Age of Adepts

Sadly, the battle that Mary had been preparing for didn’t break out.

Alice crushed her bubbling will to fight with a single sentence.

”Sister Mary, do you not want to break free of the bloodline shackles on your body? ” Alice had no choice but to throw her trump card out into the open when she saw how eager Mary was to go.

The phrase, bloodline shackles, was like a sharp awl, stabbing right into Mary’s heart. Her crimson eyes opened wide, her hair started billowing, and her bat wings suddenly unfurled. Her bloodthirst had reached its limits.

”What……did……you……say?” Mary’s face suddenly became cruel and violent. She pressed in on Alice one step at a time as if about to strike at any moment.

”I said, I can help you find the vampire that gave you your bloodline!” Alice was utterly unfazed by Mary’s abnormality. She spoke without any change in her tone.

However Snowlotus, who was standing right behind her, suddenly had her skin turn even more crystalline and radiant. A violent and savage storm of ice and snow started gathering within her body, about to be unleashed at any moment.

Mary no longer pressed forward once she reached within five steps of Alice. She could sense that the ice-manipulating person behind Alice would explode if she took even half a step more!

Mary’s overflowing aura fell upon Alice, and her crimson eyes fixed upon Alice’s without blinking. Alice didn’t try to avoid it either. She stared back at Mary’s eyes full of strength and anger. Incomparable confidence and determination filled her own eyes.

Mary finally understood at this moment.

The Alice that she had always thought would be a little girl, who would never grow up, had indeed grown up. Not only was Alice’s will so resilient that it shocked her, but even Alice’s experience seemed to be more vast and encompassing than her own.

The one currently standing before Mary was no longer the wicked little loli that liked to put on a cute facade; she was a true witch whose mind had matured so much it was hard to tell its limits.

Mary had made up her mind while she was on the way here; she would fight Alice first regardless of what excuses she had prepared. However, the bloodline shackles that Alice mentioned had moved her.

It could also be said to be the eternal agony of all offshoot vampires!

As offshoot vampires, they were different from true vampires.

True Vampires were mostly the bloodline descendants of vampire families. Their bloodline was passed on generation to generation. There were almost no limitations by bloodline shackles on them. On the other hand, offshoot vampires were often ordinary men that had been turned into vampires by the Embrace of true vampires.

Mary was even more of a special case. She was a unique vampire that had been cultivated and modified by that accursed Adept Anderson with vampire blood that he had chanced upon. Thus, in all truthfulness, it was more appropriate to call Mary a bloodline corruptor!

It was because of this factor that Mary had started feeling severe bloodline conflicts ever since she had become an elite adept. If she didn’t find a way to deal with the trouble deep in her soul and bloodline, then elite adept might be the limit she could reach for the rest of her life.

Even if she wanted to increase her powers, that strange and intangible bloodline shackle would turn all of her efforts into a pipe dream. If she wanted to change this, the only method was to drain that vampire of their blood, thereby allowing her to become a ’true’ vampire!

These were the secrets that Mary hid deep in her heart. Who would have known that Alice would expose them here? It wasn’t hard to see why she was so affected that she almost lost control of her strength.

Mary took several deep breaths and suppressed her instincts to go berserk. Finally, she managed to regain her rationality.

”Tell me then; I want to listen to your conditions!” Mary put away her threatening looks and started conversing with Alice on equal footing.

”I know you are looking for the location of that vampire!” A trace of a smile finally appeared on Alice’s tense face.

”Where is he?” Mary asked impatiently.

”Is there any use in asking this question?” Alice smiled as she answered with a question, ”Why? Could you actually bring men and kill your way to him, even if you knew his location?”

”Why can’t I?”

Alice placed her hand on her forehead in pain.

”Vampires have absolute authority over their bloodline descendants. Do you think you could even stand and speak with the vampire once you arrive before them? The vampire wouldn’t even need to fight you. They only need to order you to kill yourself through the bloodline connection, and you would probably strangle yourself to death.”

Mary’s body trembled uncontrollably for a moment.

She had recklessly created blood servants and vampire spawn in the other plane. Those fellows were no more than worthless slaves and cannon fodder in her eyes. They had no personal rights or privacy. When she needed to leave the plane, she was even cruel enough to activate her Shackles of Blood and turn the hundreds of subordinates that she couldn’t bring with her into nutrition for her growth.

She had felt as if everything was just as it was supposed to be when she performed those actions!

However, there was now a person above her that could impose the same things upon herself. It wasn’t hard to imagine Mary’s anger and fear!

The more she thought about it, the more apparent things became. Mary’s mind was now calmer and more rational than ever before.

She raised her head and stared at Alice, delicately asking, ”Then what do you think I should do?”

”You don’t need to be too worried!” Alice explained slowly, ”I have already found that arch-nemesis of yours. We are very fortunate. He’s still a First Grade vampire. We can still exterminate him with our strength. However, you definitely can’t exterminate him yourself. In fact, you shouldn’t even get close to him. That’s why I will need to arrange the personnel to take him down personally. These vampires are all cautious. If we try and fail, we will likely alert them, and it will be much harder to find them again.”

”I understand!” Mary sighed and once again spoke, ”I owe you for this one. As an exchange of benefits, I will also help you do on one thing with all of my abilities. I will not retreat, regardless of how dangerous it might be!”

Alice let out a sigh of relief and walked forward to take Mary’s hand. She softly laughed as she said, ”Since we have already reached an agreement, then naturally, we are the best of sisters now. Oh! That’s right, Sister Mary, did you know? I used to have a grandmother that really loved me in the past, but she… she… ”

Alice’s blue eyes abruptly turned red at this point. Tears flowed down her face continuously.

”What happened to her?” Mary gritted her teeth and asked.

”She’s been detained by some bad guys. She’s even imprisoned in a terrifying place and constantly being tortured.”

Mary looked at Alice, who looked like she was about to cry again. Even though Mary knew she was probably looking at a massive trap, she had no choice but to commit to it for the sake of the bloodline shackles.

”Alright, stop crying!” Mary said frustratingly, ”You just want me to help you save a person, don’t you? Tell me the location and the person, and I’ll go now.”

Alice, who had just been sobbing, immediately broke into a radiant smile. She grabbed Mary’s hand and swung it about, ”As expected, Sister Mary really loves Alice. Alice will also try her best to do help Sister Mary on her matter.”

Having said that, Alice leaned up to Mary’s ears and whispered a few sentences.

As expected, this was no easy task. The enemy was the Dark Witches!

This Alice had indeed found a good opponent for herself.

Mary sighed and left with tremendous resentment in her heart.

…………

Bee’s Nest.

As the den of the Aba Beemen, the security of the bee’s nest was undoubtedly the strictest of all.

However, the appearance of a mysterious phantom these days had plunged the ‘powerful’ Aba Beemen into endless horror.

Over the past month, nearly a hundred beeman soldiers had gone missing. That was the gift that the mysterious phantom had bestowed upon the Aba Beemen. Moreover, as the mysterious ghost grew stronger with each passing day, he was no longer satisfied with waiting to ambush beemen hunting squads near the border. Instead, he actively invaded the territories of the beemen.

Now, even patrolling in the forest near the bee’s nest was no longer a safe errand.

With no other choice left to him, the Beeman Commander had to shrink the defensive line and increase the number of men in the hunting squads from its initial fifteen men to the current thirty. The lack of food also halted the Aba Queen’s act of quickly expanding the tribe.

The number of beeman soldiers in the bee’s nest had fallen from its peak of five hundred and sixty men to its current number of four hundred and thirty-six men. The number of hunting squads had also been reduced from twenty-five to ten. It was an incredible blow to the bee’s nest!

The beemen’s detailed investigations finally allowed them to figure out the situation. The one attacking the beeman hunting squads was no magical creature, but a human apprentice adept.

And this was precisely what confused and bewildered the Aba beemen.

What means did an ordinary human apprentice adept possess to devour so many beeman soldiers?

This question was finally answered by some beeman soldiers that had been fortunate enough to escape.

That damned human apprentice had walked upon the terrifying path of a bloodline adept. He could transform into a frightening bug man and continuously strengthen himself by devouring the bodies of beeman soldiers. He was also capable of hatching strange scorpions to act as his soldiers.

Moreover, the scorpions that he hatched could hide under the ground. This ability was why the bee’s nest was incapable of finding the enemy, despite sending out so many search parties!

The Aba Beemen even sent messengers to the human adept’s tower to protest the enemy crossing over agreed upon borders.

Sadly, the human adept, that was skinny enough that he looked like a giant mouse, took out the peace agreement that he had signed earlier and rebutted. Spit flew everywhere as he explained elaborately to the beeman messenger that all of the adepts had stayed within the tower. None of them had taken a single step into magical creature territory.

On the other hand, the conditions of the peace agreement did not regulate the actions of apprentice adepts.

Thus…

Fire Throne would not be responsible for any actions of the bug apprentice. If the Aba Beemen didn’t like him, they were free to kill him and eat his body.

Going to the human adept’s tower had yielded no result. Yet, it was also impossible for them to go asking for help from the other magical creatures nearby.

As such, the Aba Queen flew into a rage!