However, when these changes continued without pause, the shadows in the temple became indirectly empowered.
Darkness was everywhere. That also made shadow substance the most capable of spreading out of any other energy substance!
When one became used to the darkness, that was when the shadow powers became able to seep into hearts and minds.
Shadow Demon was like a hunter spider that excelled at weaving a web of darkness. It slowly and quietly spread its shadow powers. Meanwhile, it hid deep in the dark, observing its prey without a single sound.
It was waiting…for an opportunity, for the moment the Feathered God became distracted for even a single second.
This opportunity would arrive soon because Mary’s invasion was about to begin!
It was hard to keep track of the flow of time in a divine domain.
Three days quickly passed by.
Due to isolation from the outside world, Greem and Shadow Demon had no idea about outside events. However, they could figure it out based on the reactions of the Feathered God.
Sometime on the third day, the Feathered God suddenly opened her eyes. She reared her neck and let out a screech that trembled throughout the divine domain.
Her scream was filled with anger, hatred, and a sort of berserk rage at having experienced humiliation!
The Feathered God could sense many of her faith nodes slowly being extinguished from her already sparse network of faith. She sensed the pained howls coming from the hearts of the troll believers and the despair they felt when their prayers fell upon empty ears. These emotions surged into the Feathered God’s mind, making her more furious than ever before.
Slaughter…she wanted to tear those invaders apart. She wanted to……
The Feathered God screeched, and the Feathered Serpents gathered, preparing for an incursion against the enemies. The beasts in the divine domain shuddered in fright. They returned to their dens and dared not show themselves again.
However, before the Feathered God could even express her fury, the temple turned dark as a shocking storm of darkness engulfed her.
Chapter 1184 - End of the Road
Enemies?
An unknown enemy had somehow managed to sneak into her chambers and assaulted her before she realized it.
Such an unbelievable thing had actually happened to her.
The shock and horror at being attacked overwhelmed the Feathered God’s anger. She was at a complete loss at what to do!
In Seawoods, she was the god, the indisputable ruler of the plane.
There had never been a creature bold enough to challenge her authority and might, let alone someone that dared to bare their fangs at her.
The long peace and serenity she enjoyed had turned her into a frog in a well. She had believed herself to be an almighty ruler that could have every being act by her will with a single order!
She could never have known that the adepts classified even actual gods into various tiers. An incomplete being like herself that was only somewhere between a demigod and a true god was no more than a walking source of materials for adepts.
The classification, dissection, and research on gods, their divine authorities, and the nature of their divine power were very thorough in the adept’s knowledge system. Consequently, an arrogant native god like the Feathered God was no more than a slightly more powerful divine creature in the eyes of high-grade adepts.
Divine creatures were still creatures in the end!
Destroy their souls, and they would still die.
It was because of how well he understood divine creatures that Greem did not hold any respect for the Feathered God. He did not hold back at all. He ordered Shadow Demon to strike with its most powerful combination the moment it attacked.
Shadow Summon, Shadow Assault, Infinite Shadow Arrows, and Piercing Thrust.
Shadow Summon was an ability of the Fourth Grade Ring of Shadows. It summoned a Fourth Grade shadow assassin.
Shadow Assault was the ability of the Fourth Grade Shadow’s Breathing. It would create a lightless dagger that would autonomously attack the enemy.
Meanwhile, Infinite Shadow Arrows was a spell cast by the Fifth Grade Orb of Shadows.
Piercing Thrust was the only attack launched by Shadow Demon itself.
Even the Feathered God could not endure so many high-grade spells, despite her divine Physique. In just an instant, she was severely injured by the torrent of shadow spells!
However, even such a ferocious attack could not kill her.
The Feathered God could no longer care for anything that was happening beyond the divine domain. She straightened her battered body, and destructive lightning rained down upon the temple.
Wild and ferocious lightning storms crackled around her body, sizzling when they made contact with Shadow Demon. Bright flashes of electricity and ear-piercing crackling sounds could be heard everywhere.
However, these surges of electricity that could reduce an ordinary Fourth Grade creature to ashes seemed weak when they landed on Shadow Demon. Its fully metallic body gave it incredible resistance to elementium magic.
Shadow Demon’s body might be glowing bright from all the electricity running about, but it did not stop it from continuing its wild slashes. In the blink of an eye, Shadow Demon’s claws had ripped through the Feathered God’s form seven times, almost ripping a hole through her body with each strike.
Dammit! A high-grade magical statue.
The Feathered God was arrogant, but she wasn’t foolish.
She instantly recognized Shadow Demon’s true form and understood that her lightning powers would not work against the construct. Physical combat was the best option against a tin can with a magic-resistant body.
The Feathered God screeched and called for her guards. She lunged forth, using her sharp fangs and powerful tail to attack the enemy.
While the divine domain was thrown into chaos, spatial fluctuations appeared near the entrance of the space.
A swarm of wights charged forward, immediately engaging the Feathered Serpents. Mary and her vampires took full opportunity of the chaos created by the wights to break in.
After trading wound for wound and blow for blow with the Feathered God, Shadow Demon flickered and escaped the battle. It had inflicted sufficiently heavy injuries to the totem god. Its figure instantly vanished into the endless darkness.
The badly injured Feathered God shivered in fright. She thought the enemy was preparing to launch another frightening assault at her. She hurriedly gathered a lightning storm and protected herself, while furiously blasting away the shadow assassin and the shadow dagger as she did so.
The Feathered God did not sense the enemy’s presence even after she had dealt with its two assistants.
She listened as the fighting outside the temple grew in intensity. Her reptilian eyes focused as she turned around to help.
However, the moment the thought appeared in her mind, a bolt of darkness shot out of the shadow of a pillar. It was aimed straight at the defenseless egg.
Bastard!
The Feathered God hastily shielded the egg with her own body and let out a breath of lightning that shredded the shadow bolt to pieces. She then flared her wings and destroyed the pillar with devastating lightning.
Unfortunately, her lightning blast did not achieve anything!
“Bastard! You bastard! Come out and fight me if you’re that powerful.” The Feathered God was enraged and no longer tried to save her lightning powers. Bolts of raging lightning crashed down from the sky, shattering every pillar in the temple into pebbles and rubble.
Lightning glowed brightly around the Feathered God, illuminating the place so bright it looked as if it was noon. She was not giving the enemy any chances to leap to her side anymore.
However, using lightning powers to such a degree was extremely exhausting, even with the Feathered God’s Physique and strength!
That said, she could not hold back when there was such a powerful enemy
at hand.
Without the Feathered God’s aid, the hundreds of Feathered Serpents in the divine domain could not fend off the horde of ten thousand wights, even if they were all elites. Moreover, the terrifying vampires were always hiding among the wights and ambushing the Feathered Serpents.
Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the number of Feathered Serpents were quickly running low.
Mary and Vanlier fought side by side in a corner of the divine domain. They were slightly nervous as they observed the battle unfold.
In all honesty, this was the first time in their lives they had ever broken into the kingdom of a ‘god.’ They would be lying to themselves if they said they weren’t nervous.
However, they had already planned for the worst. There were already multiple plans for escape that would sacrifice the other vampires without any hesitation. However, the situation was developing in a direction favorable to them.
The enemy was already at her door, and the Feathered God still remained in her temple, allowing her guards to be slaughtered at will. What was happening? Could she have gone mad? Crazy? Or was there something she couldn’t abandon inside the temple?
Old Vanlier’s eyes rolled around as his mind churned. It was obvious that he was also unnerved by how strangely well the fight was going for them.
Only Remi and his old poison hag appeared to be at ease as they stood behind the two vampires.
Remi already knew about everything the moment Greem’s consciousness arrived at Seawoods plane, due to the connection between their souls. However, Greem had ordered him to keep his mouth shut. So, he had to pretend like he knew nothing.
After an entire day and night of fighting, the one hundred Feathered Serpents finally fell to the wights. After a satisfying feast of blood, Second Grade Blood Elf Mage Isa advanced to Third Grade. She let out a resounding screech of satisfaction when she did so.
As their blood master, Mary had no reason to stop one of her subordinates from advancing to Third Grade.
As her subordinates grew in power, traces of pure blood energy gathered around Mary, causing her powers to grow ever closer to that threshold.
A boiling aura rolled through Mary’s heart, causing her ruby eyes to turn even redder than usual.
Mary beat her delicate leather wings and rose into the air. She pointed at the temple in the distance and shouted.
“The aura of blood! The aura of life. Attack!”
Blood Frenzy.
As Mary worked her magic, all the wights and blood servants lifted their heads and howled. They charged at the temple recklessly. For a moment, silhouettes could be seen everywhere in the divine domain- on the ground, above the tree canopy, and on the cliffs.
Even the vampires with their own wills felt their blood boil. Their fangs protruded more than usual. They flapped their wings and followed after the cannon fodder, quickly advancing towards the temple.
Upon sensing the approach of the wights and vampires, Shadow Demon opened its mouth and sucked all of the shadow substance in the temple into its body. It then silently vanished into the shadows.
The Feathered God was stunned for a moment.
Before she could understand why the mysterious enemy had fled, the tunnels rumbled as an army of strange creatures entered the temple. They swarmed towards her like a constant wave.
Dammit! A mysterious Fourth Grade enemy had already screwed her over! Now, a bunch of weaklings was trying to look for easy pickings while she was weakened.
The enraged Feathered God opened her tattered wings and hovered above the egg. Lightning surged around her as an apocalyptic storm of lightning and thunder instantly reduced the wights and blood servants into ashes.
Such destructive might not only failed to stop the enemy but also only made them rush even faster and ferociously at her. Their crazed breaths, their vicious mouths, and their ugly silhouettes.
The Feathered God beat her wings without any hesitation, unleashing several waves of lightning blasts, exterminating wave after wave of enemies.
Finally, as the cannon fodder started to thin out, the Feathered God saw many pairs of crimson eyes in the darkness. She finally saw the vampires, all smiling wickedly at her.
End of the road!
At this point, there was no longer any turning back. It was a fight to the death!
There was no need for any orders. All of the vampires charged forward, aiding Mary, Soros, Remi, and the old poison witch in their fight against the wholly exhausted Feathered God.
Chapter 1185 - Intercepted
Shadow Demon silently snuck away.
By the time it left, Mary and her vampires already held the absolute advantage in battle.
Even though the vampires were suffering heavy losses as well, taking down the Feathered God would give Mary a chance at reaching Fourth Grade and also allow the several veterans at Second Grade to advance.
Thus, Shadow Demon silently left after accomplishing its objective, departing right at the eve of the major battle that was to come.
Some more attentive vampires might wonder why the Feathered God was badly injured even before their arrival. However, which vampire could keep calm and attempt to find the truth with all the blood being shed around them?
Shadow Demon was quickly weaving through the shadows like a fish in a vast ocean, free and unbound.
It managed to cross a thousand kilometers in half a day.
However, when it arrived at the singularity where it would retreat from Seawoods Plane, it suddenly stopped and went into hiding.
The bright sun shone in the sky.
A warm breeze caressed the trees.
The trees swayed in the wind like green waves, rustling as they did so.
A cluster of black smoke was present at the tiny singularity ahead. It was so conspicuous that it would be hard to ignore it.
It might look like ordinary smoke to an outsider, but that smoke represented an extreme danger to Shadow Demon and Greem.
The aura emanating from the smoke was very familiar.
Shadow Demon could even see the tall and slender finger at the heart of the coiling shadow substance.
As expected: play nice, and you would be bullied. Ever since they found out about the injury to Greem’s soul origin, these enemies had been sprouting out again and again.
Greem was resentful, but Shadow Demon still emerged from the shadow beneath a tree. It glared at the smoke before resentfully speaking, “I am very honored to see you here, respected Clan Leader Circe!”
The smoke did not scatter. Instead, it gathered together and formed a strange black armor around the body of the witch that had now appeared.
Blinding sunlight cascaded from above, shining on her shadow-clad body.
It didn’t matter how bright the sun was; her silhouette was still faint and obscure. Greem couldn’t clearly see her brows or her skin. All he could see was a slender profile.
“You’ve improved again!” Witch Circe sighed from the darkness. “It’s only been such a short while, yet your Spirit has increased again. It seems like we really have underestimated you! You…honestly, have the most talent of all the people I have ever met in my seven hundred years of being a Dark Witch!”
A smile appeared on Shadow Demon’s cold metal face. It looked around before its gaze returned to the Dark Witch.
“Clan Leader Circe, you snuck into this plane and intercepted me, just to make these comments? Where are your subordinates? Why don’t you have them come out as well.”
Circe’s laugh was cold and distant.
“Enough, legendary fire adept, Sir Greem. There’s no need to try and probe me. There is only you and I here today and not a single other Dark Witch!”
“Oh?” Shadow Demon’s eyes rolled around. Obviously, Greem’t didn’t fully believe her words.
“Who would’ve thought that you would run around with the Orb of Shadows even though you know it’s a sacred artifact that the Dark Witches are determined to retake. If you had just stayed quietly
in your tower, we might not be able to do anything, but now…” Having said that, Circe extended her arms. Two shadow daggers slowly appeared in the air. “Hand over the Orb of Shadows, and I’ll let you go. Otherwise……”
Shadow Demon smiled. The blades on its claws clashed together and caused several sparks.
“Call out your subordinates, won’t you! Save us all some trouble.”
“As I said, there’s no need to probe any further! I am Circe, leader of the Dark Witches. I don’t need any help to fight against a Fourth Grade rookie like yourself!”
“Hehehe! You are worried that Alice will be able to sense it if you brought more people along, aren’t you?” Shadow Demon still had a teasing expression on its face. “You Dark Witches never change. Even though you’ve already signed an agreement with Alice, you still come here and cause trouble. Aren’t you worried that I will destroy this Orb of Shadows out of anger?”
“Hmph! The Orb of Shadows is a sacred shadow artifact. As long as the Shadow World exists, it will never be destroyed. Destroy it today, and it will reform in the Shadow World in less than a hundred years. Ignorant man.”
“Hehehe. I might be ignorant, but I know this. If the Orb of Shadows is to reform, do you think it will still fall into the hands of you Dark Witches? Without the Orb of Shadows, can your Shadow Expansion plan still proceed smoothly?”
Circe’s eyes glowed in the shadows.
“Good. Simply amazing. To think even an outsider like you knows so much about us Dark Witches! Today I’ll see if this shadow puppet of yours can escape my pursuit.”
Having said that, the two individuals vanished simultaneously, reappearing in another shadow a hundred meters away.
There were no battlecries or probing of each others’ abilities. There were only two vague silhouettes leaping from shadow to shadow, clashing with their blades and daggers as they attacked each other. Despite how often they were parrying each other’s attacks, there were no sounds from the clashing metal.
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