Age of Adepts

"Is Mary in danger?"

Grim was appalled at the retort.

Alice in the magical water mirror sighed grudgingly.

"You all underestimate those bit natives. They are not as good as the Wizarding World in every way, but by coincidence of marriage, they can give birth to some of the strongest bits of the world."

"What's in the Hazen bit?"

"The indigenous gods, the totemic gods as recorded in the books!"

Grim was silent for a moment.

It only took a few moments for the chip to pull up all the information in the database related to the totem gods, and for Grim to instantly understand the risk that Mary was facing.

The Totem Gods were barely more than territorial gods; they didn't place their kingdoms inside the interdimensional layers that the mortal world couldn't reach like other gods. The Totem God's kingdom was hidden in the material plane, which also gave the mortals of the world a chance to touch the deity.

When they encountered such regional gods, as long as the sorcerers played it safe and did not casually break into their earthly divine kingdoms, they would still hold a certain advantage in force.

After all, these totem gods were famous 5th rank creatures within their own divine kingdoms, but once they left the kingdoms, they were also subject to the shackles of the laws of the place, and could only exert around 4th rank strength. This was one of the main reasons why they were easily unwilling to step out of the divine Kingdom.

Therefore, for such totem gods, the witches had a way to deal with them.

That was to slaughter their followers, cut down their faith base, and then set traps outside to force the totem gods to step out of the divine Kingdom and fight with them outside the divine Kingdom.

"What do you mean... Mary is planning to run to that Feathered Serpent God's lair to fight it?" Grim couldn't help but get a bit of a headache as well.

"It's hard to tell if Mary is lucky or unlucky, given the circumstances!" Alice gave another ghostly sigh, "Fortunately, the Feathered Serpent God that Mary faced has just given birth to an offspring whose strength has fallen from 5th rank beginner to 4th rank advanced..."

Hearing this, not to mention others, even Grim couldn't help but lightly lick his lips and get a little dry.

A divine object whose strength had plummeted due to 'production' would be a huge temptation for any 4th rank wizard to refuse. Such an opportunity was simply a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

However, after so many years of making his way in the wizarding world, Grim was well aware that any opportunity went hand in hand with risk. To gain as much benefit as possible, one had to take as much risk as possible, and they would always be in direct proportion to each other.

"You haven't said anything about misfortune yet!" Grim calmly inquired.

"That Feathered Serpent God seems to be showing weakness to its enemies. As Mary invaded its kingdom step by step with her blood clan and slaughtered its people indiscriminately, it also chose to show weakness and lure the enemy in. Currently, Mary is leading people to the troll kingdom capital, which is also the lair of the Feathered Serpent God."

At this point, Alice had a worried glance at Grim.

"I can perceive that there will be a fierce battle between the two sides there in the future. But I could never see how the exact situation would develop. It is, after all, the Feathered Serpent God's lair with the power of faith covering it, and even if I were to advance to the 4th level, I would not be able to see through its layout, let alone see how the situation would develop."

"So that means Mary will be in danger?" Grim chimed in.

"It's a different plane there, and my perception of fate doesn't extend that far. But I can perceive that Mary is at a great turning point in her destiny, one foot is life, one foot is death, and there are so many factors that will affect the future..."

"I'll inform Gargamel and Meryl right away, and do my best to help Mary with the Crimson Family's greatest strength. Magic Armor Legion, Magic Armor Puppet Dragons...these guys are all being transferred over to me. I don't believe that the flesh and blood of those bit natives will be able to stop the onslaught of the Raging Magic Armament. If that Feathered Serpent God wants to play dirty, I'll send people to smash up its nest!" Grim was on fire as soon as he heard that Mary was in danger.

"Ahem, you still don't get me..." lamented Alice again, "This is a risk and an opportunity! Don't you want Mary to have a big future? Then this adventure was an opportunity for her. If she grasps it, the opportunity will be hers. If she can't grasp it, or if we interfere haphazardly, then the opportunity that belongs to her will have slipped away in vain."

At this point, Alice glanced at Grim again.

"Are you...sure you want Mary to be a little witch who will always be attached to you? All the dangers you carried for her, all the opportunities you didn't want, but let her cling to your wings in peace and security?"

Grim was mute.

"Besides, there's Mary's character put out there! Do you think she'd like that? To put it bluntly, she was clearly influenced by the news of my promotion to the next level this time alone. At this point, she'll go crazy if we deprive her of the most likely chance to rise again..."

Grim chanted for a moment, finally making up his mind.

"Shadow Demon, you go to the Hazen Position immediately to find and protect Lord Mary. Remember, as long as Mary is not in danger of dying, no advance action is to be taken even if the Blood Clan's losses are severe. Go..."

At Grim's command, a gentle wave came from within the dark shadows beneath him, and then all was quiet again. If Grim didn't have a slight soul connection with the Shadow Demon, it would have been difficult for even him to notice its departure.

"This arrangement is actually enough!" Alice nodded, "Mary is not a fool, if she wasn't sure, she wouldn't easily step into that stinking snake's lair. And the other party, in the end, is only a 4th stage feathered snake that has mastered some of the power of divine magic. Moreover, it's still hatching offspring, and although Mary will take a certain risk, the opportunity exists, it's up to her to grasp it!"

Since he had already made the arrangement, Grim forced himself to stop thinking about what was happening on the alien plane, and instead changed a topic.

"How did you advance to level 4 this time? Could it be that it has some connection to that 'Son of the Bit' you were talking about last time?"

Speaking of which, Alice immediately became beaming.

"The reason why I was able to advance this time can be attributed to that strange soul you brought back from the Morian Plane. Relying on her, I was able to advance in rank by abducting back a huge amount of Fate from the dying Morian Plane."

"What about that soul?"

"She brought me the power of destiny, and I returned her an energized body. Now she's inside my tower of fate, locked in my private library, almost lifelessly memorizing the knowledge of sorcery..."

"She's an arcane apprentice, and she has the status of a 'son of the bit'. You're not worried about her causing any trouble in the future?"

"Just make a scene!" Alice said leisurely, "It's not me that's protecting her now, it's the Destiny of the Wizarding World. I don't know what the bit consciousness is planning on her, but it obviously sees her differently."

Seeing Alice mention this question, Grim hesitated for a moment and finally managed to ask.

"Alice, with your knowledge, what is the essential difference between us witches and their arcane counterparts? Could it be that we have a common source?"

Alice smiled faintly.

"We're witches, not mages or arcanists. We come from chaos, and we return to chaos, and even if we are considered evil by all beings, it does not change our origin. To become a sorcerer, danger, taboo and the unknown are always with us."

"Those sorcerers and arcane masters originally came out of the same origin as us, but in order to so-called spread civilization and spread knowledge, they repeatedly removed the part that belonged to chaos inside the origin system, and removed all the dangerous parts and unknown components of sorcery, castrating them into spells or arcane arts that could be systematically cast and released."

"In this way, it does improve the universality of sorcery, allowing guys who were not gifted or talented enough to become part of the system. However, this neutered sorcery will also be much less powerful, and will even lose that shred of original connection to the bit world."

"Moreover, is it the number of members or the power of the individual who is the leader that determines how powerful a group of spell casters is? Grim, you're already a 4th rank wizard, so you should be able to appreciate who is more valuable between one 4th rank and ten 3rd ranks."

"How many 3-steps would it take to rival you now alone? Ten, a hundred, or two hundred? I'm afraid that in your eyes, even the number of 3rd rank creatures is not enough to be your real enemy!"

"The fallen Arcane Empire had also created such a beautiful and glorious Arcane civilization. Like us, they belonged to spell casters and had similar origins. But in their development, they discarded the overly bloody, overly cruel part of the original spell casters and standardized and systematized primitive sorcery. They called this behavior civilization, progress, so what was their result?"

"Such a huge empire, so abundant in resources, if we don't pursue smoothness, if we don't castrate ourselves, I'm afraid that we can also pull up quite a few great Sorcerer-level arcane masters through blood sacrifice alone, right! If a 9th rank Grand Auror were to appear within the Austrian Empire system, would the entire Austrian Empire still suffer from the enemy's near-splitting ** and invasion?"

"Occultists are gentle, knowledgeable and peaceful, but they almost never harden their bodies or spirits, relying more on those occult facilities to cast spells and fight. They are evil and selfish, and almost never care whether or not their methods conform to the values of the secular society. Often times, witches will even treat their own kind cruelly, and do not reject forbidden sorceries such as blood sacrifice and voodoo."

"It's all these kinds of things that have caused the completely different development paths of arcanists and witches."