Age of Adepts

It hurt them all the way to the bone whenever Greem struck them with his violent attacks that typically went up to one hundred and fifty points. When taking into consideration the Ring of Fire that covered a hundred meter radius, it wasn’t hard to imagine how painful of a chore it was to fight with Greem in this sea of lava.

Even the Medusa, with her magical resistance, could only skim along the edges of the Ring of Fire. She instantly felt as if her entire body had set aflame if she ventured too far in and entered the Burning Domain. Even a monster like herself couldn’t endure more than ten seconds in the Burning Domain. Otherwise, her defensive forcefield would fall apart.

What awaited her then would be indescribably horrifying torture!

On the other hand, Tula was doing pretty well, as one would expect of the true sovereign of these lands. His combat ability was at the absolute peak of elite-level. If the environment here hadn’t wholly tipped in Greem’s favor, Tula would have been able to put up a vicious fight against the adept.

Thus, Tula was responsible for engaging Greem, while the Medusa was tasked with harassing Greem from a distance. Both parties fought above the tower, battling until the caverns trembled from their might.

Despite all his strength and power, even Tula couldn’t take much more after such an extended fight with the Flame Fiend.

The elementium fire burned continuously at his body. The resilient, steel-like hair on his body had withered and fallen off from the heat. his smooth spider legs with high metal composition had roasted a bright red.

Most of a demon-hunting spider’s body was as hard as steel. Only the sizeable abdominal sac at the back of its body was particularly soft.

In past battles, any enemy that tried to strike at that weak spot would have had to face the many spider webs that Tula shot out from there. If they were ever bound in place by the sticky white webbing, they would be rendered harmless prey with their lives at Tula’s behest.

However, the relentless eighty points of flame damage were truly hurting Tula! Extremely so!

Tula’s purple abdominal sac was already covered in black scorch marks. Many places had already been burned through. Every time Tula moved around with his quick speed, he left behind a trail of sour black spots.

That was what the spiderweb liquid looked like after being carbonized!

It didn’t matter whether Greem was still able to hang on at this point. Tula was most definitely faltering.

With his power at the height of elite-level, Tula was a terrifying existence wherever he went. He ruled over a stretch of the Black Forest with his strength. He had ordered this war against the tower for the sake of his land and resources.

A powerful being like Tula would be a massive threat to other magical creature lords wherever he went. That was why it would be virtually impossible for him to find a suitable territory to live in if he ever left this place. Lords might be willing to take in magical creatures like Dana the Medusa, but no one would ever take in an ’ex-lord’ like Tula.

Thus, be it for his own interests or those of all the magical creatures, Tula had given his all in the siege of this adept’s tower.

Unfortunately, he had still underestimated an adept’s tower stationed with an adept!

Moreover, he had never expected the terrifying ace that Greem had hidden up his sleeve– the sea of lava!

Most of the tower had already submerged into lava at this point. From a distance, the tower looked like a piece of broken rock floating in the lava. The magma and fire continued to burn the tower’s walls. The entirety of the outer walls glowed scarlet as if they were about to melt and collapse at any moment.

If the tower had been built with ordinary steel, it would have melted into the magma even if it had heat resistance. It couldn’t compare to the volcanic rock with which the tower was built. The terrifying heat was immediately absorbed by strange runes the moment it made contact with the tower’s walls. The heat was then transferred to the elementium in the energy room where it was stored for future use.

The lava wasn’t damaging the tower. Instead, the tower was absorbing fire elementium energy at an even faster rate. The lower levels of the elementium pool had been filled even before the pools at the highest level had been filled.

When a layer of bright red elementium forcefield covered the tower, Tula completely broke down! The last bit of his hopes had vanished into ashes.

It was already an uphill battle without the elementium forcefield, and now...

Tula promptly chose to give up without any hesitation!

"I’ll hold him back for now. You try and find an escape route!" Tula’s mental voice silently rang out in Dana’s mind.

Tula moved the moment Dana agreed and turned. His tattered abdominal sac suddenly swelled, and a white sticky liquid sprayed all over the Medusa.

The liquid dried the moment it was exposed to the air. It was both adhesive and elastic now.

"You..." Dana was completely taken by surprise. It took her a while before she remembered to struggle and break free of the web.

However, in a matter of seconds, her body had already been tied up into a cocoon by the multiple layers of webbing. She could hardly move a finger. Tula lunged over and grabbed the cocoon with his mouth, escaping with it towards the distance.

His wounds might have looked deep, but his sharp limbs still rapidly moved when he needed to escape. He clung to the wall and vanished within seconds.

Even Greem was surprised by the scene before him. He had let Tula escape before he knew it.

He wanted to chase after Tula, but he paused and thought for a bit.

Greem then slowly turned around and cast his gaze upon the few surviving magical creatures.

Three-Headed Demon Hound Unguja!

A bird demon!

A snake fiend!

They were an elite-level magical creature and two ordinary magical creatures!

They didn’t have the strength to run away, but they didn’t dare to attack Greem either. That was why they hid on stone pillars or within cracks in the walls, anxiously awaiting the outcome of the battle.

The magical creatures lamented their fate when they saw the towering Flame Fiend look over with his blood-red eyes.

"Sir, I surrender!"

No one expected that the first to surrender would be Unguja! He was a magical creature leader after all!

His hair and skin had all burned away. He looked just like a mongrel in the streets that had been skinned by a butcher. His three heads pressed against the stone wall as he desperately wagged his red tail at Greem.

If he weren’t clinging to a stone pillar, Unguja would probably prostrate himself before Greem to demonstrate his submission and goodwill.

The other two magical creatures looked at each other and saw profound helplessness in each other’s eyes.

They both lowered their heads dejectedly and expressed their desire to surrender.

Greem snorted coldly. He pointed with his finger, and the dense fire elementium around the creatures materialized into red chains that immediately bound them.

Of course, the three monsters could break free of this low-level fire spell. However, none of them could even find the courage to resist when Greem glared at them. They were taken down just like that.

Greem ran into a smiling Gargamel when he dragged the three creatures back into the tower. Gargamel was holding a massive body that had been charred beyond recognition.

"The giant berserk gelada?" Greem was stunned for a moment.

There weren’t many creatures of that size, which made it easy for Greem to guess its identity.

Before Gargamel could answer, Greem shook his body and the tall Flame Fiend form quickly disintegrated. Greem’s frail body was exposed as the magma and fire peeled away.

He crouched on the ground and spat out several mouthfuls of black blood before he got onto his feet.

"Master... "

"Teacher... "

Gargamel and Meryl hurried forward and helped Greem onto their shoulders from both sides.

Just then, Eva the forest spirit floated down from the top of the tower and slowly approached Greem.

"Are you alright, Master?" Gargamel couldn’t help but ask out of concern.

Even though he was a wandering adept, and had a strong distaste for most clan adepts, he felt very different about his master. That was why Gargamel’s concern did have a certain sincerity to it.

"Teacher, should I help you to your room to get some rest?" Meryl frowned as she asked, worried.

"There’s no need! A couple of shockwaves only hit me in the fight earlier. I’ll be fine once I get the blood out of my system," Greem didn’t want to reveal too much about his actual situation. He quickly turned his attention towards the four magical creatures they had captured, "Make some arrangements and bring them to the Room of Bindings. I need a conclusion to this as soon as possible!"

"Leave it to me!" Gargamel couldn’t hide the excitement on his face when torture and interrogation were mentioned. His eyes glowed with a brilliant light when he looked at the magical creatures, "Hey, you lot, come over here and bring these beasts to the Room of Bindings. This adept wants to tend to them personally."

The apprentices that had just raced over from various spots in the tower respectfully greeted Greem. They then excitedly lifted up the four magical creatures and ran towards the Room of Bindings upstairs.

Three locations in the tower could be used to confine enemies.

One was a prison used to imprison ordinary creatures.

The second was a Sealing Room, typically used to imprison magical beings with powerful abilities. The Sealing Room was essentially a small foreign dimension that could effectively cut off all connection to the outside world.

Many proud creatures would have to be isolated in the Sealing Room for several decades, or even centuries before their edge wore away, and they became more willing to submit to the adepts.

The last one was the Room of Bindings. It resembled the Sealing Room.

A powerful confinement array existed in the Room of Bindings. All magical creatures locked up there needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. Those that were willing to serve were branded with a slave’s mark. They would then become part of the tower. If they refused to serve, they would be tossed into the Sealing Room and isolated for a couple of decades before they were reconsidered for service.

Once things had settled for a bit, Greem quickly made his way to the energy room.

Even though the chip’s connection with the core array allowed him to know the number of magical crystals exhausted, he still felt like he needed to see for himself.