Brand had just finished shouting, and suddenly realized that the knights who were rushing out of the room in a panic were not running towards him but were screaming and scattering outside. Brand was stunned for a moment, what was happening? He turned around and suddenly felt the entire manor begin to shake violently, as if a giant beast was pacing on the ceiling — the wooden boards were making unbearable creaking noises and constantly dropping dust below.

"Not good!" Knight Captain Ronin’s face changed, the sound was already at the stairway in an instant, "Watch him!" Brand threw a remark and rushed outside the corridor to look toward the stairs. This manor was built at some unknown time, the stairs were crafted in the ornate sculpting style of Ansen XI’s era, but this piece of art was now shaking violently like it had asthma, and the counterfeit masterpieces hanging in the corridor were dropping like hailstones, clattering all over the floor.

Brand hadn’t had time to mourn these precious counterfeit artworks when he suddenly saw a dazzling light emerge from the dark staircase, golden flames erupted and instantly burned the paintings on the ground to ashes, the temperature in the corridor rose sharply, flames cascading down like a waterfall from the second floor engulfed the hallway, several knights who failed to escape were swept into the sea of fire, managing only to emit a single extended scream from their throats, which quickly turned into a piercing wail in the night.

For a moment, the entire corridor turned golden-red, the flames made Brand’s face glow red, but the advancing tongues of flame appeared to fear him, swirling past him as if detouring, forming an elliptical void. "Magic flame!" Brand stood at the center of the void and immediately recognized the nature of the flames, yet only one thing could create such a waterfall of fire, Brand narrowed his eyes without a change in expression, gently pressing the sword hilt of his sword.

Then, with a tremendous roar, a furious beast burst out from within the flames, this beast had a large head shaped like a bullfrog, with long horns growing on top, its skin was as bright red as blood, muscles knotted, and its two arms supported its body on the ground, while its tiny hind limbs were also full of frog-like burst power.

However, the most striking feature of this monster was the blazing flames on its back and arms, its eyes spewing fire, continuously emitting smoke with a pungent sulfur smell from its bloody mouth. This was an Abyss Lord, also from the Scorching Hell, an evil creature from the River of Sulfur, but compared to the Black Fire Sect believers driving those insignificant low-level demons, the one before him could be considered a real giant, possessing high intelligence and power capable of reaching the Golden Peak, a high-quality being.

How could such a being appear in the core area ruled by the Holy Temple, Brand was extremely puzzled, but just as he noticed this demon, the monster also noticed him, immediately letting out a deafening roar, raising its flame-ascending claws and clutching down towards Brand.

The monster’s flaming claws were almost the size of a round table, Brand did not dare to be slack, hurriedly retreating backward to evade, allowing the monster’s claws to ’boom’ on the ground. A circle of flames spread out from the center of the monster’s palm, and the wooden floor of the manor’s first floor instantly became smoldering charcoal dotted with red fire sparks, the Abyss Lord missed with its strike, its paws propping on the ground, and then its entire body lunged at Brand. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The demon from the River of Sulfur was ablaze, its size was roughly four times larger than Brand, as it lunged forward, its body almost filled the entire aisle, and as it advanced, the flames on both sides of its body progressively squeezed the wooden partitions on the sides of the corridor, the boards emitting dreadful creaking cries before turning into fragments consumed by the flames, akin to being engulfed in the fiery world behind the demon. And right now, behind Brand was Ronin’s room, if he retreated just one more step, Red-hand Soft Girl Furlo and Hu Que would surely be at risk, left with no choice, Brand could only raise his sword with both hands, take a step forward, and swing his longsword roundly toward the monster’s chest.

In terms of absolute strength, Brand was inferior to the Abyss Lord, but after the power crystal amplification, if this sword strike landed, it would be enough for this suddenly appearing monster to bear. The chest was the Abyss Lord’s weak point, the monster had extremely high intelligence, as Brand’s sword strike came, it immediately extended its long claws to grip Brand’s longsword.