Bloody battle

The alarm bells of Eternal Night City rang without cease.

Thirty-six Magic Towers lit up at once. Members of the Dark Church poured out of the city's buildings and gathered in the direction of the alarm. Eternal Night City was like a monstrous beast startled awake, baring its fangs.

Cecilia's face was deathly pale, but her gaze remained resolute.

"Lord An, keep destroying the formation!" Cecilia shouted. "I'll hold them off!"

An focused all his attention on the formation. With a cold snort, he poured Battle Qi into his sword and scattered the dark red energy.

Boom!

A tremendous crash came from the ceiling of the hall.

Gaius was the first to appear. His gaze swept across the hall, and his pupils contracted sharply when he saw An destroying the formation. Sylvia followed close behind, emerging from the shadows with her amber eyes fixed on An.

Morgan was the third.

All of the Dark Three Giants were there.

But those three were not the only ones who had come.

Another figure descended through the hole in the ceiling. He was a tall man with three pairs of enormous black wings spread behind him-a Six-Winged Fallen Angel.

The peak of Saint-level.

An's heart sank.

Thirty-six Four-Winged Fallen Angels followed the Six-Winged Fallen Angel, filing through the hole.

An stopped what he was doing. Five foes at the peak of Saint-level-the Dark Three Giants, the Six-Winged Fallen Angel, and the Dark Pope himself, who would arrive at any moment-plus thirty-six Four-Winged Fallen Angels at the Saint Realm Middle Stage.

"An Baruch." Gaius's voice was low, edged with icy killing intent. "You've got some nerve, barging into Eternal Night City."

"Elder Cecilia," An said calmly. "Get behind me."

Cecilia shook her head, a faint, resolute smile appearing on her face. "Lord An, don't worry about me. I've already done everything I can."

She took a dark purple crystal token from inside her robe. Intricate runes covered its surface. It was the control core for Eternal Night City's Defensive Formation, which had been built when the city was founded to repel invading enemies. It covered all of Eternal Night City and possessed tremendous power. But the Pope held control over it. The token in Cecilia's hand could activate it only once, and only a small portion of its functions.

"Lord An, when I activate the formation, leave immediately," Cecilia said softly. "Don't look back. Don't worry about me."

An frowned. He could hear her willingness to die in her words.

"Cecilia-"

"There's no time." Cecilia cut him off. "The Pope will be here any moment."

An fell silent.

"Attack!" Gaius waited no longer. Swinging his dark longsword, he charged at An first.

An drew a deep breath. Golden dragon scales emerged from beneath his skin and instantly covered his entire body.

An charged to meet Gaius. The Azure Frost Sword collided head-on with the dark longsword, unleashing a piercing clang of metal.

Gaius took a step back, and so did An. They were evenly matched.

But Sylvia split into eight duplicates in the darkness, striking at An from eight different directions. An swept his dragon tail through three of them, destroying them, then slashed the Azure Frost Sword across the other four, cutting them apart. The real Sylvia appeared directly above him, her twin short blades stabbing toward the top of his head like a venomous snake's fangs.

An tilted his head back and thrust the Azure Frost Sword upward.

Clang!

The short blades collided with the Azure Frost Sword, and Sylvia was knocked upward. But she flipped in midair and vanished again. At the same time, Morgan completed his death magic. A gray pillar of light descended from above and enveloped An.

Soul Extraction.

A violent wave of dizziness struck An. It felt as though an invisible hand had seized his soul and was trying to wrench it out of his body. The protective power of his Dragonblood Warrior bloodline surged forth, shattering that hand. The dizziness lasted less than a second, but that was enough for Gaius to seize his chance.

The dark longsword struck An in the chest.

The Pulsing Defense covering An's body shuddered violently, neutralizing the corrosive force layer by layer. But Gaius had been building up power for this strike. It tore an opening in An's defense, and the sword tip sank half an inch into his chest.

Blood seeped from the wound, staining his golden dragon scales red.

An grunted. He seized the blade of the dark longsword with his left hand and swung the Azure Frost Sword in his right. Storm Spear!

The azure glow around the Azure Frost Sword suddenly became blinding as it shot toward Gaius's chest. Gaius's expression changed drastically. He released his dark longsword and retreated at full speed. But the Storm Spear was too fast. The azure light grazed his shoulder, tearing open his shoulder armor and sending blood spurting out.

Gaius retreated to the edge of the hall, his face livid. His dark longsword was still in An's hand, creaking beneath the grip of An's dragon claw.

"Here, take it back." An hurled the dark longsword. It became a streak of black light shooting toward Gaius. Gaius sidestepped it, and the sword slammed into the wall behind him, its blade sinking into the rock.

The Six-Winged Fallen Angel charged straight at him. He was even faster than Sylvia. An saw only a black afterimage before the Six-Winged Fallen Angel's fist was in front of his face.

An raised his left hand to block.

Thud!

An was sent flying backward and crashed into the steps at the edge of the altar. The steps shattered, spraying broken stone everywhere. His left arm went numb. The Six-Winged Fallen Angel was actually stronger than a Tyrannosaurus.

The Six-Winged Fallen Angel hovered in midair, his blood-red eyes fixed coldly on An.

An rose from the rubble and shook his left arm. Injured.

The moment An stood up, Morgan's death magic struck again. A gray beam as thin as a strand of hair shot toward An's heart. An twisted aside to dodge it. The beam grazed his shoulder, corroding a patch of his dragon scales until they were charred black.

Sylvia's eight duplicates appeared again, their short blades stabbing toward An's back. An swept his dragon tail across them and destroyed four, but the other four drove their blades into his back at the same time. They could not pierce his dragon scales, but the tremendous impact sent him stumbling two steps forward.

Gaius had already retrieved his dark longsword. He charged from the front, black mist churning around his blade and forming a slash of black sword energy dozens of meters long, which cleaved down at An's head. An raised his sword to block. The sword energy struck the Azure Frost Sword and forced him down onto one knee.

The Six-Winged Fallen Angel attacked again, unleashing a lightning-fast barrage of punches. An had to spare one hand to block, but the Six-Winged Fallen Angel's fists were too fast. He threw at least a hundred punches in a single second.

An blocked most of them, but more than a dozen still slammed into his body. His dragon scales shattered, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

The thirty-six Four-Winged Fallen Angels' Great Fallen Angel Formation began to operate. Dark energy surged from all thirty-six of them, gathering into an enormous black sphere of light above the hall.

An knew that once that sphere fell, he would be gravely wounded even if he survived.

I have to escape.

He poured all his Battle Qi into the Azure Frost Sword, then swept it fiercely across. Wind-Cutting Formation!

Countless azure Wind Blades flew in every direction like a torrential downpour.

The Wind Blades temporarily disrupted the thirty-six Four-Winged Fallen Angels' Great Fallen Angel Formation, halting the black sphere's growth. Gaius swung his dark longsword to block the Wind Blades and retreated several steps. All eight of Sylvia's duplicates were destroyed, and her real body had to retreat to the edge of the hall. Morgan summoned a wall of bone to defend himself, but the Wind Blades sliced it apart, forcing him back several meters as well.

The Six-Winged Fallen Angel wrapped his black wings around his body. The Wind Blades struck his wings with metallic clangs, leaving only shallow scratches.

An seized that opening and turned, charging toward the center of the altar. The Azure Frost Sword pierced the groove at the top of the central stone pillar again, its azure sword energy cutting at full power.

Crack!

A fissure split open at the top of the stone pillar. Dark red energy gushed from it like blood. The runes throughout the hall began flashing wildly, then went out one after another.

The formation was destroyed.

But An paid a price for it. His back was completely exposed to his enemies.

The Six-Winged Fallen Angel's fist slammed into his back. Agony tore through An as more than a dozen dragon scales shattered. The blow sent him flying forward, and he crashed heavily into the opposite wall.

The wall shattered, burying An beneath the rubble.

Gaius, Morgan, and Sylvia rushed forward together, ready to deliver the finishing blow.

Just then, Cecilia raised the dark purple crystal token in her hand and poured all her Battle Qi into it. The runes on the token lit up one after another, blazing with dazzling purple light. A powerful surge of energy spread from the token and resonated with the Defensive Formation beneath Eternal Night City.

Hummm!

Purple runes lit up throughout the hall at once.

A purple pillar of light burst skyward from the floor at the center of the hall, enveloping An. It launched his body out of the hall and sent him straight to a point ten li outside Eternal Night City.

Gaius's expression changed drastically. "The Defensive Formation! She activated the Defensive Formation!"

The Six-Winged Fallen Angel charged at Cecilia and drove a fist toward her chest.

But Cecilia was ready. She poured her last trace of Battle Qi into the token, detonating part of the formation's energy inside the hall. A purple wave of light spread outward from her in every direction, forcing the Six-Winged Fallen Angel back. Gaius, Morgan, and Sylvia were also driven back repeatedly by the wave, and the thirty-six Four-Winged Fallen Angels' Great Fallen Angel Formation was completely scattered.

Chaos engulfed the hall.

But after releasing that wave of energy, the token in Cecilia's hand shattered.

Cecilia slumped to the floor, her face deathly pale and blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

"Cecilia!" An enraged roar came from above the hall.