The next day, in the darkest hour before dawn.

The Great Knights assembled, quietly leaving the fortress under the cover of night and hurrying toward Eagle’s Beak Peak.

At the head of the party was a middle-aged Knight, silent as a mountain.

He wore no conspicuous Armor, only a simple set of gray common clothes. His aura was as heavy as the sea, blending perfectly with the surrounding darkness.

When a small group of monsters sprang from the shadows of the mountain path to attack, he didn’t even draw his sword, merely flicking a finger.

A thread of condensed Life Energy shot out silently, piercing several monsters and turning them into crumbling pieces of charcoal.

"That’s the Church Court’s ’Ash Judge,’ Lord Quentin Thorn," one of the more knowledgeable Great Knights whispered to his companion, his voice filled with awe.

A Legendary Knight cultivated by the Church Court often possessed a purity and control of Life Energy far exceeding that of a secular Legendary Knight of the same rank. They were hailed as living holy blades walking among mortals.

They could even contend with Official Wizards.

The deeper they went into the mountains, the more pungent and acrid the stench of sulfur and rust became, almost forming a tangible mist.

They encountered more and more monsters along the way, each more bizarre in form than the last.

The several accompanying Archbishops from the Church Court had no choice but to act. They chanted in low voices as their Holy Emblems burst with light, purifying stretches of relatively safe passage. Holy Power clashed with Chaotic Energy, sending out heart-pounding ripples.

Finally, the party reached their destination: a relatively flat mountain hollow about a hundred meters from Eagle’s Beak Peak.

Looking up from here, one could clearly see a massive "hole" over thirty meters in diameter suspended above the cratered summit of Eagle’s Beak Peak.

The edges of the hole twisted and writhed erratically, while inside, indescribable streams of dark red, dim yellow, and pitch-black Energy churned. It was like a festering wound stretched across the canopy of the sky.

The intensely strong smell of sulfur and rust was spewing ceaselessly from this enormous Plane Passage, polluting the air for dozens of miles around.

An area within the hollow had been temporarily cleared and cordoned off by the most elite guards of the Peric Clan and the Temple Knights. The atmosphere was so heavy you could almost wring water from it.

Twenty-two Great Knights at the Peak of Mortality stood silently under the dim sky, like twenty-two unsheathed blades. They had retracted all outward signs of their sharpness, leaving only a killing intent condensed to its absolute limit.

Ten Temple Knights stood divided on either side. They still wore their Silver-White Half Armor and White Robes, but their expressions were more solemn than ever. They gripped runed Knight’s Swords, their tips pointing down and plunged into the ground, forming a strange array.

On a natural stone platform, the Ironspine Duke, Hakon Perik, stood clad in armor like an iron-gray statue, silently watching those below.

At his side, Saint Cyril Cardinal and the Valkendu Metropolitan Bishop stood shoulder to shoulder.

Today, both Bishops wore their most formal Sacrificial Robes. The Golden Scepter in Bishop Cyril’s hand and the deep blue ice crystal in the Valkendu Metropolitan Bishop’s palm shimmered with a disquieting glimmer of Energy in the dim light.

There was no pre-battle mobilization, no unnecessary chatter.

Time was short. The pressure of monsters potentially emerging from the other side of the passage at any moment, combined with the cost of maintaining their own path, allowed for no delay. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

When the first pale crack of light split the eastern sky, attempting to dispel the shrouding darkness, Saint Cyril Bishop slowly raised the Golden Scepter in his hand.

His face seemed even paler than the day before, but his eyes were as sharp as a falcon’s.

"In the name of Oriane, pierce the illusion and open the path forward!"

The ancient, grand chant struck the heart of every listener like a heavy hammer.

The Eye of Truth at the tip of the Scepter suddenly burst with light, as brilliant as the rising sun!

In the same instant, the Valkendu Metropolitan Bishop crushed the ice crystal in his palm.

A bone-chilling cold and a holy radiance intertwined, transforming into a torrent of blue and white that blasted toward the empty space ahead.

The ten Temple Knights let out a unified, low shout, drawing their swords and pointing them to the sky!

Ten streams of incandescent, pale-gold Holy Energy surged from the tips of their swords, merging into the pillar of light guided by the Bishops.

HUMMM!

A humming sound, as if originating from the depths of the world, rang out.

Space began to distort and fluctuate violently, as if a boulder had been thrown into a calm lake.

The empty ground was torn and stretched like a piece of cloth by an invisible force, revealing a bizarre "hole" behind it—deeper, of an indescribable color, and roiling with strange Energy.

The edge of this hole was extremely unstable, flickering with sparks of electricity and spatial fragments. At its core, however, the faint outline of a "passage" barely took shape—one slightly concave and just wide enough for a few people to walk abreast, forcibly propped open by condensed Holy Energy.

The light and shadows within the passage were warped, making it impossible to see the other side. Only a stench—ten times thicker than that around the fortress, a mixture of sulfur, scorched earth, rust, and a deeper malice and chaos—surged out like a tangible tide!

Even through the barrier of Holy Energy, the stench still caused many of the Great Knights’ expressions to change, and they felt a chill and a revulsion that stemmed from their very life instincts.

"Now! We can’t hold it for long! Go!" the Valkendu Metropolitan Bishop’s voice boomed like thunder, filled with undeniable urgency.

The veins on his forehead bulged; it was clearly an immense burden for him and Bishop Cyril to maintain this passage.

The squad of Temple Knights was the first to act.

The Knight Commander at the lead shouted, "Holy Protection formation, advance!"

The ten Temple Knights immediately formed a tight, triangular assault formation and plunged into the distorted light and shadow without hesitation, swallowed up in an instant.