Age of Adepts

The hall on the first floor was pitch black.

Despite the absence of any light source, it was unable to hinder Gloria's normal sight and perception.

Layer upon layer, dense force field fluctuations poured over every inch of space within the castle, separating the entire castle into tens of millions of small regions.

Each region had a completely different spatial environment and properties from the other, and it also caused Gloria's extended mental perceptions to return with a bizarre scene that was completely fragmented and could not be put back together again.

Gloria's perceptions were limited to a narrow range of 20 meters in diameter, and the scenery was blurred at a distance, so even if she perceived something, there was no guarantee that what she perceived was completely correct.

The entire interior of the castle was deadly silent, with a fog as thick as blood and water scattered everywhere. They did not know where they originated from, nor did they know where they flowed to, but they drifted freely in the castle's dark, deep, winding and secluded stone tunnels, gathering and dispersing invisibly.

Wherever they went, the mossy walls, floors and ceilings became damp, and when brushed lightly, they were stained with red, stinging, thick plasma.

Perhaps knowing that ordinary witch beasts couldn't do any harm to Gloria, Kathryn put away those cheap tactics and showed great sincerity in welcoming the first guest of the Nightmare Castle.

The wooden staircase leading to the second floor of the castle was just thirty meters from the entrance, but after half a quarter of an hour of walking, Gloria was still not far away, seemingly never able to reach it.

The sound of small flying creatures flapping their wings in the darkness that was out of reach of vision and perception was incessant, but it was hard to find them.

The entire castle was like a terrifying haunted house, with not a single human shadow to be seen.

"Playing God!" Gloria smirked.

Having been famous for a long time, she had been involved in so many battles and experienced so many battle scenes that she couldn't count them, so much so that any eerie and horrifying scenes that fell into her eyes would be nothing more than kindergarten-level ghost games.

"Since you're hiding and won't come out, I'm going to dig you out!"

Gloria's right foot pushed hard, and the black and blue thick slab of rock shattered beneath her feet, caving in as a ten meter diameter shallow pit in her center.

Gloria shouted, her hands thrusting into the rock layer beneath her, and when she stood up again, she was already holding a five-meter diameter piece of broken rock base in her hands.

In the next second, the fierce wind whistled.

The rock flew out like a cannonball, rushing through the blood mist and disappearing into the end of the darkness.

The entire Nightmare Castle was trembling as continuous muffled sounds came from it.

Crushing rock crashed into wall after wall, and just as it was about to hit the fourth wall, a tall, pitch-black, dark figure emerged out of nowhere. There were a few clanging sounds, and where the metal blades shone, the crushed rock was sliced into countless pieces and scattered everywhere with a clatter.

Shadow Demon and Gloria stared at each other across the three layers of broken holes, the former's two metal hand claws rubbing against each other, splashing out bright sparks of fire. After shaking off the rocky debris from the hand claws, Shadow Demon quietly blended back into the darkness.

And Gloria's purple pupils flashed, and with a flick of her right foot, a piece of crushed rock, large or small, floated up. As soon as it rose to chest height, she wielded her iron fist and struck it out one by one.

Oooooh....

A piece of crushed rock seemed like a cannonball that had been fired, and with a sharp whistle it flew in all directions.

Here, Gloria couldn't effectively judge the direction and position at all, and she didn't need to judge now either. With her violence anyway, hitting the flying shattered rock wherever it landed would be a serious damage to this castle.

She didn't believe that if she demolished it all the way down like this, those cloaked up bastards would still be sitting there!

As expected, just as she was tearing down the entire floor of the hall and the walls of the first floor were bombarded with holes, the blood mist silently swirled behind her, and Mary transformed into a blood bat and glided silently behind her.

As soon as Mary came within twenty meters of Gloria, the latter instantly sensed it.

Ug turned around and pounded out with a fine fist whistle, and a coarse pillar of air as thick as substance was pounded out in an instant.

The blood-colored bat flapped its bat wings and circled in the air, dodging the impact of the violent wind pressure with a millimetre of difference. Rushing to Gloria's front, Mary reassumed her human form, holding the bee-stung dagger in her hand, and began a death-dance with it as if it were a masked ball.

It was true that Gloria had been comprehensively suppressed by the Nightmare Castle, her basic perception, constitution, strength, reaction speed, and attack frequency had all been weakened. However, the layer of violet light outside her body seemed to belong to the rule power of a certain super-ranked witchcraft, and sideways offset some of the home field suppression for her.

Thus, once the battle was on, Mary, who was only at the 4th intermediate level, was literally in danger under her, every moment seemingly wandering on the edge of life and death!

Possessing the peak strength of the 4th stage and a mysterious super-ranked witch weapon in her hand, Gloria is simply like an incarnation of Hercules. Her muscles aren't strong and sturdy, but they are imbued with a violent and unparalleled divine power that can inspire a terrifying power.

Every time she swung a punch or kick, she didn't even have to hit the opponent, just the terrifying wind pressure from the swinging motion could bring unimaginable terrifying damage to the enemy.

A fist was still dozens of meters away from the enemy, and the front end of the terrifying fist wind had already touched the enemy's body. The air squeezed by the fist formed a translucent **, as if it was a cannonball blasting at the opponent. The attack was still halfway through, and it expanded into a terrifying wind pressure pillar with a radius of several meters as the fist wind vibrated.

For Mary who had only 21 points of physique and 17 points of strength, not to mention being hit solid by the fist, if she was swept by the fist wind, she would end up with broken bones and flesh and blood.

With 44 points of Agility, Mary's Agility had climbed to 47 points after she received the Nightmare Ancient Castle's home field boost. This also made all of Gloria's movements fall so slow and sluggish in her eyes, and if she wasn't worried about being countered by her opponent's violet light, Mary would have been able to idly spread her frolics like a frolic in its fist and leg strength.

Only a 3rd rank Bee Sting Dagger was a limited threat to Gloria, and the few close attacks, other than poking the purple light stinger into a ripple, Mary didn't cause any real threat or damage to her opponent at all.

However, under the crazy impact of the blood energy, Gloria's protective violet light also began to become dull and dense, no longer having the previous feeling of being as stable and solid as a mountain.

Seemingly sensing Mary's difficulty, Gloria Ug stilled, frenzied and incomparable power flowing in her body, the hooded purple light even condensed into a dazzling ball of light in her palm.

"Mary, withdraw..." the Grim who had been stealthily watching the battle in silence in the castle immediately issued a warning through the mental link.

Mary obeyed everything Grim said, and didn't fall in love with the battle, the pair of bat wings behind her swiftly dodged out like a ghost. And as soon as she left, a terrifying sun rose up in the hands of that Gloria who had finished saving her strength.

The sun was purple!

Where the purple sunlight shone, the blood-colored mist crumbled, and the entire interior of the Nightmare Castle was enveloped in a crazy purple light.

"Ah..."

Mary screamed miserably, the skin exposed to the violet light quickly festering and melting.

The strange power was still seeping into her body, the powerful force of erosion and assimilation was horrifying.

Mary's figure flickered and promptly ducked into an adjacent chamber, which was able to avoid the subsequent violet light's direct shine.

Out of the range of the other party's attack, Mary's heart was still pounding wildly. She pulled out a bottle of Dragon Blood Potion and gulped it down, watching as her damaged body began to rapidly recover, which put her mind at ease, while secretly being glad for herself.

It was fortunate that she had disengaged from the battlefield in time with Grim's reminder, otherwise if she had still been at Gloria's side at that moment just now, she might not have been able to get out so easily.

What kind of power was that violet light, and how could it be so powerful? At any rate, Mary was considered a top level 4 witch, but she didn't even have the slightest resistance to this purple light.

Could it be... that it was also a rule power?

As she swiftly swam around the interior of the castle, Mary used her authority to give a single order to Kathleen.

Deep inside the castle, a wave of blood swept out, rushing through one stone tunnel after another like a stormy wave, washing down from the topmost floor and pounding straight at the tiny figure standing alone in the middle of the building's lobby.

A boundless sea of blood!

This was a terrifying move that Mary had uniquely created by combining her power and the characteristics of the Nightmare Castle. Of course, without that energy jewel, it was unknown how many creatures would have to be killed to create a sea of blood on such a scale.

Now, within her own home turf, Mary manipulated the Sea of Blood as if it was a torrent of blood rushing out of the tunnel and washing over Gloria like an overwhelming mountain.

The violet light outside of Gloria's body became even thinner!

The day and night battle with Grim had depleted a lot of her violet light. And being in the middle of the opponent's home turf, the terrifying force field suppression was also draining her energy.

In order to catch that little rat who possessed exceptional agility and was incredibly oily, Gloria had to resort to a map cannon style full screen attack. Only with such an indiscriminate ranged attack could that little bat be unable to flee or evade, being forced to compete with the thickness of its energy reserves.

But unfortunately, her saving throws were still too obvious, allowing that damned little bat to escape in time.

However, just as Gloria had spent the buffer period of the berserk energy release and was about to continue her pursuit of that little bat, a terrifying rumbling sound was heard, and an overwhelming torrent of blood rushed down from the upper level of the stairs, heading straight towards her.

Gloria's face instantly turned pale!

"Mix..."

Before she could utter her curse, her petite form was completely engulfed by the sea of blood.