A total of 48 members, comprising priests (rank-5) and Bishops (rank-6), alongside 5 Archbishops (rank-7) were gathered by Cardinal Ophanim for a sole reason. It is to create a rank-9 holy barrier capable of blocking Azzy's escape.
Everyone was confident that this barrier could even withstand Azzy's corruptive energy as it is once again used in imprisoning the demons, thousands of years ago.
So, when Azzy warned them, none of the priests cared about it and went on collectively unleashing the huge barrier.
Just as a large golden barrier formed around Azzy, Claire, and Ophanim, the soul skill was activated, summoning undead creatures before Azzy.
Two rank-7 skeletons, five rank-6 human skeletons, three rank-5 skeletons, a Rank-7 Skeletal werewolf, a rank-5 Skeletal Hydra, and a rank-6 Skeletal Snow wolf king were summoned.
Of all the humans and creatures that Azzy killed, these stood at the top. However, even Azzy was surprised about the number, for a moment. After all, he was aware of the humans that he killed so far.
The two rank-7 skeletons were killed by Azzy during the battle royale match in the Senior World league. Their bodies were possessed by demons and were killed as a result.
Two rank-6 skeletons belonged to the guys who abducted Gideon and Estella, a while ago.
Two rank-6 skeletons and three rank-5 skeletons must be the werewolves, the servants of Loren. They were killed in human forms. So, the skeletons also looked like humans.
Loren, the daughter of Fenrir, on the other hand, was killed in her werewolf form. So, that explains her rank-7 skeleton, which looked like a wolf standing on two legs.
As for Hydra and Snow Wolf were pretty much being used for several months. There's no surprise here.
Then, what about the remaining rank-6 skeleton? Where did that come from? Azzy didn't have the knowledge of it and was confused for a second.
But, he also knew that it isn't the time to probe into its origins and get on with the battle.
Meanwhile, the Cardinal stared at them in silence, inspecting their strength. Just like Hydra and Aurora (snow wolf king), the human skeletons also have a visible core behind their ribcages.
While these human skeletons can't retain the soul skills that they possessed before their death, they could still launch energy attacks by consuming Azzy's soul power.
As a result, an 8-star Arcana Master like Ophanim could roughly sense their strength. Despite the fact that there are three rank-7 opponents he had to deal with, the Cardinal was delighted.
He let out a small laugh and said, "As expected of the devil spawn, you sure have the blood of humans on your hands. If you are like this at the age of 14, I wonder how many people you will kill during the next millennium. By killing you, I'm doing a favor to the world."
Until a moment ago, the Cardinal was only accusing Azzy based on the latter's necromancy abilities and corrupted soul energy but now, he got the perfect excuse to eliminate him once in for all.
Meanwhile, Azzy ignored his rambling and ordered them to attack.
Azzy's powerful skeletal army charged forward to take on their opponent who was a step away from reaching the Supreme Realm (rank-9). Vajra also joined them while the black lotus stayed behind.
After sending them forward, he didn't stand still either. He started absorbing the natural energy by maintaining peak-level concentration. The holy barrier could only stop physical bodies, not the abundant natural energy from the surroundings. From several kilometers, the energy rushed to the place where Azzy was standing and absorbed into his body.
It only took a mere 11 seconds for Azzy to absorb his maximum capacity of natural energy but by the time he opened his eyes, all the rank-6 and rank-5 skeletons were destroyed by the fists of holy energy launched by the Cardinal.
Even the mighty four-headed Hydra and Snow wolf king weren't seen.
Only Vajra, two rank-7 skeletons, and one rank-7 skeletal werewolf were left as they were aggressively attacking the Cardinal from all sides. However, Azzy was calmer. "Okay, I'm fully prepared. Now, it's time to kill him."
He glanced behind at his girlfriend who was possessed by her sword spirit, "Agatha, I need your assistance with restricting him."
Agatha immediately understood what Azzy is intending to do. She readily accepted his request, "Sure."
As the overconfident Cardinal easily overpowered the bunch of skeletons without bothering to disrupt Azzy's preparations, the latter took out a 6-star card from his storage card and then, charged forward with a dual-layer of energies covering his feet.
"Get down, you damn creature."
Ophanim gave another solid punch to Vajra, blasting it away for a few meters, and then raised his eyebrows as he glanced at the gap of two skeletons in the front that have several bones destroyed. He spotted Azzy who was rushing at him at mach 2.8 speed.
"Oh, he's here." Ophanim then spun around with his palms stretched, blasting the three skeletons away once again.
As a peak-rank-8 expert, the Cardinal could see him very clearly. So, he was calmer compared to the priests outside the holy barrier who were taken aback as they watched the blurry figure reaching as near as 20 meters to their Cardinal so quickly.
It was then that Azzy suddenly activated the skill card that he was holding in his left hand.
<strong>"Skill card: Gravity Suppression, 100x"</strong>
An invisible gravitational pressure descended onto Ophanim. The Cardinal suddenly fell onto his knees, taking everyone by surprise.
"What the… Oh, it's the same one from his yesterday's battle…" The Cardinal instantly recognized it. "So heavy…"
In the eyes of Archbishops who are the only people that could follow the battle, Azzy now had an opportunity to deliver the blow. But, the Cardinal acted quickly in just a fraction of a second.
"Argh…" Ophanim let out a roar of anger as he used the energy eruption technique. An insane amount of holy energy from his body by the time Azzy almost reached him. Azzy was struck by the powerful energy alongside his skeletal puppets and Vajra, which were in 100-meter range.
Vajra blasted away for another dozen meters and turned into a bloodied figure. No matter how much of a Celestial grade Arcana it was, in the end, the black lightning wolf is only a rank-6 beast at the moment. Not to mention, its body didn't have a defensive build either. So, it couldn't fight off a sudden peak-rank-8 attack that has holy energy, which is a nemesis of Protos energy.
At the same time, two rank-7 skeletons were destroyed, leaving only a skeletal werewolf in the race and that too, missing an arm and several bones in the rib cage.
As for Azzy, he spits out a mouthful of blood while flying away. However, he doesn't appear to have any injuries, owing to his 8th-tier invincible divine body.
The Archbishops were smiling big as Azzy was hit by the powerful attack. The Cardinal managed to resist the 100xgravity and slowly rose to his feet before raising his hand to shoot a beam of concentrated holy energy at Azzy who is still in the air.
It was just at that moment a pillar of golden divine energy passed through the holy barrier and struck him. His eyes widened in shock, "Pure divine energy?"
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