"No!"

Griffin angrily yelled, "How can you sell us out like this?"

The Cleric coldly retorted, "As a follower of God, you should comply with my arrangements."

"But it doesn't matter, if you don't want to hand over this little girl, then just die with her."

He glanced back at the Lich.

The Lich sneered and opened a way through the cyan ivy.

The Cleric waved his hand and then left with the two wounded Paladins.

Only Paladin Griffin remained of those who had still been putting up a resistance in the corner of the hall.

He looked very lonely.

Countless Life-Severing Ivies were crawling at him from the darkness, looking like snakes preparing to devour someone.

The soul fire in Bandel's eyes kept throbbing as he muttered, "I didn't expect the Dream Shrine to have someone like you."

"Unfortunately, you can only die."

Then, all the cyan ivy pounced on him.

...

From the ceiling, Marvin could see the surface of the ivy turning scarlet and could sense a great amount of soul power!

"The Wilderness God's main body is a man-eating crawler plant from ancient times. These Life-Severing Ivies are his avatar."

"Although he entered a state of fake death, his Divine Law is still covering all of this ivy. If you can't counteract that Divine Law, your power will be seriously restricted. As long as that is the case, don't even mention snatching Cold Light's Grasps, maybe even saving your own life would be difficult."

The Winter Assassin's voice was also somewhat anxious as he regretted, "I harmed you this time. Damn Witch, I actually listened to her."

Marvin silently shook his head.

He could feel the temple's power. It was exerting a kind of absolute Domain suppression.

Seeing this scene, he knew that he couldn't wait any longer.

Regardless of how, he had to try.

'Although killing that Lich without finding his phylactery is too troublesome, eliminating his body should still be doable.'

Marvin silently gathered his strength.

The Spirit Orb's skill, [Harvest], had already been filled and could be used anytime.

That skill was particularly effective against souls, so not only could it destroy soulstones, phylacteries, and other similar things, but it should also have a great effect on a Lich's body.

It could at least eliminate his soul fire.

As for all the ivy, Marvin was thinking of joining forces with Isabelle to handle them, and with the addition of Griffin's Truth Scale, they had some hope.

Moreover, there were many Legend Powerhouses here. These people didn't lack fighting ability by any means. They were just pitifully restricted by the ivy.

If he freed them, then with everyone working together, they would have an opportunity to escape.

With all this planned out, he took a deep breath.

The next second, a golden light flashed on the surface of his body.

Shapeshift Sorcerer – Diamond Shape!

Bind Debuff – Immune!

He slipped out of the ivy, nimble like a fish, wordlessly escaping from the binding.

Naturally, he didn't want to inadvertently alert an enemy, so he left a Paper Clone behind while he entered Stealth.

In any case, he had the Vampires' Low Flight and the Witchcraft – Flight's Right, and furthermore, he could walk quickly on the ceiling.

He moved as fast as lightning, quickly arriving at Isabelle's side. He wanted to help her free herself, but she had already escaped on her own upon seeing Marvin move.

Marvin quickly put a Paper Clone in, and the ivy didn't react.

Sure enough, he had guessed correctly. Although these Life-Severing Ivies were the avatar of the Wilderness God, his consciousness hadn't returned yet. They were mostly listening to Lich Bandel's commands.

The Lich's attention was now focused on Griffin, so he didn't notice the two of them getting free.

They silently escaped from the mass of ivy and hurriedly went down the sides of a pillar to reach the floor.

Marvin signalled Isabelle, hinting her to not act rashly. He quietly approached the Lich's group.

He knew that the Lich had very high Perception and since he had previously been noticed by the ivy, he resolved to be more careful this time.

Thus, while moving he silently, felt for an overlapping part of the Shadow Plane with this world.

This was very dangerous. Although he had the right to move through the Shadow Plane, most stable bridges were built between Feinan and the Shadow Plane. There was some risk of ending up in the limitless void by linking with the Shadow Plane from another world.

But the circumstances were too urgent, so Marvin had to experiment somewhat.

He closed his eyes, and the endless void seemed to be filling his mind.

Then, a familiar node kept jumping out in front of him.

"Found!"

Marvin was overjoyed and entered the Shadow Plane without hesitation.

...

The battle in the temple had become very worrying.

No expression could be seen on the Lich's skull, but the expression of the Cleric, who was off to the side, was unsightly.

He still remained on guard. Although he had Bandel's promise, he wouldn't easily trust a zealot of the Wilderness God.

However, he was greatly shocked by the strength that Griffin showed.

Although he had already known that guy was different, he paled when he learnt the truth.

He even had some regret: If he had known that this guy could release the Truth Scale's illusion, he might have kept fighting.

But in this place, his prayers didn't receive any answers, which made him feel weak.

This was something unprecedented for him, after all.

"Fascinating."

Seeing the cyan ivy turning to dust under the light of the Truth Scale, the Lich actually laughed. "The Truth God has already fallen. It is safe to say that no one should be able to summon the Truth Scale, even if it's just a shadow."

"If not for my important task, I might have decided to carefully study it…"

At that time, the Dream God's Cleric couldn't help but say, "Bandel, can you let us go now? We already gave her to you."

The Lich shook his head as he pointed out, "My conditions were for you to hand me that girl, but you didn't do so, did you?"

"Thus, even if you want to go, sorry, but not now."

"Wait till after this matter is over and I'll let you go. My goal is neither to kill everyone, nor to offend the Dream God. You can rest assured."

The Cleric's expression grew somewhat unpleasant, but he could only shut his mouth.

But at that time, a roar suddenly echoed through the depths of the temple!

That roar sounded like one of an ancient beast that had awakened after many years and regained its strength.

The whole temple shook as it reverberated.

The ivy flew around chaotically, and the Legend powerhouses still conscious in the ceiling couldn't help cursing in rage.

The soul fire in the Lich's eyes flickered. "Teacher is a bit impatient…"

"That's good, we can end this nonsense early."

He pointed toward the Truth Scale.

A dull gray light condensed in an instant.

...

In the Truth Scale, the unconscious little girl suddenly opened her eyes.

The Truth Scale that Griffin had strenuously formed seemed to be collapsing.

"Uncle Griffin…"

The sweet sound of the little girl's voice echoed throughout the entire palace. "Where are we?"

She was apparently startled awake by that frightening roar.

As he struggled to maintain the Truth Scale, Griffin was very pale and his forehead was beaded with sweat.

His Legend Laws had also been stripped, so this Truth Scale summoning had already exhausted all his remaining strength.

And the ivy was continuously absorbing and corroding his power!

He was already unable to breathe.

As for that roar, it was most likely the awakening of the Wilderness God's consciousness.

He was constantly enduring willpower checks and couldn't keep supporting himself. He fell to a half-kneeling position.

But even so, he still tightly hugged the little girl in his embrace.

"Woosh!"

The dull gray radiance penetrated the Truth Scale barrier and pierced through Griffin's shoulder!

He turned gray in an instant, as a great amount of energy started spreading from the wound.

The Truth Scale power was quickly restoring the wound, but it couldn't completely extinguish the burning negative energy.

The Truth Scale illusion kept weakening, and soon looked like it was about to disappear.

The Lich waved his hand in satisfaction.

"Take her."

The Two-Headed Dragon walked out of the fog. It didn't seem to fear the Truth Scale as much under the Lich's urging.

As Griffin struggled to remain upright, the Truth Scale's radiance gradually dimmed.

Huge drops of sweat fell down from his forehead, and blood flew out of his wound.

"I'm sorry. I can't fulfill my promise."

His voice seemed very bitter as he muttered, "I said I would save you, I said I would protect you, and lift your curse."

"But I wasn't able to in the end."

"I'll most likely die. I won't be able to protect you again, Molly."

The little girl widened her eyes.

She looked very ordinary. Her skin wasn't very fair, and there were some freckles on her face.

'But, a great Paladin has to complete his oath.'

'This is what you and I decided, so regardless of what happens, I can't give up halfway.'

Griffin's expression was bitter.

Not far from them, the cyan ivy retreated and the Bone Dragon cruelly approached.

The Legends on the ceiling had grieving expressions.

In such a terrible place, with the power of the Legend Laws stripped from them, they were no different from ordinary people and could only wait to be slaughtered!

This girl was first, maybe they would follow soon?

The Paladin's body gradually turned stiff.

The Truth Scale's final light disappeared.

Besides the Paladin, everything else became dull gray. He had already closed his eyes in silence.

In that moment, it felt like all hope had been lost.

Everyone understood that this Paladin had already reached the end of his life.

The Life-Severing Ivies had already exhausted too much of his power, and the Lich's Finger of Death was more powerful thanks to the buff of the Wilderness God. The negative energies kept spreading through his wounds and kept giving him Death Checks.

In the end, he fell to the ground.

All the Holy Power shrank like a tide.

This might have been the most powerful Paladin of the Truth God in the entire Universe, but his life ended there.

Molly stood in front of his body, apparently not understanding what had happened.

"Uncle Griffin. Wake up quickly."

She poked Griffin's already frozen face, her eyes blinking.

Then, the Bone Dragon behind her abruptly bit down!