Age of Adepts

The stranger who stepped into the cave with Italil was exceptionally tall.

A thick black cloak with a hood hid most of the stranger’s body. Not a trace of skin was even exposed.

A pair of eyes containing a strange ‘power’ stared out from under the shadow of the hood, singing and burning all who looked upon them. All the witches looking at the stranger’s eyes had no choice but to look away. Some of the weaker witches even felt their eyeballs hurt as tears welled up and blurred their vision.

Though the witches were somewhat intimidated by this, their reactions were calm and composed. There was even a trace of joy on their faces.

The identity of the stranger might be unknown, but the power they used clearly belonged to the system of adepts.

That was the main reason why the witches felt a trace of relief!

“Sisters, put your staffs away! Allow me to introduce an esteemed guest.” Italil was a composed middle-aged witch, but even she had a trace of excitement on her face now.

However, before she could continue, the tall and scrawny Witch Tess had already stood out from the crowd and said, “This must be Sir Greem from the Crimson Clan!”

A strange smile appeared on the stranger’s face beneath the shadow of the hood. He said with a jovial voice, “I’m very honored to meet you, Lady Tess!”

The stranger took off his hood, and a handsome male face appeared before the witches.

Well-defined facial lines, the corners of the mouth curled slightly upwards, thick eyebrows, majestic and unusual black eyes, along with that dark red hair running down his back. The guest’s face couldn’t be considered handsome; it was only ordinary, at best.

However, his eyes had a commanding and powerful force in them. Tremendous confidence also radiated from the corners of his eyes. All this caused his face to carry a different sense of beauty to it.

As a Third Grade witch, Tess naturally saw and sensed far more than the other witches did.

She could very clearly ‘see’ that Greem had a pair of powerful black eyes. Small crimson specks could be seen around the black pupil, like tiny, beautiful diamonds of fire. Even with her spiritual resistance, Tess felt traces of burning pain in her Spirit when she looked into Greem’s eyes. That meant the powers of fire within Greem’s body were powerful enough to transmit power through consciousness alone.

Moreover, his dark red hair wasn’t his original hair color, either. It was an unintentional result from the overflowing fire energy within his body radiating outwards. If he could cross the threshold of elementium and step into the level of planar laws, all of these external changes would gradually vanish.

However, those who could manipulate the power of laws freely were all Great Adepts that had exceeded the limits of the plane. One would have to be at least Fifth Grade to gain total control over the planar laws’ power. The extremely well-respected Fourth Grade adepts of the World of Adept had only just barely come into contact with the most surface-level applications of the planar laws. They still had a long journey to travel before they reach true mastery of the laws.

The witches immediately realized who the mysterious guest was upon seeing his face and hearing Witch Tess call out his name.

Five years ago, when Rena traveled through the planar rift, she was accompanied by another person, aside from Witch Italil. It was an adept hired from outside the clan. It seemed to have been this legendary adept.

According to Witch Tess’ analysis, the reason that the reinforcement mission had failed was likely because of legendary fire adept. That was especially the case after Witch Italil described the great battle that broke out in Haisas City in detail. The witches were certain that Greem was the cause of the mission’s failure.

The witches had also heard of the unusual circumstances at Gangsas Volcano during their escape.

Unfortunately, due to the intense pursuit of the holy knights and the tight perimeter enforced by the Zambez Empire around Gangsas Volcano, the witches had no chance of sneaking through to investigate or obtain more information.

However, the Deceit Witches still managed to figure out what was happening at Gangsas Volcano through the holy knights they had managed to capture and enchant. Several adepts from another world were battling at Gangsas Volcano, though neither party could defeat the other, miring both in a stalemate.

The Deceit Witches had felt incredibly frustrated when they heard of this news.

Even though they didn’t know the true cause-and-effect behind the whole event, they could still figure out that this ‘uninvited disaster’ probably had something to do with these mysterious adepts. Naturally, this meant that the legendary fire adept, who was the target of all these hunter adepts to begin with, became a target of the witches’ resentment.

That was why the faces of the Deceit Witches all turned dark upon meeting the culprit behind their defeat.

“Sir Greem, don’t you have something you need to say now that you’ve seen the current circumstances of us Deceit Witches?” Witch Tess coldly said, her face turning dark as she did so.

Greem rubbed his nose awkwardly and put on a bitter smile, “Lady Tess, I am also a victim in this incident, you know!”

Tess was furious and was about to retort, but Italil stopped her.

“Tess, let the pass go. Now is the time we need to work together. Sir Greem has brought some good news back for us. I suggest you listen to him first!”

“What news is it?”

“…” Greem looked around the room and hesitated for a moment.

“Just speak. Everyone here is a sister in arms willing to lay down their lives for each other. There is no reason to hide anything!” Tess said in a chilling tone.

Italil once again betrayed an expression of humiliation and frustration.

Greem wasn’t particularly bothered by the request. He looked at the witches in the room and softly said, “I have a way to leave Henvic Plane. However, there is only enough space for four people!”

The air in the cave froze.

Surprise and joy appeared on the faces of all the witches when they heard the first half of Greem’s sentence. However, when they heard that only four people could leave, sorrow and disappointment returned to their faces.

“You have a one-use interplanar teleportation array?” Witch Tess was an extremely experienced veteran witch. She had managed to guess the truth based on Greem’s words alone.

“Indeed! There is only a quota of four for the teleportation, and I will need two of them!” There was no need to hide this fact, so Greem simply stated the truth.

He needed one slot of the quota to return to the World of Adepts, while the other was left for Remi’s old witch subordinate.

Remi was a part of Greem’s Soul Equipment. He could return to Greem’s body during the teleportation and would not take up a slot in the quota for the process. However, the modified old poison witch was a genuine Third Grade plague creature. She couldn’t do the same as Remi.

Greem could only bring as many as two Deceit Witches with him when he left.

Seeing how passionate Italil was, she had obviously concluded that one of the quota slots was hers, given her identity as a Third Grade witch. After all these subtractions, there was one quota slot left for the witches in front of them!

Moreover, given the selfishness of the adepts, Greem would never just hand over the chance to save two lives to the Deceit Witches without a proper reward.

Naturally, Greem’s original intentions were to bring the two Third Grade witches back with him. That was the best way to minimize the damage and losses that the Deceit Witches would suffer in losing this planar war.

The rest of the witches that remained only needed to scatter, hide, and wait for the next rescue team to arrive to be able to return to the World of Adepts. However, the most powerful witches amongst those who remained would only be at Second Grade. It was unknown whether the clan was willing to pay a heavy price just to bring back a bunch of First and Second Grade adepts.

As such, if they missed this opportunity, the witches who remained here would face the risk of permanently being stuck in Henvic Plane.

No rescue from their homeworld, no one to talk to, pursued and hounded by the holy knights for all eternity; that was the terrifying future that they could foresee!

“Rena is there.” Tess lifted her hand and pointed to the distance in the east.

“Rena?” Greem asked curiously. He had never expected that the first Second Grade witch to fall into the hands of the Zambez Empire had yet to die.

Italil whispered a few words of explanation to him.

It seemed like Rena was now being imprisoned in Blackmountain City, to the east.

She had become the most vicious traitor in the hands of the holy knights. All the information and secrets of the Deceit Witches were being provided to the holy knights. It was the information she provided that allowed the holy knights to so accurately pursue and hunt down the Deceit Witches.

Moreover, the holy knights had brought Rena from the capital to Blackmountain City to catch the witch remnants hiding nearby. They used her familiarity with the habits of the Deceit Witches and their methods of interaction to slowly clamp down on and restrict the witches’ living space.

It could be said that the witches’ contempt for Rena was only second to their hatred for the holy knights pursuing them now!

After a furious discussion between the witches, they finally came to an agreement with Greem.

Greem would provide the Deceit Witches with two spaces for teleportation, while the Deceit Witches would have to help him strike a vicious assault on the holy knights. However, to Greem’s absolute surprise, the two people due for teleportation decided by the witches were Witch Italil and a First Grade witch with decent talent.

Witch Tess was actually refusing to leave!

Moreover, she suggested that the witches combine forces with Greem to rescue Witch Rena from Blackmountain City.

Naturally, the witches all opposed the suggestion, but they all fell silent once Tess explained her reasoning.

The reason Tess refused to leave was to increase the weight of the witch forces remaining in Henvic Plane.

Otherwise, if only a group of First and Second Grade witches remained in Henvic Plane, they would have a difficult time surviving the pursuit of the holy knights. More importantly, it would make it incredibly unlikely for the clan to pay a heavy price to rescue them!

If Tess remained in the plane, then considering the value of a Third Grade witch, the chances of a clan rescue would significantly increase. Of course, if Witch Italil were also willing to stay behind, the witches would be even more confident in a rescue mission from the clan.

That said, everyone here knew that that would never happen!

Of course, rescuing Rena was out of the same consideration as well.