Age of Adepts

The hall had become a purgatory of flesh and blood!

The noble guests, who were still elegant and gentle earlier, had now all torn off their false masks and began to chase and kill each other madly.

They had no weapons.

They were using the most instinctive weapons of the human body, teeth, hands and feet.

They wrestled, tore, and gnawed at each other, using every means at their disposal to attack the targets around them that they could.

They had lost their human manners and sanity, and were like a herd of wild beasts pouncing and biting each other. Their faces were twisted, their mouths were opened to the maximum, and they didn't even care if the corners of their mouths were torn open.

They pounced on the nearest target, opened their mouths wide to reveal their bloodied fangs, and viciously devoured the other's neck or body. One bite and they never let go again, howling with beastly whimpers as they flail their heads desperately, tearing a good chunk of flesh from their opponent's torso each time.

Every time a prey fell, seven or eight guys with bloodied mouths and red eyes pounced on it, ferociously tearing it into bloody pieces of flesh.

There were no longer any living people inside the hall, all a group of beasts caught in a blood and flesh killing feast!

They had no allies, no partners, and every living creature was their enemy.

Even the young men and women who were dancing in close embrace a moment ago were now lying on the ground, shrieking and attacking each other like beasts....

Grim was just approaching the entrance to the hall when two slightly closer, male attendants in stiff clothing raised their heads sharply.

They were covered in blood and their hands were dripping with blood.

Beneath them, a beautiful noblewoman in a gorgeous evening gown lay on her back, half of her neck missing, her broken throat exposed. The chest, on the other hand, was a blur of blood and flesh, and large swaths of it had disappeared.

Yet surprisingly, even with such severe injuries, the noblewoman still didn't die, but instead nervously rotated her head, her mouth opening and closing unceasingly, with a hideous appearance of trying to bite something.

"Drip, the subject continues to be affected by the nightmare aura, and has entered the shallow layer of the Nightmare Frontier... The killing feast has begun, please ask the subject to find the core of Kirthlin's soul as soon as possible, otherwise the opponent's strength will gradually increase after absorbing enough of the blood sacrifice... ..."

"The Killing Feast is the first stage, and the estimated base strength of Kathryn is 4th order Intermediate... 7 minutes and 13 seconds later, we will enter the second stage, and the estimated increase in Kathryn's strength to 4th order Advanced... 16 minutes and 28 seconds later, we will enter the third stage The estimated strength is at the peak of the 4th stage... 28 minutes and 46 seconds post position 4th stage, the other party becomes a forbidden life..."

"At that time, inside its Nightmare Frontier, the odds of the subject winning against it are infinitely closer to zero..."

Grim's mind was haunted by the chip's series of prompts, and in the dream, the two male servants who had become monstrous bounced violently off the ground and lunged at it.

The chip swept over and a string of data instantly surfaced.

"Nightmare Hunger Ghost, spirit-like creature, 1st intermediate level, transformed from a creature killed by the Nightmare Castle. Its soul core is a grudge, hating all living things. Fearless of physical damage, doubles elemental damage..."

Fear of elemental damage?

A smirk appeared on Grim's face, and with a flick of his finger, two purple fireballs the size of eggs flew out and hit them straight on.

The fireballs were small, but their power was unprecedented!

Boom....

As soon as the purple fireball touched their bodies, it immediately exploded into a raging purple fire that enveloped their entire bodies.

They were only 1st rank spirits, but they were instantly reduced to ashes in front of Grim's powerful magic attack without any room for resistance.

The two hungry ghosts lost their suppression, and the half-eaten noblewoman turned over, using her broken hands to pick up the floor, crawling towards Grim with a hoarse cry. And her mouth was even more jammed open and shut, with a desperately needed ferocity.

Before it could crawl to its feet, a flame aura rushed out of Grim's body, instantly turning this noble woman ghost into fine powder.

The appearance of the high-temperature flames immediately caused the hungry ghosts in the hall that were frantically fighting to freeze. They stopped all their movements and turned their heads to look at Grim who was perched at the entrance of the hall, a little scarlet flame quickly ignited in the depths of their pupils.

Ow....

All the hungry ghosts screamed and shrieked miserably, crawling down their bodies in unison and pouncing on Grim.

Grim held the Fire Coral Wand in his hand, and with a slight twist, an even greater aura of flame spilled out. All the hungry ghosts that touched the flame aura were instantly ashes without even a chance to howl.

But what surprised Grim was that, even though the flame sorcery he cast was powerful, it could only kill the hungry ghosts, but it couldn't damage the castle at all.

The smooth and clean floor was still shining, and the terrifyingly hot flames pouring over it hadn't seen a single scorch mark even after half a day of burning. The hungry ghosts that could be easily annihilated by raising their hands and feet also began to pour out from all corners of the castle in a steady stream, holding Grim here raw and difficult to advance a fraction.

"Chip, can't these spirits kill?" A few flames in succession extinguished thousands of hungry ghosts, but the hungry ghosts raging out in front of them still didn't decrease, and Grim finally noticed that something was wrong.

"Drops, these spirit-like creatures are all dead souls bound by the Nightmare Castle, and the core of their resentment is in Kirthlin's hands... so as long as Kirthlin's soul remains intact, these spirits can be projected infinitely.... "

Turns out it wasn't the spirits themselves, but a projection of their grievances!

Grim grunted and stretched out his hand again to snap.

A dark red boundary popped out, forming a film of light with a radius of ten meters, blocking out all the enemies. As long as those hungry ghosts jumped into the light film, even without using Grim to attack, a dark red flame sprang up and could incinerate them into ash in an instant.

Burning Domain... this was the Burning Domain that came with Grim's promotion to Fire Witch!

If it was in the outside world, Grim's Burning Domain was a massive boundary that could easily overturn a thousand meters. Here, on the other hand, being suppressed by the Kirthlin Nightmare Territory, the burning field could only extend to about 10 meters outside of the body, and was undoubtedly much less powerful.

However, it was more than enough to be used to incinerate these hungry ghosts of only 1st rank!

While destroying these damned hungry ghosts with the Burning Field, Grim slipped his eyes around and scanned the halls. This wasn't the real world after all, but merely a projection of Kirthlin's Nightmare Frontier.

So here, the core of Kathryn's soul could exist in any form. And the only way to find it was to actively make it jump out.

A whimpering burst.

A flaming shield in front of Grim was scratched alive by a hideously twisted figure, and the opponent was reduced to a ball of fire in the midst of the burning field and flame backlash, struggling and shrieking for several seconds before it was reduced to ashes.

Hmm, an equivalency upgrade?

Grim was slightly startled, immediately noticing several new messages projected by the chip in his mind.

"Nightmare Frontier Middle Level, Nightmare Creature Level Up..."

"Desperate Ghost Spirit, spirit-like creature, rank 2, possessing an astonishing number of grievous ghosts on its own..."

"Abominable Hound, spirit creature, rank 2, good at biting and pouncing..."

Only then did Grim notice that the monster that he had just incinerated was an abomination hound, its entire body had no hair at all, and large festering sores and pustules could be seen everywhere. The only strange thing about it was that it had two canine heads, and it was extremely ugly and hideous.

It was said that the three-headed dog of hell there in the Abyssal Plane was the ultimate form of the Abomination Hound.

And they all uniformly possessed a strange ability, which was 'flashing'!

As soon as this thought emerged from Grim's mind, six or seven hideous and terrifying figures popped up in front of and around his body. They instantly appeared on the outside of the Flame Shield, opening their fanged maws and frantically stone tearing up.

The flames of the Burning Field burned up on their surfaces, burning them to the point of shrieking in agony but not damaging their battle strength in the slightest. They didn't seem to fear death at all, even if their entire bodies were wrapped in the dark red flames rising from the sky, they would fight to the death to attack the flame shield.

The Flame Shield outside Grim's body was torn apart three more times by them, and the seven Abomination Hounds were reduced to charcoal.

As soon as the Abomination Hounds died, a creepy ghost whistle of dead souls suddenly rang out outside the Burning Field. An illusory ghost face spurted out from inside the body of a Cleopatra Demon Woman, rushing madly into the Burning Field and closing in on Grim.

Although the burning field flames rose and incinerated most of the ghost faces, some of them broke through the layers of defense and appeared in front of Grim.

The Book of Filth and Darkness in Grim's hands emitted a pale green light, and an invisible force field spread out, sucking every face that intruded into Grim's vicinity into a small vortex protruding from the book's cover.

It seemed that the bright spirit woman realized that something was wrong and raised her head to let out a shrill scream.

Immediately, echoes of the same scream resounded from all corners of the castle, and a half-substantial Cleopatra, covered in a light gauze, emerged from the walls, floor, and ceiling.

In a flash, they surrounded Grim!

Despair spirits, a kind of terrifying monster transformed from a spirit body, their body bound with an uncountable number of human despair emotions. Once a shaman is haunted by them, if he or she is unable to withstand the impact of that terrible despair, he or she will often end up committing suicide.

It was almost 7 minutes now, and it was about to enter the second phase of the Nightmare Territory....

Grim had also noticed that the more he killed here, the more terrifying the energy atmosphere of the entire Nightmare Castle became!

The endless nightmare creatures had absorbed these terrifying energies and were also in the process of rapidly evolving and improving. After only five minutes of fighting, there were already Level 2 nightmare creatures, so what kind of monsters would appear once they entered the second stage?

Grim was thinking silently when the chip's prompt appeared.

"Time's up! Beginning the second phase of the Nightmare Frontier..."