Age of Adepts

Black Mountain City.

It was a majestic city built on a mountain.

All the buildings in the city were made of the local special black steel and stone, the surface of which was dark and dull, but it was harder than steel. Black walls, black buildings, black castles, the entire Heiheiheiheihei city is as cold and hard as the mountain people here.

The natives of the mountain people around Black Mountain City are simple and hardworking, but they have become extremely fierce and courageous under the harsh environment. They usually work in the fields, harvesting enough food to feed themselves, but when the farming season is over, they go into the mountains in groups to hunt, and the prey they hunt becomes the main source of meat for the mountain folk.

It is this strange life of half-farming and half-hunting that has sharpened the strong body and fighting spirit of the mountain folk. The mountain folk who came out of here were all the best human warriors, and had become the most popular group within the imperial army.

Perhaps when the city was first built, the builders did not intend to turn Black Mountain City into a beautiful mountain city with beautiful scenery, but rather as the strongest and most indestructible fortress. Therefore, the city's architecture could hardly see the soft and luxurious atmosphere of other regions, and was almost entirely castles, fortresses and towers that could be used for military purposes.

Reina's 'residence' was located on the top floor of a tall stone tower at the back of the main castle of Black Mountain City.

Not only was the interior space there spacious, there was also a good wide open view. Above the top floor of the tower, there were huge open narrow windows opening on all four walls. Since there were no wooden windows to shield them, the whistling mountain winds could freely rush into the hall, swept away everything unfixed inside, and then slipped away through the windows on the other side.

And, of course, they carried away that last bit of warmth!

At night, the upper hall of the tower was surprisingly cold, and even a strong mountain folk without enough warm clothing would be enough to freeze to death overnight.

Right now, however, the shaggy-haired and ragged Lena was sitting cowering on the cold floor in the middle of the hall, her head buried between her knees, her thin and shriveled body trembling slightly. Her head was buried between her knees, her thin, shriveled body trembling slightly. Every time she tried to move herself, the cold, hard alloy shackles on her feet would make a strange clattering sound.

The alloy shackle was attached to an arm's length silver chain that snaked around and through a small hole in the middle of the floor, deep into the building below. If the chain was tightened, it would be found just far enough away for Reina to pace the hall before the stone window.

In addition to the alloy shackles, Lena's face had been fitted with an iron mask to prevent her from spitting out the pebbles in her mouth. A pair of open-fingered iron gloves were on top of Lena's wrists, and countless cold, sharp iron thorns had pierced into her flesh, causing them to tear open and bleed black and purple with the slightest movement.

In such an open and cold place, Lena was only covered by a black robe that was too tattered to look at directly. Unable to muster the power of sorcery to warm her body at this moment, the only thing keeping her alive was the unusually strong body of the sorcerer.

Although Lena wasn't a Body Refining Witch, she had an 11 point body after advancing to level 2.

This made her body look unremarkable, but it also had the vigorous vitality and resilience of a jungle beast. With the torture and harsh treatment she had suffered, any other weak woman would have died countless times. In addition to her miserable appearance, the flame of life within her thin body is still burning hot and extraordinarily beautiful.

Never before had there been a moment when Lena was so hungry for power and authority!

A fire burns in her chest, burning her soul day and night.

In the past, she had relied on her mother's power and influence to make her own fortune, enjoying all the world's glory and prosperity, enjoying all the hearty wine and beautiful men, and her life had never been more depraved and extravagant. The first thing that happens is that the person who has the right to do the job will be able to do it.

In order to survive, in order to survive, she had done so many things to betray her sister witches.

But five years had passed, and the hoped-for help had not arrived, while her spiritual mind was desperate.

She knew that her talent as a witch wasn't good, and it was only after her mother-sama expended a huge amount of resources that she managed to stack her up to the 2nd rank. However, she was really quite lucky, and unexpectedly became pregnant during a **no-shade* party, giving birth to Xuefu who had a good ice talent.

As a result, Lena, who thought she had accomplished her mission in history, became more and more debauched and extravagant, going to all kinds of extravagant banquets every day, surrounded by all kinds of beautiful and strong men, and even her sorcery ability, on which she relied for her livelihood, had degenerated to an appalling state.

Otherwise, how could a powerful 2nd rank witch be so easily captured and taken alive by a bit native!

However, while she was miserably hurting herself, Lena raised her head, her purple pupils looking out through the tall, narrow stone window into the sky above Black Mountain City.

Although her body was severely shackled, she still had her far superior elemental perception ability.

And just a moment ago, she suddenly perceived a faintly strange wind elemental condensation point appearing in the sky above Black Mountain City, and it was still slowly cruising and wandering.

Was it a naturally formed wind cave, or....

Reina didn't hesitate to rise from the ground, ignoring the spiked shackles she wore that stung her own blood, and lunged at the narrow window, staring at a certain empty sky in the distance.

The silver chains drawn by Lena's violent actions clattered and rattled, also attracting the attention of the Paladin guarding her below.

With the sound of staccato iron tracks on stone steps, a black iron knight with three iron-armored guards walked down the spiral stone staircase in the corner of the hall into the hall.

Looking at Lena with her hands firmly on the stone sill of the narrow window, the silver chain collapsing straight behind her, black blood flowing rapidly down her arms and thighs, leaving a bloody footprint on the floor.

"What are you doing? Don't run to the window..." the young Paladin looked at Lena with a gaze full of concealed hatred and disgust, shouting loudly. The three iron-armored guards who followed him even took off their long whips with iron wires from their waists and whistled at Lena's thin back.

Ahhh....

The long whip whistled, snapping the black robe on Lena's body in one swirling motion, leaving a long whip mark on her sludge-covered back.

Lena gripped the stone edge of the narrow window with both hands, raised her neck and let out a scream that tore through the clouds.

Since this scream was imbued with a trace of spiritual energy, it penetrated the hall and circled around the tower for a long time before it slowly dissipated.

And in Lena's spiritual sense, the strange wind elemental gathering point floating high above the sky seemed to sense her scream and began to slowly cruise towards the tower.

It wasn't formed naturally, it was manipulated by someone....

When the three Iron Guards saw that Lena was not moved by the whipping, one by one they pulled tightly on the silver chains, forcing her away from the narrow window. With the power of the two sides holding each other, the spikes of the shackles sank deep into the flesh and blood, cutting Lena's bones to the bone.

At this moment, however, Lena's spirit had apparently fallen into some kind of abnormal arousal, not even aware of the pain in her flesh, and lay on the floor like an epileptic, her muscles all twitching abnormally.

The three guards swarmed on top of her, their whips falling on Lena like rain, snapping her flesh and splattering her with blood.

"Stay here and repent for your sins, your meal for today has been cancelled... If you go crazy again, you won't even have tomorrow's meal!"

The young holy knights chosen by the Holy Light Chapel to guard Lena were all guys who hated witches extremely, or had been persecuted by witches, or someone in their family had died in the witch's chaos, and only such guys would ignore Lena's witch's charm skill and faithfully complete the mission.

As for the flesh injury that Lena had suffered, it was nothing at all, just one night's work would heal most of it again. And this was precisely what the Paladins were most afraid of and envious of!

After punishing Lena severely again, the young Paladin returned to the interior of the tower with the three guards.

It couldn't be helped that the hall at the top of the tower was too cold, even with the Black Iron Knights' physiques, they couldn't carry the fierce mountain winds. Therefore, on weekdays when nothing happened, the guarding Paladins and guards were stationed inside the lower tower. They would only run up to punish Lena when she made trouble.

As for escaping.......Lena who had lost most of her witch power was just a slightly stronger witch who was unable to exorcise the spiked shackles and mask made of special metal, so there was no possibility of escaping.

And when the tower hall became quiet again, leaving only the whistling sound of the harsh wind shuttling past, the strange wind elemental gathering point had already floated outside the hall, making a big show of entering through the window.

"Don't come in!" Lena barely managed to brace herself from the floor and communicated in a mental secret, "There is a holy light formation hidden beneath the hall floor, any gathering of elemental forces will trigger an alarm..."

The formless and insubstantial 'wind' seemed to have understood Lena's warning and was frozen in the void outside the window.

"Who are you? Tess or Italiel?" Lena inquired with a gloomy face.

She had heard slightly about what happened to the sisters of the witches.

After all, when the Paladins wanted to torture some of the witches' internal secrets, they would inevitably reveal a part of the witches' remaining status to her. And naturally, she knew that the reason the Paladins brought her to Black Mountain City was to capture the last two powerful 3rd rank witches.

"Oh, Her Excellency Lena, long time no see!"

What Lena didn't expect was that the spirit secret language transmitted from the strange wind spirit was a male voice. And the familiar voice and tone of voice made Lena overjoyed.

"Gr... Grim... you are... Lord Grim..."