Age of Adepts
chapter-456

Shackles of Blood!

As the name implied, this was a spell that superior vampires used to control their direct blood kin and blood servants.

It needed to be used in conjunction with Crimson Pact and would allow damage sharing and energy-siphoning. Mary, being the master of the Crimson Pact, would never die as long as she still had blood servants alive.

The blood energy within her four subordinates surged towards Mary through the Shackles of Blood. It allowed her to successfully break through the multiple walls of elementium fire and reach within ten meters of Greem.

That was why Mary had previously relied on her agility and speed to avoid all the attacks. Many times, she even had to give up on her advances. However, right now, Mary seemed like she had just been injected with a powerful stimulant. Not only did she not avoid the fire, she even folded her wings and dove right into the center of it like a moth to the flame.

The next second, a cloud of crimson mist exploded in front of Greem.

The dense mist quickly engulfed Greem like a wild beast devouring its meal. Mary's aura vanished instantly as well. She melded into the mist itself.

It was as if there was a savage and destructive storm brewing within the center of the crimson mist.

The entire crimson cloud was caught in the storm and continued to expand outwards. The mist roiled, spun, and churned as it encompassed an increasingly larger area.

The mist was thick and red as blood.

The explosions had never stopped since the mist spread out. Wave after wave of flame shockwaves leaked out from within. However, it didn't matter how wild and brutal the battle was; the terrifying blood mist didn't seem like it would disperse any time soon.

It wasn't possible to see what was happening within, but the changes outside were already surprising enough.

Soros, Vanlier, and the other two knights suddenly let out cries of agony. Their skin started to peel off, and their flesh began to burn. Their entire bodies were withering at a rate visible to the naked eye. Vanlier was the weakest of them all. When the blood energy within his body started to surge towards his bloodline origin due to the power of the pact, he immediately crumbled to the ground. His life force became extremely weak.

On the other hand, Soros was indeed Mary's strongest blood knight. Despite this sudden incident, he was still able to remain on one knee. He leaned against his longsword and tried his best to endure the bloodline origin drawing upon his strength.

As strength left his body, waves of searing fire energy transferred into his body through the intangible Shackles of Blood. It made him feel as if a hot oven had been lit in inside him and was continuously spewing out terrifying streams of fire that ate away at his body.

Wherever the streams of fire flowed, Soros' blood vessels burst apart. His nerves and bones burned and his flesh carbonized. Not a single drop of blood flowed from his body, even when his skin started peeling off.

The overbearing heat vaporized the blood that the vampires relied on as their life-thread. If it weren't for the supernatural lifeforce granted them by their Physique, they would have turned to ashes the moment the fire energy entered their bodies.

Even so, someone as powerful as Soros still had to grit his teeth and hang on, praying that his master would quickly obtain victory.

However, at that moment, the berserk Bloody Mary was also dealing with an unexpectedly powerful 'enemy'!

She severely lacked information when it came to Greem.

The last time she had made contact with Greem, he could only complete the first phase Flame Fiend transformation. He was powerful then, but most of his dominance in battle was still thanks to his elementium golems.

When Bloody Mary drew upon her subordinates' blood energy, she only needed to endure one-fourth of the damage from Greem's attacks (Vanlier's way too weak. He can't help Mary endure that much damage). This damage reduction allowed her to transform from a sinister assassin into a berserk warrior instantly.

The blood energy was attached to her curved and sharp claws, allowing her hands to become terrifying magical gear of their own. Every scratch, stab, and strike was threatening and effective.

Even the eighty-points of power that the Fire Shield had was not a match for Mary's terrifying claws. She would pierce straight through them with a single stab, reducing them into sparks of fire.

However, piercing through the wind dragon's layers of wind vortices wounded Mary severely.

Tens of thousands of blade-like whirlwinds combined into a solid barrier around the wind dragon's body. They protected Greem as well. Mary would have to take the risk of going through this barrier if she wanted to attack Greem.

Consequently, Mary was in shambles by the time she appeared on the wind dragon. She slowly walked towards Greem, her entire body bloodied and wounded.

It was like Mary had just been rescued from a shredder; not a single piece of unharmed flesh could be found on her body. Gashes and fine cuts covered her skin. Thick purplish blood continuously flowed down to the ground. Blood covered her entirely.

However, the rapid regeneration of vampires was taking effect as blood energy continued to rush into her.

It had just been two steps since Mary had started walking towards Greem, yet all her minor cuts had healed. The terrible gashes had also started closing up. The blood that had flowed out of her body didn't just go to waste. It dispersed into a mist of blood and slowly returned to Mary's body.

Bloody Mary was truly an undefeatable existence when confronted with only physical damage.

There was now less than three meters between her and Greem!

That was an incredibly intimate distance for an agile assassin like herself! They could even hear each other's breath!

The Wind Barrier had broken.

The Lava Shield had shattered.

Only a few of the Fire Shields remained.

Large portions of the magma armor were also missing.

The energy barrier was practically a piece of paper before an elite-level assassin.

At this point, one could say that all of Greem's magical defenses had been exhausted. If he wanted to continue fighting, he would personally have to face this frenzied Bloody Mary.

"Surrender, Greem!" Mary looked at Greem, who stood so close to her. Her blood-red eyes gleamed like a crimson sun, "You can't possibly be my opponent at this distance!"

"Are you sure?" An odd smile appeared on Greem's face forged of fire, "You should know that I will never surrender!"

"Why? For your so-called dignity as a man?" Mary pouted in disdain, "You know it as well. I've always quite liked you. As long as you admit that I'm stronger than you, then I can be your only lover. I can even help you fulfill that tiny dream of yours!"

"Er..." Greem was stunned for a moment. He had never expected Mary to say these things when she thought she had the upper hand. However, he shook his head slightly and did away with this unexpected emotional disturbance, "I'm not rejecting you because of some weird male dignity. Rather…

"…it's because you haven't beaten me."

Greem's massive Flame Fiend's body started to grow even larger as he grunted out that last sentence. His Ring of Fire began to turn from red to purple-black. A strange unknown fire started to burn Mary.

While Greem was unsealing his Flame Fiend's Heart and completing his second phase transformation, the wind dragon let out a reverberating roar. An intimidating aura of might rushed towards Mary.

The vampires were already considered to be higher magical creatures, but their bloodline tier was still below that of the dragons. The dragons were the real king of the food chain. Consequently, Bloody Mary was affected despite her excellent resistance; she was far too close to the dragon itself. Her mind started to haze and fog up. She couldn't move at all for the entire duration of three seconds.

Greem seized this opportunity. His four-meter body exploded in size and instantly turned into a six-meter monster of flames. He then bent down, extended a large magma hand, and grabbed Mary in a single grip.

The terrifying Burning Domain immediately scattered the blood mist around Mary. The hand of magma and fire kept a tight hold on her. It didn't tighten to crush her, and no energy flames were intentionally used to burn her.

"It's my turn to ask you, Mary," An enlarged version of Greem's face formed on the head of the magma giant, "I have defeated you. Now it's you who should be surrendering to me!"

Mary had now broken free of the dragon's aura of might and was furiously struggling.

Unfortunately, her advantage lied in her high Agility. Her Strength was only a measly seven points. Greem, on the other hand, possessed twelve points of Strength upon completing his second phase transformation. Even though he still couldn't compare to body-refining adepts who specialized in Strength, it was more than enough for him to restrain an Agility-focused assassin!

"Dream on."

The sudden swap in their dominant-subordinate positions angered Mary. Someone of her personality would never be willing to become a subordinate that another person could order around.

Even with Greem's savage strength and raging flames around her body, Mary drew upon all her blood energy without any regards for her life.

Greem sighed bitterly. He lifted a finger and formed an extremely concentrated cluster of flames at his fingertips. He then made drawing motions in the air around Mary.

Zchwing! Zchwing! Zchwing! Zchwing!

With the help of the Chip's elementium sight, Greem very cleanly shattered Mary's aid.

The Shackles of Blood had been broken!

Mary, who was already at her limits, let out a yelp in surprise.

"They are all decent servants of yours. You should treasure them more and not throw them away in an inconsequential internal struggle. Er..." Greem had just finished lecturing and shifted his attention back to Mary. It was then that he realized the intense shockwave from breaking the Crimson Pact had caused Mary to lose consciousness. She was knocked out.

Cough.

Greem looked down upon the messy battlefield and the four unfortunate figures lying around it. He let out an exasperated sigh.

"This battle was completely unnecessary!"