Behind the sealed door, Everett rubbed his eyes and muttered, “D-Did I just see one of the Eight Shadow Pavilion Devotees go down like… That?”
Jhaelyn clutched Jemima, eyes bright with fear and irrepressible excitement. Even Saleto gaped, his earlier despair drowned by astonishment.
“All together!” the seven surviving Shadow Pavilion Devotees barked, shooting each other a ruthless glance before attacking in concert.
Ghost-shrouded chains, poison-laced bone needles, black fire that corroded spiritual energy, countless sinister magical items and spells wove into a death-net that crashed toward Jared.
The Twelve Blood Guards became twelve streaks of scarlet, blood blades gleaming as they sealed every path of retreat.
Jared remained unruffled. He inhaled, spiritual energy surging, the Dragonslayer Sword blazed ever brighter.
“Sword Domain! Unfold!”
Golden sword energy erupted around him, expanding into a vast domain of blades. Inside, the threads of gold crisscrossed like a radiant web.
Clink! Clink! Clang!
Every evil magical item and spell that struck the domain was minced to glittering motes of light.
The blood blades of the Twelve Blood Guards slammed against the barrier with loud ringing sounds, yet failed to scratch him.
“Impossible!” a Shadow Pavilion Devotee screamed.
Jared’s smile turned icy. The Sword Domain contracted, unleashing a golden storm of sword energy that swept over the Shadow Pavilion
Devotees and Blood Guards alike.
“Argh!”
Screams overlapped as the sword energy reaped life, flesh and blood splattered in its wake.
One Shadow Pavilion Devotee‘s heart was pierced, his body exploding into bloody mist.
A Blood Guard’s head spun across the stones after being chopped off, eyes bulging wide even in death.
Jared rampaged like a tiger among sheep, carving a bloody path through their ranks.
Blood fanned out with every sweep of the Dragonslayer Sword, death trailed each dazzling arc.
Jared drifted through the carnage as though strolling across a veranda, yet whenever a blade or fist skimmed the breadth of a hair, melted aside and repaid the debt with a killing stroke. The flagstones of the plaza gleamed a slick, gruesome red; severed limbs lay strewn like broken branches, and an iron stench turned the very air nauseating.
The Eight Shadow Pavilion Devotees and Twelve Blood Guards might have charged in fearless fury, but before Jared, they proved as fragile as clay idols, collapsing almost the instant they struck.
Above the slaughter, Dioz hovered in his black robe, his expression darkening by the heartbeat. He had been certain those elites would carve Jared into scraps, yet now they were the scraps.
How could a Level Six Wandering Immortal wield force that rivaled an Earthly Immortal?
The very thought shook Dioz’s understanding of the heavens.
“Impossible… A mere Level Six… How can fight at an Earthly Immortal’s level?” He muttered, voice quavering.
In the time it took a single candle to burn, every devotee and guard had fallen.
Corpses blanketed the plaza, blood ran in streams, and Jared alone stood tall at the center. Crimson droplets slid from the tip of his sword, bursting into tiny scarlet blossoms upon the stone.
Jared raised his gaze, eyes glacial.
“Your turn!” said.
The words snapped Dioz from his stupor. Savagery flared in his eyes.
“Boy, you’ve managed to anger me!”
“Nine Nether Soul Banners! Rise!”
The nine banners ballooned into sky-piercing pillars. From the screaming faces sewn upon their cloth poured a storm of wraiths, all hurtling for Jared.
