One side was a large clan led by a Fourth Grade adept, while the other was a quickly rising clan. Yet, the result of the war was entirely beyond everyone's expectations. It was the Crimson Clan that had managed to defend against the Fabres Clan's repeated a.s.saults, finally obtaining the ultimate victory outside of Pinecone City in a battle between the most powerful adepts of their corresponding sides.
The Crimson Clan didn't currently have a Fourth Grade adept. However, the combination of the Third Grade adept and the Fourth Grade magical machine golem dragon was already as mighty as an ordinary Fourth Grade adept.
Moreover, many experienced adepts estimated that the legendary fire adept and founder of the Crimson Clan had a very high chance of advancing to Fourth Grade. It was undoubtedly incredible information with tremendous implications!
Fourth Grade.
For most planar worlds, this was already the highest limit of power that the plane could contain. Any further increase in power would cause the individual to be restrained and rejected by the planar world. In the end, anyone with excessive power would have no choice but to head to the realms beyond to look for a new place of shelter.
Thus, Fourth Grades were the uncontested emperors within a plane and the so-called 'deities' in the eyes of mortals!
When you were only a Third Grade adept, you would have to work hard and labor tirelessly day and night just to create an organization that belonged to yourself. However, once you advanced to Fourth Grade, you no longer needed to put in any effort or hard work. Plenty of adept organizations and forces would throw themselves at your feet, crying and begging to become your subordinates.
It was the difference between Third Grade and Fourth Grade!
However, this one step between Third Grade and Fourth Grade was an exceptionally difficult step to take.
The unique adept cultivation system in the World of Adepts allowed anyone to join an adept tower to study as long as they had an adept talent. However, depending on the extent of their talent, over eighty percent of adept apprentices were kept outside the threshold of an adept.
Advancing to become an adept was sixty percent talent and forty percent luck!
Once an apprentice advanced to become an adept, they would instantly transform from a chicken into a phoenix. They would suddenly rise to a position of power and rule above all else, becoming one of the true masters of the World of Adepts. However, this was only relative to the kingdom of mortal humans. Amongst the adepts, First Grade adepts were still cannon fodder and individuals to be exploited.
Adepts with ambition would fight and struggle at the lowest level of the various adept clans, organizations, and forces, scheming and clas.h.i.+ng with each other over small amounts of resources.
The compet.i.tion and risk of elimination in the World of Adepts were even more intense, more savage, and carried more profound implications than the schemes and plots between human n.o.bles!
The fall of a single adept could result in the collapse of an entire n.o.ble family! The rise of an individual adept could mean the creation of a glorious human kingdom!
The constant fluctuations of power in human kingdoms and the change in dynasties might seem like a natural result of the development of history. However, at its core, these changes in history were no more than an extension of the changing power dynamics among the adepts.
Before the Crimson Clan rose to power, there were seven adept clans and organizations of various sizes in the Ailovis region, along with a hundred n.o.ble territories. Five human kingdoms also had legacies lasting for several hundreds of years.
These various n.o.ble territories and the five human kingdoms all belonged to different adept clans and organizations. These were the places that the adept forces scoured for resources and new blood.
However, with the conclusion of the war between the Crimson Clan and the Fabres Clan, the human kingdoms and n.o.ble territories of Ailovis experienced a thorough rearrangement and reforging. Countless n.o.ble families that had picked the wrong side during the war were toppled and purged, replaced by lower n.o.bles who had stood unquestioningly by the Crimson Clan's side, taking over stretch after stretch of vast and fertile land.
There were no longer any other adept clans or organizations throughout Ailovis. There was only one voice now; that of the rising sun known as the Crimson Clan. Under such a situation, all the n.o.ble territories in Ailovis were like shattered bones and minced meat. They were gathered together by a powerful will and started to be rearranged, concentrated, and strengthened.
With Fire Throne and Pinecone City at the center, the shape of a vast human kingdom slowly started to form.
…………
No actual conflicts happened at the borders.
Faced with the fresh elites of the various large clans, the higher-ups of the Crimson Clan managed to retain a cool head despite their victory. They did not attempt to challenge the current order of Zhentarim.
A large group of the main adept forces of the Fabres Clan managed to escape Ailovis thanks to the interference of these foreign forces. However, sixty percent of their lower-level forces had still been abandoned on the battlefield. Some of them were exterminated by the Crimson Clan, while the others were selectively captured and imprisoned.
The Frost Giant army might have been incomparably ferocious while on the offense, but when they were on the run, their ma.s.sive size and slow speed made them the main targets for the Crimson Clan. Nearly forty percent of the Frost Giants died in their attempt to flee. The rest of them had no choice but to surrender under the lead of the two Frost Giant Mages. They were kept in a valley and put under the strict surveillance of the Crimson Clan.
Meanwhile, the modified beast army had incredible speed and was able to escape quickly. Unfortunately, they were not familiar with the local geography. Without the guidance of the Fabres adepts, they thrashed about the vast territories of Ailovis like lost flies, unsure of where to escape.
Once the Crimson Clan cut off all their paths to the outside world, they became birds in a cage. There was nowhere to run.
The Crimson Clan had initially intended to make some of the modified beasts submit so that they could conduct research on them. Unfortunately, these beasts lacked the complete intelligence and consciousness that the Frost Giants possessed. The combat orders etched deep in their souls made them only obey the commands of certain adepts. There was no way of making them submit at all.
A Mothers.h.i.+p carrying an army of magical machines caught up and thoroughly exterminated every last one of them in a remote plain in the wild.
The unique pack of gargoyles had protected the Fabres Clan's flying wooden s.h.i.+p and escorted it out of the Ailovis region. The Crimson Clan had attempted to intercept the gargoyles and take them during this process, but they were foiled by the Third Grade adepts of the Fabres Clan.
This unprecedented defeat lasted for five consecutive days and affected the entirety of Ailovis.
For a moment, Ailovis was turned into a ma.s.sive ruin of war. Ravaged cities, castles, and villas could be seen everywhere, along with oddly shaped corpses, rising smoke, and defiled lands.
After exterminating or capturing all Fabres soldiers that remained in the region, the Crimson Clan spent another two weeks cleaning up the modified beasts and voodoo beasts that had escaped into more remote villages and rural areas.
It wasn't until the thirteenth day of the ninth month that the fighting in Ailovis finally stopped.
This war between the Fabres Clan and the Crimson Clan ended with the total victory of the Crimson Clan!
However, the price of victory had also been crus.h.i.+ng!
Due to the reckless fighting and destruction unleashed by both parties during the war, over seven resource sites had been destroyed, along with a dozen human cities, several hundred castles and villas, and several tens of thousands of tons of food. According to incomplete counts after the war, over 210,000 civilians had died during the war as well.
A difference in perspective would cause one to perceive the war with a different att.i.tude.
If you were an ordinary civilian, this war would only bring about endless pain and agonizing memories to you and your family. However, if you were a Crimson adept that survived the war, you could now party to your delight.
That was because they had won the war!
Even though the Crimson Clan had suffered colossal losses during this war, the tangible and intangible benefits of obtaining victory were immeasurable.
Disregarding everything else, just the Zhentarim a.s.sociation's acknowledgment of the Crimson Clan's rule was invaluable!
From now on, Ailovis would become the Crimson Clans private a.s.set. Every resource, territory, civilian, woods, and ore reserve found within these lands belonged to the Crimson Clan. It was rare, even for the central region.
There were a total of thirty-one areas of human activity of various sizes in Zhentarim. These thirty-one areas were categorized as individual regions. Each region had a border of sorts that separated them.
Hundreds and thousands of powerful adept clans and organizations lived upon this vast land. They were spread across these thirty-one regions, competing and fighting, all while co-existing with each other.
Despite the number of clans and organizations, only Fourth Grade forces could claim an entire region for themselves.
These so-called Fourth Grade forces referred to an organization that possessed a Fourth Grade adept!
That was the most crucial prerequisite for a clan or organization laying claim to a region of their own. A force that had not been acknowledged by others would not be able to maintain a long and stable rule, even if they managed to drive away all compet.i.tors with sheer force.
The Crimson Clan was the best example.
Before this war, they had no Fourth Grade adept. They had only owned a Fourth Grade war machine that had not yet been pressure-tested in a live adept war. As such, the clan's ruling position was not acknowledged by the people of Zhentarim. It wasn't strange that an adept war like this had broken out.
Now that the Zhentarim a.s.sociation had recognized the Crimson Clan's rule over the entirety of Ailovis, it was an indirect acknowledgment of the Crimson Clan's status as a Fourth Grade force.
The weight of such status was earth shaking in the Central Region!
It was important to note that there were no more than fourteen Fourth Grades throughout Zhentarim. Moreover, no new Fourth Grade had appeared in Zhentarim for several centuries now.
According to the research of the more curious busybodies, there were only three adepts among the many Third Grades who had a significant chance of advancing to Fourth Grade.
