Age of Adepts

Not a single living person could be found in the tower apart from Greem himself.

His seclusion lasted for twenty-one long years.

During this time, Greem spent one year completing the replacement of his bloodline with the starbeast bloodline, and another six months adjusting the condition of his body. Once he had completely assimilated the starbeast bloodline, he carefully removed the Flame Fiend’s Heart in his chest as well as all the Flame Fiend transformation tattoos on his body. He then constructed a ‘Heart of Flames’ in his heart using his fire powers.

For seven years, Greem soaked in an energy pool, wildly devouring ferocious fire energy to nourish the Heart of Flames.

This Heart of Flames took seven years of Greem’s time to develop fully!

With this Heart of Flames that was perfectly compatible with his adept talent, Greem would not need to worry about running out of magical energy, even after advancing to Fourth Grade. Greem would never face a lack of power as long as his Heart of Flames was not damaged, even if he entered low-magic or no-magic planes.

After completing his Heart of Flames, Greem could finally let go of all his concerns and focus solely on advancing to Fourth Grade!

To prevent interruption from the outside world, Fire Throne’s exterior was protected by the Crimson Clan and the magical golem dragon. There were also many magical machines and magical golems protecting Greem on the inside. He had sealed off Fire Throne from the outside, cutting off the teleportation array and severing all connection with the outside world.

In the blink of an eye, thirteen years passed!

The Crimson Clan leadership could not contact Greem during this time, nor could Mary or Alice. No one had any idea about his recent condition.

Until......

Today was the selection contest for the newest generation of young pseudo-adepts in the Crimson Academy.

Apprentices that had ambitions of joining the Crimson Clan gathered at Namulith to demonstrate their abilities in the hopes of being selected by Crimson adepts to become members of the clan.

The form of the selection was arena dueling.

Apprentices that had drawn the same number would walk onto the arena and fight with all their strength to defeat their opponent. The various core adepts and stationed adepts of the Crimson Clan’s many headquarters were seated on a tall stone platform to the side of the arena.

Apprentices who won five duels in a row would become official members of the Crimson Clan, assigned as disciples of the various core adepts. Even the defeated apprentices could become foreign disciples if they caught the fancy of any of the Crimson adepts. They would attend classes as guest-students.

As such, every single apprentice that stepped onto the arena would try their very best, regardless of victory or defeat. They wanted to demonstrate their talent in the arcane arts to the fullest extent.

Yet, while the selection contest was well on its way, one of the apprentices turned back and saw something. He pointed at the distant horizon and let out a cry of surprise.

“What...what is happening there?”

Everyone turned back and was shocked to find that the entire horizon had turned bright scarlet, as if the skies had suddenly caught on fire. Fire could be seen everywhere, along with burning clouds.

The adepts of the Crimson Clan quickly took to the skies, using their magical techniques to see what was happening in the distance. Unfortunately, neither divination wands nor magic spirit scouts could obtain any more information.

Was this some significant energy leakage from an adept’s tower, or did something terrifying happen?

A core adept from the clan headquarters suddenly let out a surprised cry while everyone was talking amongst themselves.

“It’s Fire Throne. That direction is where Fire Throne lies!”

The other adepts instantly understood what was happening when they heard this.

Indeed. One hundred and fifty kilometers away in that direction was the origin of the clan– the location of Fire Throne.

However, with the sealing off of Fire Throne and the repeated warnings of the higher-ups, no clan adept dared to even approach the area. Fire Throne had become a taboo topic in conversations among the adepts. No Crimson adept dared to talk about the tower publicly.

After a few decades, people gradually ‘forgot’ and ‘ignored’ the existence of Fire Throne!

However, with the appearance of the flaming clouds in the air, an unstoppable commotion spread throughout the adepts.

Could there finally be news from that clan leader of theirs?

While the adepts talked passionately amongst themselves, two streaks of light cut across the sky. A faint, slender silhouette could also be seen flying ahead of them.

“It’s Lady Meryl and Lord Gargamel,” One of the adepts shouted out loud.

The other adepts nodded their heads as well.

The red streak of light was radiating dense fire elementium aura and a fearsome dragon’s aura of might. It was an aura unique to Lady Meryl. Meanwhile, the green streak of light was filled with the terrifying smell of curses. It was most certainly Lord Gargamel.

As for the faint shape flying at the very front? The adepts all looked at each other with a strangely knowing smile on all their faces.

There was no one in the Crimson Clan that didn’t know that the shockingly beautiful yet vicious Lady Mary was the ‘partner’ of their clan leader, Lord Greem. It was only natural that Lady Mary was in such a hurry! Such a major event had happened after so many years of silence in Fire Throne!

Could the clan leader have emerged from his seclusion?

Everyone knew that the clan leader had gone into seclusion to advance to Fourth Grade. If he was emerging from his isolation, could it be...?

For a moment, the other adepts all looked at each other, a fire burning within their hearts.

The Crimson Clan had been firmly guarding the Ailovis Region over the past few decades, never taking a single expansionist military action against the neighboring lands.

Why?

Because they were all waiting for news from their clan leader!

Even though the clan was acknowledged as a Fourth Grade force by the world twenty years ago, the lack of a proper Fourth Grade adept in the group caused the clan members to remain not fully confident in their strength.

Now that there was movement from the clan leader, it could mean that a massive change was going to occur in the clan. These changes could mean a large influx of resources and magical crystals for these adepts and apprentices at the very base level of the clan.

............

Mary was the first to arrive at Fire Throne.

Mary looked down from mid-air. She could see traces of crimson aura radiating from the ground around Fire Cave into the air.

The ground where the crimson aura lingered was slowly being roasted. Moisture evaporated from the earth, and cracks were starting to appear in the dirt. The plants growing in the area were also rapidly withering and shriveling, twisting in agony as they did so.

Mary could feel how difficult it was to breathe while she was in this dense cloud of fire.

The surrounding air appeared to have been heated by the aura. When it entered her lungs, it felt like her internal organs were being burned and scorched.

While Mary observed all this was a frown on her face, a wild gust of wind descended. Meryl arrived at Mary’s side in dragon form, her wings beating furiously as she came to a stop.

“Lady Mary, is Teacher finally coming out?” Meryl impatiently asked upon arriving.

Mary shook her head in frustration.

“I can’t establish for the moment. The fire elementium aura down there is far too dense. It’s enough to distort any magical probe. Even I can’t contact that guy!” Mary’s voice was filled with anger when she said that guy!

He had said he would go into seclusion to advance to Fourth Grade, but he never mentioned that his isolation would last this long.

Even though there was more than enough food in Fire Throne, along with plenty of elementium servants, the long period without communication still made Mary extremely worried. If it weren’t for Alice stopping her, Mary would probably have been unable to resist the urge to charge inside and check on that guy’s condition!

While the two of them were talking to each other and discussing whether they should enter Fire Throne to investigate, they smelled a pungent odor in the air. Gargamel had arrived.

“Lady Mary, is the clan lea—”

“Alright, enough. Stop asking. Even I have no idea how that guy is doing! However, judging from all this fire aura, he probably succeeded in his advancement. The question is, why make all this commotion?”

Mary’s resentful voice had just finished when Greem’s crisp and bold voice rang out in the air.

“You think I made these clouds of fire? Hmph! Even I can’t help it right now.”

“It’s Teacher.”

“It’s the clan leader.”

Meryl and Gargamel couldn’t help but cry out in joy when they heard this voice.

“Alright, the three of you don’t need to be worried anymore. Since you are already here, come in and take a look!”

Greem had just finished speaking when the three of them felt the crimson aura quickly gathering around them. The aura enveloped their bodies tightly. The next second, lights flickered as they instantly appeared in a large and vast hall without any preparation whatsoever.

There was nothing in the hall. There was only a blazing humanoid standing in the center at over a hundred meters in height. Terrifying and blinding light shone from the fire humanoid’s chest, illuminating the entire hall in red light.

“Tea...teacher.”

Meryl had already reverted into her human form. She stood at the feet of the hundred-meter-tall giant. Meryl could hardly see the giant’s complete appearance, even when she lifted her head. She hesitated for a moment and called out for her teacher when she sensed the familiar soul flux within the flame giant.

“It can’t be helped. The current state of my body is a little special. I can’t return to my human form for the time being. So...you guys will just have to deal with me like this!”

The fire giant opened its mouth, and the thunderous sound of a rumbling fire rang out throughout the hall.

The temperature in the hall rose abruptly and exponentially, instantly reaching intolerable temperatures.