Without giving them a chance to react, he leaped up and struck out in the rightward direction with his sword. The glow from his sword shot out and passed through the crowd. In no time, it left headless bodies strewn out everywhere in its wake.

He turned to the left and struck out. The space was soon cleared of men in no time.

[You have used a sword beyond your cultivation level. Penalty: 29 years.]

[You have used a sword beyond your cultivation level. Penalty: 29 years.]

Abdin looked around the corridor. He was the only one standing amidst the blood and bodies. Despite the win, his heart was still heavy.

He sensed that Munniq still had something in store for him.

And where were the men said to wait in ambush?

Six men approached the scene from the castle at that moment.

Their gait was solemn and slow as if they were oblivious of all the slaughter that just happened.

"Hmm. Our sneak entry and ambush was a waste," one of them lamented.

"True." The second one replied. "I have already suspected that Madam is just being paranoid. As far as I can see, the people of this world don't possess the power to make her waste so much of her thoughts."

"I feel the same," the third one said.

They talked until they arrived in front of Abdin. Their cultivation was above pseudo-Deva, something that made Abdin's heart beat faster.

He couldn't feel Deva's cultivation base because of his low rank, but he had clashed with them for so long, and since he could tell a pseudo-Deva from others, telling a Deva apart wasn't difficult for him.

He could also see that they were powerful even among Deva. Three rotations of Noah's saber formation might not be enough to eliminate them.

"Are you the ones posted to lay ambush?" He asked.

All six were men and middle-aged. It somehow felt odd looking at them. Every time his gaze fell on them, he would feel as if he were looking at a single man.

They looked different from each other, and their cultivation was also not the same. But he couldn't keep away the feeling he got every time he looked at them.

"We are," one of them calmly replied. Then he sized up Abdin from head to toe and said, "We will give you two options: cut either a hand or a foot for us, we prefer a leg if possible, or you allow us to cut it off ourselves. But be warned though that our knives are blunt and doing it ourselves would be painful."

Abdin tilted his head up, and suddenly, a realization hit him." You are golems?" He stated incredulously.

All six men arched their brows in astonishment. That alone was enough answer for Abdin, but he still had his misgivings.

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The field of golem fashion was popular in the North. But nowhere in the world was there a Deva-level golem. The existence of anyone with such a skill would make its possessor so ambitious as to want to rule the world.

Deva was the highest level of security appointed by the level 5 empires, and nowhere in the world would anyone above a deva be found except at Yusta'Diyum. The existence of any being that was able to control a deva-level golem would be enough to bring chaos and change the course of power in the world.

Abdin shook his head and tried to dispel the thought. Not possible. The North was vast and mighty, but no one had the power to fashion a pseudo-Deva golem, never mind a Deva.

This continent and its empires as a whole were in dire need of a deva. Why not bring the golems here and lord over the continent if someone had such power?

He already knew the answer. His opponents were aliens from another world. Still, he couldn't wholly believe that they possessed such a power.

"Haha... How are you able to tell?" One of them asked. "It seems you are smarter than you look."

The golem who just spoke was laughing and that elicited a series of amused laughter from the others.

'How was I able to tell?'

Abdin felt his heart pounding as something occurred to him. If these six were all golems, then the men he killed moments ago were possibly all golems. And if so, then others like them would likely be sent again when he was done with these.

He was quite glad for not meeting Silver Mask, but it was no consolation if his successor was able to make deva-level golems. Perhaps having Silver Mask was even better...

"Now, about that feet kiddo, since you have understood your situation," the leading golem said.

Abdin frowned. They might be golems, yes, but he didn't believe that their maker could fashion them forever.

With such high intelligence and cultivation, there must be a limit. Every skill had one. Either his cultivation finished first or the golems finished... Either way, Abdin had no intention of surrendering.

"Noah's saber, The walk of Niba!"

Niba was the first great-grandson son of Nuhu. His sword formation constituted a powerful Walk of six swords.

As soon as the words left Abdin's mouth, his sword flew out of his hand and transformed into six swords. Each of them began to rotate just like earlier.

His cultivation had fallen to less than five hundred from his earlier spells. The walk of Niba was a formation that controlled six swords, and with each rotation, a sword absorbed sixty years of pol from him.

His cultivation at the moment couldn't be enough for the three rotations to kill a Deva. So he intended to just incapacitate them and escape. Or, if he was lucky, they would be frightened enough to retreat. That would earn him a reward for defending the castle. It should be at least 400 years if coupled with the men he killed earlier. It would then be easy to regroup his forces and fight back.

As he made these calculations, and even before his swords could conclude the first lap of their rotation, the six golems appeared and made a ring around him. Contrary to all his expectations, all six golems simultaneously exploded.

Six devas detonated themselves along with their souls, all in a bid to get him.

This time, the entrance gate and most parts of the wall were destroyed. A wide hole was made as a result and the shockwave reverberated through the castle.

Suspecting their antics a moment earlier, Abdin had transformed into lightning just in time to avoid the heavy damage to his physique. But that didn't stop his soul from getting a horrible wound especially because of the ring they had formed around him.

And now, inside the pit lay Abdin in a pool of his blood. He was back to his flesh and bones again and his eyes were bloodshot.

The last sight he beheld moments before he blacked out was of a woman with long, black hair. He could hear her talking in a sing-song voice.

"This is all of him? So all my preparations have gone in vain?" She turned to the men with her and said: "His right foot and left hand would do, make sure he doesn't die."

Abdin couldn't move a muscle as they sliced off his limbs. The pain was so unbearable that his eyes watered, but he still couldn't move. Darkness overwhelmed him after a while and everything ceased.

***

Munniq had been around the castle from the beginning, even before Juwaira arrived.

At the moment, she stood in a white robe teased by the winds, as Laluri approached her. She had been feeling a strange force from the castle walls, something she couldn't quite understand, so she didn't want to step inside the castle until the target was defeated.