Age of Adepts

After giving chase several kilometers, Kennet finally caught up to Rena in a clearing in the woods.

Rena was only a Second Grade witch that had attained her level through potions and resources obtained due to her connections. She typically lived in comfort and luxury and had never really experienced real combat. That was why her decision to flee had appeared to be hesitant and indecisive.

By the time the Dark Knight discovered the enemy approaching, Rena was no longer able to escape from a berserk Gold Knight with her Physique.

Rena turned her head and looked behind her. The blinding radiance that emanated from the Gold Knight when he sprinted only made Rena even more flustered and terrified.

She secretly took out a small vial of potion, opened the cork, and started chanting a strange spell. A completely black, three-tailed scorpion climbed out of the bottle. Its three tails stood straight up and shot a gray beam at the towering Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight froze on the spot.

“Go, stall him with your life.”

Rena hastily gave the Dark Knight a suicide order and continued to flee frenziedly into the forest.

An expression of despair, hatred, and relief appeared on the face of the Dark Knight beneath the helmet. He took out the massive longsword at his waist and turned to engage the Gold Knight.

Enemies with a grudge tended to clash violently upon meeting!

Even though the Dark Knight knew this was a suicidal act, he was under the compulsion of the damned witch’s unusual magic. Thus, he gathered his densely evil aura and slashed at the Gold Knight’s cluster of holy light.

Dong! A muffled boom rang out.

The power of darkness clashed with the power of holy light.

Light and darkness neutralized each other, and sparks flew from the clashing longswords.

The Dark Knight had only just fallen, after all. His mastery of the powers of darkness was still lacking. Moreover, there was a tremendous difference between his Strength and the Gold Knight’s Strength. It was almost as if he had been blown away by an elephant. He flew across the clearing, snapping countless branches and bushes until he finally crashed into a tall and ancient tree.

This entirely artless crash had dispersed all the powers of darkness from the Dark Knight’s body. His bones and organs were also slightly injured by the impact. If it weren’t for his armor neutralizing most of the force, he would probably have died immediately from the Strength of the Gold Knight.

Even so, he had lost all his ability to resist. His body was stuck in the tree, and even slightly struggling caused purple and black blood to come flowing out of his shattered armor.

On the other hand, Kennet had been mildly injured against the berserker strike of a Second Grade Dark Knight. However, as a holy knight who had the protection of holy light, the minor wounds were immediately healed within two seconds.

Kennet walked up to the Dark Knight and lifted his faceplate with the tip of his longsword, revealing the sickly pale and youthful face beneath.

“Essi Daven, what was the cause of your depravity?” The tip of Kennet’s blade was trembling slightly.

Essi Daven had been an elite that his chapel had specially chosen and trained over the years. He had become a Second Grade Silver Knight despite his young age. If he hadn’t made any mistakes, he would have become a respected Third Grade Gold Knight within three to four decades.

It was Kennet that personally gave Essi Daven the order to pursue the witch upon hearing of her appearance near the chapel. It was Kennet’s goodwill. He had hoped that Essi would perform well in this witch-hunt, thereby obtaining even more grace from the Holy Light.

It would undoubtedly have been exceedingly beneficial to his power and talent!

Perhaps he would be qualified to preside over a Holy Light Chapel of his own in another region once he succeeded in this operation.

Unfortunately, his fate took an unexpected twist upon meeting the evil witch.

For some unknown reason, he quickly became depraved and fallen. Lured and aided by the evil witch, he embraced the darkness and became an enemy of the Holy Light. What else could infuriate Kennet even more? What else could make him so unreasonably mad?!

That was why Kennet had been so desperate to capture Essi Daven. He had to ask him why personally.

Sadly, the completely fallen Essi Daven remained silent. His gaze was unfocused, and traces of darkness radiated from his eyes as if he had no intelligence to speak of.

The longsword in Kennet’s hand quivered slightly. There were several times when he wanted to cut off Essi Daven’s head, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Finally, a cold light gleamed in Kennet’s eyes. He sliced off both of Essi’s legs with two quick slashes, then picked up his dark longsword and pinned him to the tree by the left shoulder.

Kennet left immediately after doing this, his eyes drifting in the direction where the evil witch had fled. He continued his pursuit.

One had to admit that Rena was truly one useless Second Grade witch.

Even with the three minutes that her Dark Knight had gained her, she still couldn’t escape from Kennet’s pursuit.

She didn’t know how to hide her tracks or how to avoid her enemy’s pursuit. In the complex terrain of the Forest of Darkness, Rena only managed to run for two and a half kilometers before Kennet once again caught up to her.

This time, there was no longer anyone who could help her!

Kennet had caught up to Rena’s side just by braving all her magical attacks. He then struck her on the back with the flat of the blade and knocked her unconscious.

After searching and taking away all of Rena’s vials and accessories, as well as severing all her tendons, Kennet grabbed her by the hair and dragged her all the way back.

There was no proper path in the Forest of Darkness. Kennet also made sure to walk where the brambles and thorns were most dense. Witch Rena’s body was soon covered with hundred and thousands of cuts and wounds along the way. By the time they arrived at the withered tree, Rena’s clothes had turned into rags, and her exposed skin had been utterly ravaged.

Kennet suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at the empty tree.

The longsword he had thrust into the tree was still there, but Essi Daven, whose legs had been cut off and whose bones had been completely shattered, had mysteriously vanished.

It wasn’t just his body that had disappeared. Even his two severed legs were gone without a trace!

“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” Kennet thrust Rena against the tree and started circling frantically on the spot.

His plentiful tracking experience told him that Essi Daven had not left on his own. Rather, he had been saved by an outsider. Moreover, the person who saved him was not only powerful but also possessed a unique means of stealth. Otherwise, something would have been left behind; there was not even a single trace or clue.

The witch’s companion?

Kennet picked Rena up and lifted her before his eyes. He glared at her viciously.

“Speak! Do you have any other companions here? Who saved Essi Daven?”

Naturally, since the Gold Knight had snapped Rena’s spine, she had no means of resistance. She lifted her terrifying face covered in blood and scratch marks and screamed curses at the holy knight.

“Let me go! Let me go! Kill me, and my companions will avenge me!”

He slapped Rena twice across the face brutally before she could finish her words. Bruises instantly appeared on her face, and most of her teeth also became loose from the impact.

“I don’t want to hear another useless word from your mouth. Speak! Who are your companions? Where are they hiding? Tell me this, and I will give you a quick death. Otherwise, wait to bathe in the Holy Light!”

The enemy’s savagery instantly broke Rena’s spirit. She was no longer as fierce and unreasonable as she had been before. Her entire body trembled as she spoke.

“No more. There are no more! There were three of us this time, but an accident happened when we were traveling through the spatial rift. We were split up.”

“Where have the other two gone?”

“I don’t know! I really don’t! I am just here to transport the materials for the magical array. Where they landed in this plane from the space storm, I…really don’t know!”

There were divine spells that allowed the holy knights to discern truths from lies. Kennet finally gave up his interrogation after confirming that the broken witch was not lying.

Since it wasn’t the witch’s companion, then it was very likely a native magical creature of the Forest of Darkness!

Essi Daven’s aura of darkness matched this place very well, indeed. Was he devoured by a magical creature that passed by? Or had he been brought back to the magical creature’s den?

Kennet found no answers, no matter how hard he thought. In the end, he gave up on searching for Essi. Instead, he picked the captive witch up and sprinted out of the forest.

Once his silhouette completely vanished from the forest, a pale face suddenly appeared on the ancient tree where the dark longsword was embedded. The face gazed in the direction where the Gold Knight had disappeared.

It blinked a few times and opened its large mouth, spitting out Essi Daven from within the tree.

His two legs had mysteriously been reattached.

After much difficulty, Essi Daven finally got up from the damp ground and looked at this face in silence.

Ever since he embraced the darkness, he felt like his soul had been covered with a thin veil. Everything he heard and saw and thought was completely different from before.

This human face gave him a similar feeling of peculiarity.

“Hehe, that little witch has quite some tricks up her sleeves. To think she managed to activate the talent for darkness hiding within you. That’s a win for this Lord. I never expected to pick up a decently talented Dark Knight in such a lowly plane. Good, good, good. Come with me now, you!”

The human face on the tree opened its mouth as wide as it could, opening a spatial tunnel in the tree that led to a mysterious space.

The still confused Essi Daven only hesitated for a moment before diving into the dark tunnel and vanishing completely from Henvic Plane.

Kennet, having left earlier, was utterly ignorant of everything that had just transpired.

All his attention was focused on the captive Witch Rena.