Meanwhile, Abium informed Rilos through the communication ring and began to ponder.
'Damn it, that Demon Susur has some strange power. He is like a new person.'
'It seems I must kill him before he becomes a real threat. Wait a sec; if my plan got successful, he might come here again. That Vision!' Abium's eyes turned icy cold suddenly.
While in muse, he and other holy knights stepped into the temple hallway and glanced at the surroundings warily. Soon, the bright light began to dim and gave off a shade-like atmosphere.
Multiple stone pillars appeared all over the hallway connected to the ceilings. Abium even saw a few strange worm portraits on those pillars and got uneasy.
After a few seconds, everyone reached closer to the Temple's interior and soon halted their footsteps when they saw a dark figure blocking their path. The dark figure looked more like a panther and almost blended in with the darkness.
"Illuminate." Bishop Piers said while raising his eyebrows a little. A heartbeat later, multiple golden lights appeared in all those pillars, illuminating the whole Temple. The hallway shone brightly and presented its beautiful architecture to everyone.
But no one had time to admire those architectures. All the Holy Knights looked warily at the magical beast and took a step back anxiously.
The Magical Beast looked like a normal panther and had a strange horn on its forehead. It was more than three meters long and one meter tall. Its furs were dyed entirely in black and gave off a threatening aura to the surroundings. Everyone gripped their weapons with full alertness and was ready for another battle.
Abium also took advantage of the opportunity and scanned it.
[Name: ????
Age:????
Race: Nightmare Shadow
Health: Normal
Class: Third-tier magical beast (Beginner level)
Affiliation: None
Attributes
Strength: 12.0
Agility: 16.9
Vitality: 12.9
Mana: 4520
Spirit: 2260
Bloodline Spells (Second Tier): Nightmare Invasion, Darkness Jet, Shadow Stealth, Night Wings, Bringer of Nightmare.
(Third-tier spells: Roar of Despair.]
Abium eyes squinted sharper as he saw those spells and drew a deep breath.
'When comparing with the Demon Susur, this magical beast sure is terrifying.' Abium muttered inwardly and noticed that the Nightmare shadow was beginning to growl.
But that simple growl made everyone's body stiffen up. For a moment, everyone felt despair. It was as if something precious to everyone had suddenly disappeared and made everyone feel terrible inside.
'W-What the hell?' Abium also felt aching in his heart and began to feel restless.
"Back away to the entrance! That Ritual circle will protect you all." Bishop Piers' calm voice echoed inside everyone's mind and woke them up.
'Azolla, why is this magical beast seems to be more different from other normal ones?' Abium asked her while moving towards the ritual circle.
'Although it is still a beginner third-tier magical beast, its bloodline is purer. These pure-blooded magical beasts often inherit some memories of their ancestral beasts. So, there will be a great difference in strength. A single pure-blooded magical beast could easily kill multiple same-level beasts. The first-tier magical beasts you killed in the Fex dimension are good examples. Those beasts had no inherited memory and got killed by your simple trap.' Azolla said casually.
Abium sighed as he heard her explanation and soon frowned as he felt a dangerous premonition from his seer's intuition.
'Brace yourself for its third-tier 'Roar of Despair' spell, kid.' The next moment, Azolla warned him inside his mind.
At the same time, everyone saw that Nightmare Shadow began to open its mouth.
But thankfully, all of them had already walked out of the hallway and stood in the yard.
Meanwhile, Bishop and his disciples stood at the temple entrance and cast defensive spells to block the Nightmare Shadow's attacks.
'Roar of Despair? A mind attack spell?'
Abium's complexion turned sour as he heard those words from Azolla and quietly gripped Jordan's long sword.
'ROAARRRRR!' Like a broken dam, a deep roar filled with despair and hopelessness emerged from the beast's mouth and assaulted everyone's mind. Even though they stood inside the ritual circle, every Holy Knight felt a large mountain crushing their bodies. Everyone fell to the ground with pale expressions the next moment, including Bishop Piers and Arkos.
Like a king, the Nightmare shadow, around one meter tall, walked out of the hallway while roaring continuously. Waves of invisible ripples came out of its mouth like sharp blades and directly broke the surrounding pillars and outer walls. Somehow, those who stayed inside the ritual circle weren't affected by those blades and remained healthy.
Even Abium began to thank Bishop from the depths of his heart. In mere moments, the temple entrance and the surrounding walls were utterly destroyed by those invisible blades.
Meanwhile, countless nightmare scenes from the past reappeared in Abium's mind and caused his heart to beat fiercer. Not only Abium but even the Holy Knights and the demonized humans who followed after Red Python also felt nightmares in their minds.
As everyone resisted that Roar of Despair, Abium opened his eyes and suddenly noticed that Nightmare Shadow had disappeared.
Instead of the beautiful entrance, he saw only debris everywhere and felt confused.
'I have a bad feeling about this.' Abium muttered under his breath and soon heard a flesh-piercing sound from behind. He also felt some change happening in the surrounding air and got worried.
'What is that Bishop doing?' Abium frowned while raising his head and looked in the direction where Bishop Piers and his disciples were standing.
Instead of fighting, Bishop and his disciples were again muttering a strange incantation.
'Why are they muttering incarnation again?'
Upon seeing this, Abium's face changed drastically.
He dared not delay any longer and silently took out his short scarlet sword.
At the same time, he let his consciousness enter the mysterious throne hall and soon let his soul form appear in front of the mysterious fountain.
Without delay, he touched the 'Time' divinity and peeked into the near future.
The next moment, his face paled as a white sheet in the physical world, and he looked fearfully at Bishop and his disciples.
'Damn it; I should blame myself for trusting this guy. I will retract my earlier words.' Abium cursed.
After that, he endured the tearing pain by biting his lips and stood up anxiously. At first, Abium thought Bishop would at least help a few Holy Knights.
But he knew something was off once he saw them muttering another weird incantation.
'I can't delay any longer.' He teleported right behind Bishop Pier and thrust his sword directly toward the Bishop's back.
But a transparent layer of white shield appeared around Piers and completely covered his body.
Abium would have backed away upon seeing the defensive layer if he were another ordinary assassin. But he coldly snorted and continued.
Bishop and his disciples also noticed Abium's assassination attempt and got shocked inside.
Meanwhile, Abium focused on his sword and pushed it toward the transparent white shield.
Even when seeing Abium's persisting attack, everyone, including Bishop, didn't even turn their head and continued their incantation like nothing. Bishop Piers frowned a little due to his divination intuition; he wasn't worried that the assassin could easily break through his defensive spell.
But when the scarlet sword tip almost reached the defensive layer, a thin transparent green glow appeared at the edges of the Scarlet sword and made a strange noise. Abium's Scarlet sword pierced through the transparent shield the next moment and entered.
Without hesitation, Abium thrust his Scarlet Sword further.
A painful groan came out of Bishop's mouth the next second.
A moment later, the disciples saw a sword stabbed right through Bishop's chest from behind and went horrified. Although the White Halo on his head began to shine brightly to heal the wound, everyone knew this was a fatal attack!
With a smile, Abium withdrew his sword and teleported away from there.
He teleported inside the Temple and stealthily crept towards the center!
"Teacher!" At that moment, all five stopped their incantation momentarily and rushed towards Bishop Piers. But they all soon stopped when Bishop Piers waved his hand at them to continue the incantation. While he was already at his last breath, he didn't stop muttering the incantation momentarily!
Upon seeing this, all five of them nodded their heads grimly and continued their chanting.
Meanwhile, Nightmare Shadow had long entered the ritual circle and began killing the humans individually. Although it became confused by the shining ritual circle, it didn't think much and massacred everyone. When it killed the last person with its dark claws, a sudden dangerous feeling came to its mind.
It blended into a shadow and tried to leap out of the ritual circle without hesitation.
A rare smile appeared on Bishop Piers' face as he saw the Nightmare Shadow's attempt and hit the ground with his golden brass crozier while muttering a single word.
"Sacrifice."
The next moment, all those holy knights' and deformed humans' souls inside the ritual circle turned visible and let out screams. Even the Nightmare Shadow got frozen in shock and tried to move out of the ritual circle. But to its astonishment, an invisible power blocked its shadow movement.
Then, all those souls began absorbing into his golden brass crozier and became pure energy. Soon, the golden brass crozier gave off a scary golden light and blinded the whole surrounding momentarily.
For the first time, Nightmare Shadow felt fear towards the golden light.
...
Meanwhile, Abium finally arrived before the altar room entrance door and smiled.
After that, he tapped his communication ring and asked Rilos to stall Bishop and other priests for a few seconds outside.
'I should get that 'Death Cane' before others.' Abium muttered to himself and pushed the metal door forcefully.
It didn't make any creaking noise when opening.
Abium stepped into the altar room smiling and soon looked at the table. A small statue of a worm was placed at the center of the altar table, and near it was a shining black cane. The handle was painted in golden color and looked beautiful.
'It looks so normal.'
Abium went near the altar table with hurried footsteps and took the 'Death Cane' with both hands. A grin crept on his face.
But soon, his face froze as he heard Azolla's words.
"Stop your foolish grin, kid. It's a fake one."
'Where is the real one then?' Abium turned gloomy.
'Did the Nightmare Shadow take the Cane with it?' A thought crossed his mind.
The next moment, Abium's eyes widened as he sensed immense light elemental energy coming from the entrance.
'Damn it!' He gritted his teeth as he teleported from the altar room and reappeared a few feet from the ritual circle.
At that moment, Bishop and his other disciples had already finished chanting and cast their ultimate spell.
"Goodbye," Bishop muttered in a weary tone. A second later, his body bathed in golden fire and looked sacred.
After that, his body began to age rapidly, and they all saw him turn into a dying old man in a blink of an eye. A second later, his body turned into pure light and disappeared from there, leaving the shining Golden Brass crozier behind.
It floated in the air and pointed its head toward the Nightmare Shadow.
Suddenly, Arkos, who was silent all this time, spoke coldly.
"Kill."
As if the Crozier had received an order from its master, it flew toward the Nightmare Shadow at high speed.
Upon seeing the strange scene, Nightmare Shadow got anxious and unleashed its innate bloodline spell.
A second later, the surroundings began to change as immense darkness elemental energy gathered towards the Nightmare Shadow.
A pure ray filled with darkness came from its mouth and collided with the tip of the Golden Brass Crozier!
But once the ray touched the Crozier, it disappeared into nothingness. At the same time, the Golden Brass Crozier's sharp tip appeared before the Nightmare Shadow and pierced through its head.
A painful roar came out from its mouth as the Nightmare Shadow wailed in pain. A second later, the wailing slowed, and it died down. Then, along with a loud thud, the Nightmare shadow fell.
"What a mess!"
Arkos breathed a sigh of relief and went forward to pick up the Nightmare Shadow's body and the Golden Brass Crozier.
But suddenly, he saw a black-colored cane come out of Nightmare Shadow's body and widened his eyes.
'It's the Death Cane!' His eyes shined in excitement.
But he soon frowned as he saw a human figure walking towards his direction from the Temple entrance.