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 have to kill him before he turns into a real threat. Wait a sec; if my plan got successful, he might come here again. That Vision!' Abium's eyes turned icy cold.

While he was in muse, he, along with other holy knights, stepped into the temple hallway and glanced at the surroundings warily. A second later, they saw the bright light began to dim and gave off a shade like atmosphere.

Multiple stone pillars appeared all over the hallway and were connected to the ceilings. Abium even saw a few strange worm portraits on those pillars and got uneasy.

Within a few seconds, everyone halted their footsteps as they saw a dark figure in front, blocking their pathway to enter deep into the temple interior. The dark shadow 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 began to appear in all those pillars and illuminated 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 then took a step back anxiously. The Magical Beast looked like a normal panther and had a strange horn on its forehead. Its furs were dyed entirely in black and gave off a threatening aura to the surroundings. Everyone gripped their weapons with full alertness and ready for another battle.

Abium didn't miss 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 sucked in a cold breath.

'When comparing with the Demon Susur, this magical beast sure is terrifying.' Abium muttered inwardly and then noticed that the Nightmare shadow was beginning to growl.

But that simple growl made everyone's body to stiffen up. For a moment, everyone felt despair. It was as if something more precious to everyone had suddenly disappeared.

'W-What the hell?' Abium also felt an aching feeling 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, causing everyone to back away.

'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.

Hearing those words, Abium sighed inwardly and soon frowned as he felt a danger 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, and everyone saw that Nightmare Shadow began to open its mouth.

But thankfully, all of them already walked out of the hallway and stood in the yard while Bishop and his disciples were casting defensive spells to block the Nightmare Shadow's attacks.

Meanwhile, 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. The next moment, including Bishop Piers and Arkos, everyone fell on the ground with a pale expression on their face.

Like a king, the Nightmare shadow, which was around one meter tall, walked out of the hallway while roaring continuously. Waves of invisible energy came out from 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 got relieved.

Even Abium began to thank Bishop from the depths of his heart. In a blink, 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. Abium, all the Holy Knights, and even the demonized humans who followed after Red Python also felt nightmares in their minds.

As everyone was resisting that Roar of Despair, Abium opened his eyes and suddenly noticed that Nightmare Shadow was nowhere to be seen. Instead of the beautiful entrance, he saw there was only debris everywhere.

'I have a bad feeling about this.' Abium mutter under his breath and soon heard a flesh piercing sound from behind and got anxious inside. He also felt some change was happening to the surrounding air and worried.

'Heck! What the hell is that Bishop doing?' Abium frowned and looked at the direction where Bishop Piers and his disciples stood before.

Instead of fighting, Bishop and his disciples were muttering a strange incantation once again.

Upon seeing this, Abium's face changed drastically.

He didn't dare to delay any longer and silently took out his short scarlet sword.

At the same time, he let his consciousness enter into the mysterious throne hall and soon let his soul form appeared in front of the mysterious fountain.

Without any 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 grunted.

After that, enduring the tearing pain by biting his lips, he anxiously stood up. At first, Abium thought Bishop would at least help a few Holy Knights. But once he saw them muttering a weird incantation, he knew that he was wrong.

'I can't delay any longer.' He teleported right behind Bishop Pier and thrust his sword directly towards the Bishop's back.

But a transparent layer of white shield appeared around Piers and completely covered his body.

If it were another ordinary assassin, he would have backed away when seeing the defensive layer. But Abium coldly snorted.

Bishop and his disciples also noticed Abium's assassination attempt and got shocked.

Abium concentrated his full attention on his sword and pushed his scarlet sword towards the transparent white shield.

Even when seeing Abium's persisting attack, everyone, including Bishop, didn't even turn their head and continuing their incantation. Whist Bishop Piers frowned a little due to his divination intuition; he wasn't worried that the assassin could 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. The next moment, Abium's Scarlet sword directly pierced through the transparent shield like a paper.

Without any hesitation, Abium thrust his Scarlet sword further.

A painful groan came out from Bishop's mouth. A moment later, Bishop's disciples saw a scarlet sword tip filled with blood that appeared in front of Bishop Piers' chest. 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 on his face, Abium withdrew his sword and teleported away from there.

"Teacher!" All five of them stopped their incantation for a moment and rushed towards Bishop Piers. But all of them soon stopped as they saw Bishop Piers was waving his hand to continue their incantation. Whilst he was already at his last breath, he didn't stop muttering the incantation for a single moment.

Seeing this, all five of them nodded their heads thoughtfully and began to continue their chanting.

Meanwhile, Nightmare Shadow entered into the ritual circle and began to kill the humans one by one. 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.

Without any hesitation, it blended into a shadow and leaped out of that ritual circle.

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 souls inside the ritual circle turned visible and let out horrible 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 to absorb into his golden brass crozier and turned into pure energy. Soon the golden brass crozier gave off a scary golden light and blinded the whole surrounding for a moment.

For the first time, Nightmare Shadow felt fear towards that golden light.

...

A few seconds before, Abium stood in front of the altar room entrance gate and grinned widely. Then 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 with a smile on his face and soon laid his eyes on the altar table. A Worm's small statue was placed at the center of the altar table and near to it was a shining black cane. The handle was painted in golden color and looked beautiful. Abium went near the altar table with hurried footsteps and took the 'Death Cane' with both hands. But soon, his smile froze as he heard Azolla's words.

"Stop your foolish grin, kid. It's a fake one."

'Where is the real one then?' Abium frowned while turning his face 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 then reappeared a few feet away from the ritual circle.

Then, Abium saw Bishop and his other disciples finished their chanting.

"Goodbye," Bishop muttered in a weary tone. A second later, his body bathed in golden fire. After that, his body began to age rapidly, and all of them saw him turned into a dying old man in a blink of an eye. A second later, his body turned into pure light and disappeared from there while leaving that shining Golden Brass crozier behind.

It was floating in the air and pointed its head towards 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 towards 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 whole surroundings began to change as immense darkness elemental energy gathered towards the Nightmare Shadow.

A pure ray filled with darkness came out from its mouth and collided with the tip of the Golden Brass Crozier!

But once the ray touches the Crozier, it disappeared into nothingness. After that, the Golden Brass Crozier's sharp tip appeared in front of 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 turned slower, and soon it died down. Then along with a loud thud, the Nightmare shadow fell.

Arkos breathed out a sigh of relief and went towards to pick up the Nightmare Shadow's body and the Golden Brass Crozier.

But suddenly, he saw a black-colored cane came out of Nightmare Shadow's body and widened his eyes.

'It's the Death Cane!' His eyes shined in excitement. But soon, he frowned as he saw a figure was walking towards his direction from the Temple entrance.