Age of Adepts

Chapter 2.

Two quarters later, Grim dragged the split-brain Grue, which had been burned to a pile of black objects, backwards, blasted open the metal gate with a fireball, and stepped inside the steel hall in faith.

The Hall of Steel covers thousands of square feet, but half of it is occupied by the large, ugly, monstrous brain of the hetero-brain Ghazluvi. Compared to the last time we met, Ghazluvi's brain had apparently grown by more than a third.

This also signals another considerable increase in Ghazluvi's power!

But unfortunately, the breath of power swinging out of Norborn's body was still only at the 3rd rank level.

Moreover, against the prepared Grim, Ghazluvi's psychic abilities were invulnerable and invisible, but it was still a considerable difficulty to put down a 4th rank Fire Witch.

Thus, the brain monster Gazruvi, who had already pondered the various pros and cons, had already made his choice the moment Grim stepped into the hall.

A small white flag was wrapped around a peduncle beneath Gazluvino's brain body, and waved gently at Grim through the layer of clear crystal glass.

"Drip, data link request detected, request subject to indicate if access?"

You can't beat them and you want peace talks?

Grim's mind was filled with an intense scowl, but eventually he received the mind link that Ghazluvi passed on.

As soon as the mind link connected, Grim's mind immediately rang with the slightly tinny, strange voice of Gazluvi.

"Lord Grim, I've been wronged! The split-brain Gru did all these things... I was asleep some time ago and relaxed my control over the split-brain Gru before I let it be 'compelled' by someone else.... "

Grim listened with a squint and a smile.

The more inscrutable Grim became, the more worried that xenobrain Ghazluvi became.

"Lord Grim, you must be discerning! I...I'm really innocent! You...if you don't believe me, you can check that split-brain Gru's brain area...it...it seems to have been compelled by a witch named Misa... ......."

Misa the Witch?

Just by the name, Grim was convinced that the other man's words weren't all false. But Gazluvi also mentioned examining the brain area, which could mean a thorough dissection and slicing of that split-brain Gru's brain, the conditions of which only the two parties could fully appreciate.

Can a split-brain Gru do things it doesn't know about behind the main brain's back?

If Grim was just a junior apprentice, it was still possible to be coaxed by such a 'lie'. But now, as he learned more about a creature like the Isobrain, the more ridiculous he found it to be for it to tell such 'lies'.

That split-brain Gru seemed to have an independent mind and autonomous consciousness, and a personality very different from the main brain, but their two brains were actually linked together. Even though they are separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, and are on different planes, there is still a hidden connection between the two brains that is difficult to completely separate by external forces.

In all seriousness, the main brain is the trunk, and the split brain is just the branches it divides to facilitate movement.

If a detachment dies, the main brain only loses one of its best puppets, and it doesn't lose any of itself. However, once the main brain dies, all the detachments will be annihilated at the same instant, and no one will survive.

It is because of the existence of this characteristic that the sub-brain will never do anything to endanger the main brain.

So, when Grim heard that Ghazluvi had used such a 'poor lie' as an excuse in order to stay alive, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of exasperation. However, as Ghazruvi had expected, Grim had no intention of killing it, but merely took this opportunity to hammer it severely.

After all, a 3rd level brain monster who was able to control the Steel Capital of Noah at his own discretion, anyone would probably not be willing to strangle him to death!

So, what Ghazluvi needed at this point was nothing more than an excuse that was good enough to fool the outsiders. As long as Grim didn't have the heart to kill it, no matter how poor the excuse was, he would accept it with regret.

Grim pondered silently.

Looking at the obsequiously waving white flag and perceiving the other's careful psychic touch, Grim couldn't help but feel a pang of anger.

The other side appeared to be respectful, but Grim knew in his heart that the other side had already made up its mind and was waiting for him to take advantage of the situation.

And those spots of its past misdeeds could be turned over by the 'sacrifice' of the split-brain Grue.

Such thoughts, such petty plans, were actually what made Grim the most angry and disgusted!

In deep thought, Grim's gaze 'unintentionally' landed on Ghazluvi's large brain.

As the dense fire element converged, two red dots lit up on the soft and pliable, grey brain grey matter that was alive like solidified jelly, and spiraled into a small flame.

Although the fire was small, it had a strange power that penetrated straight to the soul!

Ghazluvi's mind ripples vibrated and thought tentacles roamed, not perceiving the taste of danger from the scent of power that was spilling out of Grim's body.

Therefore, it was also somewhat unable to grasp the other party's intentions for this move, and could only lay down its mind force field in an effort to isolate the power projection of those two gazes while begrudgingly summoning Grim, "Lord Grim, Lord Grim, your power is too great, can you restrain it a bit. Little man, little man... some of it is too much to bear!"

Unfortunately, Grim seemed to be thinking too deeply, his eyes wandering and dazed, and the two red dots that were frozen on Ghazluvi's brain began to move around unconsciously.

The fire elemental power condensed by the red dots grew stronger, landing on top of Ghazluvi's brain, and with a zipping noise, it easily branded a scorched line one meter deep and half a meter wide on it. All of the brain grey matter located in the path of the red dot's travels was scorched black, losing its basic vitality.

And Ghazruvi's large brain body was also squealing and suffering from the intense burning sensation that penetrated straight to the soul. As for the mind force field it had condensed, it somehow couldn't block the penetration of the strange flame power of the red dot.

It seemed... it seemed that the Grim didn't even project the flame energy down its line of sight, but instead, in a different way of power operation that Ghazluvi didn't even understand, directly condensed this sorcery effect similar to flame burning on the surface of its brain.

This... seemed... to be a bizarre rule power!

Could it be that this Grim had comprehended and mastered some sort of flame law as soon as he had advanced to the 4th level? That's unbelievable too!

The red dots continue to move around the brain....

As it moved, it left a crisscross of scorched black lines on it, living like an urchin scribbling scrolls at random, and also caused that Ghazluvi's brain to tremble in pain, the folds and loose gray matter of the brain's surface rippling with an endless layer of vibrations.

And Ghazluvi's pleas for mercy grew louder and louder.

It took a full half a quarter of an hour before Grim 'seemed' to snap out of his deep thoughts, his dazed eyes fiercely focused and animated.

"Geez... look, I was just thinking about that Mesa witch, and I got distracted for a moment, but I 'accidentally' hurt your body... ...You don't blame me, do you?" The expression on Grim's face was rich and exaggerated, and his mouth was sincere, but the malice and ridicule that filled his eyes was so full of eyebrows that anyone could see his intentionality and 'hypocrisy'.

However, just as Grim didn't want to expose Gazluvi's 'lies', Gazluvi didn't dare to casually tear his face off with Grim. Thus, in the face of Grim's sincere 'apologies', Gazruvi could only repeatedly show his 'generosity'.

"What? What?... Lord Grim, it's not your fault, it's just... it's just that my body is so lacking in exercise, that's why... that's why It can't withstand your powerful greatness that is just a little 'hotter'!"

"So that's it! It seems like I'm overthinking it. But, Gazluvi, you can't just expand your brain area and forget to strengthen the elemental defense of your brain body! That's not good, it's easy to get yourself 'mistakenly' hurt..."

Listening to Grim's eventual sarcasm, Gazruvi only felt bitterness in his mouth, but he couldn't pour it out.

Its elemental defense was poor? It's weak?

To put it bluntly, I'm afraid that if you grab those 2nd level dragons and compare them, they might not be as strong as Ghazluvi Elemental Defense! Its mind force field was able to form a special layer of distorted space around its brain, and as long as its mind power wasn't exhausted, it was nearly impossible for ordinary elemental sorcery and physical attacks to penetrate this layer of protection to attack its original body.

Only Grim's bizarre, 'pupil technique' that was imbued with a hint of flame law power could force and harm it so miserably. If it were any other guy, who would be able to withstand the thousands of magical cannons in the Eternal Capital, who would be able to penetrate the legions of tens of thousands of magical weapons and hundreds of high level magical weapons, who would be able to stand up to the powerful mind supernatural attacks of the 3rd stage brain monster....

Not to mention hurting Ghazluvi's brain, I'm afraid that the number of individuals in the entire Lance Plane who could stand before it by their own strength didn't exceed five fingers.

Therefore, facing Grim's ridicule filled with full 'malice', Ghazruvi could only knock down his teeth and swallow blood, once again bowing his head to acknowledge his mistake, expressing his humility and submission.

The gaze that had ignited just now had made Ghazluvi miserable, but to really dig deeper, the damage wasn't great. Its brain was too large after all, and the loss of that amount was nothing at all.

And all both sides were expressing through this move was an attitude and intent!

Grim expressed it, and Ghazluvi accepted it.

So, both sides were happy and became a family once again, loving each other.

Still, a new flame control rune was essential!

Looking at this strange flame rune that suddenly floated to the front of his brain, Gazluvi pondered for half a day before reluctantly releasing his mind protection again, allowing it to be imprinted on his soul origin.

The previous soul branding was, after all, left over from Grim's 2nd stage, and had already been cracked by Ghazruvi through some way. And now this flame control rune, although it couldn't guarantee its omnipotent loyalty, it was after all a proven method of short-term restraint.

And in order to stay alive, Ghazluvi could only hold his nose and suffer in silence!