Age of Adepts

With the fire creatures staving off the shadow army's pursuit, Greem could finally free himself to deal with the two 'cowardly' and 'despicable' spirit shadows.

Despite being Fourth Grade creatures, neither of these two spirit shadows had the attitude or manner of an individual of that power. They hid behind the Third Grade shadow warriors, only using their shadow arrows to attack the ball of light to tear open a path for the weaker shadow beings.

They didn't dare take even a single step towards the ball of light themselves!

If they believed they were safe as long as they kept their distance, they would have underestimated Greem's abilities. After all, the legendary fire adept was known for the ferocity of his elementium attacks!

Greem chuckled within the fireball. The golden fire within his body started to gather rapidly.

It was as if a jet of golden fire were shooting out of his blazing eyes. His long, black hair was scattered across his shoulders, flickers of fire dancing and leaping upon them. His entire body was engulfed by violent and ferocious flames, constantly radiating terrifying heat and light.

"My fury as my power, Blazing Light!"

Greem loudly shouted the activation chant for the spell as two blinding red lights appeared in his burning eyes. The two lights gathered into two fearsome beams of Blazing Light. They cut across the skies, piercing through the formation of shadow creatures and landing upon one of the Fourth Grade spirit shadows.

Aaaaaah!

A tragic, sky rending howl rang out in the air.

A thick, nearly solid layer of chilling death aura appeared around the Fourth Grade spirit shadow, desperately shielding it from the Blazing Light as it fled into the distance.

Unfortunately, it didn't matter how fast it could run! There was no way it could be faster than Greem's gaze!

Greem stood upright like a mountain, mighty as a god of fire. His blazing eyes slightly adjusted their angle and direction as the spirit shadow fled. Regardless of where the spirit shadow withdrew, the two beams of Blazing Light remained fix upon it.

The death aura surging out of the Fourth Grade spirit shadow's body clashed with the red beam endlessly. The two energies devoured and neutralized each other wildly. However, judging by the current situation, it was evident that the red beams firing from Greem's eyes were slightly stronger. They destroyed the spirit shadow's body even as they fought against the death aura. Bit by bit, they reached into the core of darkness in the spirit shadow's body.

The core of darkness was where the soul consciousness of the spirit shadow resided.

Should the core be destroyed, the spirit shadow would perish as well, even if it was a Fourth Grade entity!

As such, the Fourth Grade spirit shadow was terrified and fled as hard as it could.

Shadow Teleportation, Shadowstalk, Shadow Substitution, Shadow Clone. It used a series of dark magics, either teleporting it to another region, swapping positions with another shadow creature, or dividing itself into a few dozen clones that looked the same as itself.

However, it didn't matter what it attempted; the two beams of Blazing Lights seemed to be locked on to it. They remained fixed on its body no matter where it went.

In truth, the death aura was the spirit shadow's body, while the core of darkness was where its soul resided.

Thus, as the death aura rapidly evaporated, the spirit shadow's body started to shrink as well. Soon, the death aura was no longer enough to cover the black, crystalline core.

When the Blazing Lights finally shone upon the core of darkness, the Fourth Grade spirit shadow immediately stopped fleeing. Its entire body started to twist and distorted maniacally as its form flickered and cycled through the appearance of the countless creatures it had devoured in the past. Finally, the crisp sound of shattering glass could be heard; two small holes had been burned into the core of darkness. Countless pale and tragic souls escaped from within the nucleus, circling the spirit shadow briefly before dissipating into the air.

[Target creature has been eliminated. Requesting permission to undo target lock!] The Chip's notification rang out in Greem's mind.

"Undo target lock!"

[Understood!]

It was nearly impossible for Greem alone to maintain target lock on a Fourth Grade spirit shadow with multiple mobility spells from a distance of two thousand meters away. However, with the Chip's help, he could burn a Fourth Grade spirit shadow alive with the golden flames without so much as taking a single step.

This mighty display of power had undoubtedly intimidated all of his opponents.

The other remaining Fourth Grade spirit shadow was scared out of its wits. It didn't dare approach the ball of light now. Instead, it screamed fearfully and fled into the darkness in the distance.

A Fourth Grade creature. That was a Fourth Grade creature!

Even though Fourth Grade creatures could not possibly be as powerful as an actual Fourth Grade adept, it was still a Fourth Grade creature after all. Though most Fourth Grade adepts could suppress and defeat a Fourth Grade creature in a duel, it was challenging to inflict a killing blow.

After all, Fourth Grade creatures still had a fundamental level of power!

They might be inferior to a Fourth Grade adept when it came to knowledge reserves, knowledge application, and the use of magical equipment, but they also had unique, innate abilities of their own. These abilities were no weaker than those of a Fourth Grade adept.

However, a fearsome Fourth Grade spirit shadow had been burned alive by that legendary fire adept without being able to display much of its power. It…it was unbelievable!

In doing so, the legendary fire adept had struck fear into the hearts of all high-grade shadow creatures present on this battlefield. They stared at the blinding ball of light with horror and surprise. Of course, they could not see anything within the ball of light.

For some reason, all of the shadow creatures' attacks weakened slightly. They were all trying their best not to stand out amidst the entire army.

Unfortunately, it didn't matter how they hid or disguised themselves. Beams of Blazing Light still shot out of the ball of light, reducing seven or eight Third Grade shadow warriors into ash.

Greem's actions filled Dark Witch Shani's heart with anger and heartbreak.

While cultivating a high-grade shadow creature wasn't as difficult as developing a high-grade adept, the resources and rare materials consumed in the process cost a shocking amount. Each and every one of the shadow creatures that the legendary fire adept so brazenly slaughtered was an elite subordinate that the Dark Witches had invested greatly in.

Now, they were all being wasted in vain on this other plane without bringing any objective benefit to the clan at all. It…it was an unforgivable waste of resources!

Dark Witch Shani might not be criticized for such wasteful use of clan property if she were the leader of the Dark Witches. Sadly, she was not the leader.

At the very best, she was a high-grade witch sent out by the Dark Witches on an interplanar bounty hunting mission. The leader had only authorized partial use of the origin tower's powers and limited mobilization of the clan's private militia.

That did not include or allow for heavy losses on the militia's part!

Shani could almost already see herself being accused and criticized by all the clan elders during the next clan meeting as she watched the high-grade shadows turn to dust beneath the red beams of light.

Those bastards would most definitely force her to compensate for this 'mistake' with her own resources!

That was a given!

Shani's heart bed unstoppably. She could no longer sit behind the lines now. She hastily summoned the surviving spirit shadow to her side and had the spirit shadow replace her as the conduit for the origin tower. She personally descended upon the frontlines furiously, enveloped by a tide of darkness and shadows.

Dark Witch Shani had finally shown herself!

A smile appeared on Greem's face inside the fireball. He quickly adjusted his condition.

A fireball and a ball of darkness. The two powerful adepts of entirely different attributes faced off in the air, their eyes fixed upon each other.

[Beep. Locked on to target's position.

[Target creature's attribute is darkness. Target possesses various short-ranged mobility spells, including Shadowstalk and Shadow Teleportation. Possibility of maintaining lock-on to the enemy's position inside the pseudo-shadow domain is no more than 23%/

[Dynamic trajectory estimation and calculation online. Lock-on possibility increased to 46%.

[Elementium Sight assistance system online. Lock-on possibility increased to 62%.

[Spatial node distribution scan complete. Lock-on possibility increased to 71%.

[Warning. Said possibility is the most optimal result given host's current abilities. Unless host can break the pseudo-shadow domain, the ability to maintain lock-on will be perpetually affected by external factors!

So, 71%. That is enough!

Greem's eyes flickered slightly.

It was important to note that he was now fighting an intermediate Fourth Grade Dark Witch that had advanced several hundreds of years ago. The fact that the Chip could increase his lock-on possibility to 71% within the pseudo-shadow domain that the enemy had so carefully laid out was already unimaginable.

The real key to victory in this battle between Fourth Grade adepts was whether they could successfully unleash the might of their spells on their enemy.

Due to the existence of defensive forcefields, mobility spells, defensive spells, and the environment itself, maintaining a perpetual lock on the opponent's position and ensuring a hundred percent accuracy on all spells was nearly impossible.

Being unable to lock onto the opponent meant a high possibility that your spell would miss. That was not just a waste of precious magic power, but a waste of the opportunity to attack. It would be simply unforgivable!

With the Chip's aid, Greem's possibility of maintaining a lock-on to Shani's position was at 71%. It was a terrifying number. In contrast, the Dark Witch's chance of successfully locking onto Greem was no more than 30%.

This difference in numbers would affect their combat effectiveness so drastically that it was almost unimaginable!

"Sadly, you Dark Witches still chose to make enemies out of me in the end. I will give you this one opportunity today, then. Let us see if you will be the one to die, or I will be the one to live!" Greem chuckled sinisterly, his thunderous voice causing the very domain itself to rumble and shake.

Shani laughed coldly in her shadows.

"It's not your place to decide how we Dark Witches choose. Stay here forever, won't you!"

As Shani let out her battlecry, the dark energy within the entire pseudo-shadow domain came to life. The darkness lunged desperately towards Greem from every direction.

The true battle had finally begun!