Age of Adepts

Willis felt anger rise in his heart at his green dragon companion’s severe injuries, but he grit his teeth and suppressed his emotions.

He waved his hand and the witcher-knight army, already waiting in formation, started to advance slowly.

The humiliation and pain the adepts inflicted on him would be paid back tenfold... a hundredfold. And the price they will be paying in would be their lives!

Willis could already tell that the number of adepts on the other side were not very many. There were at best only two dozens of them. Moreover, most of them were low-grade adepts. There wasn’t a single high-grade adept among them that could make him feel fear and respect.

If that was all the force the enemy had, Willis was certain that the army was not needed. He alone, along with the dragon knights, would be more than enough to exterminate these evil adepts.

However, for some odd reason, every time Willis looked at the gigantic adepts’ tower in the distance, an indescribable and irrational fear would rise up in his heart. It was almost as if... as if there were some terrifying demon there, its mouth wide open, waiting for him to enter.

It was precisely this sense of fear that caused Willis to recall the green dragons and have the witcher-knights advance instead. If there were truly any terrifying traps in that tower, the six thousand witcher-knights would be enough to force it out.

What Willis needed to do was lead the green dragons to drive in the most ferocious killing blow, once all the hidden enemies had shown their ugly faces.

The green dragon squad was a dagger to slit the enemy’s throat, while the witcher-knights were a hammer to crack the enemy’s tough shell. He knew this very well!

Eleven muscular and powerful radiant knights appeared at the front of the formation. The intense light of energy radiated from their bodies. They would be the ones to lead the most savage charge at the enemy later. The ninety-eight spellbreaker knights formed groups of two, with a group of a hundred witcher-knights following behind each pair.

They were in the middle of a vast stretch of forest, with no flat paths for them to start a charge. However, the knights in shining armor still pulled down their visors and pushed their magic colts forward slowly. The might and glory of an army several thousand men strong still caused the onlooking adepts to feel a little nervous.

The knights’ army had slowly begun to accelerate!

Sir Fügen looked at the iron knights slowly closing in. While caressing the snake-eye ring on his left little finger, he coldly ordered, "Start Operation Plague!"

With his order, strange ripples started to repeatedly spread across the forest. Wherever the ripples passed through, the witcher-knights and the colts under them would start to go into a panic. Some of the magic colts would even frantically jump about while whinnying, tossing the knights off their backs.

The colts were behaving abnormally, but the knights weren’t much better either!

Some witcher-knights started to clutch their throats tightly, painfully breathing as they did so. It felt like their internal organs had been set on fire. The searing pain was unbearable. For one moment, the entire witcher-knight army was in chaos as witcher-knights struggling in pain could be seen everywhere.

The muscles on Willis’ face started to twitch violently.

Dammit! This wasn’t a spell. It was a scheme!

With their bodies’ exceptional strength and magic resistance, no spell could silently invade the bodies of witcher-knights. However, just looking from above, over half of the six thousand witcher-knights were having an extreme reaction to the ripple earlier. This could only mean that the evil adepts had long ago done something to their bodies.

Willis knew the only way they could so was through poisoning the food and water in the military camp.

These idiots! Not realizing it even after they had long been poisoned!

Willis glared angrily at Windsor, the radiant knight leader standing right beside him. He drew the large knight’s sword from his waist and stood tall on the back of the green dragon Aufreyr as he shouted loudly.

"Eliminating the darkness, protector of the weak, fearless!

“This is the day we die in battle for our conviction and glory as knights.

“Charge! Charge! Charge!"

Something extremely odd happened. As Willis loudly shouted the motto that the witcher-knights firmly believed in, a faint golden radiance, so faint it was hard to be seen, started to glow within his body. The radiance was like a powerful dispelling halo. Wherever it went, the light would instantly cause the witcher-knights to return to normal.

The knights, now freed from the pain and chaos they were struggling in earlier, did not have elementium sight and naturally could not easily see this golden radiance. They thought of their recovery as an effect of their strength of conviction. They drew their runic longswords, loudly chanting the motto of the knights, and charged forward with all their might.

As the witcher-knights that chanted the motto slowly increased, the golden radiance began to surround every one of them, so dense it looked as if all of the knights were wearing golden armor. With the help of this golden radiance, most of the plague virus that had been ignited by the mysterious ripples within the witcher-knights’ bodies was eradicated, allowing them to regain their ability to fight.

Even if there were viruses remaining, most of them were suppressed within the depths of their bodies with no opportunity to cause any trouble.

Bastard! What was this? Shouting two stupid sentences allowed them to endure the effects of the plague viruses? How are we supposed to fight now?

At this moment, countless adepts roared and cursed frantically in their hearts. Only Adept Fügen narrowed his eyes and stared at the holy radiance in the distance that had expanded into a massive golden sea. He muttered resentfully in his heart, "The power of faith! Dammit! It’s the power of faith!"

It was only now that he truly understood why the Fourth Grade Willis was called a Holy Knight. It seemed Willis had basic mastery over the use and function of the power of faith, and was already able to use it on a battlefield.

Much like the elementium powers used by the Adepts, the power of faith was also a kind of power. Moreover, it was a power that was at another level when compared to elementium abilities.

One could say that elementium powers were the concentration of large amounts of elementium particles, using Spirit as a medium to bind them together and allow them to display their unique traits. However, the power of faith was much more intangible.

The source of it was the soul. When many souls believed devoutly in a certain idea, an unknown force would naturally gather and concentrate into the manifestation of this idea. Even if it was just a normal wooden carving or a stone statue, as long as there were enough people worshipping it, unknown power would gather around it, allowing it to have mysterious powers that would be incomprehensible to outsiders.

At this moment, the Fourth Grade holy knight had become the bastion of faith for all of the witcher-knights and was obviously the object of all their faith and devotion. When he loudly chanted the inspiring knights’ motto, he lit a fire in the soul of all the witcher-knights.

The power of faith that had accumulated over decades started to spread, allowing the numerous witcher-knights to be miraculously healed, and allowed them to regain their combat strength.

Adept Fügen was able to provide the most logical explanation, using his vast knowledge of magic, when faced with this odd phenomenon. However, the witcher-knights involved had no idea that this was the case. Ignorant fools were the most fearless. Perhaps because of this, or perhaps because their hearts and beliefs were sufficiently pure, all of the witcher-knights thought of this phenomenon as a miracle of the great holy knight.

Thus, their burning conviction became even more resolute and passionate!

Bright red or blue runic energies started to spread rapidly across their runic longswords as they raised them high above their heads. With ear-deafening roars, the witcher-knights rushed towards the war tower.

Dammit, we need to find a way to eat away at these knights’ power of faith! Otherwise, these fellows protected by the power of faith were like a bunch of knights bearing powerful energy shields. Even all the adepts added together would not be enough to stop their ferocious attacks.

Adept Fügen roared loudly in his heart while twisting the snake-eye ring on his finger, sending a message to a person in the distance.

"We are all counting on you! Find a way to blunt the knights’ edge! The clan will compensate you doubly for all the losses that result from this. Do it!"

Greem, who had been hiding in the forest all along, received Sir Fügen’s magical message, and could only shake his head bitterly. The adepts’ base might actually fall if he didn’t put some effort into this massive battle today. With the skin gone, what can the hair adhere to? Once the base had been destroyed, they, the invading adepts, might not have the chance to successfully retreat back to the clan’s pseudo plane.

Even Greem felt a chill creep within his heart when he thought of being stranded in this alternate world and being pursued by hordes of witcher-knights.

Screw it! I’ll give it my all this time!

Greem made his decision. His hands reached into the front of his robe and unceasingly tossed out shiny golem summoning cores one after another. As the dense elementium particles quickly gathered, a massive dust cloud rose at the area he was in. The intensity of this earth elementium flux was so great that even Holy Knight Willis, standing at the back of the army, couldn’t help but look in Greem’s direction.

Dong. Dong. Dong...

The sound of heavy footsteps rang out from the dust cloud, as golem after clay golem, as tall as a human, marched out and charged at the witcher-knights’ formation.

It would have been fine if it was only a dozen elementium golems. However, as the yellow dust cloud continued to expand, and the surging clay golems continued to increase, even some adepts who were originally looking on with disdain in their eyes couldn’t help but betray a solemn expression.

This fellow. Through what means was he able to control so many elementium golems at once?

The yellow dust cloud rumbled as something even more shocking happened. A massive snake made solely of rock and stone emerged from within, quickly slithering outwards. Everyone frowned when they saw its large body, as wide as water tanks, and when they felt the ground tremor.

But this wasn’t over yet.

One, two, three...

When five stone serpents emerged from the dust cloud and charged towards the battlefield behind the clay golem army, all of the witcher-knights couldn’t help but feel nervous.

Dammit! How were they so many of them?