Age of Adepts

Shockwaves of divine power and savage magic power washed over every substance within the area.

By the time the destructive tide of divine power subsided, a shocking scene was left in the center of the battlefield.

Greem had dispelled his fire body and curled into a ball. A dozen-meter-tall stone giant crouched over him, covering him with its own body and arms. The divine power had left terrifying marks on the stone giant’s sturdy body, but the attacks had not penetrated its defense at all.

Greem was completely unharmed under its protection.

Greem finally stood up once the turbulence of divine power ended.

Pieces of rocks and stone crumbled off of his stone guardian as it stood up. It looked absolutely devastated.

The beginner Fifth Grade Earth Shatterer had almost been forced out of combat mere seconds after its appearance. There couldn’t be better evidence of Horr’s offensive power.

If Greem hadn’t held this ace hidden up his sleeves, he would have ended up in a tragic state indeed!

Greem was also frustrated after being forced on the defense in that fashion. He silently tossed out the Halo of Rot.

It was an area-of-effect poison spell. The God of the Hunt couldn’t dodge this.

Horr was instantly coated in a layer of green. Even the divine radiance he emitted began to dim. The divine body of a god was immune to ordinary poison. The Halo of Rot couldn’t have inflicted even the slightest poison damage on a god if it hadn’t possessed poison principles.

Now, without his Divine Shield, Horr had no choice but to endure poison principles of this level.

After casting a Greater Restoration on himself, Horr was able to wash off most of the poison afflicting his body with divine power. It allowed his body to regain its former radiance. Only splotches of dark green remained on his body.

It was obvious that Horr hadn’t completely dealt with the poison principles!

At their level, ordinary low-grade spells could no longer threaten an opponent. The only way to genuinely hurt each other was to find ways to unleash their ultra-grade spells.

However, it wasn’t so easy to unleash ultra-grade spells. The spells often had strict and harsh casting requirements.

That was why the offensive abilities attached to high-grade divine and magical equipment were so valuable. Gods and adepts were willing to invest such a tremendous number of resources into the creation of this equipment because of that value.

After all, being able to unleash one more ultra-grade spell than your opponent in a battle like this would put you closer to victory. Lacking the means to neutralize or attack an enemy often meant the difference between life and death for a Great Adept.

Greem was only a beginner Fifth Grade Great Adept, and yet he possessed multiple ultra-grade offensive options. It was the most fundamental reason he could retain his title as the Crimson Great Adept!

The battle continued to rage on.

At this point, neither side could easily give up on the battle anymore.

Horr’s Divine Shield had been broken, and most of his common divine spells such as Divine Shockwave, Energy Blast, and Greater Restoration had been used up. Currently, he was relying entirely on his base attributes and terrifying hunting technique that he already attained before he ascended to godhood. Even so, Horr was applying heavy pressure on Greem. Greem felt like he was constantly on the brink of death.

As a God of the Hunt, harvesting one or two souls was no problem at all, even without any death domain divinities. That was why adepts killed by gods in person hardly ever had the chance to revive or reincarnate through magical means.

It was the main reason why Great Adepts were passionate about hunting down god clones and avoidant when it came to the gods themselves!

If it weren’t for Greem having such confidence, he would never have provoked a god in their true form.

With both sides having the determination to fight to the death, the battle became increasingly vicious and savage. The intensity of the fight rose exponentially.

Horr might have fallen to Fifth Grade, but the fact that he was fighting in his true form meant that he at least had ten points of divine authority in him. It might even be at a shocking nineteen points.

It would be worth it if Greem could get his hands on those divine authority fragments, even if he had to abandon everything else!

As for the finale of a battle that would come after this? Greem would be no more than cannon fodder at his current level. It was better to fight on the peripheral battlefields like this to obtain as much loot as he could.

After all, there would be very few chances to obtain a god’s divine origin once this war was over.

Perhaps they were thinking the same thing as Greem, for the other two Great Adepts–Antuso and Rossellini–also started to fight desperately.

The first to break through was naturally Antuso, whose opponents were relatively weaker!

While the swarm of armor-eaters distracted the petitioners, Antuso flickered in and out of view as the spiritwolf and launched a rapid assault.

In just fifteen minutes, he had successfully disposed of one of the orc petitioners. He then snatched away the petitioner’s soul, and whatever divine power crystal remained, and put it in his pouch. The remaining petitioner tried his best to flee when he saw the tide turn, but he quickly fell to the jaws of the armor-eaters.

These armor-eaters were of a low grade, but Antuso had specially modified them. They possessed unusual magic resistance and horrifying defense-piercing powers for their grade. Even Fifth Grade orc petitioners would fall before an entire swarm of them.

Their deaths provided Antuso with a Fifth Grade soul and a small number of divine power crystals.

After wiping out the petitioners, Antuso turned his focus around and lunged straight at the fearsome clone of Ogre God Mairo.

In all honesty, enemies like Mairo’s clone were the kind that all Great adepts tried their best to avoid!

Overwhelming physical prowess, incredible Physique, shocking Strength, ridiculous defense; if it weren’t for Mairo’s low Agility and clumsy movements, no adept would dare go near a god clone like them.

Mairo’s clone used a means of attack that was extremely simple and monotonous, but they were overwhelmingly powerful!

Mairo continuously buffed himself with Bloodthirst and Berserk, causing his pudgy body to grow even further in size. Blinding crimson light shone from his entire body as he chased after Rossellini with a giant wooden staff.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

His body was as massive as a mountain made of flesh. His stubby legs caused spatial ripples to spread across space as he charged forth. The wooden staff he raised above his head howled with wild, unfettered force, sending Rossellini packing like a frightened rat.

Rossellini might look safe and secure while enveloped in that firm astral armor of his. However, even he could only flee in the face of the Mairo cone’s fearsome staff.

If that staff hit him, his astral armor could probably withstand the impact. However, he would definitely be crushed to mush inside the armor.

After all, the Physique of Fifth Grade Great Adepts wasn’t the highest!

In a face-to-face conflict like this, the human adepts were always overwhelmed by the gods with their powerful bodies.

Rossellini left behind a brilliant blue trail of starlight as his three-meter-tall body flew gracefully through space. He concentrated starlight and blasted it at the pursuing ogre as he fled.

The blue starlight clashed with the blood aura around Ogre God Mairo, exploding into countless beautiful sparks.

Meanwhile, the sprinting Mairo occasionally threw out one or two giant fireballs, knocking Rossellini here and there. A thick layer of the astral substance around him burned away every time that happened.

Rossellini would replenish his armor’s astral substance with starlight, while the berserk ogre would reapply Bloodthirst on himself, and his simmering blood aura would erupt once more.

The adepts fought against the gods, while the beasts fought against each other!

The summoned creatures were fighting each other in pairs further away from the battlefield.

In all seriousness, they were no longer complete entities. Instead, they were high-grade puppets subject to the every whim and will of their masters!

The Windrend hawk, tunneling sandworm, and berserk giant ape were all divine creatures. Their flesh bodies had obtained a trace of divine virtue and had gained certain characteristics of immortality. They might not be the strongest, but the divine virtue within them gave them impressive, transcendental power.

They were unopposable divine beasts against creatures of lower grades. However, against the specially crafted ultra-grade voodoo beasts of the Great Adepts, they were little more than wild beasts with a hint of divine virtue in them!

The first to die on the battlefield was the berserk ape, whose opponent was Rossellini’s astral construct.

The astral construct could regenerate infinitely while bathing in starlight. As long as the ape’s Strength did not exceed the limit of the construct’s defense, then the astral construct was indestructible.

The berserk giant ape and the construct clashed and wrestled like two wild beasts.

Roars and shockwaves filled the air. Flesh, hair, fur, and bits of broken bone drifted off into the distance along with light-blue metallic debris. However, before they could even flee from the battlefield, an even larger and more ferocious shockwave caught up to them and shredded them into unrecognizable particles.

Soon after the two orc petitioners died, the beginner Fifth Grade ape bit the dust. It was the first divine creature to die on the battlefield.

Rossellini’s astral construct had suffered greatly to finish off the berserk ape. Its body was tattered and torn. A few gaping gashes had been clawed across its chest, revealing the wildly spinning starlight arrays within.

Moreover, none of its limbs were complete. Horrifying bite and claw marks could be seen everywhere.

However, all this damage gleamed with starlight.

The astral construct just needed time to repair itself!