Age of Adepts

The image inside the crystal was that of the desolate Dragonblight. The crystal was looking down from high in the sky. This place was shrouded in dark clouds, with wild grass growing everywhere and unusual magical beasts stalking within.

At the edge of the image, a strange tower stood alone and lonesome in these plains, a silent testament to the countless years it had witnessed.

It did not have any of the flashy lights or radiance that other adept towers typically had. It also had none of the traffic or fancy architecture.

Dragonblight was nothing more from heartbreaking loneliness and desolation!

“Hehehehe. These Fate Witches lead a pretty tough life, don’t they! Why don’t I show them a good time then.” Maztan chuckled perversely and directed his magical eye towards the Tower of Fate.

“Spin, o’ Wheel of Fate. Let me see what that Alice is doing.”

A series of chants came from Maztan’s mouth. He cut open his right index finger with his nails and drew a ‘&’ shaped symbol on the divination crystal. The blood was quickly absorbed, and the image in the crystal began to move. The mist started to clear, seemingly as if an image was about to be revealed.

However, just as the vague image began to surface, the crystal suddenly glowed with blinding white light. Maztan’s eyes even started to tear up from it. When he finally regained his composure and wiped away his tears, the crystal was once again shrouded in the mists of Fate. He could no longer see anything.

“Bastard! Bastard...does that Alice always keep herself protected with the powers of Fate at every single moment? To think her defenses are so airtight. I couldn’t see a thing,” Maztan cursed resentfully and even started sulking.

However, he had plenty of means to scry on people. He wouldn’t give up from a mere rejection like this.

Alice might keep herself well-protected, but there was no way she could keep up such a tight defense for all the people around her, could she?

Maztan quickly recovered and started drawing on the crystal with his blood again while fervently praying, “O’ Fate, please let me see the person who spends the most time with Alice!”

Energy surged towards the top of the Tower of Observation. Overwhelming Fate power shrouded the astrology platform, clashing and merging with the elementium energy nearby, causing a colorful splash of colors to be seen high in the skies.

The mist in the divination crystal faded as the Fate powers guided it forward. The image changed rapidly, finally settling on a young girl crouched at a wooden table, seriously studying divination.

It was a young girl with blonde hair to her waist and pretty facial features. She had a wooden hammer in her hand and a tortoise’s shell in the other. She was mumbling angrily to herself, all while knocking on the shell with the hammer every so often.

“How am I supposed to break it? A tortoise’s shell is so tough, and all I get to use is a wooden hammer. Hmph! Why can’t it be a golden hammer? Even a metal one’s fine.”

After hammering on the shell for a bit longer and realizing that it was all in vain, the girl tossed away the wooden hammer. She pushed away all the other random stuff on her table and took out a magical tome to start reading.

“...Fate is one of the most powerful principle powers in the world! Take hold of Fate, and you can take hold of the trajectory of your life, allowing yourself to transcend the River of Fate and live free above.” The young girl couldn’t help but grumble again when she read this. “Transcend Fate. What’s the point of that? All we can do is look but not intervene. Any intervention means an immediate backlash from Fate...hmph! What kinda future does a profession like this have?”

Seemingly having ran out of patience to continue reading the experience and feelings of the adepts that came before her, the young girl pushed the book aside and started rolling all over the table instead.

“Fate power...Fate power...Alice is always saying that we can be favored by Fate as long as we follow its guidance. Yet...she still doesn’t teach me any Fate magic even though I can already control Fate power. Hmph! So stingy!”

Maztan couldn’t help but be surprised when he saw this young girl who spoke so poorly of Fate’s power.

For some reason, Maztan seemed to be looking at an overwhelming torrent of Fate when he saw her. It was a power different from the World of Adept’s Fate power, yet similar in indescribable ways. It was profound and mysterious, with no means of putting that feeling into words.

A Child of Fate.

There was no need for any more appraisals. The moment he saw her, Maztan was sure that she was the heir of a plane that appeared abruptly and vanished just as quickly a hundred years ago.

It seemed like Alice had hidden her in the Tower of Fate to avoid disturbances from the outside world!

Maztan had only heard of these mysterious individuals known as the children of Fate from his books. He knew nothing of their power and mystery.

Thus, out of curiosity, Maztan drew on his Fate powers and pushed the magical eye towards the young girl.

The girl, who was rolling about on the wooden table, suddenly stared at a particular spot in the air. Her pretty eyes glowed as she stared as if something interesting was about to happen there.

Maztan’s perverse gaze clashed with the girl’s stare through the divine crystal. The two of them observed each other and assessed each other, both seemingly somewhat curious about the other.

Could this girl actually see the magical eye?

Maztan moved the magical eye horizontally across the air slowly. The girl’s head followed along, her eyes firmly locked onto the eye’s position.

Dammit! She could see it.

“Hey, old man, how do you make this strange eye thing appear? Can you teach me?”

Having said that, the girl waved her hand, and the magical eye shook violently.

The next moment, when the image in the crystal finally stabilized, what appeared in front of Maztan was a large face and a single, blinking eye.

Maztan didn’t know how, but this magical eye of his forged out of Fate power had fallen into the girl’s hands. She was now putting in front of her eye and taking a curious look.

“Bastard, this is my magical eye!”

Maztan was furious. However, regardless of how he tried to give orders to the divine crystal, he could not wrestle back control from the girl.

It was almost as if, as if, as if...the Fate power was no longer in his control. As if the eye was now no more than a toy in the girl’s hands!

Maztan was instantly terrified.

He had never been afraid of a battle of Fate! He had the means to protect himself from Fate retaliation as well!

However, this kind of power and ability to take away someone else’s Fate power and instantly turn it into their own...he had never heard of such a thing.

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Children of Fate were truly monsters!

This young girl who had been no more than a pretty and cute thing in his eye was now a terrifying monster more vicious than even the creatures of the Abyssal World.

Maztan instantly severed the connection between the divination crystal and the magical eye. The crystal’s image faded to gray, and the crystal itself became filled with the mists of Fate once more.

“Hmph! That’s not good. With the aid of that child of Fate, Alice will certainly be able to beat me when it comes to Fate power. Mm, it seems like I had best not prod the witches in the north for a while now. I’ll get Domhnall to deal with this first.”

Maztan started to pace about the astrology platform in frustration. However, just as he gritted his teeth and tried his best to find a way to deal with that damned child of Fate, he suddenly froze in his tracks.

He turned around slowly and lifted his head. His eyes stared unblinkingly at a specific spot in the air.

There...a nexus of Fate power surged as a very familiar magical eye slowly formed. It blinked a few times and stared at him.

“Hey, old man, we meet again.”

Five seconds later, an incredibly tragic scream came from the astrology platform at the top of the Tower of Observation.

“No no no no no no no no no no no......”

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

Tower of Observation, the two hundred and sixteenth floor.

Inside a bright and spacious room.

Greem was casually seated across from another adept, having a pleasant conversation.

His visitor was Schreiber, a veteran fire adept that had advanced to Fourth Grade over three hundred years ago.

His purpose here was simple and straightforward; he wanted to exchange thoughts and experiences on the fire laws with Greem. In the end, he wanted to have the two of them appraise each other’s fire laws!

Of course, the law powers mastered by high-grade elementium adepts were all classified secrets and hidden aces reserved for the direst of situations. They should never be shown in their entirety to an outsider. However, if you met someone of the same attribute, exchanging some of the less sensitive information was a shortcut to your own improvement.

Perhaps worried that Greem might hold back, Schreiber immediately materialized three fire runes after putting out his request. Each of these runes spun slowly, radiating traces of law power as they did so.

“These are the three fire laws I have mastered: Increased Fire Range, Fire’s Frenzy, and Fire’s Blast!

“Increased Fire Range, as the name implies, increases the range of all offensive fire spells.

“Fire’s Frenzy allows the caster to move rapidly while engulfed by fire.

“Fire’s Blast provides all offensive fire spells with the repulsion effect of a Halo of Repulsion.”

After giving a simple introduction of these three fire runes’ powers, Schreiber smiled and looked to Greem.

A sincere smile appeared on Greem’s face as well.