Age of Adepts

The reason why this witch war that took place in the Gonsas Volcano didn't cause too horrific casualties was mainly related to the sparsely populated area near the volcanic region.

However, since the witches broke into the area, the Gonsas Volcano exploded once every three days and erupted once every five days, spewing out thick volcanic ash that covered the sky and literally turned hundreds of miles around into a deadly place of life.

The Gonsas Volcano was located in the middle of the Zambes Empire, and it was impossible not to alert the upper echelons of the empire when something strange happened there.

However, the Zambis Empire was as blind as it was and turned a blind eye to the tossing and turning of the volcano. Even a large number of regular Imperial troops, under the command of the Paladins, relocated some of their people near the Gonsas Volcano, making it a complete no-go zone.

Of course, what they announced to the public was that the Gonsas Volcano had unexpectedly entered an active period, and the villagers were relocated so as not to cause casualties to the Imperials. As for what really happened in the Gondas Volcano, only a few high-ups of the Empire and some high ranking Paladins could truly understand what was happening there.

Although it sounded a bit humiliating to allow a group of foreign sorcerers to fight to the death within their dominion. However, considering the fact that the wicked witches in the southwest had not yet been purged, the Empire and the Paladin hierarchy agreed that it was inappropriate to involve these witches in a bitter battle.

Thus, the days passed....

Five days... ten days... one month... two months... three months... ...

On November 25, half a year after Grim and the others had traveled through the wormhole to reach the Enwik Plane, the Witch's Tower that stood on the Dabire Highlands in the southwestern part of the Zambis Empire had finally collapsed!

Grim had gotten this news with the wandering Plague Poison Spirit Remy.

Ever since Grim had given it the order to move around on its own* free will, Remy had chosen to keep wandering around the fringes of the Zambis Empire, plundering and cleansing an imperial village or town every now and then in order to maintain and replenish the number of plague regiments under his command.

In the past six months, Remy had already pulled together a Plague Regiment numbering in the thousands. But unfortunately, the tree quickly attracted a large group of Paladins.

Remy, who wasn't suited for frontal combat, met the Paladins who were best at 'purification' and didn't even have to be a 3rd rank Gold Knight to get scared and flee. It fled into the wild jungle with the remaining hundred or so elites in one breath, and went to wreak havoc on the indigenous beasts of the En Vik Dimension instead.

There weren't any guys among the indigenous beasts who were good at 'purification' like the Paladins, so Remy was like a fish out of water, swelling the numbers of the Plague Legion once again.

With an inexhaustible source of soldiers, Remy used the vast wilderness jungle as his base, scurrying out of the jungle from time to time to harass the surrounding human villages and towns, sharpening his men a little bit. In just two months of work, Remy had created his own unique 2nd stage plague underling, the Plague Messenger.

These were bizarre creatures that specialized in mixing, creating, and spreading plague, and their individual battle strength wasn't that strong, not even as strong as a low-ranked poison corpse. However, they possessed the ability to continuously produce plague spores, and they could also increase or adjust the magical properties of plague spores depending on the enemy.

This ability made them the best helpers for Remy to manage and grow his plague army!

Often times, throwing a Tier 2 Plague Emissary into an area rich in biological resources, there was no need for Remy to intervene, and this Plague Emissary would be able to quickly pull up a fairly substantial Plague Army for it.

From the looks of it, these Plague Emissaries were, at best, extremely ugly.

Dark green sickly skin, a body surface filled with sticky, slippery body fluids, and horrible bubbles that were constantly bulging all over the body, in which yellow and green epidemic germs could be seen to be breeding. Every time a bubble burst, it would release into the air a deadly plague with terrifying killing power.

It could be said that wherever the plague messenger passed, a cloud of long-lasting and terrifying yellow clouds would always remain in the air. All lifeforms that had been infected by the yellow cloud were forced to undergo a plague transformation, with the weak ones being decomposed and assimilated into more plague spores that were released into the air, while those with more peculiar life forms could be transformed into germ-carrying bodies if they survived the plague transformation.

In other words, low-tier poisonous corpses!

The plague creatures that were sacrificed in the furnace of thousands of indigenous lives became stronger and more elite with each killing. Paladin squads, imperial regulars, local militia, mercenary squads, and formidable local armies... The plague army created by Remy and these deadly enemies were engaged in a frenzied killing of life and death in every town, countryside, wilderness, woodland, and swamp.

Outwitting the weak and killing the strong evolved!

It could be responsibly said that all the plague creatures that could survive in this environment had become extremely terrifying elite leaders, and there were even many lord-level plague creatures in there that had evolved four or five times.

It was thanks to this group of plague underlings that Remy had also become a huge danger in the northwestern border region of the Zambis Empire. If it wasn't for the Fraud Witches holding back the vast majority of the Empire's power, there would have been a High Paladin leading a team to run and annihilate it long ago.

However, on the 25th of November, Remy's good days had finally come to an end.

The Sorceress Tower that had been standing in the Dabire Highlands was breached by a 4th rank Holy Knight, and even the large group of fraudulent Sorceresses there scattered and became a pack of dogs.

After receiving this news, Remy first passed it on to Grim via soul connection before taking the large group of men and diving headlong into the deep woods never to show its face again. If it still dared to cause trouble within the Zambis Empire at this time, I'm afraid that the next group to surround and annihilate it would be those fearsome 4th rank divine knights.

This was a powerful fellow that even its master wouldn't dare to provoke, and it... it would be better to avoid it honestly!

And during these half a year, Grim was sadly blocked inside the Gonsas Volcano by the four Witch Hunters. With the volcano backing him up, the four hunters didn't dare to rush in to trouble him, and Grim didn't dare to leave the volcano by half a step.

And so, the two sides were just annoyed with each other and confronted each other!

Hearing the news that the Witch's High Tower had been overthrown, Grim, who had been restlessly trying to fight off the four witch hunters, finally calmed down and hid in the depths of the volcano for a peaceful seclusion.

Since he couldn't fight off the enemies and didn't dare to leave the volcano easily, it would be pointless to continue fighting. It would be better to calm down and settle down for a while to see how long these damned guys were planning to linger here.

However, to Grim's surprise, these four hunting witches were surprisingly tough.

They kept a close watch on the crater, with at least one witch on guard duty every day, while the rest of the witches either hid in small camps to rest or ran to the outlying human towns to pick up some food and water.

Although the need for these items was already incredibly low, food and water were still an indispensable physiological supplement for Level 3 witches.

Originally, the four Hunt Wizards wanted to use these to force Grim out of the volcano, but to their surprise, Grim carried a large amount of fire dragon meat in his storage ring, which was enough to last for ten years if he saved his food.

As for drinking water, Grim carried with him a water-making wand, which was enough for one person to use even though the water gathered in the molten fire cave, where the fire element was extremely strong, was very little.

Thus, the two sides were at a stalemate a mile a minute!

....................

Since the external path was cut off, Grim didn't think about it anymore.

Taking this rare opportunity of 'seclusion', Grim hid in the molten fire cave dug out from beneath the lava fire pool, and with the help of the crude facilities and barren resources, he once again completed his soul cutting and put a portion of his soul into that Soul Gathering Crystal.

And this action also caused his soul breath to weaken abruptly!

According to the chip's assessment, Grim's soul had shrunk by more than a third, and even that had severely affected his battle performance.

However, the risk was high, and the reward was just as great!

The Soul Gathering Crystal was filled with hundreds of souls whose consciousness was already muddled with pure holy light, and the part of Grim's split soul that rushed into it was simply like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, able to devour and melt the unclaimed holy light power at will.

Grim's split soul first consciously devoured the Black Iron Knight's holy light, and then slowly attacked the Silver Knight's holy light after its own power grew and strengthened. Its ultimate target, of course, was the only golden holy light inside the Soul Gathering Crystal.

While devouring the holy light's power, in order to cover up its steeply weakened 1/3 of its soul, Grim even took the initiative to start a war once again, using a large number of hoarded flame creatures to hit the opponent's camp.

Naturally, Grim's 'different condition' could not be hidden from the powerful perception of the mind warlock, and the four hunting witches were obviously somewhat at odds over the sudden weakening of the fire witch's spirit.

The four hunting witches clearly disagreed on the sudden weakness of the fire witch's spirit, and the four mind warlocks, Benija, both thought that the fire witch might have inadvertently caused a backlash in her meditation, which caused the weakness of her soul, and this was a good time for them to take the opportunity to attack in. But the serpent wizard Natagu and the old poisonous woman agreed that this was a trap laid by the fire witch, intending to lure them in.

Otherwise, how could a 3rd level witch with a good soul suddenly weaken!

It wasn't really the fault of Nataku and the others for being suspicious and thinking too much, but rather that no sorcerer dared to play the soul cutting game like Grim did, despite being surrounded by enemies.

This if they encountered a few reckless and irritable guys who rushed hard into the Lava Fire Pool, I'm afraid it would be a thousand times harder for Grim to repel the enemy's attack with his soul weakened.

However, after half a year of 'contact', Grim, who had always been bold and daring, had gradually become familiar with and understood the four hunting witches. Therefore, it was only after an in-depth assessment of their personalities through the chip that Grim squared up and made this near 'suicide' move boldly.

Fortunately, he had gambled right!