Age of Adepts

Gloria’s furious shouting echoed throughout the underground castle, reverberating within the dark tunnels and causing dust to fall from the ceiling.

“Domhnall is a bastard...Maztan is an even bigger bastard. The whole Association is filled with bastards. To think they couldn’t even manage simple information-gathering. Tell Domhnall to summon Reese back from space...if that’s impossible, then Thor is fine as well.”

The overseer of this outpost, who was no more than intermediate Third Grade, stood around awkwardly. He stuttered in front of the raging Gloria, unable to find words to explain himself. His two assistants listened to Gloria’s rant carefully as if they were ready to spring to action immediately.

The other Association adepts in the outpost knew well enough to hide in their rooms. No one dared to show themselves at this moment and expose themselves to Adept Gloria’s fury. Even the voodoo beasts patrolling the outpost shuddered and returned to their lairs in fright.

For a moment, this Association outpost hidden under the Anris Mountains fell utterly silent. Only Gloria’s furious shouting could be heard.

After a long while, Gloria’s anger finally subsided, slightly. Overseer Cassidy Peyton finally spoke up gingerly, “My lady, it’s not as if the Association has been remaining idle. I heard...I heard......”

“Spit it out if you have something to say. Don’t stutter in front of me.”

“I heard that Lord Maztan was gravely injured over this affair. His life is hanging in the balance!”

“Oh?” Even Gloria was stunned for a moment when she heard this.

Maztan might be a perverted bastard, but his mastery of divination was unrivaled. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to monopolize the top floor of the Tower of Observation for as long as three hundred years.

These diviners had always been precious babies of the Association. The Association would never let any harm come to them. That was why the only injury that Maztan could possibly suffer as the chief diviner was from Fate backlash.

The fact that the highly protected Chief Diviner Maztan could be struck by Fate backlash was more than enough proof that Legendary Fire Adept Greem was protected by tremendous Fate powers. The Association’s report seemed to have mentioned that the individual behind this Fate power was the Witch of Fate Alice, who had only appeared two hundred years ago.

These people who grasped the powers of Fate might be far weaker than an ultra-powerhouse like Gloria, but even Gloria would not want to make an enemy out of them.

The reason was simple. Gloria just didn’t want to make trouble for herself!

These unusual spellcasters who bowed before Fate might not be very powerful, but they had extraordinarily unique and fearsome abilities. As long as they were willing to pay the price, there was nothing that they could not find out within the planar world.

Given the current circumstances, it was obvious that that bastard Maztan was not a match for that little witch in the north!

“Hmph! To think he can’t even beat a little witch that’s young enough to be his great-granddaughter. It’s better if he died. He’s not the only diviner in the Association. We might even get a better chief diviner if he dies,” Gloria was still cursing relentlessly.

Maztan had intruded on her privacy several times before. If it were not for the fact that they were both Association adepts, Gloria would have killed him a hundred times over. Even just running into Maztan disgusted her greatly. Maztan would have had no concept of restraint if she didn’t beat it into him.

That was why Gloria would always fracture every single bone in Maztan’s body when they met. As long as she didn’t damage his brain, the Association could heal up any of his injuries, regardless of how bad they were.

Injuries inflicted by Fate backlash were the one things that the Association couldn’t help with!

Cassidy Peyton pretended not to have heard Gloria’s curses. He didn’t dare respond either.

“You; contact headquarters immediately and have Domhnall send over Olivia, Neve, and Horner. As long as they help me keep Khesuna in check, I can capture Greem myself!” Gloria seemed to be very upset over her failure a few days ago. She was still shouting.

“Doesn’t that mean we are declaring war with the Northern Witches?” Cassidy Peyton instantly started sweating, his face turning pale.

The Northern Witches were had indeed run into a problem of withering talent over the past thousand years. Several famous witch branches had fallen into ruin. However, a starving camel was still larger than a horse. The Northern Witches were still one of the three major organizations, after all. There were two or three witches at ultra-powerhouse level remaining in the Northern Lands.

This amount of power might not be enough for them to make advances onto another organization’s territory, but it was more than enough for them to defend their own!

That was why Central Lands Overseer Peyton could only gulp nervously when he heard Gloria’s words.

Ultra-powerhouses. The Adept’s Association had no more than five of them. That was equal to the total number of ultra-powerhouses between the Silver Union and the Northern Witches. Gloria was ranked second among these five ultra-powerhouses. It wasn’t hard to imagine the sheer power and influence she possessed.

However, the hierarchical structure of the Adept’s Association was slightly different from a conventional adept organization. Even an ultra-powerhouse like Gloria often had to obey orders from Domhnall, who was just an intermediate Fourth Grade.

Though ultra-powerhouses like Gloria were highly revered and treated well within the Association, they did not have as much influence in matters that decided the future of the Association as Domhnall did.

They were essentially executioners. No matter how good the benefits or how high their positions, they would always have to listen to Vice-Chairman Domhnall’s instructions.

The reason for that was simple. The Association was an association for all adepts, not an association for a few powerful individual adepts!

That was why Gloria could only throw her words around when it came to a matter like declaring war with the Northern Witches. It wasn’t her place to make such an important decision.

“I will relay your request to the Association as best as I can. However,” Cassidy paused and said in a soft voice, “The Association is unlikely to take any big actions in the short term. You might not know this, but while you were fighting with Greem, important news came from headquarters. A magic surge is coming soon!”

“A magic surge?” Gloria paused for a moment and said, “Shouldn’t there be another five hundred years until the next magic surge? What is the hurry?”

Cassidy Peyton smiled bitterly.

“According to the diviners’ last divination, there was supposed to be five hundred years until the next surge. However, there’s been an unforeseen variable. Apparently, remnants of the Arcane Empire intentionally detonated a Mythallar in the Abyssal World and caused a premature magic surge to avoid pursuit. That is why a magic surge is expected soon, at a maximum of ten years!”

“What is the origin of the magic surge?”

“Inkdeep Valley!”

Even Gloria couldn’t help but put on a severe expression at the mention of a magic surge.

............

“A magic surge?”

Greem frowned inside Nightmare Castle. He repeated this word to himself.

“Yes, two days ago, the Tower of Fate observed an unusual shift in the magic tides. According to my divination, a tremendous magic surge that will affect the entire universe will soon erupt. It will happen within the next ten years. That is why you must be prepared,” Alice warned with a solemn expression from the magic mirror.

It had been over a month since Alice last communicated with Greem because of that little incident between them. She had suddenly contacted Greem now, but she brought only bad news.

If Greem were just an ordinary adept, he might not even have heard of the term ‘magic surge.’ However, with his gradual rise to become one of the most powerful individuals of the World of Adepts, many secrets that were once hidden from him were slowly being revealed.

Magic surges, or more specifically, magic-energy surges, were terrifying phenomena that no planar world was willing to face!

When a magic surge occurred, the already vast and fluctuating sea of magic energy in space would grow even more ferocious and intense. The intensity of the magic energy could rise by a hundred times.

This increase in intensity naturally affected the planar worlds greatly!

The planar worlds were like tiny little buildings, the entrance of which was a small wooden door and some windows. As long as these entrances were guarded, most foreign intruders could be kept out.

However, when a magic surge occurred, the shift in energy levels would force open the weak spots of the planar worlds’ barrier.

When that happened, there would be far more passages into a planar world. Any foreign creature could pass through the plane’s barrier and enter the World of Adepts through these unknown wormholes and spatial rifts.

The arrival of these guests would be a calamity for the ordinary creatures of the World of Adepts.

With the exception of the few space travelers and unfortunate fools who wandered into the World of Adepts, most individuals who could break into a planar world with their own power was no pushover. Their purpose was either to reap souls, raid, or simply enjoy a banquet of slaughter.

The adepts could protect themselves with their adept towers, surviving attacks from otherworldly magical creatures. However, ordinary mortals with no supernatural power had no means of surviving.

Moreover, during a magic surge, the native magical creatures of the World of Adepts would also become unusually violent and bloodthirsty. They would form horrifying stampedes and rush out of the Black Forest to invade human territory.

That was why every adept organization would carefully protect their borders during these times, monitoring every spatial weakness in their territory. They would have to guard against stampedes from the Black Forest, as well as invasions from starbeasts, trying their best to mitigate damage to their civilian population.

The functioning of the World of Adepts still relied heavily on the countless mortals, after all!