Age of Adepts

Seawoods Plane. The troll capital.

Muri’var.

As the capital of the trolls who ruled over Seawoods Plane, Muri’var’s size and magnificence were beyond the imagination of an outsider.

Muri’var was built on a mountain.

Truthfully, the entire city was carved out of the mountain itself.

A gentle slope was dug out of the belly of the mountain at every interval of height, from the foot of the mountain to the peak. Tough, stone buildings were built on these slopes. Steps of stone, carved out of the mountain itself, connected these slopes. Stone totems standing at over two-meters-tall lined these steps, and at the entrance of every step were braziers made of stone.

Looking up all the way from the bottom, there were as many as a hundred of these sloped stone platforms where settlements and buildings could be seen.

Even though the mountain appeared to be covered in multiple layers of stone buildings, it did not seem at all crowded or messy from a distance.

…………

This place was an unusual space in Seawoods Plane.

It was no more than a hundred thousand square meters in area.

However, similar to Muri’var, there were gray and white stone all over this place. There were also forests of magnificent statues and many, many trees.

At the center of this unusual space, through a path covered with moss and several tiny swamps, was a massive den built out of huge boulders.

The air here was humid and warm like tropical forests tended to be.

A massive, one-meter-tall egg was placed on a small stone platform within a pile of ash-white bones. The Feathered Serpent coiled silently by the egg, caressing it with its tail while blowing golden lightning at it.

The destructive lightning of the past now appeared to be gentle and soft. It circled the egg, splitting into smaller, thinner spars of electricity that were then slowly devoured by the egg.

Once it had eaten enough of the golden lightning, a mental fluctuation of satisfaction emanated from within the egg. When that happened, the life inside the egg stopped consuming and instead fell asleep to digest this golden lightning that contained traces of the planar origin’s aura.

It was only when the egg was asleep that the female Feathered Serpent could rest for a brief moment. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth, waiting for the male Feathered Serpents to feed her. These male Feathered Serpents served as both her servants and her guards.

The only things in this kingdom of Feathered Serpents were the beasts used as livestock and the Feathered Serpents themselves.

There were twelve Feathered Serpent guards in total, all of whom were male. They were all at Second or Third Grade. The only female Feathered Serpent was Zuka, the totem god worshipped by the forest trolls.

After several thousands of years of nourishment from the power of faith, Zuka had managed to grasp an understanding of some divine powers. Her strength had also advanced to beginner Fifth Grade.

However, out of her instinct as a magical beast, she had still exhausted a phenomenal amount of faith power and divine power to give birth to a descendant. During this process of hatching the egg, her ability had also fallen from beginner Fifth Grade to advanced Fourth Grade. She had to face a long, three-hundred-year period of weakness.

Zuka, the Feathered God, had to breathe golden lightning for three days and three nights before the life in the egg was finally full. Thus, when it eventually fell asleep, Zuka let out a breath of relief and coiled up at the egg’s side, closing her eyes to rest.

However, every time she tried to go into deep meditation to recover her powers, her mind would be disturbed by an unusual energy flux, leaving her with no peace.

“Bastards…these damned invaders! I will tear you to pieces and scatter your ashes!”

Having been roused from her slumber by this strange flux, Zuka became increasingly impatient and angry.

Her loud and sharp screech instantly filled the land, causing the entire space to tremble.

All the magical creatures that heard this screech cowered in fright, unable to move on the ground.

Even the Feathered Serpents lowered themselves out of fear and flared their wings, unsure of how they had angered their mistress.

The life in the egg was also obviously stirred awake. It hissed and let out a mental fluctuation of frustration.

The furious Zuka hastily cast away her anger and used her gentle lightning to coddle the egg once again.

Zuka straightened her body and looked through this unusual space. She could see from the temple atop of Muri’var, her gaze directed west.

“Those damned invaders have obtained a part of my origin power. They are using some unusual methods to attack me with it now. Hmph! When I am finally free to move, I will teach you a lesson!”