...

Shin arrived at his marked location before Legolas could even arrive. And after a few minutes of waiting, the representative of the Central Order finally arrived.

Shin thought that the guild was only going to send someone with a little bit of authority since it was a very sensitive topic but not enough to trouble their higher-ups to start moving. But he didn't expect that the army commander himself was going to meet him instead.

Right after arriving at Legolas, he immediately saw Shin sitting on a rock boulder with his signature cloak which had a lot of black feathers on its surface.

He smirked a little before walking towards Shin, but before he could even take the first step forward, he suddenly felt three powerful presence in the vicinity. At the same time, their auras were also being locked at him.

Sweeping his gaze at the surroundings and saw that the Shin's Elemental Spirits were hiding in different directions and seemingly closing all of the retreat routes that he could take.

Seeing that, Legolas couldn't help but smirk once again as he found the situation quite funny. 'Don't tell me this guy thinks that he could stop me from running away? No one was able to stop me if I really put my mind only at escaping.'

'Moreover, these guys are only Elemental Spirits. People like us can easily make their physical form useless in battle,' he added inside his head before using a suppressing skill to forcefully unsummon the trio.

But before he could even do that, he suddenly noticed that his suppressing skills were actually greyed out – meaning, he couldn't use it for the time being.

Legolas raised his eyebrows and swept his gaze on his surroundings once again while also expanding his senses alongside it. And that was when he realized that he was inside a sealing formation. It was not that strong but it was more than enough to make him unable to use any kind of suppressing, movement, and utility skills.

That was when he realized that he actually stepped on a bear trap unnoticed. 'This guy seemed to be more cautious than what I thought him to be.'

Having that in mind, he resumed his steps and walked towards Shin. And after a moment, he arrived in front of the latter before saying. "I've been meaning to meet the famous 'Angel of Death' for a long time already. So, it is a pleasure to finally meet you."

Shin couldn't help but smirk a little when he heard those words before replying. "Heh! Let's skip the fake formalities. I know that both of us are quite busy, so it is better if we start discussing our main issue right now."

Hearing that, Legolas was suddenly taken aback after hearing those words. He thought that Shin was trying to use this opportunity to make some connections with a powerful guild such as theirs. But from the looks of it, it seemed like it wasn't the case.

'This is guys becoming more and more interesting,' thought Legolas to himself. He worked his hardest just to get his current position and along the way, he met quite a lot of people that he liked and disliked the most.

And an example of the latter group was such people who were willing to lick the feet of powerful guilds just to create some connection with them. But from what Legolas could see, Shin seemed not to be that kind of person.

In response to Shin's words, Legolas wore a huge grin while saying. "Then let's do as you said."

"So, what kind of plan do you have? Let me hear it first before deciding whether to accept your offer or not," he added while crossing his arms in front of him.

When Shin heard that, he started grinning inside his heart before beginning to explain all of his plans regarding cooperation.

At first, Legolas was quite skeptical of Shin's plans at first and thought that he was quite ignorant in terms of the Art of War. But after hearing everything, he immediately erased that thought in his mind and looked at Shin with a different light.

'A good fighter and an amazing strategist? This guy will surely achieve something great in the future,' thought Legolas to himself as he looked at Shin with meaningful eyes. 'Looks like having a connection with him is going to be quite profitable in the future.'

But he was still not convinced yet, so he tried to test the waters first by countering each of Shin's plans one by one. But too much of his surprise, Shin would always have something in response to refute everything he said.

Raising his eyebrows, Legolas started to feel a little uncomfortable the more he tried to expose every weakness in Shin's plans. In fact, he even felt quite scared the more he heard each of Shin's counter-arguments.

It was as if Shin already had a counter-plan ahead of time. Or much worse, he purposely left those flaws in his plans to lure his opponents. It seemed like he was manipulating his opponents as if he was playing them on top of his hands.

Legolas stared at Shin quite intensely before agreeing with him. "Alright, we will cooperate with you."

Shin didn't expect to hear that. Or to be more precise, he was not expecting that he could 'easily' convince Legolas like this.

"Are you sure about that? This plan needs me to be the commanding officer to make it work perfectly," asked Shin to make things clear.

Naturally, Legolas was able to understand what Shin was currently thinking. So, he immediately replied with a confident smile while saying. "You don't have to worry about that. I can reassure you that everything is going to work according to your plan."

But Shin was still not fully convinced yet which was why he couldn't help but knit his brow with some suspicion.

Seeing that look on his face, Legolas was able to read what he was thinking. So, he looked at Shin before reassuring him once again. "Then how about this? You and I are the only ones who are going to communicate with each other. And whatever you are going to say, I will personally pass it to my subordinates as my orders."

"That way, they will not be going to doubt those instructions no matter how odd they are. And if ever someone tried to disobey it, I am going to charge them with insubordination."

"What do you think?" he asked with a confident tone.

Shin hesitated for a moment before extending his right hand while saying. "Then I am looking forward to this cooperation."

"As long as you fulfill what you promised," answered Legolas while shaking Shin's hand with his own.

Hearing that, Shin smirked a little and replied. "I should be the one saying that."

After that, both of them summoned the System to create a contract for their cooperation. And the moment they closed the deal, they immediately left the place to make their respective preparation.

*********

Meanwhile, at the time before Shin met Legolas, Immortal arrived at the Ancient Ruins and watched the ongoing battle from a mountain peak not far from the battlefield.

Looking at the chaos in the battle, Immortal couldn't help but feel disgusted at the movements of every unit on either side.

"What a mess, I am guessing that each side hired some children to be their strategist. They move their units without any purpose in mind," muttered Immortal while slightly shaking his head.

He was about to leave and let his trusted aides handle this mess. After all, he currently had a single job right now and that was to find the famous 'Angel of Death' before showing him who was the real messenger of the afterlife.

"Based on the reports, that guy is spotted somewhere in this place. If that is the case, then he is most probably going to meet that God. After all, that wretch is related to the Fallen God of the Sun," Immortal was looking at the battlefield while wearing an indifferent look on his face.

After that, he was about to use a unique teleportation skill to arrive in front of the Ancient Ruins in an instant. But before he could even step on the Spatial Gate, he suddenly felt something strange.

Stopping himself, he turned his body around and looked at the entire battlefield which now had a very different atmosphere. And when he saw that, he nodded his head repeatedly as he understood that the people who were directly working under him finally arrived.

At the same time, he decided to stay a little longer to see if everything was smoothly going according to his plan. And after a few moments of observation, Immortal nodded his head once again as he could already see that this battle was going to be their victory.

Seeing that, he was finally able to focus all of his attention on getting rid of the only variable that might be able to mess up their plans. What's more, he also had a score to settle with 'Shin'. So, he was quite eager to see how much this guy grew since that incident.

But before he could even turn his eyes off from the battlefield, another change suddenly happened in the atmosphere surrounding the war.

Not only the situation was going against their favor, but it also looked that their side was going to get a one-sided beating based on what he could see from the opposing side's movements.

"The main player changed? I wonder who is the person that the Central Order sent this time," muttered Immortal while squinting his eyes. He then took interest in this new 'player' as he could easily tell that whoever this guy was, he was sure that this 'player' was not an ordinary strategist.

After that, he immediately forgot about Shin and changed his plans. This time, he was planning to play with this new variable that suddenly appeared. "It has been a while since I played a 'strategy game'. Let's see if this guy can keep me entertained."

...