Age of Adepts

Hessas City.

It wasn't even harvest season yet, but the residents of Hessas were as excited and happy as a holiday every day for the past few days.

When the sharply armored and dignified Paladins escorted that clattering wooden cage of a prison wagon through the streets, the entire city boiled.

The witch...so this was the witch!

Ever since the Witches of the Otherworld invaded the Envik Sector, the Zambis Empire has suffered from the witchcraft of the Witches.

They plundered mines, stole high-grade resources, and treated the entire Envik Continuum as if it were their own backyard. Sometimes, they even unleashed plagues in order to punish places that denied access to the witch forces, without any concern for casualties among the general population.

It was this spot of misdeeds and horrific crimes over the last hundred years that also made the people of Zambis hate these foreign witches with a deep-seated hatred.

So when the fair and stern Paladins, who were the embodiment of light and justice, succeeded in capturing the dread witch from the dark forest and shoved her into the wooden cage of a prison wagon, clattering through the streets of the little town, all the inhabitants of Hysas poured out into the streets, welcoming the witch with tattered vegetable leaves, cold dirty water and sharp stones.

People chased after the prison wagon, cheering and struggling to throw stones at the shivering witch who was hiding in a wooden cage. It could be seen that this witch was once an exceptionally beautiful woman, with a proud figure and a delicate, perfect face.

Unfortunately, her bone-deep hatred had caused her to be tortured at the hands of the Paladin, and now she was even locked in a cage like a wild beast to be spat upon, attacked and insulted by the common people.

This extreme damage and fear of death made Lena no longer look as gorgeous and graceful as before. With her hair loose and her cloth robe crumbling into a lock of rotten cloth, she was completely unable to cover herself anymore.

The top of the exposed skin was covered in dense scratches and black bruises, and the once smooth, white skin had begun to wither, showing creases and scabs like dead tree bark.

Lena wore her hair loose and looked numb as she scanned the cheering crowd that had gathered around the wooden cage, letting the tattered leaves of vegetables and sharp stones hit her, but she didn't even try to shield or dodge them.

"Burn her..."

"Send her to the stake..."

Whenever a similar loud cry erupted from the crowd, Lena's body couldn't help but convulse violently.

Her mind had been filled with an overwhelming amount of hatred.

Unfortunately, her wrists and ankles still carried the dreaded Prisoner Shackles, metallic and made of special magical metals that were difficult to destroy by acid and other corrosive spells. On the inner edges of the shackles, there were also countless fine metal spikes piercing into the flesh, and the slightest movement would trigger excruciating pain like heart plucking.

A special muzzle was worn over Lena's cheek, and a metal walnut the size of an egg was stuffed into her mouth. With these, even without guards to watch over her, Lena lost the ability to chant spells and gestures to guide the casting of spells.

As for those instantaneous low-level sorceries, they couldn't be cast inside this wooden cage that was painted with all sorts of strange runes. Although the Enewick Place was a low magic world, it had not relaxed its research on magic.

This kind of anti-magic boundary that used holy light as a source of power, they were still able to research it!

The cage holding Lena was sent directly to the Holy Light Chapel in Hessas City, where more and more Holy Knights were arriving from all directions, with as many as five Gold Knights of rank 3 alone.

Such a large number of Golden Knights certainly weren't there to guard a rookie witch who was no more than a rank 2, but to protect the core materials of the Witch Formation that had been scavenged from Lena.

The attack on the Sorceress Gauntlet in Dabire Highlands had been going on for half a year, and while the Zambis Empire side had suffered heavy losses, the Sorceress side was also at the end of its rope. If the current trend continued, the Paladin army that supported a powerful empire would be able to break through the Sorceress Tower in three to four months, as long as they gritted their teeth and were not afraid of the necessary sacrifices.

If the Sorceress Gauntlet was allowed to obtain this batch of Sorceress Formation materials at this time, and mend the internal interdimensional teleportation Sorceress Formation, it would mean that the huge casualties that the Zambis Empire had suffered over the past year would be in vain. Therefore, even though the battle at the front was so tight, the Paladins and the Empire's allied forces still sent back three powerful golden knights to join the Paladins near Hessas City to guard this witch and those witch formation materials.

The 4th rank holy knight, Ard Kalai, who was on his way to the northern part of the empire, also began to turn back west to join the holy knights in Hessas City. Once they had the 4th rank holy knights pressed into service, they would be able to spare enough men to escort the witches and materials directly back to the imperial capital.

Only in the Imperial Capital would there be nothing to worry about in terms of safety!

Thus, on the third day when the Lena Witch was taken into Hessas City, seven days before the arrival of that 4th rank holy knight, Grim in disguise also mixed in with the crowd.

The city of Hessas was now in a state of martial law, the Holy Light Chapel was closely guarded by the Holy Knights who had arrived from all directions. The outer guard and interrogation was in charge of the Hessas City Guard, but there were still small groups of Holy Knights at key locations such as the city gates and defiles.

In order to avoid the witch's companions from mixing into Haisas City, military control had been implemented here, and the checking in and out of the city gates was extremely harsh, with ordinary merchant travelers and caravans being denied entry and having to temporarily halt inside a few nearby towns.

Grim, who had just arrived from the Dark Forest with the news, had to intercept a rank 1 Black Iron Knight halfway, then put on the armor made by the Paladins, mounted a high horse, and arrived at the entrance of Hessas City with great swagger.

Seeing the signature Paladin armor on Grim, the city guards who were crowded at the city gates strictly checking pedestrians entering and leaving the city immediately saluted, and someone quickly ran to summon the Paladins who were in charge of guarding this place.

In a few moments, three Paladins with a dozen or so trainee knights poured out of the city gate hole and quickly arrived in front of Grimma.

"The Light is with us! This brother from afar, I wonder what chapel you come from?" The three holy knights at the head of the group were all 1st rank Black Iron Knights, and the one at the head was nearly middle-aged with a full beard, enthusiastically kowtowing to Grim's chest.

Grim jumped off his horse and also kowtowed in return, "The light is with us! Hello, my name is Jedrick, I'm from Baldan City on the edge of the Averi Mountains, and I'm traveling around the Dark Forest. I heard that the power of the Holy Light is being summoned here in Hessas, and I have come here in the hope of contributing my humble power!"

"So you've come from Averi, why do you look so familiar? Welcome, brother, Hessas welcomes you!" The head holy knight asked with a smile on his face, "My name is Heliotrope, I'm in charge of duty at the city gates today. By the way, I remember that the one in charge of presiding at Baldan's side is old Christopher, and he and I have even had a drink together. How is it, is he doing well now?"

Grim shook his head and smiled as he walked slowly with the other towards the city, "His Excellency Christopher is too old to have relieved himself of his armor and returned to his native Winter Springs Valley five years ago. Now presiding over everything in Baldan is His Excellency Alamand Grathorn, but seven months ago he also rushed to Dabire with a large number of his brothers..."

Grim, who had already obtained key information from the intercepted Paladin's memory fragment, could not be deceived by the other party's little speech trick, and with a few words, he defused the other party's doubts and put them at ease.

After sending Grim into the inner city, the lead knight smiled regretfully and said, "I'm sorry, brother, but I can only send you here. I still need to receive the Holy Light brothers from all over the world here. Just let Toddy take you to the chapel! When you get there, you'll need to first report to the garrison officer, Anserra, who will assign you specific tasks!"

The two of them kowtowed once again, and Grim also walked slowly towards the most towering and majestic one in the city, the Holy Light Chapel, under the leadership of a trainee knight, Toti.

Although Hessas City was already under martial law, there were still nearly 60,000 residents remaining in the city, so the streets were crowded with people, and the bustling and noisy atmosphere was no less lively than usual. However, seeing two Paladins in distinctive armor walking by, all the residents flashed to the side of the road and bowed.

Grim could tell that they all genuinely admired and revered these believers who practiced the power of the Holy Light from the bottom of their hearts. There was no compulsion in their reverence, it was all from the heart and from the bottom of their hearts.

From this, it could also be seen that in the Enwik Dimension, this strange power of Holy Light had indeed penetrated deep into the hearts of the people and had become the embodiment of light and justice!

The admiration and reverence from the public also inspired Trainee Knight Toti's sense of professional honor, as he walked beside Grim, his young face full of unconcealed excitement, and his secret glance at Grim's exquisite and gorgeous armor was even more enthusiastic and envious.

As a trainee knight, Totty was only wearing ordinary steel armor, with no intricate and exquisite runes of light engraved on it. Whereas, Holy Knights of the 1st rank and above wore divine armor that possessed the power of holy light, and whenever they condensed the power of holy light, the divine armor and the power of holy light would fuse and intermingle, thus forming a kind of holy light protection.

Grim had tested that a 1st rank Black Iron Knight's holy light protection was roughly able to withstand elemental magic damage of around 140 degrees. And when Grim was still a 1st rank sorcerer, the strongest single explosive fireball that Grim could inspire was only about 115 degrees of power.

This also meant that a 1st rank Black Iron Knight could completely harden against Grim's fireball attack to rush to his side and cut him down. Of course, the maximum time that Grim could cast a Tier 1 Burst Fireball was only 3 seconds. So, if a 1st Order Sorcerer and a 1st Order Black Iron Knight fought against each other, the Paladin would undoubtedly have the advantage in the small indoor space.

However, if the field was open enough, and the 1st rank Sorcerer had great mobility, the Black Iron Knight would be killed by a kite. After all, anyone wearing dozens of pounds of heavy armor couldn't be as swift as a thief!