Age of Adepts

When Vanlier and Snorlax arrived at the doors to Vanessa’s room with a large group of subordinates in tow, they were stopped by the magical-machine squad standing guard there.

The goblin captain of the squad was firm and rough in his attitude. He refused to let the adepts enter without Tigule’s orders. After a few failed attempts at negotiating, Snorlax almost blew up in anger.

It was fortunate that Vanlier was an old fox well-versed in dealing with such matters. He extended an arm and held Snorlax back, who was about to order a charge. He then flashed a sinister smile at the goblin captain and said, “We are here on the orders of Tower Master Meryl. Even Lord Tigule has no right to stop us. Since you keep mentioning your superior’s orders, why don’t you contact Lord Tigule now and see what he says?”

The goblin captain hesitated for a moment, but he had no choice but to take out a communication device shaped like a black button. He started calling out for Tigule over and over again. Unfortunately, regardless of how he shouted, only static feedback came from the device.

Such a situation had never happened before.

A cold sweat broke out over the goblin captain’s forehead.

“Make way! All of you make way. Vanessa has been involved in a rebellion. If any of you dare stop us anymore, you will be considered as conspirators as well. I have the clan leader’s orders here with me. There will be no mercy!” Snorlax leaped into the air anxiously, waving his hand as he released the Third Grade elementium magical machine from the golem talisman.

A deep, muffled boom rang out.

Even the tough floor, which had been reinforced multiple times with magic, could not endure the mountainous weight of the elementium magical machine. A small crater appeared where it was summoned, cracks running across the floor.

“An elementium magical machine. It’s the clan leader’s elementium magical machine!”

The goblin’s screams of surprise filled the corridors as the elementium magical machine slowly straightened itself.

Those metal legs as thick as pillars, that towering figure that almost scraped against the ceiling, that overwhelming aura of heat; the goblins in the magical machines couldn’t help but gulp anxiously at the sight of the monster before them.

God, the magical machines they were piloting were like little rabbits in front of a lion right now. What else could they do besides shiver in fright?!

The elementium magical machine was a Third Grade construct personally created by the clan leader. Every single person in the clan knew this. As such, the magical-machine squad could only step aside obediently when they saw the elementium magical machine appear. They no longer dared to stand in Snorlax’s way.

“Charge! Smash those doors for me!”

Snorlax was indescribably excited at being able to command such a high-grade magical construct for the first time in his life. The elementium magical machine roared and lowered its body. The metal plates on its back opened, revealing several dozen propellers glowing with a ghostly blue light. Jets of blazing flames then shot out of the propellers, extending for a dozen meters behind the machine.

The next second, the elementium magical machine’s massive body glided forward at surprising speed, landing a vicious punch on the alloy doors of the room.

“Not good.”

Snorlax instantly realized that things were going to get dangerous. He quickly squatted down and clasped his ears with his hands. The next second, an earthshaking explosion rang out in the narrow corridor of the tower.

The terrifying sonic shockwave instantly concussed every goblin and vampire present. Purple trails of blood flowed down their eyes, ears, and noses.

The violent force blasted the twenty-centimeter-thick alloy doors into pieces and sent them flying into the room. The elementium magical machine stepped past the pulverized floor beneath it and strode into the room completely unfazed.

Goddammit! That was a bit too powerful, wasn’t it!?

Snorlax muttered to himself as he got up from the ground as quickly as he could. He rushed into the room along with the elementium magical machine.

The inside of the room was already in chaos.

A large piece of the door had swept through the living hall and crashed against the stone wall, leaving the insides of the place a mess.

However, not a single person could be seen in the living hall. There was only a massive magical machine standing silently in the corner of the hall.

A magical machine?

“This is our leader’s magical machine, but where’s our leader?” The goblin captain couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

The Goblin Shredder’s cockpit was open, but no one was inside.

There was a pool of purple blood on the floor in the middle of the room.

Blood. Whose blood? Vanessa’s, or Tigule’s?

No, Vanessa was a mechanical adept now. She should not have any more blood in her body. Then……

Vanlier and Snorlax exchanged a look. They knew things were bad.

Vanlier waved his hand and shouted, “Search.” A dozen agile vampires immediately leaped forward and started scouring the room.

Soon, Vanlier and the others appeared at the five goblin teleportation devices. They stared at the damned tools with frowns on their faces.

The goblin engineers in their party stepped forward the examine the devices. Soon, they came to a conclusion.

The five goblin teleportation devices each pointed in a different direction around White Tower. The device pointing towards the southwest seemed to have been used recently.

Southwest? There seemed to be a major settlement of White Tower civilians ten kilometers away there.

It seemed like Princess Vanessa had secretly set up a teleportation point there for the sake of secret communications with members of the Magic Energy Association. No wonder the people that Vanlier sent to monitor Vanessa did not pick up on any abnormalities.

“Hmph! As I expected. How sly. Chase them!”

However, before they could even walk out of the room, the tower trembled slightly as a loud explosion could be heard down the corridor. Panicked screams erupted from the outside.

Vanlier and Snorlax looked at each other and shouted at the same time, “The teleportation array!”

Snorlax anxiously ran out to see what had happened, but Vanlier stopped him.

“Why are you stopping me? Let me go and see what has happened,” Snorlax cried out in confusion.

Meanwhile, Vanlier appeared to be completely calm and composed at this moment. He shook his head and Snorlax and said, “We guessed wrong. We thought they would start running the moment their plan was exposed. But now, it seems like…not only did choose not to run, they’ve decided to push forward with their plan. As such, our current priority isn’t capturing Vanessa, but—”

“To protect the teleportation arrays!” Snorlax immediately snapped back to his senses after being reminded by the old fox, “Since the teleportation array here has been blown up, then their next target has to be the teleportation array in the City of Machines.”

“Don’t worry about the White Tower. Vanessa doesn’t have the authority to touch the teleportation array on the higher floors. She could only destroy the public teleportation array at the plaza. You must hurry to the City of Machines immediately and help Lord Deserra defend the teleportation array there. That array will be the key to this conflict! I will hurry over and help you once I’ve dealt with the things here.”

“Understood, leave the City of Machines to me!”

Snorlax nodded in understanding and unsummoned the elementium magical machine. He then brought his trusted subordinates along with him and hurried to the teleportation array on the eleventh floor, guided by a vampire adept.

A short moment later, a white light flashed as Snorlax appeared in the City of Machine’s public teleportation array along with twenty of his subordinates.

After recovering from the daze of long-ranged teleportation, Snorlax heard wild and concentrated gunfire around the array, along with the sound of zipping energy beams. He then heard a shout from a familiar voice.

“Get down.”

It was Wind Adept Deserra’s voice.

Snorlax was a veteran of the Crimson Clan, and he was familiar with Wind Adept Deserra. As such, he crouched down without hesitation when he heard Deserra’s voice.

Ci! Ci! Ci!

Pupupu!

A barrage of energy beams shot towards his location. Many of Snorlax’s subordinates had yet to recover from the teleportation daze due to their lower Physique and were instantly riddled with holes.

“Dammit! Something happened here, just as we expected!”

Snorlax cursed furiously and summoned the Third Grade elementium magical machine.

A loud thud rang out as the hulking machine appeared, instantly shielding Snorlax and his surviving subordinates from a barrage of attacks coming from the distance.

“Attack…attack! Kill those enemies!”

As Snorlax roared, the elementium magical machine slowly stretched its body. It couldn’t be any less bothered by the series of attacks crackling against its metal form. Suddenly, countless metal plates on the magical machine’s chest and arms flipped open, revealing the arsenal of energy cannons hidden beneath.

The next second, a hundred blinding red lights shot forward, instantly enveloping the magical machine squad in the distance.

A series of energy fireballs erupted, drowning the enemy’s forces in an instant.

The elementium magical machine then retracted its arms and unleashed its propellers instead. It turned into a meteor as it charged straight into the sea of fire. It waved its metal fists about, crushing a magical machine with a single punch and instantly turning the goblin pilot inside into meat paste. The other fist punched another magical machine’s head right into its chest. Electrical sparks crackled into the air as purple blood flowed out from between the cracks of the device.

The elementium magical machine’s energy cannon barrage might be shockingly powerful, but its firepower was nothing compared to its prowess in melee combat. The magical machine that had now surrounded it might not die from a barrage of energy beams, but they would not survive a punch from the elementium magical machine.

For a moment, the elementium magical machine stood guard at the metal doors leading to the teleportation array, fighting outnumbered a hundred to one. It was absolutely beating down on the one hundred magical machines, leaving them helpless to its fury. The series of attacks that landed on the elementium magical machine was either blocked by its energy shield or simply had no effect on its indestructible alloy body. None of the machines could inflict any substantial damage on the elementium magical machine.

“Its body is made of magic resistant alloy. Stop using magic energy attacks. Charge forward; go, go, go! Engage it in close combat!” A captain among the rebels seemed to be reasonably knowledgeable. He identified the reason for the elementium magical machine’s invincibility from the light of the metal and immediately ordered a change in tactics.

Deserra, who was contained near the teleportation arrays by the rebels, reacted when he heard the enemy’s words. His eyes turned completely white as an incomparably violent storm enveloped his body.