Age of Adepts

With the construction of the Crimson Family Headquarters Witch Tower, the Flame Throne had completely become Grim's personal witch tower.

Inside the entire witch tower, apart from Grim, there was no longer half a living person to be found.

And Grim's seclusion here was a long twenty-one years.

During that time, it took Grim a year to complete the replacement of the Star Beast bloodline, and then another half a year to recuperate his body. Only after completely fusing the Star Beast bloodline did this carefully remove the Inferno Heart from his chest, cleanse the Inferno Transformation Demon Tattoo, and then squared off to construct a 'Heart of Flame' with the power of flame at the location of the heart.

For seven whole years, Grim had been immersing himself in the energy pool, frantically devouring and absorbing the violent flame energy, and using it to subconsciously nourish the 'Heart of Flame' in his chest.

It was this Heart of Flame that had taken Grim seven years to conceive!

With this Flame Heart, which was perfectly suited to his talent as a sorcerer, Grim would not have to worry about running out of sorcery energy even after advancing to the 4th level. Even in those low or no-demon spaces, as long as the Heart of Flame remained intact, Grim would never have to worry about running out of energy.

After taking care of the Flame Heart, Grim was able to put all his worries aside and began to wholeheartedly impact the 4th level!

In order to avoid interference from the outside world, Grim, with the Crimson Family and the Demonic Puppet Dragons guarding it externally, and many Demonic Artifacts and Demonic Puppets protecting it internally, closed the Flame Throne and also isolated the internal and external teleportation array, completely losing all contact with the outside world.

And this closure was a long thirteen years!

In the meantime, not only could the Crimson Family higher-ups not contact Grim, even Mary and Alice were unable to enter the Flame Throne to find out what was going on with him.

Until.....

It was the day of the Crimson Academy's new Young Prospective Sorcerer Selection Competition.

Many apprentice sorcerers aspiring to join the Crimson Family had gathered in Namlis to show off their skills, hoping to be chosen by the sorcerers within the family and thus leap into the Crimson Family.

The selection was made in the form of a ring competition.

The apprentice sorcerer, who has been given a fixed number, steps up to the ring and tries his or her best to defeat the opponent. On one side of the arena, a large stone platform was filled with resident shamans from each branch of the Crimson Family and core shamans from the headquarters.

Apprentices who were able to win five matches in a row would automatically become official members of the Crimson Family, and would be assigned to the core sorcerers. Those apprentices who fail will also be able to become foreign students as spectators if they are chosen by one of the Crimson Shamans.

Thus, win or lose, the apprentices who step into the ring will do their best to show off their talent in sorcery to the fullest extent.

However, while the selection was going on in full swing, one of the apprentices watching the battle unexpectedly turned around and suddenly pointed towards the distant sky and screamed out in alarm.

"What... what's going on there?"

They all turned back, and only then did they discover to their horror that at some point, the distant sky was a fiery red, the entire sky seemed to suddenly burn up, and rolling sheets of flames and clouds could be seen everywhere.

The Crimson Family's sorcerers immediately rose into the sky and began to detect the situation in the distance by various sorcery means. But unfortunately, neither the Prophecy Wand nor the Witch Spirit Probe could obtain more detailed information.

Was there a massive energy leak from somewhere's witch tower, or was there something terrible happening somewhere?

Just as everyone was discussing, a core sorcerer from the family headquarters suddenly shouted in alarm.

"It's the Flame Throne... that direction is where the Flame Throne is!"

Reminded by him, the remaining sorcerers immediately understood.

Yes, 300 miles away in that direction was indeed the location of the family's place of origin, the Flame Throne.

But over the years, with the closure of the Flame Throne and the repeated warnings from the family hierarchy, no family sorcerer dared to approach there for a single moment. Even for normal communication and open conversation, the Flame Throne was a rather taboo topic, and no sorcerer dared to discuss anything openly.

Therefore, as time went on, everyone gradually 'forgot' and 'neglected' the existence of the Flame Throne!

Today, however, with the appearance of the diffuse fire clouds, the crowd's hearts were restless again.

Could it be... could it be that the long-dormant family lord has made some new moves?

As the crowd of witches were pointing their fingers in a heated discussion, two trails of light, one red and one green, suddenly slashed across the sky. And before them, a slim, faint figure of a faint figure could be seen.

"It's Lord Wenliel and Lord Gargamel..." a wizard shouted out.

The rest of the witches also nodded their heads.

The red light trace that emitted a strong fire elemental scent and a frighteningly cold dragon power from inside was Lord Winrielle's unique and strange scent. The green light trace, on the other hand, was filled with the daunting smell of a curse, and there was no need to ask it must be that Lord Gargamel.

As for that faint figure from earlier, the crowd of witches looked at me and me at you, and all of them had a wry smile of 'you know' on their faces.

Within the Crimson Family, who didn't know that the stunningly beautiful yet ruthless Lord Mary was precisely the 'companion' of the legendary Lord Grimoire. At this point, when the Flame Throne, who hadn't had the slightest news for so many years, suddenly came up with such a move, it was a wonder that Lord Mary wasn't in a hurry to get there!

Could it be that the lord of the house has left the gate?

One had to know that the family lord was closing the door this time to impact a 4th rank wizard. If he did leave the closed door, should it be....

For a while, the crowd of witches looked at me, and I looked at you, and their hearts were on fire.

For all these years, the Crimson Family had held tightly to the Alois region without expanding outward by a single inch.

Why?

To wait to hear from the Lord of the House!

There wasn't a serious 4th rank wizard in the family, and even though it had been considered a '4th rank power' by the outside world more than two decades ago, there was still a hint of distrust deep inside.

And now that there was movement from the head of the family, it might indicate that there would be a huge change on the family side. And these changes, for these grassroots sorcerers and apprentices, often signaled a large amount of resources and inexhaustible magic crystals.

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

Mary was the first to arrive at the Flame Throne first.

Standing in the air, Mary looked down and could see wisps of dark red breath escaping from the land around the Flame Cave and entering the air.

In all the areas covered by the dark red breath, the earth began to slowly steam and the ground began to dry and melt. The green plants growing on the ground began to shrivel and wither rapidly, and twisted and struggled in pain.

When Mary was in the midst of this dense cloud of fire, it was obvious that she was having difficulty breathing.

The air around her seemed to have been heated, and as her breath rushed into her alveolar windpipe, it gave her entire body a vague burning sensation.

Just as Mary was examining all this with a frown, the mountain of fierce winds behind her pounced on her, and the dragon transformed into a dragon form, Winel flapped her crimson dragon wings and rushed straight to Mary's side.

"Mary-sama, is that the teacher coming out?" Once here, Winyl couldn't wait to ask questions.

Mary shook her head in annoyance.

"I can't contact the guy yet... the fire elemental down there is too strong to twist and block any sorcery probe!" When it came to 'that guy', Mary was full of anger.

It was only said that the closing would impact the 4th level, but it was never said that the closing would be so long.

Although there was plenty of food reserved inside the Flame Throne, as well as a large number of elemental servants, the lack of contact for a long period of time still made Mary worry. If it wasn't for Alice's discouragement, I'm afraid Mary would have been unable to resist rushing in to see if 'that guy' was alive or dead!

As the two gathered together, muttering and discussing whether or not to go inside, a fishy, strange smell came from behind them, and Gargamel, topped with a giant snake's head, arrived in a hurry.

"Lord Mary, home..."

"Okay, okay, don't ask, I don't know how that guy is doing either! But judging from the smell of flames all over the sky, he should have succeeded in the promotion. I just don't know why he's playing this game and making such a big battle."

As soon as Mary's grumbling words fell, Grim's crisp, cheerful voice suddenly rang out in the sky.

"Do you think I made those fire clouds? Well, there's nothing I can do about it now..."

"It's the teacher...

"It's the Lord of the House..."

Hearing the voice, Winyl and Gargamel couldn't help but cheer out in surprise at the same time.

"Well, there's no need for you guys to worry. Since you're all here, let's come in and have a look!"

As soon as Grim's words fell, the three of them felt the dark red breath around them suddenly and quickly gather, wrapping their bodies tightly around them. Then in the next second, with no mental preparation, a flash of light and shadow in front of them, they instantly appeared in a huge and magnificent sorcery hall.

There was nothing inside the hall, except for a hundred meter tall flame humanoid standing silently in the center. The flame figure's chest was emitting a dazzling and terrifying bright light, reflecting the entire palace in a fiery red.

"Old... teacher..."

Wenliel had already retreated back to her human form by now, standing at the feet of the hundred-meter giant, raising her head almost unable to see its full appearance. When she perceived the familiar soul fluctuations within the Flame Giant's body, she couldn't help but hesitantly call out.

"It can't be helped, my current form is somewhat special, and I won't be able to completely return to my human form in a short period of time. So... you guys will just have to look at it like this!"

As soon as the Flame Giant opened his mouth, the sound of a mountain of flames rushing resounded within the Witchcraft Hall.

For no apparent reason, the temperature within the palace began to soar straight up, instantly reaching an unbearably terrifying level!