Age of Adepts
chapter-376

Inside the arcane hall.

Alice was shivering!

Her petite body was already at its limit after such an arduous battle. She had lost one of her eyes and endured so many spells. From a distance, Alice looked just like a broken doll abandoned by her young owner. Not a single spot of her body remained uninjured.

Alice shivered on the spot for a long time before finally being confident that the mysterious girl would never come back. Her beating heart could finally relax!

That mysterious girl was an undefeatable existence. She was not someone that low-grade witches like themselves could have dealt with.

Alice hugged her shoulders with her badly wounded hands and sat on the pile of rocks silently. Just then, an exceptionally bright cluster of light floated into the hall under the guidance of a magical line and slowly merged with the large glow at the center of the array.

There was a strange object in the middle of the lights. Bizarrely enough, the powers of Fate hadn't disintegrated it. Instead, it continued to float stubbornly around the lights. It was a remarkable sight to behold.

Alice finally broke free of her fear after momentarily adjusting her psychological state. She stood up and looked obsessively at the massive ball of light in the array.

The mysterious girl's soul and consciousness had already been wiped away by the planar laws and reduced to pure energy essence. Any entity no longer manipulated the array, and for the first time, it opened its welcoming embrace to the only victor of the Battle of Fate– Alice.

The mysterious array was closely related to the Tower of Fate. The array's acceptance of Alice's identity as the Witch of Fate also meant approval from the Tower of Fate. Alice would become the new Witch of Fate once she absorbed the powers in this array!

Having obtained authority over the Tower of Fate, Alice was able to gain an understanding of the whole story through the data stored in the Tower's core.

The mastermind behind the massive chaos in the selection of the Witch of Fate this time was the First Witch of Fate.

When she had been forced to depart for the galaxy due to her power exceeding the limits of the World of Adepts, she, like the other Northern Witches, had agreed to an equal exchange with the world consciousness. In exchange for her departure from the World of Adepts, the World had to allow her to imprint part of her legacy into the planar laws. It was a legacy that would pass on for generations and eternity, never to be extinguished!

But these were only her actions on the surface!

Out of her desire and greed for the powers of Fate within the World of Adepts, the first Witch of Fate intentionally created the Tower of Fate and established the Battle of Fate. She then hid part of her soul within the Tower.

Every so often, when it came to the time of selection, the shards of her soul hidden within the Tower of Fate would try its best to possess and take over the body of a candidate. The soul then took part in the Battle of Fate with the stolen identity.

That way, it didn't matter if that soul shard lost or won the battle. Since everything would be distilled into the power of Fate that fed back into the final victor of the Battle of Fate, every single Witch of Fate that came to be would have a piece of her soul hidden within them.

Every Witch of Fate was like a seed planted by the Witch of Fate. They slowly budded, grew, and became stronger in the World of Adepts. When they finally had enough power to depart from the World of Adepts, the piece of soul would guide them towards the first Witch of Fate, who would then assimilate them and their powers.

The world consciousness forbade such actions.

However, with the dense powers of Fate within the Tower shrouding and obscuring the truth, the mechanical and inorganic system of planar laws was not able to discover anything. That was how the secret of the First Witch of Fate managed to endure for so long!

However, Alice had managed to crack the Tower of Fate with the Tyrant's self-destruction. The subsequent use of her spacestone then allowed her to teleport the girl outside of the Tower. That action exposed the truth and secret of the First Witch of Fate under the ever-watching eye of the planar laws.

The most severe of planar backlashes had immediately punished the opponent. The backlash was in addition to the great punishment she had to face for being outside of the Tower during the Battle of Fate.

For the first time in history, with the purification by the planar laws, the advancement of the Witch of Fate was no longer being meddled with by the First Witch of Fate.

Two mysterious options appeared in her mind when she finally stumbled into the array and stood before the ball of light.

The first option– power infusion.

It would directly infuse the powers of Fate into her to increase her strength. The energy in the cluster of light was estimated to be enough to push her to become a Third Grade Witch of Fate.

The second option– potential increase.

She could give up on increasing her powers and use it to enhance and elevate her talents and potential instead. This option was estimated to produce a vast and all-rounded increase to her current potential.

Alice fell silent.

She sank deep into thought when confronted with these two options.

She could sense that this choice was planar feedback from the world consciousness, presented to her as a reward of sorts for having 'killed' the mysterious girl. If it hadn't been for her part in exposing the secret, she would only have the first option. The second option would never have been presented to her.

Judging from this point of view, raising her potential was undoubtedly the wisest course of action!

However, if Alice indeed did that, she would become the first person to ever advance to Witch of Fate while remaining at First Grade. A First Grade leader of witches. The situation would undoubtedly throw chaos into the politics of the Northern Witches. Everything would become messy and troublesome!

If Alice stepped out of the Tower of Fate as a Third or Fourth-Grade Witch of Fate, then there would have been no question as to her authority. She would be guaranteed a seat on the Witch Council, and all the former territories and resources of the Witches of Fate would be returned to her.

But a First Grade leader of the Witches of Fate…

What awaited her might be an arduous and painful journey to climb to the top once more!

The best option would cause her to walk down a path of thorns. In comparison, the first option could bring her immediate convenience and benefits. Even though the mysterious girl had wasted too much of the power of Fate, becoming a Third Grade Witch of Fate still gave Alice plenty of authority within the internal affairs of the Northern Witches. Her days would be more comfortable if that were the case.

The differences between her treatment would be massive!

After an extended period of consideration, Alice took out the Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal and tried to contact Greem.

The Infernal Tyrant's self-destruction had dealt quite an extensive blow to the Tower of Fate. If this had been any other Battle of Fate, communication with the outside would have been impossible.

Greem quickly understood what had happened after listening to Alice's story.

Even the outsider Greem couldn't help but feel shocked and concerned at all the twists and turns in this Battle of Fate!

The scheme of one of the ancient witches was involved in this matter. It wasn't even Greem or Alice's turn to think about issues at that level. Their biggest problem right now was what option Alice should pick.

Greem instantly understood this as well; Alice had already made her decision. She only asked his opinion out of respect for their relationship and in consideration of their future cooperation.

This attitude was undoubtedly beneficial for Greem's long-term gain!

Thus, without hesitation, he chose to support Alice's decision to increase her potential.

Alice was finally able to make her decision with Greem's support.

However, before she selected the second option, she secretly borrowed part of the powers of Fate to do something.

…………

Outside the Tower of Fate.

The skies had undergone a mysterious change.

The fire elementium that had covered the entire sky disappeared. A massive funneling vortex appeared in the air. The end of the funnel extended all the way to the Tower and connected with the peak of the building.

An immense power of repulsion emitted from within the Tower. Greem and the witches had no choice but to retreat one and a half kilometers away and watch the Tower from afar.

They didn't need anyone to remind them. All the witches knew that this was the new Witch of Fate savoring the fruits of her victory. Perhaps, in a few more hours, the Northern Witches would welcome a new witch leader. As the representatives of the various witch branches, they had to offer their gifts and greetings to this new sister of theirs.

The neighboring branches, in particular, wanted to meet this new witch leader as soon as possible. They wanted to start discussing the issues of territory ownership. After all, the past thousand years had seen the lands of the Witches of Fate being divided and split between the other branches.

Now that the Witch of Fate had returned, everything they had eaten and swallowed into their stomachs had to be brought back up. Massive changes would unavoidably happen in the Northern Lands. One misstep and the politics within the Witch Council could be significantly affected!

Several high-grade witches gathered together when they saw the increasing commotion occurring in the sky. They began discussing who the new Witch of Fate might be, and what powers she would possess.

If the new Witch of Fate were only Third Grade, then the Second and Third Grade gathering of witches here were qualified to negotiate with her on equal standing. They might even have the influence to push back on issues of specific territories and populations.

After all, the new Witch of Fate would be alone and without any subordinates. If she wanted to establish the dominance of the Fate branch, she had to rely on the support of the other groups. here was still plenty of room for negotiations.

However, if the new Witch of Fate were Fourth Grade, the witches would only suffice as ambassadors to offer gifts and welcomes. Only their witch leaders qualified to negotiate with the Witch of Fate then.

Greem's existence among these cackling witches was incredibly awkward.

Even though he already knew the outcome of the Battle, he couldn't reveal any of it before Alice became the Witch of Fate. Greem quickly started looking for solutions to deal with these witches when he felt the cold gaze of a Witch of Deceit on him.

That witch was Rena, the mother of Snowlotus, the Dancer of Ice and Frost. Even Greem wasn't sure what the enraged Rena would do if the person who walked out of the Tower of Fate weren't Snowlotus.

Four hours quickly passed as everyone waited anxiously.

The doors of the Tower once again opened.

This time, it truly opened. There was no longer a barrier of light like the last time.

Everyone held their breath as they silently waited for the final results.

A silhouette flashed behind the doors. A beautiful figure wearing a long royal dress appeared before everyone.

Her! It's her!

Everyone was stunned.