Blue-gold light pierced the dark vortex above the temple like a sharp sword, tearing open a rift in the gloom shrouding Memphis. In Ian's hand, the wand burst forth with an unprecedented radiance.
The light was intense.
It was the disturbance caused by Ian breaking into the temple. The Evil God Embryo sensed Ian's return and controlled its Corpse Priests, attempting to use Flesh and Blood Magic to stop his advance.
Thump... thump... thump...
This was not a human heartbeat.
It was an artificially created Evil God Embryo awakening. Arranged here, feeding on living beings and the flesh and blood of its followers, it was determined to truly be born into this world.
Sensing the evil god's command, the Corpse Priests began to move. Rubble atop the temple ruins suddenly rose into the air, forming an impenetrable barrier. It was no ordinary earth and stone—strange Golden Patterns emerged across every fragment, like the veins of living tissue.
Even more terrifyingly, the ground began to writhe. Dozens of Corpse Priests burst out of the earth, the golden flesh buds on their foreheads growing wildly and transforming into twisted tentacles in the blink of an eye!
The Corpse Priests had appeared. They had once been clergymen of ancient times, but now their flesh had decayed, leaving only withered bones draped in black gauze. Ghostly green Soulfire burned in their eye sockets. They carried bone staffs and stone slabs inscribed with curses on their backs, and with every step they took, black blood seeped from the ground.
The air was thick with the stench of rot and sulfur.
They were neither living creatures nor undead. They were vessels for Flesh and Blood Magic—the Evil God Embryo used them as "living magic arrays" to manipulate the boundary between life and death.
"Blood as threads,