Age of Adepts

“Lady Khesuna, what do you think about what’s happening?” Third Grade Pale Witch Julia asked in a soft voice.

“Tell your subordinates to behave themselves. There are too many people here today. Our people cannot show themselves easily, no matter what happens!” Khesuna looked around her, then looked to the skies. A stern expression came over her face.

“The other adept organizations also sent people here?” Julia gasped in surprise.

“Not just them,” Khesuna lifted her head, a sinister smile on her cold face. Her eyes were fixed firmly on a few dots circling above Stoneshard Valley. She spoke in a cold voice, “Who would’ve thought that even those greater-than-thou fellows would come as well?”

Julia looked into the distance following Khesuna’s gaze. She could barely recognize those black dots as several mighty and majestic eagles. That was the extent of what she could see.

However, as a Third Grade witch, the breadth and depth of Julia’s knowledge and experience were far beyond that of an ordinary person. Given Khesuna’s tone and the few keywords she threw out, Julia could quickly figure out the background of those eagles.

“My…my lady. They are…they are……”

“As long as you know who they are. There’s no need to speak their name! Otherwise, the threads of Fate will draw their attention toward us. These bastards that enjoy hiding behind Fate! Hmph! A bunch of peeping toms!”

However, Khesuna’s gaze quickly turned elsewhere, to another region. She could faintly sense an incredibly revulsive and annoying soul aura over there.

Cerveris. Dammit! Those old fools of the Adept’s Association let this butcher out? With him stirring the pot here today, no one will be able to leave uninvolved.

Khesuna’s gaze turned cold at the thought of this. A bone-chilling aura surged out of her white body beneath the brown leather armor, instantly turning the area around her into a zone of death.

Several majestic eagles circled high in the skies above Stoneshard Valley, occasionally letting out a few loud cries.

The eagle that Indal had turned into soared in the skies. Looking down from above, the two and a half kilometer long Stoneshard Valley was no more than a short, gray line in the earth. Meanwhile, the two giants fighting with all they had in front of the valley were no more than two slightly more powerful ants.

While he soared in the skies and felt the terrifying heat emanating from the ground, a human face made out of pure smoke appeared in front of him.

“Indal, what is the situation over there?”

“Tower master, it has been over two weeks since we arrived here. An adept war of the highest level just broke out here. As you can see now, two individuals with the might of ultra-powerhouses are fighting. What they are fighting for is control over the Central Lands for the next few hundred years.”

“Indal, how many times have I told you, do not be tricked by matters beyond the main Fateline. Your task is to find that individual blessed by Fate, then observe and record how the Fate powers push forth the plane’s development! We should not involve ourselves in the schemes, plots, and conflicts of any adept or adept organization apart from this.”

“I understand, tower master. We have been working according to your instructions. However…this is where the Fate powers led us to in the end. After we reached the Central Lands, I scattered the members of Eagle to track and investigate prominent organizations or individuals that could influence the events in this area. Today, all Eagle members have been guided here by the powers of Fate. My lord, this place has become a gathering spot for the Fate powers. A historical event that will change the Fate of the Central Lands is about to pass!”

“What? The Fate powers are already gathering? No, I must project over the Omniscient Eye immediately. Have all your men keep their eyes and books open, ready to record everything without missing a single detail! We won’t run into such a good chance more than a few times in our lives.”

The old scholar, who had always been the wisest and most composed among them, was now the most excited of them all. He waved his arms over and over as he ranted about his excitement.

A short moment later, a small, vertical slit opened between Indal’s eagle eyes. It was a strange eye.

“Fate…Fate……I see Fate. To think this tiny land has gathered so many powerful individuals who bear so many Fatelines upon their backs. Dammit! Let me count: one, two, three…bastards! How are there so many of them!? There are actually seven children of Fate here.”

“Seven? That’s not possible!” Indal listened closely to the mental flux coming from his third eye and couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise, “Tower master, isn’t there only supposed to be one child of Fate?”

“Hmph! You ignorant dunce. Indal, it’s been so many years since you entered the Diviner’s Tower! You’ve also recorded so many major events all over the plane! How could you ask such a stupid question?” The third eye rolled as it said, “Do you think the Fate powers are like little teenage girls, always pouring their adoration onto the same person for eternity?”

“When you feel as if you can see the future unfolding before you, when you feel as if everything is going your way, that means that the Fate powers have taken a liking to you and have invested their hopes upon you. However, such hopes do not come without a price! Anyone that obtains the favor of Fate is an agent selected by Fate. Their purpose of existence is to push forward the world’s developments in a predetermined path and trajectory.

“However, do you think that Fate will continue to favor them, all the way to their deaths, even once they have completed their mission in history? To be frank, any person who has been a renowned individual in the long history of the World of Adepts was once a champion of the Fate powers. They can all be perceived as children of Fate at their specific points in time. However, once they’ve fulfilled their purpose, Fate will flow and look for their next agent that can push forward the world’s developments.

“That is why we can call these individuals both children of Fate and bastards of Fate! Their value, their lives, all of it is in the hands of the great entity known as Fate! Meanwhile, we serve as eyes that roam beyond the river of Fate. That is our mission and our glory!”

Indal listened closely to the Fate theory that the old tower master was describing. He couldn’t help but ask, “Then…who in this massive revolution is the current child of Fate?”

“Don’t be misled by worldly power or influence. Close your eyes and quietly feel the flow of the Fate powers. Where the Fate powers gather will be where that person,” As the eye continued to espouse its theories, its mental flux suddenly fluctuated violently, “Dammit! Dammit! Dammit…what’s happening? Why are so many people shrouded by Fate mists here today?”

The Omniscient Eye turned. When its gaze landed on a particular spot in Stoneshard Valley, an individual cloaked in glaring red light came into view.

This individual appeared to be covered in some sort of magical invisibility.

They appeared to have sensed the gaze of the Omniscient Eye, for they lifted their head and glared at the eagle. It was only when they sensed no danger or threat that they looked back at the battle in the distance.

When this adept appeared in view of the Omniscient Eye, the strange eye embedded on the top of the Diviner’s Tower hundreds of thousands of kilometers away in the Castle in the Sky glowed with blinding prismatic light.

Unfortunately, before the tower master could clearly discern the main Fateline that the person carried, a dense mist swarmed from every direction, concealing them completely.

“Hmph! It’s Cerveris! He’s the most vicious among the ultra-powerhouses of the Adept’s Association. If the Adept’s Association has let him out, their intention must be to stir up a storm in the Central Lands. He reeks of the smell of that peeping freak, Maztan! Maztan might not be much of a diviner, but he’s still good enough to conceal an adept’s main Fateline for a while. Never mind! We can go look for the next person.”

The eagle circled in the skies and quickly searched the entire battlefield.

“Tartas of the Silver Union is here, and so is Khesuna of the Northern Witches. Eleven of the Central Lands’ Fourth Grade adepts are here as well, with four more hidden all over the place.

“Judging from the flow of the Fate powers, none of them are today’s protagonist! It seems like the person we are searching for is one of the two combatants. Come, Indal, let us meet this child of Fate!”

Having said that, the eagle hesitated no more. It beat its broad wings and flew straight towards the violent battlefield.

At this point, that battlefield had turned into an apocalyptic wasteland!

When two powerhouses that stood at the peak of this world struck with wanton recklessness, they inflicted too much damage upon the world they resided in.

The space that stretched for over two hundred kilometers was now beyond recognition. From a distance, you could see rampaging magical elementium everywhere, as well as spatial turbulence caused by clashing laws and unusual phenomena caused by mutated laws.

The once black, rich earth was now scorched and dry. The dirt had turned into a strange substance somewhere between clay and crystal. Hot air hissed from the cracks in the ground every so often as red lava flowed below, causing many lava pools to appear when fireballs exploded and left craters in the ground.

Even the ground was in such a terrible state. One could only imagine what had happened to the sky. The air was covered in dark red scars, terrifying spacestorms, and chaos energy leaking from these tears.

Two towering giants, one golden and one blazing with flames, fought with no regard for their lives within all this destruction and carnage.