Beneath the Hustings Dungeon—

"Be careful!" A Papalarian suddenly shouted. It turned out that while everyone's attention was focused on the young girl, the leading Dragon Worshipper had somehow moved unnoticed to Diket's side, not far from the girl, reaching for the dagger at his waist.

Parker, with sharp eyes, was the first to notice this move and, sensing something bad, raised his crossbow and shot an arrow at the man.

Seeing his cover blown, the man, in desperation, threw the dagger at the girl, and the curved blade turned into a streak of black light aiming straight for the girl's chest.

"Be careful, that's a curse!"

Diket shouted in a low voice.

But Hes had no time to react. She had just turned around when she watched wide-eyed as the dagger passed through her transparent body and disappeared into thin air.

"Hes!" Hudi, seeing this, could no longer care about the sword at his side and spun around, rushing towards the girl.

At the same time, Parker's arrow finally reached its target. Although the Dragon Worshipper was of high level, he had to dodge to the side, letting the arrow pass by him, but it stripped away some of his Evasion Value.

But this evasive movement was enough to make him pause. He may have drawn away Hudi, but another figure had already moved faster than him, crossing his path.

That was Diket.

The older knight was too far from Hes to react in time to stop that strike, but he had understood from the beginning that the Dragon Worshippers' target could not just be the girl alone.

"Persistent bastard!" the Dragon Worshipper cursed under his breath. He was naturally unwilling to let his efforts benefit another. He pointed forward and recited a long series of obscure spells.

Other Dragon Worshippers held torches, and the firelight had originally elongated everyone's shadows across this underground hall. But as the sound of curses echoed throughout, these shadows unnaturally twisted, converging towards the man at the center.

He clenched his hand forward, and the gathered shadows rose from the ground, curling toward the knight's back like tangible tentacles.

"The same old corrupted magic of the Dark Giant Dragon, after thirty years you're still only capable of this — good people turned into thoughtless puppets." Diket snorted coldly, as a knight of Marlan he had dealt with these people not just once or twice. Without letting the shadow tentacles get close, he gripped his longsword and with a backward slash, split the tentacles in the air into two.

But the situation was clearly not as easy for the Dragon Worshipper; he shook intensely, his face pale as he controlled the shadow tentacles. After being cut, the tentacles, under his command, split again and lashed out towards the older knight.

Diket now took the situation more seriously. This shadow tentacle wasn't particularly powerful dark magic, but the adversary had enough dedication to entangle him.

However, it wasn't just about one Dragon Worshipper.

He has actually seen the other Dragon Worshippers bypass him and rush towards the altar.

"Parker!" The older knight turned and shouted, then with some resignation, saw that this fellow was actually running far away with his crossbow.

Although Parker was not quite fleeing in panic, he was just hiding in a corner, taking potshots. He did give the Dragon Worshippers considerable trouble, but he couldn't stop them from seizing the sword.

"What are you doing!" Ditke yelled angrily.

"Mr. Diket," the Papalarian cried out indignantly, "This isn't my fault! You can't expect me to deal with these savage brutes. I'm just a poor little Crossbowman of not even Level 14—I'd rather be a quiet cartographer, you know."

"You fool!"

Diket was speechless, but he also knew this dwarf was unreliable. He was about to think of another plan when, right at that moment, everyone had forgotten about Dragon's Golden Eyes standing to one side.

She had actually been closer to the sword than everyone else, but with the Dragon Worshippers acting first and the older knight getting entangled by these people, in the scuffle, they had temporarily forgotten about this main character in the underground hall.

So while the two parties were engaged in fierce combat, a shadow slowly approached the sword next to the altar.

It was a long tail.

Dragon's Golden Eyes had, at some point, grown wings and a scaly tail, with scale-like horns emerging on her forehead, and her eyes burned with twin golden flames.

She silently drew near the prized sword and suddenly, with a flick of her tail, swept it up. A fiercely bright light flashed in her eyes as she shrieked with laughter at everyone:

"Ha ha! You fools, now this sword belongs to me again!"

Everyone was startled, completely unprepared for this twist, and involuntarily turned to look in that direction.

But Dragon's Golden Eyes wasn't done yet, just as a flash of golden light from the sword seared her like a branding iron, making her shriek. She loosened her tail, flinging the sword flying out.

Then something happened that no one expected.

The sword followed a perfect parabola and landed right beside Hudi.

But he was kneeling by Hes, distraught, vainly trying to hold the girl's hand, to no avail.

The girl's semi-transparent body was enveloped in swirling black smoke, gradually spreading toward her heart, and her form seemed to fade even more.

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