Age of Adepts

The battle started abruptly and ended even faster.

All the party members had experience dealing with powerful, brawny enemies with some degree of magical power and no high-grade magical equipment.

Scarlet Firestorm.

Ripple of Death.

Petrification Beam.

Earth Tremor.

Void Overflow.

The one dozen ice giants surrounding them were knocked flat onto the ground instantly, their formation scattered and in ruins. The forcefields of the weaker giants shattered immediately. Their bodies were then swarmed with strange energy of various colors: red, white, and gray. They screamed in agony and collapsed.

Only the three strongest ice giants managed to endure the attacks. They roared as chilling winds engulfed them. They lifted a hand and began hurling massive ice spikes at Greem and the rest of the party.

These ice spikes were an entire meter in diameter, each one of them containing freezing cold that could kill any creature in a single strike. Even the Fourth Grade invaders would have trouble dispelling the cold if caught in it, let alone an ordinary mortal.

The reason the ancient ice giants were so powerful was because of their absolute control over the cold.

The adepts called it principle powers, while the giants, who were the embodiment of the universe’s will, called it Origin.

It didn’t matter what this power was called; anyone that could master a specific power to the extreme and control it with finesse would be a powerful opponent.

However, the principle powers were the cause of both the rise and fall of the ancient ice giants!

The ancient ice giants were born in accordance with the will of the universe. They were incredibly strong, and the ice powers they possessed was enough to wipe out anyone who made an enemy out of them. That was why they managed to make a name for themselves in ancient times, establishing themselves as figures of respect and fear for countless mortal worlds.

However, as the will of the universe shifted, the Titans came into existence, and the various giant tribes gradually fell into decline.

The moment the ice giants’ forces started to weaken, they were attacked by countless rising tribes and species.

Thus, the bloodline of the ancient ice giants came to an end. Only remnants of their bloodline remained in certain remote worlds. These ice giant descendants did not have the terrifying might of the ancient ice giants. They were either physically incompetent or possessed limited control over their ice powers.

In conclusion, they might seem like Fourth Grade creatures, but their true powers were a far cry from their bloodline source!

A single round of attacks had managed to knock out most of the ice giants. Sand King alone was enough to deal with the three remaining giants.

Sand King possessed an unusual ability to travel through the ground.

He vanished from the spot, digging into the ice, just in time to dodge the desperate retaliation of the ice giants.

When he once again appeared, he was right beneath the three giants.

The ground quaked, and the ice splintered as Sand King’s giant body burst forth from below. The three ice giants were thrown into the air. As they panicked and scrambled to react, Sand King reached with his two pincers and cut the two advanced Third Grade ice giants in half with a single snap.

He then smashed the Fourth Grade ice giant into the ground with his head. His stinger lunged forward and stabbed the giant in the chest, injecting fearsome venom into his body.

The leader of the ice giants was truly a Fourth Grade creature. It did not die, even after being so severely injured. Instead, it let out a furious roar and grabbed Sand King’s pincers with his arms. He then opened his mouth as wide as it could go, attempting to let out a breath of the strongest ice power he could muster.

Frightening ice power gathered in the giant’s throat. The color was faint, almost a translucent white, but the ice laws contained within the breath made everyone in the party frown.

The bloodline of the ice giants might have been in decline, but this terrifying attack that drew upon all of the giant’s blood essence was a massive threat to a Fourth Grade powerhouse!

Sand King immediately started struggling with all he had.

His pincers started to crush down on the ice giant’s arms, causing the giant’s bones to creak and splinter. The stinger in the giant’s chest started to move around wildly, making a mess of his chest cavity.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t so easy to escape the last desperate attack of the ice giant. The ice giant leader had clearly made up his mind to fight to the very end. Even as injured as he was, he would rather die than stop his attack.

An ordinary party would have attempted to save Sand King, if only to ensure he could continue fighting as their meat shield. However, this party was composed entirely of wanderers and individuals of the evil alignment. No one would be willing to risk danger just to save a teammate.

However, there were always exceptions!

Just as the ice giant’s ice power peaked, a dark, towering figure gleaming with a metallic sheen emerged from the giant’s shadow. The sharp metal blades in its hands stabbed the giant through its head. Shadow power surged forward, instantly crushing his brain and consciousness.

The ice power finally went berserk at the peak of its might!

The ice power should have been controlled by the ice giant.  Instead of blasting completely towards Sand King, it erupted as a halo of ice in every direction.

The world seemed to lose all its color where the ice power passed. Every substance lost its original color as it was sealed under a solid layer of ice.

A short moment later, the ice exploded, causing everything frozen in the ice to shatter in tiny, white shards. No creature could possibly have survived such conditions.

However, there were always exceptions!

Two ferocious figures broke free of the ice, shrugging off pieces of ice as they charged out of the explosion.

Sand King’s once golden body was now covered in frost. He shook his body furiously as he ran away, casting down shards of ice to the ground.

Once the frost was all gone, Sand King appeared untouched, as if he had not been injured at all.

However, everyone in the party could clearly sense that Sand King’s violent, earth-yellow origin powers were now stained with a white trace.

He had been affected, after all!

However, everyone’s gaze lingered on Sand King for only a brief moment. Their attention then shifted to the metal golem.

A Fourth Grade golem.

Everyone’s gaze turned cold.

Greem chuckled and explained, “I am a spellcaster. Melee combat is not my proficiency. It’s very logical to bring a metal golem at my side!”

Having said that, Greem accepted a red crystal and a drop of blood that Shadow Demon passed to him. He weighed it in his hand and smiled as he said,  “Sand King, since I helped you out so much, you won’t mind if I take some of the materials, do you?”

“I don’t mind at all; in fact, I have to thank you for helping me there. Otherwise, I would have been badly injured!” Sand King shook his massive body and glanced at Greem with his green eyes.

The metal golem shook its body and cast off the thick shell of ice on its back. It then turned into shadow once again and slowly merged with Greem’s shadow.

Its assimilation with Greem’s shadow had been flawless, so much so that the other party members did not even detect its presence. However, that undispellable surge of ice power had stained Shadow Demon’s shadow powers, making it possible to sense its existence now.

The other party members put on a forced smile, but in truth, they were more cautious around Greem now.

In particular, the other spellcasters were shocked. Even their movements became unnatural.

What were spellcasters most afraid of? Of course, it was those stealthy assassins!

It was only natural that they would put up their guards now that they knew Greem had brought with him such a stealthy and powerful golem.

It was fortunate that Shadow Demon had been contaminated with a trace of ice powers, allowing them to track its movements. However, none of them would dare to let a Fourth Grade shadow golem move freely around them.

After taking out all the ice giants, the party stopped to harvest their corpses for materials. High-grade bloodline materials like these were hard to come by. To let them slip by would be a disgrace to the name of the ancient ice giants.

Everyone worked on harvesting the corpses.

Soon, the ice giant corpses were all split up between the party.

Giants might be powerful, intelligent beings in the eyes of mortals, but they were only moving materials and resources in the eyes of these evil beings.

The party made it across the ice giants’ territory, crossing several kilometers of ice, before arriving at that giant ice cliff that reached into the clouds.

Everyone exchanged looks when they saw this sheer, icy cliff. They then took to the sky and slowly flew upwards against the wall of ice.

The closer they got to the peak, the more they could sense the desolation and chill surrounding that space. The group could not sense any signs of life here. The only thing they could feel was that subtle fear from the depths of their soul.

The Ancient Reliquary of Deep Winter; there was no doubt it was here!

However, its aura had been concealed by a more powerful soul flux.

Everyone cautiously passed through the cloud layer at the middle of the ice cliff. They then flew for another half an hour before reaching the peak.

This place was a broad platform, several square kilometers in size. A majestic palace of ice stood at the very center.

The entire palace was not built with a single piece of wood, but crystalline blocks of ice. A hundred ice pillars filled with intricate carvings and mysterious patterns supported the palace.

A strange dragon crouched on a tall platform at the back of the palace. When it sensed the arrival of unfamiliar auras, it lifted its head lazily and evaluated its uninvited guests.

Ice dragon.

So this was the so-called ice dragon!