Age of Adepts
chapter-256

Dong!

An intense explosion erupted.

Greem's massive flame body appeared within the sea of flames. The tremendously wide Ring of Fire instantly shot out from his body. For the first time, Greem was able to catch Carlos within the burning zone before he could escape.

Carlos' gray defensive barrier was turning a bright red under the heat of the elementium flames.

The very next second, two ferocious Magma Fireballs exploded right next to him!

However, all of a sudden, a strange smoke of pure gray suddenly appeared. It formed the shape of a skull and dove into Greem's body, causing his vision to go completely black. He had been temporarily blinded.

Carlos took full advantage of this window of opportunity and scrambled out of the Magma Fireball’s explosive radius. One could still see the burn marks left all over his body as he frantically scurried away. He made a smart choice! Almost at the very instant Carlos had left, a gigantic magma hand rose from the lava pool below, smashing at where Carlos was with all its strength.

Dong!

The entire ground trembled.

A terrifying black and red handprint half a meter deep was imprinted in the dirt. The roiling lava quickly filled the crater.

Then the mighty Fire Lord burst forth from the ground. It bent its body slightly and let out a silent roar in the direction that Carlos had disappeared.

Greem, who had just finished launching his attacks at Carlos, had also received McThran's blows at the same time. The two passed by each other, lashing at each other with all they had. Greem's savage whip had dispersed nearly half of the black smoke shrouding McThran, while McThran had also successfully left behind a cloud of black smoke the size of a grindstone on Greem's back.

In the meantime, Greem had made countless attempts to bombard the enemy with the six instant-cast spells within the Scroll of Voodoo. However he could never quite catch McThran's figure.

The layer of smoke enveloping McThran wasn't just corrosive, it also had the unique ability to shield McThran from any sensory detection. Consequently, Greem had never managed to lock on to the adept despite having battled him for so long.

This was also part of the reason for the awkward situation that Greem was dealing with.

Even though Greem was trying his best to corner Carlos with the cooperation of the Fire Lord, the latter's strange curses would always interrupt him at a key moment and prevent him from landing any crucial hits. Moreover, McThran would continuously harass and wound him as he chased Carlos about.

His elementiumized body of flames might not have any fatal weak points, as compared to a human body, but it still played an important role as the carrier of Greem's spirit consciousness. If the carrier fell apart, Greem's spirit consciousness would lose all protection he had. Greem would be then be rendered helpless to every whim and fancy of the enemy!

Greem immediately changed his battle plan, perhaps because he too realized the danger he was in.

The next second, his tall body crashed into the sea of flames and instantly vanished from sight.

This time, he had actually vanished. There were none of the telltale signs of a Fire Teleportation.

Moreover, he didn't show up after vanishing. It was almost as if his entire existence had melded into the sea of fire.

And thus, the Fire Lord was left alone in the battlefield, trudging about with heavy footsteps as it desperately pursued the sly Carlos. The Fire Deity, on the other hand, had already fulfilled its mission and died!

As expected of a veteran dark adept; Carlos was both extremely proficient with his element and possessed exceptional battle awareness. Every time he repositioned himself, he would shower the large area beneath him with dark elementium halos. These scattered dark elementium weren't meant to damage his opponent. Rather, they were used to put out those terrifying elementium fires.

However, even as Carlos did his best to put out the sea of elementium flames, the Fire Lord continued to spread the gift of fire as he chased after Carlos. With one in hot pursuit of the other, the entire battlefield was quickly stirred into a mess.

As all of this was happening, Greem's spirit consciousness went undetected, flowing within the sea of flames.

Every time he reached the center of a fire, the blazing elementium flames would form a strange face of fire. The face had no body. Its eyes blinked as it looked about, quickly dissipating if Greem didn't find any enemies.

Then, the very next moment, Greem would form another face at another spot in the field of fire, scouting for any signs of enemies.

But while he was searching for McThran, the reverse was true for his opponent as well!

A cloud of strange black smoke weaved between the gaps in the burning fires as it communicated with Carlos, who wasn't very far away. The two had never cut off their mental connection.

"This brat is very well-hidden! He's completely elementiumized his body and can hide anywhere in the flames! It's way too hard to find him with such an inefficient way of searching!" Finally, McThran couldn't help but throw out his suggestion. "You try and attack his elementium golem to draw him out. We will try and surround him once more!"

"Hmph… " Carlos laughed sinisterly, "Why shouldn't you be the one to bait him? That brat hasn't even used the soul equipment in his hands. If you want to test its might you are welcome to do so. I'm not dumb enough to be a target for that!"

"If that's the case, then we will both act together and crush that elementium golem first! Without a subordinate like that, his home field advantage will gradually shrink, and things will get easier and easier!"

"Very well! Wait for my signal, and we will act on my count!"

Carlos was rapidly moving through the blazing inferno. Again and again, he showered the ground with dark elementium halos made of gray mist, instantly extinguishing all fire elementium in a hundred meter radius around himself. Behind him, the clumsy and slow Fire Lord was striding over. The ground trembled with every step it took. It raised its arms and tried to reform the sea of flames as it shot out several Explosive Fireballs at Carlos.

Yet at this very instant Carlos, who had always been running away, turned around. He dodged the fireball speeding towards him, while gathering massive amounts of dark elementium in his hand to form a terrifying spear. The spear shot forward, piercing the Fire Lord's Lava Shield, and embedded itself deep in the Fire Lord's chest.

At the same time McThran suddenly appeared behind the Fire Lord. His hands, both shrouded in black smoke, plunged deep into the Fire Lord's blazing magma body. Large black patches quickly spread across its body.

The Fire Lord might have adept-level abilities, but it wasn't an actual intelligent lifeform!

Its resistance wound up the two veteran adepts, but there was no escaping its deathly fate at the hands of their combined attacks.

Greem sensed the warnings sent from the Fire Lord. His massive body quickly started reforming at the closest spot to the battle. Unfortunately, the sly Carlos had already exterminated all fire elementium in a hundred meter radius around him beforehand. As a result, Greem was still a good hundred and twenty meters away from the Fire Lord, even after emerging from the flames.

Black spots and gray shadows quickly spread throughout the Fire Lord's gigantic body. Inevitably, they started to creep onto its most important part– the golem core.

Greem grit his teeth when he felt the core at its limit. He gave his last order to the Fire Lord. Self-destruct!

Having accompanied Greem for six months, and having crushed one obstacle after another, the Fire Lord could be considered the most powerful golem Greem had. Yet today, Greem could only choose to give it up in this border skirmish between two adept clans.

Greem's resolution had also exceeded the two adepts' expectations and better judgement. The unique existence of golems had also turned the elementium core into a miniature elementium bomb! Especially when it was the self-destruction of an adept-level golem. The terrifying might was enough to frighten even two veteran adepts.

Carlos had been wandering at a distance from the Fire Lord. He was able to retreat the moment he sensed the Fire Lord's abnormality. However, McThran wasn't so lucky. He was battling with the Fire Lord at melee distance. It was too late for him to escape when he finally sensed the boiling and chaotic elementium tide within the Fire Lord.

Boom! A massive explosion shook the ground and the heavens.

A towering mushroom cloud slowly rose to the skies.

Violent gales blew in every direction, bringing with them the incinerating flames of the explosion. In just a single instant it had collapsed half of the outer castle walls five hundred meters away. Horrifying heat and flame streams blasted out, reducing all life without elementium protection to ashes before blowing even the ashes to the winds.

Buildings near the castle had crumbled and fallen apart. Even the heavily guarded side of the castle facing the battlefield had also been charred soot-black under the heat of the terrifying flames. The buildings that were even closer to the walls had softened and collapsed as if they were made of mud or molten cheese.

If even the castle, shielded by a castle wall, had been reduced to such a state, what would one expect of the exposed armies of Lord Tras?

Terrifying fires ravaged across their ranks. The poorly equipped vassal troops were instantly burnt to ashes, leaving weird human-shaped scorch marks on the ground. The ninety warriors of steel, that had fortunately escaped from the last attack with their lives, were also engulfed by the tide of fire before they could escape this time.

Their numbers were instantly cut in half!

After the fire passed by, the scattered and remaining troops weren't even enough to form a battalion.

Even Keoghan and Cochran, who were still engaged with each other, had to stop their fight as they looked on in shock. All of their attention was now on that terrifying field of fire.

Wasn't this just a border skirmish between adept clans!? How… how did such a big commotion come about? Were they having a battle of life and death?

Meanwhile, at the core of the explosion.

The Fire Lord's massive and magnificent body had already vanished.

Only a fifty meter wide and ten meter deep crater was left on the spot. Boiling lava roiled within the crater. Monstrous heat and flame streams, upwards of four thousand degrees, had completely shattered the space above the crater. Colorful dark red auroras floated about, painting a beautifully tragic image.

However, any clear-headed adept would never be tricked by the beauty before them. Neither would they ever come close to those phantasmally pretty lights. Because… those were the elementium mirages projected by the space outside the plane after the space within the plane had been shattered.

No First Grade adept would be able to escape if they were caught in this zone of shattered space. They simply didn't have the defensive capabilities.

A completely burnt figure climbed out of the bubbling lava at the edge of the crater. He slowly walked forward, stumbling as he tried to leave the site of the explosion. A long trail of burning black footprints were left behind as he walked…

Magical energies flashed about the figure, and the last remaining wisps of fire on his charred body were finally extinguished.

McThran opened his cracked, burnt lips and exhaled. Hot breath came out of his mouth. So hot, there were even sparks of flames as he breathed. He took out a potion from his bosom to treat himself, but all of a sudden, he stopped.

Right before him was Greem. Greem's blood red eyes were like a raging inferno and were trained right on him. The Scroll of Voodoo in Greem's hand was madly flipping.

A massive surge of elementium energies were quickly gathering!

"No… we can talk… " McThran screamed with all his might.

Sadly, everything he still had to say was devoured by a new wave of flame and fire!