As the pearl glowed brighter and brighter, a silver vortex formed in the middle of the Shadow Men. It waved the massive scepter in its grasp, and a silver pir of light swung over in Wilbur''s direction.


    "Roar!"


    Just then, the dragon charged over and collided with the silver pir of light. Both forces were diminished from the collision, and the dragon eventually crashed into the band of green light near the top of the room, cracking the band to pieces


    The entire cave fell dark, save for the countless fluorescent pieces of the broken band on the ground. Wilbur did not see any gray Shadow Men where the pieces were, and even the shadow swamps on the ground had disappeared.


    Wilbur found the whole thing hard to believe. Those Shadow Men seemed to be connected to this fluorescent band of light as if it was a special dimension barrier of its own. Now that the band was destroyed, the dimensional barrier had vanished as well.


    Just then, Wilbur remembered what had just happened as realization dawned on him. He had felt an immense difort upon entering the stone room. The kind of pressure that darkness exuded was so strong that he could hardly stand.


    Now that the pale green band was broken, that strange pressure had also vanished as well. Wilbur emerged from the stone room, returning to the start of the crossroads and looking at the paths on the left and the front. "Think better this time, Senior Stefan. Which path should I take?"


    Just then, Stefan''s voice rang in Wilbur''s mind, "Let me see. I think it should be the one in front. Yes, you just need toe through the path right in front of you and you''ll see me."


    "Is that so? What''s beyond the path on the right?"


    "That''s also where the Shadow Men live. They''re a species from the lower dimension close to the middle dimensions, having been born from the darkness of the middle dimensions. That''s what makes these particr Shadow Men so powerful. They aren''t afraid of the power of the light."


    "I''d like to see just what they''re afraid of, then."


    Wilbur walked through the path on the right, and Stefan''s rmed voice rang in his head, "What are you doing?"


    Wilbur walked through the long passage to the stone room at the end of the path on the right. In it was a sword hovering in mid-air, and a jet-ck Shadow Man sitting cross-legged on a stone bed as it meditated.


    The Shadow Man''s eyes opened as Wilbur appeared, scoffing arrogantly at Wilbur as if he were a fly that had found its way here by ident. The sword in mid-air spun around before hurtling itself toward Wilbur.


    Wilbur raised the thunder cleaver in his grasp. A loud ng rang through the air as the thunder cleaver fell to the ground in pieces, and the power from the sword sent Wilbur flying through the air.


    Wilburnded heavily on the ground. By the time he looked up again, the sword was flying over once more. He rolled to the side, and the sword struck the ground. The ground exploded, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.


    Wilbur took the chance to stand, muttering the chant as cast Quad Thunder. The four lightning balls appeared, arcing with chains of lightning that struck the sword. However, the sword seemed to absorb the chains of lightningpletely, as if it delighted in this energy.


    It was not long before all the lightning was sucked out of the four lightning balls. Wilbur was casting another spell then, activating his Earth-type powers as five Earth Walls appeared in front of him. Yet the sword was even more powerful than that, piercing through all five walls and flying in Wilbur''s direction.