The priest had a tall task cut out for himself as he continuously dispelled all the status altering spells that landed on Sigfrid while sustaining his own Sanctuary. This was a huge burden for him but he had to pull out all the stops and use all his artifacts which included a morning star weapon that collected the energy of the sun making his Holy Power regeneration 20% higher.
Under normal circumstances that was enough to help the priest sustain their healing and enhancement abilities for a long time but having four elites beating on him quickly depleted his reserves.
The Race to the portal continued and the priest was constantly assailed by acid bullets layered on top of high damage attacks to his vitals from the assassin. The coercer on the other hand was throwing mental attacks and trying to dispel any enhancement on Sigfrid himself and was accompanied by the Witch Doctor that was landing every Movement speed slow he had in his arsenal.
Sigfrid and Nightmare were evenly match despite all the work Nightmare put in throughout the years and it was extremely frustrating for him to launch attack after attack and seeing the entrance to the Abyss closer and closer.
Sigfrid knew that despite being outnumber it was Nightmare's fight to lose. The moment he and the priest reached the portal, it was all over and the best chance of killing him would be gone for good. The spells came one after another and nightmare created skeletal warriors that jumped at Sigfrid desperately trying to tight his feet up but they never made it passed the consecration grounds that burned them into ashes.
The closer to the portal they got, the more intense the fight was and hundreds of blows were exchanged in a flash before they separated and did it all over again.
The Winged Lions were 4th tier creatures and they were intelligent to the extent of communication with other beings using telepathy. The ones constantly interacting with humans were capable of the delicate control of the lips, teeth and Jaw required to shape words.
The moment Sigfrid and the Priest jumped to the ground, they took off in the direction of Silverwing City to report the events that happened and other messages that Sigfrid wanted to relied to Ivan. Information was of utmost importance due to the significance of the attack… how did Nightmare know to wait for him? Was the Leader of the Demon Squad actually a pawn of Harbinger?.
The information was very valuable and since having the mount did not warrant their arrival to the portal, it was better to send them to report.
"So far so good" thought Sigfrid, calculating the distance left until they were safe.
SIZZLE!!
The focus of both knights was battle heighten in order to respond to the minute changes in the fight and they didn't missed the strange sound coming from behind. 50 ft back there was a huge screen that appeared in an instant and thanks to the speed everyone was moving, there was no time to evade it.
It was a trap very similar to laying a very thin black wired on the ground and then lifting it at the right time so that an animal that was running lost its head. There was no distinction between Sigfrids or Nightmare's forces, everyone that crossed the screen started corroding in real time and becoming liquid on the ground.
CORROSIVE SCREEN
Six people melted not knowing what happened to them and as the leaders eyes constricted watching the scene, time stopped moving, and a 10 ft tall shadow appeared behind Sigfrid and a 4 finger claw penetrated his chest.
Tsch… (Click tongue)..
(Eerie Reptilian Voice)... "So many years of preparation and still can't kill him… Harbinger would be disappointed Nightmare, but don't you worry, you can go to your gods realm knowing that Sigfrid the Immortal is dead".
A tail made of volcanic rock wrapped around Nightmare's body and held him in place while Sigfrid struggled to get released from the hand that was impaling him. During the struggle, Sigfrid's eyes opened wide as he felt 2 giant fangs penetrated his skull and then a strong suction force. It was all over, Sigfrid's consciousness faded away little by little while hearing a very satisfied whispered, "How Nutty Ivan has been, thank you for the Info"
"You are welcome Nightmare, now your family can rest in peace… Why don't you joined them"
The tailed started squeezing breaking all of Nightmares bones while Green Chaos fire started to burn and corrode his very being.
AHH!
Nightmare screamed and struggled but it was useless, half his body was already burned into nothingness and there was no way of making it out alive.
The pain of being burned alive was lingering but all of the sudden the pressure from the massive tail was no longer constricting him and when he focus his eyes there was an old face that whispered, "Well… Sigfrid is dead, the question is would you like to remain an Elysian or do you want to go into your God's Realm?"
"Is there even a choice?"
"Yes, my disciple can make your soul stay and be reincarnated in this world but you need to be fast if you want to stay"
"Yes, I want to stay"
"Don't worry old friend your soul will be reincarnated in our Realm, Rest well"
Somewhere in mount doom, Rahz was waiting to hear about the arrival from the ambassador of the God of Justice but instead he received a message that his teacher needed him immediately and that it was a life and death situation. Rahz took a portal to the Temple where Giant Blade's wife open another portal to the entrance of the abyss and followed after him.
The moment Giant Blade saw Rahz, he screamed at the guards to go inspect what was happening so close to the abyss and gave courage to other adventures to go investigate.
A massive wave of close to 100 people move quickly to see what was happening, and when they got to the scene they saw a Dark Knight burning in chaos fire while another White Knight just laid unresponsive in a pool of blood.
Giant Blade took the leadership role and sent some people to check on Sigfrid while he took Rahz and headed towards Nightmare. Rahz was confused about what was happening but after listening to the conversation of his teacher and his friend, He understood why he was there.
Apocalypse appeared in his hands in the shape of a bone 2h Axe and before the fire consumed Nightmare's upper body, Rahz swung down and separated Nightmare's Head from his neck. People were flabbergasted at the scene before them as they thought the Gnome had told them to check what was happening and they assumed that the reason was to look for survivors but they were so wrong. The moment Nightmare's head rolled on the floor a magical illusion appeared in front of everyone as a pillar of black light was descending to take a hideous creature away. Only the Head of Nightmare was visible and the rest of his astral body ressembled and alien with tentacle for arms and it was humongous in size.
Nightmare was a level 49 Shadowknight and the amount of Realm Spirit accumulated by the parasite was pretty amazing. Apocalypse opened its mouth wide and started sucking away bits and pieces of the parasite and decreasing his size until all there was left was the soul of nightmare back in his original form that looked at Giant Blade and said, "Thank you".
Part of the Spirit Energy was returned to the realm and the other part was received by Rahz that felt his body transformed while his level climbed up and past through his third Milestone. Rahz got taller and his skin change shape and color displaying a scale like look similar to the Basilisk.
Rahz moved to level 31 and was finally able to manipulate Apocalypse in its sealed state. The people around them had their jaws wide open and didn't know what to think, many thought that it was a dream while others thought it was a hallucination but after looking around they knew it was real.
"LOOKS LIKE THE GREAT SIGFRID WAS KILLED BY HIS ARCH ENEMY NIGHTMARE. ANYBODY HERE FROM THE CITY OF SILVERWING THAT CAN TAKE THE CORPSE AND REPORT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR TEMPLE".
It was extremely important to drive that point home so that a war would not start or at least it could not be blame on Rahz or himself.
The body of Sigfrid was pick up and taken by some adventurers that had greed in their eyes. They knew that the corpse needed to be returned intact but nobody told them anything about his armor.
Giant Blade sighed and grabbed Nightmare's head before he and his wives delivered Rahz back to mount Doom and left quickly towards Blackrock Port.
Inside mount Doom ...
In the middle of a dark hall a half Demon/Half Snake slither towards a throne among the reverend gazes of twelve 4th tier demons.
"Keep an Eye out on that kid Rahz and if possible eliminate him, I want this weapon"
Lord Barash waved his hands and a picture of Rahz cutting Nightmare's neck was very clearly depicted.
"As you Command" 12 voices responded in Unison.