Emir was equally surprised by Arthur's unstoppable attack but he regained his composure fairly faster than Sol'dhin. As the Archmage was about to follow up with a spell of his own, Arthur interrupted him by saying:

"No need, go join your people."

The parasite hesitated and questioned Arthur's words but before he could talk back, the latter told him something telepathically which made him turn around and leave through the tunnel. Moreover, the tunnel created by the parasites disappeared a few seconds later, leaving Arthur alone with Elias and his group.

"You seemed strong but I didn't expect such fierce power!"

Unlike his previous nonchalantness, Sol'dhin turned serious as he pressed his hand on his bleeding shoulder, closing the wound and stopping the severe blood loss. As for Arthur, he stored back the sword and glared at the enemy.

The two didn't exchange any more words and, instead, lunged at each other, violently clashing on top of the small area behind the Frozen Keep. The old man, Elias, though still very pale, managed to order his people to open up a large Spatial Tunnel. They were well-prepared and the portal to the outside was quickly opened.

Unfortunately, just as they were about to step into it, Arthur hammered Sol'dhin with a large bronze platform above him then raised his hand and pulled the empty air. This simple movement caused the Spatial Tunnel to shake and shatter, killing two humans who tried to hastily enter it.

Elias' face turned grim as he saw the tunnel easily break like that, he turned toward Arthur while mumbling:

"He's a Space Magic user…"

The old man recognized Arthur the moment the Dark Magic appeared, which is why he didn't dare provoke him. The Shogun was holding him off but, apparently, he was being overwhelmed by Arthur's ruthless bombardment.

Like a ghost, Sol'dhin appeared before Arthur and swung down his sword, unleashing a torrent of silver threads which were about to hit Arthur only for countless green thunderbolts to envelop the parasite and fend off against the attack.

Furthermore, the humans at the back were also attacked by a massive sea of flames that engulfed the whole place, incinerating the ground and melting part of the fortress' towering wall. Elias was able to block the flames using his coin but only a small portion of his people survived the fire. Dark red flames dominated the ground while a miniature orange sun rose in the sky and exploded, obliterating the already unsteady floor.

Elias grit his teeth and backed away, choosing to lead his people inside the safe, which was way safer than remaining here and getting hit by Arthur's destructive spells.

Sadly, the moment he led his people into the Frozen Keep, the old man could hear loud shrieks coming from a few middle-aged men walking at the front. They were clutching the strange red orbs and rushing inside only for several tall silhouettes to appear from out of nowhere and indiscriminately kill anyone in their way.

These slaughter machines were fully-armored Death knights, and, in addition to these undead, the ground turned dark and creepy hands immobilized the fleeing mortals. Arthur spared no one as his summons turned the place bloody, beheading the humans and sucking the life out of them.

In the air, next to the keep, Arthur and the Shogun faced each other, however, the former was handling both Sol'dhin and Elias, hell-bent on killing the shrewd elderly. He was only able to do that thanks to the Quad-spirit, which was controlling the four elements and destroying everything. Even the supposedly unbreakable keep which was built using anti-magic stones was being devastated from inside out.

"Heh… you're a crazy one!"

The leader of the humans wiped the blood leaking out of his mouth and snickered at the silent Arthur. The place turned more chaotic as dozens of fireballs with creepy faces were ejected from Arthur's hand, heading toward the Shogun and exploding, letting out both Dark Magic and the flames of hell in the process.

Sol'dhin's clothes were scorched but his body wasn't severely injured, with the exception of his missing arm and a few minor scratches. Nevertheless, he had to resort to a special wind skill and constantly jump in the air as he couldn't fly like Arthur, who was using his invisible thin threads freely fly around. The threads acted on their own as they became sturdy spider webs that allowed Arthur to fly and even trap the Shogun.

In addition to the detonators, several thick white thunderbolts descended from above and hit the target, leaving him no choice but to raise his sword to defend. Arthur used this opportunity to teleport next to him and attack with his palm.

An image of an illusory golden palm could be seen in front of Arthur, the slightly gigantic palm crashed into the unfocused Sol'dhin, sending him flying into the abyss down below. Arthur didn't even look at the disappearing figure of the enemy and, instead, flew at Elias, who was using his coin to extinguish the rampaging death knights.

The old man's body trembled as it suffered the frontal assault of a suffocating pressure coming from above. Like a falling meteor, Arthur descended on the old man, his fist glowing with a green light as it slowly made its way toward the defenseless victim.

Just as Arthur was about hit him, the coin materialized a semi-sphering black barrier which stopped Arthur fist, however, it only lasted for a few seconds before it broke and flung away both Elias and the attacker.

Arthur quickly stabilized his body but the old man couldn't, he rolled on the ground and coughed more blood before getting up with much difficulty.

"I really didn't expect you to go through my advice."

Timos' voice echoed inside Arthur's head. The Black Devil's soul was almost fully integrated inside his body and it was soon the time from the self-destruction of Riarravar. After a momentary silence, the old being spoke again:

"You kind of remind me of Zaarae. Your crazy fighting style is a carbon copy of hers but, unlike her, you're not laughing like some crazy witch."

He followed that with an unsettling chuckle as if he remembered something funny.

…

A few days ago, when Arthur and Lucy were still in the Free Space, Timos gave an absurd advice to Arthur. It was when the trade was finally done and Makaze returned to his home.

"You seek power, I mean… who doesn't, right? But, dear guest, you're a soul parasite and you've already reached the peak of physical strength. Even if you gain more stats, the increase would be insignificant. To properly get stronger, one must focus on his core. A body-cultivator trains their body, a necromancer tries to bond with death and so on… in your case, your soul needs to be nourished, to enlarge, and the best way to do that is either from extremely rare and miraculous herbs which I doubt you'll find any, or through death."

Arthur thought he heard the end of the sentence wrong, he frowned and asked back

"Death? I need to die?"

"Yes… well, technically, it's dying but you won't really 'die'. A soul is something that gets much stronger through reincarnation. I can sense that someone used a reincarnation artifact on your a while ago so even if you're killed, you'll be reborn somewhere else. Furthermore, a final death will unlock the 'unbound' passive skills which even I, don't know what really is."

"…"

Arthur gave no answer as he listened to Timos' nonsense, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Death? He's doing everything in his power to not die yet this being was shamelessly telling him to die and reincarnate.

"I can assure you that through just one reincarnation, your story will become unimaginably stronger and you'll have enough strength to overpower anyone in your way."

"Yeah but I'll have to die… I can't do that."

"And why can't yo-ah! Because of your partner? I didn't say you have to die now or here, anyway, just think about it."

…

"This is sooner than expected but it's nice to be so determined."

Arthur paid no heed to the blabbering Timos, he was about to attack Elias again only for a blade to appear inches away from his neck. Before it could decapitate him, his eye emitted a blue light and the sword was frozen and so was its holder.

The eye's ability was activated to its maximum, making the Shogun totally motionless in mid-air. Arthur conjured a dark sword and stabbed the enemy's chest.

It went through the hole Sol'dhin made previously to fake his injury and cut through his skin and bones, invading his organs. It was at this moment that the time stop effect wore and the Shogun regained control over his body.

He attempted to back off but Arthur didn't let him, he let go of the sword and unleashed countless small void mouths which devoured the half-broken armor. Arthur quickly followed by an unseen kick that hit Sol'dhin's hand and flung his sword away.

The parasite crouched to dodge a clumsy counterattack before punching the Shogun's lower chin, sending him flying in the air. [Faster than Death] was used again and Arthur appeared above his target, a lengthy black spear in his hand. He bulged his muscles and threw the spear which whistled in the air and struck the unresponsive man.

Arthur did land a lot of hits but most didn't do any significant damage… even if they did, he was someone who will only stop when there's nothing left of his opponent. As the Shogun's body was falling, a threateningly large dark arrow appeared next to Arthur, its sharp tip pointing at Sol'dhin.

The parasite controlled his trembling hand and threw the Heavenly Arrow, following after it with a Dark Rizaki. A serious of ear-deafening explosions occurred as the sky was shrouded by an ominous darkness, the Frozen Keep and everything in the area disappeared and all you could see was an inky blackness. This short period was coupled with an eerie silence which lasted for a few brief seconds before the occurrence of a loud explosion.

A huge chunk of the fortress vanished and the rest of it was dyed by the corrupt Dark Magic, weakening it and causing it to start crumbling, slowly but surely. As for the Shogun, his figure could be seen jumping from one falling boulder to the other. His body was covered in blood and his face didn't look too good.

"I only wanted to play with you yet you're so savagely serious."

Arthur could see him grit his teeth yet he didn't care, he clenched his shaky hand and used another Rizaki, this time containing the fire of the Vermilion Bird. His body was in such a terrible state was solely due to the backlash suffered from the blade, apart from that, he didn't get hit by the Shogun even once. Part of the reason was because Sol'dhin was fighting in an unfavorable location, forcing him to focus on finding a steady ground rather than facing Arthur. Moreover, the parasite had a large arsenal that allowed him to simultaneously attack from long and close range. There was also Arthur's previous sword slash which got rid of Sol'dhin's arms, severely handicapping him.