Age of Adepts

In all honesty, Greem had never experienced such a dangerous battle in his life!

He had never been on such a backfoot, even back when he fought the two ultra-powerhouses one after the other.

Today he finally experienced frustration and the meaning of home-field advantage at the hands of this terrifying and mysterious adept.

In truth, it had been hundreds of years since Greem last had a dream, starting from when he advanced to an adept.

Given an adept's careful and stern nature, they would never do such a thing as let their Spirit roam, which would then result in a dream. If an adept really did have a dream, they would never see it as a natural biological process of his mind. They would treat it as feedback from the world consciousness.

The world consciousness would be trying to warn them of something through a dream.

The higher the grade of the adept, the more confident they were of this fact!

The dream that Greem was experiencing today was clearly not a reflection of his spiritual consciousness. There would at least be a hint of familiarity to the scenery in the dream around him. However, the more bland the dream world was, the more Greem's powers were restricted.

Firstly, this dream world was incredibly lacking in fire elementium!

The mysterious adept that had drawn Grem into this dream had completely sealed away all fire elementium from this dream world.

Putting a fire adept into a world without fire elementium was essentially disarming him from the start of the fight!

Secondly, all material elementium that formed the real world was also missing from this dream world. Instead, the world was unimaginably rich with the more immaterial spiritual essences.

It was practically the best arena for adepts that specialized at mental manipulation and suggestion!

If it weren't for the multiple fire laws that Greem had mastered, he would be completely unarmed. He wouldn't even have the ability to defend himself.

Fortunately, Greem was no ordinary adept, and this dream world was still a world in some sense. It could cut out fire elementium, but it could not strip Greem of his mastery over his fire laws.

In this dream world that only existed in the spiritual space, fire laws were no longer immaterial, intangible objects. Instead, they had become powerful weapons that could manifest at any time.

This world was filled with spiritual essences. That made it relatively easier for the law powers that typically functioned behind the scenes of the material world to manifest and appear.

As such, Greem could only abandon his usual combat style and begin using the law weapons in a very clumsy and untrained fashion.

Greem was truly clumsy with the laws.

In the past, Greem had almost relied entirely on the Orb of the Fire God's enormous power to control the fire elementium around him. Once the fire elementium had gathered together to form powerful fire spells, they were then enhanced even further by the fire laws.

Now, without the aid of the Orb of the Fire God or the Chip's combat assistance, Greem could only rely on the Tome of Corruption and his own potent fire laws.

Increased Fire Range, Fire Penetration, Invisible Flames, and Fire's Blast.

These four fire laws materialized as four lights of different colors. They circled Greem and served as a replacement for the missing fire elementium.

Greem molded the laws using his powerful Spirit, turning them into massive shields or firing them at the enemy as arrows.

It was Greem's first time using the laws independently from fire elementium; that was why he appeared so clumsy. Fortunately, he was protected by the Tome of Corruption. The Fifth Grade artifact's law powers protected his consciousness very well, preventing him from scrambling in the face of the enemy's ferocious attacks.

The dream world's limitations on Greem were undoubtedly incredible!

However, pressured by the enemy's unrelenting attacks, Greem's mind operated at rapid speed. He soon figured out an alternative means of using the laws.

This place was the dream world. Greem couldn't summon the Orb of the Fire God, nor Shadow Demon.

However, with the Tome of Corruption in hand, Greem could still summon the Spirit of Pestilence, Remi.

Unlike the outside world, all lifeforms in the dream world manifested in their souls' origin state. Thus, a one-meter wide green ball of light suddenly appeared at Greem's side when he summoned Remi.

"Where is this? What a strange world!" The green ball of light looked around curiously the moment it appeared. It appeared to be exceptionally excited and happy.

It was a strange world shrouded in colorful mists.

The edges of the world seemed to stretch on into the distance without end.

There was only a void all around them, apart from the hundred square meters of wooden planks they stood on.

Greem was fighting a strange battle against the three female adepts on this tiny battlefield.

Four light barriers of different colors surrounded Greem, while an even thicker wall emanated from the Tome of Corruption, enveloping all the other barriers.

His opponents were three exceptionally strange witches.

Witch Ivana mostly hid in the mists, rarely emerging to attack. Meanwhile, the other two Fourth Grade witches she controlled were radiating a strange mental flux as they circled Greem's barrier, striking at him over and over.

Their every movement and action seemed to be able to draw upon the spiritual essences of this dream world.

Every time their attacks landed on the law barriers, the fire laws would shake violently. Simultaneously, traces of spiritual essences would flow into Greem's consciousness, causing him to suffer from frustrations and distractions.

Greem had tried to retaliate against these two witches with all his strength. He had even managed to pin and kill one of them with his powerful law arrows.

Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be actual consciousness bodies, but some sort of creation composed of illusions and mental magic. Just a few seconds after Greem slew one of the witches, another witch reformed from the mists and rejoined the battle.

Greem could not persist forever under their continuous attacks, nor could he identify Witch Ivana's actual location. Occasionally, several powerful spiritual spells blasted out of the mists, always causing the Tome of Corruption's barrier to tremble as if it would break the very next moment.

It was only natural that Greem's law powers were being rapidly exhausted under such conditions!

That was why Greem hastily gave Remi combat orders the moment he summoned him.

"Stop messing around, Remi. Help me stall the enemy. I want to look into a way of shattering this dream world!" Greem quickly gave out an order.

"Leave it to me!" Remi acknowledged it and instantly let out a massive poison halo that enveloped the entire battlefield.

The two illusory witches at Greem's side were instantly contaminated and turned a sickly green color. Their bodies melted into disgusting pools of green liquid. However, the swords they threw out before their 'deaths' managed to stab the green ball of light.

The overwhelming spiritual essences that erupted the very next second caused Remi to howl out in pain!

Given his law powers' usual might, Remi's poison would have left the ground contaminated for months to come. Here in this unusual world, the poison power that Remi had unleashed at significant cost was channeled away in a matter of seconds by a strange power.

This world rejected all magic elementium apart from spiritual essences. Naturally, this included poison!

He had only managed to maintain the poison halo for three seconds despite the power he expended, but he had exterminated two of the enemies.

Remi was still rejoicing in his victory when two silhouettes flickered in the mists. The two witches charged out once more, swords in hand. In fact, they looked identical to the previous two witches in appearance.

Remi drew in a breath of cold air. He finally understood why Greem had summoned him.

There was no replenishing law power in this unusual world, and attacks expended far more energy with far fewer returns. Even an ultra-powerhouse would be wrung dry if such a battle dragged on!

That was why Greem was in such a hurry to escape from this dream world.

He had noticed that this mysterious witch was far from reaching the level of an ultra-powerhouse. The reason fighting her had been so difficult was that the dream world gave her far too much of an advantage.

However, while Greem was thinking painfully for a method to escape the dream world, screams of pain could be heard from the depths of the mist. A giant eyeball monster fell from the mists above.

The next second, the mists trembled as law power reverberated throughout the realm. The witch was somehow fighting against a giant eyeball monster.

The creature was massive, but it was only a beginner Third Grade. If it weren't for the tremendous amounts of 'despair' essence that it carried, it wouldn't be enough to dirty the witch's shoe.

The witch disposed of the eyeball monster in a matter of seconds. However, the mists nearby had been contaminated by the spiritual essence of 'despair.' Every mental consciousness in this dream world had consequently been contaminated to varying degrees.

Greem quickly supplied the Tome of Corruption with more Spirit, protecting both him and Remi with his law barrier.

The fearsome despair essence was like ink, rapidly staining the mists with a pitch-black color.

At this point, it was almost as if a rain of ink had fallen from the sky. More and more despair essence surged into the dream world, wildly contaminating and devouring everything.

All sorts of strange, black creatures were now crawling all over the Tome of Corruption's barrier. They had twisted, distorted bodies and terrifyingly sharp teeth with which they gnawed upon it.

Meanwhile, the screams of the mysterious witch in the mists became higher in pitch and filled with even more despair!

What was happening? Where did this strange surge of 'despair' essence come from?

Greem was still completely confused when the unusual dream world crumbled rapidly around him.