"I'll join you, Benjamin."
Before the words had faded, the Silent Lady cleaved downward like a flash of cold light, cutting him in two.
There was none of the expected resistance of shattering bone. The blade seemed to pass through air.
An illusion! Renato's heart tightened.
Almost simultaneously, he raised his Shadow Shield with all his strength.
Boom!
A surge of negative energy erupted where the illusion had vanished, sweeping through the room like an invisible tidal wave. Wooden tables, parchment scrolls, and laboratory equipment rapidly corroded and disintegrated the instant the energy touched them.
The impact hurled Renato into the courtyard. His shadow shield shattered under the surge of negative energy, but barely managed to withstand the corrosive strike.
"It seems your mind has yet to break free of mortal shackles." Benjamin's voice came from the rubble, tinged with regret. "What a pity."
He walked slowly through a gap in the masonry. The skull candelabrum at his waist gave off an eerie red glow as he gestured.
A purple-black magic circle spread above his head. An enormous tentacle covered in suckers emerged from the void and crashed down with a howling rush of wind!
Renato rolled to the right. The tentacle slammed into the ground, scattering dirt.
Without pausing, he sprang up and charged toward the writhing mountain of flesh in the center of the courtyard.
He did not need to defeat Benjamin. Destroying the ritual's core was what mattered.
But a transparent barrier appeared out of nowhere, blocking Renato's path.
"Did you think I'd leave myself defenseless?" Benjamin took out a bone dagger and slashed his arm.
No blood seeped out, yet a bloody tint spread across the transparent Warding Barrier.
"I set up multiple Warding Barriers long ago. I don't know how you slipped through the outer