Age of Adepts

When Grem once again returned to the station halls, everybody’s attitudes toward him had changed slightly.

Even Sixth Grade Adept Gerritsen looked at Greem with a hint of approval and praise in his eyes. Greem was part of his hall, after all. He got to bask in the glory of Greem’s achievement as well!

The magic surge was about to come to an end.

Once the magic surge receded, the planar rifts that had opened because of the phenomenon would slowly close. When that happened, attacking any particular plane would require much more effort in tearing through the planar barrier.

Perhaps it was because of this that the conflict between the adepts and the orc pantheon grew even more intense.

Both parties were invading and defending across countless planeworlds. The battles breaking out only grew more and more frequent. Consequently, the chances of Great Adepts being mobilized had been increased significantly. The number of deaths on both sides also rose exponentially.

In such a chaotic mire of endless battles and skirmishes, the more powerful you were, the more spoils you could obtain.

The adepts were frantically grabbing every divine weapon, divine authority, divine virtue, and divine power crystal that they could get their hands on. Some of the more powerful adepts were even able to strip the divinity of dead gods to create special magical equipment with unusual domain abilities.

Meanwhile, the gods were also hunting as many adepts as they could.

It didn’t matter if it was the principle power of principle adepts, the immortal bodies of body-refining adepts, or the bloodline power of bloodline adepts. All of them were excellent, top-class resources that could be used as materials for higher-grade divine equipment by the hands of the gods.

In particular, the Great Adepts’ immortal souls were a necessary material in creating high-grade petitioners!

The battle between the adepts and the orc pantheon was more like a hunt between two high-grade species. The only ones dying were the cannon fodder and the low-grade subordinates, while the ones who benefitted from everything were the higher-grades that controlled the entire war’s development.

As an independent pawn within the adept faction with no backers, Greem needed to have more aces up his sleeve if he wished to survive in this colossal conflict between two titanic forces.

Fortunately, even if he was only a pawn, he was a very useful and superior pawn. Given that case, he didn’t need to worry about being mercilessly thrown out as a sacrifice!

…………

As the magic surge approached its conclusion, the chances of a climactic battle between the adepts and the orc pantheon only grew exponentially.

The battlefields within all the small and mid-sized planes had been strategically retracted. All of the surviving forces then poured into the three major planeworlds. It seemed like these three worlds were poised to become the final battlefield, where the ultimate victors would be decided.

Countless encounters, ambushes, sieges, and raids broke out during this process. Both parties’ high-grade forces were deployed frequently, and the chances and intensity of their battles rose steadily.

Greem was informed of another deployment on the fifth day he returned to the station hall.

The mission this time was even more straightforward and violent.

They were to ambush an orc temple located in Plane Mutas. A Sixth Grade Great Adept would lead the party.

It was the usual gathering of adepts and the usual interplanar teleportation. However, when Greem and the others arrived in Plane Mutas, what awaited them was a group of exhausted adepts covered all over in dust and dirt.

This place was a small hill hidden in a vast stretch of mountains.

It was nighttime at the moment, peaceful as the stars in the skies were bright.

The group of adepts had lit a bonfire and gathered around the intricate teleportation array. They bowed and welcomed the arrival of the Great Adepts.

Dong, dong, dong!

Several loud noises could be heard as the light of teleportation flashed within the array.

Several unusual silhouettes slowly appeared in the blinding white light, gradually forming into physical forms.

Perhaps sensing the appearance of something that shouldn’t be here, the planar consciousness began to gather power. The dark clouds in the skies were blown away by violent winds. The bright and immaculate moonlight pierced through the mountain peaks and the branches of the trees, shining down on each of the Great Adepts.

For a moment, the moonlight turned blood-red, and the whole world seemed to be filled with bloodthirst!

Greem felt an overwhelming hostility from the world the moment he completed his teleportation and walked out of the array.

Countless rifts opened in the space around him, and a shocking number of law chains reached out toward his body.

Greem grunted. A radiant crimson light shrouded his body, which turned into a slithering thread of principle power. This principle thread shredded every law chain that came close to him, preventing any of them from penetrating his body.

Much like Greem, the other five Great Adepts–including the Sixth Grade–had conjured their own powers to resist the planar laws.

The more they resisted, the more power the planar consciousness gathered around them!

The other principle adepts, just like Greem, did not have the best Physique. Strenuous expressions appeared on their faces.

“We were fortunate to have accomplished our mission! Our greetings, my lords.”

Almost every adept in this party were Fourth Grades. The only Third Grade in the party had been the array master who had constructed this teleportation array. The leader of the party hastily walked forward and bowed upon seeing the Great Adepts arrive successfully.

The Sixth Grade Great Adept quickly composed himself. He looked at his surroundings, unleashing his tremendous Spirit as he did so. In the blink of an eye, he had gotten a grasp of everything within a few dozen kilometers.

“Well done! Headquarters will reward you all greatly once you return.”

It was no wonder the Sixth Grade Great Adept praised them so. What they had accomplished was an achievement. They had broken into a mid-sized faith world and found a leyline to establish a teleportation array, all while fighting the numerous enemies pursuing them. All that with a party of only ten people!

Such a tremendous achievement was deserving of all the praise the Great Adept gave them!

“My lord, this is a map of this world and the distribution of factions throughout it. We have marked out the location of the God of Slaughter’s main temple, as per headquarters’ request. Furthermore, numerous native orc forces have been pursuing us. The closest two are already within fifty kilometers,” The party leader was clearly a capable individual. This mission had been completed almost to perfection.

“Very good!” The Sixth Grade Great Adept was overjoyed to hear this. He nodded and said, “There’s no need to risk your lives after this. Stay here and defend the teleportation array. You are free to move as you wish after seven days! We will make sure to wipe out all targets nearby that pose a threat before we leave.”

Having said that, the Sixth Grade Great Adept took out a few purple vials and tossed them to Greem and the others. “Drink it! With this, you won’t have to endure the pain of planar suppression as long as you don’t use too much of your power.”

Greem caught the vial and popped open the cork with his thumb. He could smell the potion inside almost immediately. The vial contained a strange liquid that immediately activated upon exposure to the air.

[Beep. Initial scans complete. Target object is a Fifth Grade potion containing the aura of a plane origin. Upon consumption, Host’s identity as an outsider will be masked by a unique planar aura, thereby allowing Host to avoid suppression from the planar consciousness.] The Chip quickly projected the results of its analysis in his mind.

Mm? To think, headquarters was even able to come up with a potion like this.

Greem thought to himself as he lifted his head and drank the potion.

The unique, barbaric aura of the orc planes radiated from his body when he swallowed the potion. The planar laws lurking around Greem instantly shrunk back. Even the annoying hostility of the planar consciousness slowly dissipated.

“This is the world map. Take a good look and remember it! Sala, Colin, you two follow me. We will be attacking the orc temple. Greem, Rick, you two wipe out the ants around the array and rendezvous with us at the main temple…let’s go!” Sixth Grade Great Adept Briel lifted his hand and summoned a beginner Sixth Grade storm giant. It picked him and the other two Great Adepts up, slowly rising into the sky and hurrying southwest.

The sudden arrival of the Great Adepts had definitely alerted the orcs. However, the fact that the adepts had so decisively sent out this powerful force to assault the main temple of this world would be beyond their expectations.

As long as Greem and the others were quick enough and inflicted sufficient damage, the orcs’ foundation would probably be broken before the gods could descend. Once they destroyed the main temple, the orc gods would not be able to travel all that distance to retaliate against them, no matter how upset they were.

Headquarters had already conducted their investigation before this mission.

The main god worshipped by Plane Mutas was Garon Arcadas, the God of Slaughter. Plane Mutas was, in fact, one of Garon’s seven most crucial mid-sized faith worlds. Should this world be destroyed, Garon Arcadas’ might would undoubtedly be significantly affected for a short time.

If that happened, the Seventh Grade Great Adepts would have more room and better odds in their battles against the Seventh Grade God of Slaughter.

Upon seeing Sixth Grade Great Adept Briel leave with two of their companions, Greem couldn’t help but look at the Fourth Grade adepts’ leader.

“There are two enemy forces that are closer on our tail. The first is the orc squad from Pyrbante, led by an advanced Fourth Grade berserker…they are in that direction!” The leader explained while turning around to point, “The other force is a powerful squad sent out from Galecliff. They are led by an advanced Fourth Grade tracker. Their position should be around here!”

Two squads of orcs. There were almost certainly going to be quite a lot of Fourth Grades among them. However, they were still nothing but ants before Great Adepts Greem and Rick!

“Which one do you want?” Greem smiled coldly and indifferently.

“The berserker, I guess! Hopefully, he can let me have a bit of fun,” Great Adept Rick also smiled the same cold smile. His entire body turned into black smoke and disappeared into the ground.

Greem said nothing else. His body erupted into flames.

There was a loud explosion as he appeared on the horizon.

By the time the adepts looked toward his new position, another ring of fire had erupted, and Greem was far away in the distance.