Amon and Yue confronted the eight Slaughter Dolls while Horus stood his ground against the blazing Flesh Golem. None of them wavered, even as the Slaughter Dolls revealed their grotesque forms—spikes jutting from their backs and serrated limbs glinting with lethal poison.
Horus glanced at the Slaughter Dolls with increased apprehension. He did say that he would leave them to Amon and Yue, but after careful examination, he realised the machinations before him weren’t as simple as he’d thought. Judging from the artificial mana alone, their power rivalled that of a Five Sun Guardian Knight, and there were eight of them.
Even Horus would have to be careful going against foes of that calibre, but at the sa ti, he didn’t wish to avert his eyes away from the Flaming Flesh Golem.
Roaring like an agonised, wailing soul rotting in hell for thousands of years, the Flesh Golem nad Malvour charged up its mana and filled the room with green necrotic fire. The green tongues of flas didn’t possess great heat; instead, they damaged one’s soul.
As Horus approached the fire, his mind began to spin, and his grasp on reality started to slip. Though it wasn’t enough to hinder him, the Pillar Knight had to chant the Nine Suns Heart Mantra and envelop himself in Aura to resist the ntal assault.
Hence, Horus couldn’t divert his attention off Malvour… at least not yet.
"Amon, Yue. Hold the line for a while. I will take care of this hellspawn quickly and help."
"No, Sir Horus. Please leave the dolls to us. Yue and I are more than sufficient."
"... if you say so."
Horus didn’t take the young Knight’s words too seriously. Instead, he channelled his focus onto the Flaming Flesh Golem and unleashed the full extent of his power. Six Suns orbited around the man as an illusory throne appeared overhead. Solar mana turned into a deep golden Aura while he pointed his trusted blade at the aberration before him.
"I will end you quickly."
"How… impudent!!!"
Malvour roared to life, clapping his massive palms together. The impact unleashed a shockwave that hurtled toward Horus, who countered it with a mighty swing of his blade. In sheer physical strength, Horus easily outmatched Malvour. However, the Flesh Golem’s expertise in ntal assaults levelled the playing field.
"Tsk, Solstice Sanctuary!"
Horus clicked his tongue and unleashed the pinnacle auxiliary Solaris Mystic Arts—a golden sanctum that empowered his allies and suppressed his foes, enveloping the entire chamber. The green necrotic flas faltered almost instantly under its influence. As Horus’s six Suns flared to life, the Solstice Sanctuary peaked, and the throne hovering above him grew ever clearer.
Sheltered with the power of a rising Sun, Horus leapt up and sat on his throne. His six Suns transford into pillars of fla, and they devoured the green fire like a hungry hippopotamus. If it were any other foe, they would have heeled and begged for rcy at that mont.
But Malvour was different.
He was the most powerful undead under the Foolish Lich’s command, and naturally… he was given the best perks.
Greyish-black smoke erupted from the Flesh Golem’s body and ford a vortex of sinister energy that seed to suck in all forms of life. The spectators of the scene instantly shivered in anguish as the green flas doubled in intensity and combated Horus’s Solstice Sanctuary.
"Demonic mana! That bastard!!!"
Horus gritted his teeth and cursed. The first thing that ca to his mind was the dastardly Governor who ran Alverton and allowed this abomination to exist.
Malvour showcasing Demonic mana was ironclad proof that the Governor and Lich were working with the Demon Cult. As a mber of the Solaris House sworn to protect humanity from all external threats, this was a betrayal that couldn’t be forgiven.
However, before Horus could unleash the full wrath of his blade…
BOOM!!!
A Slaughter Doll hurtled backwards, crashing into the wall behind him. The sinister contraption, seemingly indestructible and built to unleash unimaginable chaos and destruction, shattered on impact, crumbling into pieces on the ground. The mana within it had dispersed into nothingness, leaving just a hollow shell of its previous indomitable self.
Stunned by the sudden advancent, Horus couldn’t help but take his eyes off Malvour and glanced back at the source of this destruction.
There stood a mythical creature, the perfect embodint of grace and authority—a majestic Qilin.
Shrouded in ethereal clouds, the Qilin danced in the air like one with the heavens. Its body shimrs with a ghostly, silver-blue hue, resembling the soft glow of moonlight filtering through a thin mist. Wisps of cloud-like vapour curl around its slender legs, drifting with every step, leaving behind a faint trail of pearlescent mist.
Its mane flows like a living cumulus cloud, ever-shifting and glowing faintly, crackling with traces of soft lightning during monts of heightened emotion. Its antlers, shaped like elegant cirrus formations, gleam with iridescence, refracting light in subtle rainbows.
It pulled its chin out, seemingly in disdain of the foes that dared to bear its fangs against it and its master. Clouds that seed powerful enough to carry entire mountains protected the young woman who stood behind it, and that feat alone was enough to drop Horus’s jaw.
"Monarch-tier Spirit…"
Although Horus couldn’t tell the identity of the mythical creature, he had a pretty good guess. Its overwhelming presence was second to none, and its mana was seemingly from another dinsion. And given how protective it was of Yue, the genius Spirit Summoner, it didn’t take a genius to guess the Qilin’s identity.
Monarch-tier Spirit, Ceres. The Cloud Qilin.
One of Yue’s many Monarch-tier Spirits—and among her most powerful—this deity-like being wielded dominion over the clouds, granting mastery over water, lightning, and air magic at the highest level. Its prowess rivalled that of an elental Archwizard. Sharing the sa space with this majestic Spirit was enough to leave others breathless. Even the Slaughter Dolls, devoid of any human essence, felt its overwhelming presence gnawing at their mana reserves.
At that mont, Horus rembered one vital fact… Yue was called the most prodigal magician of her era for a reason.
Lightning tendrils sought out the other Slaughter Dolls like homing missiles, not stopping until they completely eradicated their targets. At the sa ti, the Cloud Qilin’s dominion over water hindered their movents, given how humidly dense the cave was.
Alas, the Slaughter Dolls were the Foolish Lich’s perfect creations for a reason. After watching their compatriot fall to the Cloud Qilin’s previous strike, they adapted to the situation imdiately. Their energy cores created a heat wave that lowered the chamber’s humidity. At the sa ti, they covered themselves with wood that was sturdy enough to redirect the lightning strike.
And sure enough, the Qilin’s authority had little effect on it.
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However, the Ceres was unperturbed. It glanced at the Slaughter Dolls before turning to Yue, who had a big smile on her face.
Covered in wood, the Slaughter Dolls believed it was finally safe from Qilin’s onslaught. But they had missed one crucial fact.
Yue never acted alone.
Amon rushed in from the blind spots of the Slaughter Dolls and descended like a teorite from the ceiling. Five Suns orbited around him as a perfectly executed Heaven’s Fall slamd into the remaining seven Slaughter Dolls, burning all of them.
The one who faced the full brunt of Amon’s strike instantly lted, becoming a pile of ash within seconds. Years of hard work and research of the Foolish Lich was now reduced to rubble. The flas from his Five Suns wreathed relentlessly, burning and decimating the Slaughter Dolls that desperately tried to escape.
Many of them doused the flas with water magic, and for the most part, they succeeded. Four of the six remaining Slaughter Dolls escaped with minor burns and scratches. As for the remaining two, they were critically burnt, and half of their bodies had already lted.
But that’s when the actual danger of the Slaughter Dolls ca into play.
The two critically burnt ones slowly regenerated their bodies, replacing the sinister mana they had received from the Foolish Lich with evolved body parts.
’Not only does it adapt to all phenona, but it also regenerates and improves on its previous design… No wonder the Chaos Dolls would cause so much trouble in the future.’
Though weaker in its current state, if the Slaughter Dolls fell into the hands of the Demon Cult and were enhanced into Chaos Dolls, the devastation to humanity’s future would be unimaginable.
It was fortunate that Amon faced the Foolish Lich earlier than expected so that this tragedy could have been avoided.
’But… using water magic… I guess it hasn’t developed a strong enough intelligence yet.’
Amon mused to himself. He did not need to do anything further, for Yue didn’t miss a beat and ordered the Cloud Qilin to send out six thunderbolts with enough electricity to power an entire town. The force of the lightning strike sent tremors through the ground and instantly burnt two of the remaining Slaughter Dolls to a crisp.
The other four were critically damaged, so they leapt backwards and reached Malvour, seemingly afraid to face off against the two brutal monsters again.
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At that mont, even though they didn’t have telepathic powers, one thought ruled their minds.
’As expected of the Fantasy Couple.’
Within the ranks of Eldorin, no pair could rival the synergy of Amon and Yue. Finding a more seamless Knight-Magician duo anywhere in the world would be nearly impossible. Four of the eight Slaughter Dolls had been destroyed in re monts, while the remaining four were immobilised. With just a few more seconds, the duo would have effortlessly dismantled the machinations, ending the Foolish Lich’s so-called masterpieces.
However, both Amon and Yue didn’t move to finish the job.
They were stopped by an ominous presence rapidly approaching from the lair’s inner sanctum. An unnaturally handso man cloaked in black flew like an eagle, landing before the four remaining Slaughter Dolls and caressing them like they were his babies.
In many ways, they were his children. He’d spent decades—nay, over a century, trying to perfect the dolls. And yet, there they were. Shattered and broken.
"My dears… Please forgive for arriving late."
As he touched the Slaughter Dolls, an overflow of mana healed their ’wounds’ and restored them to their perfect state. And just by that small interaction, Horus’s face tensed up. The amount of necrotic energy he’d felt was unlike anything he’d ever faced, and he imdiately ran to stand in front of Amon and Yue.
"There are a million things I would like to ask about what you two just did, but I’ll skip those for now…"
"..."
Amon remained silent. He knew why Horus was so uptight, and he was completely justified.
For right now…
It was ti for the boss fight.
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