Everyone, including Umi, nodded their heads and took out their weapons.
At the same time, Edith cast her bloodline spell and soon vanished from the place as she had never appeared.
Abium could tell that her bloodline spell had a power similar to a normal second-tier spell and was amazed.
'It appears she can only cast a single bloodline spell. Well, even that single second-tier spell could become formidable if she uses it properly.' He muttered inwardly and led the group towards the temple. They all arrived in front of the temple entrance within a few minutes and noticed a thick 5-meter-tall stone wall surrounding the temple. Even the only entrance was tightly shut by an iron door and looked well fortified.
"It's not locked."
Suddenly, Cedric took a step forward and opened the tightly shut iron door with a forceful push.
A moment later, everyone's eyes widened as they saw what was hidden behind the entrance gate.
A dark dome-shaped building surrounded by a large yard filled only with black sand stood. The dark building almost blended with the surrounding darkness and gave off an eerie feeling to everyone. If not for the red light shone from the three strange scarlet stars above them, no one would be able to notice the presence of this building.
There were multiple worm statues, and different shapes of bells were attached to the main building's dome while giving some unique beauty to the temple. As they stared at the large dark dome in amazement, a 140 cm tall black-cloaked figure appeared at the main building's entrance, holding a scarlet-colored blade.
Abium suddenly felt immense killing intent from the dark figure and got slightly startled. As he blinked, he saw that figure had disappeared from there and appeared behind Kate. Without giving any chance for her to evade, that black-cloaked figure thrust its crimson-colored short sword.
But before that sword could reach Kate's abdomen, a thin layer of windshield covered her body and blocked that blade, leaving a clanging sound behind. Although Kate was the weakest of all of them, she was the wealthiest in terms of money and information.
She didn't panic as she noticed that the hooded goblin attacked her from her back and acted quickly. She calmly watched the windshield blocking the attack and stepped to her sides.
At that moment, the shield also got broken into multiple pieces, and that short sword pierced through the area where she stood before.
Although Kate was still in danger, she didn't get anxious.
At that moment, she saw others begin to act and heaved a deep sigh. The first one to act was Fennelis, who had already mastered her bloodline spells during these past months.
A single white arrow conjured before her hand while freezing the surroundings and arrived at the side of goblin Zack's head in a blink. It was so fast that even Abium couldn't follow that arrow's speed.
Second-tier bloodline spell, Ice Arrow!
But Goblin Zack glanced at that Ice Arrow and quickly muttered a word in an abyssal language.
"Shield."
The next moment, a dark red bubble-like layer appeared all over that goblin's body and blocked that ice arrow. A second later, the ice arrow disintegrated into dust, leaving no ice elemental energy behind it!
Everyone became shocked by the power of the dark red shield and got extra vigilant.
'He is a skilled assassin.' Abium calmly analyzed the goblin and didn't hesitate to attack.
He first tapped his Miracle Star bracelet and cast a misfortune curse on Goblin Zack. Then, he took out the high-tier dagger he got from the thief John and gripped it tightly.
The second later, a green-colored sword aura formed around that dagger, emitting intense sword energy around it.
A surprised expression appeared on Gobin Zack's face for the first time. Abium didn't dare to delay any longer as he realized that he could only maintain his sword aura for a few seconds and acted swiftly.
'I need to kill this goblin before this weapon breaks.'
First, he blinked behind Goblin Zack, still covered in the dark red bubble layer, and slashed the dagger at the dark bubble.
A second later, the bubble made a sound while exploding and gave an opening for Abium to attack.
But before his dagger could reach the enemy's back, Zack twisted his hand grip and blocked Abium's dagger using his Scarlet sword. But what made Abium pause in surprise was that he saw the same green layered aura appear on the opponent's sword!
'Heh, as expected of the Dark god's follower. Well, I can't think of him as a normal second-tier shaman.' Abium muttered to himself and quickly took two steps back.
At the same time, Umi suddenly pointed her finger at Zack and muttered.
"Ice Needle!"
As Abium heard her words, he widened his amber eyes and teleported.
'Sh*t! I might get killed by her spell.'
The next instant, he disappeared and reappeared a few meters away from the goblin.
At that moment, a piece of tiny, needle-like ice came out of her snowy hand and disappeared in a blink.
As Abium saw the icy needle, he suddenly thought of the Myth Needle artifact.
Umi's Ice Needle spell moved like the Myth Needle and appeared in front of Zack's heart in a blink. A look of astonishment appeared on that goblin's face.
"Moon Goddess!" He uttered in the abyssal tongue.
Simultaneously, he turned into a puddle of dark liquid and merged with the shadows.
Following that, an old male voice came from the Temple of Darkness.
''Kekeke, I'm impressed. Welcome to the Temple of the Dark God, Mortals. You have earned my respect. So, I will kill you all with my own hands." That ancient old man's voice said with a hint of arrogance, causing everyone to narrow their eyes.
'It seems we had been battling all this time with his clone.' Abium frowned deeply.
A 140 cm tall green goblin walked out of the temple a second later and looked at everyone coldly. That creature wore a red robe with multiple runes inscribed and appeared more like a scholar. Moreover, he held the same Scarlet sword and gave everyone a curious glance. But he soon stopped his gaze as he looked at Cedric and twisted his mouth into a creepy smile.
He then opened his stained black teeth and spoke in a bone-chilling voice,
"Kekek, so you are 'His' next seed, huh? I will spare your life then as I don't want to offend 'Him.'" That wicked red-robed goblin Zack stopped for a second and continued while staring viciously at others.
"As for you guys, Kekek, you will know soon enough."
As his voice ended, Abium saw that Goblin Zack began to turn into a puff of smoke and disappeared from there.
Without delay, Abium ordered Azolla to scan the surroundings and narrowed his eyes.
He could feel the dark element behind Kate become distorted for a minute millisecond and return to normal.
'Humph, you want to play hide and seek with me? Then you are courting your death.' He snorted inwardly.
Without any slight hesitation, Abium cast his blink spell, appeared behind Kate, and directly stabbed his dagger in that area.
The next moment, a sharp clanging sound echoed and then disappeared.
Abium could easily tell that Goblin Zack had already changed his target and clicked his tongue.
'He is sneaky.'
As he was about to search his surrounding again, Azolla warned him,
'Kid, that goblin is standing behind Umi.'
Abium's face turned grim.
As he was about to teleport and save her but stopped midway.
At that moment, he saw Umi turning her head and pointing her forefinger toward an empty area.
'She found him!'
The next instant, the same crystal ice needle appeared from her forefinger and pierced the empty area.
This time, everyone got shocked by Umi's instinct response and gave her a deep look.
Only Fennelis and Abium showed an understanding expression and looked at each other with wry smiles.
'As expected of the one blessed by Goddess of Tricks, she is indeed special.' Abium got deeply impressed.
Following that, everyone heard a painful grunt sound.
A second later, a shadow-like figure appeared in that area and tried to escape while tearing up the empty black space.
Abium took the opportunity and instantly cast his own 'Create space' spell on the enemy. His 'Create Space' began intervening with surrounding space and blocked Zack from escaping.
The next instant, the space around Goblin Zack began to twist and revealed an ugly greenish face to everyone.