scroll filled with ancient patterns and threw it to Alice. She then gritted her teeth and flew even higher into the air. The barrage of ice shards intensified and turned into a storm of hail. For the moment, Snowlotus had managed to stall the enemy in place.

Sofia also waved her staff and forced the girl away as she ran towards Alice.

The abnormality of the three witches had drawn the suspicion of the mysterious girl. She immediately became alert when she saw Snowlotus throw an unknown scroll to Alice, while Sofia also mobilized towards Alice’s location.

The girl applied a barrier of ice immunity upon herself using her prophecies and quickly lunged towards Alice.

It didn’t matter what they were planning. These three couldn’t be allowed to succeed!

Alice looked at the two people hurrying towards her and snapped the scroll in half without any hesitation. She had a determined expression on her face. The moment the magical energies surged through her body, Alice clenched her teeth and used her fingers to pluck her right eye out of its socket. She threw it to Sofia.

The intense pain was unbearable for Alice, but at this moment, pain counted for nothing!

The swiftly approaching girl instantly understood their plan. A sinister smile appeared on her face. She lifted her hand and pointed it at the eyeball flying through the air.

”Burst!”

A slim shape appeared right in the direction she was pointing when she spoke her prophecy aloud.

The next second, Snowlotus was sent flying through the air. A gaping hole had been blasted through her abdomen. A fountain of blood splashed everywhere.

Sofia could clearly ’see’ everything happening around her using her Spiritual senses.

She caught Alice’s eyeball and stuffed it into her empty eye socket. Thousands of flesh tendrils as thin as hairs immediately grew forth and attached themselves to the eye once it entered Sofia’s eye socket.

A short moment later.

Like a brilliant sun slashing through the curtain of night, the darkness was swept away, and the long-awaited light once again filled Sofia’s vision.