Age of Adepts

If Adept Holly was merely fearful, then Cherisha was despairing!

Though she and Mangus had managed to advance to Fourth Grade by combining both their powers, their existence was still incredibly flawed.

Currently, they could only be considered a qualified Fourth Grade adept while they were in their transformed awakened state. Most of the time, they were only in a transitory state somewhere between Third and Fourth Grade.

They could simply crush any Third Grade adepts by transforming into the two-headed adept. However, against an actual Fourth Grade, they would be as frail as rotten meat. All their opponent had to do was delay until their transformation was over.

Moreover, their most significant problem at the moment was insufficient defense!

Both their Physique and magic resistance were significantly behind that of an ordinary Fourth Grade. They also had no powerful defensive magic, which made them even more vulnerable targets.

There wasn't even a need to consider joining a battle between Fourth Grades! Even the 'tiny' flame shockwave from Greem's reinforcing meteor had managed to break through their physical defenses and resulted in friendly fire. That alone was more than enough evidence of their weakness.

The defenses created by the combined power of Cherisha and Mangus could barely defend against elementium damage of 1,200 points. They had to endure all remaining spillover damage.

Greem's 31 points of Physique allowed him to endure an entire attack from Illhoof with only minor injuries to himself. Meanwhile, Cherisha and Mangus' Physique was only at 26 points. This amount, as well as their magic resistance, put them at risk of grievous wounds if Illhoof hit them even a single time.

After seeing the battle rise in intensity, Cherisha had no choice. As reluctant as she was, she still had to summon her brother's soul and transform into their complete form- the vicious and powerful two-headed adept.

Faced with the aggressive Fourth Grade Scourge Lord, Greem, Holly, and Cherisha all arrived at the same conclusion. They had to fight with their strongest aspects!

One had to admit that Illhoof's mastery of elementium and body coordination was far superior to the adepts.

The adepts were more like manipulators of elementium.

They connected themselves to elementium using their innate talents and affinities, allowing them to control the powers of the elementium freely. However, an adept was still an adept, and elementium was still elementium. They were distinct entities of their own.

Illhoof, on the other hand, was altogether different. It was almost as if he had assimilated deeply with the earth elementium itself.

When he attacked with magic, he needed no chants or handsigns. The elementium moved by his every will and thought. Even a seemingly weak earth elementium technique could block or neutralize a powerful fire spell from Greem.

Moreover, he was incredibly proficient with the use of petrification beams and the transmutation between earth and stone.

It was like Illhoof himself was an earth elemental. He was able to travel freely through the ground and smoothly shape the earth to attack his enemies.

It was this unusual ability of his that gave Greem such trouble!

Illhoof seemed to have acknowledged him as the strongest person among the three adepts. The majority of his attacks were targeted at Greem.

With his ability to travel through the ground, he could conjure the earth and stone to block Greem's attacks at any time. He would also regularly emerged from the ground around Greem, using a wild barrage of Earth Spikes, Rocklance Forest, Earthquake, and other earth spells to attack him.

If and when Greem showed any weakness, Illhoof would fire a fearsome Petrification Beam from his eye.

This Petrification Beam had the strange effect of ignoring all physical defenses. Greem had to be extremely cautious. Otherwise, the powers of petrification would invade his body and inflict damage on him.

Meanwhile, Illhoof was extremely apprehensive of Greem's Burning Domain.

He wasn't concerned about its lingering burning effects, but its ability to help Greem lock on to his position.

Illhoof had secretly given the might of Greem's elementium fires a taste during the back and forth.

Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying!

To think, the tiny fireballs from a weak fire adept who had just advanced to Fourth Grade and had yet to stabilize his Spirit could hurt so much. It was beyond Illhoof's expectations!

It was important to note that for powerful creatures like themselves who traveled deep in space, excellent elementium resistance was a necessary trait for survival.

Yet, even with his magic resistant skin and exceptional Physique, Illhoof had winced at pain from Greem's fireball. That clearly meant that there was something unusual mixed in with his fireball spells.

The only thing that could threaten a Fourth Grade Minor Scourge Lord like himself to this extent had to be the power of principles!

A newly advanced Fourth Grade fire adept who had mastery over some fire laws.

Illhoof became extremely careful when fighting against Greem after recognizing him as such.

Meanwhile, of the three human adepts, the two-headed adept was utterly useless. They would have trouble dealing with the mutated beasts, let alone joining this battle between Fourth Grades. Meanwhile, though the adept hiding in the strange armor did not have offensive power as terrifying as the fire adept, he was a tough opponent as well.

His unusual astral magic could destroy the structure of spells.

Any spells that approached him would have their model and structure washed apart by the starlight, reduced to a scattered torrent of elementium. It effectively halved the power of any spell. The armor he wore also had decent physical defense.

Illhoof estimated that he needed to use 50% of his abilities to deal with the armored adept. Meanwhile, killing the fire adept would require him to use 80% of his power. He would also have to suffer the adept's desperate death throes.

Of course, he only needed 20% power to crush the two-headed adept!

Illhoof quickly assessed his enemies' strength even as he fought.

He had to admit, even with the aid of the mutated beasts, killing these three adepts would be extremely difficult. At this rate, the investment would ultimately not be worth the returns.

After continuing his wild attacks for a little while longer, Illhoof flickered and returned to the hill in the distance. He roared, and the mutated beasts stopped their offense as well, retreating to the hill as a dark, black swarm.

"Human adepts, your power has been acknowledged by I, Lord Illhoof. There is no point to this battle. We will just be wasting our strength to no avail. How about this? Let's cooperate!" Illhoof's lotus-shaped mouthpieces moved as he stood on the hill, and he simulated a strange screeching voice using his Spirit.

Cooperate?

The three adepts, who were all injured to some degree, exchanged looks. Clearly, they had no idea what was happening.

Greem strode forward with his giant body. He stared at Illhoof and shouted with his booming voice, "May we know what your 'cooperation' refers to?"

The other two adepts slowly backed behind Greem as well and got into formation.

However, the three adepts' powers were non-synergistic and even detrimental to the others' abilities. They could hardly trust each other, either. Therefore, even in formation, they kept a safe distance of two hundred meters between each of them. No one dared to step within the range of an another adept easily.

It was a common sight among high-grade adepts in battle. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Since you've come here, you are probably aiming for that floating city as well, aren't you?" Illhoof continued.

Greem and the others looked at each other. Holly and the two-headed adept said nothing and seemed to be deferring to Greem entirely.

In truth, there was no need to keep their objective any secret.

After all, they were otherworldly adepts that had snuck into Morrian Plane during this time of crisis. Saying that they had no ill intentions when they were silently approaching Reisin Garden would be an insult to Illhoof's intelligence.

Upon seeing Greem nod silently, Illhoof's mouth started to vibrate even more intensely.

"Since our targets are the same, and since neither of us can exterminate the other, why don't we work together!" Illhoof pointed his ugly mouth towards Greem. "What I need are the lives and souls of the people in the floating city. You lot shouldn't need these, do you?!"

"And what I need are the rare resources and high-grade knowledge of the Arcane Empire stored within the city. If you don't mind, I am very interested in the energy core as well." Greem fell silent for a moment but quickly explained his objectives as well.

Illhoof expressed no objections or dissatisfactions.

"I want to obtain the secrets to creating high-grade arcane golems." Adept Holly also cautiously mentioned what he wanted.

He actually wanted much more than that, but speaking up brazenly in this situation and provoking the Scourge Lord was not a wise idea. In cooperation like this, what one could potentially obtain was directly related to their ability.

He had managed to produce power enough to make Illhoof fearful in the battle earlier. Naturally, this meant that he could not raise any requests.

"I also want—" The two-headed adept was happy to see how things had turned out. They opened their mouth, but a chilling and fearsome Spirit instantly engulfed them. They were smart enough to shut up immediately.

Illhoof did not regard them as a threat at all. Their power was simply too insignificant. That they could even be part of this collaboration was entirely thanks to the other two adepts.

Naturally, an inconsequential component like themselves had no right to make any requests.

At any rate, the floating city was large enough. They could find plenty of leftover loot even after everyone was done.

After all, in the eyes of a disaster creature like Illhoof, everything rested on power.

If you had no power, then you were prey!

"It seems like there is room for cooperation between us. The floating city is not easily invaded anyway. There is still a Great Arcanist there. Why don't we work together to kill that arcanist? The body and soul will be mine, while the rest of their equipment belongs to you. How about it?" Illhoof's suggestion was overbearing and left no room for questions, but it still incited the adepts' interest.

A Great Arcanist?

That had not been mentioned in the mission report provided by the main party. Was that an oversight, or intentional?

Greem smiled sinisterly and nodded for the party.