Age of Adepts

Witherwater City had now become the most eye-catching location in the entire plane.

It wasn’t just the orc powerhouses. Even the kings and leaders of the subordinate races, hidden deep in the woods and forests, cast their attentive gazes toward the city.

Every powerhouse on the plane now understood the true intentions of the witches through the planar laws.

Corroding the planar origin, corrupting the planar laws, exterminating the Planar Consciousness.

These damned witches actually dared to destroy the entire Strongwoods Plane!

If the witches only wanted to invade Strongwoods Plane, then this war was no more than a battle for dominion between the witches and the orcs. The other races were being so heavily suppressed by the orcs that there was no reason that whatever surviving forces they had would ever intervene.

However, the witches were intent on destroying Strongwoods Plane. It was a massive problem that related to the existence and survival of all Strongwoods creatures. Naturally, there was no way the powerhouses and kings of those other races could remain in hiding.

For a moment, the skies of Strongwoods Plane were filled with all sorts of individuals. There were orcs riding on giant flying beasts, black-skinned natives in strange grass clothing with odd markings on their bodies, or even towering giants striding toward Witherwater City like a crashing meteor.

These elites of Strongwoods, be they male, female, old, young, orc, or otherwise emerged from their hidden bases. They charged wildly toward the isolated Witherwater City in the northwestern plains, using all the methods available to them.

Just three hours after the Root of Corruption was planted, a large group of orc powerhouses had arrived in front of Witherwater City with the use of Greater Teleportation. They immediately started attacking the city with wild abandon.

However, the witches had already used the past two weeks of rest to construct a simple adept’s tower inside the city. With the war tower as a defensive fortress, the witches were able to fend off the enemy’s attacks despite having inferior numbers of Fourth Grades.

The Fourth Grade voodoo beasts and magical creatures that the witches had summoned kept the orcs outside the city gates under the fortified WItherwater City. Meanwhile, the terrifying spells unleashed in unison with several high-grade witches inflicted horrible damage on the attacking orc powerhouses.

In a planar battlefield like this, where Fourth Grades were the ones who dictated the ultimate conclusion, First Grades could only be considered fodder. Only Second Grades and above could barely qualify as footsoldiers. It wasn’t until you reached Third Grade that you would have the opportunity to charge across the battlefield and destroy enemy lines.

That said, even a Third Grade would die in seconds on a battlefield like this if they were unfortunate enough to run into a Fourth Grade.

While the battle on the frontlines broke out in full force, Greem and his subordinates finally got the news to retreat while they silently rested in their manor.

It was a seductive and pretty Banshee of Hatred that came to notify them. Given how opaque the banshee’s body appeared to be, her grade was above Greem.

However, even if she was of the Third Grade, she was only a vassal and servant of the witches. That was why she still had to bow in respect to Alice and Greem, the witch leader and the Second Grade clan leader.

“Lady Alice, Lord Greem, the portal has been prepared. You may leave now!”

The first to cheer upon hearing this good news was the Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms.

“That is fantastic news. Hurry, let us go; we shouldn’t stay here any longer…it’s simply too terrifying for me!” As a Third Grade dragon, Arms was able to sense even more of the truth and reality of the world hidden behind the scenes than Greem was capable of.

Ignoring everything else, just the intense clashing of planar laws at the center of the city was enough to terrify Arms’ tiny heart. Now that so many Fourth Grade orcs had appeared outside the city, the dense and vicious killing intent was causing his heart to beat erratically. He could hardly even sit still.

If it weren’t for the witches sealing off all spatial teleportation abilities around Witherwater City, Arms would probably already have fled from Strongwoods Plane from the fear he was feeling.

In comparison, Greem’s understanding of the planar laws was vastly inferior. It was far shallower, even compared to Alice. That was why while Alice was enduring the shockwaves of the power of the laws with a pale face, Greem was like a small ant on top of an anthill.

The world before him was so strange. Everything he felt, saw, and heard was so unbelievable and bizarre. It didn’t matter how hard he tried to look, to listen, or to experience. It was like he had been shut in a glass vat, and was having trouble understanding and comprehending what it was he had contact with!

Laws. The power of laws.

What was their true nature? Where did their power come from? How did they encircle all things in the world in a tight and orderly net, yet keep the same beings in question ignorant of their existence and even willing to obey them without question?

One had to admit that Greem had obtained many things after all these years of running about and raiding. However, he still lacked much understanding of the planar laws.

Any form of power, when driven to the limit, could be transformed into some sort of variant law. These laws were the most reliable and potent weapons of the adepts!

Greem led all the Crimson adepts and the massive magical machine army toward a plaza in the southeastern corner of the city with the guidance of the Third Grade banshee.

A twenty-meter tall, ten-meter wide door of light had already been opened here, in the center of the plaza. A powerful spatial fluctuation radiated from the portal.

Witch forces from other factions were also silently awaiting the order to retreat in another corner of the plaza.

In truth, the reason they were here was only to help the Death Witches get rid of all distractions. There was no need for the witches to exhaust their elites on such a brutal and savage planar battlefield after all.

At this point in the planar war, it was no longer a worldly conflict, but a pure deathmatch, where every blow was struck with the intent to exterminate and destroy. Anything under Third Grade was mere cannon fodder on such a horrifying battlefield. Even Third Grades couldn’t guarantee their own survival.

As such, they had already fulfilled their duty and obligation as allies as best as they could!

The deadly battle that came next only required the Death Witches’ participation!

They, on the other hand, were better off retreating from this battlefield as soon as possible.

The crimson sky above Witherwater City was almost as if heaven itself was bleeding. It was so gloomy that it even cast a shadow in the hearts of all people seeing it.

An earthshaking blast rang out south of the city, causing Witherwater City itself to shudder and tremble. A thick and violent lightning chain cut across the sky, illuminating half the horizon and causing the elementium barrier above the city to shake uncontrollably.

The war tower erected at the center of the city released a massive pillar of magical light, sustaining the barrier. Occasionally, the tower would unleash a tidal wave of magic into the distance, out of the city walls.

The towering walls and the layers of elementium barriers obstructed the vision of the people inside, preventing them from seeing the situation of the battle. However, judging from the deafening roars and battlecries from far away, one knew that the intensity of the war had risen to a peak.

The portal had been opened, and thus, the witches started gathering their forces and returning to the World of Adepts in an orderly fashion. Greem stood by the portal while assessing the battlefield in the distance, waiting for the magical machines to enter the door of light slowly.

It was not his battlefield, nor was it a battle in which he could interfere!

Greem’s heart pounded in fright and nervousness when he sensed those waves of destructive auras clashing with each other.

He had underestimated the three major adept organizations all this while!

Unlike the superficial strength in the center of the continent, the Silver Union and the Northern Witches were hiding some truly terrifying power below the surface. Their ordinary and average might on the outside was only a facade.

The Death Witches he had come to understand through various information agencies only revealed two to three Fourth Grade Witches. However, today, he could sense as many as six Fourth Grade witches on this battlefield alone.

If such a hidden force gathered in the World of Adepts, it would have been more than enough to change the political situation of the center of the continent.

Moreover, if the Death Witches were able to hide their high-grade fighting force in their lesser planes in such a manner, was it even possible for the various factions to be as weak as they looked? Apart from the Fate and Coldwinter Witches that had just begun to rise and accumulate power, the other witch factions were probably just monsters pretending to be sheep.

If the Northern Witches had such power, what did the Silver Union and the Adept’s Association look like?

It was highly probable that the reason the three major adept organizations had been able to last through tens of thousands of years in opposition of one another had much to do with their hidden strength!

Without the ability to take down the other organizations in a single strike, with a Ninth Grade Great Adept backing each organization, no single force would ever dare to be the one to start a fight.

While Greem was deep in thought, a loud blast rang out in the skies above.

Greem lifted his head in horror.

Rip!!!

He heard a loud tearing sound as a massive opening was torn in the skies above. A vicious-looking orc head entered the barrier and roared at the city beneath.

“Damned insects, stay here and die.”

Boom!!!

The world shook as even the planar space became unstable.

The fluctuations caught the two magical machines that were crossing the portal through space. As the portal trembled, space was compressed and smashed like a broken mirror. The destroyed spatial flux spread outward, cutting the two magical machines and turning them into loose components.

Even if the materials used to forge them were the toughest magical alloys in the world, they were still as frail as tofu in the face of such spatial ripples.

Greem and all the other adepts did not even look at the terrifying sight of the magical machines’ destructions. Instead, they lifted their heads and looked on in horror at the terrifying orc that was trying to squeeze into the plane.

As he continued to tear and rip, the once hundred-meter-long spatial rift had now turned a kilometer long. One could even see the golden arm and shoulder of the orc now.

“It’s…it’s a vassal god of Beast God Aruger. It’s Garon!”