Age of Adepts

The skies were dark.

There was not a single cloud in the blood-red sky. No, in their place were numerous terrifying rifts.

These rifts were of every size.

The smaller ones were only several meters in length, slowly drifting through the air.

Meanwhile, the larger ones were several kilometers long, spanning the horizon like a nasty gash in the sky. They were the color of blood as well.

Spacestorms entered from the rifts, causing severe and irreversible damage to the ecosystem of the plane.

All life was extinguished under the rifts, and the material substance of the plane was continually being stolen.

The once lush greenery that filled every inch of the land of Morrian Plane had vanished without a trace. All plant life had been shredded to ribbons by the spacestorm, carried away to the ends of the universe. The animals and beasts with sharper senses had already fled to regions that were still untouched by the spacestorms.

Once the green plants had disappeared, the exposed dirt was also blown away by the storm, stripping the earth, the mountains, and the hills bare and revealing the rocky foundations below. However, at the peak of these spacestorms, the energy tides assaulted the rocks, causing countless sparks to appear.

The rock layers were then quickly and visibly shaved away by the storm, layer by layer. The substance that broke off was pulverized, ground, and eroded by the fearsome energy of space, reduced to nearly invisible microscopic particles before being scattered all over the plane.

Such a scene was a common sight in Morrian Plane.

They were mostly concentrated in the core regions of the Arcane Empire. However, the border regions were only in slightly better condition!

Greem was sure that the origin of the Morrian Plane had been badly damaged. Otherwise, the powers of the planar laws would let the origin to mend the rifts in the planar barrier instinctually. The plane would never allow the spacestorms to ravage its body freely.

As for who the culprit was? That was no longer an important question. It might be the disaster lords, it might be the powerful starbeasts, or it might even be the result of a united force. However, the fact that the damage had been inflicted so quickly and so thoroughly that it caused the planar origin to instantly lose all control over its world made Greem suspicious. He believed that it could have been the work of the arcanists, who were now in a hurry to abandon the ‘ship’ and flee their homeworld.

Morrian Plane was their origin plane. It was mother and homeworld to the arcanists. Typically, they would never do such an atrocious thing as sabotage their origin plane. However, considering the hordes of enemies knocking at the castle gates, Morrian Plane was doomed. It would be better to extract everything from the planar origin and leave nothing for their enemies.

It was a sinister assumption for Greem to make of the arcanists, but it might very well be the truth of the apocalypse that had now befallen this world!

Having lost most of its plane origin, Morrian Plane was on its last leg. It could no longer care for the generations of living creatures within it or the countless substances that made up its material world.

This was a world on the verge of death!

The rules of the world had already been thrown into utter chaos and imbalance.

There was no clear day or night. The sky was simply an eternal, chaotic crimson.

The planar barrier had started to thin and become weaker. The crimson color of the sky was a phenomenon caused by the energy tides seeping into the world.

Wild spacestorms raged everywhere on the ground. Ordinary creatures and substances could not endure such intense energy corrosion. They had either died, migrated, or simply remained where they were, waiting for their death. None of them had a way out of this predicament.

Where were these magical creatures and beasts supposed to flee when it was the entire planar barrier that had collapsed?

At this moment, the environment of the plane had turned extremely harsh. Fearsome energy radiation covered every corner of the world. Lifeforms without magic resistance would die in another one to three days. Only high-grade creatures with a more resilient life force could survive for a little longer.

Unfortunately, with the increasing damage to the planar barrier, the energy radiation inside the plane would only increase in intensity, until, finally, the strength of the radioactivity was the same as space itself. Throughout this process, billions of lives in Morrian Plane would be lost. Only individuals of exceptional power could travel the infinite space by virtue of their physical resilience and find a new plane for shelter.

Moreover, for the original inhabitants of those planes, these refugees were no different than evil invaders.

It was difficult to find a new life without blood and fire, war and slaughter!

At the same time as the death of Morrian Plane, a large group of otherworldly invaders had broken in and were wildly robbing and looting. They searched and looked for resources, materials, knowledge, and valuable slaves. Their brazen actions only hastened the passing of Morrian Plane.

There was no doubt that the lives of the inhabitants of the plane were the most tragic and helpless during this tragedy!

They could do nothing but hide and try their best to delay their inevitable deaths.

Unfortunately, like a slowly sinking ship, there was simply no escape, no matter how they struggled. They could only close their eyes and wait for the moment, the day, that they would finally die.

Everyone’s hearts were heavy as they walked in this dying plane.

Greem and the two others could not help but reflect on their own world. If their origin plane–if the World of Adepts–were to suffer such a calamity, where would they go?

Even though the destruction of their origin plane didn’t mean that the adepts would all be exterminated, the loss of their homeworld would scatter the adepts across the universe. They would no longer be a core that could gather and combine the powers of all adepts in the universe.

When that happened, the adepts would lose their source of fresh blood, and all the survivors would end up being measly slave owners or conquerors of foreign planes. In another thousand years, the adepts’ legacy would vanish as the survivors assimilated with the natives of whichever plane they found themselves residing.

When that happened, the group known as the Adepts would silently disappear from the boundless sea of galaxies!

The three adepts headed east after emerging from the plain. They then headed north after passing through the Crehen Mountains. Their destination was the pre-determined Evac Point One. The Emerald Hills.

The Emerald Hills of Morrian Plane was also an exceedingly famous tourist area.

While the adepts traveled, they avoided all areas with concentrated populations and numerous spatial rifts.

In all honesty, they had already made more than a sufficient profit on this trip. None of them wanted to run into any more otherworldly creatures. Sadly, with the continuous crumbling of the world, and the collapse of the planar laws, the suppression imposed on the invaders decreased by the day.

As such, the number of invaders seeking to take advantage of the circumstances only continued to increase!

Naturally, some of these newcomers were ignorant fools.

The adepts had to fight their way out of some situations, even as they continued to march forward.

If it weren’t for the overwhelming might of the party and their teamwork, this trip to the evacuation point might have been more dangerous and complicated than the mission itself.

The three adepts’ emotions were those of sorrow, sadness, and an indescribable gloom during the journey.

Greem had been confused by the presence of these emotions, and he only realized what was happening after receiving a notification from the Chip.

These emotions did not come from them. Rather, they were emotions projected by the dying planar consciousness that had afflicted their very souls. As they were all currently enveloped by the planar consciousness, this affliction of emotions was subtle and unnoticed.

The Morrian Plane did not wish to die either. It had its own fear and unwillingness.

As it slowly headed towards death, it struggled and screamed for help with all it had. It projected the feeling of despair and the madness of awaiting death outwards, afflicting the souls of every living being present within it.

It was sinking, and it was despairing.

And it dragged all living beings to sink and fall into despair along with it.

The surviving inhabitants of the plane charged out of their shelters as if possessed, wildly attacking all the invaders with no regard for the massive gulf in power. It indirectly hastened the death of the planar consciousness.

Since the day of defeat, the systematic arcane power of Morrian Plane quickly faded away.

Large groups of arcanists vanished from Morrian Plane, migrating to some unknown place. However, in the process, they had left behind an innumerable amount of low-grade arcanists and apprentices.

All the refugees swarmed towards the regions where the light of the arcane tower still shone. The remaining arcanists were crowded in a small living area, using what remained of the arcane energies to repel the increasingly hostile environment and the terrifying otherworldly creatures.

The weaker humans quickly died because of radiation, starvation, or infighting. Scenes of deceit, betrayal, and dark despair played out in all the shelters.

The actors of these plays put on a stellar performance, perfectly exemplifying the despair and madness inherent of human nature in the course of awaiting death. It was a depressing reality and one that made a person sigh in helplessness.

With the powerful elementium resistance of Fourth Grade adepts, Greem and the two others were barely affected by the ‘insignificant’ changes to the environment. However, all the small villages along the way were not void of life.

On the contrary, they only found human corpses in barren wastelands.

These bodies were always malnourished and deprived of food. It was obvious that they’d had no choice but to flee their shelters out of starvation to search for food, only to die to the overwhelming energy radiation on the outside.

It had barely been two weeks, yet the entire Morrian Plane was on death’s door. Every living being inside the plane was also drawing their last breath!

Greem’s spirits were downcast as he walked in a world like this.