Age of Adepts

The most significant characteristic of blood energy was its tremendous corrosive power.

Blood energy could corrode almost all magic energy within the known elementium spectrum. Only a few powers, such as space energy, time energy, and curse energy, were immune to its corrosion.

Gloria's protective purple light was not immune to the blood energy's corrosion either. The frail barrier finally cracked when the blood sea washed over her.

"Aaahhhh!"

Gloria's sky rending scream came from within the blood sea.

An incomparably violent force instantly blasted away all blood within thirty meters of her, sending crashing waves into the walls of the castle. Gloria gripped her hands tightly together within the space she had created with her sonic wave.

Noticeable red spots had appeared on her left arm, her right leg, and her waist. These spots were a symptom of blood energy gathering within her body that she had not been able to dispel in a timely fashion.

The soundwave continued to rock forth, neutralizing and shredding all blood that entered its radius. Ripples had even appeared in the space around Gloria. It was obvious that her soundwave attack was powerful enough to tear space apart.

Even though Gloria's soundwave attack was fearsome, Greem couldn't help but rejoice from the shadows at the sight of this. That was because…the protective purple light around Gloria had vanished!

Greem was already utterly exhausted at this point. A good portion of the Nightmare Castle had also been reduced to ruins. Yet, Gloria remained unharmed.

Greem's flames and Mary's blood sea had managed to inflict some degree of damage to her. However, that level of damage was not beyond the endurance limit of a top-class body-refining adept.

With enough time, and with the opportunity to draw on her power, such flesh wounds would heal in an instant!

Unfortunately, you could never count on your enemy's mistakes or compassion in a battle of high-grades.

While Gloria was drawing on her origin power to force back the corrosive blood sea and escape, she lifted her head and watched with horror as a crimson figure descended from above in a suicidal plunge.

"You're looking to die!"

"Get back down there!"

Two Fourth Grade female adepts with different voices, yet the same fiery temper, clashed above the sea of blood.

If this were flat ground, Mary would not have been able to move Gloria a single inch, even with all her power. After all, Gloria had an unreasonable Physique and violent Strength. Unfortunately, they were fighting in the air.

Gloria threw out a punch. Mary did not even attempt to dodge. She simply took the strike with her body. When Gloria's fist landed on Mary's shoulder, the air itself resounded with the horrible sound of shattering bones and splashing blood.

Mary had been punched on her right shoulder, but a long bloody tear ripped through from her shoulder to her waist. Shattered pieces of bone, shredded remains of her organs, and flesh that had been ground to paste blew out behind her body along with a fountain of purple blood.

Mary became even more savage after receiving these grievous injuries. She ignored the wounds and forcefully knocked Gloria back into the blood sea.

Dong! Dong!

There were two muffled thuds as Gloria and Mary clashed once again, tearing at each other as they sunk to the depths of the sea. You could not see their figures beneath the turbulent blood sea, but you could tell the intensity and danger of their battle through the massive waves rippling outward.

Several secret rooms in the castle opened as a few specially treated voodoo beasts rushed out. They roared and dived into the sea of blood, ignoring the corrosion of their own bodies as they charged toward Gloria.

Dong!

Yet another devastating blast. A strike of unrivaled force burst out, knocking much of the blood ten meters into the air, as well as everything that had been swimming in it. Gloria howled and attempted to charge out of the blood. Her body was now covered in all sorts of unusual wounds.

Unfortunately, Mary's slender figured lunged forward once more. Powerful blood energy guided the blood toward Gloria, forming into two crimson shackles that wrapped around her legs.

"We're not done yet. Don't even try to run."

Mary's once pretty face was now covered in gashes of various sizes. Moreover, many of these gashes curled outward, like the smiles of babies. A lot of the flesh on her body had been ground to paste. You could see her white bones beneath.

Her chest had completely collapsed as well, with several terrifying gouges on her back. Even her skeleton's frame was no longer complete. As for her organs and her veins? Most of them had been pulverized by Gloria's violent Strength, turned into an unrecognizable mess of red and purple.

The potency of a vampire's lifeforce allowed Mary to survive despite these lethal injuries. If anything, she became even more ferocious and courageous as she dragged Gloria back to the depths of the blood sea.

The blood sea was Mary's domain!

She possessed limitless regenerative power while she was in here.

Every time her body's flesh and bones were crushed to dust, the endless energy within the sea would surge into her body, rapidly repairing all damage to her.

As long as the blood sea remained, and as long as Gloria was unable to destroy every single cell in her body instantly, Mary would be able to regenerate with the tremendous amount of blood energy at her disposal. However, the pain she had to endure through this process was unavoidable!

Mary's body was destroyed over and over again in her battle against Gloria and regenerated over and over again. Just her organs alone had to be regrown several dozen times by now. Meanwhile, her arms that functioned as her main weapons in this conflict had regenerated over a hundred times.

The pain and agony that she had to endure in this cycle of destruction and regeneration were not discounted in the slightest! Her body's intense pain was a vicious stimulus to Mary's mind, causing her to become even more violent and reckless in her attacks. She was practically trying to kill herself as she fought against Gloria.

Naturally, her efforts reaped the rewards she deserved. It was the scrappiest and most terrible battle that Gloria had ever had to fight in her life.

In the end, even Gloria couldn't help but become impressed and even somewhat fearful of Mary.

The soft feared the tough, the tough feared the vicious, while the vicious feared the reckless!

Even Gloria didn't know what to do against a reckless and undying enemy like this.

Again and again, she tried to break free of the blood sea. And every time, she was stopped by Mary in the most violent way possible. It had only been fifteen minutes since the battle started, but the danger, ferocity, and carnage of it all had far surpassed the fight from yesterday.

Now that she had exhausted her purple light, Gloria could only project her Strength and force the corrosive blood away from her. It was at this moment that Mary's Third Grade Stinger was able to show its might.

It was no more than a piece of Third Grade magic equipment, barely able to break through Gloria's skin. There was no chance it could ever inflict any injury to Gloria's flesh and bones. However, all Mary needed was to break her skin.

As long as Stinger could break Gloria's skin, the Rend and Bleed effects of blood energy would be more than enough for her to deal with. Moreover, once Stinger tore Gloria's skin, the colossal amount of blood energy around her would have an entry point into her body. The blood energy would tunnel into her body, causing more and more crimson patches to appear.

In just fifteen minutes, Gloria had been dragged from her place above the clouds to the muddy swamp she was in. Her entire body was covered in crimson spots and patches.

The blood energy had seeped into her body and was actively working to destroy her bones and organs. Should the blood energy manage to seep into her energy circulation system, Gloria would sustain even more terrifying damage.

However, while Mary was throwing herself at Gloria again, Greem suddenly gave her a warning from the shadows.

"Back!"

Mary fled without any hesitation upon hearing Greem's warning, despite finally having gained an advantage over her opponent.

As expected, after backing off a hundred meters away, a purple, mist-like energy began to spread throughout the blood sea. The crimson liquid began to turn purple. Several beams of light shot out from the depths of the blood sea. These beams of light cut through everything in their way, piercing through the castle walls and shot into the sky, illuminating the whole world.

Half of the structures around the Nightmare Castle collapsed from the repeated violent attacks. Even the main castle itself was riddled with holes by now. Several towers had snapped in half and crumbled to the ground, sending massive dust pillars into the air, visible from more than ten kilometers away.

Gloria was enraged. She was like a goddess of war imprisoned in a purple gem as she rose into the air shrouded by the mist. The turbulent blood sea beneath her was still raging on, occasionally sending tall pillars of blood in the air.

The blood sea seemed to want to keep Gloria here, but every pillar of blood that reached toward the purple mist turned purple and shattered into red dust as if all the moisture had been extracted from it.

What power was this?

Greem finally revealed himself from his hiding spot, glowing with the faint crimson radiance of his fire laws. He rose into the air, facing off against Gloria. Meanwhile, the badly injured Mary also beat her wings and stared wickedly at her opponent, as if willing to throw her life on the line at a moment's notice.

"Good…very good," Gloria might have been in a much better state than Greem and Mary, but her Strength had greatly weakened ever since she unleashed this purple mist. However, Gloria didn't seem to care. She looked at her two opponents viciously as she said, "Who would've thought two such nasty adepts could appear in the Central Lands? Well, let us fight with all we have!"