Rebirth of Abium

Before Abium could understand the secret behind those threads, a drowsiness feeling assaulted his mind. It was a vague feeling you would feel when you went to sleep. He saw the Shadow Fiend's red eyes were glowing and seemed to be hypnotizing him.

'No!..Resist!' He gripped his hand tighter and soon found himself sat on a wooden house near to a broken bed. On that bed was a blonde-haired lady with azure eyes. She laid on the broken bed and was staring at the ceiling with a vacant expression on her face. Teardrops were constantly flowing from both her eyes, and she didn't seem to have any strength even to wipe those tears.

"Come closer." She said slowly while shifting her eyes towards Abium. But there was a difference in Abium's outer look. He had black hair instead of a blonde one and looked more like a human.

He sat near her with a soulless expression while grabbing her smooth hand and moved his face close towards the blonde-haired lady's face.

"Abi, I don't want to die without knowing the answer." She paused and looked deeply into Abium's black eyes and asked,

"Do I have a place in your heart?"

Tears began to flow out from Abium's eyes as he heard her question, and he quickly nodded his head.

"Hahaha- 'Cough,' don't lie to me. Even after 10 years, you still didn't forget about her, right?" She glanced at him with a weak smile and muttered after a short pause.

"Kiss me before my breath stops."

Abium's body went stiff for a moment, and he forcefully pressed his lips against the blonde-haired lady's lips. Both of them kissed for a minute, and slowly Abium separated his lips with a slight blush on his face.

"'Cough' you look more handsome now." That blonde-haired lady said with a blooming smile and soon sighed deeply. There was a deep sorrow that appeared in that sigh.

Both of them fell into deep silence, and soon her breath began to grow rougher. Abium could feel her heartbeat was slowing down, and her body began to tremble.

"A-Abi, don't forget me when I embrace Mother Nature." A weak voice full of sorrow came out from that lady's voice, and soon she closed her both azure eyes.

Meanwhile, Abium closed his eyes and noticed something was off about the situation.

'Why didn't I feel sorry for her death?' He felt strange about the situation and soon felt pain in his head. He sensed some invisible barrier was blocking him from recalling his memory!

He stood there motionlessly for a few seconds and then noticed hundreds of runic characters began to hover around his body.

The next instant, all those rune characters entered into his body and then broke the invisible force that was blocking his memories.

A second later, his appearance changed from a black-haired human to a blonde-haired elf! Abium also regained all his memories and spoke with a smile.

"Break!"

With full of killing intent, Abium stared at that shadow creature and then unsheathed his sword.

As he was about to attack that creature, it raised one of its hands and shouted in abyssal language.

"Wait! I didn't do that on purpose."

"What the-?!" Abium blurted out in surprise and stared at that creature full of wariness. He never thought magical beasts could speak like normal humanoids and felt conflicted.

"Hey! Hey! I'm not a beast. I'm the second son of Elder Shadow and an honorable guard of Shadow sea." It stood while waving its arms and said. From its earlier words, anyone could tell that the Shadow creature was very proud of its origin.

Abium raised his eyebrows a little and ordered while pointing his finger at multiple shadows,

"Unbind those shadow threads."

Hearing Abium's words, Shadow Fiend became relaxed and instantly retracted those threads. The next instant, everyone woke up from the nightmares and soon turned their heads vigilantly towards the Shadow Fiend.

After a short deliberation, Abium looked curiously at that Shadow Fiend and asked,

"What are you?"

A chuckle escaped from that creature's dark void like mouth as it heard Abium's words.

"I'm also one of the servants of Dark God Ringer like Zack you killed a few days ago. Well, everyone here is somehow connected to 'Him,' so we knew about your every movement."

Everyone became shocked when hearing that creature's answer and became more cautious. After a sudden thought, including Abium, one by one turned their head towards Cedric and raised their eyebrows in confusion and wariness.

"Not him. He is just a seed, and our lord has other plans for him." Shadow Fiend said mysteriously and suddenly stopped talking as if that creature had received an order from above.

"Sorry, forget what I said just now. Although I was supposed to kill or defeat everyone who enters into the fifth layer, I wouldn't say I like taking risks. If you are really eager to look for battle or treasures, you can find other servants roaming in this layer somewhere. Well, if you are confident enough to kill a third-tier beast, you can go to sixth and seven layers." That dark creature suddenly turned into a shadow as it finished its words and disappeared from there, leaving others dumbfounded.

"What the hell was that, kid?" Fennelis gained some courage once she saw that creature disappeared from her sight and asked with a frown.

"I have no idea. It appears that the creature came to warn us about something but stopped due to someone's interference." Abium said casually and turned his amber eyes sharply towards Cedric.

"Cedric, ask Ringer about the exact location of the Death Cane." He asked coldly.

Cedric went silent for a few seconds and quickly spoke while pointing his finger towards the dense forest,

"He said that artifact is located fifteen kilometers away from here."

Abium nodded his head and signaled others to follow after him. Although they met a few first-tier magical beasts, those didn't pose any threat to them. After two hours of roaming inside the dense forest, finally, they saw an enormous temple surrounded by five-meter tall walls.

This temple was five times larger than the Temple of Dark god on the second layer. Unlike that temple's surroundings filled with barren lands, this temple was completely covered by beautiful trees and vines.

"What should we do now?" Edith glanced at the tall temple and asked in confusion.

"To get the Death Cane, I need to act as a Holy Knight for a while, My Lady," Abium said with a mysterious smile on his face and added,

"Until I come along with those Light Church members, you all should hide somewhere near this temple and wait for my message." As he said those words, he tossed one communication ring to Fennelis and disappeared from there. Others got confused for a moment, but Fennelis knew Abium was planning to infiltrate the Light Church group and became more serious.

"Let's go. We also have to prepare some backup plan if he somehow got caught." Fennelis said and began to search for any cavern nearby.

Meanwhile, Abium arrived a few hundred meters away from their location and took out a black gems embedded amulet. Using that amulet, he began to sense the location of Count Henricus through the 'Dark Touch' spell. After a few seconds, Abium managed to find out the exact location of Count Henricus and curled his lips upward.

...

Bare Keep Town, Peral Kingdom.

It was around 4 A.M.

More than ten leather-armored soldiers stood on the eastern fortified stone wall with vigilant eyes and seemed to be guarding the town like guardians.

"Guys, did you hear that sound?" A blonde-haired soldier named Jack, who looked around 40years, asked while perking up his ears.

"What? No, I didn't hear anything." A tall, muscular man with blue eyes answered. At the same time, another soldier voiced out.

"Hey, I hear rustling noises from the Eastern woods."

"Me too." Another black-haired soldier also replied while nodding his head.

Frowning deeply, Jack quickly picked up the Fire torch and stuffed a mid-tier magic stone into the fire. Then, he took a deep breath and threw it towards the Eastern woods at full force. If Jack were an ordinary mortal, it would have turned into an embarrassing moment. But he was not an average human. He was already a peak forth-tier warrior, so he was five times stronger than the average human.

The fire torch flew up in the sky with a whooshing sound and soon landed five hundred meters away from the eastern fortified wall.

As the fire-torch touched the land, a bang sound echoed! The fire began to expand like a raging storm while illuminating the whole surroundings.

A second later, the whole ball of fire began to shrink quickly and soon disappeared, leaving darkness behind.

But that short moment was enough for everyone to see what was hidden inside the Eastern woods. In a split second, they saw thousands of red eyes in those woods and got frightened.

"Sound the alarm!" Jack spoke anxiously and then signaled others to prepare for battle.

Within two seconds, warning bells began to ring in every direction. At the same time, hundreds of soldiers woke up from their sleep, and hastily climbed up on the fortified wall through the stairs. Archers and spearmen moved towards the edge of the walls and got ready to attack at any time.

The peaceful moment lasted only for fifteen minutes, and then a loud horn sound echoed from the Eastern woods. No, the soldiers heard multiple horns sounds from different directions and went deadly pale!

A second later, hundreds of goblins, kobolds, orcs, and other humanoid monsters ran towards the entrance gate while roaring.

"Aim," Jack shouted. The next moment, hundreds of Archers took metal arrows from their quivers and placed them on their bows. Then, they pulled strings back and locked on to their targets.

"Fire!" As the monsters arrived at the marked areas, Jack raised his hand and ordered.

Hundreds of metal arrows flew up in the sky and directly rained on the monster horde!

"Again!" Jack shouted.

Once again, the archers took out the arrows and followed the same procedure.

Within a few seconds, Archers released more than two thousand arrows and killed 500 monsters.

BANG!

A banging sound came from the western direction, causing everyone's face to turn pale. They knew other soldiers were facing some dangerous monster on the other side and shuddered inside.

Simultaneously, an iron bolt flew from the monsters' side and stuck on the fort wall. But that was not the surprising thing. A veteran soldier noticed that a rope was attached to the iron bolt's end and got pale.

"Captain, these monsters are using ropes to climb up the wall." He shouted in anxiety.

"Cut the ropes. Spearman, protect the Archers." Jack didn't lose his calm and sent out the orders one by one.

As he was in the middle of ordering, he saw a small yellow spark from the Eastern woods.

A humanoid figure then walked out of the Woods while holding a fire torch in its left hand and a broadsword in its right hand.

Within a few seconds, that humanoid figure arrived behind those monsters and then attacked those monsters mercilessly.

Jack blinked his eyes in surprise and soon saw his outer appearance.

He was a black-haired youth who looked around 20 years old and looked somewhat familiar. He wore a black leather coat, leather shoes, and appeared like a professional warrior.

'Why he looks so familiar?' He rubbed his eyes and soon stuttered,

"Y-Young Master!" He became shocked.

Hearing his stuttering, other soldiers also followed his gaze and soon widened their eyes in shock.

"F*ck, we need to rescue him," Jack spoke with a trembling tone.

"But he looks fine, captain." A blonde-haired soldier said while pointing his finger at black-haired Nicolaus.