Age of Adepts

God Messenger Xenia was focused on unleashing her fury and was caught unaware. She turned a little too slow and was struck by the rolling blast of lightning.

Though she swiftly canceled her onslaught against Greem and Alice to rapidly turn, the raging lightning still shredded the magical protections on her and seared a good half of her body.

Such severe damage would have crippled Xenia if she was still that Third Grade elf. However, after taking into herself the will of the Moonlight Goddess, these minor physical wounds could no longer faze her.

After dashing out of the rolling thunder that took up nearly half the sky, ‘Xenia’ stood proudly in the air and extended a hand toward the bright moon above. She waved with her fingers as a cold beam of moonlight gathered around her broken body. The light was miraculously healing the burned parts of her body at an extraordinary pace.

The green light that represented the power of nature continued to flash on her body. Every spark of light was accompanied by a small, fingernail-sized piece of scorched flesh peeling off. New tissue was quickly growing underneath, turning into a new layer of tender and white skin.

The damage caused by the thunder dragon’s Raging Thundertides was healing at a rate visible to the naked eye when nourished by moonlight.

Dammit, she was truly the Goddess of Moonlight! Her use of moonlight had already reached an extreme: attacking enemies, self-healing, and crowd control. How was the battle still supposed to go on?

Regarding individual combat ability, the Third Grade God Messenger Xenia had inherited all of the strengths and weaknesses of the forest elves. While her body was agile and quick, it was also excessively frail. There was no doubt that the physically gifted thunder dragon would easily crush her when she was using such a ’frail’ body.

However, with the unique traits of divine moonlight power, Xenia could easily dodge within the area covered by the moonlight. Moreover, the light she harnessed also possessed the magical quality of negating defenses. Combined, these two factors limited the power of the dragon, causing the Third Grade thunder dragon to be like a bull trying to catch a cat– incapable of even touching her despite all his strength.

The only thing that could threaten her was the thunder dragon’s large-area lightning magic.

However, activating lightning magic of this intensity and scale was a deeply exhausting task for the thunder dragon as well!

That was why both parties continued to circle each other in a game of cat and mouse above the flying ship. Cold moonlight and wild lightning entwined and clashed with each other in the sky, creating an oddly beautiful scene.

In general, the areas that the Moonlight Goddess was proficient in leaned more toward mystique and support. She shouldn’t have too many skills in the realm of combat.

However, when her opponent was only a Third Grade thunder dragon, the god messenger could easily weave between the gaps of the lightning blasts and occasionally use the moonlight as a weapon to stab one or two horrifying holes in the dragon’s body. She was immensely powerful, even though she was only currently possessed by a trace of the Moonlight Goddess’ will.

Thunder Dragon Arms was trying his best, but he kept missing the opponent’s frail body by inches. It caused him to be increasingly furious and impatient. The apocalyptic blasts of lightning increased in frequency and ferocity.

It was a battle between two Third Grades. No; one was a ‘pseudo-Fourth Grade,’ and the other was only a higher Third Grade!

Thunder Dragon Arms might not be able to win, but he wielded enough power to leave whenever he wished. God Messenger Xenia might possess the absolute initiative in this battle, but she still couldn’t stop the dragon from escaping.

After all, the Goddess of Moonlight’s divine power leaned more toward the various uses of moonlight. A frontal confrontation was not her forte. That was why–given his life was not under any threat–Arms wanted to try even harder for a taste of a goddess’ flesh and blood.

Greem took this opportunity to drink a vial of moonwater and regained his strength once again.

Not counting the losses of his magical machines and subordinates, three vials of moonwater had been consumed since the start of the battle. These could have easily sold for fifty to sixty thousand magical crystals if he had brought them back to the World of Adepts! Moreover, they were products that were so highly demanded that there wasn’t even a market for them.

These losses were all caused by the damned god messenger flashing about above his head. That was why Greem stared at the ferocious battle of the two Third Grades in the sky with clenched teeth. All sorts of ideas ran through his head.

The flying ship had slowly stopped flying under Greem’s secret order. Even the shattered energy forcefield on the outside had been wordlessly removed. Silently and soundlessly, wild magic energy gathered and condensed within the interior of the flying ship.

Suddenly, an opening appeared upon the flying ship’s deck under Greem’s order. A horrifying cannon barrel five meters in diameter extended out from within the vessel.

Dong! A muffled explosion.

The next second, an energy beam as thick as a pillar shot out of the cannon, blasting straight at the God Messenger Xenia that had just reappeared somewhere in the sky.

Xenia had just completed a Lunar Teleportation to dodge Arms’ Thunderstorm. She had just emerged from the fantastical astral world when she was greeted by this energy pillar that reached eight-hundred and ninety points of power.

Even the usually composed and cold Xenia was frightened out of her wits at this moment.

The purity and concentration of this energy pillar were well within the middle-upper ranks, even amongst Third Grade powerhouses. Moreover, this attack had come out of the blue. It was fast and sudden without any warning.

That further increased the power of the attack!

Without any hesitation, Xenia immediately played the ace that she had been keeping a tight grip on.

Divine Shield!

Divine Shield. Just as the name implied, it is a powerful shield sustained by divine power.

Divine power was something that only divine beings could possess. That was why divine magic of this kind had always been the exclusive skill of the gods and demigods.

Xenia might be a god messenger, but she wasn’t a so-called ’divine being.’ As such, her weak body could only tolerate a limited amount of divine power. During the battle earlier, she had to use her identity as a god messenger and take on a trace of the Moonlight Goddess’ will just to borrow a portion of divine moonlight power.

The combination magic that she cast by manipulating elementium energy through the use of divine power was also known as Apotheosized Magic. The strength was two to three times that of pure elementium magic.

Yet, in the face of this powerful energy pillar that took up all of her vision, Xenia had no other choice but to unleash her only trump card– Divine Shield.

It was not combination magic formed from both divine and elementium power. Instead, it was real divine magic constructed purely from divine power. Its defensive strength was over ten times that of an ordinary elementium magical defense. It would be difficult for her to defend against such a strong energy attack if the Divine Shield wasn’t this powerful.

Like a silent film that had been slowed down countless times, the energy pillar crossed a distance of two to three hundred meters the instant it appeared in front of Xenia’s eyes, silently arriving right in front of her.

Just as everyone waited with bated breath the moment the attack connected, Xenia raised her head and screamed. A brilliantly colorful Divine Shield appeared around her and completely encased her within.

The wild energy flow savagely attacked the Divine Shield, causing countless energy explosions to appear on the colorful shield. Yet, regardless of how the energy pillar rushed at the protection, this eggshell-thin, transparent shield of light remained unmoving.

Any ordinary defensive spell subjected to such circumstances would have exploded in less than a second. However, this Divine Shield was able to safely endure the most powerful attack of the flying ship with its immensely strong defensive powers.

Everyone was stunned after the cannon shot ended!

The elves honestly didn’t imagine this flying ship to have such an offensive ability hidden within it. Greem’s faction, on the other hand, never expected the Third Grade god messenger to block such a terrifying charged attack in her hurry.

The spots from the blinding light of the energy pillar piercing the skies took a long time to fade from the eyes. God Messenger Xenia hid within the Divine Shield, and her face was ashen. It was clear that she had to recover from her earlier shock.

She was only Third Grade; the amount of power that she could borrow from her Goddess was limited. The Divine Shield alone had nearly exhausted all of the divine magic stored within her body. If she continued fighting with the Third Grade dragon, then the amount of power that she could use would drop from Pseudo-Fourth Grade to Third Grade. It would become exceedingly difficult for her to continue suppressing the enemy.

What caused her even more anxiety was doubt as to the flying ship’s ability to continue firing attacks of that intensity. If the enemy still had one more shot left in their ship, then today’s battle was going to be truly dangerous!

Thunder Dragon Arms, who had been failing to touch the god messenger despite his repeated efforts, immediately roared out in excitement at the sight of this scene.

“One more shot. One more shot. Her Divine Shield can’t endure another shot.”

Greem had no other choice but to roll his eyes intensely at the dragon’s yelping.

After all, the flying ship only carried an ordinary space furnace within its hull. It wasn’t the magic generator furnace maintained by the Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe himself. That was why the core area of the flying ship had already suffered several elementium explosions after firing a charged attack of this intensity. There were plenty of leaks in the energy pipes already.

All the goblin engineers and technicians were ordering the construction machines about and working tirelessly to fix the internal damage to the ship. There was no way the magic energy cannon could fire a second shot under such circumstances!

Thus, Greem, who knew the truth, had no choice but to shake his head with a bitter smile upon his face in the face of Arms’ shouts.

“Lord Arms, that god messenger seems to have exhausted her divine power?” Greem asked probingly.

“You don’t say! Of course, I can see that as well!” Arms replied unamusedly, “However, who knows if god messengers like them can still activate another divine magic if they get pressed into a corner. If she unleashes another offensive divine magic, even I don’t have complete confidence in escaping unscathed.”