Age of Adepts

Lance, the Capital of Eternity.

The light in the array slowly faded away, finally revealing the one dozen towering figures standing within.

The teleportation array was constructed at the top of a magnificent tower of steel; a hall of iron completely protected the formation. One could see the vast skies of Lance in a single glance through the narrow windows nearby, along with its fluffy clouds.

The entire sky was filled with a sense of freedom and leisure!

Arms could no longer endure the yearning in his heart. He strode out of the metal hall and transformed into his dragon form before roaring and taking to the skies. Eight dragons of various colors followed behind him, roaring as they took off.

After eight years away from Lance, these dragons were at their limits.

In Lance, they were the sky, the gods, and the rulers of everything below!

They could freely fly above the blue skies and use their aura of might to terrify and scatter the ants below. They could descend whenever they wanted, enjoy any food they liked, abduct whatever beauty they fancied, and take whatever wealth they saw.

However, in the World of Adepts, the dragons weren’t the rulers. It was the adepts.

Even a tiger would have to crouch, and even a dragon would have to sleep in that sinister and strange world. Keeping a low profile was the key to longevity there. If they were to draw the eye of a high-grade adept, there were far too many powerful beings in that world who could kill them!

Arms, who had been used to luxury and pleasure, could not get accustomed to such an environment.

He had seldom flown freely in the skies of the World of Adepts in these past eight years. His usual range of activity was also limited to the fifty kilometers of woods around White Tower. Should he have left the protection of White Tower, his life would have been at risk.

Arms, Iritina, and the green dragons became exceedingly excited upon returning to Lance. They started flying and playing in the sky.

For a moment, the air above the Capital of Eternity was filled with dragon roars, making the place much more lively than usual.

The appearance of such a large flight of dragons did not frighten the constantly moving crowd within the steel capital. These Lance natives of various skin colors and races stopped and looked at the dragons flying above. They then continued their journey, utterly unphased.

As half a master of the Capital of Eternity, Split-Off Brain Gru was already waiting respectfully before the teleportation array.

He confirmed the ‘rumors’ when he saw Greem in his red robes and the powerful magical aura he radiated. He couldn’t help but flatter, “Welcome, O’ respected Master Greem!”

Greem’s eyes swept toward Gru. He could sense a trace of weight and seriousness to Gru’s every word and action. There was no longer the same levity as before.

It seemed these beings liked to differentiate their treatments based on the power of the individual they were dealing with.

With the power of a Second Grade, Greem had commanded a Third Grade brain monster in the past. Consequently, he was met with all sorts of excuses and insincerity. He needed to trim those unnecessary malicious thoughts in Gazlowe’s big brain every so often.

However, now that Greem had advanced, the attitude of Split-Off Brain Gru immediately did a one-hundred and eighty-degree turnaround. For the first time, Greem felt sincerity behind the words ‘master’!

Greem walked into the steel hall and arrived at the edge of the tower. He slowly looked down at the metal city below.

In all honesty, this Capital of Eternity that Gazlowe had constructed was becoming increasingly like those cities of steel that Greem remembered from his past life.

The steel tower was seven hundred meters tall, but it wasn’t even the tallest building in the steel capital.

The entirety of the Capital of Eternity as built into the mountains. All the buildings and facilities were made of special metals. It gave the city a strange sense of cold, gray indestructibility.

The center of the Capital was a massive tower of steel. It was one kilometer thick and slowly tapered off near the top, vanishing in the clouds. The rest of the buildings were attachments stuck on, like strange branches and thorns on the tower.

The teleportation tower that Greem was currently on was one such building.

The insides of the Capital of Eternity only allowed entry to magical machines and adepts. The other native forces that lived near the Capital could only choose to build their own straw houses and strange buildings at the foot of the tower.

From seven hundred meters above, Greem even saw a stretch of swamp and forest with hundreds of swamp creatures living in it.

“What is that?” Greem couldn’t help but ask.

“Master, that is where the wetlands lizardmen live!” As a bit of a master of the place, Gru naturally knew everything there was to know about the surroundings of the Capital, “I originally intended for them to stay in the Capital of Eternity, but their daily lives can’t be separated from the swamp. So, I had no choice but to carve out an area there for them to live.”

Greem nodded silently.

With his extraordinary sight, he could even see the massive forges that the highland dwarves had built near the Capital, along with the lighthouse-styled insect nests of the swamp flies and the nests of the thunder rocs at the peak of the hills in the distance. In fact, Greem even saw some shadow creatures moving in a corner where there was a large cloud of dark, black mist.

It seemed that the Capital of Eternity had gained control over the entire surrounding areas during these past few years. Moreover, conscious management and planning had also been put into the affairs of the subordinate races. It was a display of Brain Monster Gazlowe’s highest worth!

“How did you manage to gain control over the subordinate races?” Greem continued asking.

“The big guy had already mastered Brainwash. He can use his power to control the leaders and core figures of these tribes. As such, there is no need to be concerned about their loyalty!”

Gru’s reply also caught Greem by surprise.

Brainwash? Wasn’t that a was a high-grade skill among soul powers? Through what means had Gazlowe managed to master it?

Gru seemed to have seen through Greem’s surprise and gave a simple explanation.

“A few years back, Mistress Alice sent back some Mind Flayers from the World of Adepts.”

Greem instantly understood everything before Gru could finish.

No wonder. Mind Flayers were known throughout the multiverse as experts at soul powers.

They were powerful and evil hermaphroditic creatures that fed on the brains of intelligent lifeforms. They could strengthen and empower themselves by absorbing the brain and consciousness core of their prey. They had humanoid bodies, but a strange, squid-like head.

Their eyes had no pupils and were a pure milky white. Four constantly squirming tentacles grew near their mouths, two long and two short. The bodies of the Mind Flayers were a light purple, and their skin was cold and as elastic as rubber. Their skin was also covered in a layer of disgusting slime.

Apart from their soul and mental powers, the Mind Flayers had almost no other abilities. That was why they were a terrifying race of people that could harness soul power to their limits.

They could use their powers to brainwash intelligent lifeforms and turn them into their loyal servants.

They could also use their powers to mimic the effects of all sorts of magic. Moreover, magic mimicked in this manner was not affected by magic resistance.

Ordinary Mind Flayer spawn were also known as Illithids and started as First Grade creatures. Only adolescent Illithids were known as Mind Flayers, and these were powerful Second Grade beings at the very minimum.

Giving Gazlowe a Mind Flayer she managed to catch was a good move on Alice’s part.

Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe had a peculiar body and terrifying power, but not the individual combat ability to match. The main reason being his origin as a weak goblin. Consequently, even after becoming a Third Grade brain monster, he could not naturally master fearsome soul powers.

Alice had found a good teacher for Gazlowe!

However, whether Gazlowe peeled the Mind Flayers apart or just devoured their brains was a mystery to Greem! He wouldn’t want to know either, even if he did have the opportunity to.

That scene would probably make him throw up everything he had eaten from the night before.

After exiting the teleportation tower, Grem walked down a winding corridor and several other walkways before finally entering the interior of the steel tower under Gru’s lead. The ones standing guard here were all fully-armed magical machines. Judging from their models and the magic energy weapons they were using, they were much stronger than the Archers and Shield Defenders from before.

Greem could even see shadows of the Gundams back from Earth in these machines!

Apart from ordinary First Grade magical machines, Greem also saw some strong magical machine warriors with unique designs among them. Their armor gleamed with a cold light and radiated magical light. It was clear that these armors were made of special magical alloys.

The combat power of a magical machine warrior like this was already at the level of a Second Grade creature. If they were all taken out for a run, they would be a terrifying army.

Gru’s explained that they were combat magical machine warriors forged of magical alloy and powered by magic energy. They all possessed the power of a Second Grade and numbered around forty.

Due to their low numbers, they couldn’t form a large group and could only protect Split-Off Brain Gru and some crucial parts within the tower. That was why Greem didn’t see too many of them along the way.

Greem and Gazlowe met at the center of the steel tower in the core of the Capital of Eternity.

Gazlowe’s brain was as massive as a building and floated in an even more enormous glass vat. He was connected with the two magic generator furnaces below him through countless metal pipes. A flood of magic energy would blast out of the furnaces every moment, surging into Gazlowe’s brain before being transferred to various corners of the Capital through individual pipelines.

Here, Gazlowe was the brain of the Capital of Eternity as well as the host of its massive energy pool!