The demon Susur then let out a loud hiss and shifted its attention towards the direction where Helena, Margery, and Baron Auguinare were lying on the ground.
But before it could step forward, ice arrows suddenly descended from the sky and directly landed on Susur's chest. Although those arrows couldn't pierce through its hard skin, they managed to push the snake demon backward.
The snake demon shrieked and tried to leap forward, but more ice arrows started descending from the sky.
With no choice, the demon jumped backward and landed only a few steps away from the Royal Garden's entrance.
Suddenly, a ball of white light came out under its foot and shone in brilliance.
A second later, a giant magic rune circle appeared under the snake demon's feet, enveloping it completely. It shone in a mixture of golden and reddish light and gave off an eerie chillness to the surroundings.
Thousands of rune characters floated in an orbicular manner and surrounded the demon. Although it tried to escape the rune magic formation, some invisible force appeared out of nowhere and completely obstructed it from moving!
Meanwhile, Abium raised his eyebrows, surprised, and realized that Tabitha had planned this all along.
'She placed this trap before the fight even began!'
While he and Lucius were in shock, Tabitha quietly stepped on the snow-covered grassy yard, walked closer to the snake demon, and spoke.
"Please toss four high-tier magic stones into the rune formation, Mage Abium."
"Okay, My Lady."
Although Abium didn't understand the reason for her words, he hurriedly took out a few magic stones from his spatial ring. He then tossed them into the orbicular magic formation without hesitation.
As the four magic stones made contact with the runic formation, it started to absorb all the mana from the magic stones and completely devoured it.
A second later, four sizeable ice spears, each around three meters long and 20 cm in diameter, suddenly protruded from the ground and stabbed into the demon's upper body one by one.
Each spear skewered that snake demon's vital spots, entered deep into its body, and even appeared on its backside, wounding it fatally.
Painful moaning and hissing sounds echoed everywhere as the snake demon continuously opened and closed its wide jaw.
It then made a loud, screeching sound and stumbled backward in terror.
"*$*%#%>I%" Simultaneously, it uttered an unknown word in an abyssal language.
A moment later, more than fifteen dark chains with red markings appeared from every part of its body and slithered in every direction.
Those chains looked precisely like the ones he saw earlier when he battled against the demonized Iskax!
"No good. Dodge those chains!" Abium shouted and backed away further while carrying Helena and Baron Auguinare on his shoulders. Lucius also did the same as he took Margery on his back and leaped backward.
Both soon arrived more than fifty meters from the snake demon, placed Helena and others on the ground, and hurriedly turned around.
At that moment, those creepy red-marked black chains had already slithered towards the other fallen elite guards and pierced their chests.
But what shocked Abium and others was that no injury appeared on their chest region!
"It's attacking their soul!" Tabitha widened her eyes and shouted in shock.
Then, she raised her hands, clapped them together, and added coldly.
"I'm not going to let you have in your way, demon."
As she spoke, more than twenty water chains descended from the sky, encircled those elite soldiers' bodies, and moved them away from there. Although those strange chains tried to pull them towards the demon, those water chains managed to get everyone away before those creepy chains could corrupt their souls.
"I hope they haven't already been affected by the chaos." She muttered in a grim tone and slowly looked at the snake demon.
She then made a hand sign and spoke a strange word in the rune language.
A moment later, hundreds of ice arrows descended from the sky and attacked the demon mercilessly.
Although those arrows only managed to do superficial wounds, they still made the snake demon hiss in pain and anger.
Likewise, Abium and Lucius approached the demon and began to cut the chains.
Alas, they were soon overwhelmed by the chain attacks and backed away while panting heavily.
Meanwhile, the demon Susur also used one of its bloodline skills, corrupted the pierced ice from inside, and began melting it.
Following that, it once again started to heal its body slowly!
Before long, the demon Susur returned to its original state and looked at them with reddened yellowish eyes.
However, unlike before, fatigue assaulted its entire body. It couldn't even concentrate on the surroundings and only saw blurry images.
To everyone's surprise, Tabitha suddenly raised her hand and stopped her attack!
Lucius stabbed his sword on the ground and asked in a gloomy voice, "What happened, My Lady?"
"Let's stop it. If we go all out, we might lose someone." Tabitha then added in a grim tone.
"A cornered rat is more dangerous than a cat, Lucius. We are facing an Abyssal Demon here."
Although Lucius felt bitterness for not killing the demon, he too realized their current situation and decided to agree.
Then, Abium, Tabitha, and Lucius moved more than 20 meters away from the snake demon Susur and stood there with much vigilance.
On the other hand, the demon Susur stood unsteadily, controlled the fifteen-plus black chains to create an orbicular net, and made a defensive field to block any unexpected attack.
As both sides stood in silence, Tabitha glanced at Lucius and spoke.
"Lucius, we need to strengthen the Royal defense system. If my guess is right, this demon must have planted spies in the royal palace and collected all the information about us for months. This Red Python organization not only assassinated Sewallus without any difficulty but they even managed to enter the Royal Palace's treasury and steal something. Moreover, the long-forgotten demon also appeared here."
"Are you saying that Mage Hogg was under this demon's control all this time, My Lady? But why did he betray the academy in the first place?" Lucius asked with a frown.
"I don't know. Maybe this demon tempted Mage Hogg with something more precious? What I am saying is just a hypothesis." She stopped for a moment and continued.
"But this demon's plan had its own flaws."
"What is it, Lady Tabitha?" Lucius asked with a frown.
"My arrival." She heaved out a deep sigh and waved her head.
"Haa, let's wait for the mages to break the dimensional lock spell."
Just as she spoke, all of them sensed that a sudden wild spatial-elemental fluctuation appeared in the sky and looked up one by one.
"What is that?" Abium frowned and felt the environment had become more chaotic.
"Someone is breaking the dimensional lock spell." Tabitha put her silver hair up and muttered slowly.
Then, she turned her gaze towards the snake demon and warned others.
"Be careful of any sneak attack."
Meanwhile, the demon Susur stood there with a wary look and quietly observed the sky.
'Spatial disturbance?' It widened its yellow eyes and soon grinned inside.
'Finally! Hogg is going to undo the dimension lock spell!' Susur now longed to return to the Abyss.
… … …
Meanwhile,
There stood a small, one-story building a few miles away from the royal city. The building was made of bricks, encircled by a one-meter wooden fence, and was surrounded by trees and vines.
A black-robed man with a unique red badge stood in the main hall and looked at the royal capital through a small window at that time. He had short black hair, brown eyes, and a square face.
He was none other than Mage Hogg!
After staring at the Royal Capital for two seconds, he let out a deep sigh and turned his attention to a small white orb that lay on his palm. Multiple rune letters were inscribed on the small circular orb and were emitting a few white sparks from time to time.
"Why isn't he answering the communication call? What the hell is Lord Susur doing there?" he muttered with a frown as he looked at the rune magic formation beneath his feet.
Although he was acting calmly outside, he had been concentrating on the magic formation for more than 10 minutes and felt mentally drained inside.
A small electric spark and slight spatial elemental fluctuations would appear from the rune formation once in a while and cause him to break into cold sweats.
"Should I break this spell?"
He asked himself and shifted his gaze towards the center of the magic rune formation.
At the center of the runic circle, a deep blue crystal was placed, and it appeared to be on the verge of breaking apart due to its instability.
Bzzt! Bzzt!
As he was in deep thoughts, the small wooden entrance door was pushed open from the outside, and soon a brown-haired man in his late twenties stepped inside the main hall.
"What happened, Lord Hogg?" The man stopped two feet away from that rune circle and asked with an anxious look. He wore the same uniform as other royal knights and also had a small three snake-headed tattoo on his left wrist.
He was none other than the vice-captain of the Royal Knights!
"Nothing. It's just that the demon is still not responding to my call." Hogg stumbled a bit away from the magic rune circle before replying and soon regained his balance.
"Are you okay, sir?" Vice-Captain asked worriedly.
"I think I can still hold this circle for two more minutes." Hogg waved his hand and focused his full attention on the magic rune circle.
But all of a sudden, his face stiffened up.
Simultaneously, he heard a calm yet cold voice from behind!
"I think your time has already come, mister."