Age of Adepts

Greem was now the ruler of the Central Lands in name and in truth.

Every Fourth Grade adept of the Central Lands had gathered at the Ahlden Clan’s adept tower awaiting his audience, just a single day after his order.

Even Ashton, who had been engaged in a bloody battle on a lesser plane, had hurried over. He had teleported twice through the arrays before arriving at the mega-rift. Thus, it wasn’t hard to see that Greem’s terrifying might had left an indelible impression on the Central Lands’ adepts.

Everyone had been busy with defending their territories and lesser planes after the magic surge erupted; they hardly had time to have a gathering like this one. Thus, everyone took the opportunity as best they could. The first few adepts who arrived had a small meeting of their own and exchanged what information they had.

Truly, it was nice being able to enjoy the shade of a big tree!

The appearance of a powerhouse like Greem in the Central Lands had, to some extent, started to change the commonplace and stubborn perception of Central adepts as weaklings. Greem’s shout toward the world had directly affected the Central Lands’ current political and military situation.

Greem had managed to beat back the abyssal invasion alone and had sealed the mega-rift once again. He then intimidated the magical creature rulers of Black Forest, causing the more powerful magical creatures to avoid the last few stampedes.

Even though the stampedes still caused terrible disasters and chaos in the various territories, the situation was much more contained. Without the powerful magical creatures to strengthen their ranks, the stampedes remained as disasters and did not escalate to a calamity level!

The three regions to the south and the five to the north had all endured stampedes of varying severity. Overall, everything remained within a manageable range.

This situation was already far better than everyone’s expectations!

Gradually, the adepts became less opposed to Greem’s dominant position.

The World of Adepts was a spellcaster civilization that respected power and worshipped those who wielded it. The many Central adepts were too used to being kings of their own hills in the past. They had forgotten the heart that pulsed at the center of the adept civilization.

In the face of such a dominant and powerful fire adept, they could only adapt and obey. They did not have the power to rebel at all. That much was obvious enough to the adepts after all the blood that Greem had shed.

The Central Lands had remained the same way for far too long. The political situation was outdated, inflexible, and utterly incompatible with the needs of the current times. This magic surge was both a test for the adepts as well as an excellent opportunity to shuffle the deck.

The adept clans that could not adapt would slowly decline, while new clans would gain new life from these declining clans’ remains. Meanwhile, the clan that would oversee this change of power would undoubtedly be the most powerful Crimson Clan.

As Greem forged one miracle after another, won glory after glory, the adepts finally became able to affirm his rule. Naturally, that also meant accepting the dominant status of the Crimson Clan.

Consequently, with a single order from Greem, they all hurried here without hesitation, despite all the difficulties and conflict that their clans were still engaged in.

The other clans were doing quite well. Only the two lesser planes under Ashton had run into trouble. The first plane was experiencing rebellion from the local natives, while otherworldly creatures had invaded the second. The two problems gave him a headache, and he had no choice but to hurry over to those planes personally.

Having received a notification for the meeting while in one of the lesser planes, Ashton could only reluctantly hand over command to his aide, as unwilling as he was. He then returned to the clan with an interplanar teleportation array before using the public teleportation network to reach the Ahlden Clan’s adept tower.

The bitter battle in the lesser planes, along with the turbulence of long-distance teleportation, gave Ashton a headache when he arrived.

Fortunately, his formidable Spirit as a Fourth Grade adept allowed him to recover quickly and solemnly march out of the array.

Adepts of the Ahlden Clan were already waiting here. They bowed and paid their respects to him.

“Have they all arrived? Kerala as well?” Ashton asked once he had emerged from the teleportation array.

He was well-acquainted with Kerala. Naturally, she was the first person he wanted to see to ask about this gathering’s purpose.

“All the Fourth Grade adepts have arrived, my lord. You are the last one!” A middle-aged adept with a sickly yellow face walked over and explained the situation in a soft voice.

Those bastards…always loved to oppose this and that, yet now they are so quick to scurry over when a meeting is called. Hmph!

Ashton cursed in his mind and prepared to go look for Adept Kerala.

Before he could leave the teleportation hall, a handsome young male adept wearing the Adept’s Association’s emblem stopped him in his path.

“Please wait a moment, Lord Ashton!”

A Third Grade adept of the Association? Why is such a fellow in Andrew’s tower?

Ashton stopped in his tracks, several questions in his mind as he coldly evaluated the adept.

The Adept’s Association had behaved far too oppressively and unreasonably all this while. Their relationship with the Central adepts wasn’t exactly genial.

“My lord, please give us a moment to talk,” The young adept guided Ashton out of the teleportation hall and down two corridors. They stopped in a quiet corner as the adept finally introduced himself, “My name is Germaine, from the Adept’s Association. Lord Domhnall’s sends his greetings to you!”

“Domhnall,” Ashton brooded in silence before saying, “What did he send you here for?”

He knew that Domhnall was one of the most influential decision-makers of the Adept’s Association. His identity was rather unique. In fact, he was quite likely to be the clone of a Great Adept. Ashton naturally knew bits and pieces of this secret.

“Since my lord has only just arrived, you might not know this. The reason Lord Greem has summoned you all for a meeting is to send reinforcements to the Adept’s Association,” Germaine smiled as he explained.

“Reinforce the Association? Are you pulling my leg?” Ashton’s eyes opened wide. “The Association is so powerful. What could they possibly need the help of the Central Lands for?”

Adept Germaine sighed in his mind. He could only softly explain what had happened in Inkdeep Valley, again. In all honesty, he had repeated the same words over a dozen times in just this one day alone.

Inkdeep Valley…invasion of the disaster creatures…mutated beasts stampede…the collapse of the defensive line……

A schadenfreude smile appeared on Ashton’s face as he listened to the adept’s explanation. The wars in the two lesser planes had run him ragged for the past few months so much that he had no time to deal with any matters beyond the clan.

Now, it seemed like the Adept’s Association was having its fair share of trouble.

For some reason, all the Central adepts had the same smirk on their faces when they heard news of the Adept’s Association predicament. Adept Germaine was already used to it by now!

“Lord Ashton, the Association badly requires the aid of the Central Lands at this moment. If you could push for reinforcements during the meeting, then the Association will be willing……” At this point, Adept Germaine’s voice turned quiet as he switched to using magical messages to communicate.

The two of them then started some intense negotiations in seclusion.

After fifteen minutes, they had yet to come to an agreement. Germaine appeared to be hesitating as if he couldn’t decide on something.

Ashton’s expression suddenly changed. He seemed to be listening to something. Then, he chuckled and asked, “Have you not decided yet? Kerala has informed me that the meeting is about to begin. Miss this opportunity, and I won’t agree to any of your terms again.”

“Very well, then it is as you desire!” Adept Germaine gritted his teeth and said, “I will order that thing you want and have it sent to your clan. We will be relying on my lord in the meeting later then!”

Ashton nodded in satisfaction.

Ever since the magic surge erupted, this negotiation was the only thing that made him feel any joy or happiness. Though the situation in the lesser planes had yet to be resolved, being able to get his hands on such an item was enough recompense to brighten his mood.

…………

The Central adepts met at the mega-rift.

Greem had created a cloud of fire and kept it hovering in front of his chest, saving everyone the trouble of shouting back and forth.

Mary and the others had also been summoned back from their demon-hunting mission.

In just half a month, Mary had captured the marilith and imprisoned it in the Versailles. The high-grade flame fiend was killed by adepts and disassembled into a bunch of materials.

The surviving quasit managed to flee into the Black Forest. Hunting it was a far more troublesome task now.

That said, the Central Lands had finally managed to obtain some semblance of peace.

Once they had secured this mega-rift, the magic surge’s first wave would be over for the Central Lands.

Though the other Fourth Grade adept clans were still a mess, there were no terrible situations where kingdoms or territories were overrun.

That was already incredibly fortunate!

Naturally, at the center of all this and responsible for such an achievement was the legendary fire adept.

Greem called everyone to come closer. He then looked around and said calmly, “The reason for today’s meeting is to decide on a rather important matter. Andrew, call Germaine over and have him explain the situation again!”

Soon, Germaine hurried over and described the purpose of his visit in detail, as if he had never discussed the issue with the many adepts.

Finally, Andrew took out the parchment and replayed the projection within.

Everyone was horrified!

Honestly, having secret discussions and agreeing to terms in the safety of a room was one matter, while witnessing the carnage on the battlefield was a whole different matter. All the adepts couldn’t help but start wavering in their decision.

The battle there seemed to have exceeded the realm of an ordinary planar invasion!