Age of Adepts

“No…………”

Freed’s heartrending scream lingered in the air, but there was nothing he could do to stop this terrifying nightmare of his turning into reality.

Freed had become truly powerful after assimilating with Kerslin Castle. In fact, to some extent, the animated fortress’ power was far superior to the Gold Titan.

If Kerslin Castle did not have the weakness of being unable to leave its leyline node, it would probably be the nightmare of all ultra-grade powerhouses!

Even when fighting two-against-one with the golem dragon and the thunder dragon, Freed had not suffered any damage. To some extent, he was even suppressing the golem dragon.

However, a pseudo-ultra-grade powerhouse forcibly created through forbidden means was ultimately not the real thing. If anyone were to target the flaws in its combat system, its weaknesses would be completely exposed, and everything would collapse.

That was the situation with Freed and Kerslin Castle.

There were two irreparable and innate weaknesses to Kerslin Castle. The first was its inability to leave its leyline node, and the second was its massive drain on its host’s life energy due to its enormous size.

If the enemy caught either of these weaknesses, it would be the end of Kerslin Castle, let alone the fact that both of them had been exposed!

Not long after Mary entered the pit, the entire ground started to quake violently.

The towering stone giant that seemed almost like an ancient giant come to life collapsed in a series of violent quakes. The massive amount of steelrock, no longer bound with earth elementium, crashed onto the ground. Giant, hundred-meter-tall mushroom dust clouds rose into the air.

Even as the dust rose into the air, everyone could still hear Freed’s tragic and sorrowful howl.

It couldn’t be helped. Having assimilated with Kerslin Castle, the body of the stone giant had become Freed’s own body. Now that the stone giant’s body was falling apart due to the loss of its energy supply, Freed was practically experiencing torture. It was like he was being skinned and cut apart alive.

Without the incredible spiritual resilience of a Fourth Grade adept, the agony of this process would have broken Freed’s mind and reduced him to an idiot!

Even so, the waves of pain were still unbearable for Freed. The entire battlefield reverberated with his horrible, terrifying screams.

The scarier part was the fact that the alchemical lifeform that was Kerslin was actually attempting to take control of Freed’s consciousness in his moment of weakness. Kerslin had developed an independent consciousness and intelligence, after all.

Freed’s Spirit, his consciousness, magical knowledge, emotions, and memory. Everything–absolutely everything–in Freed’s mind had become a battlefield between these two entities. Every fragment of memory, every strand of emotion, every trace of understanding; all these things that had once belonged exclusively to Freed had become shared property of the two of them.

For the first time since his assimilation, Freed felt genuine fear.

He realized that damned Kerslin wasn’t just robbing him of his memories and emotions. It was even attempting to wipe out his very existence. If Kerslin took away all he owned, then everything that was signified by the name of Freed would no longer exist. A new lifeform known as Kerslin would appear in the world with all his memories, feelings, and knowledge.

“No…you bastard! These are all mine!”

A new battle erupted amidst the giant, crumbling mountain. The animated Kerslin Castle squirmed and struggled. All the doors and windows leading to the outside world had shut tight. The stone walls and corridors were now covered in a soft, fleshy membrane. These membrane walls were coated in a slimy alchemical solution, making the castle itself seem like the intestines of a living being.

The Entom Clan adepts who had been stationed in various rooms and outposts across Kerslin Castle were horrified to find that this membrane was enveloping them. If their body came into contact with the membrane, they would be stuck, and their flesh would slowly melt away.

With every adept that was dissolved, Kerslin would be able to obtain everything they owned. Their tremendous Spirit, knowledge fragments, feelings, and their understanding of magic!

However, the powerful Entom adepts would not just stand by and watch this happen either. They took out their magic staffs, wands, scrolls, and treasures and began to attack Kerslin Castle with all they had.

For a moment, the sound and light of magical explosions could be seen everywhere in the already tattered Kerslin Castle.

Unfortunately, Kerslin, who had already planned to devour all of them a long time ago, would not let them escape its body. Specially trained voodoo beasts swarmed out of secret passages in the castle, attacking the adepts while they were glued to the membrane.

The battle instantly reached its most intense state!

The Entom Clan adepts had been fighting furiously to repel the Crimson Clan invaders just moments earlier. They were now fighting even more fervently, but their opponent was once an ally of theirs.

No. More accurately, while they had been fighting earlier, they were now struggling for their very lives!

To preserve their lives, to protect their memories and emotions, to retain their very existence, all of them struggled with all their might!

There were many adepts who chose to self-destruct when death was inevitable.

They would rather blow themselves to bits and wipe themselves out of existence than fall into the hands of the enemy and be toyed around with!

Unfortunately, their sacrifice was destined to be in vain.

The moment their defeat was certain, Kerslin had sealed the entirety of Kerslin Castle.

From then on, the castle had turned into a sealed dimension. Every soul or consciousness that died here would not be able to escape. They could only hide and scurry, waiting until the moment they were devoured and digested.

Meanwhile, the desperate struggle for dominance between Freed and Kerslin continued in the core chamber of Kerslin Castle.

Even though Freed had barely any of his lifespan left, he was unwilling to just let go of these last fifty years of his life. Nor was he willing to just let everything he had worked for over the past millennium fall into the hands of someone else.

Two mental consciousnesses of entirely different natures tussled furiously in this room, fighting for control over the consciousness of this powerful alchemical lifeform created through assimilation.

One would emerge as the victor, and the other would forever be damned.

There was no room for peace or co-existence. There was only victory and defeat, life and death!

…………

The sound of rumbling. Falling rocks could be heard.

Several boulders piled at the top of the mountain of debris were blown away, revealing the nearly squashed Kerslin Castle.

Strangely enough, all of Kerslin Castle’s windows and doors had vanished. The five-story tower stood there upon the pile of boulders, with not a single entrance or exit.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

Countless light-blue traction beams shot toward the mountain, causing tens of thousands of rocks and boulders to levitate into the air.

All the shattered steelrock was cast away. Finally, Kerslin Castle was also levitated into the sky, exposed to the many curious eyes below.

“Master, what is with this castle? Do you need me to crush it for you?” Fourth Grade Thunder Dragon Lord Arms couldn’t help but open his big dragon eyes wide. He looked at this strange alchemical castle curiously, confused about what he was seeing.

Could Freed have been dumb enough to think that sealing the castle off would be enough to protect him?

He’s a Fourth Grade adept! He’s not that dumb, is he?

Arms mumbled to himself in his mind and reached out with a sharp claw to poke the castle. The magical aura radiating from the tower unsettled him. It was as if something extremely terrifying was happening inside!

“He’s right, Greem; what happened to Freed? Why is his soul aura getting weaker and weaker?” It was Bloody Queen Mary who spoke this time, having emerged from the pit.

She was completely covered in dust and dirt. Even her hair seemed caked in mud. However, she appeared exceptionally excited and chirpy, tossing around a transparent stone in her right hand.

Every time the stone trembled, you could feel an extremely pure surge of magical energy radiate into the air. You could feel your magic energy replenish rapidly just by being in its vicinity.

“A Gem of Power? ! And a Gem of Power that has almost turned into a World Stone!” Arms had always loved wondrous treasures and artifacts. His eyes immediately turned into gleaming gems as he leaned forward with his nose to take a big sniff.

The next moment, Arms stood on his hind legs and shouted out loud< “Master, I want this stone.”

Greem, who was slowly drifting down from the Versailles, let out an unamused grunt.

“That’s Mary’s loot! You can talk to her if you want it. Don’t bother me while I’m appraising this castle!”

Arms’ gaze turned toward Mary, and the pretty woman laid out her conditions in the sweetest, most innocent of voices.

“Two thousand five hundred kilograms of dragon blood.”

Arms’ face turned dark, and he replied with a middle finger!

Greem ignored Arms and Mary’s banter and focused power to his eyes. Intense blue light shone out of his eyes, slowly scanning the interior of Kerslin Castle.

He was initially shocked but quickly shook his head and sighed. A cold and sarcastic smile appeared on his face.

“Teacher, is Freed inside? What do you think? Should we break in forcibly?” Meryl beat her red wings, slowly approaching in her half-dragon form as she asked in a soft voice.

Everything that had happened on the Fourth Grade battlefield was simply beyond her imagination!

She had no clue what was happening, how the fight started, how it had gone, and how it ended. All she knew was that the greatest enemy of their excursion this time might be hiding in this strange castle.

The problem was that her teacher’s expressions were too unusual and cryptic!

Had they won yet? Was the battle over already?

Greem shook his head again and sighed.

“That foolish Freed. He let this alchemical lifeform learn of too much knowledge that it should not have learned, and allowed it to obtain too much power that it should not have had. Hmph! It serves him right to suffer from this backlash!

“There’s no need to worry about Freed any longer. We should be preparing a coffin for him! Er…if there’s still a corpse left by the end of this, that is.”